Editing VIII Corps (Star League)

{{infoBoxMilitaryCommand
| image          = [[File:VIII - 2750 Corps.png|150px]]
| Designation    = VIII Corps
| formed         = [[2579]]
| Disbanded      = 
| Previous Designation = 
| Nickname       = 
| Affiliation    = [[Star League]]
| Parent Command = [[14th Army (Star League)|Fourteenth Army]]
| Sub-Command    = 
}}

==History==
===Formation===
Designated as a provisional corps when it was established, '''VIII Corps''' was formed in or around [[2579]]<ref name="H:RWp131"/> from a number of units being mustered in the [[Terran Hegemony]] during the [[Reunification War]] as a direct result of the need to provide troops to intervene in the [[Rim Worlds Republic]] civil war.<ref name="H:RWp30">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 30: "VIII (Provisional) Corps"</ref>

The timing of the Rim Worlds Republic civil war was unfortunate for the [[Star League]], and when the [[SLDF]] was finally charged with intervening the only forces available were two reserve [[corps]] stationed on [[Terra]] and those divisions being mustered from new recruits and trained up. As a result, the provisional VIII Corps lacked a backbone and the two basic VIII Corps divisions - the [[31st Armor Division|Thirty-First Armor Division]] and the [[32nd Division (Star League)|32nd Division]] - were bolstered through the formation of the [[2nd Marik Auxiliary Corps]], which added six line regiments from the [[Free Worlds League Military]], and three regiments from the [[Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces]] mustered together as the [[Lyran Auxiliary Corps]].<ref name="H:RWp131">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 131: "False Starts (2579-81)"</ref><ref name="H:RWp152">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 152: "Rim Worlds Republic Front (Jump-Off - 2587)"</ref>

Confusingly, over the same period of time [[General]] [[Amalthia Kinkaid]], the Commanding Officer of the SLDF operation against the [[Taurian Concordat]] was standing up a new provisional corps, designated [[XI Corps (Star League)|XI Corps]], which also contained a [[31st Division (Star League)|Thirty-First Division]] and [[32nd Division (IX Corps)|Thirty-Second Division]].<ref name="H:RWp142">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 142: "Taurian Concordat Front (Jump-Off - 2585)"</ref>

===Reunification War===
====Bucklands====
By [[2582]] the Rim Worlds Republic had been in a state of civil war for seven years. The Star League had initiated [[Operation MAILED FIST]] in mid-[[2581]], but the SLDF plans had been forced to change after a deep raid by the [[4th Amaris Fusiliers|Fourth Amaris Fusiliers]] had managed to strike at the [[Lyran Commonwealth]] interior world of [[Alarion]].<ref name="H:RWp132+">''Historical: Reunification War'', pp. 132–133: "Alarion (December 2581)"</ref><ref name="H:RWp132+">''Historical: Reunification War'', pp. 132–133: "Alarion (December 2581)"</ref>

The result was the reorganization of the SLDF forces and their auxiliaries into three battlegroups, each responsible for the pacification of one of the three provinces that made up the Rim Worlds Republic.<ref name="H:RWp133IH">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 133: "Island Hopping (2582-2590)"</ref> [[Bucklands]] and the [[2nd Amaris Fusiliers|Second Amaris Fusiliers]] were the first targets of the battlegroup assigned to pacifying the [[Finmark Province]], and the SLDF deployed VIII Corps - still predominantly an infantry corps - to the battle for Bucklands.<ref name="H:RWp133+">''Historical: Reunification War'', pp. 132–133: "Alarion (December 2581)"</ref>

