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Wow, lots of alliteration in the end there. Anyway, a possibly stupid question, but I'm still catching up on fluff-most of what I know has been filtered through friends and quick wiki browsing. But I was curious-why are the Sisters of Battle the only human army with women fighters? I'm sure there's some business reasoning or another behind the scenes, but is there any reason from the fluff? Or is nothing stopping me from attempting to kitbash together an army of girls besides some patience and tracking down the proper mini heads?

It's extremely likely that they aren't the only human female fighting force, but they're probably the only ones widespread enough to get a mention between the millions of Imperial worlds.

The IG has plenty of women in it, they just aren't very well represented on the tabletop. At all. Arbites have women too, I believe. I can't imagine the Imperial Navy doesn't have females fighting in it either.

They aren't. GW is just lazy and so they don't produce the minis for Guard.

Imperial guard, Imperial navy, Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Arbites, Inquisition, and more all have females in them. They just don't really make the models for them on the tabletop but they are there. The 40k universe is an equal opportunity universe everyone is allowed to fight and die a horrible death .

Of course they don't, everyone knows the Guardswomen stay in the back and cook.

Given that human ships in 40K (both warships and otherwise) tend to be large cities in space with engines and guns attached... yeah, there are plenty of women in the Imperial Navy.

What it basically comes down to is that so far as we know, there are only two organizations within the Imperium that are exclusive to one gender or the other - the Space Marines and the Sororitas. Every other organization has members of both sexes - though within the organizations the sexes may be segregated. For instance, most Imperial Guard regiments are either exclusively male or exclusively female. There are mixed regiments, but they're somewhat rare.

Death Cult Assassins seem to be predominately women. IG/Imperial Navy/Arbites/Inquisition have [Mod: less swearing, please] of women in them too.

SoB's are the only all-female human army, just as the Astartes are the only all-male human army.

Eumerin wrote:Given that human ships in 40K (both warships and otherwise) tend to be large cities in space with engines and guns attached... yeah, there are plenty of women in the Imperial Navy.

What it basically comes down to is that so far as we know, there are only two organizations within the Imperium that are exclusive to one gender or the other - the Space Marines and the Sororitas. Every other organization has members of both sexes - though within the organizations the sexes may be segregated. For instance, most Imperial Guard regiments are either exclusively male or exclusively female. There are mixed regiments, but they're somewhat rare.

This isn't entirely true.

Mixed regiments are more common than "exclusively female" regiments.

Many worlds, seemingly, just don't want to loan out their ladyfolk to the Imperial Guard.

And this is why I need to do more catching up on the fluff. Thanks for the quick replies; I have learned something today. (And now have had my interest in the IG piqued.)

Sure women are in the guard, but they dont have models. Which is good because gw would probully give them flak armor bikines. They dont exactly have a sterling reputation with female sculps. Heres looking at you last chancers female soldier.

Qoppa wrote:Wow, lots of alliteration in the end there. Anyway, a possibly stupid question, but I'm still catching up on fluff-most of what I know has been filtered through friends and quick wiki browsing. But I was curious-why are the Sisters of Battle the only human army with women fighters? I'm sure there's some business reasoning or another behind the scenes, but is there any reason from the fluff? Or is nothing stopping me from attempting to kitbash together an army of girls besides some patience and tracking down the proper mini heads?

Nuff said...

Brother Coa wrote:


Nuff said...

Showing a piece of fanart says nothing.

Female IG's wouldn't wear bright make up.......

Kanluwen wrote:Of course they don't, everyone knows the Guardswomen stay in the back and cook.

Spoiler:

That's a joke. They really don't. However, there's becoming more and more hinting at the Inquisition and Imperial Navy are where females that might possibly make it into the Guard are going.

Kanluwen wrote:
Showing a piece of fanart says nothing.

See spoiler...

And we also have Elena Derosa - planetary governor. And in various BL novels we have female Guardswoman in action.
But just like Melissia said - they are to lazy to do female models.

Brother Coa wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:
Showing a piece of fanart says nothing.

See spoiler...

Which you added two minutes after I already called you out.

What's your point?

I should also add that Mira is a Second Lieutenant, and normally would be in charge of a platoon, at most.
If you paid attention to the story in Space Marine, you'd know that she's the highest ranking officer surviving planetside and is only commanding around two hundred men out of the regiment that landed.

ph34r wrote:A source might make people believe you.

No it wouldn't. It'd just be another excuse for another "what's canon and what's not" argument.

But if you must know: Practically every novel we've had lately from 'the good authors' has featured females in Inquisitorial or Naval roles, with mentions of the Guard not necessarily being the best role for these women.

Kanluwen wrote:Mixed regiments are more common than "exclusively female" regiments.

Not according to Cain...

And?

It's Cain. Taking Cain for canonical source material is like believing Brother Coa.

His opinion was supported by Inquisitor Vail, too, so it's a bit more reputable than merely Cain by himself.

No, I'm talking about the books period.

Kanluwen wrote:No, I'm talking about the books period.

At least I had a source.

I think it makes perfect sence that in 40k segregated regiments are more common than mixed regiments, simply because it'd be easier on logistics (similar uniform/armor sizes and shapes, similar medical needs, etc) and morale that way (as well as discipline, I mean, babies anyone?).

Kanluwen wrote:
What's your point?

There are females in the Guard and some of them even have position. That's my point.

I should also add that Mira is a Second Lieutenant, and normally would be in charge of a platoon, at most.
If you paid attention to the story in Space Marine, you'd know that she's the highest ranking officer surviving planetside and is only commanding around two hundred men out of the regiment that landed.

