Post by Wuxiong on Jun 11, 2011 2:59:03 GMT -5
Maonian Red Guards
The Maonian Red Guards are regiments of the Imperial Guard from Maonian, who are known for fighting off xeno invasions on their homeworld, most significantly against the Tau Empire. Many guardsmen from Maonian were once peaceful civilians who have turned into lethal card-carrying soldiers of devotion, faith and fanaticism. Armed with a hatred of xenos, equipped with bravery and indoctrinated with faith, the Maonian Red Guards have a colossal force in the Eastern Fringe and another bulwark to stand against the expansions of the aggressive Tau Empire.
History
The Maonian Red Guards had its roots in the Planetary Defence Forces. It wasn't a recruiting world and it had missed a lot of planetary tithes for millennia due to benign neglect. During the course of neglection, the planet suffered planetary invasions from many xeno races without the assistance of the Imperium and the people managed to survive against xeno aggression. But recently the planet was revealed to the Imperium and the Imperial Guard had decided to use the planet as one of the recruiting worlds to prepare for the Damocles Crusade which would invade the Tau Empire. The Maonian Red Guards were founded quickly and gladly raised regiments for the Imperial Guard to contribute to the Crusade.
During the Damocles Crusade, the Maonian Red Guards learned many valuable lessons from fighting the Tau. They were key forces in conquering the planet of N'fyros and several other Tau planets, which they defended afterwards. The Red Guards also contributed to the invasion of Dal'yth which was a largely populated Tau sept. The Damocles Crusade soon was halted and the Imperial Guard withdrew leaving behind a few regiments as their transports could not carry the whole force. Some Maonian Red Guards were left behind at the mercy of the Tau, but unlike most Imperial Guard forces, very few Red Guard regiments accepted Tau offers of integration while others had either escaped or died to the last.
The First Tyrannic War showed the Maonian many serious lessons. As the Tyranids was another force that relied on numbers, the Maonian tried the same tactic which ended in failure. For this reason, the Maonian had learned to gain more support from Leman Russ tanks and Basilisk artillery for added firepower and also much needed mobility from Chimera transports. During this war, the Valkyrie was introduced to the Maonian Red Guards, who have become highly fascinated with this vehicle, though they'd prefer to use it primarily for transportation of key operational units and kill-teams. That war had introduced a lot of technology to the Maonian Red Guards which they will use for a long time into the future.
The Tau invaded Maonian during the Second Sphere Expansion which was called the 18th People's War of Maonian. The sinister Commander Coldblade unleashed Kroot Carnivores to exterminate the population of Maonian using the Kroot's carnivorous eating habits of cannibalism. The Maonian Red Guards mobilised to fight both the Kroot and the Tau, fighting each other until the Maonian managed to open a dialogue with the Tau Water Caste to inform them of Commander Coldblade's corrupt ways. Apparently the news spread to the xeno empire as the Tau Expeditionary Force promptly withdrew. But the Kroot were left behind and to this day, they infest many areas of Maonian which gave an opportunity for improved combat training.
Two centuries later, the perfidious Tau Empire assembled the "Mo'nan Coalition" and managed to open an illegal dialogue with the reactionary traitor Chiang. A Council member named Shen Huifeng planned and launched a revolution against the traitors during which a high ranking Ethereal – who was the paramount leader of the Expedition – was assassinated. This caused despair and anger in the Tau and Shen Huifeng quickly declared the 19th People's War of Maonian. The Tau was thrown into a frenzy that would turn try to exterminate the population. Eventually however the Tau withdrew, as they've exhausted their forces and also have been ordered to reinforce their own territories from the setback in the nearby Zeist sector.
Organisation
The Maonian Red Guards follow the same organisational structure as most Imperial Guard regiments, a regimental system with a number of officers to keep regiments in line. The regiment is divided by ten battalions, each of which are usually in groups of five companies. Consequently there would be fifty companies per regiment. Potentially an all infantry regiment could number fifteen thousand personnel while an all armoured could number five hundred armoured vehicles. Most Maonian Red Guard forces in both the Imperial Guard and its PDF are infantry, armoured, light infantry or artillery regiments. Only a select few are combined-arms regiments, such as the 283rd Maonian Red Guards.
