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Hello everyone,

While waiting/hoping for new and improved guard models, I started thinking about the processes by which the guard combines multiple regiments into a single one. Someday I want to make a multi-world regiment, like a grimdark UN force, including both well known (cadians, valhallarns, etc) and my own regiment (space anzac's and Israeli's).

What I want to know are some of the general details behind the combination process, or which books I should look for to find them. I want to know things like who orders the combination, if there's a limit to the number of regiments, how it would affect getting reinforcements from home, etc. I've read Cain and Gaunt, which give a good impression of the difficulties in unifying multiple regiments, so I guess I'm looking for more of the higher-up, behind the scenes paperwork.

Thanks for the replies, let me know if I'm unclear and I'll try to clarify.

I don't think there are any 40k novels that focus on paperwork. What you read in the Cain and Gaunt novels is probably as much information about the combination of IG regiments as is available.
As to reinforcements, most regiments do not normally receive reinforcements from their homeworlds (such would be an incredibly complicated and expensive logistical mess), which is why the combination thing is needed in the first place (to bring understrenght regiments back up to combat readiness).

New and Improved Imperial Guard to replace the Astra Militarum ?



The IG wouldn't merge Infantry and artillery, so maybe the higher up process is all about keeping the new Regiment worthy of beeing fielded. Depleted Regiments could gain the Honor to die fighting instead...

I'd agree that Cain (first book in particular) and gaunt is probably as good as it gets with the regiments combination process. Did you read the department munitorum primer? I think it has a little of that stuff in it.

Other then that guards are usually kept from the same planet. The issue being that sometimes cultural diffrences and dialect/language can get in the way of the force functioning as an effective fighting unit. In the 4th ed guard codex it said that the tactica imperialis guidlines for combining regiments was one of its most highly debated topics. Some commanders where only intrested in the number off full strenght squads available where others argued that the lessened combat effectivness of combined units made them worth far less then the sum of their parts.

A short story (I can't recall which) stated that some guards regiments took pride in diminished number. A regiment at half streangth would be a regiment with clear battlefield experience and would be filled with veterans, whereupon a full strenght regiment would be fresh and relatively looked down upon.

If you wanna go the route of combining many regiments then how about fluffing it as a nobles private army of old school veterans, a Inquisitions force of combined last regiment survivors or a coalition of planets making an effort to combine their forces now that the old imperial defence system is breaking down? The last one could work well with your UN esc idea. A sort of interplanitary combined regiments pdf. An sdf if you will (sector defence force).

 Iron_Captain wrote:
I don't think there are any 40k novels that focus on paperwork. What you read in the Cain and Gaunt novels is probably as much information about the combination of IG regiments as is available.
As to reinforcements, most regiments do not normally receive reinforcements from their homeworlds (such would be an incredibly complicated and expensive logistical mess), which is why the combination thing is needed in the first place (to bring understrenght regiments back up to combat readiness).

I realize that's in some of the fluff, but I've always had to head canon it out. If the IG isn't reinforcing their regiments, there's no reason to have them at all. They'd be better off just allocating new recruits to existing formations directly. Having regiments of indeterminate size that are regularly combined anyway defeats the whole historical purpose of the regiment concept. Not to mention every regiment thus recruited is going to have an expiration date anyway of 20-30 years as your troops get old under the best of circumstances.

The system described in the Cain novels, of only combining regiments after results of drastic casualties and just refilling them otherwise with new recruits from their homeworld makes plenty of sense. Especially considering that most regiments are going to stay almost universally stay in their own segmentum, and most of the time in their own sector. There's no reason not to reinforce. The fluff handwaves ground to orbit shipping costs anyway.

Sure if you send them all off on a crusade, probably no one is coming home and they'll just muster out on to conquered worlds. But otherwise it makes little sense to not reinforce them if your casualties are normal. On the other hand for 40k style casualties (entire regiments melting away in battle and such), then the regiment unit formation makes no sense either.

The behind the scenes paperwork amounts to someone seeing that adding what's left of 2 regiments together would equal one complete regiment. Then they make that order.

After that, they don't care or even know how it gets done. The army is too big for such trivial details.

Combinations and mergers might be easy if home sector was more like Ultrmar etc.

They have a mono command, even if cultural diffrencr or various governors own opinions. Some systems are more in one line. In one system.

In that case the likelyhood of a least compatible if not tense merger with similar general cultural norms might work fine.