VIII Corps planners thought that Buckland's broad plains would give them an advantage over the Rim Worlds Republic military forces stationed on the world. This proved incorrect, as the light armor forces within the Second Fusiliers proved very adept at evading SLDF patrols, repeatedly slipping past patrols and pickets to strike at weak points within the SLDF positions. The sheer tenacity displayed by the Rim Worlds defenders - a unit the SLDF was notionally supporting with their campaign to restore [[First Consul]] [[Gregory Amaris]] to power - was a shock for VIII Corps, whose infantry-heavy forces frequently found themselves on the retreat despite the numerical advantage the SLDF enjoyed on paper. The net result was an indication of what the SLDF would find happening on numerous other worlds within the Republic - an extended seven-month campaign before Bucklands was pacified and the defending forces finally broken.<ref name="H:RWp133HN">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 133: "Helbrent to Nightwish (July 2582 - November 2584)"</ref>

====Finmark====
By late [[2584]] the SLDF changed tactics again; a number of major [[Rim Worlds Army]] units had been destroyed or captured, and the focus for the campaign had shifted to capturing worlds of strategic importance, but the campaign was slowed by the greatly increased resistance offered by the RWA and local civilian populations, prompted by atrocities performed by the [[Draconis Auxiliary Corps]] when they captured [[Nightwish]] in mid-2584. [[Archon]] [[Viola Steiner-Dinesen]] of Battle Group Finmark assigned VIII Corps to the conquest of Finmark in [[2586]];<ref name="H:RWp152"/> the resulting campaign was actually something of a relief for the beleaguered SLDF, as it was one of the few stand-up fights to occur during Operation MAILED FIST, unmarked by the more extreme defensive measures many other planetary campaigns were marked by.<ref name="H:RWp134+">''Historical: Reunification War'', pp. 134–135: "Arlina to Viborg (December 2584 - September 2588)"</ref>

The battle for Finmark saw one of the seven corvette-class [[WarShip]]s operated by the Rim Worlds Army crippled and then boarded by SLDF troops, and was the first time the SLDF had encountered any of the small RWA WarShips in combat.<ref name="H:RWp135">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 135: "Newtown Shoals: Sharks Among Minnows (January 2588)"</ref> On the surface of Finmark the loyalist [[5th Amaris Dragoons|Fifth Amaris Dragoons]] put up a valiant and determined resistance against the far more numerous SLDF forces, selling themselves dearly before being defeated by VIII Corps.<ref name="H:RWp134+"/>

====Austerlitz====
The campaign for Austerlitz was the first undertaken by the Thirty-First Armor Division in isolation. Austerlitz was defended by the [[6th Amaris Fusiliers|Sixth Amaris Fusiliers]], a Rim Worlds Army unit that had defected to the [[Rim Provisional Government]] and the [[Rift Republican Army]]. The heavily outnumbered Sixth Fusiliers fought to great effect, turning the battle for control of the planet into a brutal slugging match; the Sixth Fusiliers used their heavy units to lock the Thirty-First in place and then used their light armor to launch fast, slashing attacks on the Thirty-First's infantry regiments. The Thirty-First drew on their available [[aerospace fighter]] support and fast [[BattleMech]] [[company|companies]] to try and counter the Sixth Fusiliers' tactics, and while these efforts were partially successful the Sixth Fusiliers had still inflicted enough damage on the Thirty-First Division before being defeated at the end of the three-week battle to force the Thirty-First to have to be temporarily withdrawn from the Task Force MAILED FIST order of battle for refitting.<ref name="H:RWp134+">''Historical: Reunification War'', pp. 134–135: "Arlina to Viborg (December 2584 - September 2588)"</ref>

====Edirne and Malaga====
The first independent campaign for the Thirty-Second was to secure the world of [[Edirne]] in [[2589]]<ref name="H:RWp153">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 153: "Rim Worlds Republic Front (2588-2596)"</ref> in the face of opposition from local militia and partisan forces, an easier campaign than that faced by the Thirty-First Armor Division on Austerlitz the year before.<ref name="H:RWp155">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 155: "Rim Worlds Republic Front (2588-2596)"</ref>

