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 Kanluwen wrote:
Cadians, in the better iterations of their lore, literally did not have Commissars.

Officers instead were trained to watch for warp taint and authorized to execute cowards on the spot.

When was that, 2nd edition?

Edit: no lore about Cadia not having Commissars in the 2nd and two 3rd edition Imperial Guard codices (which state that every regiment has at least one) with Commissars being shown as part of the command staff of the Cadian 8th, and Codex: Eye of Terra has Commissars in the Cadian army list and a lore exerpt from a Commissar being assigned to a Cadian regiment.

When did Cadian lore have them Commissar-less? Were Cadians mentioned in Rogue Trader?

I don't care enough to dig out the White Dwarf articles on this.The long and short of it is that Commissars were meant to be a "counts as" thing more than anything else, at least in the Cadian side of things, since that "Iron Discipline" doctrine was present for officers in the 3.5 book and EoT codex.

The excerpt you reference from the Eye of Terror codex even alludes to this. They didn't tolerate outsiders.

ADB's "Cadian Blood" novel built off this lore, with commissars being considered a punishment as they're not Cadians.


But to put it more succinctly?
There's room for commissars...but it really shouldn't be as a permanent fixture in every single regiment.
We have Tempestus Scions, that's a good spot for them. There's a really really good option as well for reframing Tempestus to be the "Suicide Squad" of the Guard(especially if you've read the codex they had, and the items available in their medikits), with Commissars as the minder.
We could have Conscripts or Planetary Militia, and again that's a good spot for them.

 Kanluwen wrote:
I don't care enough to dig out the White Dwarf articles on this.The long and short of it is that Commissars were meant to be a "counts as" thing more than anything else, at least in the Cadian side of things, since that "Iron Discipline" doctrine was present for officers in the 3.5 book and EoT codex.

The excerpt you reference from the Eye of Terror codex even alludes to this. They didn't tolerate outsiders.

ADB's "Cadian Blood" novel built off this lore, with commissars being considered a punishment as they're not Cadians.

That... doesn't hold up very well. Plenty of regiments have iron discipline and commissars, notably the DKoK. Codex: Eye of Terror is explicit when a unit is counts as. It says things like Kasrkin squads (use the stormtrooper entry in Codex: Imperial Guard)* or Gibbering hordes (counts as Nurglings). Commissars are just straight included in the army list in the same manner as, say, infantry platoons. The codex also includes a commissar in the section on Cadian models. The 3.5th Guard codex (released a few months after Eye of Terror) includes a commissar in the Cadian 8th command staff.

The excerpt straight up confirms commissars attached to Cadian regiments, consistent with other Guard lore. It takes pretty significant mental gymnastics to read a quote attributed to a commissar attached to a Cadian regiment and then claim that shows commissars are not attached routinely to Cadian regiments... Commissars not being well tolerated is hardly unusual, loads of worlds produce regiments suspicious of them and part of the training commissars receive is to help them integrate into hostile regiments. Cadians have nothing on, say, Catachans, who still get commissars assigned despite routinely fragging them in "accidents".

Meanwhile, the 3rd edition codices also state every Guard regiment has at least one Commissar. Nothing I have found so far suggests that Cadian regiments have an exception, and the codices from this era suggest that Cadians do use commissars.

The Warhammer + vault has only reached October 2003. Over the next few weeks it will extend back across the 3.5th IG codex release and the Eye of Terror campaign. I strongly suspect the White Dwarf articles you refer to are from this time period, so I may be able to confirm what you are referencing about Cadian regiments sometimes or often not having commissars once I have access to the magazines.

But to put it more succinctly?
There's room for commissars...but it really shouldn't be as a permanent fixture in every single regiment.
We have Tempestus Scions, that's a good spot for them. There's a really really good option as well for reframing Tempestus to be the "Suicide Squad" of the Guard(especially if you've read the codex they had, and the items available in their medikits), with Commissars as the minder.
We could have Conscripts or Planetary Militia, and again that's a good spot for them.

