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Hello,

I'm just starting out my first W40k games. I had bought Dark Imperium, Wrath and Rapture battleboxes to start my collection out. I opened them on Christmas and will be assembling them this week. These boxes will give me a cheap way to kickstart my collection and other accessories which I like to have. Yet, I always wonder if Imperial Guard is a faction for me besides Chaos and Eldar. I always liked them and are thinking if I want to collect them first before Eldar. As many players, I do want to have my own unique army. I'm looking into Elysian drop troops, but mostly to regiments which exist in the lore, but not much in game.







I'm drawn to noble birth Imperial Guard due to having noble roots myself. I would like to make my own Imperial Guard Regiment Scintillan Fusiliers. Yet the issue which I have is that those regiments does not seem competitive at all. In order to properly reflect them on tabletop, I will need to give each unit carapace armor. In general, my Imperial Guard regiment speciality is that they are very rich and very privileged. On tabletop it would be reflected that a typical stat guardsmen and their regiment will have to take a lot of upgrades. Quality of gear which I will have to put will more often are seen on veteran guardsmen or Tempestus Scions. Carapace as I mentioned is a must, because it is more comfortable armor to wear in battle. Also, it is only armor option available to proper guardsmen. I enjoy idea of Tarantula turrets. Hellguns and other specialist weapons. Humble lasgun might be a perfectly viable weapon for peasant masses, but it is unfitting for proper men.


While I have strong theme going on for my Imperial guard army, I'm afraid that such army is inherently non-competitive. I mean, not on tournament level, but that my guardsmen will simply be bad with those upgrades and it might even be outside of legal rules, having to rely on house rules instead.

What is your question?

Guardsmen have no option to take carapace Armor and elysians are out of production. You could run your guardsmen as skitarii rangers tho.

My first thought would be Vostroyans, but they are oop, and do not play differently from regular Guard afaik.

You might consider the whole ‘Nobles as Knights, Commoners as Foot’ thing, and put your Nobles in tanks?

If you want an Infantry army of Nobles, Scions are the only Guard option I know of. To get a more ‘elite’ feel, why not think about using the Marine Codex? You could use Scouts as your troops, and the rest would have a suitably well equipped feel compared to normal Guard.

Take as much time as you need thinking it out - your army should be one you play even when it looses.

Carapace is definitely not more comfortable given what it weighs...
And the scintilla fusileers do use lasguns - good craftsmanship but still lasguns.

If you want to use more scion parts, go ahead. The most notable "noble guardsmen" you see on the table top is the Ventrillian Nobles, using Pistoleer bits.

You could build a Militarum Tempestus Regiment. They are quite fun to play and I think they resemble the "noble" / special state that you desire.

Although it has to mentioned, that I don't play them competitively and therefore I can't say how effective the are in such an environment.

Anvil Industries and similar shops offer a nice range of possible models

course if you wanna do a nobles thing, you could also do Imperial Knights with Imperial Guard. the nobles pilots the big stompy robots and are supported by their infantry men-at-arms

Thank you for suggestions. Yes, I do want to a do noble regiment. I'm not sure if there are any officially supported regiment which has noble heritage, but I'm fine with converting models and/or pretending that someone else are in fact nobles. Like for example taking squad of Imperial Scions and converting their models to look like nobles. It would be a lot easier to tell my opponent that you should treat this model as Imperial Scions rather than trying to explain your opponent just how many different rules you broke in making your regiment.


There were also good suggestion with Imperial Knights. I could buy one Imperial Knight, add it as Lord of War support to my Imperial regiments and pretending that this formation is coming from a noble house while guardsmen are peasants belonging to that noble house. I'm just new to tabletop, can I take Imperial Knight models and add it to my Imperial Guard regiment?

Play Scions, and convert suitably.

Aside from Regimental doctrines, there’s no way to upgrade Guardsmen in 8th. Scions fits your armour and weapon preferences, and you can convert to your heart’s content.

 Ernestas wrote:
Thank you for suggestions. Yes, I do want to a do noble regiment. I'm not sure if there are any officially supported regiment which has noble heritage, but I'm fine with converting models and/or pretending that someone else are in fact nobles. Like for example taking squad of Imperial Scions and converting their models to look like nobles. It would be a lot easier to tell my opponent that you should treat this model as Imperial Scions rather than trying to explain your opponent just how many different rules you broke in making your regiment.


