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Post by RedsandRoyals on Jan 1, 2013 1:25:07 GMT -5
I figured it might be helpful to pull together some FAQs about the Imperial Guard's fluff, mostly pertaining how Regiments are raised, trained, organized, etc. I'll be touching on the most common questions I see on the forum, but if anyone has any other ones, feel free to post them. Before I get started though, remember these three things.
There Is Enough Flexibility In 40k Fluff To Do What You Want Well, probably. These FAQs will be geared toward following GW's fluff as close as possible without being quite as derpy (see below). If your idea goes against what I say somewhere, that doesn't mean it's impossible. It just means it's not the norm. That said, there are some things (Guard regiments getting Titans or voidships or power armor as standard issue or whatever) that are literally impossible within the outline of 40k fluff, but as long as you keep things reasonable and drizzle on the awesome sauce instead of soaking your unit in it, that's not something you have to worry about.
Please Sift Through The Grim Derp 40k fluff is full of things taken to stupid extremes to hammer in to it's audience how Grimdark it is ("Soooo Grimdark, you guys"). Wars will last for decades or centuries, millions of guardsmen or thousands of tanks will be causally destroyed in a single battle, that sort of thing. The good news is that this sets the bar very low for portraying realistic strategic and tactical situations when it comes to fluff writing, but the bead news that the Derp tends to take things to silly extremes, contradict itself, and generally make a mess of trying to write decent fluff for your regiment. I'll be touching on both the Derp versions and more reasonable alternatives where applicable. Lastly, but most importantly...
Where I Am Getting This Info From All this is coming from an amalgamation of sources, such as the IG Codex and core rulebook, past codecies and rulebooks, Black Library novels, and the books for Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, and, perhaps most importantly Only War. I'll probably be giving the most weight to what those last books say, if for no other reason than they tend to have more detail and less silliness than official GW fluff, and Black Library books tend to be very liberal with the established outlines of the 40k universe (some codecies have done this as well, recently, but fortunately the Guard one is free of that more or less).
So, with that out of the way, I hope people find this helpful when trying to puzzle their through the Imperial Guard!
Reds
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Jan 1, 2013 1:25:31 GMT -5
First and foremost, let's start with...
The Basics
Do I Have To Have A Regiment?
- Technically, yes, if you want it to be an Imperial Guard formation. While local forces can be organized into divisions, brigades, fighting clans, or whatever the local culture dictates, the Imperial Guard is controlled by the Departmento Munitorum, which dictates that all basic military units should be organized into Regiments. There may be some sort of organizational title that the regiment's homeworld attaches (such as Corps or Brigade), but for all intents and purposes, the unit is almost certainly classified as Regiment by the Munitorum. Conceptually, this idea comes from the archaic European organization of fighting units that fell our of favor around the time of WWI, but the good news there's no real set template for what a Regiment must consist of, as I'll discuss below.
What Makes Up A Regiment?
- The general template for regiments is squad -> platoon -> company -> regiment. Each platoon will have 2-6 squads of 10 men each, and each company will usually have 2-6 platoons. The number of companies depends on the size of the regiment, and you may find it convenient to add another level of command, the battalion, in between company and regiment if your unit has a fair number of companies. That said, the battalion isn't officially part of the regimental template, so you're also free to simply have your companies commanded directly at the regimental level.
How Big Are They?
- A Regiment can consist of anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand soldiers, depending on a myriad of factors such as the world it comes from, the type of regiment, and how long it has been in combat. Specialist units, such as logistic or medical regiments, will likely have less men than line infantry regiments, and units from hive worlds will be larger than those from sparsely populated agri-worlds. Generally speaking, I'd suggest a template of around 10,000-15,000 men, simply because that gives you a unit that can absorb some losses and keep fighting, and can also cover a relatively large strategic area of the front line. Remember though, the larger a unit is, the more cumbersome it becomes when maneuvering or trying to launch coordinated assaults. Realistically, about 30,000 men is the upward limit of what is practical for a single unit to control. At the other end of the spectrum, a front line combat unit is unlikely to be smaller than a few thousand men, as otherwise it's essentially combat ineffective for the types of strategic and tactical roles assigned to it. As previously mentioned, specialist units may have much smaller numbers, but these would either be auxiliary units, or special forces like Stormtroopers that can expect fairly low attrition rates.
