 Many commanders throughout the history of our species have placed different definitions on what amounts to perfection in the military context. For some, it is simply ensuring that casualties and losses remain as low as possible. Some place primacy upon execution of predetermined strategies, whereas others count tactical flexibility as the highest of virtues. Many soldiers still laud an individual warrior's courage, while their detractors say nay, it is in professional coordination with one's fellow soldiers that true military perfection lies. For the subjects of this record, each and all of these combined was the only acceptable solution to the question. Know then that this is a record of the tactics, chain of command, and operational structure of the 3rd Legion Emperor's Children. At the macro level, the 3rd Legion was organised in a fashion that befitted the ideals of their Primarch Fulgrim, as well as their own ceaselessly perfectionist nature. As with every other aspect of the Emperor's Children, nothing could be left to whim. Every action within the Legion's remit was deliberate and constantly assessed for value, both functional and aesthetic. Fulgrim would often remark that perfection lay in the details, and that no detail was too small to be considered. Similar to his brothers Perturabo and Rubut Gulliman, he was a firm believer that the machine was only as good as the sum total of its parts, and that the quality of the whole is reflected of the quality of its constituents. But, whereas the 4th Primarch was brutish and straightforward, and the 13th, pragmatic and rational, the Phoenician demanded perfection in all aspects of his astartes. Structurally, while remaining steadfast to the strictures of an Astartes Legion as presented in the Principia Bellicosa, the 3rd Legion nevertheless took much from the structures of other legions and added their own terminology and emphasis at every level of Legion organization. At the core of this was an inviolate hierarchy of both authority and ability that permeated the entire Legion. Every Astartes, from the line to the officer core to the Lord Commanders, occupied a place in this hierarchy best suited to their own proven strengths and abilities, as determined by their commanding officers. Whereas other legions, such as the 6th Legion Space Wolves, or the 17th Legion Word Bearers, may have been more fluid in their variations in unit size or nature, the 3rd had no such time for any such whims. Any and all changes, minor or major, were made only after careful consideration of outcome. All ranks and appointments were, likewise, delineated with extreme care. An Astartes' path through the ranks was the result of, and marked by, dozens of accolades and marks of honor, all of which were solely to be presented to him by someone higher than he in authority, with tributes from the Primarch, held, naturally, in greater esteem. For a greater part of the Legion's history, this translated into an unshakable personal and battlefield commitment to excel, sprung from the Astartes' own belief in his inherent superiority and desire to prove this. Lines of authority within the Legion were perhaps the most rigid of the entire breadth of the Legion's Astartes. Beneath the Primarch were ten officers, known as Lord Commanders, who led the first ten Millennials of the Legion, a formation analogous to chapters within other legions, and a good example, besides, of the 3rd's insistence on fashionable terminology to better suit its character and aesthetic concerns. Each of the Lord Commanders formed the inner circle of the Legion, and each was expected to be a paragon example of a leader, warrior, and nobleman. The Primarch Sanguinius of the 9th Legion, Blood Angels, once called these ten the Princes of War, and to them fell the leadership of the largest and greatest campaigns undertaken by the Emperor's children. And in keeping with the Legion's historic importance in the eyes of the Emperor himself, it was common for a Lord Commander to be given overall command of forces consisting of contingents from other Astartes' legions. In addition to millions of soldiers from the Imperial Auxilia, and other forces from the multitude of militant formations within the Imperium, such as Mechanicum Tagmata, or Night Houses. On the rare occasion of a true failure in command, a Lord Commander was apt to take his own life as penance. Command in the 3rd Legion descended through a complex and multi-tiered command structure, which flowed from the Lord Commanders through the Praetorian, which in turn comprised officers known as, in descending order, Commanders, Lieutenant Commanders, Masters, Sub-Commanders, Tribunes, Palatine, and Ordinary, Captains of various divisions, all the way down to Consuls, Equaries, Ancients of various functions, and yet further down through Centurions and Heralds, to the Praefectors and Sergeants who commanded the Legion's individual squads, finally ending in the Legion's line Astartes. As evidenced, the Emperor's children placed far greater importance on rank and station than any other Astartes' Legion, with the subdivision and politicking between them drawing comments both confused and scornful from other legions, who saw the 3rd's chain of command as needlessly bloated and complicated. Order and precision were nonetheless the watchwords for the 3rd's overall structure, with all formation sizes being more regimented and uniform than any other Legion. Variance was always either the result of a temporary aberration, to be corrected as soon as possible, or a deliberate decision employed for