So, to alleviate issues I have with aspects of the regimental system as written, I've been toying with a variation, loosely inspired by the Soviet Red Army.

First off, my degree is in military history, and I spent some time in the uniform myself. This stuff is near and dear to me. So with that personal bias, there are a few things in fluff that just don't work for me. Biggest points that stick are logistics, and the 'use 'em until they're used up' approach the IG takes. Doesn't work for me, fictional setting or not. However, I love the setting, even though I just found 40k a couple months ago. So here is my fix. It's almost entirely fluff, but still. . .

The IG divides active regiments into four categories. Category A units are the bulk of the regiments from the 'famous' worlds. Cadian shock, Krieg Death Korps, Elysian Drop, Valhallan Ice Warriors, and the like fall into the category. These troops are more important in both a practical and a psychological way. Their very presence can bolster the morale of nearby units. About to be overrun? Buck up boys, the Cadians are coming. Category A means that the home world will send reinforcements to the regiments as needed, keeping them up at strength with a core of seasoned veterans. Over time, this will only increase the effectiveness of the units as the number of veteran guardsmen in a given regiment rises. Category A also means that a regiment has a priority to absorb the remnants of broken regiments to keep up their strength until the latest homeworld levy arrives, and a priority on logistical support.

Category B units do not come from a famous world, but have gained a similar status to Category A based on their performance or value (or politics, or clerical error, or good press). While B status will be given only to individual regiments on a case by case basis, if one world did have enough of its regiments raised to B status, that world might hope that its status be eventually raised to A.

Category A and B regiments do not, of course, last forever. WIth their higher level of skill and experience, they are in high demand. It is not uncommon for such a regiment to move rapidly from active theatre to active theatre, staying one step ahead of homeworld reinforcements will seeing almost relentless combat. When such a regiment is lost, of course, the colors are sent home and the regiment is reactivated, with new faces but old traditions.

Far more common, of course, are Category C regiments. These are regiments as presented in the core book. Little if any reinforcement, catch as catch can for logistical support, simply used and used and used again until the regiment is a non functional entity, then broken up to reinforce other regiments or used to colonise a new world. C units are far and away the most common.

Finally, Category D regiments are the scum and dregs, the units intended to be used, used up, and forgotten. Penal legions are here.

As I see it, homebrew units should start as C, and work through valor, sheer guts, more than a bit of luck, and some social moves towards B status. This would give a fluff reason for a PC regiment to come to a point where they can keep up their strength for a longer campaign.

As for logistics, I'm still mulling things over. I don't think I'm up for creating crunch for it yet, or for that matter that crunch is really needed. However, support units are needed. It is unlikely that many players would want to roleplay one. Who wants to play the valiant clerks of the Cadian 11573rd Logistical Support regiment, responsible for feeding, clothing and supporting an entire division? Or the 4077th MASH? However, for GMs that like good solid background for campaigns, such a thing might be appreciated.

My thoughts, so far, run like so. We have a world, probably an agrarian one, with no warrior tradition whatsoever. Call it Elkenor. This world still produces IG regiments, but their troops have a time honored tradition of deeply sucking, followed by decimation. In the last two hundred years, however, Elkenor regiments have been based on services the hard working and practical farmers and laborers of this world excel at. Support. An Elkenor regiment provides large scale water purification, food preparation, production and distribution of kit items such as boots, uniforms, E tools, web gear, canteems, etc, medical services, basic vehicle support, combat engineers, ground transportation, and all the other myriad services combat regiments require but have difficulty providing for themselves. Larger Elkenor regiments even have a small MASH unit attached.

Furthermore, Elkenor regiments are designed to break up into company sized formations with all or at least most, of these capabilities. These companies can be attached to combat regiments on independent duties, greatly increasing their capabilities as well as the length of time they can be deployed.

I'm not sure how to go about statting up the Elkenor Support regiments, or even if I need to. Mostly, they offer background detail and roleplay opportunities. PC units would depend on them for support, scrounge and trade with them for extra supplies, and protect them from enemy breakthroughs. I see them as almost a mobile tent city, providing a brief escape from combat and a taste of slightly more normal life.

