Your Guard Infantry Regiment

[Eternus]

I make no bones about it, I like my own army fluff, and I write background for all my armies. I would like to know whether you have written fluff for your Guard that includes their Regimental Structure? I have a structure in mind for my Light Infantry Regiment:

Squad (10 Troopers) < Platoon (65 Men) < Company (6 Platoons + Company Command) < Battalion (6 Companies) < Regiment (3 Battalions)

This comes to around 7100 men all told, plus various support staff.

I'm not going to ask if this is realistic, because there is almost limitless variation in the make up of a Guard Regiment, but I would like to ask how this compares to your structure, and whether your fluff is reflected in your army list - i.e. if your fluff says 6 Infantry Squads and a Command Squad in a platoon, is that how you field them in a game?

[chromedog]

Mine were just called the NovaCastrian 99th Colonial Militia (Novocastrian is what they refer to the locals around here - ie from Newcastle) - but it's like NEW Newcastle.
They're from a Mechanicus mining world. They mine Unobtanium and Handwavium and refine it into Adamantium for use in the Mechanicus' forges (This region is (in)famous for its mines - mostly coal.).
They are Praetorian-looking guard. In red tunics and blue trousers (like our local rugby team).
The Army is led by Colonel Andreas Ioannou - but he cops an injury early in the game and the army gets wiped out (also like our local rugby team).

[Novafix]

A while ago my gaming group (me +3) decided that we'd try a tale of 4 gamers style event and each was tasked with coming up with 500pts of fully painted new stuff from our mountain of assembled grey plastic gubbinz. I took the opportunity to dust off my old Catachan (I pronounce it Cat-A-Kan not Cat-A-Chan btw) and see what I could come up with.

I decided to theme my army around a regiment who have serously lost their way. They're 100% loyal to the Imperium but wouldn't last 5 seconds under any kind of Inquisitorial scrutiny. The Catachan 2012th were on a distant crusade far out on the galactic rim when their fleet was separated from the main body, their Navigator had a heart attack, and they were scattered to whothe****knowswhere. Their Commissar section (never large in a Catachan army) took a battering and the last surviving Commissar lost the plot and started dressing like a pimp. They traffic with Xenos (plenty of my guardsmen use Eldar weapons as I had tons of spare fusion guns and old school las-guns), their Primaris Psyker is a Genestealer Magus, one of their Veterans thinks he's personally been punched by the Emperor and their Tech Priest is an Ape.

Here's a look at the characters of the Catachan 2012th (they were founded this year)

Primaris Psyker
Name: Gene St.Ealer
Background: A genestealer magus that was the sole survivor of an attack on it's cult by a Calidus Assassin. In the fray he was neural disruptored and his mind was essentially blanked. The assassin died shortly afterwards but had activated a distress beacon calling for extraction. The Catachan 2012th heard the beacon and came to the rescue. They had never encountered a Genestealer cult before, decided that this wandering imbecile was the person who'd initiated the beacon and was somehow importand and took him back to their fleet. He displayed psychic ability shortly afterwards and the 2012th think he's dead useful.
Model: The oldschool Genestealer Magus

Nork Deddog
Name: Ork Deddog
Background: Basically an Ork Nob that's been worked upon by a Mad Doc and left for dead. Found by large, musclebound and more importantly GREEN camo'd people he latched onto them as Kindred spirits. Has no idea he's actually an Ork. The Ogryns adopted him and made him their leader as his green camo paint seems to be permenant.
Model: An Ork Nob with a ripper gun decked out in Aquilas

Marbo
Name: Racey Cyback
Background: A Ratling badass who was requested to join the regiment by Company Command due to his impressive skills at cooking. Nobody knows he's actually ex-ratling spec ops who once saved an Under Siege Imperial Guard battleship after the second in command dressed up as a Woman and killed the Captain in a failed ploy to steal the ship.
Model: A halfling chef with a demo pack - on the base "I also cook"

Tech Priest
Name: Clyde
Background: While on combat ops several tanks became damaged beyond repair and were going to be given up for lost. A captive ape escaped from a stockade and repaired them all. The Company command decided that the Ape was obviously blessed by the Machine God and since their remaining Tech priests were all the wrong side of the grave, they'd keep him around. Clyde has since taken to trying to make dead Guardsmen work and has strapped guns to them...
Model: Jokaero + modified Catachan servitors

Iron Hand Straken
Name: TBD
Background: Essentially a Necron that's had half it's body shot away and then haywired into next week. It woke up eventually and saw humans. It thinks it's a human.
Model: Some modified Necron Lord

Gunnery Sergeant Harker
Name: TBD
Background: TBD
Model: The old female imp guard autocannon girl.

