Hello there!

Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but whatever.

Question 1:

My players are part of a Mechanized Infantry Regiment (The pre-made one from the rule book if that makes any difference) and i was wondering what a regiment like that would comprised of and what roll the regiment, as well as the soldiers and their vehicles would play in a war.

Question 2:

Massive battles. These sound quite difficult to not only organize, but play as well. Any and all advice for making this easier would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance

DieVorhut

Question 1:

My players are part of a Mechanized Infantry Regiment (The pre-made one from the rule book if that makes any difference) and i was wondering what a regiment like that would comprised of and what roll the regiment, as well as the soldiers and their vehicles would play in a war.

Mechanized Infantry Regiments simply translates to squad formations that support and utilize vehicles, such as the Chimera APC or Leman Russ Battle Tank, as oppossed to normal infantry who generally are transported via large-scale convoys when not marching. The role of the guardsmen is a dual responsibility to safeguard the vehicle, which supports their actions with cover fire and transportation, as well as providing recon and navigation through thick or dangerous terrain (cityscapes).

Question 2:

Massive battles. These sound quite difficult to not only organize, but play as well. Any and all advice for making this easier would be appreciated.

Use formations to generalize the crunch and keep the narrative as the focus. Running smaller encounters in a massive battle is easier, and keeps the pace going. No single unit would be expected to face an entire army on their own - nor would their battlefield awareness really allow them the privilege of being privy to such information anyway.

This was quite helpful, much appreciated.

My two cents on how the regiment should be organized. Well, more than two cents. You may want to tell me to shut up halfway through.

First element of the regiment is the HQ. This will end up being almost a company in and of itself, a mixture of speciality combat troops and support elements. Cadian 99th with have a Colonel commanding, a Lt Colonel as his XO, and a group of staff officers (Note: my organization is a mix of real world model, my personal flight of fancy, notes from the novel Cadian Blood, and a dash of the Sector Army from the wonder Imperial Sourcebook from WEG 2nd edition Star Wars), Operations S1, Intel S2, Logistics S3, Medical S4, Personel S5. You'll have the senior commissar, possibly an astropath, a senior priest, Master of Ordinance, Naval Liason, and definitely a senior techpriest. With a mech regiment, figure of course on a lot of techpriests. Each of these fine gentlemen will have a small staff of Junior officers, NCOs, and servitors. Now add in the combat element. HQ should have about a understrength platoon or better providing security and a last reserve of troops for the colonel. Don't forget the hardass regimental Sergeant Major, and the hardcore color Sergeant and his band of merry men.

Attached to HQ are some special weapons. First, give the lads a platoon of Kasrkin to serve as elite shock troops. For antiair, and heavy anti infantry in a pinch, HQ should have a pair of Hydra flak tanks. For some organic fire support a light battery of four Griffin heavy mortar carriers. Finally, the beans and bullets brigade. Figure two to four Atlas recovery vehicles, and a small fleet of heavy all terrain trucks to haul ammo, food, tents, spare parts, the colonels wardrobe, uniforms, boots, small boats, assault ladders, a small medical outfit, a kitchen facility capable of feeding at a minimum a company at a time, maintenance personel and tools, etc etc ad infinitum.

So that's HQ. Now for the fun stuff.

A mech infantry squad is built around the Chimera. Two man crew of course, and in my model, nine dismount troops. A sergeant to run the circus, a corporal and a lance corporal, and eight guardsmen. The squad is broken into two fire teams, each led by a corporal or a lance, and four guardsmen. Each team should pack a light heavy weapon. My squads have one each grenade launcher and heavy stubber. The sergeant and corporals MAY have underslung grenade launchers or shotguns on their lasguns. The sergeant should also have a handgun and a chainsword.

Four squads, an attached heavy weapons squad, and a command vehicle make up the platoon. The heavy weapon squad has six guardsmen instead of eight, and each fire team has instead of a grenade launcher or stubber a crew served weapon. Likely a heavy bolter or rocket launcher. The extra room in the Chimera from two fewer people goes to the weapons and their ammo. The command vehicle carries the platoon leader, a Lieutenant, the platoon sergeant (called a gunny for reasons lost to history millennia ago), a vox operator to keep the Lt in touch with company command and higher, a medic, and a four man weapons team packing meltas or plasma guns.

The platoon comes in at around 50-60 men all told, counting vehicle crews. Few units will be at full strength at any given time.