Right, and after all of her superiors got killed she assumed command of Cadian 203'rd. And she will licitly get promotion after the campaign and maybe they will left her in charge of the Regiment. The point is - none objected in her taking of command meaning that Imperium may have female commander elsewhere in the galaxy. And that the Guard in fact have women in charge of the Regiments somewhere in the Imperium.

Melissia wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:No, I'm talking about the books period.

At least I had a source.
I think it makes perfect sence that in 40k segregated regiments are more common than mixed regiments, simply because it'd be easier on logistics and morale that way (as well as discipline, I mean, babies anyone?).

You want sources?

"Cadian Blood" makes mention of a veteran Cadian Regiment that has only ever encountered a single "all female" regiment--yet has fought alongside of women quite a few times before.
"Gunheads" makes mention of the fact that "of course the Cadians had fought alongside women, they were an almost everyday sight within the Cadian regiments and the Interior Guard. There were a few exceptions however of all female Regiments, of which lewd stories were told."
The "Gaunt's Ghosts" novels are what introduced the mixed regiments to the fold, and made it explicit that all female regiments are rare.
The novel "Double Eagle" has the Phantine Sky Corps being a mixed regiment, because "everyone fights".

Those enough sources for you?

Who cares how much command Mira has? Space Marine is the most recent 40k fluff that has come out with relation to mixed regiments or not, and it clearly shows a mixed regiment.

Kanluwen wrote:Taking Cain for canonical source material is like believing Brother Coa.

And what is your point?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Kanluwen wrote:
"Cadian Blood" makes mention of a veteran Cadian Regiment that has only ever encountered a single "all female" regiment--yet has fought alongside of women quite a few times before.
"Gunheads" makes mention of the fact that "of course the Cadians had fought alongside women, they were an almost everyday sight within the Cadian regiments and the Interior Guard. There were a few exceptions however of all female Regiments, of which lewd stories were told."
The "Gaunt's Ghosts" novels are what introduced the mixed regiments to the fold, and made it explicit that all female regiments are rare.
The novel "Double Eagle" has the Phantine Sky Corps being a mixed regiment, because "everyone fights".

Those enough sources for you?

In case you didn't notice we are talking about females in the Guard in general. I don't know what is the point of your argument. Who cares if there are more mixed then single sex Regiments - there are women in the Guard and that's the point.

Brother Coa wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:
What's your point?

There are females in the Guard and some of them even have position. That's my point.

No your point was to try to show me up after I called you out on the fact that, as usual, you posted fanfic to try to support a position. It backfired on you pretty bad though, huh?

I should also add that Mira is a Second Lieutenant, and normally would be in charge of a platoon, at most.
If you paid attention to the story in Space Marine, you'd know that she's the highest ranking officer surviving planetside and is only commanding around two hundred men out of the regiment that landed.

Right, and after all of her superiors got killed she assumed command of Cadian 203'rd. And she will likely get promotion after the campaign and maybe they will left her in charge of the Regiment.

Likely they'd offer her that command, but it's not entirely positive she'd take it. She seems like a career soldier, and too much of a promotion would prevent that from continuing.

The point is - noone objected in her taking of command meaning that Imperium may have female commander elsewhere in the galaxy. And that the Guard in fact have women in charge of the Regiments somewhere in the Imperium.

Noone objecting to her taking command of the Regiment has nothing to do with what happened elsewhere in the galaxy.

The Navy cannot take command of Guard forces, and vice versa. Mira was the only ranking officer. She was in charge.
Add to the fact that it's a Cadian Regiment, and she clearly had been a frontline soldier and you have to the survivors a "perfect situation".

Kanluwen wrote:"Cadian Blood" makes mention of a veteran Cadian Regiment that has only ever encountered a single "all female" regiment--yet has fought alongside of women quite a few times before.
"Gunheads" makes mention of the fact that "of course the Cadians had fought alongside women, they were an almost everyday sight within the Cadian regiments and the Interior Guard. There were a few exceptions however of all female Regiments, of which lewd stories were told."
The "Gaunt's Ghosts" novels are what introduced the mixed regiments to the fold, and made it explicit that all female regiments are rare.
The novel "Double Eagle" has the Phantine Sky Corps being a mixed regiment, because "everyone fights".

Those enough sources for you?

Of course Cadians are that way. That's a culture unique to Cadia (although attempted to reproduce elsewhere no doubt), but Cadia is an elite, unique world. I don't recall anywhere in the GG series where they explicitly stated that all-female regiments were rare. As for double eagle, again, "everyone fights" doesn't necessitate mixed regiments.

Kanluwen wrote:
No your point was to try to show me up after I called you out on the fact that, as usual, you posted fanfic to try to support a position. It backfired on you pretty bad though, huh?

There are pictures of femalle Space marines and I don't use that for cannon stuff
I just posted that to show people that woman CAN be in the Guard ( because some of them thinks they are good just for sex and food ). But it is ok, if you wanted me to post official stuff - you just needed t oask. No point for being so rude...

And my point still was that there ARE females in the Guard, that the Guard is not all-male army like the GW is presenting them.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:It's extremely likely that they aren't the only human female fighting force, but they're probably the only ones widespread enough to get a mention between the millions of Imperial worlds.

Sisters of Battle aren't exactly "widespread", similar to how Space Marines aren't. It's just that both organizations are special enough (primarily due to their symbolic relevance, but also due to what makes them different from other armies) to warrant getting mentioned separately. Gender doesn't really factor into this and is merely mentioned as an aside fact.

In the case of the Imperial Guard, it likely just doesn't get pointed out because it seems to be standard to have men and women serve (for the Imperium as a whole, not necessarily for an individual member world), and it is quite likely there are female-only regiments just like there are male-only regiments and mixed ones. This, however, would only get mentioned when that specific regiment is described, not for the Imperial Guard as a whole.