My Own Special Character
Name: Tommy 'Swiftfists'
Background: One night before a serious battle Tommy prayed to the Emperor for deliverance and asked how he could beat his enemies. That night in a dream the Emperor came to Tommy and he wept with adulation. He asked the Emperor how he could defeat his foe in His name and the Emperor punched him straight in the face and broke his nose. Tommy woke up with a broken nose and took the message. He was to punch his way to victory in His name. He has kept a tally so far of everything he's punched and plans on punching his way to the Eye of Terror if needs be.
Model: A normal guardsmen with the guns cut off in a martial arts fighting stance - wearing shades (he's got permenant black eyes)
Note: Essentially he's a normal member of a Command section but I swap his Lasgun for a Las Pistol so that he gets 2 attacks...he's really nothing special. He's given close combat upgrades and I play him like he wants to die.
Tommy has so far punched 1 Gaunt, 1 Attack Bike and 1 Blood Claw.

Some pictures

The Sky Rat
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3271/skyrat.jpg

The Ivanhoe
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/184/ivanhoe.jpg

Tommy Swiftfist
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5531/imag0223v.jpg

I've got the lions share of the 1000pts done before this tourny in a few weeks so I might be able to get another pic of them all assembled.

[Easy E]

I have a pretty elaborate company command structure and Force-Org chart for the 1st St. Paulus Armored Regiment, AkA the Tiimberwolves.

According to the 2ed Codex, 10 tanks equals 1 Company. I have two full companies of tanks, while the 9th company is a reserve company. This company has the scout elements such as Tankettes, armored cars, and Armored Fist Squads as well. The Tenth Company is the Logistics/Support company and has Cargo Chimera, Manticores, and Hydras.

In 4th, I use to field them in Company sized formations. I.e. 2,000 points= 10 tanks. I haven't played them since 4th.

[Colonel Scipio]

Eternus, glad to find someone else who likes fluff as much as I do. In fact, I've written a short book about my Imperial Guard regiment and had it printed (check it out here).

As for regimental structure, I too tried to move away from real-world military thinking and create something a bit unusual and unique.



These use (for convenience's sake) the same NATO symbols as we have today, but the basic idea is:

• Regiment
• 10 Battalions/regiment
• 6 Companies/battalion
• 2 Platoons/company
• 2-4 Squads/platoon

A usual 2,000pt Guard army would be one company, revolving around the fairly standard 2 platoons - plus attachments and armour, as well as support units.

Total strength for the infantry regiment is:

• 12 301 officers and men
• 372 heavy bolters
• 186 autocannons
• 43 45-Gw. guns (Earthshakers)
• 115 combat vehicles (mostly Salamanders and Chimerae, but does include an Anti-Tank Gun battery with 12 Laser Destroyers)
• 202 noncombat vehicles (trucks, recovery vehicles and ammunition carriers)

Although there are a few support arms - notably engineers, communications and reconnaissance, most support is provided on an ad-hoc basis, particularly with tanks. The exception to this is artillery; although the Palladians make use of heavy artillery regiments, a standard infantry regiment will include numerous 45-Gw. Earthshakers to allow it to carry out defensive and limited offensive (up to Battalion level) operations independently.

[Turbomick]

i read alot of the imperial guard novels so what i like to do is make an army group and have the different people from the novels, so i have gossefrieds gunheads from the novel gunheads and i have an infantry regiment from the same book aswell, i have other infantry attached to the army group aswell, with an army group it doesnt have to be rigid and you can add more units to it

[jareddm3]

Have any of you looked into the new RPG, Only War? It's got some pretty cool systems for designing your own regiments, as well as being the RPG specifically designed for IG campaigns.

[Corbeau]

It's your fluff and it doesn't go against anything important established by GW so go for it. For a platoon that is a little high if you were going for "realism" (assuming you mean 20th century style armies), but only 10 or so men higher than the largest. If there's a particular reason you want larger platoons, and you can explain it with good fluff, then go for it

Edit: Apologies, misread your post slightly - I really should stop posting half-asleep. A good friend and regular opponent has done some pretty extensive and impressive fluff for his "Palladian Guard," so I've told him to sign up and post on here. And apparently he already had but was on proabtion, the post is above mine (Colonel Scipio)

This post shall now be officially stamped "FAILED"....

