40k Lore, Regiments of the Imperial Guard, The Savlar Chem-Dogs! Penal Legionnaires Of Savlar

God greetings and salutations friends and welcome back to more Warhammer 40K lore with day we are going to have a look at another Regiment of the Imperial Guard Norm well the official military title might be a bit misplaced here as today's regiment in question is a is anal Lee regiment vla chem dogs a very colorful addition to the ranks of the Imperial Guard but first a word from our lovely sponsor rage Shadow Legends the foremost dungeon exploring and fighting strategy game available for both PC and mobile devices with hundreds of magical artifacts and a bevy of over 600 Champions with which you will have to take on the countless challenges awaiting you in raid you can use the link in the description or the QR code on screen to join now today we are going to talk about the high elf faction they came into being thousands of years ago and quickly set about creating their own Little Kingdom built on the decidedly Elven Virtues Of unflinching and pompous self-absorbance they even found some lesser factions like the humans more than willing to pet their rapidly inflating egos in return for a collection of magical and philosophical teachings which incidentally did turn out to be a pinch flawed here and there as their creators the higher levels eventually descended into a bloody Civil War granted there was an evil God involved in all that so the extenuating circumstances and so on and so forth and after all the havoc and Mayhem had finally passed the High Elves are now busily rebuilding their much reduced nation and reputation whilst we're on the topic of elves as well raid just released a brand new faction to the game the Sylvan Watchers Woodland elves with spirits and triumphs and Druids and all manners of magical Woodland creatures to further enhance your dungeon clearing roster there is also a brand new season of the Ford parts with a ton of newer Awards and if you are an Amazon Prime customer there are yet further Awards to be had meanwhile for all new players if you join now via a link in the description or by scanning the QR code on screen you get a free 30 starter pack the free champion owner and an assortment of welcoming Goods so join now and you will find all of these Awards here in your inbox now then the savlar chem dogs hail not surprisingly so from the world of savla oh well most of them do anyways being a penal World there is always the possibility of a few foreigners being included in their ranks as well but the majority of the fighters within the savlar chem dogs have been born and raised on the Imperial penal colony that savlar has become which in reality is only a slight sit down from what it once was a mining world and a mining world of the worst sort as well as savlar is not a primary Planet but rather a massive moon in the savlar system and the only reason why the Imperium has even bothered with this particular chunk of [ __ ] floating aimlessly through space is due to the enormous chemical riches that could be found deep beneath its surface volatile chemical riches therefore even during the days of being just a mining Colony mortality race amongst the work Crews were so high that death was more of a promise rather than a possibility yet despite the production difficulties imposed upon the World by the fragility of its funeral savlar became a very productive and important Cornerstone world in the segmentum Solar particularly in the area around the world of Armageddon [Music] importance kept Rising so did the demands forever greater quantities of precious chemicals and with it the casualty rates climbed as well until finally the world's already de facto indentured servant population were not able to keep up with quota requirements and savlar was turned from a mining world into a penal world to ensure that the flow of chemicals remained constant now one could argue that uh if anything this should actually decrease the quota throughput as you are pumping in thousands of very unmotivated and completely uneducated laborers whose by and large only life experience was one of violent crime but if you pump in enough of violent criminals and enough violent overseers to make sure that they are directing their abundant energies in the correct direction then as things turns out you can maintain the quota and this time the DraStic rise in casualties is not a problem it's a boon because the Imperium has way too many criminals as it is already but there are still some few itsy bitsy Teensy wincy drawbacks of well I saw a population of hardened criminals for example the fact that the very reason why they end up on Sadler tends to be their propensity towards violence fraud Civil Disobedience and general unruly notes really leading of course inevitably to a situation where it was no longer just the chemicals on savla that were volatile so with the same unavoidability as the chemical fumes that cover the planet prison rebellions became a common and frequent occurrence the sizable adapters are pieties Garrison of course was more than able to take care of these uh disturbances whilst also making sure to maintain high production quotas but it did get awfully annoying after a while to the point where they got into a little bit of a catch-22 situation where if they sent in more workers and formed more criminals than the prison uprisings would in turn become more frequent meaning that they would have to shoot more workers which would in turn require more fresh criminals to be pumped into the system which would in turn produce fresh uprisings bit of a vicious circle as you can quite clearly see it was then that judge Callister the overseer of savlar came up with a brilliant solution to bleed off the populations more determined elements on a frequent basis by conscripting them in to Imperial Guard penal Legions which became known as the savla kemdogs now in normal circumstances going into an already decidedly unstable population and attempting to recruit them into the military by force would would lead to further disturbances but luckily the extraordinarily inhospitable nature of savlar meant that most of the more determined and healthy elements when actually happily volunteer for military service as a preferable and healthier alternative it's almost to the point where you start