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Was looking at my army list i've built with things like riptides and battlesuits and was wondering if my army was getting unbalanced (more high ranks than low ranks) however I was pleased to see it was spread pretty well.

In my 1000pt army i have...

Shas'O - 1 (Shadowsun)
Shas'Vre - 2 (Riptide and Crisis Leader)
Shas'Ui - 2 (Crisis and Broadside suits)
Shas'La - 29 (Firewarriors, Pathfinder and Longstrike)

It was interesting and fun to learn this about my army so I'd like to hear how your army is distributed?

I believe for marines it would be laid out something like this but I may be wrong...

Chapter Master/Captain -
Command Retinue -
Veterans -
Sergeants -
Tac. Marines -
Scouts -

That's an interesting thing to look at in your army. For marines it's a little more detailed than what you put.

It should be more like:
Chapter Master
Captain
Alternate Command (Librarian/Chaplains)
Veteran Sergeants
Veterans
Sergeants
Marines (Devestator/Tactical/Assault)
Scouts

Imperial Guard- Varies by Regiment. Typically you have more modern western military ranks.

What you mean?

Personal Army fluff? Fluff per army organization? what?

for vanilla Marines it's hard to really do this, the closest you could come following a standard CAD is taking 2 chapter masters and 3 dreadnoughts.

I have a Captain leading a 1 platoon company.

The platoon has a Lieutenant to lead it and every squads, be it Engineers, Grenadiers or Guardsmen have Watchmasters to lead them.

Technically, the 1 platoon-company thing shouldn't happen, but they got extra artillery support and veterans troopers in other squads to fill up the space.

On the side, there's a Commissar-General and a Quartermaster attached to the company.

I have, in my tank company:
Company Commander
3x Squadron Commander
6x Squadron Tanks

In my Adeptus Mechanicus army:
1 Archmagos Prime Archimandrite
1 Magos Prime Macrotek
1 Magos Dominus Cybernetica (allied)
3 Magos Auxilia
1 Tech-Adept
16 servitors
2 Castellaxi (1 allied)
1 Vorax

 Engine of War wrote:
What you mean?

Personal Army fluff? Fluff per army organization? what?

Just wondering how many individual men (or women) you have in each rank of your 40k army list?

So break it down for marines maybe like this...

 CrashCanuck wrote:

Chapter Master
Captain
Alternate Command (Librarian/Chaplains)
Veteran Sergeants
Veterans
Sergeants
Marines (Devestator/Tactical/Assault)
Scouts

and count out how many of each you have in your army list.

so for example in mine I have 1 Shas'O (commander), 2 Shas'Vre (Hero), 2 Shas'Ui (Veteran) and 29 Shas'La (Warriors)

Every list I make is different, so my results vary. The last list I made for for a 2.5k ~apoc game.

1 Chapter Master
1 Captain
3 Veteran Sergeants
13 Veterans
4 Sergeants
32 Marines
7 vehicles, including one dreadnought.

Necron Lord
(the rest)

My 1750 point Guard list has...

1 Captain
2 Lieutenants
1 Astropath
7 Sergeants
78 Guardsmen (three piloting vehicles)
8 attached Naval personnel piloting four vehicles
5 Abhuman Auxilia
5 Sanctioned Psykers

...and, of course, 1 Commissar to keep the above in line. With varying degrees of success.

Well, given that some have adaptable ranks, I am currently with the following:

2 Shas'o-Enforcer and Ralai
Shas'el-Darkstrider
Shas'vre-riptide (unassembled)
13 Shas'ui/Shas'vre-8 crisis, 3 stealth and 2 broadside suits, they are USUALLY shas'ui
2 Shas'ui/Shas'la-the designated fire warriors team leaders who are sometimes just fire warriors
30 Shas'la-22 fire warriors and 8 tetra pathfinders. (2 per tetra)
3 unknown-2 hammerhead pilots and a devilfish pilot.
XX unranked-an assortment of drones (lost track of how many I got floating around of each type)

Others:
10 Auxiliary-a kroot squad (who never entire the field, I dislike them)
5 prisoners (I have 5 DA guys who came with the DV paint kit, my tau follows mostly a DA color scheme so it was a good kit for me just for paints.)

