Iqua Qoten and The 107th
The 107th was the first Iron Guard division to be created, the personal project of the general who introduced the concept and first experimented with on the 73rd Infantry Division "Mogley" when an adequate reinforcement was unavailable. To compensate for the losses and to hold the city of Balkurk, the major general changed the design of the division and modified its interworkings to better constitute a defensive. His modifications were temporal, but the use of heavy tanks, additional artillery, and more support personnel allowed for better coordination as well as reinforcing the idea that all riflemen should be trained to properly dig trenches at increased rates to resist large infantry pushes with more efficiency. Anti-tank, artillery, and armored elements served as repellents for light tanks and deterred even medium and heavy armor when the conditions were ideal.
The 107th itself took on a brand new design, experimental and last minute. The Major General's confidence in these new division designs were expressed to be primarily for defense, the tanks primarily being distrubuted to the hardest to fight areas where casualties are expected to be the highest. Firepower, as IQ believes, is the essential factor in halting an advance. So long as heavy support is in place, a larger force cannot advance without sustaining heavy casualties in retaliation.
In addition to the division design, the Major General also introduced fire walling, or often referred to by the men as "fire pits", in excess to the point that it has become a staple of Iron Guard defense. The use of "fire pits", trenches that have been filled with gasoline, by which the defending force creates a long range set of ignition lines to discourage the attacking force from using previous trenches against them. In the event that the lines fail to ignite the trenches, incendiary artillery shells are fired to grant a long line of fire which burns the infantry inside, deters attackers from advancing, and allows the artillery teams to take advantage of the hesitation to hit waves of infantry in rapid succession. However, if the infantry manage to work their way past it, it is the duty of the infantry to repel the attackers and of the tanks and anti-tank units to beat back armored advances.
Iqua's successes with the 107th have been remarked as sufficient and with every successful defense comes the promise of improvements to the division. It has had several advances which have worked in the division's favor and it even managed to capture the Tovian city of Toyette which resulted in the rescue of the remains of the Tovian 3rd Armored Division "Alkar". In total, 48 tanks, 1,248 infantry, 2,433 civilians, and a single cow were salvaged from the battlefield along with equipment recovered by the defensive force. However, when the city was besieged again, massive losses were taken as air supremacy was achieved by opposing forces. The results were devastating. Bombing runs, counter artillery, rapid motorized invasions, and heavy tank support drove the 107th out of Toyette, killing 1,800, wounding 3,300, and driving morale low in what was considered to be their most disastrous defense that they were not prepared to deal with.
Iqua openly blamed the airforce for their lack of support in defense of the city, but as the officers of the airforce would often respond with, "numbers are stretched thin." and supporting the exiled governments in attempting to reclaim land and assets has driven the majority of the airwings to the northern and southern front. Despite the lack of air support, Iqua has worked closely with Field Marshall Edwin Qoten to develop new projects for use in the eastern front including new fighter, anti-aircraft tank, anti-air and anti-armor equipment designs as well as several improvements to the general equipment of all personnel.
The division has received praise as well as dissonance within the military, but its slow and steady method has set the standard for defending the eastern front. The major general was also allowed a Tovian support regiment which consisted of 1,000 of the 1,200 men reclaimed from Toyette and an additional 2 tanks to round out the 48 to 50. The remaining 200 men were assigned to communications as the regiment served primarily as a supportive fire power unit rather than a fully fledged division.