The officer system is the same as most other Imperial Guard regiments, they are written in the native Maonian writing system, but the translations are similar if not the same to most other Imperial Guard regiments. The ranks are named as follows: Lie Bing (Private), Xia Shi (Corporal), Shi Guan (Sergeant), Shao Wei (Lieutenant), Zhong Wei (Senior Lieutenant), Shang Wei (Captain), Shao Xiao (Major), Zhong Xiao (Lieutenant Colonel), Shang Xiao (Colonel), Shao Jiang (Major General), Zhong Jiang (Lieutenant General), Shang Jiang (General) and Da Jiang (Lord General).
As for military advisors, the Maonian Red Guards have an unusually large amount of Commissars. Commissars are highly respected due to their dominating nature and their willingness to enforce law and order amongst the Red Guards. The Priests are equally respected due to their ways of invigorating a raging fire in the hearts of the Red Guards and their dedication to the Emperor of Man. Sanctioned Psykers like in most regiments are largely untrusted for obvious reasons, though Astropaths are still vital for good communications. Over the course of battle, Maonian Red Guards always have a tendency to "accidentally" kill their own psykers via friendly fire.
When it comes to merging two or more Maonian Imperial Guard regiments, it is very different to merging most other regiments from other planets. While it is hard to merge even two Valhallan regiments together despite being from the same world, Maonian regiments are comfortable with such merges provided the regiments are from the same world. The Maonian Red Guards are well-known for being some of the easiest guardsmen to merge. The Maonian guardsmen don't mind being merged with one of their own kind, this is due to their customs, which defeats the first and foremost to his regiment ways of guardsmen. However they do have trouble merging with other regiments from other worlds.
Recruitment
Recruition is done through conscription, for every citizen of Maonian must serve in the military at the age of 14 irregardless of gender (females must serve too). Fresh recruits start heavy indoctrination sessions into the Imperial Creed mixed in with Maonian values. The recruit will then be trained by skilled officers and drillmasters at military establishments. These soldiers are routinely taught martial arts, concentrated fire and all the military manoeuvres. Maonian Red Guards also perform drills, parades, marches, salutes and assemble in formations. They must try to have such discipline that brings others to admire about them, for any signs of indiscipline or incompetence are responded with physical or mental punishment.
After the first phase of training, they start the second phase of training which involves real combat in the Xeno Infested Zones to cull feral Ork and Kroot populations. During the Xeno-Hunting programme, they continue to undergo sessions of indoctrination, which is why Red Guards are generally more resistant to Xenos and sometimes even temptations of Chaos. When a regiment is judged fully trained, they could very well be deployed off-world to another planet as an Imperial Guard regiment to fight the hostiles of the galaxy or remain stationed on Maonian to fight feral Xenos and defend from invaders.
Equipment
Maonian Red Guards wear uniforms that are similar to the Valhallan and Cadian styles. The Maonian uniforms are usually green in colour. The flak armour is a moderate bright green in colour while the clothing is a bright camo green. Their uniforms have red trims and bear the red star of the Maonian Red Guards. Their left shoulder pads are numbered with the numeral characters of the Maonian language to identify their squad. The tanks of the Maonian Red Guards are also coloured green with some red trims bearing the squadron numbers and red stars. All armaments are copies of Cadian designs.
The M41-ZZG Maonian Pattern Lasgun is the main armament of the Maonian Red Guards, it was designed by Zhang Zi Gui who was one of the Quartermasters of the Red Guards during the preparation of the Damocles Crusade, who was extremely idealistic and also one of the men who wanted to bring in Imperial technology. The lasgun was made as a copy of the Cadian pattern lasgun with valhallan and vostroyan modifications and soon the Maonian designed their own indigenious-made lasgun. The lasgun was first exported after the close of the Damocles Crusade.