It would be nice to have some stats for appropriate ground vehicles though. A HUMVee equivelant, 2 1/2 and 5 ton trucks, half tracks, field ambulances and the like. I may try to make combat engineer (or sapper) and support specialists, just to have the option

While most of this strikes me as unnecessary, I do like your intentions with the regards to injecting more social elements into Only war, and I would love to see what kind of specialisms and vehicles you could come out with. You might want to look to the Dominate Supply Truck in Old Soldiers as a baseline for your logistics vehicles and the like.

Personally, I prefer the intentionally inefficient, circumstance-dominated (unstable warp travel > supply lines) codex approach over such a "21st century take" on the Imperial Guard .. however, much like Lazarus, I feel that your enthusiasm and creative energy warrant support.

If you want to, feel free to salvage the Tauros Advector from this document -- it appears only in a single Black Library novel ( Hammer & Anvil ), but I liked the idea and, in my interpretation, have basically written it up to be a fully wheeled version of the German WW2 SdKfz 250 , even mentioning command and supply variants in the description.

I actually brainstormed up basic ideas for civilian vehicles the other day. No hard stats but definitely more than a few things of note. My general rule of thumb for those is that a boltgun should be enough to destroy the vehicles by itself--although the hardier ones are capable of surviving lasgun and stubber fire if need be. Especially arbite vehicles.

If I get enough info on that I might publish it. And I will take a look at that link to get something I can reference for this.

Eh the Arbites use military grade vehicles. Their standard Riot response vehicle is a Rhino - the same tank that the Space Marines use as a dedicated transport lol. Beyond that, the Arbites tend to stick to combat motorcycles of a similar grade to the Virbian Combat Bike (see Old Soldiers), for rapid response - as memory serves. Arbites equipment is at a higher standard than that employed by the Imperial Guard across the board. They are armed and equipped to counter planetary rebellions. What they lack is numbers, which is where they usually fail.

Really speaking, most rebellions in the Imperium of Man don't get to the point where the Guard are called in unless the PDF go renegade as well. A civil uprising against the Lords of Terra and their appointed Governor is generally crushed swiftly.

The Junker vehicles that you see on Messia in Black Crusade are probably about an appropriate level for civilian vehicles.

For citation, refer to the Book of Judgement, and the Lexicanum. I believe - but cannot say for certain without checking - that reference is made to the competence and armament of the Adeptus Arbites in Codex: Militarum Tempestus for 6th Edition Warhammer 40, 000, given that the Arbites are recruited from those Progena which are good, but not good enough to make the cut for the Ordo Tempestus - or it's sub-organisation, the Commissariat - nor the Adepta Sororitas.

Those who don't make the cut for any of the organisations are killed off by the testing, or are placed into roles as Imperial Adepts across the myriad departments of the Imperium of Man.

Slightly off-topic, I know, but I get a slight tick in the corner of my eye whenever someone alludes to the Arbites as being poorly equipped. ;P

Hell, in GW's books they even have their own space fleets .

Of course, the background is malleable and subject to personal preferences, but generally they seem to be presented in the way Lazarus mentioned. Here 's a short excerpt I found some time ago in the old Codex Imperialis. Due to how 40k "canon" works, it would not be wrong to have gakky Arbites who are badly equipped and not well-trained, but personally I would consider this a bit wasteful and redundant, as that sort of role is what the normal cops (meaning, "planetary enforcers") would fill. It'd be like reimagining the Space Marines or Battle Sisters as Guardsmen when you already have the Imperial Guard, or vice versa.

On a sidenote, the comment about bolters destroying vehicles made me think of Hollywood cars exploding from gunshots. Should this not happen only when you hit the promethium tank, or was that intentional exaggeration to create a more epic narration?

Well I consider myself better educated about the Adeptus Arbites now. I might change around the vehicles I use for them then. Although one of the things I was thinking of giving those vehicles was sirens or the like. Which any good imperial citizen (and sometimes the gangers out of fear) will pull over and get out of the way upon hearing. Would be interesting to see at the very least. (I think just making a note of arbite vehicles being a bit better than normal vehicles would work for myself for now.)