You don't think every regiment should have at least one commissar? That is hardly too many, for many regiments that is one commissar for thousands of men. The Cadian 8th example above has one commissar for 4000 troopers! Plenty of room to have forces without commissars on the tabletop. It has also been established lore for at least 28 years...


*This is for the elites Kasrkin entry. There is a new entry for Kasrkins used as grenadiers in the troops slot.

No, I think there should be zero commissars. It's a boring trope in 40k and it's been boring as hell for Guard. We have too many different types of "...and then they executed Bill for heresy" types of characters in the lore.

Fit them into the Tempestus side of things, if they must stick around. "Reveal" that the Tempestus is effectively Suicide Squad with Commissars playing the role of Rick Flagg.

You lot want so badly to have this "iconic" image of a political officer(which isn't even what a commissar was, prior to the Soviets and their distaste for terms tied to the Imperial rule) in there. If it's got to be a thing? Go the full distance. Remember that Commissars were poorly trained, but highly connected within the Party. They had to bring in trainees and non-military "militia" from the Party for all intents just to prevent from being "accidentally" shot in the field at the big battles they're renowned for.

 Kanluwen wrote:
No, I think there should be zero commissars. It's a boring trope in 40k and it's been boring as hell for Guard. We have too many different types of "...and then they executed Bill for heresy" types of characters in the lore.

Fit them into the Tempestus side of things, if they must stick around. "Reveal" that the Tempestus is effectively Suicide Squad with Commissars playing the role of Rick Flagg.

You lot want so badly to have this "iconic" image of a political officer(which isn't even what a commissar was, prior to the Soviets and their distaste for terms tied to the Imperial rule) in there. If it's got to be a thing? Go the full distance. Remember that Commissars were poorly trained, but highly connected within the Party. They had to bring in trainees and non-military "militia" from the Party for all intents just to prevent from being "accidentally" shot in the field at the big battles they're renowned for.

Eh, commissars are about more than field executions. They are what ties a regiment in to the Departmento Munitorum, what turns a planetary fighting force into an Imperial fighting force. Bad trigger-happy commissars exist, but they tend to go missing quickly in warzones...

This extract sums them up best:


Fair enough if you don't like them, but they are solidly part of Guard lore and the stuff about Cadians above increasingly sounds like headcanon extrapolated from some snippets.

 Haighus wrote:

Eh, commissars are about more than field executions.

Could have fooled me.

They are what ties a regiment in to the Departmento Munitorum, what turns a planetary fighting force into an Imperial fighting force.

Er no, that's the Departmento Munitorum. Yeah, Gaunt showed up and "whipped a planetary fighting force into shape"---but it was because he was an officer not a Commissar.

Bad trigger-happy commissars exist, but they tend to go missing quickly in warzones...

And yet we have people insisting that they must be a defining factor of the Guard?

You know what's more of a defining factor? The Guardsmen.

This extract sums them up best:

None of which matters, because they're a one-note character. Nothing of what that summary features is actually present.

Fair enough if you don't like them, but they are solidly part of Guard lore

So is Sergeants and officers with lasguns, and yet...

and the stuff about Cadians above increasingly sounds like headcanon extrapolated from some snippets.

It's not, but whatever. Good luck finding it though!

If you want a non-primary source? It's printed in black & white in "Cadian Blood" about how the Commissar who was assigned to them was a punishment from the non-Cadian command cadre of the overall battle group.



Additionally, as a closing aspect?
Commissars "fit" when they're used well. They "fit" in the novels, they "fit" in the overall background scheme.
They don't fit in a game when we now have a world where we have people who seem to believe that the Commissars are the "Good Guys" of the story. Where people don't understand the supposed satire behind them. Where people don't understand that the only examples we get are the aberrations rather than the norm.