So, I got a good base of rank-and-file, an impressive number of "more than recruits" guys (even considering the crisis and broadside rarely see the table) and some commanders. I think I'm doing fine, and it even makes sense fluff-wise in these numbers.

 BoomWolf wrote:
3 unknown-2 hammerhead pilots and a devilfish pilot.

I believe tank drivers are Shas'la as Longstrike's name is Shas'la T'au Sha'ng

 CrashCanuck wrote:
That's an interesting thing to look at in your army. For marines it's a little more detailed than what you put.

It should be more like:
Chapter Master
Captain, Cheif Librarian, Master of the Forge, Master of Sanctity, Honour Guard
Alternate Command (Librarian, Chaplain, Techmarine, Venerable Dreadnought, Dreadnought)
Veteran Sergeants
Sergeants including Scout Sergeants
Veterans and Company Champion
Marines (all are equal on paper but in practicality Tacticals would outrank Assaults would outrank Devs).
Scouts
Initiates (not yet scouts but deemed worthy to begin procedures as soon as possible)
Aspirants (potentials)
Chapter Serfs
Servitors

With appropriate editing its now a close representation of how it should look for Marines.


Orks iz easy


Da Boss
Da Nobs
Da Boyz
Da Grotz
Da Squigz
Da Snotlingz

In the last 2000 point game I played, I had:

Commanders:
(1) Captain
(1) Chaplain

Veterans (terminators):
(1) Veteran Sgt
(4) Veteran Marines
(1) Dreadnought

Regulars (tactical, bike, and devastator squads):
(5) Sergeants
(39) Marines

Vehicles:
(3) Rhinos
(1) Land Raider
(1) Stormraven Gunship
(7) Vehicle crewmembers (according to Lexicanum's info - apparently SM vehicles run with a very lean crew count)

Auxiliaries:
(1) Thunderfire Cannon
(1) Techmarine gunner


Pretty good distribution, does seem like there is an overall chain of command, and there seems to be a reasonable level of equipment supporting the 50 fighting men. Each Sergeant is commanding 5 to 10 marines and their transport (be it bikes or tanks), and the Captain has overall command of about 10 distinct units. The Chaplain is there for moral support, of course

This was a fairly fluffy list, but my more competitive lists are not so different (they're just a bit more spammy).

My standard 1850pt IG would have:
1 Captain
1 Commissar
2 Priests
2 Lieutenants
6 Sergeants + 7 vehicle commanders (let's call them sergeants for now)
66 Guardsmen
40 Conscripts

My 1850 AirCav has:
1 Colonel (Straken himself)
1 Major
1 Priest
5 Veteran Sergeants + 6 vehicle commanders
44 Veteran Guardsmen

Good to see all the responses, looks like its pretty difficult to make an army list that isn't mildly realistic in this perspective.

You guys have LOADS of guardsman!

Taffy17 wrote:


You guys have LOADS of guardsman!

That's the whole idea with the Guard

Your thread got me thinking about the other armies I run:

Windrider-themed Eldar:
1 Farseer
2 Warlocks
2 Exarchs
9 other Aspect Warriors
22 Guardians (not including vehicle crew)
8 other vehicle commanders

Foot & Ranger Eldar:
1 Illic
1 Farseer
2 Wraithlords
5 Exarchs
26 other aspect warriors
25 Snipers

Thousand Sons w Daemon allies:
1 Ahriman
1 Lord of Change
2 Aspiring Sorcerers
16 Thousand Sons rubric marines (not including vehicle crew)
10 Pink Horrors
4 vehicle commanders
2 daemonic vehicle commanders

Hmm...

approx. 60,000+ (that's 4 0's and its only an estimate)

High Command: (CCS that only appears in really big Apoc, with vet guards)
1 Commander (technically me, but I recently made a model for him)
1 Magos
1 Lord Commissar.

