Black Legions
Training
Under the Prince of Modan discipline became a core trait instilled amongst troops assigned to the Central Banner Group. They swore absolute obedience to their commanders, who in turn sore unquestioning obedience to their commanders and so forth all the way up the chain of command. Legionaries, auxiliaries, and state troops were forbidden to pillage, steal or molest civilians, accept gifts, have relations with women, eat meat or drink alcohol. An Inspectorate of Training and Discipline was established with inspectors for Imperial, Auxiliary, and State forces under the authority of an Inspector General reporting directly to the Prince. Officers were forced to undergo examinations to assess their familiarity with New Zimian Manoeuvreist principles and Nova English Fire Team tactics, largely with the intention of weeding out those still wedded to set piece actions and frontal assaults.
All non-commissioned personnel assigned to the Banner Group, whether Imperial, auxiliary, or Modanese, were cycled through three week courses of so-called "spiritual hardening", inspired apparently by the methods and insights of the Urchagin. Those who flunked the course would be cashiered and their records stamped, in green ink, with the initials LMF ("lacking moral fibre") effectively rendering them unemployable upon their return to civilian life and denizenship. The motto of the training regime henceforth was that 'Faith and Endurance surpasses Might'. The hardening process began on the first day with trainees forced to line up in files of ten and, at a charge, bayonet a row of live pigs suspended from the rafters before them. Each file would train together, be rewarded together, and be punished together, they were solemnly warned, for the remainder of the three weeks. As an illustration of this the files where any member had baulked at bayoneting a live squealing animal would be denied food and sleep but would be instead assigned to punishment details for the entirety of the rest period while everyone else enjoyed pork stew and a good night's sleep. As first two weeks progressed the trainees were subjected to a barrage of assault courses, long forced marches along wilderness tracks, and competitions where the files were set against one-another to obtain dispensation vouchers for meat and alcohol or else merely to avoid bringing up the rear and being assigned to yet another punishment detail. The final week consisted of tutorials on living off the land, vehicle dismount drills, counter ambush drills, and close quarter combat practice against S.W.O.R.D. operatives dressed up as Laqi bandits. The concluding action of the week was a bunker clearance drill focusing on oblique angles of approach with use of stealth and concealment, forced entry with demolition charges, room to room clearance with gas grenades and thermite sticks followed by the gunning down of those still standing and the bayoneting of those prostrate on the ground. To add an extra dimension of realism each of the practice bunkers was held and defended by a detachment of community servants equipped with riot guns and cudgels, who had been promised their freedom if they successfully survived the drill. None did.
At the conclusion of the three weeks each participant was given a weeks leave, a pint of grog from the academy canteen and an enamelled lapel badge featuring a blood-red hand held palm upwards.
