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what would be in a standard imperial guard company

There is no standard in the Imperial Guard, that is one of the nice things about it. Companies from different planets or systems look so different that sometimes you wouldn't recognize them as part of the same war machinery. Think of straight, brave, cadian guardsmen...of gung-ho catachan jungle fighters...of parade-ground sharp mordian guard...the drug-stimulated scum from the savlar chem-dogs...

...if you can imagine a regiment, there is a good chance it will fit somewhere in the 40k galaxy.


Apart from that: Wikipedia has some nice articles about military structures and organization, if you're looking for today's approach.

thanks , I was looking on where to start to look for what is in the company so I can make a complete one

I have been trying to piece this together myself. I believe the `standard' Infantry Company is something like this:

Company Command
3+ Infantry Platoons
1 Heavy Weapons Platoon

Infantry Platoons have a Platoon Command Squad and 6 Infantry Squad, each Infantry Squad containing a Sergeant, eight Lasguns (one with a Vox-Caster) and one Special Weapon. The Heavy Weapons Platoon contains a Platoon Command Squad and ten Heavy Weapon Teams. Each Command Squad has a Chimera. There may be an attached Scout Squad (3-9 Sentinels). There will usually be an attached Commissar, sometimes more than one. Auxilleries (eg Ratlings, Ogryn, etc) may be attached, but are separate to the Infantry Company. A Mechanised Company is basically the same, but everyone has Chimeras.

I believe an Armoured Company is something like 10-20 tanks (I am not sure on the number), of which one is a command tank, and there may be an attached Commissar tank. An Artillery Company is of similar numbers. A Super Heavy Company is made of 1-3 Super Heavy Tanks.

I have heard of other kinds of Companies, but I have not yet found the fluff that details what they actually are.

Looked it up a few minutes ago and thought I'd give you real life examples:

A British rifle company consists of three platoons and a company HQ. Their platoons consist of 27 men with one junior officer and one heavy weapon (mostly a mortar).

Warhammer 40,000 implementation:

HQ
CCS

Troops
1st platoon
- PCS (with mortar)
- Squad 1-1
- Squad 1-2
- Squad 1-3 (if you take it, you have 35 men, if you won't take it, you got 25 men. The 27 men of the British variant are not able to get with the IG FOC.)

2nd platoon
- PCS (with mortar)
- Squad 2-1
- Squad 2-2
- Squad 2-3 (if you take it, you have 35 men, if you won't take it, you got 25 men. The 27 men of the British variant are not able to get with the IG FOC.)

3rd platoon
- PCS (with mortar)
- Squad 3-1
- Squad 3-2
- Squad 3-3 (if you take it, you have 35 men, if you won't take it, you got 25 men. The 27 men of the British variant are not able to get with the IG FOC.)

This comes, in its basic version, out to 255pts (without 3rd squad) or 405pts (with 3rd squad). If you adapt them to be more versatile by adding missile launchers or something like that, you can easily have a 500pts rifle company ready for game.

The US Army or USMC approach with a heavy weapons platoon is another way. Basically CCS + 3 rifle platoons (more or less like above) and one weapons platoon (minimum infantry squads and maximum heavy weapon squads). Gets a bit more expensive, though.

Thank you all it is a great start. I already have 1 hq plus 7 squads 1 vet , storm troopers. In the build right now 4 mortar teams, 4 lascannon teams ,3 autocannon , 4 heavy bolter , 3 missile teams,3 sentinals in the build right now 5 lemam russ varaints are yet to be decided help on this would be nice. Also working on 4 chimera's and I also have 1 hellhound varient undecide as of right now.
Also going to add an attachment of rough riders.

Given that Marines have 10 squads of 10 in a company, and the imperium tends to follow similar strutures for a lot of it's formations, I'd imagine IG companies to number at least 10 squads, plus command and heavy weapons.

The old 2nd edition codex seemed to like 3 platoons of three squads each as a standard building block.

