I don't see what the problem would be giving them a powersword, all considering the fact that the Moritat package gives you a monosword at character creation. Besides, according to the fluff, the powersword defines the IG officer's image. That's not to say of course that the cultural background of the Regiment he/she hails from doesn't affect what they use, but for most of what I've seen it's usuallly as follows:

Confessors: Evisarators

Commissars: Bolt guns and Chainswords

Officers: Powerswords

The problem, is of course that a mono sword costs about 50 thrones all in all. It's about as basic a mono weapon as you can get without it being worthless against any kind of armour. Yes, fluff wise a lot of fancy weapons could be given out sooner but balance wise It might be a problem for some styles of play. Not all types obviously but it's certainly an unbalancing edge when compared to RAW.

Powerswords have +6 damage and +4 penetration on mono swords, that's as good as a warp weapon up to and above power armour, they literally cut mono swords like they were made out of plywood.

Well in that case, a good fix would be to make it an Elite Advance as opposed to a background package. Even though the officer route is in the Guardsman's advancement tree perhaps you can add some further stat enhancing (i.e. sacrifice strength for better fellowship and sum such) or just not bother with it >_>

Ignayus said:

Commissars use chainswords and power fists in equal extent to powerswords. Officers are also more often armed with chainswords rather than powerswords, especially if it is a junior officer.

Dont forget some commisars use whips as well

I believe that the subject of training of the Imperial Guard is touched on to a certain extent in Dan Abnett's book The Armour of Contempt . I read too long ago to go into much detail on the subject, but it does talk about this somewhat.

Giving a power sword to a level 1 acolyte is just bad business. It will bring out the powergamer in any acolyte. But the starting package sounds like a **** good idea!

In the US military, reguardless of the branch, all personel are grouped into one of two groups. Enlisted and Officer. The pay grades and ranks go from E1-E9 and O1-O9. If you have a college degree generally you join the officer program. This sometimes creates some inter-military problems when an enlisted man of 15 years (usually an E6-E8) has to take orders and salute an O1, whom are usually still in their twenties. I believe similer rollplaying oppertunities could be given to Dark Heresy with the intigration of this starting package.

Drop any and all ideas of a power-sword at starting, perhaps a mono-sword would be more approprite. And personally I would also the -2S and insted make it -5BS with a +5Fel insted of the +2. Since many officers in the IG are very non-ranged personel, and are taught that your orders make the difference in battle, not the accuracy of your shots.

I am currently GMing a long campaign where the characters started out as conscripts in a pretty well organised planetary defence force on an industrialised imperial planet. They are all using the Guardsman career, but each choose a specialisation that allows them to pick relevant skills outside of the guardsman career, within reason and not earlier than what the skill is available from any other tree. Sometimes even customised skills or talents that seems fitting. Here are some of my examples:

Sergeant. lore and social skills, relevant to her job.
Driver: Pilot, drive and a few techrelated.
Sniper: sneak, hide, climb, 5% extra chance to hit while aiming with an accurate weapon, etc.
Fixer: social Scum skills and a few creative peer and lore, such as "Peer(munitorium employees)"
Breacher: Some extra or earlier melee skills and talents
Medic: Chem use, medicae, some lores etc

This gives a pretty interesting campaign that allows for some new angles on the imperium. A large gaming group (7 players) with some of them not at all used to RPing together from earlier, and a few of them complete noobs at DH. It was good for the flow to have a set groupdynamic within a structure of military ranks. I took a chance by putting a slightly shy and not very experienced roleplayer as the partys sergeant, and that made wonders for her place in the social hierarchy among the players. She is now often found yelling abuse at her troops like any drillsergeant from Full Metal Jacket, and this is after they have deserted (or possibly gone AWOL) and is not at all part of the army any more.

The hardest thing after 6 months of GMing every second week is still building challenging combat encounters. Compared to any "normal" party of acolytes these fellas are competent fighters, so my beloved stealers tend to die a lot :-( A great part was using the IG commandsquad plastic box (and a lot of strange bits from my tabletop habit) to bring their characters visually alive.

Overall I like the idea. I do question the 300xp cost of that package though. WAY overpriced for what it gives.

As mentioned earlier, the novel "15 Hours" details the training of a fairly typical conscript IG unit, in this case a bunch of farm boys that got a letter with official seals. "You have been selected by random selection to serve in the Imperial Guard. You have 96 hours to get your affairs in order and report to...."

For the hardest of the hardcore you have Cadia:

At age 10 all Cadians undergo "the Making" where they are stripped naked and left out in the wilderness (usually an island) to fend for themselves. Anyone that is alive after a month is then deemed worthy of adulthood and promptly inducted into one of the Cadian Youth Armies, called "whiteshields" due to the plain white paint on their armour where a regimental ID would normally be. This is not the boyscouts, but literally full military training units that are expected to fight right alongside the adults if called on. "If the fire is not live, it is NOT a Cadian training exercise!" is a common expression. Assuming they fare well in the youth army, survivors are then reassigned to either the planetary PDF (10% of trainees, randomly selected) or shipped off to join one of the Cadian Shocktroops IG units. Especially talented, ruthless and hardcore Cadians (a scary concept!) are diverted from "normal" IG training and sent to Kasrkin training units, there to become elite soldiers (again, a scary concept by Cadian standards!). There are a wide array of skills that are considered part of a Cadian soldier's essential training, but first and foremost is MARKSMANSHIP! It is often said that most Cadians learn to field-strip and fire a lasgun before they learn to walk. This is of course a joke, but there is a reason it is considered funny.... Yes, Cadians make the Spartans look weak and soft!

By contrast it should be noted that Catachan troopers do NOT undergo formal military training for Imperial Guard service. Merely surviving to adulthood on their homeworld is considered training enough. Lascarbines and a distinctive oversized "knife" are as much a part of the traditional Catachan wardrobe as boots. Jungle survival and knowledge of natural poisons is as common to Catachan as hymns to the Emperor are to Schola Progenium graduates.

On at least one occasion the hive world Necromunda simply rounded up the members of a particularly large hive-gang known as "the Spiders" and inducted them en-masse into the Imperial Guard.

It should be noted that Cadia and Catachan both have a single contribution for their Imperial Tythe: Soldiers! These are extreme case worlds, with extreme case warriors. Most IG units are staffed by rather more ordinary Imperial citizens who are conscripted away from their lives as farmers and factory workers. Some notable IG formations have unusual recruiting practices and tactics, nonstandard wargear or other distinguishing traits. Vostroyan regiments are entirely filled out by the firstborn sons of all families on the planet, no exceptions, due to an ancient oath sworn to the Emperor. Some lower tech Imperial worlds hold tournaments and gladitorial competitions, the winners earning the right to serve in the "Sky Emperor's" armies.

Yes, this is the "every world and Imperial Guard unit are different" thing. We do not even want to get started on Space Marine recruiting practices.....