While the Thirty-Second were securing Edirne the Thirty-First was deployed to capture [[Malaga]]<ref name="H:RWp153">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 153: "Rim Worlds Republic Front (2588-2596)"</ref> where they fought another loyalist unit, the [[1st Amaris Fusiliers|First Amaris Fusiliers]].<ref name="H:RWp155"/>

====Barcelona====
[[General]] [[Nathan Isaacson]] of Task Force MAILED FIST assigned the conquest of Barcelona to the Lyran Auxiliary Corps and the 2nd Marik Auxiliary Corps along with the Thirty-First Armor Division; [[Archon]] [[Viola Steiner-Dinesen]] led all three regiments from the Lyran Auxiliary Corps to Barcelona (the [[4th Royal Guards|Fourth Royal Guards]], [[25th Skye Rangers|Twenty-Fifth Skye Rangers]] and the [[Tamar Tigers]]) while [[Duke]] [[Narinder Selaj]] led the [[2nd Marik Militia|Second]] and [[6th Marik Militia|Sixth Marik Militias]] and the [[1st Fusiliers of Oriente|First Brigade]] of the [[Fusiliers of Oriente]] to Barcelona. This left a triumvirate of senior officers responsible for the operation - Duke Selaj, Archon Steiner-Dinesen and [[Lieutenant-General]] [[Margaret Beck]] - and when the MAILED FIST forces landed on Barcelona they found the [[5th Amaris Legionnaires|Fifth Amaris Legionnaires]] in place on the world under the command of [[Colonel]] [[Franchetta Wong]].<ref name="H:RWp136">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 136: "Barcelona (April-September 2591)"</ref><ref name="H:RWp153"/>

Colonel Wong was a distant cousin of First Consul Gregory Amaris, and initially tried to use this familial connection to convince the three senior MAILED FIST officers that she was a representative of the ruling family. These claims were swiftly dismissed, although Duke Selaj recommended using Wong as a figurehead to try and stabilize the world; Selaj's recommendations were dismissed by the Archon, acting in the belief that to countenance such a charade would only create more political problems on Barcelona, and as a result Colonel Wong turned against the Star League forces and began to lead the Fifth Legionnaires in a campaign that proved her to be a skilled commander, using her numerically inferior forces in ways that stretched the Star League forces significantly over the next two months.<ref name="H:RWp136"/>

Despite Wong's best efforts, the Star League advantages in numbers and equipment eventually swung the campaign back in their favor, and by early July the Fifth Legionnaires had been forced to fall back into the rugged terrain that dominated the northern continent of Barcelona, known as Norn. The Fifth Legionnaires would have been quickly defeated if not for events within the [[Lyran Commonwealth]].<ref name="H:RWp136"/>

On 19 July [[2591]], courier ships brought news to Barcelona that the [[Archon-Designate]], Viola Steiner-Dinesen's son [[Kevin Dinesen]] had gone missing in March and was presumed to have been kidnapped. Arriving along with the official news were rumors from the Commonwealth that the [[Duke of Skye]] and the [[Duke of Tamar]]—[[Aldo Lestrade (26th c.)|Aldo Lestrade]] and [[Simon Kelswa]], respectively—were responsible for the abduction. The rumors reached the Archon ahead of the official news, and the rumors combined with the frustration of years of campaigning in the Republic was enough to cause the Archon to snap; she led the Fourth Royal Guards personally to the cantonment within which the Twenty-Fifth Skye Rangers and Tamar Tigers were bivouacked where she promptly destroyed the [['Mechs]] performing sentry duty and began a rampage through the camp, attacking the Skye and Tamar forces.<ref name="H:RWp137+">''Historical: Reunification War'', pp. 137–138: "Barcelona: The Day of Rage (19 June 2591)"</ref>

