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Im trying to get an idea on something to do here. I know that when a regement is below fighting strength, it will be combined with another regement, to form one back up at full strength. What im looking for though, is how common is it? Im currently collecting DKoK, but i want to expand the army beyond what ive allready got, and i dont want to spend as much as i allready have. From Fluff it seems that other regements dont trust the Death Korps, so im wondering if anyone even would fight beside them, and then, who would be most likely.

Imperial Guard regiments can fight alongside any other loyal regiment, it's not like they have a choice when the commissar orders them to combine!

I think it's pretty rare. The codex even says something about how rare it is, I think

I wanted to do a cadian/steel legion army (since there aren't enough steel legion guys for everything), but just decided on a pure cadian army, since Steel Legion are a little expensive...

Guard has its orders, choice is for weaklings!

Generally the departo munitorum tries to combine somehow similar Regiments, as supporting a mixed regiment eats up more ressources.

The IG fields a lot of different units alongside and your army does not need to consist of just 1 regiment at all.
Some regiments specialize, so why not field the regiments as Rgt A = infantry , Rgt B = tanks, Rgt C = transports, Rgt D = artillery, .....
I don't see a reason to have a 'combined platoon' if you can field a 'combined force of different RGt' instead.

The Death Korps may receive distrust as they tend to 'die happy' where the other guys prefer to live.
Therefore Id keep the Death Korps separate and add platoons/squads of other Regiments without combining them.

-mixed platoons of infantry
-mixed squadrons of vehicles
-multiple pure platoons of infantry
-multiple pure squadrons of vehicles

Well, actually in the codex it tells you that combining under-strength regiments is quite common. In the fluff box under the Valkyrie entry in the IG codex, it mentions how an Elysian company and a Catachan regiment merged together during a campaign to create a jungle fighting aerial combat specialist regiment.

Also, it mentions in IA5 I think that combined regiments of Death Korps and any other regiment generally causes tensions due to the Death Korps officers being too extreme.

So, yes! Combined regiments do happen, and it is fairly commonplace for it to happen, and there could be many reasons for it, some examples:

A Commissar-General commanding the army in a campaign has several understrength companies of varying regiments under his command, he decides to combine them into a new regiment and continue fighting.

An inquisitor has inducted multiple regiments into his cause, they now fight as one new regiment.

After a long campaign, two regiments merge to form the new PDF of a planet they just liberate.

Etc.etc.

as others said it does happen, but it is meant to serve a purpose, and i wouldn't combine more than two or three regiments since i think when it gets to be more than that it can really become an issue as all those different cultures have trouble working together.

now that would be different if the army is lead by an Inquisitor or some powerful force which goes above the normal Imperial command chain and so almost seems to transend culture issues by claiming command by the emperor.

My primary guard regiment is Tallarn. I started it when you still got ten metal guys in a box, and Tallarns only had autocannons. If you wanted other heavy weapons you had to get them in whatever flavor they made. I decided early to use no Valhallans. I just can't imagine the idiocy of a desert nomad in robes running around next to fur parka'd arctic troops. I found that Cadians and Catachans can be painted very nicely in desert colors and look fine with my Tallarns.
They did eventually make most weapons for Tallarns but I do still have a couple Mordian mortar squads painted like USMC dress blues
Cadians would be fine to field with your Kriegers. They are the most vanilla IG, just dudes in flak armor so the models can really represent any type of troops you say they are

It's not rare afaik, they just try to ensure that the regiments are from the same world.

But if it's not possible, then they will merge more "alien" combinations.

It would be pretty difficult for it to be a rare occurence considering the fact that a regiment is never reinforced... So casualties aren't replaced. Thus, regiments would be forced to merge once they became too weak to fight as single entities.

You could also use your DKoK as Veterans and Cadians as regular guard. Your vets may have different/better uniforms as they could represent special forces.

A friend of mine combined a bunch of cadian and catachan minis he picked up from auctions into one army and used his catachans as penal legions.

1hadhq wrote: Guard has its orders, choice is for weaklings!

Generally the departo munitorum tries to combine somehow similar Regiments, as supporting a mixed regiment eats up more ressources.

The IG fields a lot of different units alongside and your army does not need to consist of just 1 regiment at all.
Some regiments specialize, so why not field the regiments as Rgt A = infantry , Rgt B = tanks, Rgt C = transports, Rgt D = artillery, .....
I don't see a reason to have a 'combined platoon' if you can field a 'combined force of different RGt' instead.

The Death Korps may receive distrust as they tend to 'die happy' where the other guys prefer to live.
Therefore Id keep the Death Korps separate and add platoons/squads of other Regiments without combining them.

-mixed platoons of infantry
-mixed squadrons of vehicles
-multiple pure platoons of infantry
-multiple pure squadrons of vehicles

1hadhq has the jist of it down.

Basically:
The Munitorium, whenever possible, will only combine regiments that can benefit each other.
Best example I can give you is from "His Last Command", and the Tanith's merge with the Belladon 81st Recon. The two were both stealth oriented and light infantry.

So really, the best way to have DKoK combined with another regiment is, say, Kriegers operating alongside an Armored Regiment or another "siege" regiment.