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The Imperium of Mankind is a vast empire expanding throughout the galaxy, comprising of roughly 1 million worlds. Althought we know that the Space Marine chapters number around 1000, with about one marine for each Imperial planet. And we also know that there are a lot more guardsmen than there are space marines. A lot more. Some planets, in any given annual tithe, will raise hundreds of regiments. Could the Imperium raise 1000 men for every Space marine? More? Are there perhaps even as many regiments as there are Astartes?

So, at any given moment in the Imperium, how many regiments of Imperial Guard are there?

Both Valhallia and Cadia have Regiment with numbr grater than 1000, so go figure...

Yeah personally I think its much much more than 50 million. One time because Im such a nerd I tried to figure out the population of the imperium. Given how insanely densely populated some worlds are and even taking into consideration that some less civilised worlds have populations only in the millions or even hundreds of thousands, I still got numbers that were well into the quadrillions. And if you take the current rate of population growth now and carry it out for 38 000 years, quadrillions of people is actually kind of on the low side. So if you say most IG regiments are in the 1000 to 5000 guardsmen range and given the fact that the imperium doesnt exactly seem to put a cap on the percentage of the population that gets drafted if they are needed. 50 million regiments of even 5000 men is only 250 billion men, out of a population of quadrillions of people. Even if the population of the whole imperium was only 10 quadrillion people, then thats means that only .05 percent of men are conscripted to the IG. Thats only one out of 2000.

These are all just my personal thoughts and number-crunchings though, I'm not a mathematician or anything


edit-messed up on my math

I think you may be confused. I was wondering about the number of IG Regiments, their size differs far too widely to have a guess at how many guardsmen there are (but it would be much, much more than 50 million).

If I recall correctly, I think that when a regiment is destroyed a new one will be raised and given the old one's name (this is, of course, logical as it's rare for Guard Regiments to be properly reinforced... they tend to just get merged). Thus I THINK it's reasonable to assume that, in the case of Cadia, if we know that there is a 412th Regiment, that may imply that there were, when it was founded, 412 regiments active? Cadia's a very militarised world though, so it may be a freak example... but I'd imagine planets must raise between 100-200 regiments. Unfortunately we don't know how many of them are actually active due to the incredible bureaucracy of the Imperium; it's likely that many are destroyed or mauled into ineffectiveness but nobody knows

But I'mma gonna go with Higher than Fifty Million... for the grimdark!

I'd go with higher than 50 million - there's so many regiments, even the Administratum supposedly cannot keep track of them all.

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:I'd go with higher than 50 million - there's so many regiments, even the Administratum supposedly cannot keep track of them all.

Now that's just irresponsible...

Good question, but I think I am going to have to agree with what appears to be the majority consensus. I think there are way, way more than fifty million regiments of guard. Which is how they operate. Weight of numbers is their biggest advantage. Guard regiments easily outnumber Astartes, by a lot.

purplefood wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:I'd go with higher than 50 million - there's so many regiments, even the Administratum supposedly cannot keep track of them all.

Now that's just irresponsible...

Yep. So, in other words, very much in character for the Administratum, eh?

purplefood wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:I'd go with higher than 50 million - there's so many regiments, even the Administratum supposedly cannot keep track of them all.

Now that's just irresponsible...

It is true, they lose records of planets on a regular basis....
Imperium have in fact several million worlds, but only 1 million is in database. They lost all data about the rest

And who in the Emperor's name voted for less than 100.000 in the entire Imperium? ( I think it was the Tau fans, but I am not sure ).

Wasnt me! but maybe they were thinking of IG "armies". I had to look up what IG define a regiment as.
Having read it, I'd easily agree with 50 million plus.

There's no doubt considering how many regiments are needed just for the Cadian gate. All the fluff points to so many men that no true headcount number exists.

Brother Coa wrote:

purplefood wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:I'd go with higher than 50 million - there's so many regiments, even the Administratum supposedly cannot keep track of them all.

Now that's just irresponsible...

It is true, they lose records of planets on a regular basis....
Imperium have in fact several million worlds, but only 1 million is in database. They lost all data about the rest

And who in the Emperor's name voted for less than 100.000 in the entire Imperium? ( I think it was the Tau fans, but I am not sure ).

I'm not sure what you thought i said but i didn't say it wasn't true.
And i hope you're joking about that other point.

purplefood wrote:

Brother Coa wrote:

purplefood wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:I'd go with higher than 50 million - there's so many regiments, even the Administratum supposedly cannot keep track of them all.

Now that's just irresponsible...

It is true, they lose records of planets on a regular basis....
Imperium have in fact several million worlds, but only 1 million is in database. They lost all data about the rest

And who in the Emperor's name voted for less than 100.000 in the entire Imperium? ( I think it was the Tau fans, but I am not sure ).

I'm not sure what you thought i said but i didn't say it wasn't true.
And i hope you're joking about that other point.

I joked for the first, aldo they know to lose planet from time to time ( read 5'th edition rulebook, admkinistratinum part ).
And I am not joking for the second. On this forum, while arguing with one Tau player, he said to me that "Tau Fire Cast outnumber Imperial Guard". I was like .