There were also good suggestion with Imperial Knights. I could buy one Imperial Knight, add it as Lord of War support to my Imperial regiments and pretending that this formation is coming from a noble house while guardsmen are peasants belonging to that noble house. I'm just new to tabletop, can I take Imperial Knight models and add it to my Imperial Guard regiment?

you absolutely can, although you won't IIRC get the knight househoild traits unless you take several. but it's absolutely legit. Knights being piloted by nobles and infantry and tanks in support by the commoners is pretty much the norm of how they work the nice thing about that is Knights are big, ovious, and can support colourful Hereldry. all of which is, IMHO a valuable way to do the idea you have, the problem with doing say a "all noble" guard regiment (and those do exist in the lore) is that ultimately It'd be IMHO a bit unsastifying as all you do is point at your guys and assure the other player (whom is slaughtering them) that they're all blue bloods.

If yuou don't wanna do knights the idea someone else had of having the nobles be tank riders while the commoners are infantry is another good idea as you can then paint up your tanks with fancy hereldry.

 Ernestas wrote:



There were also good suggestion with Imperial Knights. I could buy one Imperial Knight, add it as Lord of War support to my Imperial regiments and pretending that this formation is coming from a noble house while guardsmen are peasants belonging to that noble house. I'm just new to tabletop, can I take Imperial Knight models and add it to my Imperial Guard regiment?

In that Case there is no need for pretending. That is exactly how imperial Knights Roll. Knights ARE nobles and foot soldiers from knight worlds ARE peasants

Yes you can field a single knight in a superheavy auxiliary detachment in addition to guard. Rulewise it would be smarter to field a superheavy detachment with a knight and two armigers to unlock house traits.

Hmm, thank you for helping me out. I will buy an Imperial Knight and then see if I want peasants supporting my Titan or calling help from other nobles houses and attaching "Tempestus Scions" as my troops. Probably combination of two would be the best. I would go with "quality" IG regiments, preferring to upgrade my troops over deploying more of them. This is how I would reflect that noble regiments being richer and better connected than most other regiments.

I also have a Knight House which I like most. House Raven. Though, their heradly and colouring could be a lot better.


But what I had noticed that while there is an excelen Adeptus Astartes support by GW, I somehow miss same love to IG. Even most iconic regiments like Krieg doesn't have its own unique model line (Forgeworld is more for enthusiasts or very niche figures) and their own unique rules. I might be wrong since I do not own the guard, but I don't see an option to play Cadian, Krieg, Elysian army. It feels more like Astra Militarum army with some specific troops attached to them at best. I do not see a lot of regiments to be even represented in the slightest.

An example of the type - https://www.goonhammer.com/army-showcase-srms-knights-of-house-lakar-and-household-guard/

 Ernestas wrote:
Hmm, thank you for helping me out. I will buy an Imperial Knight and then see if I want peasants supporting my Titan or calling help from other nobles houses and attaching "Tempestus Scions" as my troops. Probably combination of two would be the best. I would go with "quality" IG regiments, preferring to upgrade my troops over deploying more of them. This is how I would reflect that noble regiments being richer and better connected than most other regiments.

I also have a Knight House which I like most. House Raven. Though, their heradly and colouring could be a lot better.


But what I had noticed that while there is an excelen Adeptus Astartes support by GW, I somehow miss same love to IG. Even most iconic regiments like Krieg doesn't have its own unique model line (Forgeworld is more for enthusiasts or very niche figures) and their own unique rules. I might be wrong since I do not own the guard, but I don't see an option to play Cadian, Krieg, Elysian army. It feels more like Astra Militarum army with some specific troops attached to them at best. I do not see a lot of regiments to be even represented in the slightest.

You nicht want to Check Out https://www.anvilindustry.co.uk/

There you can build your own custom soldiers. The quality is very nice with very little cleaning effort and the prices are reasonable.

On carapace v flak
Flak is an interesting technology because its a high tech flexible armour (like kevlar) that is designed to dissipate heat from laser weapons and energy from blasts.


It can take almost any form:
Fatigues, overcoat, vests etc. Which is to say, the Highborn regiments are using the same protective tech as the lowborn peasants, even though their uniforms may have more or less frogging and decorative buckles.

There are also heavier and lighter forms of the armour- a Cadian would be wearing heavier flak armour than a catachan's lighter vest (or no vest).

Ingame this makes no difference.