[Hawkkf]

My Hyborean Guard are slightly divergent as they are renegades. My fluff has them that they were spared from inquisitorial purging after witnessing Grey Knights in action. A fleet based chapter of marines, the Knights Sangreal (Salamander gene-stock) refused to allow them to be killed and managed to fight off the inquisitorial forces long enough to get survivors out. The remaining marines, now renegades, numbering only 3-1/2 companies strong decide to divide the guard forces up and restrcture the regiments for thier own use. When imperial planets that are low on the priority list come under attack with no reinforcements in sight, the Knights Sangreal will offer aid. In return for a combined arms force of guard and marines, they take a tithe of supplies, military equipment, willing guard recruits, and free pick for the Knights to select candidates to become scouts.

My guard regiment is stationed aboard the Knights Sangreal strike cruiser, the Hyborea. Each battalion is commanded by a marine brother-commander, and the regiment is commanded by a marine captain. In place of commisars are priests trained by the chapter's chaplains. Also scouts are fielded alongside the guard infantry battalions. (I use the rules for Straken to represent my brother-commander. He is a veteran marine too wounded to keep up with the rest of the martines, but invaluable for turning renegade guardsmen into a cohesive fighting force. I use a marine model with a guard commander head and the robotic marine arm. The scouts are represented by veterans in carapce modeled with scout bodies, but guard heads and weaponry.)

Organization:
Regiment = 3 Battalions (Normally 1 Infantry, 1 Armoured, and 1 Artillery)
Infantry Battalion = 3 Infantry Companies of 193 soldiers, 1 HW Company of 152 soldiers, and 1 Command Company of 124 soldiers for a total of 855 soldiers not including advisors (priests, masters of odinance, etc).
Infantry Company = 3 Infantry Platoons of 41 soldiers (PCS, 3 Inf. Squads, and 1 SWS each), 1 Heavy Weapons Platoon of 35 soldiers (PCS, 4 HWS, and 1 SWS), and 1 Command Platoon of 35 soldiers (CCS, 3 Inf Squads) I can run this as a legal 2,000 point list.

Tank Battalion = 2 Tanks Companies and 1 Mechanized Company
Tak Company = 17 Tanks. Using the Armoured Company list from FW this can be done 'legally' as 2 Command Tanks, 3 Squadron Command Tanks, and 6 Squadrons of 2 Tanks each. I can also add a tech-priest in Chimera with autocannon turret, and a tank hunter destroyer as Battalion assests and make a 3,500 point list.

I havent worked out much else as I completed my first infantry company, and am slowly painting my armoured company. Next to figure out will probably be a mechanized company structure. As people begin thinking chimeras are death traps in 6th and get rid of them at a lowered price,I will be able to expand my mechanized platoon. I probably wont worry about the artillery company until the fabled unreleased/imaginary artillery kits become realeased/real. Of course I have B company sitting in a box waiting to be painted and that takes me a long, long, long time.

[omegoku]

Corkonian 85th Imperial Guard Regiment
The Corkonian 85th are a regiment founded on the Major world of the Corkonian system. The regiment is led by Colonel Gordon Truss, though he has not seen the front line in quite some time. It is Captain Buckley that the men of the regiment see and follow to hell and back. He is seen as a man who cares for the men that follow him and is not one of the foolish armchair generals that feed men to the grinder. That said, he would not think twice about sacrificing the men under his command for the greater victory. For is that not what the Emperor demands?

The 85th have access to many Chimera and are joined by a Corkonian Armoured Regiment made up of Leman Russ Battle Tanks who have taken up the 85th Regimental number to match the infantry. The Corkonian system has the ability to create both Chimera and Leman Russ pattern weapons so neither are in short supply in there regiments.
The 85th are currently battling the Chaos Marine forces of Memnoch. Casualties are high but hard fought victories are holding the Chaos forces at bay.