Kanluwen,

Commissars have been in the Guard from the start of the lore. They were in the 2nd Ed Codex. The first 3rd Ed Guard Codex (the screen shot above from Haighus) states that "Every Regiment has at least one Commissar..." So there you have it, from a lore perspective Cadians have always had them. I feel that you are presenting your design opinions about the Guard as fact?

You can leave out our contemporary/recent real-world history and politics. Commissars make perfect sense in a the (imaginary) Astra Militarum of the (also imaginary) 40K Imperium. With a force drawn from across worlds and cultures there would be a need for some stabilizing/unifying influence. Maybe this doesn't fit your head-cannon, but they are involved in training and standardizing, to some degree, the innumerable regiments of the Astra Militarum. I could see that aspect of their function as somewhat less important dealing with a place like Cadia, but even the best troops can benefit from oversight. Commissars are also a guard against sedition, which is a real threat in the imaginary world of the 40K Imperium. Having at least one very trusted person in each Regiment whose loyalty is to the Imperium and not the Regiment or a home-world is an asset from the centre's point of view. In-game, summary executions first appeared in that 3rd Ed Codex. Perhaps that aspect has become a bit too much of a meme, but that's our sub-culture for you.

I think we can have an imaginary universe where Commissars conduct summary battlefield executions without saying that they are "good" or desirable.

Anyhoo

Two things:
1 - Gaunt was a Commisar before he was an officer. He was a skilled leader that was promoted because he was one of Slaydo's favoured protégés and it was only Slaydo's favour that saw him advance beyond a discipline officer.
2 - The Commissar assigned to the Cadians in Cadian Blood is seen as a punishment because the Regiment in question is a veteran formation, not because they're Cadian. The Regiment also had a Psyker with no supervision which the theatre command was not OK with.

 Gert wrote:
Two things:
1 - Gaunt was a Commisar before he was an officer. He was a skilled leader that was promoted because he was one of Slaydo's favoured protégés and it was only Slaydo's favour that saw him advance beyond a discipline officer.

Yes, and see the above statement where I talked about the aberrations. Commissars don't tend to also hold a field command.

2 - The Commissar assigned to the Cadians in Cadian Blood is seen as a punishment because the Regiment in question is a veteran formation, not because they're Cadian. The Regiment also had a Psyker with no supervision which the theatre command was not OK with.

No, the Psyker was the excuse. Thade quotes the specifics, after mentioning that he and his officers (right down to sergeants!) are versed in the same methods that the Commissariat use for suspected Psyker taint.

So, just to be clear-you're saying that the Imperium is doing something unneeded and wasteful by assigning Commissars to Cadians?

Well golly gee, that's so unlike them! The Imperium is NEVER wasteful! It's so careful with its resources, especially the human ones!

I enjoyed good ole' Ibram as a character, but I never bought into him as a commissar. Too nice a guy.

It’s worth noting that, according to the Cain books at least, commissars are also responsible for the more mundane parts of welfare and discipline.

What to do if a trooper gets pregnant?
Dealing with lower level infractions that don’t merit shooting people.
Smoothing out relations with other units or services.
Dealing with medals and field promotions.

Sure, some of the more reasonable worlds’ officers are going to be all over that, but the Imperium is vast and varied and having a standardised cadre that give a consistent minimum level is helpful to keep the machine working smoothly.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Haighus wrote:

Eh, commissars are about more than field executions.

Could have fooled me.

They are what ties a regiment in to the Departmento Munitorum, what turns a planetary fighting force into an Imperial fighting force.

Er no, that's the Departmento Munitorum. Yeah, Gaunt showed up and "whipped a planetary fighting force into shape"---but it was because he was an officer not a Commissar.

Right... and who does the Departmento Munitorum attach to a newly-founded regiment as their representative...?

Commissars are intended to bring regiments in line with the Imperium as a whole.

Bad trigger-happy commissars exist, but they tend to go missing quickly in warzones...

And yet we have people insisting that they must be a defining factor of the Guard?