I realize that's in some of the fluff, but I've always had to head canon it out. If the IG isn't reinforcing their regiments, there's no reason to have them at all. They'd be better off just allocating new recruits to existing formations directly. Having regiments of indeterminate size that are regularly combined anyway defeats the whole historical purpose of the regiment concept. Not to mention every regiment thus recruited is going to have an expiration date anyway of 20-30 years as your troops get old under the best of circumstances.

Not that I disagree with your logic, I'm sure that how it works in the British army, but I think the practice in the American Civil War was to organise recruits into new regiments rather than sending them to replace losses in veteran units with smaller regiments being combined to offset losses.

So if the Imperium does it this way it is not completely unprecedented. It is perhaps practical in wars that often result in regiments being completely wiped out so that you aren't trying to resurrect the same regiments all the time!

I think in the British Regiment system the Regiment is more a recruitment area. The real unit was the battalion - in 2d ed 40k a regiment had 3 companies similar to a battalion. Using it as a tactical formation can really break down especially for colonial areas - the Royal NZ regiment managed to eventually scrap together a few divisions in WW2. Plenty of British Regiments have been combined in the past, so I see it happening in 40k as highly possible.

I think the that in a campaign if a Regiment gets mauled below a certain strength it would be merged with a similar regiment; with preferences to homeworld, culture, and type. But after the campaign - if enough survive - they would go home to rebuild.

Sending reinforcements in drips and draps would be so impractical, but sending them home after a campaign less so. They need to go to those worlds to pick up fresh regiments anyway.

Tygre wrote:
I think in the British Regiment system the Regiment is more a recruitment area. The real unit was the battalion - in 2d ed 40k a regiment had 3 companies similar to a battalion. Using it as a tactical formation can really break down especially for colonial areas - the Royal NZ regiment managed to eventually scrap together a few divisions in WW2. Plenty of British Regiments have been combined in the past, so I see it happening in 40k as highly possible.

I think the that in a campaign if a Regiment gets mauled below a certain strength it would be merged with a similar regiment; with preferences to homeworld, culture, and type. But after the campaign - if enough survive - they would go home to rebuild.

Sending reinforcements in drips and draps would be so impractical, but sending them home after a campaign less so. They need to go to those worlds to pick up fresh regiments anyway.

And those survivors can either lead. Or train the next generation of soldiers.

Only War: Hammer of the Emperor covers this over a few pages if I remember right..

There's fragments in the Codex. This is from an old one (will check the exact version):

Combining Regiments
With few exceptions, regiments are not reinforced with troops from their own home worlds. Instead, understrength formations are merged to form composite regiments. Where possible, the formations joined are from the same home world, as was the case when the 12th and 78th Cadian were merged after the Fall of Ice Hive Magnox, forming the 12th/78th Cadian. Sometimes however, two very different regiments are combined, such as when the 182nd Catachan was merged with the 90th Elysian. As this took place on the Departmento Munitorium world of Prosan, the composite regiment was designated the 314th Prosan. This particular merging proved highly succesful. The new regiment became expert in airmobile jungle warfare after being issued Valkyries during the Saikong Justification war.

 argonak wrote:

I realize that's in some of the fluff, but I've always had to head canon it out. If the IG isn't reinforcing their regiments, there's no reason to have them at all. They'd be better off just allocating new recruits to existing formations directly. Having regiments of indeterminate size that are regularly combined anyway defeats the whole historical purpose of the regiment concept. Not to mention every regiment thus recruited is going to have an expiration date anyway of 20-30 years as your troops get old under the best of circumstances.

I disagree with this and Frankly think it's largely impossible to do within the Imperium. There's three main reasons for this.
1. Warp travel is very unreliable. Often time gets delluded in the warp and the distances are vast. Even if you where to muster recruits to reinforce from a given homewrold after a few years of travel there might not be a regiment left to reinforce. Either it could have moved on, been destroyed or been assimilated (see n.3). It could also be noted that the trips are so long that guards often are simply assembled and recieve their training on route to the warzone.
2. Communicating is very unreliable over the vast interstellar regions. Often the astropaths can't communicate in exact terms so anything diffrent from "heavy losses" or "Victory" might be hard to desipher. Anything related to the exact numbers of recruits needed would be impossible to decipher.
3. Imperial guards retiring. When guards win a war it can often have continued for a very long time. Unless the regiment is pressed into service in a new warzone they often retire and get rights to the won land. This helps to swell populations and can provide a stable pdf for a shaky planet.

Edit: I think @beast_gts got it about right.