Tallarn 165th Armored Desert Raiders "Sand Sharks"

The Tallarn 165th Armored Desert Raiders
“The Sand Sharks”

History of Regiment

The Tallarn 165th Armored has had several incarnations in the past. All of them have fought honorably and the very small number of surviving veterans returning with stories, medals, and valuable knowledge to pass on to the next generation. The 165th earned the name Sand Sharks for their devastating opening volleys before swooping in to destroy their prey. The current 165th Armored was just formed and scheduled to set out to their first warzone when the Great Rift opened. With every other Tallarn they fought off the waves of Chaos cultists and daemons. They fought a brave yet losing war until the Indomitus Crusade came. Led by the Ultramarines, the 165th fought alongside them to fight off the invaders. Thankful for the respite, after some reorganization the refreshed 165th set out on the Crusade alongside them to free Imperial planets like theirs was.

Society and Traditions

For general Tallarn planet and Tallarn regiments info click the hyperlinks.

The Tallarn 165th Armored isn’t too far off from most Tallarn regiments. They wear similar desert colored uniforms, specialize in hit and run tactics, and are skilled in stealth and guerilla tactics even as an armored regiment. They are expert drivers and riders capable of doing things with tanks others can’t. They specialize in desert warfare and tunnel fights as well. Like every other Tallarn regiment, they also are slow to trust non-Tallarn regiments and don’t conform to expectations from more ‘civilized’ society.

The 165th Armored is made up of a mix of the many different tribes on Tallarn. It’s not uncommon for the tribes to be rivals or even have fought each other in wars so one of the first things the regiment does is mix them together so they can forge bonds of comradery through hardship, blood, and battle. Like all Tallarn, they worship the Emperor as “Aba Aba Mushira” and have an Orakle, a Sanctioned Psyker that’s usually an Astropath that serves as a religious guide and political mediator. The different tribes of the Tallarn argue the legitimacy of the Orakle so the regiment decided to have one Astropath as a Orakle representative and be essentially a priest for those who do.

One thing that makes the 165th stand out is that they wear sashes that act as rank signifiers. Here’s what rank each color corresponds to:

Sash color: Rank
Purple: Senior Officers (Major and above)
Blue: Junior Officers (Lieutenant and Captain)
Brown: Senior NCOs (Staff Sergeant and Sergeant Major)
Red: NCOs (Corporal and Sergeant)
Green: Veterans (those who have served for 5 years)
White: General Enlisted
Black used for funerals

Ritualistic tattoos are common among the troops and it’s not uncommon to find veterans of the Second Battle of Tallarn sporting Ultramarine insignia; the Space Marine Chapter that led the effort in freeing their planet.

Tallarn Forces in the Haven System

The 165th Armored is one of many Tallarn regiments in the system. They were a part of the Indomitus crusade that was spat out from the warp storm. The Haven System was not their intended destination, but since they are unable to leave and feeling compelled to help they deployed in full to help hold back the tides of Chaos.

The Tallarn have split between Laramie’s Hope and Haven’s Garden, with a majority of their focus on the latter.

165th Force Makeup

Currently, all of the 165th are out on several fronts except for 3rd Company who is stationed at Harvest base as a reserve company. 3rd Company is led by Captain Senja Kassab, the youngest company leader but no less experienced. Many of the 165th’s tanks have suffered sabotage so many of the 3rd Company’s tanks have been taken to reinforce the other companies, much to the woe of Captain Kassab. Thankfully, the 165th has also been trained to work in reconnaissance and guerilla warfare so those unfortunate enough to not be assigned to a tank find themselves fulfilling these roles. This also means they are often responsible for obtaining intelligence for Imperium forces as a whole.

The 165th has several variants of Leman Russ tanks and 3rd Company is no different, even in its diminished state. There is also the Baneblade Sword of Banishment that resides in Harvest but it is currently out of commission thanks to sabotage. Unusually, instead of carbines most armored regiments use the 165th use a special design of the M36 Pattern lasgun which sports longer barrels for accuracy and more fluid operational design to prevent grit from interfering with the weapon’s inner mechanisms. Though their special weapons are few since they are an armored regiment, the ones they most commonly receive are plasma guns and rocket launchers.


Rules For Tallarn 165th Armored Character Creation

• No leadership at or above Captain.
• Guardsmen PCs can lead a small squad of NPCs.
• PCs can play 1 vehicle and its crew, no vehicle squadrons.
• No one can play the Orakle.