The results of the Archon's rampage scarred the psyches of those involved for decades afterwards; the Skye and Tamar regiments had been in the midst of rearming and resupplying when the Archon's rampage began, and faced the horrific dilemma of having to decide whether to defend themselves and their comrades by attacking the Archon. The warriors of the Fourth Royal Guards were equally horrified but attempted to protect the Archon as 'Mechs from the Skye and Tamar units began defending themselves. With many of the Skye and Tamar 'Mechs out of ammo because of the resupply effort going on when the Archon arrived, a large part of the battle was a chaotic and confused melee. Forces from the Thirty-First Armor Division<ref name="H:RWp137+"/> and the Fusiliers of Oriente<ref name="H:RWp38">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 38: "First Fusiliers of Oriente"</ref> arrived to separate the various combatants, but by that point the Archon was unconscious as a result of her cockpit being crushed, and was discovered to have lost her left arm and suffered serious injuries to her head and chest.<ref name="H:RWp137+"/>

Following the battle the Rangers and the Tigers both requested and received permission to withdraw from Operation MAILED FIST, as both units were unwilling to continue serving under the Archon. The Archon herself took weeks to heal to the point where she could travel again, having refused to be fitted with a prosthetic limb to replace her missing arm, by which time she had been briefed by both the [[Lyran Intelligence Corps]] and the [[Hegemony Central Intelligence Directorate]] that evidence pointed to a member of the [[Estates General]], not the Dukes of Tamar or Skye. Faced with a political crisis at home, the Archon also withdrew from Barcelona; the Star League forces had successfully completed the conquest of Barcelona in mid-September, a few weeks prior to the Archon leaving.<ref name="H:RWp137+"/>

====Zertarum, Cryfder, Battaraigi and Jápminboddu====
For the campaign on [[Zertarum]] in [[2592]]<ref name="H:RWp139">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 139: "Bitter Harvests (2591-2596)"</ref> the entire of VIII Corps was deployed again, capturing the system and then remaining in place as the local garrison until the Thirty-First was redeployed for the invasion of [[Cryfder]] in [[2593]]; the Thirty-Second then went into action again in [[2594]] for the conquest of [[Battaraigi]] while the Thirty-First went on to capture [[Jápminboddu]] in [[2595]]. In each case the two divisions faced only local militia and partisan forces.<ref name="H:RWp153"/><ref name="H:RWp155"/>

====Apollo====
General Isaacson planned the operation to secure [[Apollo (planet)|Apollo]], the capital world of the Rim Worlds Republic. Isaacson took command of the naval elements of the operation, while operational command of the ground operation was passed to Archon Steiner-Dinesen, who led the landings and the assault on Terra Prime, whilst Duke Selaj was made her second in command and given responsibility for the military strike to secure the island estates within which Gregory Amaris had sheltered for the better part of twenty years.<ref name="H:RWp139"/> General Isaacson assigned the entire of VIII Corps to the battle for Apollo.<ref name="H:RWp153"/>

The Archon's force made slow progress in their assault, landing on the 21st of March [[2596]], having to deal with conducting an assault in the midst of the monsoon season against the combined forces of the [[7th Amaris Legionnaires|Seventh Amaris Legionnaires]] and [[8th Amaris Dragoons|Eighth Amaris Dragoons]] bolstered by well-prepared defenses that included bunker complexes and gun emplacements. The weather heavily favored the outnumbered defenders, while the various battles turned the ground outside the city into a quagmire, bogging down the SLDF units and sapping morale. The weather also prevented the SLDF from making use of aerospace forces much of the time, and it was only with the addition of those forces commanded by Duke Selaj that real progress began to be made.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

Duke Selaj had managed to easily defeat the forces besieging the Amaris estates, only to find Amaris himself to be unpleasant, hostile, and thoroughly ungrateful for his rescue; Amaris regarded Selaj as a provincial minor lordling from the [[Free Worlds League]], despite the far greater wealth and population of the [[Principality of Regulus]], and bitterly resented the time taken to rescue him and the poor conditions he considered himself to have lived in... conditions far more opulent than most of his citizens or the soldiers of the Task Force had endured. Despite the difficulties in dealing with Amaris, Duke Selaj was able to send his troops and liberated Amaris loyalists to join the forces outside Terra Prime.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