2 Colonels (CCS)
2 Majors (PCS)

1 Knight Pilot. (Major)

7 Baneblade Commanders. (3 Baneblades, 2 Shadowswords, 1 Banehammer, 1 Stormblade) (usually Captain or Major if commanding an armored grounp)

slightly lower ranked SHV commanders (3 Macharius, 4 Malcador) lieutenant's

1 CRASSUS commander ( lieutenant)

2 Tech Preists.

2 10 man Scion squads with lieutenant squad leaders

LR tanks (23 of them, of of many different varients) Most are ranked Sargent but squadron leaders are Lieutenant

Artillery commanders are ranked Sargent.

multiple sergeants and many many guardsmen.... I need to count them all.


I think I've lost count.... Generally the top 3 are the main command with CCS being above the Baneblades and then PCS then everything else with the tanks (biggest to smallest) then the troops. the Knight is in there somewhere..... and at the very top beyond High command is the Ad Mech in general.

My IG -

Lord-General (CCS)
General (PCS)
Colonel (Rougher Rider Squad 1)
Lieutenant-Colonel (Rough Rider Squad 2)
Major (Veteran Squad)
Major (Veteran Squad)
Captain (Veteran Squad)
Captain (Veteran Squad)
Lieutenant (Squad)
2nd Lieutenant (Squad)

3k apoc list I'm dying to try

Daemons -

Warlord - Ku'Gath

2nd in command (i.e. Quite happy to kill Ku'Gath himself so he can take over) - Skarbrand

"General level type" - Bloodthirster

"More important than the filth below but less important than the gits above" Skulltaker and Herald of Nurgle

"Sort of important" - Decimator Daemon Engine

"Also sort of important" - 6 x Bloodcrushers

"Too many to not be important" - 40 x Bloodletters and 30 x Plaguebearers

"Fast guys who are too quick to be told off" - 16 x Flesh Hounds and 1 × Blight Drone

"Heavy Hitters. Point them at the enemy and tell them they stole their cookies" - 2 x Winged Daemon Princes and 1 x Spined Chaos Beast


Rank and number is important to Daemons you know...

1 Chapter Master
3 Honour Guard, 7 Captains (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10), 1 Chapter Champion, 1 Ironclad Dreadnought
1 Librarian, 1 Chaplain
1 Colonel (Tank Commander title)
1 Terminator Sergeant
1 Veteran Sergeant, 3 Command Squad Veterans, 1 Apothecary, 4 Terminators
3 Sergeants, 1 Scout Sergeant, several tanks whose commanders rank here
18 Tactical Marines
4 Assault Marines
4 Devastators
4 Scouts

Grey Knights
Lord Kaldor Draigo
1 Venerable Dreadnought.
1 Dreadknight with Paladin pilot
10 Paladins
1 Knight of the Flame, 1 Terminator Justicar, 1 Interceptor Justicar
4 Purifiers, 4 Terminators, 4 Interceptors

Why is that post the exact opposite of the OP? Like he is obviously not completely in love with space marines, but he also has a very accurate picture of how they work, whereas you seem to have applied no critical faculties at all to the information he gave, which is very much a synthesis of data as condensed by tier.

The /entire use/ is to produce a ratio that can be compared across armies. In science it is almost something that would be literally called unitless. He specifically eliminated the type of information that you have gone to lengths to provide. He has squad leaders and members of elite squads as parts if the same number, junior officers and special operatives also combined. That is how tau work, and it is how space marines have worked for decades before tau existed.

What you have are

Major heroes - 8

Heroes - 7

Champions - 11

Marines - 34


What he has are

Mighty heroes - 1

Heroes - 0 (Shas'el? *)

Champions - 4

Warriors - 29


This is /why librarian ranks exist./ This is a marine thing.

*i know that shas'vre and other ranks have literal translations including "hero."