I found myself thinking of what basic training would be like for Imperial Guard regiments. If some of you have any experience with this subject (or you just have a lively imagination) I would be thrilled to hear what you have to say about it.

Thoughts?

The most hated answer in Dark Heresy:

"It all depends on the <insert subject here>".

But it does ^^

Basic training would include the basics I'd imagine, shooting, rules of engagement, team bonding (possibly why there's less mixed gender regiments I'd imagine). General stuff.

Different regiments, different training. I'd imagine Catachan Jungle fighters had a very different training regime to Cadian soldiers

So lets boil it down what (if any) lessosn are shared by ALL soldiers who are IG´s

First, it seems that Commissars are used (or: can be used) in EVERY AND ANY Regiment of the IG, so I assume they will have short lessons about "Special Ranks" like Commissars, Psykers and perhaps Preachers (what are there rights, how to behave around them etc.)
Right from there, I assume that "RANKS" are "uniform" in all of the guard. Or at least, every they will be told that "your SwordSworn are the equal of what is called a Seargent. If hear "Seargent" in an instruction, follow him like he is a SwordSworn!"

Since the IG seems to be so big about Las Weapons and munition standard, I assume that every unit receives tr aining in the basic usage of "Standard Munitorium Las Rifle and Standard Munitorium Las Pistole" ..only to be handed not-so-standard local variants with a little extra training ("...and now, forget about that drill and listen up, you worthless maggots!"

Third, thinks there is a lore skill for "Tacticae Imperialis", I assume that every IG soldiers is trainend in the same standard tactics , formations and so on... only to receive additional training in THEIR regiments "special tactics" and formations. But still have at least HEARD about "the basics". I assume them to learn the same " commands " as well, so "INCOMING!" is "INCOMING" in every IG. AND, that everyone of them learns LowGothic , therefore!

In addition, I assume every infantrie regiment to learn how to marsh and every "funker" (vox specialist?) to learn things like saying "over" at the end of each line.

and so on...

Aren't basically all guardsmen issued with the Imperial Infantrymans uplifting primer? (regardless of whether they can actually read or not)

Nevertheless, the stuff in the primer are what Guardsmen are expected to be familiar with, and also how to use a lasgun. The rest is up to each individual regiment what they decide to put their conscripts/white shields through...

If you read some of the IG fluff they have some sequences where they show basic training. For the Catachans, after they go through the basic training they are put through a test where they have to escape from the den of a Catachan Devil and make it back to base <i>alive</i>.

In 15 hours, our young hero is standing in formation while his Drill Sergeant (and later Sergearnt of his squad) lined them up for inspection. He took a particular harsh method of correcting one of his troops by whopping him on the head with his own LazGun.

In short, to standardize all Guardsmen they would have to go through some kind of indoctrination program where they learn how to use/clean their Lazgun, how to drill and wear their uniforms and basics about the Tactica Imperilis and rank. How that's done and what further training they recieve is up to how you set up the culture from which the unit hails from

I sort of had the idea that many IG regiments were the same. Reading the fluff in the book I imagined people from alot of different world being conscripted and taken 'somewhere else' for their training, maybe even a spaceship, effectively mixing people from many different worlds. I guess I was way off there.

I'm preparing to run a "side-campaign", in order to show the players the story from a different point of view, that of an Imperial Guard regiment. It would be more interesting I think if the players didn't all have to choose to be from the same world, what with their limited Career choices as well. Oh well...

The BL story "Fifteen hours" has a nice description of training which I'd forgotten about ^^

The recruits are drilled on their homeworld, learning to march, orders and the chain of command etc etc. All good common stuff, save the women and children etc. Then they're taken to a ship in space, where they bust open bunkers and the like with imaginary grenades. Also, the bunkers are imaginary, as are the enemy o_O

Watch the first half of "Full Metal Jacket"... then double it!

King of Sand said:

That's not a problem since the average Imperial taskforce is usually comprised of several regiments drafted from different worlds, and although regiments from different worlds quite frequently have some rivalry towards eachother, they are often expected to work together on the warzone for which they are headed. SO if you want to run a campaign where one PC is a Valhallan Guardsman and another is a Catachan Jungle Fighter then that's just fine and dandy.

Even if they are from different regiments they're still stuck in the same situation (same army, same warzone etc. etc.) so it is expected for them to have a lot of common ground.

I sort of had the idea that many IG regiments were the same. Reading the fluff in the book I imagined people from alot of different world being conscripted and taken 'somewhere else' for their training, maybe even a spaceship, effectively mixing people from many different worlds. I guess I was way off there.

