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Hi, Im creating a custom Imperial Guard regiment and i want to be sure my background fits in with the canon as best I can.

So......

Does a regiment have to come from 1 planet or can a System have its own regiment.
+ My fan-made system (lets call is System X) has 3 inhabited planets (lets call them Planet A, Planet B and Planet C).
+ Would each planet need its own regiment, or could they all share a collective regiment which recruits from all 3 worlds.

Is there a name for a planet's collective group of regiments.
+ Cadia have hundreds of regiments, all these regiments together would be called a ______?
+ Several squads make a platoon
+ Several platoons make a company
+ Several companies make a regiment
+ Several regiments make a ______?

Can a planet that is NOT a forge world produce weapons, tanks etc?

Can 3 planets be run by a single authority?
+ Can a system have a capital planet?
+ If each planet has a Governer is there such thing as a System Governer?

My main queries are in bold. Sorry for all the questions! Thanks in advance for the help.

The Capital Planet would likely be a Hive or Forge World. The other two I suggest being Agri Worlds. The Governor of the Capital World would likely be the System Governor. As for regiments put together. What happends if you combine 3 or more regiments? You get a Brigade, a few brigades? A Division. A few Divisions a Corps. A few Corpses = An Army. A few armies becomes an armygroup.

 Beaviz81 wrote:
The Capital Planet would likely be a Hive or Forge World. The other two I suggest being Agri Worlds. The Governor of the Capital World would likely be the System Governor. As for regiments put together. What happends if you combine 3 or more regiments? You get a Brigade, a few brigades? A Division. A few Divisions a Corps. A few Corpses = An Army. A few armies becomes an armygroup.

This is great thanks! So the combined Cadia Regiments are the Cadia Brigade? Is this based on 40k books or just common sense based on real life armies?

Thanks

The Imperial Guard goes up to Regiment strength. This is because each regiment is given specific combat doctrines so that if they rebel, they lack the means to effectively fight off combined arms tactics.

However, I say feth that and go with the order of battle for real life. Regiments to brigades, brigades to divisions and so on. In universe they aren't mentioned as brigades but as multiple regiments, but that is what they effectively are.

I'm not sure what all the Cadian regiments put together would be called. Most likely something like armygroups (a single one is about 200.000 men and women fighting).

As for the rulers there is a check and balances system in the IOM. So nobody can accumulate too much power. You can have the planet in any flavor you choose. I have given my recommendations.

legolooney wrote:
This is great thanks! So the combined Cadia Regiments are the Cadia Brigade? Is this based on 40k books or just common sense based on real life armies?

Thanks

I suppose the closest thing to the collective name you're looking for would be the Cadian Shock Troopers. The terms you're being given, like brigade and divison and such are the names for specific maneuver elements, not general terms like what you're looking for. Brigades, division, armygroups and such are created on a temporary basis for operational purposes and then are disbanded when the campaign is over and the individual regiments are sent elsewhere. It's possible to have a full brigade of Cadians (although the combined Cadian Shock Troopers would make up several hundred brigades) but just as often any particular Guard force over regimental size will be made up of soldiers from several worlds.

This applies to the forces that a planet submits to the Imperial Guard. Of course, planets maintain their own armed forces at home and these can be organized in all sorts of different ways. The Cadian forces that stay on and around Cadia are the Interior Guard and made up of a number of regiments and probably brigades, divisions and other such things as well.

As for system government I don't see any reason why not. It would make perfect sense having a central planet and the other planets in the system being subordinate colonies of the central planet, all united under one government.

Arcsquad12 wrote:The Imperial Guard goes up to Regiment strength. This is because each regiment is given specific combat doctrines so that if they rebel, they lack the means to effectively fight off combined arms tactics.

However, I say feth that and go with the order of battle for real life. Regiments to brigades, brigades to divisions and so on. In universe they aren't mentioned as brigades but as multiple regiments, but that is what they effectively are.

Yeah makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

Beaviz81 wrote:I'm not sure what all the Cadian regiments put together would be called. Most likely something like armygroups (a single one is about 200.000 men and women fighting).