Can I Have A Combined Arms Regiment? - Technically yes, but such things are exceptionally rare in the Imperial Guard. This is usually one of the hardest pills for Guard fluff writers to swallow, since the game encourages us to use combined arms, and most military units today feature a mix of unit types, as that's the way to field an effective fighting force. However, after the Horus Heresy, it was decreed that Guard regiments would not be combined arms, in case they turned traitor. That way they wouldn't be as an effective a fighting force compared the the myriad of loyalist units that would be arrayed against them. The majority of regiments are infantry, plain and simple. They'll usually have some medium and light artillery organic to the regiment, as well as possibly scout vehicles and a few chimeras, but the vast majority of the unit will be infantry, either on foot our mounted in APCs. Likewise, armoured regiments will consist of very little, if any, mounted infantry to fight beside the tanks. Operationally, an infantry unit will usually be assigned detachments from armoured regiments or artillery regiments if they need bolstering. That means if you field tanks with your infantry, the tanks probably come from a different unit than the infantry themselves. Also note that the Imperial Navy controls any and all aircraft operating in a warzone, but will routinely attach air wings to regiments that require them, such as drop troops. Again, there are exceptions like the Phantine, but these are very, very rare.
Recruiting And Equipping A Regiment
How Are Regiments Raised?
- Generally speaking, a planet raises one or more regiments as part of their tithe, a sort of tribute given to the Imperium at large every once and a while. The tithe will specify what each planet must contribute, and as there's no "standard" tithe, it's unique for each planet based on their population and production capacity. The tithe can dictate a number of regiments raised, a percentage of the population that's to be conscripted, or, a specific number of troops that must be trained. When you're trying to figure out exactly how many troops are raised from your planet, I'd suggest going with a predetermined number of regiments, rather than percentage or number of troops. If you do go with percentages, remember that for a planet of 7 billion people (like ours), even recruiting half of one 1% of the population still means tens of thousands are being conscripted, so don't feel the need to make it a large percentage unless your world is sparsely populated. I should also note that if a conflict has sprung up in a nearby system, nearby planets may also be required to raise additional regiments, sometimes resulting in mass conscription of entire towns.
How Are The Troops Raised?
- Depends on the world. Feral worlds might have competitions to send the fiercest warriors from each tribe. Other planets, like Vostroya, send their firstborn children of each generation. Planets with especially large or pious populations may even be able to raise volunteer units. Sometimes elements of the planet's PDF are tithed, or at least will form a small core of experienced officers and NCOs for the unit. The general method, though, is conscription from the populace, usually with little regard for profession or social status (although obviously planetary nobility can usually avoid conscription). Each world may impose specifications on who is conscripted, such as gender, age, and the like, but as long as the Munitorium is given the appropriate number of troops, they're content to let each planet determine who gets conscripted and how.
Are There All Female Or Mixed Sex Regiments?
- Yes! Although they're not as common, especially mixed sex units, both types of regiments do exist. That said, GW hasn't bothered to represent this outside fluff, really. Most worlds seem to raise all-male regiments, so a deviation from that would probably be due more to the local culture or circumstances than anything else. Remember, the Munitorium just wants people who can fight. What naughty bits they have really doesn't matter at the end of the day.
How Are Regiments Equipped?
- Guard regiments are equipped from two sources. First and foremost, the planet they're raised from is generally responsible for the initial outfitting of the unit with weapons, supplies, vehicles, and the like. Thus, units from heavily industrialized worlds will often be much better equipped than units from agri-worlds, so plan accordingly. Mechanized troops are more likely to come from a hive world than a feudal world, for example. After the initial outfitting, responsibility for outfitting and supply is handed over to the Munitorum. They'll supplement the unit with equipment that wasn't available locally, such as plasma weaponry or specific variants of tanks and vehicles, and will issue replacement equipment throughout the unit's existence.
Can I Have A Locally Unique Weapon Or Vehicle?
- Yes, but it's uncommon. Remember that the Munitorium will handle supplying the unit after it's turned over to them, and the Munitorium cannot be bothered to ensure one regiment out of hundreds in a campaign gets equipment specifically from one world out of the thousands that supply the vast arsenals of the Imperium. Thus, any specific local equipment will inevitably be phased out of use due to simple attrition, and will be replaced either by commonly available weaponry and vehicles, or items produced locally in whatever war zone the regiment finds itself in. The one way around this is if the war zone the regiment is sent to actually local, such as a nearby system or planet. Then the bulk of the equipment available will be similar to what the regiment was initially issued with.
