Editing Mastodontii (section)

==Organisation and Doctrine==

Tollund Ötztal saw his men as the most precise instrument of warfare.  During the Great Crusade, he sought to bring his warriors close to the enemy, so that collateral damage would be kept to a minimum.  However, the Primarch also valued his own men's lives and had little desire to squander them.  In pursuit of these goals, the Mastodontii became highly adept at mechanized warfare and established a great motor pool of infantry transports.  The Rhino and Land Raider became the Legion's icons, but the Eighth were also highly skilled in the deployment of drop pods, assault rams, and boarding torpedoes.  The jump pack was never popular among the Mastodontii, as its users were extremely vulnerable when not on the move.  Other vehicles and war engines were deployed sparingly.  The Mastodontii regarded tank destroyers and anti-aircraft weapons as the shield of the Legion and employed these arms in all of their campaigns.  By comparison, staples of warfare such as tanks, bombers, and artillery were reserved for the most grueling campaigns.  The Legion's Titan allies were only called on to face terrible or utterly inhuman foes.

The risks that the ordinary battle brothers of the Legion were asked to endure were matched by their officers.  Ötztal himself followed the Terran tradition leading from the front and leaving his armies in command of a trusted subordinate.  Commanders of Expedition Fleets and smaller detachments of Mastodontii followed their gene-father's example.  Although this method cost the Eighth more officers than more cautious Legions, it also maintained their morale in the most trying conditions.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Mastodontii barely altered their way of war after they swore fealty to Hektor and the Chaos Gods.  Where once they had come close to the enemy so that incidental damage might be averted, as Traitors the Eighth Legion longed to kill slow and close, relishing the fear that they induced.  Heavy bombardment and rampant destruction were no longer a sin to be avoided, but a wasted opportunity to cultivate the dread of the Ruinous Powers in the fragile hearts of men.

===Specialist Troops===

Tollund Ötztal's bodyguard were known as the Skyguard.  Every deployment of these elite warriors was a ritual re-enactment of the coming of Ötztal to Tisenjoch, for the Skyborn were specialists in drop warfare.  As the cream of the Legion, they had access to powerful Terminator armour and typically armed themselves with lightning claws or other weapons suited to close-quarters fighting.

===Support Formations===

APOTHECARION

No other arm of the Legion was honoured so greatly or so completely.  Indeed, the Eighth quietly believed that they, not the [[Eternal Zealots]] or the [[Life Bringers]], were the only Marines who fully understood the value of their Apothecaries.  Among the Mastodontii, the Apothecarion was revered as the font of life and its protector.  Without new Marines, the Eighth's mission could not be completed, but it was equally good to preserve the life of veteran Battle Brothers so that they could continue their own work.

ARMORIUM

It is said that when Tollund Ötztal first laid eyes on a Rhino transport, he smiled and gently stroked the machine's hull.  The war spirit within purred at his touch, for it was kin to the Mamutoi's ally Sabaka and knew Ötztal as a friend.  For this reason, the TechMarines of the Mastodontii are known as the ''Sons of Sabaka'' by their brother marines.  In truth, these mysterious figures owe more to [[Mars (Hektor Heresy)|Mars]] than Tisenjoch when it comes to their spiritual beliefs, but the path of the TechMarine is always one of balancing the twin mysteries that they embrace.

CASTRA

Perhaps the most eccentric of the Legion's support arms, the Mastodontii Castra refused to fortify cities.  They believed that by making population centers defensible, they encouraged brutal and indiscriminate city-fighting.  Instead, the Eighth Legion's engineers focused their skills on fortified lines and stations to help prevent civilian areas being threatened in the first place.

LIBRARUS

Tollund Ötztal's gene-seed proved especially difficult to implant into psykers.  All those who see the Warp risk mental instability, but the would-be Librarians of the Eighth Legion were particularly prone to madness.  While this genetic flaw left the Legion's Librarus under-staffed, those few who withstood the trial of the gene-seed were invariably strong-willed and capable.  The Mastodontii Librarus was headed by Erlik, an unusually ugly marine whose facial scars made him seem more like a monster than a man.

VICTUALARY

Though capable enough as a logistical centre, the Eighth Legion's Victualary never developed the intelligence-gathering capabilities found in other Legions.  The Mastodontii did not even issue Warrants of Trade in any great quantity, being content to simply take what information came to them.  Such complacency sometimes led the Legion into difficult situations, but Tollund Ötztal firmly believed that his men were warriors and should not find excuses to absentee themselves from the battlefield.

===Fleet===

While acknowledging the necessity of their warfleet, the Eighth Legion did not hold it in high regard.  They were loathe to call on the guns of the fleet to provide support from orbit.  Even when engaging other void ships, the Mastodontii generally trusted to their skill at boarding actions.  Boarding torpedoes were an especially popular method of delivering boarders, as the speed of these small vessels offered their passengers considerable protection.  In line with this philosophy, Tollund Ötztal's flagship, the Gloriana-class Battleship ''Starspear'' was as much macro-transporter as warship.

===Auxilia and Allies===

The Mastodontii attempted to keep their Auxilia from front-line service throughout the Great Crusade.  This decision was not underscored by chauvinism, as some suggested, but by the belief that mortal soldiers were vulnerable - and worse, reliant on imprecise, destructive weapons.  For these reasons, Tollund Ötztal and his captains kept the Auxilia to the back areas.  The Eighth's attached formations became adept at pacification efforts and policing operations.  It was once a point of pride for the Legion that their auxilia rarely had to resort to lethal force in carrying out their duties.

Due to their unique skills and complementary mindset, the [[Motroit Enforcers]] were particularly valued by the Mastodontii.  Motroit regiments under the Legion's command were typically assigned to Expeditionary Fleets as their role was to spearhead pacification efforts on particularly unruly planets rather than to engage in frontline combat.  Once a world was brought to heel, less formidable security personnel would be rotated in to allow the Enforcers to rejoin the leading edge of the Great Crusade.