You know what's more of a defining factor? The Guardsmen.

This extract sums them up best:

None of which matters, because they're a one-note character. Nothing of what that summary features is actually present.

Fair enough if you don't like them, but they are solidly part of Guard lore

So is Sergeants and officers with lasguns, and yet...

...and yet this is the lore subforum, where those sergeants still exist! Where sergeants and officers with stormbolters and combi-weapons still exist! Current rules and model ranges have no bearing on the scope of the lore. In the same vein, commissars in the lore are regimental advisors who maintain discipline and adherence to standards, raise morale, and enforce punishments if necessary. There are plenty of lore examples of commissars doing much more than shooting guardsmen, and explicit lore that commissars which are overdisciplinarian tend to encounter "accidents" in their first combat engagement. Commissars are a core part of Guard lore, bad commissars are a subset of that and far from the totality.

Wait, is your distaste of commissars partly due to their rules?! Most of the excerpt above is never going to be reflected on the tabletop by the commissar model, because it is already represented by the regiments other soldiery being incorporated into the Imperial Guard machine.

and the stuff about Cadians above increasingly sounds like headcanon extrapolated from some snippets.

It's not, but whatever. Good luck finding it though!

If you want a non-primary source? It's printed in black & white in "Cadian Blood" about how the Commissar who was assigned to them was a punishment from the non-Cadian command cadre of the overall battle group.

I need to read the Black Library novel. The White Dwarfs apparently contradicting established Guard lore from the time that you cannot be bothered to find I shall keep an eye out for, although are not a very compelling argument...

Additionally, as a closing aspect?
Commissars "fit" when they're used well. They "fit" in the novels, they "fit" in the overall background scheme.
They don't fit in a game when we now have a world where we have people who seem to believe that the Commissars are the "Good Guys" of the story. Where people don't understand the supposed satire behind them. Where people don't understand that the only examples we get are the aberrations rather than the norm.

Right... I think anyone who thinks commissars are the good guys has bigger problems than a lore discussion. They probably also struggle with the satire of the rest of the setting, but maybe we shouldn't change the whole setting because of Poe's law?

 Kanluwen wrote:
No, I think there should be zero commissars. It's a boring trope in 40k and it's been boring as hell for Guard. We have too many different types of "...and then they executed Bill for heresy" types of characters in the lore.

I disagree. In fact, I'm on the exact opposite opinion: the people in the setting are way too soft and angsty and it completely undercuts the tone. Characters like Gaunt and Cain are straight Nobledark and should have much role other than getting introduced at the end of a chapter, hyped as the Big Dang Heroes through it, then unceremoniously killed off at the end of the same chapter. I want monsters and psychos everywhere, even in the role of the protagonist, because that's literally half the point of having a Grimdark setting. And it shouldn't go just for characters of note like commissars but everyone including guardsmen. Especially guardsmen.

 AtoMaki wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
No, I think there should be zero commissars. It's a boring trope in 40k and it's been boring as hell for Guard. We have too many different types of "...and then they executed Bill for heresy" types of characters in the lore.

I disagree. In fact, I'm on the exact opposite opinion: the people in the setting are way too soft and angsty and it completely undercuts the tone. Characters like Gaunt and Cain are straight Nobledark and should have much role other than getting introduced at the end of a chapter, hyped as the Big Dang Heroes through it, then unceremoniously killed off at the end of the same chapter. I want monsters and psychos everywhere, even in the role of the protagonist, because that's literally half the point of having a Grimdark setting. And it shouldn't go just for characters of note like commissars but everyone including guardsmen. Especially guardsmen.

Sounds like Colonel Schaeffer is more your kind of character- a "hero" who is willing to sacrifice all the troops under his command to achieve the mission objective, and an unshakeable faith that his orders are infallible and worth any cost.

 Haighus wrote:

 AtoMaki wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
No, I think there should be zero commissars. It's a boring trope in 40k and it's been boring as hell for Guard. We have too many different types of "...and then they executed Bill for heresy" types of characters in the lore.

