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Hello everyone.

I already have the First Concordian Armored Regiment you may see in my sig; however, I am building a new regiment! This time it is a superheavy tank regiment of the Imperial Guard, and will comprise (soon enough) two Baneblade companies of three tanks each, one Shadowsword company of three Shadowswords, and a Regimental Command Stormhammer. I have one baneblade company finished being painted -- they're Battleship Grey with a medium-weight Urban weathering and battle damage.

What I need help with is:

Name: I don't know what to call the Regiment. I could just call it the 2nd Concordian Heavy Tank Regiment, but bleh. That just sounds boring, and as you may understand, the paint scheme is different. Also the fighting style is completely different from the 1st, owing to the use of the more versatile Baneblade over the Leman Russ. This name can be creative and flavorful (such as the Malvolian Suppression Regiment or somesuch), as the 1CAR is my "bog-standard" regiment.

Function: I dunno why, but I really really wanted to weather these baneblades with urban weathering and paint them in a matte, uniform, grey urban 'camo' (I say 'camo' because it's really just flat grey with a light grey drybrush and detailing). Why or how would a superheavy regiment voluntarily train for\engage in urban fighting?

Homeworld: I want the homeworld of the regiment to be a rich planet, but have a toxic atmosphere/no atmosphere (not so unlike Krieg), giving them the capability to afford superheavy tanks and the necessity of using some air-tight, pressurized vehicle (i.e., a superheavy tank) for training and specialization. I was thinking a manufactorum world which poisoned the air to unbreathability with factories. Other ideas would be considered though.

Official regiment names tend to be prosaic, yes. Officially it's probably just called the Second Concordian Superheavy. Most personalization would be in the form of nicknames. A big wealthy world has surely produced a great many regiments in its time so in all likelihood the single digit regimental numbers have been reused many times and have proud battle records. As an example the US 3rd ID is nicknamed "The Rock Of The Marne." A lot of other US divisions are simply nicknamed after their number or iconography such as "The Big Red One" for First Infantry and "Super Sixth" for Sixth Armored. Second Concordian Superheavy, "Super Second" sounds reasonable, if perhaps lacking gravitas. Taking a turn to the left, Second Concordian Guards Tank Regiment comes to mind, optionally with "Superheavy" thrown in there at some random point.

The likely world type is Hive. They frequently have toxic atmospheres due to the industrial pollution from the hives. All those megacities and billions of citizens aren't just for show; they produce an awful lot of stuff. Regiments there train in urban warfare because city is one of the two terrain types that exist on the planet, the other one being toxic ash dunes.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
Why or how would a superheavy regiment voluntarily train for\engage in urban fighting?

When there's an enemy in an urban area that needs to be killed. But there are two issues with the "voluntary" part:

1) Your choice of tanks is, with the possible exception of the Stormhammer, all long-range variants. Shadowswords are dedicated titan killers that are rarely deployed unless enemy superheavy targets are on the battlefield, and their slow-charging laser weapons are not really suitable for close-range fights against infantry targets in cover. The Baneblades at least have a main gun with enough of a blast effect to deal with typical urban targets, but their long range is still kind of wasted. A regiment trained and equipped for urban fighting would want Stormswords instead of the Shadowswords, and at least one company of Hellhammers instead of a Baneblade company. Both of those variants are specifically designed for urban fighting, so it's really odd that you'd have an urban regiment that doesn't get either of them.

2) You don't have any support units. It's possible that someone higher up the chain of command might decide to throw your regiment into a suicide mission without support, but I can't imagine any sane tank commander volunteering for the job. Tanks in an urban environment are incredibly vulnerable to infantry, and superheavies are no exception. In fact, superheavies are even more vulnerable, since they're big appealing targets that have even more trouble than a LRBT with obstacles/narrow roads/etc, and they're much less expendable.

and the necessity of using some air-tight, pressurized vehicle (i.e., a superheavy tank) for training and specialization.

This doesn't make much sense. Why would they need to go all the way up to superheavies instead of an airtight LRBT modification?

Also the fighting style is completely different from the 1st, owing to the use of the more versatile Baneblade over the Leman Russ.