Carapace is a different technology, which is more like traditional armour plate. Carapace is unsuitable for a regular guard regiment because of production costs and mobility concerns.
Its specifically given to storm troopers (tempestus scions) and grenadiers who are not typically called on to stand in a trench for several years or force march across a continent. Storm troopers, grenadiers and by extension, guard regiments with carapace would be specialised tools designed to break hard targets with heavy assault from dropships or careful infiltration.

If you do want a more elite fighting human army in heavier armour I'd recommend scions as a base for the rules. If you just want men of privilege in fancy uniforms then the regular rules should have you sorted and there is a wealth of historical and guard kits that you can use to build them.

Catulle wrote:
An example of the type - https://www.goonhammer.com/army-showcase-srms-knights-of-house-lakar-and-household-guard/

Yup, it is an amazing army. Not for my taste, but this is exactly what I want to build. I would prefer to have less Knights and more Imperial Guard. I would treat it either as lord's personal attache or honor guard of lesser nobles serving alongside them. Is there any motivation to pick so many Knights rule wise? I'm imagining more of a Freeblade knight at least at first and saying that all these guard, stormtrooper, tanks are just extension of Lord's own personal house.


If I want for example to create my own regiment/knight house, I can freely choose heradly and color scheme? What about traits? Are there any specific rules for a custom built army like a list of abilities/talents which can be picked for your army or knights? Or I can only do "skin swap". That is, taking rules, houses and units which exist and calling my units to be equivalent to something else?

You could run armored or mechanized ig to make them feel more elite. Also relic weapons like baneblades will help to that end.

You seem to be quite in luck. depending on where you play, you have a fair few options you can go to in order to make your imperial guard look the way you want to. much better odds outside of the company though.

If your looking for another opinion, i recommend looking at the potential companies out there that give a look you may want, victoria miniatures being one (my eyes on wargames atlantic), and then figuring out the way to truely make it your own. generally speaking you can run your army with any of the regimental rules on offer once you have a general model theme. i don't know why, but what your asking for smells of mordian rulesets by default, but you could apply any regimental rule you'd want to your guard so far as i know.

..this all said, a historically based army running about under a imperial knight since such a world could even be feudal in appearance could make for quite a shock on the table, and an intriguing project to do.

 Ernestas wrote:
I would prefer to have less Knights and more Imperial Guard. I would treat it either as lord's personal attache or honor guard of lesser nobles serving alongside them. Is there any motivation to pick so many Knights rule wise? I'm imagining more of a Freeblade knight at least at first and saying that all these guard, stormtrooper, tanks are just extension of Lord's own personal house.

So it's down to wanting to fill detachment minimums to get those yummy command points. As a Super Heavy detachment dishes out 3 CP, that's why you tend to see clumps of Knights (midi and mini) rather than spending those points on no or negative CP.

To fit your narrative needs, I'd suggest picking your favourite knight to be your lord-character and accompanying it with a couple of armigers ("squires", personal retainers, huscarls or such) which should run around 700-800 points, then go crazy on the Imperial Guard. The armigers will help bridge the visual gap between a knight and all the little warpeeps as well as providing you with a solid chunk of extra command points.

 Ernestas wrote:
If I want for example to create my own regiment/knight house, I can freely choose heradly and color scheme? What about traits? Are there any specific rules for a custom built army like a list of abilities/talents which can be picked for your army or knights? Or I can only do "skin swap". That is, taking rules, houses and units which exist and calling my units to be equivalent to something else?

At present I believe it's re skinning (and a significant advantage to picking your own scheme as there's no risk of confusing anybody on the tabletop) but... Knights and Guard are due some stuff in the Psychic Awakening series of books that may well give them a bit more play re bespoke rules traits (much like the Eldar, Chaos SM and Tyranids have gotten - be aware of the ol' GW rules scattergun effect though) with may give you plenty of space in which to experiment.

IG is one of the easiest army to build your fluff and models, if you want 100% GW, then look at scions, FW 30k IG for your carapace models; if you’re ok with 3rd party bits, then look at madrobot miniatures and Victoria as mentioned above for conversion parts.

Based on your description, your regiment seem like the ‘blue bloods’ in one of either gaunt’s ghost or Cain novels; they’re very praetorian like in the fluff.

Thank you for your suggestions. Indeed I was thinking about 1 Knight supported with 2 mini-knights.

I'm thinking about adding "custom" symbols. One is to reflect our historic cavalry and another to add my noble's house coat of arms.


