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I understand that it's common for regiments from different guard worlds to work together once deployed. What happens if one is (mostly, but not utterly) wiped out? Say... I don't know, Cadians and Steel Legion are on a planet. The Cadians happen to lose their command structure and the bulk of their forces from some mishap/attack/whatever, but there are orphaned Cadian forces still on the planet. Maybe they were recon deployed elsewhere or fortified in another location or whatever happens to be convenient to the scenario. Will they consolidate into the Steel Legion? If so, would they actually adopt the uniforms and gear of the Steel Legion, or would they simply be attached as-is to the command structure somewhere as appropriate?

And I'm wondering this generically. The answers don't need to be Cadian and Steel Legion specific.

They get fused together into a single new regiment.
So if you have the 459th Cadian and the 217th Steel Legion fighting together on a planet named 'Examplius' they would become the 1st Examplius.

I think it's pretty unlikely that guardsmen date on a regiment wide level...

Boys! We're dumping C-Company! Those jarheads have stood up B-Brigade for the last time!

 darkcloak wrote:
I think it's pretty unlikely that guardsmen date on a regiment wide level...

Boys! We're dumping C-Company! Those jarheads have stood up B-Brigade for the last time!

Actually it's fairly common for mauled regiments to be organized into one. Otherwise either you have to disband them completely(losing you even more fighting power) or have multiple crippled ones. Reinforcements aren't really thing as it would take far too long to bring in from hundreds of light years away with warp travel being unreliable.

Generally they try to make best fit so yes if there's 2 cadian regiments they would be most likely mergers but that's not quaranteed either so then if you have mauled infantry regiment they TRY to look for another infantry(and preferably same type of infantry. No heavy and light infantry mix if possible) regiment but if that's not possible you can end up with tank and infantry regiment merge as well.

I meant like...


Yeah.

In the Caiphus Cain novels, the the Vallhalan regiment he was attached to was a new one consisting of the survivors of two other regiments that were badly mauled by Tyranids.

While they are both "the same" regiment, Caiphus goes on in his memoirs to explain that there are several patch work regiments made up of different regiments that were almost wiped out.

tneva82 wrote:

 darkcloak wrote:
I think it's pretty unlikely that guardsmen date on a regiment wide level...

Boys! We're dumping C-Company! Those jarheads have stood up B-Brigade for the last time!

Actually it's fairly common for mauled regiments to be organized into one. Otherwise either you have to disband them completely(losing you even more fighting power) or have multiple crippled ones. Reinforcements aren't really thing as it would take far too long to bring in from hundreds of light years away with warp travel being unreliable.

Generally they try to make best fit so yes if there's 2 cadian regiments they would be most likely mergers but that's not quaranteed either so then if you have mauled infantry regiment they TRY to look for another infantry(and preferably same type of infantry. No heavy and light infantry mix if possible) regiment but if that's not possible you can end up with tank and infantry regiment merge as well.

Woosh

 daedalus wrote:
I understand that it's common for regiments from different guard worlds to work together once deployed. What happens if one is (mostly, but not utterly) wiped out? Say... I don't know, Cadians and Steel Legion are on a planet. The Cadians happen to lose their command structure and the bulk of their forces from some mishap/attack/whatever, but there are orphaned Cadian forces still on the planet. Maybe they were recon deployed elsewhere or fortified in another location or whatever happens to be convenient to the scenario. Will they consolidate into the Steel Legion? If so, would they actually adopt the uniforms and gear of the Steel Legion, or would they simply be attached as-is to the command structure somewhere as appropriate?

And I'm wondering this generically. The answers don't need to be Cadian and Steel Legion specific.

One of three things happens

1. The cadians are rolled into the steel legion regiment. This is called a combined regiment usually. Like another poster above stated, these regiments are normally named after the planet they're formed on. Usually high command will attempt to roll regiments of the same planet together, so you may see something like the Armageddon 13th and 78th combined into the Armageddon 13/78th regiment, or just have the smaller regiment absorbed into the larger one. Regiments that have different combat styles or planets are avoided as much as possible, as many devolve into infighting and lack of trust. However, some regiments end up meshing well together and go on to become well known for some special talent they developed by working together. There's an Elysian/Catachan regiment for example that is basically "Vietnam AirCav, the guard army".

Most examples show the regiments eventually adopting a common uniform and equipment, but for a while odds are you would see a mix of equipment and uniforms. My combined regiment for example is freshly formed, so I have a ton of different regiments represented. To represent this every guardsman and vehicle has a "XIII" painted somewhere visible to friendlies, often crudely done by the men themselves (or in the catachans case, tattooed) Odds are most regiments would operate this way until they have a chance to rotate to the rear and reequip.

2. If the mauled regiment served well but doesn't line up well with other regiments to merge with, say there's an infantry regiment that has been badly mauled but all the other neighboring regiments are tank and artillery regiments, the unit may remain behind on Garrison duty. This is about the best most guardsmen can hope for. They will have a (relatively) cushy job watching over a planet as it is colonized and terraformed to serve the Imperium. These units will form the backbone of the planets new PDF and often these guardsmen go on to become high ranking officers and NCO's over the defense force. This is basically retirement as far as the Guard is concerned. Not many regiments make it to this stage, as you need to survive at a high enough strength to be useful for a Garrison but low enough to not bother with reinforcing or merging with another regiment.

3. If the unit performed exceptionally, it may be gifted the planet as a right of settlement. In this scenario, the guardsmen are released from duty and are used as the colonists of the new planet. Officers and other members often are appointed to cushy administrator positions and can end up forming the new upper class of the planet. This is exceptionally rare and while most guardsmen pray for it, it's doubtful more than tenth of a percent even have a chance of being awarded settlement rights. This is a running theme in the Gaunt Ghosts series, as the Tanith 1st hope to settle a new planet and rebuild after losing their home.

I recently read "Imperial Glory," by Richard Williams, and the best part about it is the way they describe the constant consolidation a regiment goes through during its campaigns.

In the specific case of the 11th Brimlock (Consolidated) Regiment, all the other Brimlock regiments were disbanded with their colors returning to Brimlock and its personnel folded into the new Regiment. An interesting thing about Brimlock too is that they always consolidate into the lower numbered Regiments.