On the 24th of March the Archon initiated a plan to draw the RRA defenders out; making sure that she was highly visible, she led the Fourth Royal Guards on a sweep around the city, in the hope that she would prove a significant enough target to tempt the defenders into an attack. The plan was that when the RRA attacked, the Free Worlds, Amaris Loyalist and VIII Corps units nearby would arrive to reinforce the Fourth, trapping the defenders in a three-jawed trap. The Seventh Legionnaires and Eighth Fusiliers responded as hoped, moving out to attack the Archon's forces, but a communications glitch meant that the other units didn't receive the signal to spring into action, leaving the Fourth in locked combat with both rebel units.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

Troops from VIII Corps did eventually arrive and drove off the rebel forces, but by that point the Fourth Royal Guards had been mauled; the Archon's 'Mech was one of those destroyed in the fighting, and while the Archon survived the battle, she had suffered mortal injuries and was swiftly repatriated to [[Tharkad]], where she died on the 28th of April.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

General Isaacson wasn't entirely surprised to learn of the Archon's injuries; he perceived the Archon's behavior since the Day of Rage on Barcelona to have been reckless to the point of nihilism, and her actions had given him cause for concern. With the Archon no longer able to command the ground forces, General Isaacson took direct command of the ground forces for the remainder of the operation. Gregory Amaris remained true to his nature, demanding that Isaacson end the conflict by bombing the RPG forces into submission; Isaacson refused, and conducted a more cautious campaign, intended to reduce the loss of life on both parts as much as possible. Isaacson's strategy was proven effective, and the siege of Terra Prime finally ended on the 3rd of September when the RPG surrendered, ending the civil war.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

=== Star League Era ===
As late as [[2764]] VIII Corps remained a prestigious corps to be posted to, because of its place as one of the original founding corps of the SLDF and its history of combat during the Reunification War. The harsh lessons VIII Corps had learned in the Rim Worlds Republic as a provisional corps had left a permanent mark on the corps, a reminder of the need for preparation and training. This was a lesson that stuck with the corps right up to the [[Amaris Civil War]] itself, with each successive commanding officer placing a significant emphasis on the training and preparation during their tenure in command.<ref name="FM:SLDFp170">''Field Manual: SLDF'', p. 170: "VIII Corps"</ref>

VIII Corps posting prior to the [[Periphery Uprising]] incorporated a fairly barren region of the [[Draconis Combine]], and the corps was distributed in a straight line across its operational area, a line that stretched from [[Benjamin]] to [[Deshler]]. The corps HQ was located on the world of [[Apriki]]. The low number of planets found within VIII Corps' operational area led to the corps distributing itself in a fairly concentrated manner, with the various divisions within the corps preferring to keep one or two brigades on a planet; smaller units were then dispatched from the various brigades to provide security on the various worlds of the region, and to fly the SLDF flag.<ref name="FM:SLDFp170"/>

The fact that VIII Corps assigned operational region was so sparsely inhabited presented the corps with a number of supply problems, particularly as the various Royal units within the corps were dependent on supplies from the [[Terran Hegemony]] for much of its equipment. The non-Royal units within VIII Corps were able to draw on the various manufacturers found on Benjamin for many items and parts, but the various members of the logistics staff within the VIII Corps HQ were constantly busy trying to ensure that the corps remained supplied. Despite these problems, the divisions within VIII Corps were on average able to maintain a higher level of readiness than many other divisions.<ref name="FM:SLDFp170"/>