to feel bad for them but of course they couldn't be trusted um entirely and so there were a few rules put down before the first of the chem dog regiment could be formed one they would have no native officers whatsoever they would all be levied from the ranks of the scholar Pro genium and there would be a lot of commissars attached to every regiment for obvious reasons these commissars and officers would of course have the right to execute anyone they saw fit or Levy upon them the worst punishment any native of savlar could ever possibly imagine to be sent home [Music] fate worse than death is to be sent back to the planet from whence they came but it wasn't all bad news for alongside the heavy-handed punishment also came a promise that the officers and the commissars would develop a temporary and highly selective cases of blindness when it came to looting four whilst of course service in the god Emperor's most holy name is reward enough in and of itself the ax felons of savlar argued quite determinedly that they would be far better suited to serve in his glorious name if they were able to personally augment their um equipment and personal finances with anything and everything the enemy and occasionally friendly regiments failed to adequately guard in their presence this does place a bit of an extra strain on the logistical system so anyone serving alongside them but it is usually a transitory problem as the chem dogs tend to be shunted off to the more inhospitable parts of any Battle Zone they are involved in far far away from any friendlies with a billy Fair do tend to perform relatively well too especially considering the state of most savlar chem dog regiments isn't it your average Imperial Guard regiment is going to have a fair bit of training before it is actually levied it's going to go through boot camp it's going to be told how to handle weapons how to operate alongside Imperial Armor artillery support how to take orders from officers how to fight effectively informations how to find as a part of a larger troop how to receive supporting fire from heavy Weaponry how to fight alongside heavy bolters plasma weapons mortars and the countless other specialist arms of the Imperial Guard it takes a long time to create even an adequate modern Soldier and a lot longer to create an actually good one but the savalar chemdog regimen function on much the same assumption as their old world did namely that if one person can't figure out how to operate the hyper complex chemical extraction Machinery then after his Scorch and half melting corpse has been shoved out of the seat the second guy will have an opportunity to do better and whilst of course natural selection in the face of enemy heavy machine guns do tend to see attrition March along at a for risk Pace frankly just like back home nobody actually cares even the chem dogs themselves take it best an interest in their own personal survival and maybe a handful of um comrades is not really the correct word here co-conspirators or uh accomplices yes that's the one and as for the rest of the regiment or the formation that they are in you know if a bunch of them dies then there'll be a lot more loot for everybody else now won't there but this instinct is also kept in check a little bit by the simple fact that if everybody else dies then the last man standing is sure to join them very very swiftly meaning that the Sadler chem dogs find themselves in a very interesting little Balancing Act what everybody wants to get all of the good loot for themselves but they also want to be able to you know survive the battle and those two objectives are often mutually exclusive especially as the Imperial Guard and other commanders tend to assign the chem dogs to um again the more hostile parts of the battlefield where there really is no choice but to work together or die together a fine motivational force that this has actually led to quite a few sevlar chem dog regiments becoming quite good at what they're doing and even halfway valued by other Imperial Guard commanders despite still making sure that they don't land anywhere near their Regiment of course though I imagine that for every actually effective chem dog regiment there are another seven that died in their very first battle either due to enemy action or due to their um a unique nature and it certainly does require a bit of a special touch to get the most out of the savlar chem dogs some touchers they've developed on their own and some touchers have been enforced upon them for example one of the uh little improvements that the savillar chem dogs have made themselves and in part where they get their name from is that especially modified rebreather masks now on savlar a mask is not optional if you go outside without one that is the last time you're going to be leaving your Hub and so most of them wear their rebreathers as well almost a reflexive thing it has become a part of them at this point and to be stripped of it would be like going out naked but the modifications are of a slightly more adventurous nature than merely making sure that the air around them is safe to breathe as many have also worked in various chemical injector systems in to their rebreather masks allowing them to administer various um adventurous cocktails in the midst of battle the most common of them all is a concoction that um gives a little bit of extra backbone to the fresh recruits to make sure that they don't suddenly re-evaluate their decision to leave savla behind when faced with a two meter tall orc or a blood thirster or a horde of screaming Eldar banshees Etc but I am also sure that the far more veteran elements of the chem dogs will undoubtedly have far more Taylor Made concoctions to make them better at Close Quarters fighting to calm them down regardless of the situation to steady their hands in a firefight or alternatively Straight Up Gas of the lethal variety may be a nice big long full of fresh savlar air for example just in case they're fighting something that uh tends to like taking captives and make sure that they value every memory of their Homeworld no matter how awful but it isn't just the uh liquid courage that makes the chem dogs an effective regiment either bear you in mind the people that are going to be signing up for the chem dogs are either those who are so desperate and convinced