Guys n gals,

Really into the WH40K universe and really up for running a new campaign. My preference would be Imperial Guard over Inquisition, just for more combat really; that's what my players tend to like.

I don't own Dark Heresy (and obviously Deathwatch isn't out yet), but does DH offer the option of an IG campaign, or is that something that will be in DW? It looks to me like DW is going to be just marines, so hopefully there's *something* useful for me in DH.

Also if any of you out there are running an IG campaign I would love to compare notes, please, and ask for advice on how you went about it.

Many thanks,

-4-

I had thought about running just such a game for my group, as they tend to like the combat too.

My main stumbling block was Vehicles. I did download the vehicles Apocryhpa, but it doesn't cover nearly the scope of vehicles available to the Guard. Now I know, given the time and desire to do so, I could have borrowed a few codices and made them up myself. But I don't have the time or desire.

So, I came back to normal Inquisitorial Acolytes. I would still like to run an Imp. Guard game, if they ever give us more vehicle stats, or I get the time to do it myself.

Sorry, I know that probably wasn't much help.

Sister Cat said:

Well it helps in so much as it's not going to be as straightforward as I'd first thought or hoped.

I appreciate that, thanks.

Well, I suppose you could forgo the fancier tanks and stuff, and just stick with the IFV's. IIRC, those are covered in the Apocryhpa.

I just gave it up, because I know my crew would want a Baneblade, or something equally outlandish.

Well DH does not offer IG campaign options, but it can be done.

Yes, vehicles will be a problem but DH wasn't really designed with them in mind (it's not Mechwarrior).

To play an IG campaign you should get yourself two books, the first being the main book and the second being the Inquisitor's Handbook.

Why IH? Because it contains a chapter full of IG goodies like stats for heavy weapons (Plasma Cannons, Autocannons, Multi-Meltas etc.), standard IG equipment (Uplifting Primer anyone?) and other.

Of interest should also be the Creatures Anathema for xeno stats.

Arag said:

Magic, thanks for the info, I'll get the lot I reckon.

There are plenty of 'classes' in the book that fit with the Imperial Guard, Guardsmen (of course), Sanctioned Psyker, Preist, Tech Priest.

You'll need the apocrypha for vehicle rules which has most things up Battle tanks.

Check out the site for some home rules that you might need for variety. There's at least a Ratling homeworld and a Leman Russ (althogh vehicles are quite easy to stat yourself) and probably a bunch of other stuff.

www.darkreign40k.com/

And long time forum poster N0-1_H3r3 has a bunch of home rules which includes ab-human characters and tyranids if you want to inflict them on your players.

http://www.n01h3r3.com/

I have been half heartedly trying to make some Ogryn rules myself prior to seeing this, but i would say that if they advanced in the same way as another Guardsmen they would be pretty unbalanced in this game (pretty much unplayable in DH it'self really) so they should have some strong limits on the weapons they can use.

I have played a few games with a group of IG. These were jungle fighters so the main action was without vehicles. It was a bit of mix between WH40K meets <fill in Vietnam war movie>.

The biggest problem I had was the fact that all the troopers are the same. Their backgrounds are usually the same. I fixed that problem by giving each trooper a role: a sergeant, a techie, a special weapon, a medic, and such. So the techie had tech use as a skill. The medic had medicae, and the special weapon started with several skills in special weapons. I must admit they all started at a higher rank and the characters were pregenerated, so I had complete control over the skills and talents they started with. If I would run a campaign I probably would have thought of some background effects. You could modify the origin path from RT or make one of your own.

Another problem you should considfer is the fact that IG works in squads of usually 10 man. Depending on the size of your player group you can either bring along red shirts or make the group some kind of special ops squad or kill team. In the games I played the first game they were in 1 platoon (2 squads of 10 and 1 command squad of 5). Their landing was compromised and as they fought for their own lives the npc died horribly at the hands of Tyranids. So after 3 rounds all that was left were the players. The sergeant was the highest ranking member. The other missions they were used as a special ops team.

The sessions started with giving the sergeant the mission briefing. He had to give the orders to the rest. At the start of each mission they were allowed to choose their equipment. Of course within the guidlines of the Munitorum. This is fun as you can either limit the equipment or if you want to kearn how what the effect is of a certain weapon you can choose use it for 1 mission only.

There were no tanks, but I used the chimera in the games and found out that the rules were usable. The effects added to the story.

As Arak stated it is wise to use IH and Creature anathema besides the rulebook. They have alot of info you can use.

also good books to get would be the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer (every guardsman is given one and if you shift through the propoganda its actually very useful in describing a lot about what a guardsman does) and the Imperial Munitorum Manual it describes what the munitorum does for the guard and further weapons used, as well as more rules and medals your guadsman might earn in combat.

i once was included in a Guardsman campaign that revolved around the Sabbat Crusades mainly we were a squad that was eventually named the Blood Wraiths because where we walked the blood of the enemy spewed forth and i took out a World Eater with a missle launcher...and i was the adept medic

carreers you might include in the campaign are the adept for the medic class, assassin for the sniper class, and obviously guardsman, and out there somewhere is a commissar fan created class im sorry but i dont have a link though im fairly sure its on dark reign.

just remember to keep in mind that your player are just human and are being sent against the horribly fun stuff that the galaxy spews at them, they will get skrewed up and they will occasionally do amazing things give them lots of options and dont forget to include regimental blood feuds because one army of men going against another even though they are on the same side is lots of fun heh...

I'm currently running an Imperial Guard (actually Planetary Defense Force) campaign using Dark Heresy rules and it's going quiet well.