My nation is quite famed for its legendary cavalry. I want to apply some principles of their warfare into w40k century. In a sense that I want my army to reflect superior discipline, training, tactics, technology which had made our raiders so powerful. I also want to replicate this cavalry's great historic cost and their limited battlefield role. Winged hussars were good for only and only one thing. It was decisive battle. They would charge into enemy and force them to flee or until they themselves get to the point of absolute exhaustion. I do believe that heavy mechanized infantry maybe even supported with gunship and deep insertion troops is a way to go. I do not know how viable it is or which armies would reflect best such elite, heavily mechanized style. They also were exclusively nobles to best of my knowledge. I know that Winged Hussars would sometimes refuse to take orders from their superiors if they weren't of proper, blue blood. Winged Hussar theme seems to be a perfect fit here to me!

My army would not have thematic feeling of being regulars, soldiers who fight wars through start to finish. Nor those would be some lowly siege units. These would be breakthrough, encirclement troops focused on brief, intensive and important singular battles. I will work out my ideas when I will be creating my army. It is difficult to figure on a go how I want to play. Artillery or heavy weapons doesn't feel like something which would fit such people. They have to have sense of high mobility and expensive assets. For artillery support I'm thinking of Leman Russ with howitzers or Marauder bombers, but I do want to get feeling that this regiment is airborne or tank based. I have quite few things to figure out before I can decide what units I might need in my IG regiment.


There is a lot to think about it and I see it will be quite expensive and long project to get my IG army just the way I want them to be. It seems to be an interesting project to do after I will get other, cheaper and simpler armies first and start rolling. These hobbies can be damn expensive and I spend quite a bit every time I go to my hobby shop. It doesn't help that I have starter set in every major game in the club.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Bdrone wrote:
You seem to be quite in luck. depending on where you play, you have a fair few options you can go to in order to make your imperial guard look the way you want to. much better odds outside of the company though.

If your looking for another opinion, i recommend looking at the potential companies out there that give a look you may want, victoria miniatures being one (my eyes on wargames atlantic), and then figuring out the way to truely make it your own. generally speaking you can run your army with any of the regimental rules on offer once you have a general model theme. i don't know why, but what your asking for smells of mordian rulesets by default, but you could apply any regimental rule you'd want to your guard so far as i know.

..this all said, a historically based army running about under a imperial knight since such a world could even be feudal in appearance could make for quite a shock on the table, and an intriguing project to do.

I will use this thread as a reference later on when I will be building my regiment. Why do you recommend me Moridian ruleset?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 =Angel= wrote:
On carapace v flak
Flak is an interesting technology because its a high tech flexible armour (like kevlar) that is designed to dissipate heat from laser weapons and energy from blasts.
Carapace is a different technology, which is more like traditional armour plate. Carapace is unsuitable for a regular guard regiment because of production costs and mobility concerns.
Its specifically given to storm troopers (tempestus scions) and grenadiers who are not typically called on to stand in a trench for several years or force march across a continent. Storm troopers, grenadiers and by extension, guard regiments with carapace would be specialised tools designed to break hard targets with heavy assault from dropships or careful infiltration.

If you do want a more elite fighting human army in heavier armour I'd recommend scions as a base for the rules. If you just want men of privilege in fancy uniforms then the regular rules should have you sorted and there is a wealth of historical and guard kits that you can use to build them.

Well, nobles are notorious for glory seeking, avoiding sweat and blood of the war and can't stand routine tasks. Noblemen by default want to be in most important battles and play most important roles. Historically they would always take up such roles when noble regiments had been formed. Either it would be french heavy cavalry or dismounted knights. Such soldiers were rarely wasted on such pointless tasks as patrol duties or sieges. In W40k I think my regiment should act as a spearhead formation. Scions as mechanized with heavy support of IFV, tanks, aircraft and knights. This would symbolize their wealth due to heavy presence of equipment and vehicles per infantry men. Their prestige and political outreach. In the end it would also play nicely into nobles forming into their own elite formations with most prestigious noble houses piloting knights while being supported by lesser houses as scions and their equipment. I do think it is appropriate when creating such formations to expect each and every soldier being equipped with hellgun and carapace armour, because they care fare less about the routine and every day life of a soldier and are more focused on actually fighting the enemy and just resting in backlines as reserve formations when they are not directly engaging the enemy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Alkaline_Hound wrote:
You could run armored or mechanized ig to make them feel more elite. Also relic weapons like baneblades will help to that end.