that they will never survive another day on savlar and will do anything to get away with it and seeing as if they commit another crime like say fleeing in the face of the enemy they get sent back they um they're going to be very motivated and the other type that join up for the chem dogs are those who are very very confident in their ability to kill pretty much anything placed ahead of them psychotic murderers are plenty in other words they're the kind of people who probably Thrive quite well on a battlefield with a nice and loose set of rules of engagement and generally speaking if the chem dogs are being put in the Roe is going to be rather permissive and so the regiment makes up for their lack of discipline and well leadership guidance tactics strategy and in many cases effective Weaponry with good old-fashioned ferocity and well insanity but that's just the beginning the really scary Prospect is of a chem dog regiment that actually manages to survive a war zone or two because you remember I mentioned the commanding officers take a very permissive view of um extracurricular requisitory actions taken by their soldiers meaning that whilst the regiment initially is rather poorly equipped because well the monatorium isn't going to throw good equipment after a goddamn penal age now is it if they're very lucky they're going to get their last rifles in a flak jacket with the latter having to be shared between an entire platoon but this state of arms and Armament poverty rarely lasts beyond their initial deployment as any chem dog with any Ambitions of surviving his first fire fight is going to immediately prioritize acquiring some fresh and upgraded gear for himself and usually in any war zone there is going to be plenty of adeptos minotaurum equipment just lying around with practically no one but a few overseers in automated sentry guns watching over it they're practically begging for you to steal it this in turn means that depending upon the level of um entrepreneurship that can be found within the regiment in question chem dogs can actually be amongst the better equipped Imperial Guard regiments especially on an individual footing who else many of their uh somewhat more stiffer rural abiding Brethren have all kinds of regulations stating what they can and can't bring into the field you only get sown so many power packs you only get one last gun you certainly don't get a sidearm and if you misplace your shovel well the commissar will just have to shoot you but the chem dogs have no such worries you want to carry five dozen power packs go ahead you might need to steal a backpack to carry them all though six shovels why not might as well make a flak jacket out of it at this point extra rebreathers extra socks extra boots extra armor whatever you want so long as you can acquire it and in the chem dogs defense here considering they know for pretty much absolute certain that they are going to get the shitty end of any stick they are handed they might as well make sure that they are at least equipped with a set of nice heavy gloves to take it with and sometimes even the shitty deployment can be a real gem in the rough sometimes even the chem dogs get lucky for example the 14th savlar chem dogs regiment deployed during gas gold mug or kraka's second great temper tantrum on Armageddon that war saw several of the mighty Hive cities of the planet fall to the orc Invader and even after the hives themselves had been retaken and the orc armies crushed the Orcs are stubborn creatures and little things like the complete and utter military annihilation of their larger Army doesn't really necessarily bother them all that much as they go to ground deep Beneath The Hive cities and high of cities are um in the hospitable environments at the best of times there is a reason why most underhives are enormous Lawless slums where anything and everything goes and even the albities only Venture when they are in need of a little bit of heavy weapons fire practice on whatever lives down there it is down there under hives tends to be collapsing smoldering heaps of garbage rubbish radiation and toxins not a fit environment for proper Imperial Guard regiments but a perfect environment for the chem dogs in fact the Warren's Subterranean environment reminded them a bit of a better version of home they could even breathe the air down here it smelled bad sure but it wouldn't kill a man's stone cold dead in five seconds of exposure a tremendous Improvement as far as they were concerned and many of the tricks and tools of the tray they had learned on Salah worked just fine in the underhives as well there was never any shortage of high explosives grenades are both frags and crack varieties as well with weapon ring flamethrowers and heavy Walters because well the Armageddon steel Legion was well equipped with all of these things and thus in turn the camera dogs were well equipped with all of these things and better yet there is another reason as well why under hives are usually such hives of scum and villainy and many adventurous individuals it is because a lot of really cool [ __ ] can be buried down in the underhives there can be full-on Treasure troves of Forgotten information of data an archaeotech down there entire Cassius of nion immeasurable wealth that the hundreds if not thousands of local gangs spend much of their time fighting over but well here's the thing gang wars in the underhive are um ferocious Affairs no doubt about it it has all kinds of murder torture mutilation and many genocides it has the storming a ramshackable fortresses it has the construction of various improvised Weaponry it has Terror bombings it has all kinds of dreadful [ __ ] happening but it's all kind of rather small scale and when an entire Imperial God regiment moves in with all of the arms in a Hummer they've looted from the Armageddon steel Legion the scale of conflict changes quite drastically and quite quickly it puts me puts Mind of a movie Gangs of New York I think it was called which tells you the story about two rivaling gangs and they do all kinds of horrible [ __ ] to one another and in the movies climax the two gangs squared off and they're carrying my little weapons like meat Cleavers and knives and you know those little fisty stabbing thingity Bobbers and [ __ ] and they look all kinds of creepy like we're