The soldiers from Maonian love to use flames, which was only introduced to them recently. Because of the Red Guard's love for flames, the M41-GJW Maonian Pattern Flame Thrower is one of the most used special weapons of the Maonian Red Guards. It was designed/copied by Guo Ji Wei, also a Quartermaster of the Red Guards during war preparations of the Damocles Crusade. Guo Ji Wei was a pryomaniac and was mentally unstable, he died an ill man, but his work became one of the most widely used in the Maonian arsenal. His other copied designs was the M41-GJW Heavy Flamer and the M41-GJW Dragon Cannon, which were both retrofitted into Hellhound Tanks and other military vehicles.
The Maonian Red Guards also use heavy weapons and prefer to use the most versatile ones to their advantage. To this end, the M41-MMX Maonian Pattern Autocannon is the most widely used heavy weapon in the Maonian Red Guards. It was designed by the female Red Guard Quartermaster Meng Mei Xian, who knew that specialised weapons could prove to be highly dangerous or inflexible, so she designed the autocannon to be the main heavy armament of the Maonian Red Guards. This type of autocannon is used normally in heavy weapons squads of six guardsmen.
The planet also was taught how to construct Leman Russ tanks and other basic but necessary Imperial vehicles. More advanced technologies such as plasma & melta weapons, baneblades, heavy tanks and the such are only constructed by the Mechanicus, and few of such rare technologies are constructed if for a special reason. But the most widely used tanks is the Hellhound for obvious reasons, as the Maonian Red Guards usually have unusual fun with flamers and flame weapons, especially when using them on Kroot or Tau Fire Warriors due to their hatred of the Tau Empire.
Many of Maonian's ancient and historical weapons serve in the military and they usually are broad swords or sabers with elaborate bronze hilts. Many of these ancient weapons have been modified by Techpriests over time to become power weapons. These power weapons are usually highly valuable and often fetches a high price in both the black market and the legal market. Weapons of such in the legal market is almost impossible to find though in the black market they are rare but known. Imperial Guard soldiers have had the honour of acquiring such potent weaponry, most of whom are sergeants and officers.
Tactical Doctrine
Maonian Red Guards are huge masses of armies full of infantry, armour, mechanised troopers and guerrillas. Maonian regiments can be highly expendable, with many guardsmen and tanks at their disposal to fight the enemy directly in conventional battles of attrition. Entire regiments can be made of Veterans who know how to fight the enemy or fanatics who have no care for their own lives. They're have many stealth regiments which either hide nearby their own positions being ambushers to defend their own forces, or infiltrate into enemy territory to sabotage the enemy's weakpoints as sabotuers and guerrillas.
In defensive warfare, the Maonian make up fortifications, barricades, minefields and defensive lines used by the regular troopers as a diversion for the enemy to strike. But little does the enemy know, the Maonian build well-hidden camps, camoflagued pillboxes, and underground tunnels used by the most well trained troopers. The purpose is to lure the enemy into a position and once they are in the perfect position, the Maonian Red Guards will counter-attack the enemy from these hidden positions and surround the enemy in surprising swiftness. This strategy is one of encircling and surprise.
On the offensive, the Maonian Red Guards have to plan carefully on where to strike and where to not strike. They must also consider what the sabotuer forces would eliminate and what the conventional force should concentrate on. They identify the vital points and the vulnerable unguarded entry points and rely on the sabotuers to travel to these vital points and sabotage it. While the sabotuers attack the interior points, the conventional force attack the strongpoints that is the hardened shell of the defence as a partialled diversion. The enemy would be confused on where they should concentrate their defence on and additionally, their defences would be sabotaged in the process from the interior.
Maonian Red Guard tactics are considered to be similar to the Tau Art of War, which is true. Maonian defensive warfare is similar to the Kauyon strategy while Maonian offensive warfare is similar to the Mont'ka strategy. Although Maonian Red Guards were once suspected of heresy, they have proved loyal and have successfully countered Tau tactics more than once during the Third Sphere Expansion, simply because they understand how Tau military strategies function. However, there is a weakness in that the Tau knew these strategies as well, which forced the Red Guards to be flexible to adopt other means of warfare.