Can I Have Autoguns Instead Of Lasguns?
-Sure! The advantages of the lasgun are it's robustness, the ease of transporting ammunition, and the fact that it's generally idiot-proof. Autoguns are certainly a valid option though, and some regiments may prefer the different varieties of ammunition available for autoguns, as they offer increased lethality in certain situations, and autoguns are much easier to silence than lasguns.
That's it for now, I'll add more in later. In the meantime, if anyone thinks of anything that I should add to these sections, let me know!
Reds
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Jan 1, 2013 1:42:59 GMT -5
More! MOAR NAO!!! You do not partake in "teh" glorious ethanol, so you have no reason to be asleep NAO! Really looking forward to what you come up with...
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Jan 1, 2013 7:11:32 GMT -5
This section will be general FAQs that crop up enough to be added.
What's The Difference Between PDF Troops and Guardsmen?
- There are a few key differences between them, starting with what they are for. PDF troops are inherently defensive in nature, designed to defend the planet from rebellion, raids, and minor threats, as well as hold the line until the Guard arrives in case of major enemy assaults. Guard troops are designed for long campaigns, offensive operations, and generally being flung across the galaxy to die on a planet they never heard of before. Additionally, PDF troops are commanded by the planetary governor, (or whatever power controls the planet). They're much closer to the national armies of today. Guard troops are under the command of the Munitorium, which is part of the Adaptes Terra. That means PDF troops will generally be subordinated to Guard troops in a warzone. Lastly, PDF troops will, generally speaking, be inferior to Guard troops, as well as less well equipped. The reason for the latter is that the PDF troops generally lack logistical support from the munitorum, and therefore will have to draw the bulk of their equipment from whatever is produced locally and not tithed to the Imperium or given to regiments being founded. Lastly, PDF units will rarely, if ever, have commissars, since the Commissariat only oversees the Imperial Guard. That means any sort of commissar presence will either be attached due to the PDF being forced into a frontline situation alongside the Guard, or will actually be some sort of local equivalent under the control of the planetary governor.
Do Regiments Reinforce Or Return Home?
- Regiments rarely reinforce, if for no other reason than it would be a logistical nightmare for the munitorium to try and send the right troops from the right planet to the right warzone where the right regiments are fighting. More often than not, regiments fight until they are combat ineffective, at which point they're either merged with another unit, from their homeworld if possible, broken up for spot reinforcements, or simply mustered out. For that reason, regiments will rarely return home unless they're fighting in a warzone close to home that they were specifically raised to fight in. More likely, the unit will be mustered out on a newly captured planet to provide some initial colonists, or will be shuttled off to a new war. Lucky regiments might be given settlement rights to a planet they capture, but that's a rare thing, if for no other reason that it's nearly impossible for a single regiment to capture a planet. Speaking of...
How Many Regiments Does It Take To Capture A Planet?
- The simple answer is "More than GW normally says it takes", and the even simpler answer is "It depends". If a planet is very, very sparsely populated, say with one major city and a few minor towns, even just one regiment may be enough to suppress local resistance. Generally though, it would take hundreds of regiments to suppress secure or defend a planet. For example, think about how many fighting units were involved in WWII, the most global conflict we've experienced. There was fighting on multiple fronts on several different continents all at once, and even then most of North and South America saw no combat. Think about what it would take to secure a planet of similar size and population density, and you'll get an idea of the kind of manpower the Guard would need to attack a planet.
How Are Psykers And Priests Attached To Regiments?
- Let's start with psykers, and a bit about how they're assigned to different roles. When the Black Ships arrive at Terra, the Scholastica Psykana evaluates the psykers that are brought in. Weak ones or ones too unstable go to the Golden Throne, while the rest are divvied up between the various other roles Psykers are required for in the Imperium, including battle psykers (a term I'm using out of convenience, as I'm sure there is an official one for psykers attached to IG units). Once trained, the Scholastica Psykana handles the assignment of psykers to various regiments, not the Munitorium. Usually, they serve as advisers or interrogators, but can take to the field of battle in special detachments, like the unit in our codex proves.
