Valloix Crusader Hosts

For the High King and Him on Earth

Hailing from the Knight World of Valloix Prime, the Crusader Hosts are fanatically loyal, if primitive, soldiery given over to the Astra Millitarum. Their devotion to the imperial cult only matched for their reverence of the Questor Imperialis and actively seek to fight along side the knight houses or free blades.

Composition

Manpower

Recruited from the peasantry and freemen of Valloix Prime, the rank and file of the infantry of the Crusader Hosts see it as the divine duty of each human to serve the God Emperor's will and their lords. This is complicated however with only half being of sufficient mental and physical capability to actually serve within the hosts. The light infantry are even more challenged with exclusively recruiting from the hunters, woodsmen, and scouts of local manors across the planet.
Unlike the infantry, the leaders and cavalry are recruited exclusively from the men at arms and minor lords. These troops having access to either bio-enhanced steeds or rare Sentinels to defend their lords' manor from brigands and mega-fauna are formed into their own elite units. It is understood by the members of these elite units that usually must provide a certain quantity of infantry according to their station and thus are always accompanied by infantry that had been levied from their respective vassels.

Equipment

Each member of the Crusader Hosts is expected to provide their own armor, clothes, and equipment in order to join. The sole exception being the famous tower shields owned by each Valloix man. These had been provided since the rise of House Bertrand itself as a means to empower every household, no matter how meager, to defend against any threat. This had the added effect of justifying not actually arming the lower classes to prevent true armed insurrection.
The Valloix Crusader shields are unique pieces of kit. While seemingly primitive they are in fact deceptively laminated plasteel and ceramite to create a surface nearly impervious to small arms. The shields are produced off world on Piede II and stored within the Bertrand House Armory until a young man is identified as reaching 15. On his birthday the Bertrand House gifts the boy with a blank shield. It is then their duty to paint the shield in the unique colors of his family.
All families, both high and low born, have a unique heraldry. Many of them mark painting their heraldry on their newly given shields a day of celebration and feasting for their household. The choice of color and sigils are one of the few freedoms given to families and the recognized heraldries are passed down for centuries with some even dating before the Great Crusade. Like their shields, the crusaders will dye and paint their other pieces of equipment to match their heraldry out of pride. This has lead to to the rather striking effect of a barrage of colors when the Crusader Hosts are on the field.

Weaponry

The arms provided to the crusaders reflect the technological challenges of their world and limited manufacturing capabilities residing there. The most important long arm that sees use by the majority of the infantry is the humble Valloix Mk III Laslock or VMIII for short. A single firing weapon that uses cheap, easy to manufacture, rechargeable cells that are loaded into the breach of the weapons rear. Unlike las weapons across the Imperium, the VMIII expends its entire power cells charge with a single shot. While requiring reloading much more frequently, the power this generates makes it ideal for obliterating just about anything presented as a threat to the crusader. This technology extends to its pistols and carbines for its leaders and cavalry units.
The VMIII is the only arm provided to the crusader forces. All others being permitted, privately owned weapons. These weapons tend to be primitive sharpened steel for close quarters and adhoc solid slug weapons and rocket propelled devices. Reports form units deployed alongside the crusaders have reported their fielding of bows and crossbows firing modified arrows, either with flare or explosive tips.

Vehicles

While vehicles are exceedingly rare for the Crusader Hosts, they do exist in a limited capacity. Most are repurposed civilian vehicles and retired chimera, centaur, and testudo chassis from other units within the sub-sector to make movement of supplies and personnel easier. most of the host lack the knowledge to run or maintain these pieces of equipment and thus their role as combat vehicles disadvantageous. 
The one exception is in the heavy use of sentinels. Whether due to their proximity of the Questor Imperialis or there own practicality in the dense, uneven terrain of Valloix Prime, sentinels have stayed a part of that planets daily life for millennia and thus are supported by a dedicated, if not small, group of techo-savants. These sentinels are almost always armed in mimicry to the Imperial Knights and their pilots see it as their opportunity to elevate their house into the vaunted halls of being a direct vassal of House Bertrand. Naturally, this breeds headstrong and brazen pilots, each trying to prove that they might be awarded the honor of a knight suite themselves.

Structure

Crusader Hosts are the largest formation within the Valloix Prime forces and is comprised of roughly 3000 men. A host is under the direct command of a Host Lord. These Host Lords are appointed directly by House Bertrand and are considered to carry the authority of that house. A Host Lord is traditionally held by a member of the Questor Imperialis but due to this not always being feasible, House Bertrand has chosen especially devoted vassals and minor lords of note to command these hosts for the Imperium.
Hosts are then divided into one thousand crusader blocks known as Banners. The Banner Lords are usually chosen directly as the vassals of the original Host Lord in order to ensure loyalty and seamless delegation of authority. The Banners in turn being sub divided into roughly one hundered to two hundred crusader Companies, each lead by a Company Captain. Any group of soldiery smaller than the Company is led by Task Masters, the sergeant equivalent of the crusader forces. It is notable that due to class structure, there are no senior NCOs in authority of men greater than a company sized element.

