Greatswords

The Greatswords are the finest fighting men of the Empire who are not born to the saddle: veteran soldiers drawn from the ranks of the state armies, armed with two-handed blades as long as a man is tall and clad head to toe in blackened plate. Where the militia waver and the halberdiers thin, the Greatswords are marched forward to plug the gap, and they do not step back from it. Each is a professional killer of long service, sworn to hold his ground until relieved or dead, and their oaths are famous for being kept. In battle they form a wall of swinging steel that shears through armour, cleaves shields, and topples the biggest of the foe's champions. Their stoic discipline steadies the whole battle-line, for common soldiers fight all the harder knowing the Greatswords stand behind them. Grim, unsmiling, and utterly reliable, they are the closing argument of many an Imperial general.