Now, on to priests. You can find these guys at nearly every level of command, from the field to the Lord General's staff, and they have a different job at different levels. At the high command level, they're emissaries of the Ecclesiarchy, essentially representing the Imperial Church's interest in the campaign, and the Imperial Church ALWAYS has interests where ever a war is being fought. On the lower levels, a priest usually serves in the same role chaplains do in modern day military units, providing moral and spiritual support for soldiers. They also have the added task of preventing heresy from taking root (not to be confused with the role of the commissar, who's job is to punish it). Although we're most familiar with priests as a combat unit, this seems to vary widely, although it's usually a constant that the priest is expected to be serving on, or at least close to, the front line most of the time. As for how they're assigned, they are usually provided by the Ecclesiarchy, and nominally fall under their jurisdiction, being outside the chain of command in a way similar to other non-munitorum advisers. The number of priests attached will normally depend on the regiment's religious zealotry. In a Caiphas Cain book, it's mentioned that Tallarans have priests like a mechanized unit "has chimera drivers", while in other units, priests aren't even mentioned. That said, this is 40k, so there's probably going to be one in the unit somewhere.
What's The Rank Structure Of The Guard?
- Every regiment unique, and quite a few have different names and titles for officers serving at specific ranks. This can be a bit confusing, especially if one world likes to laud titles and plaudits on company commanders while another barely acknowledges the rank of regimental commander with anything aside from "Sir". Roughly speaking, the rank structure is as follows...
Trooper (the basic grunt) ASL* (leads a section of the squad) Sergeant (squad leader) Lieutenant (platoon commander) Captain (company commander) Major (company or battalion commander depending on organization, regiment XO) Colonel (regimental commander) General (regimental commander or theater commander**, depending on situation) Lord General (planetary or front commander)
*ASL, or Assistant Squad Leader, is effectively the same as a corporal or similar rank, but it's not always included in every regiment. **Theater as in commanding a specific area of operations on a planet, as opposed to the whole planet, or a "front" of several planets
Reds
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Jan 1, 2013 7:19:28 GMT -5
Reserving one more, just in case I need it. *Yoda voice* (Modified quote) "You will... You will..."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2013 9:49:19 GMT -5
Excellent Guide, really useful. Technically speaking I'm quite sure that an Agri World could exchange food for weaponry from a nearby hive world and vice versa...
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Jan 2, 2013 12:05:09 GMT -5
Excellent Guide, really useful. Technically speaking I'm quite sure that an Agri World could exchange food for weaponry from a nearby hive world and vice versa... They could, but remember that (theoretically) Hive worlds will get food from the administratum that was tithed from agri-worlds. That's sort of the whole point of tithing things from planets. Plant X produces Y but lacks Z, so the administratum provides Z and in exchange for a tithe of Y. If a hive world required more food than they're getting, or whatever, then in theory they could strike a deal with an agri-world, but generally speaking the whole tithe system is set up to provide the basic needs for every planet in the Imperium. Reds
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2013 12:08:02 GMT -5
Excellent, so an Air Cav Regiment such as the Elysian or Harakoni are actually part of the Imperial Navy as an oppose to the Imperial Guard? If not then are the Vendettas / Valks domestically manufactured on Elysia / an organic part of the regiment ?
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Jan 2, 2013 12:12:15 GMT -5
As I mentioned when I was talking about combined arms, regiments that rely heavily on mixing unit types will normally have the vehicles they need more or less permanently attached. That's the case with Eylisans and other Drop Troop regiments, where the Imperial Navy attaches Valkyries, Vendettas, and Vultures to these units, sometimes more or less indefinitely. These units will occasionally adopt color schemes similar to the regiments they're attached to, as is discussed in IA 1. The Navy really doesn't have ground troops, unless they muster parties of armsmen and send them to the surface of a plant (in which case they'll be woefully under-equipped for anything but skirmishing).
Reds
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Post by cheminhaler on Jan 2, 2013 12:31:55 GMT -5
Excellent, so an Air Cav Regiment such as the Elysian or Harakoni are actually part of the Imperial Navy as an oppose to the Imperial Guard? If not then are the Vendettas / Valks domestically manufactured on Elysia / an organic part of the regiment ? From what I remember in the book Double Eagle, the Phantine were still an IG regiment, which is why they used their own colours on the flyers instead of standard Navy colours. They jusy get issued with valks, etc, because anything else would be useless for their cloud world, but they're guard, not Navy.