The last commanding officer of VIII Corps before the Uprising, [[Major General]] [[Ibrahim Nadrasana]], was an experienced corps commander; despite lacking the connections to be promoted to a position commanding one of the twenty SLDF armies he was content to remain a corps commander and his posting to VIII Corps was the third and most prestigious of his corps command postings. General Nadrasana took the assignment of two additional Royal regiments to VIII Corps - the [[102nd Royal Light Horse Regiment]] and the [[Seventy-fifth Royal Hussar Regiment]] - as a vote of confidence in his leadership. General Nadrasana preferred to use his independent regiments as his personal forces, and they played a key part in his training regimen.<ref name="FM:SLDFp170"/>

The various independent regiments within VIII Corps were frequently tasked to stage surprise practice raids on the various divisions of [[XIV Corps (Star League)|XIV Corps]] to help that corps gain experience, and both the Seventy-fifth and 102nd had loaned elements of their forces to XIV Corps directly to help the relatively green command train. Two of the other light horse regiments within VIII Corps, the 139th and 231st, were known for frequently combining into a formation that resembled a [[Regimental Combat Team]].<ref name="FM:SLDFp170"/>

==Officers==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Rank
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Name
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Command
|-
| colspan="4" style="background: #efefef;" | '''Commanding Officers of the VIII Corps (Star League)'''
|-
| [[Major General]]||[[Bruno Rutherford]]||[[2590]]<ref name=FMSLDFp171>''Field Manual: SLDF'', p. 171</ref><ref name=HRWp129>''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 129</ref>
|-
| [[Major General]]||[[Ibrahim Nadrasana]]||[[2765]]<ref name="FM:SLDFp170"/>
|-
|}

==Tactics==
Unknown.

==Composition History==
===2581===
* [[31st Armor Division|Thirty-First Armor Division]]
* [[32nd Division (Star League)|Thirty-Second Division]]

===2764===
Part of the [[14th Army (Star League)|Fourteenth Army]].<ref name="SLp147">''The Star League'', p. 147</ref>

:'''Divisions'''
:* [[135th Royal BattleMech Division]]
:* [[160th BattleMech Division]]
:* [[11th Infantry Division|Eleventh Infantry Division]]
:* [[65th Infantry Division]]
:* [[3rd Mechanized Infantry Division]]
:* [[5th Mechanized Infantry Division]]
:* [[17th Royal Mechanized Infantry Division]]
:* [[23rd Mechanized Infantry Division]]
:* [[179th Jump Infantry Division]]

:'''Independent Regiments'''
:* [[102nd Royal Light Horse Regiment]]
:* [[139th Light Horse Regiment]]
:* [[231st Light Horse Regiment]]
:* [[75th Royal Hussar Regiment]]

===2787===
* 135th Royal BattleMech Division (The Van Diemen Division)
* Eleventh Infantry Division
* Seventeenth Royal Mechanized Infantry Division
* 231st Light Horse Regiment

The bulk of the other units that had comprised VIII Corps prior to the [[Amaris Civil War]] were destroyed during the [[Hegemony Campaign]], with the exception of the Fifth Mechanized Infantry Division, which was disbanded after taking heavy losses - and from which some elements would subsequently go on to join the [[Free Worlds League]]. The Eleventh, Seventeenth and 135th Divisions all chose to accompany [[General]] [[Aleksandr Kerensky]] on the [[Operation EXODUS|Exodus]], but the 231st Light Horse Regiment chose to defect to the [[Lyran Commonwealth]].<ref name="SLp147"/>

==Rules==
<div class="gamerules">
===Reunification War===
* VIII Corps units suffer a -1 penalty when rolling to determine their Random Experience Level.<ref name="H:RWp181">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 181: "VIII Corps"</ref>
* When rolling on the Unit Type table VIII Corps units treat rolls of 2-3 as generating a [[Combat Vehicle]] result and rolls of 4-5 as generating a [[BattleMech]].<ref name="H:RWp181"/>
</div>

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Field Manual: SLDF]]''
* ''[[Historical: Reunification War]]''
* ''[[The Star League]]''


[[Category:Star League Defense Force Corps|Corps, 0008th]]