Zahavan General Staff

The Zahavan General Staff or Strategos Militaris Tacticorum, is the full-time body at the head of the Sanctorus Imperialis Militarum, responsible for the continuous study of all aspects of, and for drawing up and reviewing plans for mobilization or campaign. The general staff has roughly existed since the reign of Eteokles in 1026, and was formally established by law in 1513, making it one of the first true general staffs in existence. It was distinguished by the formal selection of its officers by intelligence and rather than patronage or wealth, and by the exhaustive and rigorously structured training which its staff officers undertook. The head of the general staff, known as the Magister Bellatorius or "Master of war" is the appointed official head of all Imperial armed forces, with appointment coming from the Primogenitor themselves.

Selection and Education of officers
The Imperial Military Council under Primogenitor Eteokles direction as a step towards figuring out ways to deal with growing external threats such as the Puhan Khanate, and other interior Avalonian tribes. The council decided to establish a Militaris Bellatorius Akademe, or College of War to train commanders and originally lower tier officers. One practice still in use today at the college is to have experienced veterans give lectures on tactics and strategies for dealing with specific opponents or situations. Students then analyze, debate and offer alternatives to the scenarios.

The war college taught selected officers for three years, the original director of the college was Primarch Titus Aquilius, who become well known for writing or assisting in writing a number of military treatises. The most comprehensive being Strategicon Bellatorius or "Manual of War". The fourteen volume compendium treating all aspects of contemporary land warfare and is especially concerned to clarify procedures for the deployment and tactics of cavalry. Other treatises covered more specific topics, such as tactics to use when fighting different tribes, their strengths and weaknesses, how to arrange infantry, skirmishers, cavalry to be most effective, and how to conduct sieges.

The Strategicon Bellatorius would go on to become part of the War college's central doctrine and influenced the idea that the college should teach the science of warfare in a manner that attempts to grasp the philosophy underlying warfare, rather than simply setting a narrow set of rules to follow for conducting it.

Admission to the college was highly selective. Candidates had to have at least five years service, and those who wanted to become General Staff officers prepared themselves for the entrance examination, which included tactics, surveying, geography, mathematics, and proficiency in foreign languages, with questions set to test understanding rather than rote memory. The evaluators of the exams did not know the names or regiments of the candidates. From thousands of applicants, about one hundred were accepted every year to enter the first-year course at the Academy. Those who performed satisfactorily were promoted to the second and then the third year.

Eligible Officers, with the exception of the Magister Bellatorius, typically serve 2-6 year positions as a general staff officer before being rotated back into active or reserve formation commands.

War Plans
One of the main aspects of the General staff is the planning of military operations, to include outlining potential Imperial strategies for a variety of hypothetical war scenarios. These plans were officially called Tactica followed by another unique designation name based on the country or countries involved.

Many of the Tactica are made with the purpose of providing training rather than being practical, as many of the plans do not, and have not reflected accurate interpretations of international relations, thus making the likelihood of their use very low.

When knowledge of the Tactica became public knowledge they served as inspiration for the popular grand strategy board game going by the same name, where players compete for world domination. In a more practical sense aspects of the plans have been used to form the basis for military training exercises and wargame simulations with allied countries.