Maonian Red Guard regiments often launch propaganda campaigns against their enemies. In battlefields, there are likely to be Maonian propoaganda posters pasted up everywhere, especially in the urban battlefields. Valkyries are often sent to deliver drop boxes of propaganda leaflets, posters, broachres, videos, movies and even audio recordings. Broadcast towers under Maonian control often broadcasts propaganda as well speaking of the Imperium's eventual victory over their enemies and also how the war effort of the enemy is futile and unpopular. These campaigns often are successful and many Imperial backed rebel groups are formed in the model of Maonian Red Guards.
Homeworld
Maonian is a civilised world located in Ultima Segmentum, Caythus (Xinglong to the locals) Sector, galactic north-west-west of T'au. It is a landlocked planet with a temperate climate and the terrain varies by region. But Maonian is known to have a huge amount of inland seas, rivers and mountain ranges that produces the waters in the caves beneath. Many of Maonian's rivers are unpredictable and uncontrolled, though many rivers have long been controlled by hydro dams which provides the electrical energy in Maonian's power grid. As the planet is landlocked, it allows for more space for citizens to travel to.
The planet is considered to be a civilised world, with a dense population of 9.7 billion citizens. Rural villages accounts for more of the population than the cities does and they outnumber cities, holding 60.3% of the total number of people on-world. The civilised world is governed by the Council of the People, a centralised government led by the Chairman. The military is the Maonian Red Guard, but they also have a spy network and secret police force called the 'People's Silencers' who move undetected rooting out the traitors, heretics and counter-revolutionaries on-planet only. Propaganda is pasted everywhere on every building in almost all civilised establishments.
There are known feral Kroot and Ork populations that inhabit the planet, but they are isolated into Xeno Infested Zones. Civilians are not restricted from entering these areas as they're encouraged to fight the Xenos there, in which many people follow through with that including children. In any case, these Xenos are constantly oppressed by the Council as the Maonian Red Guards are sent into these areas to fight them, both as part of a sterilisation programme and a source of training. The military is considered to rely on sheer quantity of troopers at their disposal to win their battles.
On an economical level, Maonian is self-sustainable with few imports but with heavy exports. The planet is rich in minerals, which are mined by the local authorities then either used for the production of Maonian or tithed to the Imperium of Man. The planet has the production capabilities to produce moderate sized armoured forces and civilian vehicles, but the production capabilities are only specifically used for the production of the military forces. Civilians usually use bicycles as their main form of transportation as they have no other means of it and roads are built to sustain tanks. Agriculture is a huge part of Maonian's life and the food output is high enough to sustain the population.
Culture
There is no class specification, everyone is generally treated at the same level of respect. Most Maonian usually never asks for wealth, gifts or anything that convenes power, for they feel that they would be guilty of greediness. The people of Maonian generally likes to be treated as being equal to others. For example, a Colonel normally would have as much respect of his own subordinate guardsmen as much as his superior officers, because this would allow greater bonds of friendship, cooperation and comradeship. For this rather unhierarchal approach, many arrogant aristocratic Imperial Guard regiments scorn Maonian Red Guards just as the Red Guards themselves scorn aristocratic Imperial Guard regiments.
Propaganda is treated as an art form and Maonian tend to go far with creating propaganda art using paints and wide paper rather than digitally creating posters. This kind of art is often posted to many areas on Maonian and on other worlds that are war zones being fought by Red Guards, in order to convince the population of their justifications of war. Propaganda also extends to their revolutionary music, broadcasts and films. One recurring theme in Maonian culture is the colour red, which is believed to be a positive colour according to Imperial scholars.
Architecture is unique and unlike the gothic Imperial architecture of the Imperium. Instead of Churches, the Maonian use Pagodas which are different in architectural design than Churches. Many buildings often look worn and overgrown due to a lack of painting maintenance, even though that support maintenance is sufficient. Cuisine is diverse that can range from rich tasting food to light easy food, but one common trait in Maonian cuisine is that food are often salty tasting. The main beverage of the Maonian is "Cha," which is a tea that is extremely bitter while the alcohol on Maonian is known to be extremely potent.