The 85th is about 8000 men strong, including officers but excluding attached Tank Crews

[BooTMGSG]

Golgafrincham 207

Golgafrincham is a Beurocrat world, a world used by the Administratum to collate, store and manage the vast paperwork of the subsector. To hold back the ever increasing layers of beurocracy, the Golganfrinchams use the Imperial Tithe to get rid of the vast legions of middle managers, leaving those who can lead, and those who can work free to do the will of the Emperor.
Like many Golgafrincham regiments, the 207 is a rear echelon support regiment, they are frequently found near artilary regiments and command, where they ensure that these regiements are well managed, and have their Vox units suffiently sanitised. They are universily hated by the other regiments they are stationed with.
Despite their rear echelon role, the 207 often find themselves in combat. For some reason, high command use the 207 as bait for the enemy, sending them to guard apparantly high value targets that are in fact empty.
Fortunately, the 207 has become adept to repelling commando raids enabling them to continue their important duty of managing the other regiments.

[Corbeau]

Golgafrincham 207

Golgafrincham is a Beurocrat world, a world used by the Administratum to collate, store and manage the vast paperwork of the subsector. To hold back the ever increasing layers of beurocracy, the Golganfrinchams use the Imperial Tithe to get rid of the vast legions of middle managers, leaving those who can lead, and those who can work free to do the will of the Emperor.
Like many Golgafrincham regiments, the 207 is a rear echelon support regiment, they are frequently found near artilary regiments and command, where they ensure that these regiements are well managed, and have their Vox units suffiently sanitised. They are universily hated by the other regiments they are stationed with.
Despite their rear echelon role, the 207 often find themselves in combat. For some reason, high command use the 207 as bait for the enemy, sending them to guard apparantly high value targets that are in fact empty.
Fortunately, the 207 has become adept to repelling commando raids enabling them to continue their important duty of managing the other regiments.

Haha, perfect! Has anyone seen my rubber duck....

[Eternus]

It's your fluff and it doesn't go against anything important established by GW so go for it. For a platoon that is a little high if you were going for "realism" (assuming you mean 20th century style armies), but only 10 or so men higher than the largest. If there's a particular reason you want larger platoons, and you can explain it with good fluff, then go for it

Really, the platoon sizes is so that it'll fit into my army - I have 12 infantry squads. I could easily make it 45 men to a platoon (4 Infantry Squads + a Command Squad), and just increase the number of Platoons in a company to 10, to maintain the total numbers?

[Corbeau]

That's an option if you wanted it to be closer to reality - but I really don't think it's an issue at all, as Colonel Scipio said he made his intentionally different from the norm. I am intrigued by your fluff though, do you have any more info on the background of tour organisation, uniforms, equipment that sort of thing? Would love to do a "light infantry" regiment in the style of the 43rd / 52nd British regiments of the Napoleonic Wars, but I already have too many projects lol

[Son of Sanguinius]

Isodax 1st Regiment, 1st Company - "The Winged Panthers"

Lord Commissar Trajan Orpheus, Commander of the Isodax 1st Regiment
Captain Enduba Gastron, 1st Company Commander
Command Squad
10 Storm Trooper squads

- Elite fighting force of the Isodax system.
- Favors aerial insertion with Valkyrie Assault Carriers.
- Currently assigned to the command of Lady Inquisitor Ephrenia Orpheus of the Ordo Hereticus, serving as primary protection and first response formation.

[Sons of Lorgar]

234th Colchis dragoons Mechanized brigade:

1 Brigade cmnd. company: 6 Chim, 4 Salamander cmnd veh.
2 Battle-tank companies: 10 L-R tanks each, various variants
1 Super-heavy tank company 6 vehicles
2 Mech. inf. companies: 10 Chimeras, 85 troopers, 9 seargeants, 1 lieutenant each, squad equipment varies.
1 Mech. recon company: 6 sentinels, 3 Salamander scout veh. 1 Chimera containing command squad.
1 Mech. combat engineer company. 3 L-R demolishers, 4 load-lifter sentinels, 2 Atlas recovery vehicles, 4 trojans with trailers, 2 Valkyrie heavy lifters, 3 Destroyer tank hunters, 9 Hell hounds all variants, 6 chimeras, 2 Hades breaching drills, 4 Cyclops demo vehicles, 1 Sal. Cmnd veh. 6 tech-priests, 12 tech servitors, 12 combat servitors, 60 combat engineers.
2 Self-propelled Artillery companies. 9 Bassilisks, 3 Medusas, 6 griffons, 2 Sal. Cmnd veh.
1 Self-propelled heavy artillery company. 6 Manticores, 6 bombards 3 Deathstrike launchers vortex payload, 2 Sal. Cmnd veh., 12 chimeras, 93 troopers, 9 seargeants, 3 jr. lieutenants, 3 17th legion overseers (Counts as lord commissars).
1 AA company. 6 Hydra flak tanks, 3 manticores sky eagle payload, 1 Sal. cmnd veh.
1 Motorized logistics company >50 trojans with trailers, 10 Load-lifter sentinels, >100 soft-skin cargo vehicles 180 troopers, 20 seargeants, 5 lieutenants, 1 captain
1 Field hospital. 10 chimeras, 6 Rhinos, 3 valkyries (external extra fuel) 85 troopers, 9 seargeants, 20 medics, 1 lieutenant, 2 colonel-doctors
1 Airlift/close air-support detatchment 6 Valkyries, 3 Vendettas, 3 Vultures, 4 Valkyrie heavy lifters, 12 Load lifter sentinels, 8 trojans with trailers, 50 non-combat personell