History

The origins of the Crusader Hosts have stretched all the way back into the Age of Strife as a means of fighting against the rogue psykers of the Valloix system in the apocalyptic Witches War. Their role was to be bands of citizen soldiery dedicated to defending their respective, isolated communities from the various psychic, mutant, and local threats of that world for long enough that either the threat would lose interest or help from nearby could relieve them. As the Knight houses of that world slowly managed to gain footholds outside of their fortresses, they offered protection, training, and armament to these communities in exchange for fealty. Most communities agreed and the improved peasant armies were quickly capitalized on to become increasingly more proactive. Eventually these offensive campaigns became known as Questor Crusades, with the knights gathering their hosts to march with them to war and provide much needed infantry and light cavalry support. By the time of crowning High King Jacque I in 6.726.M28, the Crusader Host model had become the primary method in which the world organized its armies.
While the Crusader Hosts had existed since before the unification of Valloix Prime under House Bertrand, their official recognition as units tithed to the Departmento Munitorum didn't occur until after the Scouring in 4.109.M33. Throughout their existence as Astra Militarum recognized regiments, the Crusader Hosts have served loyally for close to eight millennia.

Notable Regimental Actions

• 4.115.M33: The Bloodening of Jinangun

Merely six years after the formation of the first ten hosts, the outer worlds of the Handi system come under direct threat by ork forces. Jinangun citizens mockery of their reinforcements' backwater ways were quickly dismissed when the 6th, 178th, and 227th Valloix Infantry Hosts fended off the green tides advance for three days until the xenos were ultimately outflanked and routed by the 2nd Valloix Lancer Host and 21st Valloix Sentinal Host respectively.

• 4.852.M34: Waaargh Zapp Smasha' and the siege of Valloix Prime

With the arrival of Waaargh Zapp Smasha, the entire sub-sector is plunged into open war. The homeworld itself comes under threat and sees the destruction of no less than 24 seperate hosts. Only through the valiant self sacrifice of the 104th Valloix Infantry host were the Imperial Knights of House Bertrand, lead by then High King Dugas III, able to rally and break the invasion forces siege on the planetary capital. The Host would suffer 96% casualties over the course of the month it held and be forever honored with the title of "The Mountains", a moniker the 104th carries to this day.

• 4.611.M35: The Charge of the Golden 35th

As forces of the Death Guard bore down on fleeing civilians trying to escape to the spaceport of Triton IV, Imperial guard forces had been ordered to maintain their position and cover the eventual withdrawal back to the fleet in orbit for redeployment. Ignoring orders for the general Imperial withdrawal the 35th Valloix Sentinel Host sallied forth with the order of Host Commander Adan Reaux to "spare the citizens of the dark with the light of his loyal crusaders." The resulting unanticipated charge of the sentinels and rough rider attachments broke the momentum of the perusing Death Guard forces and in resulting confusion allowed for a successful imperial counter-offensive. The 35th's surviving 8 pilots were awarded the Star of Terra for their actions.

• 5.561.M37: The War of Flies, Breach hold of Tyeongtaek.

Traitor Astartes breach assaults into the Tyeongtaek Starport on Daiamonu are thwarted for 10 days by the interlocked shields of the Valliox 299th Infantry Host. Ultimately overrun by disease and the undead residents of the outer port complex, their delaying action would ultimately allow for time to evacuate many more imperial forces before the exterminatus of Daiamonu.

• 6.281.M38: The Crown of Blades.

During a devastating campaign against the Ork in the Segmentum Pacificus, the freeblade knight known as "The Royal Fool" falls in battle after losing its right leg. The knight and its pilot would have been lost if not for the surge of a banner of infantry from the 12th Infantry Host. as they stood atop the knight and fended off the howling Orks with las-lock and bayonet, it looked as if a crown of had been placed on the knight as they gleamed in the setting sun, holding for 4 hours until relieved. To this day the 12th Infantry Host is known as "The Crowns".

• 5.881.M38: Against Black Hearts.

Valloix Infantry Hosts fight a desperate holding action against drukhari raiders in the Gorh system. A two year cat and mouse campaign between the Lancer and Sentinel Hosts versus the raiding aliens ensued when the infantry proved too slow to react to their lightning fast skimmer craft. It is only after the disappearance of two whole infantry hosts and the destructing of the 13th Valloix Lancers were the drukhari finally driven from the inhabited worlds.

(Standard of the 16th Valloix Infantry Crusader Host, "The Rampant Lions". Currently enroute to the Nachmund Gauntlet warzone.)

First Regiment Founded: 4.109.M33
Current Regiments: 367 Active, 89 Retired, 7 MIA
Regimental Types: Line Infantry, Light Infantry, Rough Rider Cavalry, Sentinel Cavalry
Primary Recruiting World: Valloix Prime
Current Active Warzones Deployed in: 51 reported

Type

Infantry

Overall training Level

Professional

Assumed Veterancy

Experienced