The Maonian Red Guards are regiments of the Imperial Guard from Maonian, who are known for fighting off xeno invasions on their homeworld, most significantly against the Tau Empire. Many guardsmen from Maonian were once peaceful civilians who have turned into lethal card-carrying soldiers of devotion, faith and fanaticism. Armed with a hatred of xenos, equipped with bravery and indoctrinated with faith, the Maonian Red Guards have a colossal force in the Eastern Fringe and another bulwark to stand against the expansions of the aggressive Tau Empire.
History
The Maonian Red Guards had its roots in the Planetary Defence Forces. It wasn't a recruiting world and it had missed a lot of planetary tithes for millennia due to benign neglect. During the course of neglection, the planet suffered planetary invasions from many xeno races without the assistance of the Imperium and the people managed to survive against xeno aggression. But recently the planet was revealed to the Imperium and the Imperial Guard had decided to use the planet as one of the recruiting worlds to prepare for the Damocles Crusade which would invade the Tau Empire. The Maonian Red Guards were founded quickly and gladly raised regiments for the Imperial Guard to contribute to the Crusade.
During the Damocles Crusade, the Maonian Red Guards learned many valuable lessons from fighting the Tau. They were key forces in conquering the planet of N'fyros and several other Tau planets, which they defended afterwards. The Red Guards also contributed to the invasion of Dal'yth which was a largely populated Tau sept. The Damocles Crusade soon was halted and the Imperial Guard withdrew leaving behind a few regiments as their transports could not carry the whole force. Some Maonian Red Guards were left behind at the mercy of the Tau, but unlike most Imperial Guard forces, very few Red Guard regiments accepted Tau offers of integration while others had either escaped or died to the last.
The First Tyrannic War showed the Maonian many serious lessons. As the Tyranids was another force that relied on numbers, the Maonian tried the same tactic which ended in failure. For this reason, the Maonian had learned to gain more support from Leman Russ tanks and Basilisk artillery for added firepower and also much needed mobility from Chimera transports. During this war, the Valkyrie was introduced to the Maonian Red Guards, who have become highly fascinated with this vehicle, though they'd prefer to use it primarily for transportation of key operational units and kill-teams. That war had introduced a lot of technology to the Maonian Red Guards which they will use for a long time into the future.
The Tau invaded Maonian during the Second Sphere Expansion which was called the 18th People's War of Maonian. The sinister Commander Coldblade unleashed Kroot Carnivores to exterminate the population of Maonian using the Kroot's carnivorous eating habits of cannibalism. The Maonian Red Guards mobilised to fight both the Kroot and the Tau, fighting each other until the Maonian managed to open a dialogue with the Tau Water Caste to inform them of Commander Coldblade's corrupt ways. Apparently the news spread to the xeno empire as the Tau Expeditionary Force promptly withdrew. But the Kroot were left behind and to this day, they infest many areas of Maonian which gave an opportunity for improved combat training.
Two centuries later, the perfidious Tau Empire assembled the "Mo'nan Coalition" and managed to open an illegal dialogue with the reactionary traitor Chiang. A Council member named Shen Huifeng planned and launched a revolution against the traitors during which a high ranking Ethereal – who was the paramount leader of the Expedition – was assassinated. This caused despair and anger in the Tau and Shen Huifeng quickly declared the 19th People's War of Maonian. The Tau was thrown into a frenzy that would turn try to exterminate the population. Eventually however the Tau withdrew, as they've exhausted their forces and also have been ordered to reinforce their own territories from the setback in the nearby Zeist sector.
Organisation
The Maonian Red Guards follow the same organisational structure as most Imperial Guard regiments, a regimental system with a number of officers to keep regiments in line. The regiment is divided by ten battalions, each of which are usually in groups of five companies. Consequently there would be fifty companies per regiment. Potentially an all infantry regiment could number fifteen thousand personnel while an all armoured could number five hundred armoured vehicles. Most Maonian Red Guard forces in both the Imperial Guard and its PDF are infantry, armoured, light infantry or artillery regiments. Only a select few are combined-arms regiments, such as the 283rd Maonian Red Guards.