Note: Most of the vehicles have been replaced innumerable times through the looting of loyalist forges and munitorium depots. The personell has been replaced even more frequently from any source of 'dogs' availiable to the 17th legion warband known as 'The Sons of Lorgar' and thus the brigade has never been above 75% strength since M31.
(Also only about 20% of this is actually collected this far, it's a significant part of my life-time collection goal.

[Retrospectus]

Keidran 35th "mongrels"
stationed in a forgotten warzone for emprah knows how long, the "mongrels" are formed from the remnants of nearly a dozen regiments. Due to casualties and logistical problems, regimental organization consists of their commanders gathering whatever troops that aren't doing anything at that moment, forming them into a company and sending off to whatever objective needs doing.
their equipment is scavenged from the battlefield meaning a single squad could have as many as half a dozen patterns of lasgun.
the only thing uniform about them is the colour of their armour. Command insists on the troops painting their armour to match their position and making organization quicker. for example, line troops wear yellow/brown armour, veterans(including stormtroopers) wear dark blue, command section (officers and accompanying veterans) wear dusty brown and commissars and priests wear white.

[MyNameDidntFit]

I haven't figured out the structure for my guard yet (still building them up), but they're a small, elite specialist unit known as the Seprisian Guard, of the planet Seprus Prime (a nod to the Kasrkin of DoW). My army is entirely Veterans who are Kasrkin models with Command Squads and auxiliaries as Hostile Environment Cadians from FW. My heavy weapons teams will be FW Rapier Armoured Carriers. Basically, they're a highly sought-after forward strike element specialising in rapid deployment from Chimeras where they either hold the objective against the odds or withdraw with the objective, depending on the nature of the mission.

The generally deploy three squads (two of which are equipped with mobile heavy weapon platforms), two command elements and a pair of deep striking storm troopers along with light vehicle support (3x Chimeras). The squads are loaded out with whatever specialist weapons are suited to the task at hand while the command squads each have a separate role: one sitting in the backfield, observing through sniper scopes so as to take out key targets and relay positional information to support regiments (Master of Ordinance) while the other is loaded out with plasma weaponry and drives forward at the head of the force, spurring the men on by fearless example.

Have any of you looked into the new RPG, Only War? It's got some pretty cool systems for designing your own regiments, as well as being the RPG specifically designed for IG campaigns.

Yeah, I played a demo game of it with 6 other guys a few weeks back and it's really fricking awesome. I was the Commissar for our squad and ended up saving us all from a horrible fate at the hands of Dark Eldar by using all of our explosives to destroy ourselves along with the Chaos Renegades' command bunker prior to the (unknown to us at the time) arrival of a Dark Eldar raiding party--I strapped the squads explosives to myself, charged in screaming "For the Emperor!", critical hit the enemy commander with my chainsword for max critical damage (utterly destroying him) before exploding, leaving so little trace of our squad that not even a Haemonculus could have put us back together

I could talk for ages about the awesome stuff we did in our quick (~3 hour) game, but this isn't the place for it.

[TheDungen]

Orandan 11th. I have never considered their organisation really, i'd say they're fewer than usual in a platoon so there are more commissars per soldiers than most regiments. This is becuase they're recruited from the local militia and have thus been trained in a not strictly imperial organisation. Oranda is also a death world/industrial world, deep dark forests broken only by mining communities defended by their own local militia, massive poverty and so on. All under a noble caste that lives in the only few real cities there are.

Basically they're (well going to be) empire militia with john bull hats and lasguns. They are also more infantery based than tank based, Oranda produce raw materials not war materials.