The company, in my world, is built up on six platoons. This allows for the company to take some hefty casualties in the course of your story and keep going. Company command is bigger than a platoon of course. The weapons team becomes a weapons squad. The company commander has two dedicated vox operators, one tied into the company net, the other tied in to battalion and regimental. There is a company XO, a senior Lt, a fire control specialist with his own vox operator, about four medics, a tech priest and his servitors, possible a commissar or priest (or both if the captain has been naughty), the company first sergeant, a color sergeant carrying the company guidon, a supply sergeant, and a few various functionaries. Company comes in at around 400-450 men. Company HQ has a couple Chimeras all of its own, and the rest travel in trucks and halftracks.

Platoons are simply numbered 1-5 in their companies. The companies are lettered in order by the regiment. so a regiment with 10 companies will be Able through India (I'm working on a phonetic alphabet that sounds more grimdark). In my regiment, the companies are broken down into battalions, with three to each. The battalions are roman numeraled, I Battalion, II Battalion, IV Battalion and so on. They are not permanent organizations, so have no guidon or flag of their own, and battalion staff don't have much more than the companies attached. They simply allow the regiment to move on several objectives at once while maintaining adequate command, communication and control. For the 99th, I would go with 12 to 15 companies, four to five battalions. That's at full strength of course. Field realities may be quite different.

Finally, the regiment needs so oomph. A final company is added, an armor company. Say one platoon of five sentinals serving as armored cavalry and armed recon, and two platoons of Leman Russ. Walk softly and carry some heavy armor, I always say. Two platoons gives you ten tanks, plus on or two for the company commander and XO. No organic support here, these guys and their toys used the regimental maintenance and supply train.

All told this gives you: 12 Leman Russ, 5 Sentinals, 2 hydras, 4 Griffins, perhaps 8 Atlas, truck halftracks and light vehicles aplenty, and between 350 and 400 Chimera. Say 5500 to 6300 infantry, and lots of vehicle crew, command and support, and servitors. This is of course before the metal meets the meat. Numbers will go down dramaticly once the regiment meets the ork, or whoever.

Hope this helps, I'm using a similar model for my regiment. A factual read that may help is Tom Clancy's Armored Cav. Talks a lot about the organization and support, though it doesn't really have a mech infantry component. Still, it gives a good idea of the tail requirement for such a large vehicle heavy outfit

That was VERY helpful, thank you! I enjoyed reading that too. I should be able to put that to good use.

For Question 1, have you seen "Black Hawk Down"? If so, go watch it again. If not, go watch it. In both cases, pay special attention to the convoy scenes, where the trucks and humvees are driving through the city, constantly under fire.

That's your players. They are big, fat targets with heavy (but not the heaviest) guns, full of squishy infantry.

In modern warfare, something like the Chimaera is not used to break enemy lines. It's used to EXPLOIT a break in enemy lines. The group should probably be paired with heavy infantry or Tanks, with a friendly rivalry between the two groups. The tanks are the first wave attack that breaks the enemy line wide open, then the Mechanized Regiment pushes forward at full speed to drive deep into enemy territory. When they hit something they can't kill, they hold position until the tanks catch up and engage. And the cycle repeats. Conversely, when there's a break in the Guard's line, your players will be the group that can get there fastest to plug the hole until reinforcements arrive.

So what can go wrong with this formula? A lot. Tanks are half as fast as the APC, so your players may find themselves holding against impossible odds until the cavalry arrives. Or there's the fact that, as fast as your players are in the APC, the situation on the ground changes rapidly. They're racing across the field to engage a squad of Ork Nobz, the group spends their time strategizing and forming the perfect plan, they get over the hill... and there's a Battlewagon fighting with the Nobz.

FInally, there's fuel. GW doesn't have a system for keeping track of it, but it's a huge consideration with vehicles. So I automatically assume the vehicles have two days of fuel in them. Even if they're parked the whole time, the gas tank has a leak or something. After two days in the field, the squad needs to get fuel either trucked in from a depot or they need to scrounge for it.

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For massive battles, the best advice I can give you is to prepare a series of six premade encounters, in order from easiest to hardest, generic to unique. The squad leader has to roll Tactica Imperialis to find opportunities, so every Degree of Success they roll "unlocks" the encounter. On a Failure, they engage a nearby squad of troopers- an easy win and one that isn't worth anything.

Each of the success encounters is worth one point. If the squad has 3+ points at the end of the battle, they win and played a huge part in it. If they have 2 or less, it's a draw or a close defeat. Either way, it's as much narrative as it is actual encounters.

My only hard and fast rule for massive battles is that the squad should never encounter the enemy general. Best to leave your evil overlord alive to fight another day.

Oh man! I loved that movie. Good reason to go back and watch it again.

That will make larger battles easier. Keeps it simple.