I disagree. In fact, I'm on the exact opposite opinion: the people in the setting are way too soft and angsty and it completely undercuts the tone. Characters like Gaunt and Cain are straight Nobledark and should have much role other than getting introduced at the end of a chapter, hyped as the Big Dang Heroes through it, then unceremoniously killed off at the end of the same chapter. I want monsters and psychos everywhere, even in the role of the protagonist, because that's literally half the point of having a Grimdark setting. And it shouldn't go just for characters of note like commissars but everyone including guardsmen. Especially guardsmen.

Sounds like Colonel Schaeffer is more your kind of character- a "hero" who is willing to sacrifice all the troops under his command to achieve the mission objective, and an unshakeable faith that his orders are infallible and worth any cost.

Yeah, Schaeffer was decent, tho him and his Last Chancers were specifically not the norm and that of course kinda blunts the edge. Having the compulsory special-snowflake-totally-anti-hero does not make the Nobledark setting any less noble, so to speak. And even THEN he quickly disappeared in the lore.

 AtoMaki wrote:

 Haighus wrote:

 AtoMaki wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
No, I think there should be zero commissars. It's a boring trope in 40k and it's been boring as hell for Guard. We have too many different types of "...and then they executed Bill for heresy" types of characters in the lore.

I disagree. In fact, I'm on the exact opposite opinion: the people in the setting are way too soft and angsty and it completely undercuts the tone. Characters like Gaunt and Cain are straight Nobledark and should have much role other than getting introduced at the end of a chapter, hyped as the Big Dang Heroes through it, then unceremoniously killed off at the end of the same chapter. I want monsters and psychos everywhere, even in the role of the protagonist, because that's literally half the point of having a Grimdark setting. And it shouldn't go just for characters of note like commissars but everyone including guardsmen. Especially guardsmen.

Sounds like Colonel Schaeffer is more your kind of character- a "hero" who is willing to sacrifice all the troops under his command to achieve the mission objective, and an unshakeable faith that his orders are infallible and worth any cost.

Yeah, Schaeffer was decent, tho him and his Last Chancers were specifically not the norm and that of course kinda blunts the edge. Having the compulsory special-snowflake-totally-anti-hero does not make the Nobledark setting any less noble, so to speak. And even THEN he quickly disappeared in the lore.

Penal legions are common though, the exceptional part of Schaeffer is that he gets sent against high-value targets and somehow keeps surviving. Penal legions are usually used as straight-up cannon fodder to protect more valuable troops.

He is also still present in the lore- the last book was in 2019. Shame he no longer has rules though.

I agree 40k is a bit too nobledark in its main presentation in recent years though. Space Marines are very prone to this issue.

 Haighus wrote:

Penal legions are common

But they are not the standard. I could have taken Schaeffer more seriously if he had been just a standard IG officer leading his standard IG unit. Yeah, they are all psychos. Welcome in the Imperial Guard.

 AtoMaki wrote:

 Haighus wrote:

Penal legions are common

But they are not the standard. I could have taken Schaeffer more seriously if he had been just a standard IG officer leading his standard IG unit. Yeah, they are all psychos. Welcome in the Imperial Guard.

Eh, you need light and shadow, or the shadow won't have enough contrast.

Normal guardsmen are just trying to do their best in a galaxy of horrors, and one of those horrors is being sentenced to a penal legion if they mess up. The contrast makes the punishments feel worse.

Grimdark is the bigger picture rather than the individual characters.

Gaunt is a good man by all accounts but his job is to win the Emperor's wars and to do that soldiers need to fight and die. His entire life's purpose is to get people killed so that the empire they serve can own another planet these soldiers will never see the benefit of. The one benefit Gaunt has over other commanding officers is that he never has to write condolence letters to the Regiment's families because they're already dead.

