The Idoneth Deepkin are a mysterious race of aelves who dwell within the oceans of the Mortal Realms, emerging from their watery seclusion to plunder the souls of land-dwellers – a grim harvest upon which their very survival depends.
With over 2,100 units made, the Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tank was the second most produced Japanese medium tank of World War II, after the smaller Type 95 Ha-Go. It saw extensive action in the Second Sino Japanese War, the Battles of Khalkhin Gol against the Soviet Union, and throughout World War II.
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.
Thought of as invincible by the Allied forces in the early stages of World War II, the Japanese soldier was a brave, disciplined, often fanatical, warrior who fought to the death sometimes against overwhelming odds. Conquering all before them and carving out a vast Empire during the opening stages of the war the Imperial Japanese Army were truly a force to be reckoned with.
Fanatical loyalty and iron discipline were the core of the Imperial Japanese Army ethos, and although it didn’t have the same level of heavy weaponry and vehicles as their Allied opponents they were well supported by the likes of the Type 92 medium machine gun and Type 97 medium mortar.
Japanese paratroopers – Teishin Shudan (raiding group) – proved highly effective in the early years of the war. German successes with paratroops during 1940 encouraged the Japanese to develop their airborne arm as a constituent part of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF).
With Allied bombing and ground campaigns hampering Japanese industry the Emperor’s soldiers learnt to use whatever materials were at hand to face the enemy, as firearms and ammunition became ever more scarce. This would see Japanese soldiers sacrificing themselves with grenades, a courageous last ‘banzai’ charge with swords drawn, or using sharpened lengths of bamboo as makeshift spears.