That's what Planetville does to you. If you think about it, the other version becomes illogical: You've got a planet. A planet as in "four milliard people or more". Now you've got the possibility of recruiting some there, then shipping them off to meet with some others to form a regiment. They don't know each other, they've never seen each other and they likely have a wholly different culture. Yep, that'll be fun to train!

Or you could simply recruit, say, ten thousand people from that planet with the planet barely noticing.

while PDF regiments have various standards Imperium wide, the IG trains all recruits in its own standard. the IG draws its recruits from the PDF typically. Physical fitness, IG tactical and strategic doctrine (for Officers), IG comms procedures, the rules and regs of the Departmento Munitorum, xenos recognition and anti xenos tactics, weapon handling and care, armour usage and care, the usage of NBC kit, special/heavy weapons and tactics for those so trained in these specailties, survival techniques in a variety of environs, unarmed combat, 1st responder type field medicine, movement, section attacks etc.

as for multiple Guardsmen in a unit. this would best work under 2 scenarios that come readily to mind.

1. Colonel Schaffers Last Chancers..a kind of Dirty Dozen unit. members that have charged for all manners of crimes and are tasked with the most dangerous of missions for a pardon.

2. ur own purpose built GI JOE special mission force...a special deatchment that exists even deeper and darker than the IG stormtroopers...

DifferenceEngine said:

How about..."Enemy at the Gate", only this time every one has a gun...

Here is your gun, here is your ammo no go and die, ehr fight for the Holy God-Emperor, that way is the front...GO!!!

My suggestion would be a Penal Legion if you want to give a really different view of the Imperium. You can have mixed up origin planets and even a variety of careers. They are the most expendable of all the troops in all of the Emperors armies so if its a one short or just a few sessions it dosnt matter if anyone bites it. Everyone getsa chance to play dirty, faithless dogs that care nothing for the Emperor and merely want to survive another rush to kill a few more dirty xenos.

Or you could use Liegekillers suggestion of Schaeffers last chancers if you want a bit more of a elite squad performing an impossible mission.

Or even run with your intial idea that people are just scooped up from planets and trained together in this particular sector. Itll happen somewhere in the Imperium even if it is ineffieceint and impractical!

Or they could be naval marines rather than guardsmen as Imperial ships do press gang from any planet when they are really low on manpower.

Helping along with "different world backgrounds"..

Even if they are all from the same world, this does not mean they do have to be the same "background". It just needs a little study & tweaking...

Let´s take "Scintilla" since everyone of us has some source material of it in the DH core:

"Hivers" are obvious. This IS a hive world, after all!

"Ferals" world seems impossible, but it is not. As mentioned, there are settlements out there in the "wilderness" around the hives. Short lifed, most of them. But the majority of whom surive are "mercenary settlements". Good recruiting ground for the IG, me supposes. And it allows for the "feral world background" if the settlement lastet long enough that it had "five generations from found till now". With the generation "now" never ever setting food in a hive!
Suggest changes are: "Settlement Cant" for "Tribal Dialect", and "Rights of Passage" Removed for "Life by the gun" (Gain "Basic Weapon Training (SP); "Primitive" malus does not count for checks involing clearing an SP gun)

"Voiders" seem tricky at first, but there is a geo-stationary space station above Hive Tarsus. People born & living there will count as "Void born". If this is "not void enough" for you, change "Charmed" with "Dirt Side Regular" [Pilot (Civlian) as a Basic Skill; Strength +2 ) due to rather regular shuttle trips down & lack of warp travelling in the life of the "Station Born".

"Imperials" are a tricky bunch, whatsoever. Never the less, wracks of machines equal to "Ambulon" are told to lay on the surface. Perhaps own of the is host to a "scavenger city" which populations makes a living from salvaging the huge form and have build a city of about a couple of thousand in the dircet wind-shadow of the giant they patiently dismantle. If the "Salvage City" is near enough to Tarsus, enough "settlelrs" will have brought their fate (and their preachers!) with them to make the people pios enough to count as "Imperials"...but exchanging "superior origins" with "caves of steel" (Tech-Use as a Basic Skill rather then +3 Willpower...seem appropriate for a salvage colonist!)