As for the rulers there is a check and balances system in the IOM. So nobody can accumulate too much power. You can have the planet in any flavor you choose. I have given my recommendations.

Thanks for your help! Your recommendations are really useful!



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 tuebor wrote:
I suppose the closest thing to the collective name you're looking for would be the Cadian Shock Troopers. The terms you're being given, like brigade and divison and such are the names for specific maneuver elements, not general terms like what you're looking for. Brigades, division, armygroups and such are created on a temporary basis for operational purposes and then are disbanded when the campaign is over and the individual regiments are sent elsewhere. It's possible to have a full brigade of Cadians (although the combined Cadian Shock Troopers would make up several hundred brigades) but just as often any particular Guard force over regimental size will be made up of soldiers from several worlds.

This applies to the forces that a planet submits to the Imperial Guard. Of course, planets maintain their own armed forces at home and these can be organized in all sorts of different ways. The Cadian forces that stay on and around Cadia are the Interior Guard and made up of a number of regiments and probably brigades, divisions and other such things as well.

As for system government I don't see any reason why not. It would make perfect sense having a central planet and the other planets in the system being subordinate colonies of the central planet, all united under one government.

Thanks Tuebor, this helps a lot! Are there any particularly useful books other than the various IG codices that I should take a look at?

1. Each planet must provide its own regiments
2. Already answered its ur choice
3. Other than relic weapons or perhaps autoguns probably not and weapons would be provided for the regiment by the munitorium
4. A system probably has a capital planet in that one planet is more important than the others and trade would go through that one those usually tend to be forgeworlds or hiveworlds though

Most references I've seen to combined regiments is Armies; collections of regiments suited for a specific task for a specific length of time, and then disbanded afterwards.

As for production, it's been mentioned in various places that Forgeworlds produce most goods for the Imperium, but they focus on high-end production, by and large. Your average imperial world can produce its own lasguns, chimeras, leman russ tanks and so on domestically, but it won't be able to produce Vanquishers, Executioners, plasma weapons in general, etc.

Generally speaking, Imperial Guard regiments represent the best of the planetary defense force, tithed off to the Munitorum. They start off with whatever the local standard for production is, supplemented by Munitorum gear produced off-world (all the specialist tanks, weapons, equipment and so on that only forgeworlds produce, or if the world is particularly backwards, it could be their entire kit)

When a Guard regiment is formed, it also takes in a number of off-world specialists. These include Commissars (PDF units don't have them), Navy liasons, psykers, abhuman auxiliaries (Ratlings, Ogryns, etc) and anything else the local planet(s) can't provide on their own. The Guard, with some exceptions, is fairly standardized, and any regiment must conform to certain minimum specifications, which the munitorum can provide if the locals are lacking.

Hope that helps some.

 Somedude593 wrote:
3. Other than relic weapons or perhaps autoguns probably not and weapons would be provided for the regiment by the munitorium

Planetary Defense Forces (from which Guard regiments are drawn) are equipped by their home planets, the most influential of which probably have contracts with forge worlds but many most likely have local manufacturing capability. It's only when they are transferred to the Guard that the Munitorium picks up the bill and starts providing everything for the regiment, consequently this is probably when many regiments receive more advanced and rare weapons like plasma guns, fancier Russ variants and the like and regiments from planets without sufficient industrial capacity would receive whatever equipment they're supposed to have. In the current codex a couple of planets are specifically mentioned as manufacturing weapons, Cadia is described as making "fine military weapons" and Armageddon is noted for being one of the chief Chimera producing worlds.

These worlds probably only make relatively basic equipment, lasguns, Chimeras, regular Leman Russes and the like while forge worlds make all that in bulk as well as making the more advanced equipment. Of course, the factories on these planets are almost certainly managed by the Mechanicus, they just use local populations as the workforce.

edit: So basically what Major Stoffer said.

This is all great info! Exactly what I'm looking for. That pretty much clears up the forge world question.

I'm still unsure about having a collective system army. I know ultimately I can choose, but canon wise.....

Should it be
+ 123rd System X Regiment
or
+ 123rd Planet A Regiment

Does every Imperial planet have it's own regiment? Or would small planets be guarded by regiments with more men to spare?