The officer system is the same as most other Imperial Guard regiments, they are written in the native Maonian writing system, but the translations are similar if not the same to most other Imperial Guard regiments. The ranks are named as follows: Lie Bing (Private), Xia Shi (Corporal), Shi Guan (Sergeant), Shao Wei (Lieutenant), Zhong Wei (Senior Lieutenant), Shang Wei (Captain), Shao Xiao (Major), Zhong Xiao (Lieutenant Colonel), Shang Xiao (Colonel), Shao Jiang (Major General), Zhong Jiang (Lieutenant General), Shang Jiang (General) and Da Jiang (Lord General).
As for military advisors, the Maonian Red Guards have an unusually large amount of Commissars. Commissars are highly respected due to their dominating nature and their willingness to enforce law and order amongst the Red Guards. The Priests are equally respected due to their ways of invigorating a raging fire in the hearts of the Red Guards and their dedication to the Emperor of Man. Sanctioned Psykers like in most regiments are largely untrusted for obvious reasons, though Astropaths are still vital for good communications. Over the course of battle, Maonian Red Guards always have a tendency to "accidentally" kill their own psykers via friendly fire.
When it comes to merging two or more Maonian Imperial Guard regiments, it is very different to merging most other regiments from other planets. While it is hard to merge even two Valhallan regiments together despite being from the same world, Maonian regiments are comfortable with such merges provided the regiments are from the same world. The Maonian Red Guards are well-known for being some of the easiest guardsmen to merge. The Maonian guardsmen don't mind being merged with one of their own kind, this is due to their customs, which defeats the first and foremost to his regiment ways of guardsmen. However they do have trouble merging with other regiments from other worlds.
Recruitment
Recruition is done through conscription, for every citizen of Maonian must serve in the military at the age of 14 irregardless of gender (females must serve too). Fresh recruits start heavy indoctrination sessions into the Imperial Creed mixed in with Maonian values. The recruit will then be trained by skilled officers and drillmasters at military establishments. These soldiers are routinely taught martial arts, concentrated fire and all the military manoeuvres. Maonian Red Guards also perform drills, parades, marches, salutes and assemble in formations. They must try to have such discipline that brings others to admire about them, for any signs of indiscipline or incompetence are responded with physical or mental punishment.
After the first phase of training, they start the second phase of training which involves real combat in the Xeno Infested Zones to cull feral Ork and Kroot populations. During the Xeno-Hunting programme, they continue to undergo sessions of indoctrination, which is why Red Guards are generally more resistant to Xenos and sometimes even temptations of Chaos. When a regiment is judged fully trained, they could very well be deployed off-world to another planet as an Imperial Guard regiment to fight the hostiles of the galaxy or remain stationed on Maonian to fight feral Xenos and defend from invaders.
Equipment
Maonian Red Guards wear uniforms that are similar to the Valhallan and Cadian styles. The Maonian uniforms are usually green in colour. The flak armour is a moderate bright green in colour while the clothing is a bright camo green. Their uniforms have red trims and bear the red star of the Maonian Red Guards. Their left shoulder pads are numbered with the numeral characters of the Maonian language to identify their squad. The tanks of the Maonian Red Guards are also coloured green with some red trims bearing the squadron numbers and red stars. All armaments are copies of Cadian designs.
The M41-ZZG Maonian Pattern Lasgun is the main armament of the Maonian Red Guards, it was designed by Zhang Zi Gui who was one of the Quartermasters of the Red Guards during the preparation of the Damocles Crusade, who was extremely idealistic and also one of the men who wanted to bring in Imperial technology. The lasgun was made as a copy of the Cadian pattern lasgun with valhallan and vostroyan modifications and soon the Maonian designed their own indigenious-made lasgun. The lasgun was first exported after the close of the Damocles Crusade.