EDIT:
Even if there is no "ambulon like carcass" laying around, an "imperial" settlement could have developed around the site of a large archoe-tech dig where ruins of a forma settlement have be found under the waste ashes. The imperium being what it is, the digging could have been going on for generations. Patiently turning around one cubic-kilometer of sand after the other in search for another relict of the past. A settlement of about three thousand people could go on like this for decades, if on regular supply by macro haulers. Knowing about the hives, but "never ever been there. The Master of the Dig travel there, once a year. Our master, I know, lives in hive. High up in those spyrers. Me is labouring here. Like my father did, and my grandfather and the generations before us. As my son will and his son, if the emporer wills so. Good, honest work. Good, proper living... if it wheren´t for those murderous nomads raiding us know and then, and I heared of drugs smuggled in with the macro haulers.... but me is not to question the security officers. No sir, me is to labour!".

Santiago said:

While the commissar's will sit here by the machine guns and make sure you will not retreat.

Varnias Tybalt said:

Pretty much, although most Commissars in canon that I've read about might just be psycho and zealous enough to be in the thick of it, shooting soldiers to keep their zeal up.

When you think about it, Commissars must be scary f*cking people. They're so hardcore that given a choice between pissing the Commissar off or getting ripped to pieces alive and screaming by Tyranids, most IG will choose to face the Tyranids.

That's pretty hardcore.

I guess an average Imperial guardsman has most of his training on the job, so very little bootcamp, they are expendible.

In my game an average IG has about 2 weeks of official training where they learn how to use, shoot and clean their Lasguns and where they learn basic tactics.
After that it is of to war and if they are lucky they will receive some additional training on board their transport ship, if not, well to bad.
Those who do survive the first few weeks will mostly learn by experience.

Now officers on the other hand, I would think each sub sector has atleast one Military Academy for the training of commissioned officers and then there is the Schola training for Commissars etc.

I'm currently creating the Calixian Military Academy located on a yet to be decided planet where decadent young men are trained to be Imperial Guard Officers, perhaps this warrants a Background Package...

Calixis Military Academy
Home World: Hive Born, Imperial World, Noble Born, Schola Progenium, Void Born
Cost: 300xp

The Imperial Guards needs a lot of soldiers but without officers the soldiers are useless. The Military Academy is one of the places where the Imperium trains it future officers; this is the school where they are taught to lead the lesser men into battle and to make the decisions that might one day save the Imperium. But than again, a dead officer is just as useless so besides learning to lead men into battle they are also receive the same basic training as any other Imperial soldiers.
Graduates from this academy are very much wanted by any Commanders for their staff because they know that the Calixis Military Academy only delivers the best of the best.

Effects:
Apply the following changes to you character.
Profile: +3 Fel, -3 Str
Skills: You begin play with the skills Command, Common Lore (War) and Literacy. You may also treat Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis) as a basic skill.
Talents: Peer (Military)
Equipment: In addition to the normal Guardsman Equipment graduates also receive a Dress Uniform (Good Quality Clothing) and replace their Laspistol with a Mars Pattern Mark IV Command Laspistol (Page 173 of the Inquisitors Handbook) and their Lasgun with a Las Carbine

Santiago said:

i would make the str reduction a T reduction in my opinion but other than that its really good, nicely balanced

TheFlatline said:

Yeah, I know. However if one is to believe Commisar Ciaphas Cain, then most of the zealos "emperor bothering" commissars usually find themselves killed pretty fast. Either due to enemy fire or most unfortunate "friendly fire" incidents.

This gave me an idea, let's say you build an Imperial Guard army for Warhammer 40.000 and you convert all the heavy weapon teams you have into looking like Commissariat provosts (Provosts are like special guard detail used by the commissariat, sort of like MP's in real world armies). Your opponent will probably ask: "Why do your heavy weapon gunners look like commissars?" then you smile impishly while answering: "They are commissariat provosts, they are ordered to gun down any soldier in my army that tries to flee from the enemy!"

Santiago said:

Very nice, but two things:

One, A Feral World IG regiment would have it's own command structure so Feral Worlds should be added, that and Power Swords

no not powerswords...how about a lathe blade? thatd be about the equivalent and without the powerfield in my opinion a powerfield is a more firecly guarded secret of the mechanicus than a lathe weapon

ThenDoctor said:

On the other hand, power swords are something you can find pretty much everywhere throughout the Imperium of Man, while Lathe blades are, according to the fluff, unique products of the Calixis Sector.

So if I were to rank the rarity and expenses, I'd rank Lathe blades A LOT higher than power weapons. But thats just me...

I assume we are all talking about the skill to use a power weapon, rather than the package actually giving one as equipment.. bearing in mind that normally you have to be rank 6+ guardsman to learn this...

well i was going on the assumption of that he was actualy giving them a sword like for graduation they recieved an officers sword that way you wouldnt have to be given the talent for it