The Imperial Guard itself is what keeps everything grimdark. The endless killing, dying, and pain faced by people who were once lumberjacks, carpenters, or clerks in a life where the only real escape is death.

 Haighus wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
No, I think there should be zero commissars. It's a boring trope in 40k and it's been boring as hell for Guard. We have too many different types of "...and then they executed Bill for heresy" types of characters in the lore.

Fit them into the Tempestus side of things, if they must stick around. "Reveal" that the Tempestus is effectively Suicide Squad with Commissars playing the role of Rick Flagg.

You lot want so badly to have this "iconic" image of a political officer(which isn't even what a commissar was, prior to the Soviets and their distaste for terms tied to the Imperial rule) in there. If it's got to be a thing? Go the full distance. Remember that Commissars were poorly trained, but highly connected within the Party. They had to bring in trainees and non-military "militia" from the Party for all intents just to prevent from being "accidentally" shot in the field at the big battles they're renowned for.

Eh, commissars are about more than field executions. They are what ties a regiment in to the Departmento Munitorum, what turns a planetary fighting force into an Imperial fighting force. Bad trigger-happy commissars exist, but they tend to go missing quickly in warzones...

This extract sums them up best:


Fair enough if you don't like them, but they are solidly part of Guard lore and the stuff about Cadians above increasingly sounds like headcanon extrapolated from some snippets.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 Haighus wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
No, I think there should be zero commissars. It's a boring trope in 40k and it's been boring as hell for Guard. We have too many different types of "...and then they executed Bill for heresy" types of characters in the lore.

Fit them into the Tempestus side of things, if they must stick around. "Reveal" that the Tempestus is effectively Suicide Squad with Commissars playing the role of Rick Flagg.

You lot want so badly to have this "iconic" image of a political officer(which isn't even what a commissar was, prior to the Soviets and their distaste for terms tied to the Imperial rule) in there. If it's got to be a thing? Go the full distance. Remember that Commissars were poorly trained, but highly connected within the Party. They had to bring in trainees and non-military "militia" from the Party for all intents just to prevent from being "accidentally" shot in the field at the big battles they're renowned for.

Eh, commissars are about more than field executions. They are what ties a regiment in to the Departmento Munitorum, what turns a planetary fighting force into an Imperial fighting force. Bad trigger-happy commissars exist, but they tend to go missing quickly in warzones...

This extract sums them up best:


Fair enough if you don't like them, but they are solidly part of Guard lore and the stuff about Cadians above increasingly sounds like headcanon extrapolated from some snippets.

I love 40k, but there are aspects to it that make me grin sometimes. Its a game with toy soldiers, but we're concerned about which section of the bureacracy runs the commissars ;-)

 Haighus wrote:

 AtoMaki wrote:

 Haighus wrote:

Penal legions are common

But they are not the standard. I could have taken Schaeffer more seriously if he had been just a standard IG officer leading his standard IG unit. Yeah, they are all psychos. Welcome in the Imperial Guard.

Eh, you need light and shadow, or the shadow won't have enough contrast.

Contrast is required for settings with mixed tones like Nobledark, because that's how the writer enhances the silhouettes in the mixture and prevents the setting to slide into a unified tone. 40k is supposed to have a unified tone (it is all darkness) so contrast is not required. It can be played with, but the setting should be universally pitch-black. Not sticking to this is how we end up with people complaining about commissars not fitting the 40k universe and such.

Grimdark doesn't have one set definition and for many having those good characters fight against a darkness they can never hope to prevail against or doing their best within an evil system is what enhances the darkness of the setting. If everyone is just evil all the time then it becomes unrealistic and some sense of realism is important in selling the setting, especially when its sci-fi.

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:


With all respect, we just see things too differently for me to meaningfully comment on that assertion.

Well you should clarify how you see things. Because Thatcherite Britain was a bigger inspiration for 40k than the medieval era ever was.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

bibotot wrote:
Yes. Commissars do serve a role.