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Jan 2, 2013 12:41:33 GMT -5
As I mentioned, there are exceptions, but they're very, very rare. In Double Eagle, it even comes up that most of the other units stationed there didn't realize the Phantine XX was actually a guard unit, and that's only because the nature of their home planet more or less made it impossible to field normal units. Abnett also likes to bend fluff a bit to make for a more interesting story. He's responsible for most of the exceptions to the rules that you can find in IG fluff.
Reds
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Jan 2, 2013 14:26:46 GMT -5
Lastly, PDF units will rarely, if ever, have commissars, since the Commissariat only oversees the Imperial Guard. That means any sort of commissar presence will either be attached due to the PDF being forced into a frontline situation alongside the Guard, or will actually be some sort of local equivalent under the control of the planetary governor. One of the Ciaphas Cain books touches on this, with Cain explaining that the Commissariat theoretically does exercise control over PDF forces. However, in the example that Cain cited, it was stated that there was basically one Commissar who was responsible for about 40 (IIRC) worlds (possibly as a punishment assignment) and that he spent most of his time traveling between them, which resulted in pretty much all of the PDF troopers whom he was technically responsible for being essentially completely unaware of his existence. I believe it was also mentioned that said Commissar also essentially spent most of his time in his stateroom drinking heavily.
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Post by Shostak(AWOL) on Jan 2, 2013 14:45:18 GMT -5
This is a really nice Fluff resource Reds, thanks for taking the time to write it up for us. I hope you don't mind me asking my own questions here, namely where are the generals appointed from, are they Munitorum officers or regimental leaders that have been promoted to a more senior position, with their major taking over command of the regiment? Also, what sort of underlings do the generals have? Considering the number of regiments that are involved in most campaigns, there must be regional commanders. Are these commanders senior Colonels or junior generals? Is there no temporary equivalent of the Brigade/Division structure for the basis of a single campaign to simplify the deployment of units? Furthermore, does the Imperium follow a structure that is fairly similar to modern day, (or even Napoleonic armies) in relation to a hierarchy among senior officers? I know that there are generals, lord generals and occasionally Warmasters but is there any differentiation between other degrees of general like we have Brigadiers, Lieutenant Generals and Major Generals, or is everything determined by seniority and the availability of officers. One final question, (for now), is it possible for regiments from a single homeworld to be brigaded semi - unofficially under the command of a Brigadier or General appointed by the planet's millitary system? In most circumstances would a unit such as this be permitted to fight together, taking advantage of the familiarity that similar training, tactics and unit ethos brings to be more successful than more ad hoc battle groups? Thanks in advance for your answers.
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Jan 2, 2013 17:34:58 GMT -5
1. Depends on the scale of the command. If we're talking about a crusade, like the Sabbat or Macharian campaigns, then the Lords of Terra will appoint a Warmaster (or Lord Solar or whatever title they feel like using) to command the overall campaign, and will either be assigned or gather a staff of lesser generals to command individual fronts. On a smaller scale, generals will be appointed by the local sector command of the Munitorium, and will generally be drawn from a pool of experienced officers who have either cut their teeth as frontline commanders, or started out as staff officers and climbed the ranks due to political acumen and strategic skill (at least in theory). Remember that it's possible for nobles to purchase commissions for their sons and daughters, and that could just as easily entail a staff assignment as it does a field command of some kind.
2. Again, depends on the scale of the campaign. A crusade or large scale campaign will have a senior commander, like a Warmaster, and a small collection of more minor admirals and Lord Generals to command individual theaters and fronts. Usually, you'll have one Lord General or equivalent commanding a planetary front. How they divide up their command beyond that is somewhat up to the general, and although I've never run across an example of an organizational level between the supreme command and the regiment, I find it hard to imagine there aren't specific Corps or Theater HQs for specific areas of the warzone (these would most likely be commanded by more junior generals). If it's just a few regiments with no set command structure in place being deployed to a world, command will most likely default to the most senior of the regimental commanders.
In terms of staff, Lord Generals and above will probably have a host of minor staff officers responsible for collating, processing, and interpreting the myriad of data the HQ will receive on a day to day basis. There will also most likely be representatives of the Commissariat, as well as Munitorium liaisons who are technically civilians, an Ecclesiarchy contingent, Navy liaisons, sanctioned psykers capable of divination, liaisons from local forces, and whatever other kind of staff that may be useful or necessary for the campaign in question.
