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What is the most common training that Imperial Guard is providing across the galaxy ( I am talking about regular planets, not fortress worlds like Cadia )?

From what I have read in 15 hours: 2 weeks of training with full gear then they go toward the front lines. Is this standard training for all Guard beside the most notable ones?

You have been around here long enough Coa. You know the answer to this. It varies. It varies in cannon. It varies in expectations. It varies in what people will tell you. It varies a lot.

I' would reckon this is what most guard training is

"welcome to the guard, if you disobey orders or run away you'll be shot. Here are you lasguns point the shiny end at the enemy and pull the trigger. Alright mount up"

Most commonly, the Guardsmen receives training on his way to a combat zone aboard a transport. However long that training is depends on how long the destination takes to get to several weeks to several months most commonly.

If they're "the best of a PDF", then they received a lot of training from their homeworlds PDF already. Though if it's a case of emergency conscription where an entire planetary population is raised, then they'll barely know what they're doing.

A newly raised Guard regiment gets as much IG training as it takes for their ship to arrive at a warzone. The 2E Codex gives a pretty good description of how recruitment and deployment work out, and the average time a regiment is "spaceborn" is about 3 months, though it may be anything between 30 and 120 days.

Added to this comes, of course, any training that they may have received on the world they were raised, including PDF drills and potential "cultural experience" because they were clansmen of a warrior tribe or gunmen in some hive gang.

At least that's about it as far as GW books are concerned.

GentlemanGuy wrote:I' would reckon this is what most guard training is
"welcome to the guard, if you disobey orders or run away you'll be shot. Here are you lasguns point the shiny end at the enemy and pull the trigger. Alright mount up"

The funny thing is, this is roughly how it was described in some Guardsman's letter printed in one of the Codices.

Get a copy of the Munitorum Manual and the Guardsmans' Uplifting Primer. You'll get a good sense of what the average Gaurd soldier is in for.

15 Hours was rubbish. But, it was also, to my recollection, a tithe beyond normal.

The answer is on Page 8 of the current Guard codex. The first paragraph states that each world has a standing army. This is the PDF. From the PDF, a tithe of 10% is levied, as described in the second paragraph (which also points out that usually the forces tithed are from the elite).

Of course, this does not factor in the worlds who think hordes of scum are acceptable, but c'est la vi.

Nevertheless, if we assume that the bulk of the Guard is drawn from PDFs, well....then you're looking at easily years of training. However, like nomotog said, you should know that it varies.

Lynata wrote:

GentlemanGuy wrote:I' would reckon this is what most guard training is
"welcome to the guard, if you disobey orders or run away you'll be shot. Here are you lasguns point the shiny end at the enemy and pull the trigger. Alright mount up"

The funny thing is, this is roughly how it was described in some Guardsman's letter printed in one of the Codices.

Don't forget they throw a mark on their uniform generally so the more experienced Guardsmen have something to hide behind and the commander knows the first unit to send in to clog the tracks of the enemy.

Meat shields have training?

GentlemanGuy wrote:I' would reckon this is what most guard training is

"welcome to the guard, if you disobey orders or run away you'll be shot. Here are you lasguns point the shiny end at the enemy and pull the trigger. Alright mount up"

That's for conscripts, which are really only used in dire situations, not the every day battles.

Melissia wrote:

GentlemanGuy wrote:I' would reckon this is what most guard training is

"welcome to the guard, if you disobey orders or run away you'll be shot. Here are you lasguns point the shiny end at the enemy and pull the trigger. Alright mount up"

That's for conscripts, which are really only used in dire situations, not the every day battles.

lol i guess it depends on the planet. on cadia for example the population is conscripted into the guard and training is fast paced. On krieg the training of the guardsmen takes many years weeding out the weak.

Cadia at least has quite a lot of "army tradition" - I'd expect a well-structured training regime similar to contemporary militaries with at least several weeks/months of basic training before new recruits become active Whiteshield units.

That said, I'm quite sure there are sufficient worlds in the Imperium whose PDF is somewhat less organized and where even professional soldiers (as in, "no conscripts", not "experienced") don't have much in the way of drills and education. Be it because it's a peaceful world where people are slacking and the PDF largely fulfills a ceremonial role or because the bulk of its population is a bunch of tribes- or clansmen where everyone only trains for himself as part of their culture.

But there really is no way to say what the average is as far as PDF are concerned, as there are too many differences but little information about ratio. The only thing covered by studio material is the actual Guard-level training they receive once transferring away from their planet and into the IG.

Ogiwan wrote:15 Hours was rubbish. But, it was also, to my recollection, a tithe beyond normal.

The answer is on Page 8 of the current Guard codex. The first paragraph states that each world has a standing army. This is the PDF. From the PDF, a tithe of 10% is levied, as described in the second paragraph (which also points out that usually the forces tithed are from the elite).

Of course, this does not factor in the worlds who think hordes of scum are acceptable, but c'est la vi.

Nevertheless, if we assume that the bulk of the Guard is drawn from PDFs, well....then you're looking at easily years of training. However, like nomotog said, you should know that it varies.

Given the amount and level of the wars the Imperium is waging these days I really doubt they use this system as the standard anymore. It's probably the ideal.

Harriticus wrote:

Ogiwan wrote:15 Hours was rubbish. But, it was also, to my recollection, a tithe beyond normal.

The answer is on Page 8 of the current Guard codex. The first paragraph states that each world has a standing army. This is the PDF. From the PDF, a tithe of 10% is levied, as described in the second paragraph (which also points out that usually the forces tithed are from the elite).

Of course, this does not factor in the worlds who think hordes of scum are acceptable, but c'est la vi.

Nevertheless, if we assume that the bulk of the Guard is drawn from PDFs, well....then you're looking at easily years of training. However, like nomotog said, you should know that it varies.

Given the amount and level of the wars the Imperium is waging these days I really doubt they use this system as the standard anymore. It's probably the ideal.

This still stands. Think on this. The Imperium is roughly a million planets strong and at any given time is waging between 1,000 and 10,000 wars. That is less than 1% of the Imperium at war. Hell even if 100,000 wars are being raged that justifies only 10% of a PDF being taken.


As for typical Imperial Guard training. Well I know Cadia you are given training through your whole life, you join the White Shield companies at around age 14, and then can join the Imperial Guard at around 18. That right there is 18 years of training. Not freaking bad, but that is not typical. Then of course you have emergency tithes, which would probably be between a week and 3 weeks of training if fighting on your own home world. It takes a while to get your gear and a basic understanding of what the hell you are doing. Which even a basic conscript would have. Yippee, logistics!

I would imagine basic training would last 3 months for typical Guardsmen just drafted up from a population and then of course more specific training for those that are thrown into something other than the Infantry. Learning to drive a tank (and all those damn prayers) would take a significant amount of time. Also any Guardsmen raised from the local PDF would have several months of training no doubt since it is the top 10% that are usually sent into the Imperial Guard regiments. Getting to be that good takes time. Of course you have travel time training as well which could vary drastically.

Again there are those tribal planets (which I am confident are not that common) have their own regiments and hive world scum which are basically penal legion anyway. So those two types of training could vary a lot. Another example would be troopers from planets like Elysia which quite frankly if we go off of basic US Army training to become airborne infantry takes 17 weeks. Given the number of prayers required and the amount of knowledge you need as a drop trooper I imagine soldiers from there take no less than 18 weeks of training plus transport time.

Basically what I'm saying is it varies a lot and too many people on here don't understand what it means to train a soldier. Hell even GW gets plausible logistics and training times all screwed up. So don't count on any sort of consistent answer other than there is no consistent answer.

Well said, Hikaru.