Marauders

"Marauders" is a catch all term used to describe groups of armed men and women whose goal is simply plunder. Poland is filled with former soldiers and armed civilians who hope to exploit the collapse of civil order to enrich themselves and terrorise others. Some Marauders are motivated by greed, some by hunger for power, some by bizarre ideologies, and some are simply acting out post-traumatic stress disorder. Some Marauder bands operate as military units who no longer respond to command and control, while others are organised as religious cults, bandit gangs, tribal warriors or simply disorganised connections of soldiers. They may use handmade zipguns and pipe rifles, or they may be armed with heavy weapons, armoured vehicles and even artillery. There is very little that can be said collectively about Marauders except that they are a constant danger to everybody who survives in postwar Poland - the scourge of Marauders is just as formidable as that of radiation or starvation.

Marauder bands can be as small as three or four people, or as many as several hundred. Marauders spend a lot of time fighting one another, and the larger bands often have very fierce internal disputes that can only be resolved by violence. A charismatic leader can hold a Marauder group together, but even then they need to ensure that the group is sustained by a constant flow of plunder and conquest.

Individual Marauder bands have their own symbols and flags, but the Greek letter Chi is often used as a generic symbol for Marauders. Nobody is exactly sure where this practice came from, but it is probably because Chi is the first letter of the Greek word "Chaos".

Notable Marauder Bands include:


 * Shepherd's Flock
 * The Jagged Sword
 * Company of the Goat
 * The Black Baron
 * The Ten Thousand
 * The Warsaw Uprising
 * Winged Hussars
 * 9th Tank Division