Black Aquilas

Highborn

Highborn characters were born into wealth and privilege, shaped by tutors and the heavy burdens of dutiful tradition and dynastic obligation. Many highborn bloodlines have long and proud traditions of military service, viewing the arts of warfare as the obligation and honour of the wealthy, the powerful, and the influential. They are born to rule, and most highborn who serve in the Imperial Guard aspire to command and high office, seeing such authority as their right.

Cost: 3 points.

Characteristic Modifiers: +3 to any two of the following Characteristics—Fellowship, Intelligence, Weapon Skill.

Skills: All highborn start with Common Lore (Administratum), Inquiry, and Linguistics (High Gothic).

Fluency: While Highborn characters have learned to speak Low Gothic, they have no reason to learn to read and write the language of the lowly masses. Because of this, Highborn characters do not start with the Linguistics (Low Gothic) Skill at creation, although they are still capable of engaging in any verbal communication in Low Gothic that does not require a Skill Test.

Duty and Honour: The highborn hold themselves to standards of behaviour and etiquette, their upbringing distinguishing them from the low-born troopers that make up the common bulk of the Imperial Guard. Highborn characters suffer a –10 penalty on all Charm, Inquiry, and Deceive Tests made to interact with characters who are not highborn. However, they gain a +10 bonus on all those same Skill Tests when dealing with the nobility and other high authority in formal situations.

Abundant Resources: Highborn are almost universally wealthy and well-connected, able to draw upon considerable resources when seeking new equipment. A squad from a highborn regiment starts with 10 extra Logistics Rating.

The Finest Tutors: Years of study under a wide range of military instructors, and traditional connections to other military dynasties, have prepared each and every highborn for a life in the Imperial Guard. Highborn characters start with one of the following Talents: Air of Authority or Peer (Nobility).

Starting Wounds: Highborn characters begin play with –1 starting Wound.

Circumspect

The regiment’s commander is balanced in his attitudes and careful in his decision-making, yet often overly cautious. His demeanour encourages his men to similarly consider situations before they strike, observing the battlefield before acting.

Cost: 2 points

Starting Talents: Foresight

Siege Infantry

Similar to line infantry, siege infantry form a solid mass of troops, specifically trained to serve in protracted sieges. A siege regiment may be deployed in a single location for years at a time, moving only infrequently to a new front line, often only a few hundred metres from the last one. Each line usually consists of newlydug trenches and earthworks, swiftly and precisely excavated by thousands of troopers. It is said that the finest siege regiments can establish a solid defence line with nothing but shovels, flakboard, and sandbags, within half an hour of deployment.

Cost: 2 points

Characteristics: +3 Toughness, –3 Intelligence

Starting Skills: Tech-Use

Starting Talents: Nerves of Steel

Standard Kit: One M36 lasgun and six charge packs per Player Character (Main Weapon), one suit of Imperial Guard flak armour per Player Character, one respirator per Player Character, four empty sandbags and one entrenching tool per Player Character, two frag grenades and two photon flash grenades per Player Character.


Hardened Fighters The regiment’s warriors are vicious up close, deadly in melee as well as at range. Armed with the tools of their grim trade, they are not afraid to face their enemies in single combat, and feel the hot blood of the freshly-slain on their skin.

Cost: 2 points

Characteristics: +2 Weapon Skill

Starting Talents: Street Fighting

Standard Regimental Kit: The regiment can either replace its standard melee weapon with a Common (or more available) Low-Tech Weapon, or apply the mono upgrade to its standard melee weapon.

Covert Strike

This regiment’s missions require them to operate well behind enemy lines, often amongst the enemy soldiers themselves, and their equipment reflects their need for speed, stealth, and flexibility.

Cost: 5

Standard Regimental Kit: 1 suit of synskin per Player Character, 1 set of preysense goggles per Player Character.

Special: Members of this regiment gain a +10 bonus to all Logistics Tests made to acquire chameleoline cloaks or armour, clip/drop harnesses, rebreathers, survival suits, auspex/scanners, demolitions charges, grav chutes, multikeys, multicompasses, stummers, static generators, and any other such equipment designed for stealth and infiltration. The Logistics bonus also covers the following stealth weapons: needle rifles, needle pistols, and sniper rifles, as well as the Silencer and Tox Dispenser upgrades.

Cult of Chivalry

This regiment holds itself to an aggressive standard, believing firmly that work done in the name of the God-Emperor must be undertaken in a certain way or it is not work in His name at all. To members of such regiments, certain lines must never be crossed, even in war, and certain tactics are never acceptable. Such warriors see deception as synonymous with dishonour, and try to avoid it at all costs, even to their own detriment.

Regiment Points: 3

Code of Honour: A member of this regiment must pass a Difficult (–10) Willpower Test before attempting to use the Deceive Skill (even on an enemy if he fails, he must either tell the truth or remain silent. Members of such regiments can still lie by omission, though such tactics are almost invariably frowned upon. Further, due to their tendency to deal honestly with others, members of regiments with this Drawback suffer a –10 penalty to Scrutiny Tests Opposing the Deceive Skill.

Assets

Every regiment gets the following as standard basic kit:

• One Uniform
• One set of Poor Weather Gear
• One Laspistol (Main Weapon), and two charge packs
• One Knife
• One Flak Vest
• One Rucksack or Sling Bag
• One set of Basic Tools
• One Mess Kit
• One Water Canteen
• One Blanket
• One Sleep Bag
• One Rechargeable Lamp Pack
• One Grooming Kit
• One set of Cognomen Tags or equivalent identification
• One Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook
• Combat Sustenance Rations, two weeks’ supply

Per Player Character.

Type

Military, Special Operations Force

Training Level

Elite

Parent Organization

Anto First Born

Location

Anto

Related Ranks & Titles

• Sentinel of Anto

Related Ethnicities

• Anton

Watcher in the Dark (TTRPG) by Cooledcross