The soldiers from Maonian love to use flames, which was only introduced to them recently. Because of the Red Guard's love for flames, the M41-GJW Maonian Pattern Flame Thrower is one of the most used special weapons of the Maonian Red Guards. It was designed/copied by Guo Ji Wei, also a Quartermaster of the Red Guards during war preparations of the Damocles Crusade. Guo Ji Wei was a pryomaniac and was mentally unstable, he died an ill man, but his work became one of the most widely used in the Maonian arsenal. His other copied designs was the M41-GJW Heavy Flamer and the M41-GJW Dragon Cannon, which were both retrofitted into Hellhound Tanks and other military vehicles.
The Maonian Red Guards also use heavy weapons and prefer to use the most versatile ones to their advantage. To this end, the M41-MMX Maonian Pattern Autocannon is the most widely used heavy weapon in the Maonian Red Guards. It was designed by the female Red Guard Quartermaster Meng Mei Xian, who knew that specialised weapons could prove to be highly dangerous or inflexible, so she designed the autocannon to be the main heavy armament of the Maonian Red Guards. This type of autocannon is used normally in heavy weapons squads of six guardsmen.
The planet also was taught how to construct Leman Russ tanks and other basic but necessary Imperial vehicles. More advanced technologies such as plasma & melta weapons, baneblades, heavy tanks and the such are only constructed by the Mechanicus, and few of such rare technologies are constructed if for a special reason. But the most widely used tanks is the Hellhound for obvious reasons, as the Maonian Red Guards usually have unusual fun with flamers and flame weapons, especially when using them on Kroot or Tau Fire Warriors due to their hatred of the Tau Empire.
Many of Maonian's ancient and historical weapons serve in the military and they usually are broad swords or sabers with elaborate bronze hilts. Many of these ancient weapons have been modified by Techpriests over time to become power weapons. These power weapons are usually highly valuable and often fetches a high price in both the black market and the legal market. Weapons of such in the legal market is almost impossible to find though in the black market they are rare but known. Imperial Guard soldiers have had the honour of acquiring such potent weaponry, most of whom are sergeants and officers.
Tactical Doctrine
Maonian Red Guards are huge masses of armies full of infantry, armour, mechanised troopers and guerrillas. Maonian regiments can be highly expendable, with many guardsmen and tanks at their disposal to fight the enemy directly in conventional battles of attrition. Entire regiments can be made of Veterans who know how to fight the enemy or fanatics who have no care for their own lives. They're have many stealth regiments which either hide nearby their own positions being ambushers to defend their own forces, or infiltrate into enemy territory to sabotage the enemy's weakpoints as sabotuers and guerrillas.
In defensive warfare, the Maonian make up fortifications, barricades, minefields and defensive lines used by the regular troopers as a diversion for the enemy to strike. But little does the enemy know, the Maonian build well-hidden camps, camoflagued pillboxes, and underground tunnels used by the most well trained troopers. The purpose is to lure the enemy into a position and once they are in the perfect position, the Maonian Red Guards will counter-attack the enemy from these hidden positions and surround the enemy in surprising swiftness. This strategy is one of encircling and surprise.
On the offensive, the Maonian Red Guards have to plan carefully on where to strike and where to not strike. They must also consider what the sabotuer forces would eliminate and what the conventional force should concentrate on. They identify the vital points and the vulnerable unguarded entry points and rely on the sabotuers to travel to these vital points and sabotage it. While the sabotuers attack the interior points, the conventional force attack the strongpoints that is the hardened shell of the defence as a partialled diversion. The enemy would be confused on where they should concentrate their defence on and additionally, their defences would be sabotaged in the process from the interior.
Maonian Red Guard tactics are considered to be similar to the Tau Art of War, which is true. Maonian defensive warfare is similar to the Kauyon strategy while Maonian offensive warfare is similar to the Mont'ka strategy. Although Maonian Red Guards were once suspected of heresy, they have proved loyal and have successfully countered Tau tactics more than once during the Third Sphere Expansion, simply because they understand how Tau military strategies function. However, there is a weakness in that the Tau knew these strategies as well, which forced the Red Guards to be flexible to adopt other means of warfare.
