I was reading through the Guardsman Gear section, about to start up a game and wanted to get prepared. Well there are two things listed that I couldn't find in the book.

Mercenary licence: which I just assume is a licence for the pc to get work as a mercenary, no biggie.

&

Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer: What?

I know one of my players is going to be a Guardsman and I want to know what it does so I can tell him....

Voku said:

Some basic info as to what it is can be found here. Occasionally one may be able to find a copy for sale on line, if you or your player really wants to know what is in it and have a nice little prop for the game. There are actually two versions; a standard copy, and one issued to the Imperial Guard regiments during the Damocles Campaign against the Tau. Helpful? Hopefully. Enjoy.

-=Brother Praetus=-

THANK YOU!! Ok I looked through the book for something for like an hour.... though I had just overlooked it. Helps a ton.

A mercinary license is, indeed, just that. The Imperium is a fudal sociaty where practicaly everyone is owned by someone else. A license saying you aren't owned by anyone and can work for who ever you want can be a big thing ;-)

The IIUP is a manual that will instruct a guardsmen in all the misinformation they need to know. It contains instructions for quick battlefield wound dressing, prayers for cleaning your las gun, litanies of hate, morning benedictions to the Emperor, useful nuggets of knowledge about the common foes of the Imperium (such as the fact that a Guardsmen has nothing to fear from a Genesteeler for their claws are small and puny and Eldar are cowards with backwards inferior technology who will fall easily to the noble las gun). There's a section on proper conduct for an Imperial Guardsmen, misconduct and it's penalties (usually being shot) such as Failing to produce the IIUP when demanded by a superior will result in the guardsmen being shot as will allowing such a hallowed tome to fall into enemy hands. Waisting ammo is a shooting offense as is disrespect for a senor officer or or one of the august officers of the Munitorium. There's a section on common IG tactics and what one should do in most situations that will crop up, oh, and while orks are large and intimidating, they aren't as strong as a normal man with faith in the Emperor.

It's also an actual book that BI put out. I'd recommend, if you have the spare cash, hunting up a copy. It's a damned amusing read and the prayers in the back are a great source for inspiration in creating you own for in-game or just pulling them out for a quick ic prayer for what ever situation might arise (it has most of them covered).

Edit: and i was beat to the punch

You aren't the first person who asked. It's one of those background things that most of the old 40k universe vets have heard of but relatively new players haven't. The writers have been very good in most cases in that they explain the concepts fully but they missed that one (it might have been explained in the IH though).

Long story short, it what actually Imperial Guardsmen get rather than Mercenaries or Penal Troops.

Your guardsman player can buy the 2nd one at Amazon (and certainly else where). Link below main for the reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Infantrymans-Uplifting-Primer-Damocles/dp/1844164845/

Basically it's a manual that:

-Talks about everything a guardsman can get shot for

-Claims the enemy is weak. "Genestealer's puny claws...."

-Has info about surviving various things, and using various equipment

It's really quite funny. Of course most guardsmen can't read any way....