Imperial Guard

[Cagarner]

The Imperial Guard is a colossal military organization, consisting of many billions of men and women from millions of different worlds and systems within the Imperium. Each regiment is a force of between five hundred and ten thousand fighting soldiers, supported by a huge array of light and heavy armoured vehicles. Each regiment also has its own entourage, consisting of support staff, camp followers, suppliers, tech-priests, doctors, religious leaders, and the like.

Guard troopers are organised under several levels the most common being the Regiment, A regiment consists of 4 to 6 companies, a company includes between 10 to 30 platoons, and each platoon contains 20 to 50 guardsmen. When a regiment becomes too small to become combat effective it is merged with other units into combined regiments

The Imperial Guard are far more numerous than the Space Marines who are deliberately curtailed to some 1,000 Marines each per chapter. The contributions of some planets to Imperial Guard regiments over the ten thousand years of the Imperium runs into the billions, if not more. The Imperial Guard are constantly at war, freeing worlds from Chaotic or alien influence, or defending them from the same. However the Imperial Guard are reliant upon the Imperial Navy for transport as a means of controlling over-ambitious generals.

Gameplay

The first edition of Warhammer 40,000 included rules for a force known as the "Army." Later their name was changed to "Imperial Guard."

The Imperial Guard as first introduced (in White Dwarf 109) was bound by a series of rules relating to its command structure. Squads of units formed platoons under a command squad. Units that were separated from the command squad were more limited in action. The initial imperial army could include besides the basic squads, Rough Riders (a form of mounted trooper), penal troops, human bombs and Abhumans (see below). Vehicles were limited to Rhinos, and Land speeders.

Because of the low points-cost of each individual Imperial Guardsmen, Imperial Guard armies often have a much larger number of troops than most other armies. In addition, they enjoy one of the largest selections of vehicles available in Warhammer 40,000 such as the Leman Russ Battle Tank, a stock standard tank, the Basilisk which is a heavy artillery platform with a massive range and the Chimera which acts as a lightly armed troop transport.

The nature of the previous incarnations of the Imperial Guard meant that it was generally more tactful to hold a position and fire all you had at the enemy troops, mostly because the Guardsmen were woeful at close combat fighting. This style of play, while not outdated in Fourth Edition, is not entirely in sync with the nature of the latest Codex. Many "doctrines" allow the Imperial Guard to become better in close-quarters combat, upgrade their armour to be more effective, or even utilize squads of Storm Troopers where one would normally utilize Infantry Platoons. As an example, an Imperial Guard army designed to fight Tyranids could select the "Hardened Fighters"; "Die-hards"; "Carapace Armour"; "Xenos-Fighters: Tyranids"; and "Drop Troopers" doctrines to field an army of infantry trained specifically to swoop down from the skies to meet the close-combat specialist Tyranids on their own ground. General tactics of the Imperial Guard include heavy use of Armoured units to weaken or destroy the enemy at long range and light infantry to swarm the enemy with a mass of lasgun fire.

Abhumans

The Imperial Guard is composed of humans and two types of abhumans - evolved species from humans that differ markedly from the norm. These are the Ogryns (the counterpart of the Warhammer Fantasy setting ogres) and the Ratlings (the equivalent of the halfling/hobbit).

In the early edition of WH40K there were also beastmen. These were half human half animal, the parallel to the Chaos Beastmen of the Warhammer Fantasy world. These fought as part of the Imperial Guard; their motivation, as subhumans, being the chance to prove themselves in their face of their obvious physical corruption. In later editions they were removed from the Imperial Guard to appear in a more logical place alongside the ranks of Chaos.

The concept of the abhuman was revived in White Dwarf 303 (March 2005) where it was made clear that those not too inhuman in appearance were tolerated while cloven hooves and beast faces were outright abominations.

