Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I want to get into the IG to help with making a regiment, so I thought, "What better way than to read some books?"

The question is, where do I start? I've seen lots of people reccomend Gaunt's Ghosts in general for 40k. I also heard of Caphais Cain, though it seems from my impressions that it's more of a cop movie, "I tried to get out, but they keep pulling me back in" type of thing, which isn't a bad thing, but maybe not useful for my purposes. Though I feel like I may end up just going with Cadians.

The only BL books I have are Prospero Burns and the Enforcer Omnibus and I've only just started Prospero and haven't touched Enforcer.

yeah gaunts ghosts is great but its a long series, i really enjoyed gunheads and fifteen hours, those are both stand alones, ones about leman russ tankers and the other is about a kid who joined the infantry from his world.

If your looking for inspiration for a guard army pick up the 2 guard omnibus (the second one isnt called 'the guard omnibus no.2' for some reason instead its called hammer of the emperor or something similar). These are great for inspiration because they don't follow the same guys for 9 or so books (Gaunt's Ghosts is a great series but will only make you want a tanith regiment which is impractical and expensive) but focus on a lot of varied regiments.
I'd also suggest cadian blood and dead men walking, which are both really good looks at the cadian and DKoK.

Portaljacker wrote:So I want to get into the IG to help with making a regiment, so I thought, "What better way than to read some books?"

The question is, where do I start? I've seen lots of people recommend Gaunt's Ghosts in general for 40k. I also heard of Caphais Cain, though it seems from my impressions that it's more of a cop movie, "I tried to get out, but they keep pulling me back in" type of thing, which isn't a bad thing, but maybe not useful for my purposes. Though I feel like I may end up just going with Cadians.

The only BL books I have are Prospero Burns and the Enforcer Omnibus and I've only just started Prospero and haven't touched Enforcer.

What exactly are you looking for in terms of fluff? How they'd be organized or anything like that?

If that's the case then you may want to go beyond just the "novels". Look for "The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer"(either the standard or the Damocles Gulf edition), the "Departmento Munitorum Manual".

Both are awesome pieces of background and organization/training for the Guard.

Forge World's "Imperial Armour" books are also a good way to find some background information, and Volume 11 will be showcasing the Cadians within. It's not even on preorder yet, so don't know when that comes out.

When it comes down to novels though...
1)"Cadian Blood" by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. Top place when it comes to a "standard" regiment. Gaunt's Ghosts are just as good, if not better, but they're also a huge series with 4 different story arcs.
2) "Gunheads". It's got tanks, it's got Cadians, and it's got Orks. Can't go wrong
3)"Fifteen Hours". Think of it as "All Quiet on the Western Front"--but with Orks in lieu of the Allies. It's a generally depressing and bleak novel, and captures the spirit of the Guard perfectly.

The Horus Heresy novels don't really do much description that would benefit you creating an "Imperial Army"(the precursor to the Imperial Guard) force.

Dead Men Walking is easily the darkest and bleakest of all BL novels.

Not really. The Death Korps don't see it as "dark or bleak", and willingly accept death in the service of the Emperor.

In "Fifteen Hours", they're doing everything they can to avoid death.

Kanluwen wrote:Not really. The Death Korps don't see it as "dark or bleak", and willingly accept death in the service of the Emperor.

In "Fifteen Hours", they're doing everything they can to avoid death.

The Death Korp might not see it as dark or bleak but the book isn't from their perspective...
It is from the perspective of people trying to survive.

purplefood wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Not really. The Death Korps don't see it as "dark or bleak", and willingly accept death in the service of the Emperor.

In "Fifteen Hours", they're doing everything they can to avoid death.

The Death Korp might not see it as dark or bleak but the book isn't from their perspective...
It is from the perspective of people trying to survive.

Irrelevant.

In "Dead Men Walking", it's meant to more show that the Death Korps are just as alien to the average Imperial citizen as the Necrons are.

"Fifteen Hours" was all about a completely untenable situation, no chance for escape, no chance for resupply, no chance for anything but a brutal death at the hands of Orks.

Kanluwen wrote:

purplefood wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Not really. The Death Korps don't see it as "dark or bleak", and willingly accept death in the service of the Emperor.

In "Fifteen Hours", they're doing everything they can to avoid death.