3. In terms of rank hierarchy, there are at least two degrees of generals, Lord Generals and original flavor generals. The Lord Generals normally command a whole operational front, as I mentioned above, while the normal Generals either serve under a Lord General, or command a smaller, independent force of a handful of regiments. Theoretically, these lesser generals are drawn from a pool that exists either in the general staff of the crusade, or in the sector or segmentum command. If the fighting force in question can't get one of these generals for whatever reason, than most likely the most senior officer in the force will take over, as discussed above. Keep in mind though that there are a myriad of local ranks, such as Marshal, Khan, Grand Potentate, or whatever, that may sound vastly impressive, but will only occupy one of the lower ranking commands. Also, local or sector politics may influence who gets what sort of command, which can complicate things.
4. As far as I can tell, that could happen, since the majority of troops fighting in one particular theater will probably have been raised from nearby worlds. That would mean that there are a fair number of units from that world, and it would make a decent amount of sense to do that. That said, I don't think there's an official policy of grouping units together like that, and due to strategic or logistical issues, it may not always be practical. It all depends on whether or not the command staff chooses to group their forces like that if possible. One interesting caveat are specialist troops, who are more likely to be deployed together thanks to their unique talents. For example, Catachan regiments are probably more likely to serve side by side, since it would make sense to assign jungle troops to jungle areas. The same holds true for troops who specialize in a specific type of combat operations, such as drop troops. Given their unique skills, they're most likely to be deployed together to achieve some sort of strategic goal that lends itself to their talents.
Reds
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Post by Empirespy on Jan 2, 2013 17:47:56 GMT -5
This is a great resource, thanks for posting it!
I do have a question though, where do you get your info from? I've recently been reviewing places like the Lexicanum, for certain background questions I have, but they are not nearly as in-depth as this, and from my experiences the black library is, well, not informative, in some place contradictory. I would like to know the source of your info, as it would apear to be very interesting and informative. Thanks, -Empirespy
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Post by Shostak(AWOL) on Jan 2, 2013 18:05:19 GMT -5
Thanks very much Reds, the high command bit really interested me and the brigading ideas will be useful for re - designing my regimental Fluff a bit (I initiially had miniscule regiments that will need to be enlarged). Where I Am Getting This Info FromAll this is coming from an amalgamation of sources, such as the IG Codex and core rulebook, past codecies and rulebooks, Black Library novels, and the books for Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, and, perhaps most importantly Only War. I'll probably be giving the most weight to what those last books say, if for no other reason than they tend to have more detail and less silliness than official GW fluff, and Black Library books tend to be very liberal with the established outlines of the 40k universe (some codecies have done this as well, recently, but fortunately the Guard one is free of that more or less). Here you go empire.
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Jan 2, 2013 18:06:01 GMT -5
As I mentioned in the first post, it's from a bunch of sources. I draw very heavily from the Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Only War, Deathwatch, and Black Crusade core rule books, as well as their supplementary source books. They offer the most in-depth view of the ground level of 40k, with Only War being devoted entirely to the guard. Likewise, I'm drawing from the whole of the Gaunts Ghosts series and the Caiaphas Cain series, the Sabbat Worlds Crusade book, various IG codecies and 40k rulebooks (past and present), and some logical inferences when there are gaps to fill or the fluff contradicts itself. There's always going to be contradictions or areas simply not covered, and I'll do my best to resolve them in this thread, and try to make it clear when it's just me guessing (see the above post about corps level commands and the like). All that said, I haven't read or remembered all the IG fluff out there, and I'm prone to ignore the more derpy fluff, so keep that in mind when reading through these answers. If there's a specific item you'd like a source for, you're always free to ask, and I'll do my best to provide where I got the info from, or why I've come to that particular conclusion. Shostak(AWOL): No worries. By using the term Regiment, GW sort of implies that the units are on the small side, and that's certainly the case with some regiments. As I recall, the Tanith First was initially about 3,000 strong, but since that was comprised of the survivors from the first three founding, it might have been more due to the available manpower than anything else. On the other hand, the Only War book mentions regiments with 30,000 men, and some of the IA books give regimental strengths for mechanized units and armoured units (I think the Taros Campaign book has them, but it might be IA 1). Reds
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Post by Ponen19 on Jan 2, 2013 19:12:34 GMT -5
Wow this just keeps getting more and more in depth, very nice Reds, excellent work?
Not sure if you can answer this, and this is more of a curiosity thing; but in game terms, how much of a regiment would fit into a 2500 point game? And along those lines, how many points would a full regiment cost?
