To use criminals to swell the ranks of an army—filling the military with convicts—might sound strange.
Yet, in truth, since before humanity ever left Terra, driving slaves and prisoners to the front lines as cannon fodder was a rational decision of war, an accepted, albeit cruel, tactic.
Often, these slaves and prisoners were issued the poorest weapons. Their task—their sole purpose—was to draw enemy fire, using their bodies as shields for the noble warriors behind them. In the eyes of their superiors, their lives were cheap; perhaps this tactic of soaking up fire was the only way to extract their "final value."
As humanity entered the Space Age, this ancient and cold tactic persisted across various colonies. During the Age of Technology, scientist-kings often fitted prisoners and slaves with explosive collars to better drive them into the meat grinder of the front lines.
However, after careful calculation, Perturabo felt nothing but contempt for such primitive methods. He did not merely want these criminals to be cannon fodder; he wanted them to charge the front lines willingly, with a sincere desire to intercept enemy fire for their comrades.
Thus, the rising Lord of Iron established the "Penal Battalions," or "Redemption Battalions"—new combat units composed entirely of inmates from the Gulags, designated to fight alongside his Streltsi.
To motivate the Gulag prisoners to volunteer for military service, Perturabo issued a new decree: any convict who joined a Penal Battalion could be pardoned and released from the Gulag after the war ended.
To prevent a labor shortage caused by an excess of volunteers, Perturabo was cunning. He only recruited "well-behaved" prisoners from each Gulag, rejecting the vast majority of applicants.
Predictably, the establishment of the Penal Battalions triggered an enthusiastic response across the Gulags. Countless prisoners yearned to earn their freedom through merit on the battlefield. Whenever recruitment ended and they were not selected, their spirits fell, but this only drove them to work more diligently and disciplined in hopes of being chosen next time.
Unlike past commanders who used convict soldiers, Perturabo did not treat these men with the typical disdain that resulted in them receiving broken, obsolete gear.
Perturabo provided these criminals with rigorous training and well-crafted weapons. He needed these men to survive. He wanted the surviving veterans to serve as living examples of his policy, demonstrating to those still in the Gulags that another path existed.
It wasn't that Perturabo hadn't considered the traditional approach of simple attrition. However, after re-evaluating his data, his logic dictated that the old methods were highly inefficient. He sought greater returns through his new way of thinking.
In analyzing numerous battle records, Perturabo was surprised to find that units composed of prisoners often possessed a combat will more fanatical and resilient than that of regular troops, fueled by their hunger for freedom.
Even when suffering losses far greater than normal, these inmates maintained their combat capability until they were rotated out.
This realization shifted his view of the Penal Battalions from mere cannon fodder to a serious component of his military structure. They would still be the first into the fire, but they would do so having reached their full potential.
Under Perturabo's reorganization, the Penal Battalions received the best equipment and supplies. Surprisingly, none of the regular Streltsi complained. They saw that in every engagement, the Penal inmates were dispatched to the most intense sectors of the front to face the most brutal enemies.
By the end of a campaign, these units were often reduced to little more than a designation on paper, their ranks decimated. Thus, the Streltsi harbored no resentment toward the high level of treatment the Penal units enjoyed.
The prestige of the Penal Battalions made them the dream destination for Gulag inmates everywhere. To them, the staggering casualty rate was simply the necessary price for freedom. Their lives were already forfeit; better to seek liberty—or death—on a bloody battlefield than to wither away in a dark mine or a noisy factory.
With the establishment of the Gulags and the Penal Battalions, many of Perturabo's problems vanished. Vagrants and drunks disappeared from the streets, the labor gap was filled, and most importantly, he gained a vanguard of fearless assault troops.
To some, this could be seen as "tyranny"—a regime that hesitated at nothing to squeeze every drop of utility from its people. Yet, the Kislevites under his rule did not care. Perturabo had provided them with bread.
More importantly, to the Kislevites, it was better to be lashed by a harsh and powerful tyrant than to be ruled by a benevolent but incompetent king. The biting cold of Kislev had forged a resilient people. They did not crave a life of ease so much as they desired a grand war and a mighty Tsar to lead them.
As Perturabo rose, he became known from the remotest villages to the most bustling towns. To a people longing for a strong and imperious Tsar, Perturabo seemed to be the monarch they had been waiting for.
Having successfully organized his newly conquered territories, Perturabo resumed his expansion. He had never abandoned the goal of conquering all of Kislev.
In the face of Perturabo's growing aggression, the terrified Kislevite lords turned their eyes toward another great power in the region: Lehlia, a nation famous for its winged hussars and recognized as the most civilized of the Kislevite realms.
To counter Perturabo, the lords sent a joint delegation to Lehlia, hoping to invite its monarch to stand with them against the Lord of Iron.