Could I say that Planet B and Planet C dont have regiments of their own and contribute their men to Planet A's regiments.

Does that make sense?

legolooney wrote:
This is all great info! Exactly what I'm looking for. That pretty much clears up the forge world question.

I'm still unsure about having a collective system army. I know ultimately I can choose, but canon wise.....

Should it be
+ 123rd System X Regiment
or
+ 123rd Planet A Regiment

Does every Imperial planet have it's own regiment? Or would small planets be guarded by regiments with more men to spare?

Could I say that Planet B and Planet C dont have regiments of their own and contribute their men to Planet A's regiments.

Does that make sense?

In Emperor's Will by Henry Zou there's a planet, Cantica, which is given the responsibility of protecting a number of other planets (in addition to their planetary defense forces) because their ancestors sided with the Imperium when the region was reclaimed.

Planets are given different tithing responsibilities by the Munitorium, so some produce a lot of Guard regiments, some only a few if any. The way I could see what I think you're trying to get at working is if in the star system you have a highly populated planet and a few sparsely populated planets, moons and such that are directly administered by that central planet. If you had multiple planets in a system with sizeable populations they would probably end up with seperate Imperial Commanders and thus separate tithes.

1. Yes your system could share the burden of the Imperial tithe.

2. The 'regiment' is the largest permanent organisational unit of the Imperial Guard. Note that it may not be called a regiment, different cultures may have different names. To the Munitorium however they are all regiments and all equivilent.

However for the purposes of command, when on campaign with multiple regiments they will be grouped into a Battle Group. The Battle Group will be commanded by a specially trained general.

Multiple Battle Groups are grouped into an Army Group.

3. Any world with industry and manufacturing capability can produce weapons and equipment for the Imperial Guard. Forge Worlds just do it faster, more efficiently and in greater quantities. They also produce the more advanced technology like plasma weaponry and titans.

4. If one world was more important/powerful than the others it could easily rule the system. It seems common that there are system leaders in the Imperium. For example Babdab Prime was the capital world of the Babdab system.

 tuebor wrote:

In Emperor's Will by Henry Zou there's a planet, Cantica, which is given the responsibility of protecting a number of other planets (in addition to their planetary defense forces) because their ancestors sided with the Imperium when the region was reclaimed.

Planets are given different tithing responsibilities by the Munitorium, so some produce a lot of Guard regiments, some only a few if any. The way I could see what I think you're trying to get at working is if in the star system you have a highly populated planet and a few sparsely populated planets, moons and such that are directly administered by that central planet. If you had multiple planets in a system with sizeable populations they would probably end up with seperate Imperial Commanders and thus separate tithes.

Hmm, yeah that makes sense. Seems pretty fair. Thanks Tuebor you've been really helpful!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 rems01 wrote:
1. Yes your system could share the burden of the Imperial tithe.

2. The 'regiment' is the largest permanent organisational unit of the Imperial Guard. Note that it may not be called a regiment, different cultures may have different names. To the Munitorium however they are all regiments and all equivilent.

However for the purposes of command, when on campaign with multiple regiments they will be grouped into a Battle Group. The Battle Group will be commanded by a specially trained general.

Multiple Battle Groups are grouped into an Army Group.

3. Any world with industry and manufacturing capability can produce weapons and equipment for the Imperial Guard. Forge Worlds just do it faster, more efficiently and in greater quantities. They also produce the more advanced technology like plasma weaponry and titans.

4. If one world was more important/powerful than the others it could easily rule the system. It seems common that there are system leaders in the Imperium. For example Babdab Prime was the capital world of the Babdab system.

Ah excellent! More great info. This is all awesome thanks!!

legolooney wrote:Does a regiment have to come from 1 planet or can a System have its own regiment

Depends on how the other planets look like. However, I believe the norm to be one governor for the entire system, with a shared tithe that will unify all the different worlds' available resources. For example, your hive world would be the focus for recruitment of manpower as well as manufacture of wargear, yet the other world would send a portion of their populace as well. This is based on a star system being the largest entity at which independent governance and economy of all affiliated assets are possible without Warp travel or astropathic communications.

legolooney wrote:Is there a name for a planet's collective group of regiments.