Thank you for a suggestion, but I dislike idea of baneblades and other super heavy tanks, because first of all, they are relics. They are not produced nearly enough to fill a demand for them. Nobles are more likely to hoard the relics than to use them. Secondly, I do not want to use them, because these tanks seem like behemoths. They are slow, ponderous and seem like they would get bogged down in more difficult terrain for armored vehicles. I would like to even have lighter Leman Russ variant, because Leman Russ are not made for mobile warfare. It is big and slow. I'm thinking about Carnodon Battle Tank with Volkite cannon.

 Ernestas wrote:


My nation is quite famed for its legendary cavalry. I want to apply some principles of their warfare into w40k century. In a sense that I want my army to reflect superior discipline, training, tactics, technology which had made our raiders so powerful. I also want to replicate this cavalry's great historic cost and their limited battlefield role. Winged hussars were good for only and only one thing. It was decisive battle. They would charge into enemy and force them to flee or until they themselves get to the point of absolute exhaustion. I do believe that heavy mechanized infantry maybe even supported with gunship and deep insertion troops is a way to go. I do not know how viable it is or which armies would reflect best such elite, heavily mechanized style. They also were exclusively nobles to best of my knowledge. I know that Winged Hussars would sometimes refuse to take orders from their superiors if they weren't of proper, blue blood. Winged Hussar theme seems to be a perfect fit here to me!

My army would not have thematic feeling of being regulars, soldiers who fight wars through start to finish. Nor those would be some lowly siege units. These would be breakthrough, encirclement troops focused on brief, intensive and important singular battles. I will work out my ideas when I will be creating my army. It is difficult to figure on a go how I want to play. Artillery or heavy weapons doesn't feel like something which would fit such people. They have to have sense of high mobility and expensive assets. For artillery support I'm thinking of Leman Russ with howitzers or Marauder bombers, but I do want to get feeling that this regiment is airborne or tank based. I have quite few things to figure out before I can decide what units I might need in my IG regiment.


There is a lot to think about it and I see it will be quite expensive and long project to get my IG army just the way I want them to be. It seems to be an interesting project to do after I will get other, cheaper and simpler armies first and start rolling. These hobbies can be damn expensive and I spend quite a bit every time I go to my hobby shop. It doesn't help that I have starter set in every major game in the club.

*Sabaton intensifies*

If you want to replicate the aesthetic of the winged hussars, and you aren't tied to GW minis, there are 28mm hussars available. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0288/8306/products/wgb-17-winged-hussars-b.jpeg?v=1383702466
You could mix the armour parts with infantry for officers or just field them as rough riders, which are in legends now. You arent stuck for choice with GW horses either, and Dark Angels bits can provide the hussary wings if you need them.

If you want to modernise the concept, you have air cavalry and mechanised infantry, In addition to fast tanks like the hellhound and its variants. Consider the winged hussar models above piloting open cockpit sentinel walkers (with or without wings attached) for a different play on the knight and his steed (the imperial knight and tank commander already do this)

Yup, I'm thinking of noble troops who are following tradition of Winged Hussars. They are an elite formation meant for rapid and intensive battles, so I consider only modern equipment.




The problem which I find is that W40k has small variety in individual units. It is understandable, because they support a lot of miniatures, but what to do if I find Leman Russ unsuited for such regiment? There is no other tank for IG. You can't use Predators. Luckily not so long ago GW released Carnodon Battle Tank. It is legal and has background in the lore. It fits better into entire fantasy of such regiment, because Leman Russ are slow, cumbersome tanks. Their mobility is comparable to lighter, more nimble superheavies. They are not fit for rapid advance or to spearhead assaults.


In the end, there are tons of ways I can go about making these regiments. I'm thinking if it would be better to use Marauder bombers as form of artillery and have two more aircraft attached. One Valkyrie and another multi role fighter. It is all about how everything fits into narrative. I'm imagining that artillery even mobile requires protection and is slow to dish out damage. I do not see mechanized rocket artillery. One with ICBM type missile would be thematic too. Regiment not much as bombard area, but obliterates it and then advances. It is all up to my imagination.

 Ernestas wrote:

Bdrone wrote:
You seem to be quite in luck. depending on where you play, you have a fair few options you can go to in order to make your imperial guard look the way you want to. much better odds outside of the company though.