And to be honest about the bolters destroying vehicles... I see that primarily as a guideline for civilian vehicles. I never directly said explosions, and to be honest only fuel tankers would explode like that from a shot (they'd have the Volatile trait while fuel is inside their main tank). Rather they would only explode if the promethium tank is hit. Still, if you take a soda can sized round to a typical everyday car... it's probably going to get wrecked or seriously damaged. Especially with the explosion that follows.

Adeptus Arbites largely, with the exception of using the Rhino as a riot response vehicle, use vehicles of the same standard as the Imperial Guard. This includes the use of Leman Russ Battle Tanks for putting down serious civil disruption.

I never directly said explosions

Oh okay, misunderstood you then!

In most sources, bolt rounds are "only" 0.75 or (for the heavy version) 1.00 inches in diameter, so not that big - the secondary muzzle can easily create a different interpretation there. But with boltgun calibre being comparable to a 12G shotgun, we can even make vague real life comparisons when looking at stuff like the fully automatic AA-12 with explosive rounds. That being said, I suppose it is safe to say that in 40k they'd use a more efficient explosive for a bigger boom. I certainly agree that you can absolutely wreck a car with such a weapon, but rather by punching big hole after big hole into the frame instead of ripping it apart with a single salvo. From the looks of it, this is what you meant all along.

I just wanted to say in support of what Lynata said, the Arbites do in fact have numerous fleets under their command, making them in fact one of the single most powerful organisations within the Imperium given that they are better armed, equipped and trained than the Imperial Guard, yet possess the capabilities of the Imperial Navy, with none of the segregation that the Imperial Army was subject to after the Horus Heresy. One can consult Hostile Acquisitions from Rogue Trader to see that even FFG has codified it in their own game lines.

That's freakin' scary.

Well ... sort of. I mean, they cannot do everything the Guard or the Navy can do - I've never heard of them using battle tanks and artillery, and their ships (at least as presented in BFG) are geared for a different role than full naval battles, not to mention that they are much fewer. Much like the Guard, the Navy, the Marines and the Sisters, the Arbites fill a very particular niche in the overall Imperium; each of these organisations has specific strengths and weaknesses that somehow balance them against one another in the great machine.

From Battlefleet Gothic Magazine, issue #10 (just in case people are interested in Arbites naval assets):

Good thoughts all, and thank you.

Clearly, this is mostly background stuff for me. My GMing style tends a bit towards world building. The more background I have, the better my stories come out. Sandboxing is my friend. I'm not sure how much I'll actually stat out, being as I am brand new to both the setting and the system. Frankly, most of this doesn't need statting anyway.

Lynata, thanks for the vehicle. I saw the article earlier, and yeah that is perfect for the jeep or hummer of a support unit. I believe you and I disagreed over logistics in another thread a few days back.

I do find myself wondering about the navies lift capability. I've been unable to find anywhere even the roughest idea of what the navy uses to move the IG from world to world, never mind how many of the (whatever they use) are available. Does the navy use transports designed around one regiment, multiples, etc. Do the transports carry fighters and bombers for support, or are those brought by dedicated carriers? What kind of freighters are used?

What I'm working towards is an escalating campaign, something that starts as two or three regiments putting down a minor insurrection, finding a small number of ork, turning into a greater and greater number. More regiments brought it, more ork arrive, until what was supposed to be a minor engagement with a handful of cranky civilians and traitorous PDF troops turns into a meatgrinder. I'm thinking of something in the order of the Guadalcanal campaign, where at some point the navy will be pushed out of the system, the IG is outnumbered and now cut off from resupply and reinforcement, and the ork have taken or taken out most of the existing settlements, making forage very difficult. The PCs would be at the heart of certain crucial tide turning engagements, such as taking an intact grain storage facility after the navy is pushed back, giving the regiments a supply of food at the critical moment. Finding an ork encampment that is building their warmachines, and not only stopping the construction but also stopping the ork from incidently fouling the major source of fresh water in the area.

When the navy finally fights back into the system, retaking the orbitals and dropping fresh regiments into the theatre, the campaign will be won, but it will be the seemingly (at the time anyway) minor actions of the PCs that will have kept the forces in place in the fight.