No. Once a planet has tithed its regiment, it becomes part of the Imperial Guard and is no longer affiliated with its homeworld's military organisation. Cadia being an exception from the rule as it is under direct governance of the Guard, and has Cadian regiments rotating between galaxywide Munitorum service and Cadia's own PDF - the so-called Interior Guard.

On a strategic (interplanetary) level, the Imperial Guard operates solely with regiments, all of which are specialised on a specific element. For example, infantry regiments will contain little armour or artillery, whereas artillery regiments have few battle tanks and foot soldiers. This is to make it so that each regiment depends on the help of another, deliberately limiting independent combat capabilities should they ever decide to "go rogue". Due to the same reason, the regiment will also have no aircraft of its own, depending on the Imperial Navy for aerial support.

In battle, the Imperial Guard thus tends to field several regiments, combining their individual strengths by temporarily splitting up some and attaching them to others. Whenever several regiments are grouped together like this, the Imperial Guard refers to it as an Army Group.

Note that although all manpower tithes for the Guard are raised as regiments, in some cases terms that are semi-unique to the respective Planetary Defense Force may be carried over to when the regiment becomes IG. So if you absolutely want to have your units use terminology such as Divisions or Battalions, there is no reason not to do it. It's just not something that the Imperial Guard itself would work with but merely a relic of their former homeworld. Some Guard regiments actually show up as "Clans" on force disposition charts ...

legolooney wrote:Cadia have hundreds of regiments, all these regiments together would be called a ______?

Imperial Guard regiments tend to have a special nickname associated with them.
With Cadia, it is the Cadian Shock Troops.
Valhalla, it is the Valhallan Ice Warriors.
Jopall Indentured Squadrons.
Catachan Jungle Fighters.
etc...

legolooney wrote:Can a planet that is NOT a forge world produce weapons, tanks etc?

On a (comparatively) very limited level, yes. Ophelia is a Shrine world, yet it's producing wargear for the Sororitas.
It depends entirely on the availability of facilities such as workshops and forges. It is save to say that each civilised world (post-feral) will have some limited production capabilities. Even feudal worlds tithe troops to the Imperial Guard, equipped with locally manufactured chainmail, swords and spears. Wherever deemed necessary, the Munitorum will organise additional equipment to be assigned (such as the lasgun - the one and only piece of gear that can truly be called "common" in the IG), usually as the regiment is raised. In these cases, the regiment will pick up additional arms, ammunition and possibly vehicles en-route to their final destination by having their transport make a detour to a nearby forge world.

legolooney wrote:Can 3 planets be run by a single authority?

Certainly. Cadia and Armageddon are two examples - and although both cases are "special" and should not be looked at for being a standard case, it does show that it's possible.


In general, I would recommend the 2nd Edition Codex Imperial Guard, as it contains quite a lot of info on how Guard regiments are raised and organised, including some stuff that does not show up in the newer 'dex anymore (such as travel and response times, or how the Guard actually is way more important than the Space Marines for the overall war effort). You may also be interested in some of the PDFs that Games Workshop has put online, such as Codex Catachans or the Valkyrie article.
Or this article here detailing the history of Armageddon and its wars - it also includes a detailed description of Imperial Guard regiments including the standardised regimental structure chart.
Also, here is a backup of the official Armageddon 3 Global Campaign website, which does contain a lot of fluff about a number of Imperial Guard regiments, as well as how the war was fought in the different regions of the planet.


On a final note, you should realise that 40k does not actually have a canon per se (see some quotes and links from 40k novel authors and game designers on that subject here), which may make it difficult for you to attempt and have your background fit in with everything. There are certain universally accepted facts, but on the level of detail you are looking at with the questions posed in this thread, you will find conflicting answers in the various books, as Games Workshop does not enforce a uniform interpretation of the setting. Just like the fans, individual authors of licensed products have their own ideas, and in addition to this sufficient artistic license to have them be printed and commercially distributed.
There is no "right" or "wrong" and no one source overrides another - it all comes down to what you as the individual player prefer to work with. This also means that you, just like the authors of official material, are quite free to come up with your own ideas even where they would conflict with novel or even Codex fluff.
For example, all the stuff I have posted above follows Games Workshop's descriptions as published in various codices, WD articles or other sources, for I have elected to use them as the primary source for my interpretation of the setting. Yet I cannot guarantee that none of it may be contradicted by some licensed product following a different vision. The more you go into detail, the higher the risk for conflicts between multiple sources.

