H/TM Imperial Banner Army (Zigala)

The Imperial Banner Army (: Hoàng kỳ lục quân) is the principle land warfare component of the Zigalese National Defense on sovereign Zigalese soil. As of 2023, the Banner Army consists of a total of 180,056 active and 22,161 reserve personnel.

The Imperial Banner Army was first created, under a different name, as the military wing of the pro-Orientalist and rebellious Three Cranes Society on the eve of the Zigalese Civil War in an attempt to politically consolidate its disparate collection of noble-raised private armies, defected Army regiments, and street militias which survived the failed Taitan coup d'etat. The Army later formed the military backbone of the Liberal Zigalese faction and modeled itself, with Avalonian assistance, along the lines of the conscript armies of Hatar, contributing crucially to the defeat of the Fengese-Hyperaustrean-Imperials coalition and the toppling of the Phương dynasty. It was renamed the Imperial Banner Army after the war. Over the period of Avalonian suzerainty, the IBA was present in almost every war and engagement fought by Zigala and provided useful force adjuncts to Avalonian military campaigns across the globe. Most notably, Zigalese troops were amongst the first non-Avalonian forces to arrive in the country to defend against the Sundisch invasion during the Great Serrataran War, and later fought off a Hyperaustrean invasion of Zigala when Fengjiang became involved in the war.

Since then, however, the IBA's role in Zigalese foreign policy and wars has gradually diminished with time, especially as Zigala found itself engaged in more and more asymmetric and proxy conflicts against GOCE-backed polities on the soil of its Capricornian allies. The threat of yet another all-out war with Hyperaustrea on Zigalese soil has forced the IBA to maintain the bulk of its strength in Zigala proper at all times, leaving precious fighting men and women leftover for overseas deployment and stability operations. As a result, the Imperial Banner Army has been largely replaced in its expeditionary role by the Imperial High Seas Fleets, the Zigalese naval component which includes significant amounts of rapidly-deployable naval infantry assets, due to the latter's full-spectrum capabilities and less stringent obligations to the defense of Zigala itself. Nevertheless, the IBA is still a vital part of the Zigalese National Defense, and if a Hyperaustrean invasion does occur, the land branch is expected to rapidly expand with the help of mass conscription.