We do know that a full regiment is roughly 3000men, so companies are probably bigger than we think, but that's also for infantry regiments, which are usually little more than footsloggers. Mechanized formations generally are half sized, with the transport replacing every other squad.

Well for american... a light infantry company has 3 line platoons and an HQ platoon. Each line platoon has 4 squads, 3 line squads and 1 heavy weapons squad (2 medium machineguns and 2 anti-tank gunners). Then a mortar section of 2 mortars in the HQ platoon. So the line platoons have about 36-40 guys and the hq platoon has however many it takes to do the admin/mortar job. This of course if the world was perfect.

A tank company has 16 tanks. 4 platoons of 4. Again in a perfect world...

As for 40k... I just finished Gunheads, can't remember the author, but it said that there were 10 tanks per tank company in the cadian tank regiment. And 5 infantry platoons in a infantry company. The Commissar Cain series also mentions 5 platoons for an infantry company as well iirc. I don't remember seeing anything about the distribution of heavy weapons though.

The 3rd edition Guard codex showed what one of the cadian ones looked like

Polonius wrote:Given that Marines have 10 squads of 10 in a company, and the imperium tends to follow similar strutures for a lot of it's formations, I'd imagine IG companies to number at least 10 squads, plus command and heavy weapons.

The old 2nd edition codex seemed to like 3 platoons of three squads each as a standard building block.

We do know that a full regiment is roughly 3000men, so companies are probably bigger than we think, but that's also for infantry regiments, which are usually little more than footsloggers. Mechanized formations generally are half sized, with the transport replacing every other squad.

This would be the assumption, but it's not necessarily correct. While most Companies are around 100 strong, this is by no means the sole single structure for the Guard. Regiments and Companies follow no standard 'Imperial' size template. They can number from 1000 men to 5000 to more. There -is- no real limit on the size of a Regiment in 40K. Which means that Company size would vary immensely as well. The factors that determine size are really a world's population, tech grade, Production capabilities, etc... So what might be standard for the Cadians would by no means be standard for, say, the Harakoni.

Oh, I get that. I was just saying that it's unlikely any IG company, at full strength, would be less than 100men.

Nearly all 40k IG armies represent companies from the probably upper 10% of regiments in terms of training and equipment.

I think the closest we can come to standard template is to see what the Cadians do, as they're pretty much the most basic high end regiment that the codex draws from.

Yeah, the fluff varies immensely, as does organisation.

As i remember, in the 2ed Codex it was 5 platoons of 3 infantry squads and 2 HQ to a company. A regiment was then around 5 companies.

Imperial Guard works on a regimental system. The idea is that 'One Regiment' is always the same strength, so a regiment of light infantry should be 'as powerful' as a regiment of tanks, or a regiment of rough riders. This means that one regiment might have ten thousand troops, poorly armoured and equipped, with no special weapons. Another might have three thousand highly equipped heavy infantry. They'd both be considered 'standard' regiments.

Compare Gaunt's Ghosts with, say, Chenkov's Tundra Wolves....

The actual organisation is up for dispute as well. In the early Gaunt's Ghosts books, the only organisational unit i ever remember being mentioned was the Platoon, never the individual squad, or the Company. I remember mention of them having around 20-30 platoons, maybe more (at one point, they mention that this is the first time they've fallen below 25 platoons). The Platoons seems to be lead by sergeants. Later on, when they merged with the Belladon and took on their command structure, the regiment was organised into companies, consisting of individual squads, but platoons were never mentioned. It seems that they had ten to fifteen companies, each led by a Captain or Major.

It all seems very fluid...

I like to base it off my line company from my days in the service:

4 platoons, approx 48 men in each with a company command squad containing the company commander, the first sergeant (standard bearer or special weapon dude) and a few adjutants.

The company maintains its own motorpool of transports, as well as support assets such as heavy weapons and logistical support. Heavier armor and weaponry comes from battalion/regimental sources, or even divisional stockpiles if need be. That would include all tanks, ordinance batteries, and aerial craft.