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Post by Empirespy on Jan 2, 2013 19:38:10 GMT -5
Thanks, I don't know how I missed that, I got the Dark Heresy rulebook for my birthday last year, I don't play and was planning to flog it, just had a flick through and I can't believe I nearly got rid of it, it's awesome.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jan 2, 2013 19:42:11 GMT -5
Wow this just keeps getting more and more in depth, very nice Reds, excellent work? Not sure if you can answer this, and this is more of a curiosity thing; but in game terms, how much of a regiment would fit into a 2500 point game? And along those lines, how many points would a full regiment cost? A platoon of 6 squads is 280 points so if there was 6 squads to a company thats 1,680 (this is all with no extras) reds didnt mentions how many companies per regiment but i would imagine its in the region of 20-30? So thats 42,000 points for 25 companies. Thinking about it there is 400 men in a company so Tanith first would be 7.5 companies and the only war standard regiment would be 75 companies :/ They would definatly need batallions. (126,000 points for 75 companies)
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Jan 2, 2013 19:51:54 GMT -5
@ponen: Adkenpachi's math is pretty much bang on. Most tabletop games represent a reinforced platoon or two with armoured support. There's a reason why a single Guard company, by itself, is an Apoc formation. As to the number of companies, that can get tricky, especially for larger units. Lacking the battalion level of command, you might get a couple dozen companies all under the command of the regimental HQ. The Ghosts had a similar organization, only having platoon commanders who all reported to Gaunt. When determining how many companies you have, it might be best to start by setting the number of men in the regiment, then working backwards from there, figuring out the number of specialist troops and the like, then dividing the remainder into companies. Reds
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jan 2, 2013 19:54:17 GMT -5
Reworked my math a little... I included vox casters before, i wanted bare minimum stats
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Post by WestRider on Jan 2, 2013 20:39:47 GMT -5
PDF Commissars: Note that some Worlds do have their own Commissariat to keep their PDF Units in line. The third Gaunt's Ghosts book has the only example I can think of off the top of my head, with Abnett again providing the major Canon exception.
Regimental Size: Older versions of the Guard Dex gave 2000-3000 men as the norm, with "standard" Platoons ranging from 35-55 men, and Companies ranging from 3-6 Platoons. Some editions work Heavy Weapons Squads and other such Units in at the Company or even Platoon level, others have those in their own Companies, detached to support other Units as necessary. The current Guard Dex seems to indicate a somewhat larger norm, usually "several thousand", but ranging up to 120,000 men under Chenkov in the Valhallan 18th. Other sources I don't have on hand may supercede or expand on this.
The Tanith are a weird example for a number of reasons (They don't use Companies at all, and rarely even divide into Squads, usually using the Platoon as their sole sub-unit of organization), and probably not a good basis to use to work out what's typical.
This doesn't come from 40K lore, but as a general guideline, it's best to avoid any one person in a hierarchy having more than about 10 or so direct subordinates. If you're running more than 10 Companies, you may want to work in some sort of intermediate level of Command Structure, even tho it's not supported by any of the Canon sources.
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Jan 2, 2013 20:44:14 GMT -5
Yeah, Tanith really is an odd unit, and most of Abnett's regiments tend to be a bit quirky. that's why I mentioned he's more of an an exception than a rule. You make a very good point about the 10 companies per commanding officer, though. That's why I tend to slot battalions into the organization of most of the regiments I end up using, since otherwise it gets a bit silly.
Reds
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Jan 2, 2013 22:04:36 GMT -5
PDF Commissars: Note that some Worlds do have their own Commissariat to keep their PDF Units in line. The third Gaunt's Ghosts book has the only example I can think of off the top of my head, with Abnett again providing the major Canon exception. Yes, the Vervunhive Prime Commissariat (VHPC) in "Necropolis" (my favorite Gaunt's Ghosts novel). However, I got the impression that "real" Commissars kind of regarded them with disdain, and they proved to be a bunch of major screw-ups in the end. However, it also seemed to be implied that they were more of a private police force at the Governor's behest (well before he went bat-crap insane and was seduced by Chaos). I would stand by the brief mention in the Ciaphas Cain novel (it may have been the one where he and Jurgen are stranded on the Ork-invaded world, and he collects together rag-tag PDF regiments and leads them to victory, thus earning his "Imperial Hero" title) of the one Commissar overseeing the PDF of many worlds as the example.
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