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I am currently listening to Damocles on audiobook, and it is has inspired me to potentially make a very small Catachan force. Despite being in the hobby for almost 20 years, I know very little about the Imperial Guard especially the Catachan. Being a long time Space Marine player of many varieties, I have tended to migrate to their novels, and back stories.

My question is, do the Catachan use Commissars? Having found no evidence of them in Damocles thus far, I do not know how to answer my own question. If so, do they wear a traditional garb, or are they more down dressed similar to the Catachan Jungle Fighters? I think it would be pretty fun/interesting to convert some Commissars with sleeveless shirts etc... I can't imagine a Commissar strutting through a jungle in a traditional Heavy Coat. But, armies have been known to do dumber stuff before.

Commissars are not usually from the regiment themselves, in order to keep them objective over their assigned men. Catachans are definitely given them, though due to their insular and independent nature a lot of Commissars attached to Catachan regiments tend to get conveniently killed by "accidental" friendly fire cases. The few who do survive are likely to "go native" to an extent by earning their respect in combat or not being overly zealous in their executions.

As mentioned, Catachans don’t play well with others. They tend to be organized in Family / Clan type structures. They value each other’s lives greatly, and tend to get rid of authority figures that don’t share their values.

Once upon a time, the Catachan rulebook made you roll a d6 if a commissar would execute a trooper. On a certain roll, the Commissar was killed instead, and the Catachans would fall back.

So Commissars that survive Catachan assignments tend to adapt to the Catachan way of doing things or they get a replacement.

Yeah, Commissars attached to Catachan regiments either go native or have accidents.

I'm planning on using this guy (from Anvil) as a Catachan Commissar / officer:

Hehe. It's nice that the guy has a chain sword with a handle designed explicitly to help him pose in the buffiest manner possible

Gunshow pattern chainsword?

It is a really good.model though. Love the bionics.

That model is excellent.

 greatbigtree wrote:
As mentioned, Catachans don’t play well with others. They tend to be organized in Family / Clan type structures. They value each other’s lives greatly, and tend to get rid of authority figures that don’t share their values.

Once upon a time, the Catachan rulebook made you roll a d6 if a commissar would execute a trooper. On a certain roll, the Commissar was killed instead, and the Catachans would fall back.

So Commissars that survive Catachan assignments tend to adapt to the Catachan way of doing things or they get a replacement.

I just checked the 3rd ed codex supplement. When deploying them you rolled a d6, with a 1-in-6 chance of them being killed before hitting the table. After that they were fine.

--

That model is very cool. Think of the extra grip not just for posing, but if you need a little extra leverage to dislodge the sword from some giant things skull.

They do use commissars are the latter is not originated from the same planet but instead dispatched by a larger institution that also trains them. It is mentionned, if I remmeber well, in the IG codex however, that they tend to dislike them and ruin their life if they ever become too authoritarian. So you can very well includ eno commissar into your force and imagine they were lynched a while ago.

beast_gts wrote:
Yeah, Commissars attached to Catachan regiments either go native or have accidents.

I'm planning on using this guy (from Anvil) as a Catachan Commissar / officer:

Spoiler:

That model is awesome. I will bookmark him, and save him for a rainy day if I do indeed build a small Catachan force. I was also thinking about converting some of the Commissar models I already own to them as well. I have Dark Hunters(which is s GW White Scars successor)so it would be cool to field them both in a narrative game.

Thanks to everyone else that provided info, that pretty much clears it up. I'm thinking the next step would be picking up the IG Codex.

In one of the Cain books, Cain comments on seeing a Commissar following a Catachan Major, like a gretchen following an Ork.

They indeed use (or Commissars get attached to) Catachan units. That commissar will have to earn respect by being a capable fighter and reasonable person, Every Catachan officer has to earn the respect of his/her troops through merit alone.

This quote summarizes it to the letter.

Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.
- Sun Tzu

Commissar that is overly zealous or think he can order the men around as he wishes won't be accepted well and will likely have an "accident", like being stomped on by a Sentinel.

In the Straken novel, it shows the culture clash between catachan and commissar.

Commissars are all trained by schola progenium, so they value traditional Imperial values:
Proper grooming, shiny buttons, unthinking obedience, poise, instilling fear.

catcahans value personal combat prowess, loyalty to one another and tend to let uniform/grooming standards slide where sensible. They also 'talk back' to officers with banter.

Commissars can view all of this as heretical- with good reason after all.

As has been noted above- either the commissar goes native and learns to inspire though personal deeds and demonstrable loyalty, or he inevitably tries to exert his authority through force- at which point he risks being killed by his men.

The rule used to be called 'oops sorry sir'

Sorry for the slight necro, but today's Black Library email is about The Price of Duty -

Few duties can strike as much fear in a commissar as serving with a regiment of troopers from the Death World of Catachan. For Commissar Jasper Nevin, that fear has become reality…

READ IT BECAUSE
Matt Smith takes a grim and darkly comic look at the relationship between the Catachan Jungle Fighters and their commissars.

THE STORY
Jasper Nevin is a commissar… and he is afraid. Not even the rigorous and brutal teachings of the Schola Progenium have truly shaken the fear from him, and as he faces rebel soldiers, fear takes him. But in truth, it is not Nevin's enemies who scare him the most, but the troopers who it is his responsibility to shepherd… the warriors of the Catachan 64th. With his authority in tatters and the Catachans rarely more than a moment from violence, Nevin faces an uncertain future…

It's not "lynched", its fragged. It was picked up from Vietnam era American GI's habit of killing their own new officers, when that officer thought it was a good idea to charge machine gun nest in deep jungles.

Find an AK47. Show the officer the AK. Shoot that officer in the face with that AK. Obviously he was killed in the line of duty by the Viet Cong, because he was shot with an AK.

The same would apply with ork shootas.

Yes and no. Commisars are force upon them by the greater Imperial War Machine but if the Commisar gets in their way in almost any capacity the Commisar will..... meet his end under some veeeeery suspicious cincumstances.

In both the stories Straken by Toby Frost and the short story Predation of the Eagle by Peter McLean the Commisars are... disposed of. In the former, the Commisar takes a tumble from the back of a jeep in Ork infested Territory while in the latter the Commisar was found murdered in a tent. Though the word "Catichan" is never used to describe the jungle unit in the latter its implied they are Catachan or at least a jungle fighters unit.

So YES to answer your question..... But not for very long

To believe the commissar's quarters double up as the munitions dump for krak grenades.

Obviously their pins are kept elsewhere for safety reasons.

nareik wrote:
To believe the commissar's quarters double up as the munitions dump for krak grenades.

Obviously their pins are kept elsewhere for safety reasons.

I imagine a hand painted sign that reads, "Please place all frag/HE grenades here. Please place all grenade pins there ====>"

Probably as bait for Tyranids, or as bait for squigs, or as bait for local Fauna.
Also as bait for hamdgreanades with no Pin, as inteligent artillery beacon, etc.

Or the rare few that have adapted, as fellow squad mates.