a particular stated purpose. Each squad was assigned a particular role on the battlefield, and would train relentlessly in order to excel at its stated role and achieve the pinnacle of efficiency and unit cohesion. Should an Astartes prove himself more adept in any one way of warfare, his reassignment would be swift, as if there was one thing the 3rd Legion truly excelled at, it was in recognizing where the talent of an individual truly lay. It is notable that every single potential Astartes' unit formation from the Principia was present in the Legion from the outset, as there was not one discipline they considered beneath them, nor unworthy of mastery. This being said, the 3rd Legion did display a notable preference for speed of engagement, whether in deployment, maneuver or attack, to the extent that it took primacy over simple martial strength or fortitude, as to them, it was the warrior who struck first, and struck hard, who would be the ultimate victor. Similar in Mien to the 5th Legion white scars, although never to the same levels, this was reflected in the wargear the Legion maintained, and indeed in the formations it fielded, with rapid engagement elements of the Legion being markedly larger than its fellows, save again for the 5th Legion. A higher number of jump-pack-equipped infantry would be included in any ground engagement the Emperor's children participated in, backed up by significant numbers of jet-bike sky-hunter squads and anti-grave attack speeders. By his own admission, these latter formations appealed to Fulgrim's aesthetic considerations, as in aspect, they resembled the swift and noble knights of old Earth, charging the enemy with banners flying and armour shining. In practical terms, it has been theorized, by one's colleagues, that while their Primark would never readily admit to it, preserving his Legion's numbers was a consistent and grave concern. Despite its near extermination in the Gene Seed Crisis, the 3rd would never field active astartes in numbers that would allow it to participate in the attritional warfare, favoured by the 4th Legion Iron Warriors and 14th Legion Death Guard, and besides, they lacked the collective psychology to even consider such a thing, seeing such actions as completely beneath their talents. As such, the Emperor's children increasingly came to value incredibly detailed strategic planning and the perfect execution of said. In much the same way as they approached their own Legion structure, every aspect of a coming battle would be scrutinized, planned around, and accounted for in as diligent a manner as possible. Everything from the weather of the planet to the character of Imperial reinforcements and auxiliaries to the very culture and history of the foe themselves was analyzed and turned where possible to the Legion's advantage. In much the same way Fulgrim prized precision in the detail of his astartes, so too did the Emperor's children leave nothing to chance before engaging with the enemy. Remembrances from the time recorded that, in the closing years of the Great Crusade, the Emperor's children would be so assured of their impending victory that they would hold triumph banquets before the engagement had even occurred. While their planning did often lead to stunning successes, it had its risks. This almost mechanistic approach, closer to the mind of his brother Perto Abo than Fulgrim would ever consciously admit to, had the potential to leave the Legion thoroughly off-guard should some crucial element be unexpectedly removed from the equation or some unforeseen contingency occur. While the Legion was incredibly thorough in its planning, this was known to occur on occasion and would inevitably lead the Emperor's children confused and rudderless, such as during the compliance of the planet 140-20, colloquially dubbed in records as murder. At the outset of the Great Heresy, strength of the Third Legion was approximately in the order of 110,000 astartes. While this placed them in the middle tier of astartes legions by sheer numerical size, the skill with which the Legion comported themselves on an individual basis as well as a military formation meant its functional military strength was markedly higher than its mere numbers suggest, while the number itself is also a markedly impressive feat alone given that barely 2,000 of the Legion remained at the time of its Union with its Primarch. As initial participants in the Istvan atrocity, it is estimated that around a third of the Legion's strength was marked as too loyal to the Emperor to be let live. The loss of this contingent and the military losses involved in their extermination resulted in the Legion having, at most, 50,000 warriors to commit to the Dropside Massacre, a staggering loss in manpower said to have utterly enraged Horus Luprikel. But as with all things involved in the descent into depravity and madness the Third Legion embodied should not be the end to their dark tale. Sinister machinations, biological and sorcerous, would soon work their way through this once-noble Legion. But that, as they say, is a record for another time. Until then, Ave Imperator, Gloria in Excelsis Terror. This video and this channel are made possible through the incredibly kind contributions of my Patreon subscribers. If you'd like to help support the channel, head on over to patreon.com forward slash Oculus imperia. And if you're looking to keep in touch with the channel, get regular updates, you can follow me on twitter, at buttstuffkaiju, or check us out on discord, a link will be in the description and on the channel page.