Appeal to players

The primary appeal to Imperial Guard players of the Warhammer 40,000 game is that the Guard are 'human'. In a game filled with genetically modified supermen, alien mystics, and all-consuming hive-minds, the Imperial Guard are just soldiers. Carrying a lasgun and wearing flak armour (commonly believed by fans to be the most ineffective standard equipment in the game, and referred to as the "flashlight or laser pointer" and "T-shirt"), the Imperial Guard are forced to rely on sheer numbers, massed-fire tactics, bayonets and courage to win their battles.

Secondly, the Imperial Guard has the largest range of tanks and armoured vehicles of any army, and have been heavily supplemented by the Forge World Imperial Armour series of books and resin kits. This appeals to the 'treadheads' (or 'tank-lovers') among the player community, and was catered to in the third and fourth editions of the game by the release of rules for an Armoured Company composed entirely of tanks. This army list can also be used to field Siege Regiments comprising of forward Artillery vehicles.

In addition to the various historical armies one of the most attractive parts of the Imperial Guard are the Commissars. They are represented akin to stereotypical Soviet political commissars, simultaneously exhorting the troops to greater efforts and summarily executing anyone showing signs of cowardice.

Imperial Guard ranks

The diversity of Imperial Guard regiments mean that there are literally thousands of variations on officers' ranks throughout the Imperium. However, local variations are generally tied to a basic standard list of officer ranks, for determining comparative seniority between regiments, a tentative hierarchy of which might be as follows:

• Lord Commander Militant of the Imperial Guard
• Lord Commander Militant
• Lord General Militant
• Lord Marshal
• Lord Castellan
• Captain-General
• General
• Brigadier
• Colonel
• Major
• Captain
• Lieutenant
• Sergeant
• Corporal
• Private

Two other notable officer ranks exist amongst the Imperial Guard. Commissars are individuals attached to Imperial Guard regiments for the purposes of maintaining rigid Imperial discipline throughout the Guard. The rank of Warmaster is a title issued by the High Lords of Terra to a military commander (usually a previous holder of the Lord General or Lord Marshal rank, or else an Admiral of the Imperial Navy) when one overarching leader is deemed necessary to command a crusade of historic magnitude (examples include the Warmasters Horus, Slaydo, Macaroth, and Lord Commander Solar Macharius). A Warmaster’s military authority is absolute within his assigned area of operations, and it is for this reason that a Guard officer desiring this rank must be seconded by two Admirals of the Imperial Navy (similarly, a Naval officer holding the rank must be seconded by two Generals, or other senior staff officers, of the Imperial Guard). There is seldom more than one of these individuals in the entire Imperium at any one time. While it is said that a commander with the rank Lord Solar is higher than a Warmaster they are actually the same rank. On occasion the rank Warmaster, due to its association with Horus, simply falls out of favour and is replaced with Lord Solar.

Other ranks of importance to the Imperial Guard are the Imperial Commanders, who have authority over the standing forces on an Imperial world (generally held by the Planetary Governor of the world in question) and the Lord Commanders of the Segmentae Majoris, a primarily administrative rank whose incumbents are responsible for overseeing and directing the Imperial military within one of the five Segmentae of the galaxy.

Post any changes

[WNxHasoroth]

A Warmaster and the Lord Solar are interchangeable ranks, depending on the mood of the times, the zietgiest if you will.

I believe the Imperial Commanders only hold authority over the PDF regiments and not any Guard units.

Lord Castellan I believe is a Cadian Rank.

Lastly, another reason for people collecting the Imperial Guard is the sheer diversity. Want to make an Air Borne unit? Go for it. Want to make a unit of plate armored, sword wielding humans? Give them Carapace and Warrior Weapons. The sheer diversity is a huge draw.

Good Stuff

[MSguardsmen]

i think imperial commander goes to however is in charge of that regiment. and yes Lord Castellan is only to the Cadians

another reason for playing. its the only army that the commies like. it follows the original commie strategy. throw enough men at it and it will die