The logistics regiment from Elkenor may have kept the forces there in fighting shape, but it's the PCs that keep the Elkenor alive and functional to do so.

Two final thoughts (for the moment): SgtLazarus, is the Eagle Above Us supplement still in the works? I love what you put out so far, and I'm hoping to use it if it's ready by the time I start this campaign. And in Shield of Humanity, one of the new regiment options given is Sappers. However, non of the existing specialties really seem to work as sappers. Has anyone made or seen a decent homebrew sapper or combat engineer speciality? I'm thinking something in the vein of the character Twitch from the All Guardsman Party thread by ShoggySeldom.

Ok, I'll shut up now

Well, I haven't heard from Cabsian in a while, and I've had some serious domestic issues to take care of myself. All that said, however, I do intend to pick up the project and at least finish the crunchy elements once things settle down a little. In the middle of moving house atm and everything.

The 115th Elkenor Combat Support Regiment (the Wagoneers) is a fairly typical tithed regiment from Elkenor. The world has, historically, provided incredibly substandard regiments. The world and it's population have a warrior tradition as impressive as that of a cranky bunny rabbit. What this world, which started out as a largely agrarian one but is well on it's way to becoming a hive world, has is highly advanced infrastructure and a thinly held secret that anyone who doesn't serve a purpose as seen by the local governemtn or has angered that (highly corrupt) government, disappears. No one asks where the positively huge population of all kinds of servitors comes from.

The Elkenor noble families came to the conclusion that the IG would soon start showing displeasure at how quickly their troops folded in the field. They decided to try an experiment. The next few regiments they turned out were pure support outfits, designed to either serve armies or crusades, or be easily broken into companies that could attend to one or two regiments for smaller operations.

The 115th, like most, is broken down into three kinds of companies. Two are MASH units, about 250 strong each, with large numbers of medical support servitors, as well as a large number of chimera configured as ambulances and trucks that can keep the MASH moving with its combat companions. The surgery is capable of any services up to and including minor cybernetic replacements. Eight companies are the combat support teams. Each has 160 men, and again large numbers of servitors. Each company is built to provide support for up to 5000 troops. These companies use large heavy lift trucks as well as an enlarged version of the Tauros. They provide limited repair services for vehicles and equipment. Each unit carries two large trucks with water purification equipment, capable of filtering up to 140000 gallons a day (about 10 gallons per man per day). Another pair of trucks carry large scale generators with charging racks, set to recharge all the chargepacks of a companies worth of infantry at once time. Add in a mobile messhall set to feed a regiment, if not five star food, then certainly better fair than living on field rations, and a mobile laundry (constant filthy uniforms hurt morale and help spread disease after all), and the company rapidly becomes popular with it's hosting regiment. The rest of the company's vehicle train amount to a giant rolling warehouse. Fuel truck, cargo trucks containing about 70 tons of food (five days worth for 5000 men) and two weeks of concentrated field rations, and yet more trucks hauling replacement equipment, uniforms, weapons, and all the other myriad needs of a regiment.

The whole affair was initially seen by most theatre commands as a joke at best, an attempt to get out of tithing troops at worst. After two years, though, those same commands began to see that regiments that had Elkenor support companies attached maintained higher long term morale and effectiveness.

The final part of an Elkenor regiment are its sapper companies. These are the elite. Combat engineers of the highest order. While not tech priests by any stretch, their skills act as a huge force multiplier. Aside from their expertise at demolitions, they can built, reinforce, or destroy defensive emplacements, bridges, airfields, minefields, kill zones outside of fortifications, forts, trench networks, or almost anything else required. Four of these companies are in each regiments, with 160 engineers and the usual large number of support servitors.

So that's the rough fluff. I don't see the need to stat most of this out, honestly. The majority of the vehicles will come apart if hit with anything heavier with small arms. The majority of the troops and servitors wouldn't last more than a minute or two in any serious engagement. This is mostly a chance for logistics rolls in the field, and opportunites for social RP in the field. For the GM, this does offer many story opportunities. The support units will need convoy escorts, protection from breakthroughs, and extra manpower when they set up stationary encampments. For the scrounger type PC, the big supply trucks offer a paradise, if they can deal with the quartermaster sargeants.