Hope that helps! Enjoy your writing.

 Lynata wrote:
........Hope that helps! Enjoy your writing.

That was awesome. So much great info. This is the exact kind of thing i was looking for. Thanks for all your help and links!

Now I need to get reading and writing. Thanks everyone.

legolooney wrote:
Hi, Im creating a custom Imperial Guard regiment and i want to be sure my background fits in with the canon as best I can.

So......

Does a regiment have to come from 1 planet or can a System have its own regiment.
+ My fan-made system (lets call is System X) has 3 inhabited planets (lets call them Planet A, Planet B and Planet C).
+ Would each planet need its own regiment, or could they all share a collective regiment which recruits from all 3 worlds.

Is there a name for a planet's collective group of regiments.
+ Cadia have hundreds of regiments, all these regiments together would be called a ______?
+ Several squads make a platoon
+ Several platoons make a company
+ Several companies make a regiment
+ Several regiments make a ______?

Can a planet that is NOT a forge world produce weapons, tanks etc?

Can 3 planets be run by a single authority?
+ Can a system have a capital planet?
+ If each planet has a Governer is there such thing as a System Governer?

My main queries are in bold. Sorry for all the questions! Thanks in advance for the help.

Corps, Division, Army, Army Group, Force, Theatre, etc. There is no set in stone naming convention for multiple regiments. As Regiments are typically specialized in 40k, ie 101st Cadian Infantry or such, I think a Combined Arms Division of various specialized regiments would be a sensible system of organization.

The Imperial Guard structure is modeled after the UK's regimental system. Researching that will give you more useful information.

Amaya wrote:The Imperial Guard structure is modeled after the UK's regimental system.

I'd be careful with real life comparisons. Not just because we don't know for sure what the intents of the designers were (or did they actually talk about that once?), but also because they are not exactly specialists when it comes to warfare - as a lot of people keep pointing out whenever they complain about GW always providing numbers supposedly way too low for some operation.

Oh! Speaking of numbers, one more thing I just remembered that might be potentially useful information: Imperial Guard regiments do not have a set numerical strength. Their size can be in the hundreds to tens of thousands. All the Munitorum does is calculate a sort of standardised "battle value" representative of what X number of soldiers from planet Y are capable of, taking into account their equipment, training and any unique features the population may sport. And then they demand exactly that number from the planet and transform it into 1 regiment.
This results in Valhallan regiments being way larger than Cadian regiments, for example. The standard regimental size seems to be ~5.000, but as mentioned before it may vary hugely.

 Amaya wrote:

Corps, Division, Army, Army Group, Force, Theatre, etc. There is no set in stone naming convention for multiple regiments. As Regiments are typically specialized in 40k, ie 101st Cadian Infantry or such, I think a Combined Arms Division of various specialized regiments would be a sensible system of organization.

The Imperial Guard structure is modeled after the UK's regimental system. Researching that will give you more useful information.

Oh, gods, how wrong THAT assumption turned out to be when I was designing the organisation for my Solstice units.

The problem with saying that is that the Force Organisation Chart and the Platoon structure don't mesh up with RL division of units at all.

Well the basis of the chart is more along the lines of UK colonial armies. Due to the fact that they are not trusted and so potential damage from rebellion must be kept to a minimum. Therefore the regiments are totally unbalanced and lack the upper progression to keep them from ganging up easily.

There's the 88th Army that besieged Vraks, made up of a ton of DKoK regiments, separated in Korps (corps!)

legolooney wrote:

Does a regiment have to come from 1 planet or can a System have its own regiment.
+ My fan-made system (lets call is System X) has 3 inhabited planets (lets call them Planet A, Planet B and Planet C).
+ Would each planet need its own regiment, or could they all share a collective regiment which recruits from all 3 worlds.