However, terrible writers are to blame for making them look like complete dick-headed idiots who keep blamming people for no good reason, including those off their jurisdictions.

Just look up Ibram Gaunt or Yarrick and you will see how Commissars are supposed to role. Cain is just for comedy.

Gaunt or Yarrick should be seen as exceptions. Most of the Imperium is populated by degenerate oppressive backstabbers.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kanluwen wrote:
I don't care enough to dig out the White Dwarf articles on this.The long and short of it is that Commissars were meant to be a "counts as" thing more than anything else, at least in the Cadian side of things, since that "Iron Discipline" doctrine was present for officers in the 3.5 book and EoT codex.

Sounds like you're making it up then, which is par for the course for you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gert wrote:
Grimdark is the bigger picture rather than the individual characters.

Gaunt is a good man by all accounts but his job is to win the Emperor's wars and to do that soldiers need to fight and die. His entire life's purpose is to get people killed so that the empire they serve can own another planet these soldiers will never see the benefit of. The one benefit Gaunt has over other commanding officers is that he never has to write condolence letters to the Regiment's families because they're already dead.

The Imperial Guard itself is what keeps everything grimdark. The endless killing, dying, and pain faced by people who were once lumberjacks, carpenters, or clerks in a life where the only real escape is death.

Right, but the problem is that BL portrays only the nobledark characters, GW keeps trying to portray baby-murdering fascists as noble protagonists, etc.

I have now read Cadian Blood.

The regiment in question, the Cadian 88th, indeed has no commissar at the beginning of the book, and is assigned one as a punishment. However, the book does confirm that Cadian regiments do have commissars. The regiment is stated to have last had a commissar 17 years ago, and that commissars assigned to Cadian regiments are normally of Cadian birth. Cadia being a world that provides many orphans to the Schola Progenium, these are still true commissars, but in contravention to standard policy are assigned to their birth world. Off-worlder commissars are rare.

It is unclear if having a 17 year stint without any commissar is unusual. However, the 88th Cadian is a highly non-standard veteran formation. At the start of the book, it is understrength at 1000 troopers (Cadian regiments being 4000-8000 strong at muster) due to recent fighting on Cadia. The regiment is divided into 3 large companies of ~300 troopers each (not unusual), but oddly the companies, or at least the company commanded by the protagonist, have very few platoons. Captain Thade's company has just 3 oversized platoons of 100 soldiers each, and apparently divided into just 15 squads (suggesting squads of 20). Captain Thade directly commands one of the infantry platoons rather than a HQ platoon with just two infantry lieutenants under his command. A company of this size would ordinarily have 5 or 6 infantry platoons with as many lieutenants, and the captain leading a separate command platoon. In short, the 88th during the events of the book is not a standard Cadian regiment with standard organisation, and not a good proxy for other Cadian forces.

In addition (spoilered):

White Dwarf 284 (August 2003), contemporaneous to the Eye of Terror global campaign.

Lore snippet about a platoon of the Cadian 175th regiment, which has an attached commissar without any note about it being unusual.

Nothing about Cadians not having commissars that I can find in this issue.

Everyone has commissars. The only times they don't is when they're waiting for a replacement or one to be issued.

Replacements can take years, first the message that they don’t have one needs to make it, then a replacement sorted, then a replacement sent. All of this can take several years each.
Imperial Bureaucracy.

It depends on how far up the chain the request needs to go. Various books make it clear that there are training cadres and independent commissars attached at higher echelons of command at the local level and higher that could be reassigned quite quickly.

A regiment would need to be quite far off on its own for the requisition process to take years. And any such regiment would instantly become a priority to get a commissar back into to prevent it from straying too far from doctrine and the emperors light

Catachans rarely have Commissars- they're too surly and more "intuitive" types. Also, too many stiff-shirted Commissars get "lost" in the jungle or "accidentally" step on a frag grenade. The schola progenium can only turn out so man Comm's at a time- it'll be especially slow if a class gets mortared into the walls...