Catachan is a jungle world so lethal that its native life forms rank among the most dangerous in the galaxy, and its human population survives only through constant vigilance and ferocity. Children learn to identify venomous plants before they learn to read, and the mortality rate of the young is appalling. Those who endure emerge as hardened survivalists with an intimate understanding of terrain, concealment, and sudden violence.
Catachan regiments are the Imperium's masters of unconventional warfare. In dense terrain, swamps, and ruins they are without equal, melting into the environment to strike from ambush and vanish before a response can form. They favour blades, demolitions, and close-range firepower, and their scouts can traverse ground that would swallow an ordinary column.
They chafe under rigid hierarchy and hold rank in less regard than proven ability, following those who demonstrate skill rather than those who merely outrank them. Commissars assigned to Catachan units tread carefully, for these are soldiers who value competence over ceremony and answer arrogance with cold contempt. Yet no one questions their worth when the war descends into the mud and the dark.
Astra Militarum
Order of battle
The Catachan Jungle Fighters field the units of the Astra Militarum — a detachment from the roster:
Kindred formations
Other Astra Militarum formations
Armageddon Steel LegionForged on a poisoned hive world locked in endless war against the greenskin, the Armageddon Steel Legion are the foremost mechanised infantry of the Astra Militarum. They ride to battle sealed within Chimera transports, their faces hidden behind rebreathers that filter their world's toxic air. Tempered by successive Ork invasions on their own soil, they are grim, methodical, and utterly unyielding.
Cadian Shock TroopsRaised on a fortress world that stood sentinel beside the Imperium's greatest warp storm, the Cadians were the finest line infantry the Astra Militarum ever produced. Bred from birth for war and drilled to machine-like precision, they became the standard by which all other regiments were measured. Their discipline under fire was legendary, and their sacrifice in the defence of their homeworld passed into grim Imperial legend.
Death Korps of KriegThe Death Korps of Krieg are grim specialists in siege and attrition warfare, drawn from a blasted world that atoned for an ancient rebellion through centuries of self-imposed sacrifice. Masked, silent, and utterly fatalistic, they regard their own deaths as a debt owed to the Emperor. No regiment endures the horrors of trench warfare and grinding sieges with such uncomplaining resolve.
Elysian Drop TroopsThe Elysian Drop Troops descend from the heavens feet-first into the deadliest war zones the Imperium can devise. Light, fast, and lavishly trained in airborne assault, they drop by grav-chute and rappel from Valkyrie carriers to seize objectives far behind enemy lines. Once grounded, they melt into ambush and guerrilla warfare, trusting to mobility where they cannot trust to numbers.
Mordian Iron GuardFrom a tidally locked world of eternal night come the Mordian Iron Guard, perhaps the most rigidly disciplined line infantry in the entire Astra Militarum. Resplendent in immaculate parade dress even amid the carnage of battle, they stand shoulder to shoulder and pour disciplined volleys into the foe. Where lesser men break and flee, the Iron Guard hold their ground, unmoved by terror or slaughter.
Savlar Chem-DogsThe Savlar Chem-Dogs are penal regiments scraped from the poisoned mining moons of Savlar, where convicts toil and die amid toxic chemical deposits. Driven not by discipline but by greed and the promise of plunder, they are filthy, treacherous, and astonishingly effective in the very dirtiest fighting. The Imperium tolerates their crimes only because so few regiments kill with such vicious enthusiasm.
Tallarn Desert RaidersHailing from an irradiated desert world, the Tallarn Desert Raiders are the Astra Militarum's foremost practitioners of mobile and mechanised warfare. Masters of the hit-and-run strike, they wear down their foes with speed, patience, and relentless raiding rather than head-on assault. Their armoured columns strike from nowhere and are gone before the dust settles.
Valhallan Ice WarriorsBred in the frozen warrens of a shattered ice world, the Valhallan Ice Warriors are masters of attrition, siege, and the long war of endurance. They wed massed artillery to relentless infantry assault, spending lives without hesitation to grind an enemy down to nothing. Cold, stoic, and inured to every hardship, they have no equal when a campaign becomes a contest of sheer, unbreakable will.
Vostroyan FirstbornThe Vostroyan Firstborn muster from a frozen, smoke-wreathed forge world whose people labour under a debt of shame ten thousand years old. In perpetual atonement for withholding their armies during the Imperium's darkest hour, every family surrenders its eldest son to the Astra Militarum, arming him with heirloom weapons and ornate crimson-and-gold war-plate. They fight with the sombre pride of soldiers forever paying for an ancestral sin.