It can be in both way, entire Regiment can be made up from population of a single planet or it can take best PDF troops from say Planet Prime, Planet Secundus and planet Three and form a single Regiment.

Is there a name for a planet's collective group of regiments.
+ Cadia have hundreds of regiments, all these regiments together would be called a Cadian Shock Troops?
+ Several squads make a platoon
+ Several platoons make a company
+ Several companies make a regiment
+ Several regiments make a Army Group?

Can a planet that is NOT a forge world produce weapons, tanks etc?

Light and Heavy Weapons - yes.
Tanks - no, but there are some that can - only limited manufacturing capabilities dough...

Can 3 planets be run by a single authority?

No, every planet has it's own Planetary Governor
.

+ Can a system have a capital planet?

Yes, for example - Kaurava I is capital of Kaurava system.

+ If each planet has a Governer is there such thing as a System Governer?

Yes there is, usually it's some sort of senate where the most capable Governous is choosen to led the senate and the others serve as his advisers.

My main queries are in bold. Sorry for all the questions! Thanks in advance for the help.

Anytime brother

Thanks for all the new replies, this is really helping me fluff out my army! You guys are brilliant.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Amaya wrote:

Corps, Division, Army, Army Group, Force, Theatre, etc. There is no set in stone naming convention for multiple regiments. As Regiments are typically specialized in 40k, ie 101st Cadian Infantry or such, I think a Combined Arms Division of various specialized regiments would be a sensible system of organization.

The Imperial Guard structure is modeled after the UK's regimental system. Researching that will give you more useful information.

Oh, gods, how wrong THAT assumption turned out to be when I was designing the organisation for my Solstice units.

The problem with saying that is that the Force Organisation Chart and the Platoon structure don't mesh up with RL division of units at all.

Um, duh?

Of course it doesn't. Nothing in the tabletop game is 100% fluff accurate. It is a game. Players don't want to be pigeonholed into "realistic" formations. The division of units fluctuates constantly with technological advancements. The regimental system has been in place for over two centuries. The actual OOB for regiments has changed frequently throughout that time.

The nice thing about 40k's universe is that it is so vague that practically everything is allowed in the canon.

For instance, while it may not be standard practice to have units organized in a particular fashion, the Imperium has so many worlds and regiments that there is naturally going to be variances within it.

Regiments are just organizational groupings, and there's really no reason why they couldn't be composed of units from different planets. Wartime formations will combine two (or more) understrength units into one regiment, leading to Xth/Yth Regiments. In your example, if the planet isn't very densely occupied (though they'd really have to be quite sparse), they could share the same regiment.

As to what regiments go into, go wild with your imagination. Division, corps, Grand Army, whatever the leader wants to call it.

Re: worlds producing arms: Sure, why not? I'd lean towards the standard patterns as opposed to variants that are described in fluff as difficult to make (see: plasma guns), but really, the fluff is open ended enough to do pretty much anything. The fluff for the Lunar-class cruiser states it was made in orbit from a feral world... so there you go for some precedent.

Imperial Governors have a lot of autonomy, so sure, why not.

On the point of where things are manufactured, I also believe that manufacturing happens all over the place. Forgeworlds are specifically designed to produce vast quantities of things and will have specialist areas for the most advanced tech, however there are lots of references to other world types having flourishing industrial areas. Hive worlds will have loads of industry and can probably supply their own needs for most types of arms and armour. Worlds like Earth is currently can probably do the same, however feudal or feral worlds would need assistance in outfitting even a simple infantry regiment.

 legolooney wrote:
Hi, Im creating a custom Imperial Guard regiment and i want to be sure my background fits in with the canon as best I can.

Is there a name for a planet's collective group of regiments.
+ Cadia have hundreds of regiments, all these regiments together would be called a ______?
+ Several squads make a platoon
+ Several platoons make a company
+ Several companies make a regiment
+ Several regiments make a ______?

I generally say 3/4 infantry squads to a platoon, plus any heavy/spec weapon squads, 3 platoons to a company, and around 4/5 companies to a Battalion (or regiment) and Just go from there. It doesn't really matter as long as it fits the fluff and works.
Hope that helps.