And I kind of disagree with this. The Baneblade is only more versatile on the tabletop, and only because its major flaws don't matter on the scale of a single 40k game. The Baneblade has major problems with fuel consumption, being too heavy to cross bridges, slow speed between battles, extreme cost/rarity and the knowledge that losing a Baneblade without good reason is a capital offense, putting all of your eggs in one nice easy to drop an airstrike on basket, etc. This limits it to the occasional fights where a tank army expects to face the toughest opposition in a known location with enough advance warning to move the superheavies into position. For most other purposes the LRBT is better, making it the more versatile tank.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
Why or how would a superheavy regiment voluntarily train for\engage in urban fighting?

When there's an enemy in an urban area that needs to be killed. But there are two issues with the "voluntary" part:

1) Your choice of tanks is, with the possible exception of the Stormhammer, all long-range variants. Shadowswords are dedicated titan killers that are rarely deployed unless enemy superheavy targets are on the battlefield, and their slow-charging laser weapons are not really suitable for close-range fights against infantry targets in cover. The Baneblades at least have a main gun with enough of a blast effect to deal with typical urban targets, but their long range is still kind of wasted. A regiment trained and equipped for urban fighting would want Stormswords instead of the Shadowswords, and at least one company of Hellhammers instead of a Baneblade company. Both of those variants are specifically designed for urban fighting, so it's really odd that you'd have an urban regiment that doesn't get either of them.

2) You don't have any support units. It's possible that someone higher up the chain of command might decide to throw your regiment into a suicide mission without support, but I can't imagine any sane tank commander volunteering for the job. Tanks in an urban environment are incredibly vulnerable to infantry, and superheavies are no exception. In fact, superheavies are even more vulnerable, since they're big appealing targets that have even more trouble than a LRBT with obstacles/narrow roads/etc, and they're much less expendable.

With those two factors combined I imagine the intended mission would be to defend against outside attack using concealed firing positions in urban sprawl. The Shadowsword in particular needs some care to avoid getting splattered by the Titan's weaponry before it can fire. Using it to storm a city is obviously much less useful or survivable. Maybe if the city has something like Berlin's flakturm you might bring it in to deal with them but that's pretty niche. Both of those situations take place in urban terrain but they aren't really what most people think of when discussing urban warfare either.

and the necessity of using some air-tight, pressurized vehicle (i.e., a superheavy tank) for training and specialization.

This doesn't make much sense. Why would they need to go all the way up to superheavies instead of an airtight LRBT modification?

Full agreement. Armageddon has the same problem and that's why their infantry models wear respirators and Armageddon pattern vehicles all have enclosed crew compartments. Tallarn during the Horus Heresy had environmental problems so bad they prevented the use of infantry but they still fought with regular tanks. In a more immediate example, the Concordian 1st isn't a superheavy regiment. There's no need for elaborate justifications for building superheavy regiments. Worlds do it because they can and they have a use for them. It could be an arbitrary reason like the Munitorum ordering the governor to tithe superheavies, or more likely the PDF wants them.

Nothing to say about the final paragraph.

You could probably call it the "Concordian Armoured Vanguard Regiment" or something to that effect. Additionally, after you play a few games with them, you could create a nickname based on their accomplishments on the battlefield.

Well in regards to the flat grey "Urban Pattern", not sure if this is canon but it's worth a shot. Perhaps the Super Heavy company was built to supplement forces around the system? That is, they would essentially have their own transport group to carry them between planets to respond where necessary.

The various planets within the system have differing ecosystems, no one camouflage/color scheme will work for all of them. So rather than investing the time and currency to paint them up in camouflage that will likely not help more than 25% of the time they're given a standard drab grey. They're massive killing machines and there's going to be no hiding them anyway.

Hope this helps!

Thanks everyone for the input.

As for city fighting, you're right, Peregrine. The Shadowsword is not meant for it. However, Cothonian gives a good reason to paint them drab grey - it just isn't worth it to paint them anything else. I am okay with this. Thank you, Cothonian.

As for why they went for superheavies instead of regular tanks, it's because all the regular Russes went to the First Concordian Armored, and the Second (since that's a good working name) got the Superheavies that came out of the Gavros forge world. Though this bit of fluff isn't particularly relevant, and I can just say "they have superheavies because that's what they're issued as a superheavy regiment."

As for the name, I think basing the name on tabletop exploits is a good idea, and maybe just a simple 2nd Concordian for the "official" title.