If your looking for another opinion, i recommend looking at the potential companies out there that give a look you may want, victoria miniatures being one (my eyes on wargames atlantic), and then figuring out the way to truely make it your own. generally speaking you can run your army with any of the regimental rules on offer once you have a general model theme. i don't know why, but what your asking for smells of mordian rulesets by default, but you could apply any regimental rule you'd want to your guard so far as i know.

..this all said, a historically based army running about under a imperial knight since such a world could even be feudal in appearance could make for quite a shock on the table, and an intriguing project to do.

I will use this thread as a reference later on when I will be building my regiment. Why do you recommend me Moridian ruleset?

the concept of a disciplined force is the mainstay of the guard, but this noble bearing thing reminded me of praetorian styled models. theres no official praetorian rules, so then i thought Mordian. thing is, some of what your implying- especially the winged hussar bits- has me thinking just saying forget tying to any specific ruleset, and pick the one you like most in battle. really, if mobility is what you seek, Tallarn. if disciplined accuracy is what your after, Cadia. i do not think you'll be able to carry over the rules of tempestus to the normal guard line or visa versa if you brought them both.. but don't quote me on that one, im not sure exactly how they ruled the tempestus. if you really want the tempestus statline, it may just have to be a sacrifice given.

Regardless, depending on how you do this you have historical mini's, a number of alt shops and then some to try. me currently im eyeing the les grognards from wargames atlantic for an idea involving some headswaps for an entire army of guardswomen with sweet greatcoats.

..or maybe some gue'vesa. dunno yet.

I think, I had figured out the concept for my noble regiments. I was thinking about backstory, world, that makes sense to them. I'm still thinking about which units I should include. I'm thinking of Imperial Navy Marauder Destroyer or simple Marauder for artillery support and naturally, some heavy fighter and probably a Valkyrie.

There are a lot of nobility and noble houses. Some are noble, chivalrous others are oligarchic, ruling solely on a basis of wealth. I think that a lot of people never heard about noble mercenaries. Historically, they distinguished themselves by their political ties, not only being more valued as mercenaries due to their reliability and equipment, but also due to their political ties. Historically noble mercenaries would often manage to get a better deals for their services, often due to their own social status and diplomatic skills. When dealing with noble mercenaries, it is not only about being paid in cash now or every month, but also about their rights, legal debts to their men, etc. I want to fit this narrative into W40k where a Knight world who had forsaken "aid" of an Imperium had chosen to remain a civilized world. A world which had developed naturally and is self-sustaining in everything. World which possesses high technology of Adeptus Mechanicus, has significant industrial, agriculturial output on its own. World which is still habitable and preserved eco-system. At the same time, this world is not an industrial powerhouse which more specialized planets in an Imperium are.

This planet is ruled by an Emperor. Of course official designation is planetary governor. He and his family is an symbolic form of supreme power, real power is held between counsel of high nobles. It is a form of oligarchic and imperial governance where the Emperor and his family always inherent throne first. Yet, his primary purpose is not to rule, but to mediate. It is his primary responsibility to mediate conflicts and disputes between nobles. To ensure that their rights are properly enforced and never violated by one stronger. Emperor also has emergency powers and liberium veto rights meant to mobilize and organize planet in crisis in addition of curbing out nobility when it overreaches its own rights and threatens power of balance.

Planet's culture is one of selfishness, perfectionism and self absorption. It is common practice to shun family members who are of not sufficient beauty and mind, sending them to Adeptus Mechanicus to train as their knights technicians. For this very reason, uplifting members from lower classes due to their own physical beauty is quite common practice, referred as of "thickening the blood". Due to historic reasons, ruling elite had thrown traditional concepts of nobility and had embraced mercenary mindset, always preferring to work for a highest bidder. Planet's nobility is highly individualistic and very defensive of their freedoms and rights. Each noble house is like a planet on itself, each with its own cities, serfs, rules, traditions all tailored to house's preferences. Yet, one unifying feature is rampant militarism which planet endures. There is no greater show of house power than their own house fortress, complete with orbitional defenses, void generators, impregnable walls and countless defensive lines. Generation upon generation competes with each rivaling house for prestige shown through their martial power.