Maonian Red Guard regiments often launch propaganda campaigns against their enemies. In battlefields, there are likely to be Maonian propoaganda posters pasted up everywhere, especially in the urban battlefields. Valkyries are often sent to deliver drop boxes of propaganda leaflets, posters, broachres, videos, movies and even audio recordings. Broadcast towers under Maonian control often broadcasts propaganda as well speaking of the Imperium's eventual victory over their enemies and also how the war effort of the enemy is futile and unpopular. These campaigns often are successful and many Imperial backed rebel groups are formed in the model of Maonian Red Guards.
Homeworld
Maonian is a civilised world located in Ultima Segmentum, Caythus (Xinglong to the locals) Sector, galactic north-west-west of T'au. It is a landlocked planet with a temperate climate and the terrain varies by region. But Maonian is known to have a huge amount of inland seas, rivers and mountain ranges that produces the waters in the caves beneath. Many of Maonian's rivers are unpredictable and uncontrolled, though many rivers have long been controlled by hydro dams which provides the electrical energy in Maonian's power grid. As the planet is landlocked, it allows for more space for citizens to travel to.
The planet is considered to be a civilised world, with a dense population of 9.7 billion citizens. Rural villages accounts for more of the population than the cities does and they outnumber cities, holding 60.3% of the total number of people on-world. The civilised world is governed by the Council of the People, a centralised government led by the Chairman. The military is the Maonian Red Guard, but they also have a spy network and secret police force called the 'People's Silencers' who move undetected rooting out the traitors, heretics and counter-revolutionaries on-planet only. Propaganda is pasted everywhere on every building in almost all civilised establishments.
There are known feral Kroot and Ork populations that inhabit the planet, but they are isolated into Xeno Infested Zones. Civilians are not restricted from entering these areas as they're encouraged to fight the Xenos there, in which many people follow through with that including children. In any case, these Xenos are constantly oppressed by the Council as the Maonian Red Guards are sent into these areas to fight them, both as part of a sterilisation programme and a source of training. The military is considered to rely on sheer quantity of troopers at their disposal to win their battles.
On an economical level, Maonian is self-sustainable with few imports but with heavy exports. The planet is rich in minerals, which are mined by the local authorities then either used for the production of Maonian or tithed to the Imperium of Man. The planet has the production capabilities to produce moderate sized armoured forces and civilian vehicles, but the production capabilities are only specifically used for the production of the military forces. Civilians usually use bicycles as their main form of transportation as they have no other means of it and roads are built to sustain tanks. Agriculture is a huge part of Maonian's life and the food output is high enough to sustain the population.
Culture
There is no class specification, everyone is generally treated at the same level of respect. Most Maonian usually never asks for wealth, gifts or anything that convenes power, for they feel that they would be guilty of greediness. The people of Maonian generally likes to be treated as being equal to others. For example, a Colonel normally would have as much respect of his own subordinate guardsmen as much as his superior officers, because this would allow greater bonds of friendship, cooperation and comradeship. For this rather unhierarchal approach, many arrogant aristocratic Imperial Guard regiments scorn Maonian Red Guards just as the Red Guards themselves scorn aristocratic Imperial Guard regiments.
Propaganda is treated as an art form and Maonian tend to go far with creating propaganda art using paints and wide paper rather than digitally creating posters. This kind of art is often posted to many areas on Maonian and on other worlds that are war zones being fought by Red Guards, in order to convince the population of their justifications of war. Propaganda also extends to their revolutionary music, broadcasts and films. One recurring theme in Maonian culture is the colour red, which is believed to be a positive colour according to Imperial scholars.
Architecture is unique and unlike the gothic Imperial architecture of the Imperium. Instead of Churches, the Maonian use Pagodas which are different in architectural design than Churches. Many buildings often look worn and overgrown due to a lack of painting maintenance, even though that support maintenance is sufficient. Cuisine is diverse that can range from rich tasting food to light easy food, but one common trait in Maonian cuisine is that food are often salty tasting. The main beverage of the Maonian is "Cha," which is a tea that is extremely bitter while the alcohol on Maonian is known to be extremely potent.