Empire Outrider

"He'd have to be one hell of a shot to get me from....."

- Last words of Duke Reinhand of Carroburg

Empire Outriders are the elite veteran warriors of a Empire Pistolkorp's squadron, acting as both a drill-instructor and commander of a squadron of ill-experienced Pistoliers. Unlike the flamboyishly young nobles of a Pistoliers company, Outriders are rarely of noble-birth, but rather are veterans elevated from the ranks of a regular State Troop regiments, sergeants and officers who show an affinity for horsemenship and a talent for training new recruits. Outriders typically wear a heavier and more ornate suit of half-plate armor, a symbol of how a noblemen would pay large sums of money for their sons to be taught the lessons of the art of war. They also tend to sport eccentrically waxed moustaches to better differenciate themselves from their younger and more ill-experienced recruits.

The Outriders that lead units of Pistoliers into battle have the job of reining in their young recruits excesses and keeping them out of the worst dangers that come from a battlefield. Although this is sometimes a forlorn hope, an Outrider's stern gaze and bark orders have prevented more than one foolhardy Pistolier from getting himself killed recklessly by the enemy. Outriders see their younger Pistolier counterpart as promising, if intemperate youngsters who simply lack the military discipline of a typical soldier. Despite much grumbling about not showing their elders any respect, Outriders are always extremely proud when one of their own recruits are indoctrinated into the ranks of a prestigous Knightly Order.

When amassed in larger numbers, Outriders generally form into seperate regiments of the same rank, sometimes to show their recruits exactly how it's done, but also as a way to display their own martial discipline to any rich noblemen within the army that might be looking for an experienced instructor to tutor his own sons. As the Pistolkorps is funded in part by the Imperial Engineers School, Outriders are generally equipped with deadly repeater handguns, weapons capable of unleashing a devastating storm of lead at long range. The leader of the Outriders, inevitably the keenest shot in the regiment, will often be armed with an even more outlandish weapon befit of his status, and sometimes even gifted to him by a patron Master Engineer.

Source

 * Warhammer Armies: The Empire (8th Edition) -- pg. 46