The Death Korp might not see it as dark or bleak but the book isn't from their perspective...
It is from the perspective of people trying to survive.

Irrelevant.

In "Dead Men Walking", it's meant to more show that the Death Korps are just as alien to the average Imperial citizen as the Necrons are.

"Fifteen Hours" was all about a completely untenable situation, no chance for escape, no chance for resupply, no chance for anything but a brutal death at the hands of Orks.

Fair enough but i think the point of Dead Men Walking is to show that to save humanity some must give up what makes them human and even then they still lose.
Fifteen Hours was showing just how brutal war could be and how even if you exceed expectations you are still gonna die.
They are both bleak but in different ways.

An excellent literary analysis, chap.

*monocle highfive*

Kanluwen wrote:An excellent literary analysis, chap.

*monocle highfive*

Woot!
@OP If you want to read up on the grimdark stuff Fifteen Hours and Dead Men Walking is the way to go.
If you want normalish IG fluff then Gaunt's Ghosts and sme stuff from the IG series like Cadian Blood or Gunheads.
If you want some funny IG stuff look up the Cain series...

Echoing the love for the Uplifting Primer.

The Munitorum Manual was good but had some voice issues (they spend half of the book threatening heresy with death and the second half engaging it it, a better choice would have been a "two-voice text": have the official manual done straight with the heretical side comments inserted via marginalia by a munitions officer of obviously less pious disposition than the manual's authors).

Fifteen Hours shows what it's like for your average Guardsman, no heroic dynamic figures and complicated scenarios. I recommend that.

The fluff nazi in me gets annoyed when people take Fifteen Hours as the typical way the guard works.

Cain's books are good fun but they are mostly centered around the adventures of the protagonist who spends a lot of time away from the main body of his regiment. Good reads but a bad place to look for the Guard experience.

Harriticus wrote:Fifteen Hours shows what it's like for your average Guardsman, no heroic dynamic figures and complicated scenarios. I recommend that.

Like Raxmei, I find it irksome when people say that "Fifteen Hours shows what it's like for your average Guardsman".

Nothing about "Fifteen Hours" is meant to represent an 'average situation'. It was entirely the result of a blip in the deployment orders. None were supposed to be sent to that warzone, that area was a "lost cause"--which is even explained in the book, almost every time "reinforcements are sent" it's by complete accident.

It's not even the just the warzone, his experience start to finish was atypical. Guard regiments are typically skimmed off the PDF while the new guy's regiment in Fifteen Hours was almost entirely new recruits with a small number of cadre having served in the PDF. The planet's governor must have suddenly gotten word that he was expected to tithe much more than he thought he was. The more typical experience would be a PDF trooper who has served for a few months or years getting his unit chosen for the tithe, and then he would go off and fight alongside the rest of his unit. We didn't get that in Fifteen Hours because it doesn't give us the fish out of water that the story wanted. Then, as mentioned, it was an exceptionally dysfunctional war zone that he got stuck in. That again was necessary for story purposes.

I want to try making an army of more platoons rather than veterans if I can (not sure how well it plays). I like the idea of the masses of flashlights shooting down my enemies. Will any of the books here or not mentioned help me out with ideas for that?

Also besides planet (I feel like I'll probably end up with Cadia in the end, mostly for ease of modeling), how do you figure out which regiment(s?) to chose for labeling your guys as? For Space Wolves it's so easy since there's only 12 choices to make.

Most regiments are based on the Cadian regiments in style and weaponry.
I don't really think many novels reflect the build you're looking for...
Most of them focus on a veteran regiment and although they still have platoons they are full of experienced soldiers not newish recruits.

Kanluwen wrote:

Harriticus wrote:Fifteen Hours shows what it's like for your average Guardsman, no heroic dynamic figures and complicated scenarios. I recommend that.

Like Raxmei, I find it irksome when people say that "Fifteen Hours shows what it's like for your average Guardsman".

Nothing about "Fifteen Hours" is meant to represent an 'average situation'. It was entirely the result of a blip in the deployment orders. None were supposed to be sent to that warzone, that area was a "lost cause"--which is even explained in the book, almost every time "reinforcements are sent" it's by complete accident.

Ditto, and well said, Kan.

Just read gaunt's ghosts