1st Canopian Grenadiers

First Canopian Grenadiers
Formed	2531-2577
Disbanded	2584
Affiliation	Magistracy of Canopus
Parent Command	Canopian Grenadiers

One of the two regiments that made up the Canopian Grenadiers within the Magistracy Armed Forces, the First Canopian Grenadiers were destroyed during the Reunification War.

History

Formation

The First Canopian Grenadiers were formed at some point during the Age of War or the MAF buildup in the early years of the Reunification War prior to the invasion of the Magistracy by the Star League.

Reunification War

The First Canopian Grenadiers spent several years during the Star League invasion moving from world to world within the Magistracy of Canopus, keeping the SLDF task force guessing as to where the various MAF regiments were, a form of warfare likened to an elaborate shell game. Some of the worlds garrisoned by the First Grenadiers included Lockton, Royal Foxx and the important industrial world of Tetski. The First Grenadiers would only be directly involved in two major engagements during the war.

Cranston

The border world of Cranston was the site of one of the earliest battles in the war between the Star League and the Magistracy, and one that forced the SLDF task force to change tactics; initially expected to be a short and easy campaign by the SLDF, the Commander of the SLDF task force, Captain-General Marion Marik had assigned the VII Corps' Fifty-eighth Brigade to take the world, with the First Marik Militia and Second Orloff Grenadiers providing support to the Fifty-eighth. The Fifty-eighth landed in 2577 and discovered that the First Grenadiers had been redeployed from Royal Foxx to Cranston; the Grenadiers promptly began fighting a mobile campaign, frustrating efforts by the Fifty-eighth to pin them in place.

The Grenadiers tied up the invading forces until the clandestine arrival of the Third Canopian Light Horse, who the SLDF believed were defending the nearby world of Restitution; the Third Light Horse arrived in-system via a pirate point close to the planet, slipped through the planetary blockade and deployed on Cranston, forcing the Fifty-eighth to fight a war on two fronts. The commander of the invading forces split his forces, the greater part trying to concentrate on the Grenadiers while the lesser part fought to prevent the Third Light Horse from linking up with the Grenadiers; both Canopian regiments bloodied the SLDF troops before retreating from the world, establishing what became the watchword for MAF tactics during the Reunification War: a highly-mobile defense that played to their strengths.

Canopus IV

The First Grenadiers were one of six MAF regiments defending Canopus IV when the inevitable SLDF invasion occurred in 2584. The First Grenadiers were effectively lost in one of the opening battles of the campaign for Canopus; the First Grenadiers faced the entire Fifty-eighth Brigade for a second time, and fought against three-to-one odds using their knowledge of the local terrain earned over the last year to try and hold the Fifty-eighth back. The First Grenadiers were forced back against the Thetis River by the Fifty-eighth, who ground the Grenadiers down; barely two companies of the First Grenadiers managed to retreat across the river after the brutal combat. The MAF commander, Colonel Adam Buquoy, chose to fold the remaining members of the First Grenadiers into the Canopian Cuirassiers, making good losses the Cuirassiers had taken against the Sixtieth Brigade and effectively disbanding the First Grenadiers.

Disbandment

All of the surviving MAF regiments from the Reunification War were forced to disband by 2588. The MAF rebuilt a number of regiments covertly in the buildup to the Amaris Civil War, but throughout the Succession Wars era the MAF would be unable to afford to rebuild regiments or create new units until the latter half of the thirty-first century; to date, there has been no sign of the Canopian Grenadiers being re-formed, and it would seem more likely that other, more prestigious units such as the Fourth Canopian Light Horse would be rebuilt ahead of the Grenadiers.

Officers

Rank	Name	Command
Commanding Officers of the First Canopian Grenadiers

Tactics

Unknown.

Notes

It was confirmed that the unit the surviving two companies of the First Canopian Grenadiers were folded into during the battle for Canopus IV in 2584 was the Canopian Cuirassiers by one of the writers on the Catalyst Game Labs forum.

Bibliography

• Field Manual: Periphery
• Historical: Reunification War