Where I do see a need to stat, and ask for help, is building a specialist template for the sappers. A PC sapper should be adequate with small arms, but a virtuoso with explosives, repairs, field engineering, and juryrigged equipment. He should have some decent social skills, to scrounge whatever he can't build or rig. His preferred weapon is likely a lascarbine or flamer, but his pack probably carries enough explosives to put a tank in low orbit. His comrade may be a tool caddy, an EOD tech, or just a general apprentice. I just don't know how to translate that to something one of my players could use to make a sapper PC

Didn't you basically just describe the Operator & Breacher specialisms, but with the addition of a Social aptitude, maybe?

Personally, I generally try to stick close to the structure given in the Imperial Guard Codex* and use a "2 to 3" + "1" + ".5" + ".5" +"X" structure as my basic unit structure, (which can further be modified based on the manpower and logistics status of the unit and the theater)

To give a direct example, here is a generic, non-reinforced "Company" sized line unit (pure infantry) on a regular log availability:

2-3 Line platoons (1 Command team (half squad), 3 Line squads, 1 Logistic team (half squad) )
1 Weapons/Specialist/Reserve platoon (1 Command squad, 15 weapon teams or 3 Line squads, 1 Logistic squad)
1 HQ platoon (Command Squad, 2 Veteran Line squads (Captain's Hammer), 2 Logistics squads, Scout Squad, Various attached specialists (Commissars, Priests, Psykers, Astropath, Master of Ordnance, Officer of the Fleet, Ensigneers and their retinue of servitors and so on) which can total up to an additional platoon size (~30) in worst cases)

The Logistics personnel represent everything that usually keeps things going; drivers, medicae, cooks, clerks, gofers, FUNs and so on that are organic (i.e. a part of) to the Company in question.
As for their skill levels, I consider roughly half of them to be Guardsman grade (usually the majority of the ones attached to line platoons) and other half to be ranging from "about to become a real guardsman" (the FUNs that were given to the Captain's half company for OJT training) to hopeless "conscripts" (Ah, frak this, I'm a clerk dealing with fitness reports not a soldier!)

This approach allows me to add about a platoon worth of support personnel and a half-platoon of heavy firepower to the TO&E without straying too far from the tabletop experience as well as giving me the flexibility to mix and match to suit the circumstances.

Forex, you can easily decrease the number of weapons teams while increasing them to 3 man units, decrease the squad sizes in line companies by 0-2 and/or while demoting 1-3 squad members with "barely better than conscript" grade FUNs as well as improving one or maybe 1-2 others to veteran skill levels, cut one of the Log. squads in the HQ.
All of which taken as a whole does a decent job of portraying a unit that has been in active ops for some time and having some difficulties in the Logistics department.

Or, lets say you want to quickly compose a unit deep on the other end of the spectrum; A reinforced company (think siege breakers or spearhead) that getting ready for a high priority op with the Administratum drones personally beaten into submission by the Warmaster;
Simply increase look at the numbers available in the codex and maximize them; 5 line platoons (with 7 squads each), 2 WSR platoon(s) each with 20 weapon teams (or 4 assault platoons) and double the size of Hammer and Log. personnel in the HQ Company to showcase the massive numbers allocated to this op (and expected causality rates).

*The +"X" entry is there to represent various platoons from specialist companies (such as Arty, ADA, Armour and so on) that are attached to the unit for the duration. They are there for the Captain to command as he sees fit but they aren't an organic part of the unit and will leave the unit when the job is done (if or when that happens).



For general issue Regiments (Btw, what's referred as Company in WH40k are actually analogous to real world Battalions rather than Companies but I digress), I follow the same progression;

2-3 line companies

1 Weapons/Specialist/Reserve Company

1 HQ Company (a half company of veterans or equivalent heavy firepower, a half company of log-heads, a platoon of scouts, regimental level hanger-ons which can add up to another company worth of bodies.)


I find that this TO&E approach gives me a fast, balanced and relatively comprehensible way to create new regiments whenever a new NPC force arrives in the theater without tripping my own "reality check" issues.