The German soldier was a formidable opponent in World War II. Tough, well-trained and politically indoctrinated they fought on all fronts achieving great feats of arms that only the best trained and motivated troops can accomplish. Daring in attack and stubborn in defence the average German Landser was a dangerous foe for the Allied armies to face.
Germany’s aggressive campaigns of conquest ensured that her armies would fight in many countries far from the fatherland and in starkly contrasting terrain and weather conditions. German soldiers were well-equipped for their venture into Europe, and later North Africa, but found themselves ill-prepared for the bleak, freezing and unforgiving Eastern Front. When the Russian armies failed to collapse, the Wehrmacht found itself caught out on the Russian plains, freezing, literally in many cases, to death.
German officers were capable and often experienced leaders. Junior officers were trained to undertake the role of their own immediate superiors, enabling them to use their initiative to take control of situations when necessary. An officer unit consists of the man himself and can include up to two other men acting as his immediate attendants.
Adolph Hitler’s aggressive campaigns across the world ensured his troops would face the enemy in all environments and climates. None were more unforgiving than the harsh winters on the Eastern Front or in the Italian hills and mountains.
Germany Assault Pioniers were skilled at building all manner of fortifications, communications lines, tank traps and minefields. In addition to building useful structures, they were adept at the destruction of similar enemy positions, blowing railway lines and making roads unsafe for the enemy to travel along.
Based on the reliable Czechoslovakian Panzer 38(t) chassis, almost 3,000 of Hetzers (Baiters) were built by the war’s end. Their small size and very low profile gave them distinct advantages in the role of tank hunters.
At first they appear as spectral blurs in the ethersea, distant streamlined shapes that seem to materialise from nowhere. With powerful thrusts of their sickle-finned tails, the forms grow all too quickly as they launch their attack
No troops exemplify the Idoneth Deepkin way of life more than the Akhelian Guard. Mounted atop Fangmora Eels, they fight in a loose formation ideal for rapid assaults and sudden retreats, typifying the hit-and-run style of war common amongst the aelves of the depths.
Shrugging off enemy missiles, the Akhelian Leviadon plunges into the fray. Scythed fins dismember foes while the beast’s powerful jaws clamp down with enough force to crush tempered steel.
Idolised echoes of a bygone era, the Eidolons of Mathlann are summoned to life in times of dire need. These are no divine avatars, however, but collective manifestations of the ancestral souls of the Idoneth Deepkin, spirits of vengeance wrapped in the image of a lost aelven god.
It is the Tidecasters who conjure the phantasmal sea that allows aelf and aquatic beast to move and breathe as if they were in their own natural environment.
Namarti Reavers provide the archers and scouts for the Idoneth Deepkin phalanxes.