A hive city can produce over a billion recruits every year easily just recruiting at population growth levels.

Recrutement is from a single regiment up to 50.000.000 (bRb), per anno.

- if 10% of the worlds contribute regiments, and 50% of them more than 1, it could be 200.000 +x.
- surely not all worlds pay a tithe in IG.
- so in 40k numbers its less than 1 million per year.
- using logic and real military examples, IoM would have ~10% of the populace as local defense and maybe 5-10% tithe to the IG.
- so in "realistic" numbers its about decreasing the overpopulation on certain worlds and thus 10-50 million per year.

1hadhq wrote:Recrutement is from a single regiment up to 50.000.000 (bRb), per anno.

- if 10% of the worlds contribute regiments, and 50% of them more than 1, it could be 200.000 +x.
- surely not all worlds pay a tithe in IG.
- so in 40k numbers its less than 1 million per year.
- using logic and real military examples, IoM would have ~10% of the populace as local defense and maybe 5-10% tithe to the IG.
- so in "realistic" numbers its about decreasing the overpopulation on certain worlds and thus 10-50 million per year.

A single hive world could tithe billions of soldiers every year and still have population growth.

Don't invite the Tau fanbois to this argument Coa. We may get more gak like the Water Caste being the only force able to take Cadia. Aren't I a hypocrite?

That would depend on the size of the city though and the worlds tithe classification wouldn't it?

Lexx wrote:That would depend on the size of the city though and the worlds tithe classification wouldn't it?

If they DON'T tithe at or close to growth rates, hive cities would go from horribly overpopulated to disastrously overpopulated in one generation. More than anything else, it's specifically stated that manpower is the primary export for these planets, they produce large numbers of bodies.

Melissia wrote:

Lexx wrote:That would depend on the size of the city though and the worlds tithe classification wouldn't it?

If they DON'T tithe at or close to growth rates, hive cities would go from horribly overpopulated to disastrously overpopulated in one generation. More than anything else, it's specifically stated that manpower is the primary export for these palnets.

What I'm saying is not all hive cities are the same. Some have higher growth whilst others can be in decline even. That one statement doesn't fit them all.

"I'll trade you 400 tons of processed wheat extract for 6,000 able bodied men. Fair?"

Im going to go with higher than 50 million.

Melissia wrote:

Lexx wrote:That would depend on the size of the city though and the worlds tithe classification wouldn't it?

If they DON'T tithe at or close to growth rates, hive cities would go from horribly overpopulated to disastrously overpopulated in one generation.

Isn't that the reason why planets are inhabitable and rebellions become regular events?

All we have about the imperiums worlds are examples, but we don't know if 1% or 100% pay a tithe in IG. Until we find a source, it does not matter if the planets are overpopulated as this is GW, where numbers are drawn out of a hat.

I think a billion recruits every year ifor a sigle words a bit exaggerated but upon reading this thread I did some fast math and these are the results:

-1 million worlds
-Avg. population (actual numbers may vary a lot) 1,000,000,000 per planet (1/6 of actual Earth's population)
-45% of population are men
-10% of such men able to be drafted

You get the staggering number of: 45,000,000,000 men!!!

Now divided in regiments of roughly 2,000 men each (just a number, a generalization) you get the amazing number of: 22,500,000,000 regiments. Way more numerous than 50 million.

Even with half of the population used in my calculations the numbers are just inveleibeable high.

With this figures I'm convinced that Tau Empire's existence is an act of pure luck or a a consequence of monumental logisitcal problem in the Imperium. Heck, you don't even need space marines!!!

Raulmichile wrote:With this figures I'm convinced that Tau Empire's existence is an act of pure luck or a a consequence of monumental logisitcal problem in the Imperium. Heck, you don't even need space marines!!!

I think that was largely due to other threats distracting the Imperium more than anything. Theyve got extra time though considering how long it can take the Imperiums bureaucratic wheels to turn that could be a few generations at least to expand and prepare.

I reckon 10-50 million, because that's going to be trillions of guys.

Lexx wrote:

Melissia wrote:

Lexx wrote:That would depend on the size of the city though and the worlds tithe classification wouldn't it?

If they DON'T tithe at or close to growth rates, hive cities would go from horribly overpopulated to disastrously overpopulated in one generation. More than anything else, it's specifically stated that manpower is the primary export for these palnets.

What I'm saying is not all hive cities are the same. Some have higher growth whilst others can be in decline even. That one statement doesn't fit them all.

Given the nature of hive cities, IE lots and lots of low income individuals whom historically tend to produce more children in the first place and low age expectancies (countries with negative growth rates tend to have older, wealthier populations), it would fit the vast majority of them.

I would hazard a guess that all hive Worlds fall under the top Tithe grade. The actual numbers will vary considerably.

I think more than 50 million, there are too many regiments to count even planet system wise I bet

Especially if we count all regiments including tanks, storm trooper, abhumans, and super heavies