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My personal headcanon is that the Imperial Guard acts more or less like a modern military.
Even regiments that have a reputation for "human waves" aren't charging forwards like it's the Napoleonic era or Enemy at the Gates, they're still using actual fieldcraft. Rather like how the Red Army actually fought.

1000 marines represents the approximate number of marines in the main companies of a chapter. Vehicle crews are included in the 1000, but command and initiates are not.
Marines ARE incredibly rare in the fluff and will almost never be committed to front line combat, they're used for decisive, small scale, raids behind enemy lines.
Like modern day special forces, but even special-er.
Most humans would never even encounter an Astartes.
I believe in the Dark Heresy RPG, a discarded astartes bolt shell casing was a rare and prized trinket.

 kirotheavenger wrote:
My personal headcanon is that the Imperial Guard acts more or less like a modern military.
Even regiments that have a reputation for "human waves" aren't charging forwards like it's the Napoleonic era or Enemy at the Gates, they're still using actual fieldcraft. Rather like how the Red Army actually fought.

Eh, with the plethora of different Guard regiments and planets they've drawn from I wouldn't put it past some Regiments to have poor tactics. I do think it'll be more along the lines of a Vietnam, possibly Korea or even WWII style of warfare as opposed to WWI Western Front static lines and over-the-top-into-machinegun-fire assaults.

I've always thought the IG is 99% competent and decently led, with sufficient fieldcraft and expertise to be effective, but they're fighting super Xeno or even Chaos warriors many many times. About the only time they're on par is fighting Chaos cultists or sepratists/uncontacted. Most other cases they do have to stop the gaps in the disparity of forces with numbers. Even super agile, lightning fast reflex Eldar can't kill all the guardsmen before one eventually puts a lasbolt through their chest. Even Orks who can soak up lasbolts by the dozen can't withstand another dozen. Tyranids? Well unfortunately they use the same tactic and any losses you or they incur come back again tomorrow as respawned troops.

I agree, but I view "poor tactics" to be realistically poor tactics, rather than some hollywood caricature that they're often portrayed as.

I remember reading once that a Mordian general once had his men dressed in full parade uniforms just march up to an enemy fortress in full parade lines to take it "damned be the casualties".
It's just so ridiculous I mentally replace it.

Maybe that general is a political appointee that has never left his desk the next solar system over, and may well have *ordered* that. But actual commanders in the field would interpret that as "pack your parade uniform chaps, and we'll get changed and ready to greet the general after we've stormed the fortress properly".
Maybe the fortress itself had already been reduced to rubble and scouting forces had already confirmed it was clear. They then marched into the rubble in full parade style and the chroniclers just left out the part that no one brick was on top of another in order to make a more heroic story.

Because when you have men standing shoulder to shoulder one machine gun or artillery shell absolutely can kill them all!

 kirotheavenger wrote:

I remember reading once that a Mordian general once had his men dressed in full parade uniforms just march up to an enemy fortress in full parade lines to take it "damned be the casualties".
It's just so ridiculous I mentally replace it.
l!

I agree. While we can (mostly) agree that the Napoleonic era style of blocks of infantry marching into place and presenting arms and firing is unlikely I do tend to imagine such stories along the lines of Bernard Cornwall's Sharpe's Fortress where they attacked Gawilghur.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Gawilghur

While it wasn't quite "full dress uniform and march into their guns" I do see how a rather bad commander could have written something like that in his memoirs.

I think it is possible that there are horrendously incompetent commanders from certain worlds or cultures in the Imperium, after all it is absolutely huge and pretty much prizes ignorance and closed mindedness as great virtues.

But like others here I think those people are in the vast minority, and when the crap really hits the windmill I think they would quickly find themselves removed from command by a Commissar. That said, the Guard are already hamstrung by the conservatism of the Imperium with regard to new ideas, so in a sense all of them are using worse tactics than they might be if the Imperium was a better place.

I think natural selection would do wonders for making guard commanders competent.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I think natural selection would do wonders for making guard commanders competent.

Only works up to a point for the field commanders, not so much for the commanders far from the front lines and with powerful connections.

Take the FW Imperial Armour Vraks campaign for example. The guy in charge kept his HQ on an entirely different planet in a different star system, and spent his time at social functions or in administrative/bureaucratic meetings. He failed when the original timetable could not longer be met, but the only punishment we hear about is him being transferred elsewhere, protected by his family connections. Even though it was I think said it was to fight against the Tyranids, chances are his posting would have been another cushy office job.

Such commanders could have failure after failure and still survive. That can be how a certain level of incompetence survives in the Guard.

That's a very good point, I imagine that sort of situation would play out roughly the same way it did in the age of aristocracy.
That officer may be drummed out of the military or sent to some cushy but relatively unimportant posting, such as overseeing recruitment or something.

Iracundus wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I think natural selection would do wonders for making guard commanders competent.

Only works up to a point for the field commanders, not so much for the commanders far from the front lines and with powerful connections.

Take the FW Imperial Armour Vraks campaign for example. The guy in charge kept his HQ on an entirely different planet in a different star system, and spent his time at social functions or in administrative/bureaucratic meetings. He failed when the original timetable could not longer be met, but the only punishment we hear about is him being transferred elsewhere, protected by his family connections. Even though it was I think said it was to fight against the Tyranids, chances are his posting would have been another cushy office job.

Such commanders could have failure after failure and still survive. That can be how a certain level of incompetence survives in the Guard.

Aw c'mon, that's an unreasonable assumption! It would never happen in real life, especially not with modern day levels of communication...

 Valkyrie wrote:
One I heard from a GW staff member which I don't particularly believe, but I thought was pretty good: Sanguinius never helped the Emperor defeat Horus. He turned heretic on the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit and the Emperor had to slay them both. The Black Rage are visions of this betrayal that drives the BA to seek redemption.

Mine is more that the Emperor saw a future coming out of the Vengeful Spirit where he died, and Sanguinius took his place on the throne, and the Imperium was much better off than it was today... but he chose the future where he himself got to cling to life, and Sanguinius was dead, and the Imperium is horrible, because he viewed his sons as expendable tools whose only purpose was to serve him.

There is a secret department in the administratum called the departmento minotaurum that exists to continually supply tjr Minotaurs chapter.

They supply a never ending stream of almost pre-made astartes (recruited, kidnapped or stolen from elsewhere), mind wiped marines from other chapters that can then be reprogrammed as minotaurs (for the lulz). All the minotsurs need to do is some hypno indoctrination and theure good.

The departmento minotaurum is also responsible for maintaining the excellent logistics chain for the Minotaurs and keeping them.fully stocked with all arms, armour, fuel, ammo, latest tech (heres the primaris stuff!) Etc.

A third function is to sanitise and often, quietly erase and cover any and all references to the actions and activities of the minotaurs in the official and unofficial records.

I also like to think asterion moloc is an AI or an app, co training a reinforced personality and collective memories that is downloaded and activated via the 'extensive cybernetics' that are put into whoever dons the mantle of the warrior in question, to the extent ita almost a bastard version of a phoenix warrior.