There is a Guardsman career but the trick, IMO, is not to get locked into that. My current campaign has a Lieutenant who is actually an Adept and the Staff Sergeant is Scum. The only one playing to type is the Tech Priest Engineseer. With a few elite advances (allowing them to buy skills and talents outside of their regular career paths) they guys make a very effective core of a command squad.

While they do have access to 2 Chrimera APCs and a Command Rhino, they are primarily Infantry in a urban combat environment, so I'm not worrying about the lack of heavy tanks.

If you decided to run an IG campaign, I'd be happy to compare notes with you.

Thanks for all the great replies. I've ordered DH, IH and the Infantryman's Primer so I'll let you know how I get on.

Once again, thanks muchly.

-4-

no problem, welcome to the game

DH most certainly does support a IG game with a little creativity.

I myself am currently running a PbP survival horror game featuring nothing but Imperial Guardsmen in the form of greenhorn PDFs deployed on their first real mission. If you wish, you can examine the campaign here . Hopefully you'll find its contents interesting and useful. Be warned that it is heavily house ruled, so certain things with respect to the rule mechanics may not initially make sense (such as Lasguns having Full-Auto, or the PCs switching power settings).

Running a IG-game based on DH was even covered in one of the older design diaries (but not with to much detail).

I would suggest you to buy "Inquisitors Handbook" as well: it introduces to the concept of "Career Packs" (which you will try to build your own for guardsmen so your guardsman pc will have a chance to be more different) and it has a complete equipment list for IG Regiments.

If you are into penny saving, it is available as official PDF (see DriveThru RPG or other sources).

For your campaigne, I would suggest the still-ongoing "pacification" of Tranch after the Mutant uprising. The Sooth Warrents still aren´t safe. Since it is "inside a hive", you won´t have vehicles and "deployment in squad strength" is kinda believable for "urban warfare". Battleing mutants allows for a wide variety of foes. Since the orginal rebellion was broken the IG on Tranch are now fittting "splinter cells", some of them might even turn to chaos as a last ditched afford to save their own hides.

"Disciples of the Dark Gods" covers the "Pale Throng" (the original rebellion forces) together with new entries for "Ueber-Mutants" and stats for little fields horrors like "Twist Brutes" or "Witchkin". Never the less, you do not actually need these. I think, you will either be able to come up with your own twisted mutant warriors ...or be able to enlist some help here in the forum

"Welcome to the IG. Now, go and take this hill!"

I can also suggest the GMs Toolkit. It has a xeno generator which is great for creating enemy races fitting the power of the players.

The interesting thing is that I am planning to run an Imperial Guard campaign based off Band of Brothers .

Excellent help, thanks folks, nice to see I could generate a bit of activity.

Thanks again, and keep it coming

-4-

What you definately want to do for an IG themed game is to sit down with the players in advance and figure out what types of Guardsmen they would like to play (like if your group all have a favourite IG unit), what sort of specialties they might have, what personal flaws or weaknesses they might suffer from and then tailor a specialized "starting package" for each one. So say 4 of your players are making characters with the Guardsman career, one declares he is a medic, one declares he is a scout, another declares he is a weapon specialist and the fourth is a "basic trooper". Toss a few skills and talents at each one based on their declared specialties and even level1-2 characters are more distinctive. The other trick as mentioned earlier is to be a little creative with the other careers. If one of the troopers is more a con-man and gambler than muscular hardcase then have that player build his character as a Scum but give him a Guardsman's starting kit and pay. Obviously if you have an Enginseer then that is a Techpriest... Pretty much right out of the core book. Perhaps the outpost they were stationed at was overrun by "bad things" as part of your campaign intro, so one of the local Munitorum clerks is now tagging along with the soldiers (Adept character) since they managed to make it out alive somehow.

If they are starting at a higher rank then perhaps they are a Kill Team? Perhaps Penal Legion troopers sent on suicidal yet important missions (like in the Last Chancer series)? Or maybe they are MIA from an ongoing Crusade... Thought dead and left behind, the haggard survivors of some epic battle come crawling back to their old base only to find it abandoned and derelect. Now what do they do?

I know of people who have used DH to run Necromunda-style gang campaigns. Absolutely no reason why you can't make the Imperial Guard (Or PDF, or Navy Armsmen) have a day in the spotlight.

You know this could be the basis of supplement. A Guardsman guide with details of Calixis regiments alt ranks and back grounds for specialists and the IG versions of other careers.

Face Eater said:

And full range of IG vehicles ... for those whose players just can't live without their Leman Russ battle tank, et al.

I've thought about running a penal legion game. What interests me is that virtually any kind of character (mostly unpleasant ones ) can be used, and so you have some great potential for roleplaying. You also have the potential of letting the campaign evolve beyond a simple war setting as the palyers try to figure out how to survive and get off the hell-hole they've been dropped at (while possibly trying to get revenge on the people responsible for sending them there in the first place).

I was thinking about running Curse Of the yellow Sign (call of cthulhu) but with IG instead of Nazi soldiers

Face Eater said:

There's a couple of Guard Regiement's in the sector but the main ones are the Brontian Longknives with there homeworld being Bront and not much is given about them apart from the fact they share a space station with the Mechanicus over Morwen VI. Given how each Imperial Guard unit is based on a real military unit I based the Longknives on the Roundhead Calvary from the English Civil War with there lobster tail helmets, swords and brown jackets.

http://www.greenfield.durham.sch.uk/images/Roundhead2.JPG

I have to say I'm actually stunned there isn't either an IG supplement out or one planned. I would have thought it would have been quite popular, offering that style of campaign. I know it's a pain to put supplements together, but I imagine that one would be good.

4862 said:

I'd imagine it is because Dark Heresy is mostly investigation/horror genre, Rogue Trader is mostly adventure/exploration genre and for that action/warfare genre they figured their target audience is more interested in Space Marines...

Enter Deathwatch.