This culture has taken root due to unique inherence culture within planet's nobility. Only males can inherent wealth of noble house which is equally divided between suitable heirs. In order for a boy to become a man and thus, worthy of their own inherence, each of them must earn this right upon field of battle. Only after spending better part of their life earning glory on a battlefield and returning home they can be embraced as heirs to their throne. This had lead to each noble house being personally concerned about their own chances in war. Thus, they train extensively, are provided with the finest equipment. Their armories are always fully stocked with finest of equipment. Their men are always receive obscene levels of support not only from close air support, artillery or heavy vehicles, but Knights themselves are never too far away from their formations. This tight nit formation of combined arms are in no doubt of grave violation of Imperial law, yet through technical loophole, Knight houses argue that these troops are just mere extension of their Knight combat group.

Of course, in Imperium that is prohibited and everyone must contribute equally and without compensation. Yet, the planetary noble houses are nothing if not shrewd diplomats who play fragmented and highly politicised Imperium like a flute. Showing most enthusiasm and preventing all "accidents and mishaps" which can inevitably occur when one has to send their own forces through vast distances in the Imperium. This attitude to Emperor's service had earned them animosity from the Imperium at large. Yet, skilful maneuvering had made them ready allies from countless Imperial institutions who requires to circumvent pointlessly rigid rules of an Imperium. For example, Ecclesiarchy is ever in need of troops. Sisters of battle while ever so potent, are forever few in numbers. Planet's nobility had became fast friends with Adeptus Ministorum providing eager and unconditional help without asking too many pointless questions about the nature of their assignments. Their servitude to immortal God Emperor is often richly rewarded.

Another strong ally comes from the Inquisition. Inquisitors are forever weary of each other acquiring too much power in subtle power game that they play. Planet's knighthood provides Inquisition with a perfect solution to unfortunate voes of an Inquisition. They are not tied to Inquisitor personally and thus incur less suspicion from fellow Inquisitors as they know that House services are often short lasting. Yet, with their warmachines, Inquisitors receive flexible and heavy support which normally would be out of their reach or extremely bothersome to acquire. March of Imperial knights, supported with their expeditionary fleet, airforce, tanks and heavy infantry are matched only by full scale deployment of Astra Militarium. In return, Inquisition often overlooks countless violations on behalf of nobles and provides them with sufficient political backing to maintain their rights and individuality in ruthless Imperial hierarchy. Ensuring that despite their poor reputation in an Imperium, they would always be first to receive aid and last to provide aid.

Flexible nature of their tithes which they send to an Imperium had made them unlikely allies with Adeptus Mechanicus. Favor which house receives from Inquisition and their shrewd diplomatic maneuvering allows them to disregard several rules and to provide their aid as they see fit. Their forces operate far too similarly as Adeptus Astartes. Only through political games, favours, debts and influence house constant violations, freedoms and rights are being protected from censure. In the end, this very freedom is that allowed planet to grow rich beyond comparison. By being in practice removed from Imperial chain of command as long as they serve in a name of God Emperor and Imperium, they can provide their tithe of armed forces to an Imperium in whatever manner they seem most fitting. This freedom was exceptionally useful to Adeptus Mechanicus expeditionary forces who are forever on a hunt for lost technology in most remote regions of the galaxy. House knights provide Mechanicus with heavy support which often they themselves lack. House also had signed plenty of long term oaths of protection to nearby Forge Worlds. In return, priesthood shows their own appreciation of putting their interest first with availability of most advanced technologies, equipment, vehicles, aircraft, spaceship built to their specific needs at the highest standard possible.

I would suggest not using the title "emperor" for the planetary ruler. I can't imagine that'd be seen as acceptable in the IoM.

Perhaps instead you could go with High King, Tzar (suggesting a russian herriatge) Ceaser, Kaiser, Mikado (Japanese for emperor)

you might btw wanna do some research into Knight worlds, they might give you some ideas.

Well, that is somewhat iffy subject. By definition, planets are free to run things as they see fit as long as their duties are fulfilled. How Imperial agencies would react to someone calling himself as an Emperor is unexplored territory, especially to planet farther apart from their center of power. It is also a nice hint that planet only pays lip service to Imperium and does its duties dutifully to avoid complications. Maybe I should look for more subtle ways of giving one self such title in public.

https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/bnlupq/planetary_governor_titles/

It isn't, really.

They sent an assassin after Cardinal Xaphan for far less.

Oh, he was far from innocent. It is one thing to claim a title, it is another altogether to amass power which is specifically forbidden for you to have, openly plan vague crusades to purge Imperium of darkness and to defacto claim control of Imperial world.