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I was also under the impression that planets had a fair amount of leeway with regards to how guard regiments are raised, and even what they look like. It's the Munitorum's job to take this nonsense and straighten it out somewhat. Even then, the idea of a "regiment" is a pretty loose structure. The Munitorum just wants to know how much combat power they're sending in, not the specifics of how that power is delivered.

I mean, you look at the old guard codex, and they talk about raising regiments from feral worlds where they just swoop in and kidnap a bunch of spear-wielding savages and throw them onto the front. With more civilized worlds, the regiments are extremely diverse, because they come from diverse planets. This implies that the Munitorum has little control.

As such, how they get guardsmen is dependent by-planet. In the case of my guardsmen's home planet, indentured servitude is the most common labor structure, and joining the guard is practically the only way someone can get their debts excused. The choice of practical slavery vs. risk that ends in freedom is an appealing option. That and the military plays an important role on the planet, and officers running up the ranks in the guard can short-cut their career path at home.

How about just kicking criminals off the planet?
Depending on their crimes they won't need many training, no one will miss them and they die just like regualr guardsmen.

Criminals don't always make good soldiers. Lack of discipline and all.

Besides, they already do that with the penal legions.

Melissia wrote:Besides, they already do that with the penal legions.

I thought the penal legions were recruitred from within the Imperial Guard itself, not as criminals from the hives?

The penal legions are recruited from penal worlds, which are basically entire worlds dedicated to punishing criminals.

From lexicanum:

A Penal World is a class of Imperial world used entirely as a military-prison planet. A single such world's population consists of criminals from hundreds of different worlds. They tend to be barren worlds that have few other uses. Military formations are then raised from among the population as necessary, to serve as Penal Legion troops within Imperial Guard regiments. There they may earn redemption through service, which is for life.

After the planet form Regiment, do the planet pays training, logistics, equipment, transportation and wages - or the Imperium does?

And do the Guard regiments have some special rule for including strangers into their Regiment ( like including Cadian to Elysian Regiment ) or they all merge with another Regiment if fall to much in manpower?

The Departmento Munitorum pays for the Imperial Guard's equipment.

Melissia wrote:The Departmento Munitorum pays for the Imperial Guard's equipment.

So the answer would be the Imperium in general?

Some homeworlds go the extra mile for their recruits though, like Vostroya.

Melissia wrote:From lexicanum:

Eh, I just remember the Guard Codex saying something about how capital criminals are given the option to join the Penal Legion. I also believe in Taro Campaign, it said something about the commanding officers failure being enough to send them to the penal legions.

However it does make sense that they would have other recruits besides washed out Guardsmen.

Brother Coa wrote:After the planet form Regiment, do the planet pays training, logistics, equipment, transportation and wages - or the Imperium does?

And do the Guard regiments have some special rule for including strangers into their Regiment ( like including Cadian to Elysian Regiment ) or they all merge with another Regiment if fall to much in manpower?

There is a piece about this in the codex. Often it isn't adviced, because of the cultural differences. However sometimes it's necessary to combine two regiments from different world. It's possible to combine regiments from the same world, tha doesn't give much trouble.

Melissia wrote:

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:Considering that the PDF wouldn't actually have any combat experience in most circumstances

bs.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

Only the luckiest of the PDF wouldn't have any experience. Sure the Guard on average has MORE, but some PDF are better equipped than the Guard, and some are more experienced... a rare few are both.

"There is only war" is more of a tagline commenting on the mood or theme of the fluff, not a literal statement. War is, by all appearances, rarer than it is on Earth today. All your average PDF soldier is likely to have seen is a few ill-armed rioters, at most. Most of the fluff focuses on warzones, because most of the fluff is about acid-drooling mutants whose existence revolves around killing things, and there's no reason for them to be anywhere but a warzone.

ChrisWWII wrote:Eh, I just remember the Guard Codex saying something about how capital criminals are given the option to join the Penal Legion. I also believe in Taro Campaign, it said something about the commanding officers failure being enough to send them to the penal legions.

However it does make sense that they would have other recruits besides washed out Guardsmen.

There are civilian penal legions - generally citizens will be sentenced to serve a certain period before being returned to society (though possibly not to the planet they came from). They can also serve "until death" - depending on their crimes and so on (this is seen in one of the "Last Chancer" books).

Military penal legions tend to be formed either "on the fly" as people are sentenced to service during a campaign, or are formed from inmates of penal colonies. The death sentence may be carried out instead, depending on the crime, the judge and the situation (such as being in the field, or being out of the line), etc (both of these are seen in one of the "Last Chancer" books).

Semi-penal legions are also formed in times of crisis where training, re-training and punishment units (where soldiers who are unfit in some way, new recruits picked up on the go (such as children of guardsmen who reach recruitment age) and soldiers on punishment) are essentially marched off to the front line and treated as a semi-penal legion (seen in one of the First and Only books).

Because of the large nature of the Imperium (and how many different people have written fluff for it over time) the ways and means vary significantly.