gonna we're gonna fight now and they charge against each other and it's all slow motion dramatic and then a [ __ ] Cruiser an armored cruiser sitting at Port begins bombarding them with its main guns annihilating both kangs in seconds as the U.S Marines move in to gun down the few scattered shell-shocked survivors that is very much so I imagine the arrival of the chem dogs in an underhive would be working out and in the case of the chem dogs on Armageddon they got away with all manners of wonderful Treasures from the underhive none of which were ever reported to the authorities of the planet mind you because well I can remember the chem dogs have the right to plunder whatever they come across and all of this in turn has led to a handful of regiments that have had enough luck on their side enough Ingenuity enough of a go-getter attitude and enough of an ability to borrow to actually turn into really rather frightening war machines like the 71st regiment for example which are famous for including a Layman Russ executioner in their ranks with a plasma Destroyer Cannon hell the fact that a savlar Kim dog regiments has an armored Brigade to begin with is rather impressive and seems to indicate that there's another regiment out there somewhere still looking for the tanks they misplaced a few campaigns back and speaking of campaigns so we should talk about how the savlar chem dogs fight at least in theory and this is going to be a rather broad topic right here because well the sunlight chem dogs have no real battle Doctrine not beyond that applied to most penal Legions which is the commissar and the officers stand well back of the front line and then order the men to advance after shooting a few of the more hesitant elements they then said wait have some afternoon tea and if somebody comes back then they wait to fire until they're told whether or not the people returning are actually retreating in which case you give the order for the machine gun teams to begin fighting or if they're simply coming back to report that they've taken the enemy positions in which case you hold five of the time being but in the case of the savlar chem dogs well they're a little bit more of um rabid dog is perhaps how I describe them your average penal Legion is a blunt instrument it is something that is thrown at the enemy and used and abused until there's nothing left then you ship the regimental number back to wherever they came from and then you raise another regiment now undoubtedly there are more than a fair few chemdog regiments that have run into that exact same fate as well but ideally they would be deployed more in the manner of the 14th regiment where their particular skills can be made best use of deploying them into extremely toxic environments or areas that other regimens simply don't want to go or in the case of an underhive don't really have any hope of ever clearing out properly there are simply too many places for an orc to hide in that a random recruit from a forest world for example would never even think of checking that the chem dogs could sniff out quite easily these environments are broken environments also benefit their um independent spirits yes that's a good way of putting it because the cam dogs work best when they are simply let loose into an environment to fight like well criminal scum rather than an army when they were fighting in the underhive of Armageddon they were relatively few running gun battles the chem dogs would only engage in that when they were sure that they could win and they had an overwhelming advantage in terms of Firepower or numbers or positioning otherwise they'd plant traps they'd lay ambushes they'd undermine entire high of Stacks with explosives and wait for the Orcs to wander into it not really caring if anybody else triggered the traps either creating enormous and highly dangerous Killing Grounds around their camps and little bases from which they would then venture out primarily to raid loot but if they ran into some Orcs along the way well gravy they've got weapons and ammunition two that can be sold on the black market not to mention I'm sure they did a Brisk trade in trophies as well or tooths or skulls for spoiled Spire highborns for example or authentic orc Weaponry which in many cases resembles scrap metal simply hammered into a vaguely sword-like shape which to be fair is not all that much different from actual Hawk weaponry basically what I'm trying to say is the chem dogs are a criminal gang of delinquent Psychopaths and murdered us and so the best way to use them is to place them somewhere forget about them and then when you're done I hope that you can call them digo which most of the time again you probably can because they are very very very very very very very good at the whole looting thing so if you leave them there for a year or two odds are they are going to be more than eager to move on to an area with flusher opportunities for Salvage in theory this also means that a regiment that manages to stay combat effective for a long period of time might actually turn into a halfway decent formation it still can't be trusted and you still don't want to deploy it alongside actual troops but they might be able to take on more ambitious projects eventually if they do too well for themselves um they might be asked to uh you know assault Main Line enemy fortifications instead because well you've got all of those armored brigades might as well put them to good use but such is life in the Imperial God even for a non-standard regiment like chem dogs the final end of the road for most Guardsman is a glorious or in glorious more often than not death in the service of the god emperor and maybe just maybe that'll be a Redemption enough at least for some of them until next time I've been Arch thank you all very much for listening and I hope to see you all again soon have a good day [Music] thank you [Music] foreign

Channel: Arch

Views: 78,700

Keywords: arch, 40k, warhammer, warhammer lore, 40k lore, lore, warhammer 40k, warhammer 40k lore, 40k explained, imperium, gaming, imperium of man, warhammer 40000, wargaming, Penal Legionnaires, Savlar Chem-Dogs, war, future, history, armageddon, Regiments of the Imperial Guard, imperial guard

Id: 3aUTSCBtcOQ

Length: 33min 45sec (2025 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 18 2022