4862 said:

I doubt FFG will give us a full hardcover published book on this (much as I would love to buy it!). What is more realistic would be a nice big fat PDF of perhaps 30-50 pages with some handy details and info on notable Imperial military units in the Calixis Sector. Obviously the Brontian Longknives would be front-and-center, but that still leaves all the various PDF units as well as the IG units that you KNOW are raised from most of the hive worlds (Solomon being the obvious exception). Toss in an updated version of the vehicles appocripha and an expanded vehicles listing, perhaps a chice selection of specialist wargear from some of the named IG units (For example the "Longswords" in IH). Heck, for that matter include small craft and some handy Navy and IG background packages and make a new DH/RT suplement Battle Masters of Calixis or something eye-catching like that!

When doing the vehicles, don't forget the riot control Rhino variant that is employed by the Arbites sometimes. Likewise for the Sororitas variant Rhino builds. Both will be VERY popular with this crowd.

Actually yeah a substantial PDF supplement (as in Acrobat, not as in Planetary Defence Force!) would be a great idea. An official document, obviously

You're right, there's a wealth of information it could cover, from unit makeup to statting up notable regiments to "how to set up a base camp" and guides on extra equipment, tactics and armour variations right through to ground vehicles, dropships and custom pattern variants.

Chuck in a load of campaign starter notes and ideas for expanded scenarios, I'm sure it would be a seller.

Finally got my hands on DH and the IH and my goodness they're good-looking products. I normally begrudge paying that much for a gaming book but it's well worth it in production alone.

Also bought the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer. This is just utterly fantastic in my opinion, completely above and beyond worth. Amazing product.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. Always willing to talk IG!

-4-

The Emperor shines on you for posting this thread!

I would definitely love to run an Imperial Guard game and totally think you should. I think you may want to create a "Basic Training" starting kit perhaps that everyone could take (Basic Weapons Training (Las) anyone?) and then you could probably use just about any career in DH. Even Arbitrator (Military Police), Adept (Medicae, Spook), Cleric (Battle Priest), Scum (Scout), Assassin (Sniper), Tech Priest (Enginseer), or Psyker (Primaris). This would totally fit for a Last Chancers style game or even something like Gaunt's Ghosts, Catachan Devils or other Veterans units.

Nearly any book will help you in this, as many of them have enemies to fight (Xenos or Chaos). Even Rogue Trader could help if you wanted to go large scale - it could probably be adapted to being the Command Section of a Guard unit.

Hope things go well! I am jealous!

Well here are my thoughts on the matter - some ideas have already been mentioned by others on the thread....but hey

The rules mechanics are all in place to run an IG campaign - you just focus on the Guardsman character class - with some going to Assassin for snipers possibly, Commissars in training could be Clerics, guardsmen or even arbites at a stretch. There is some scope for adepts as support staff, techpriests too. Arbites also fit the Military Police equivalent, the scum background falls in nicely as thats where most guard come from in the first place. There are fan rules for Ratlings and for Ogryn - the ogryn rules work well enough as one guy in my DH group is an Ogryn and its fine - unnnatural toughness causes some issues to think about (the ogryn is a bit binary, it tends to stay unhurt or it falls over in one go). Psykers of course slot right in.

The whole inquisitional background is just that - a setup for the players. Mostly its an excuse for a group to be wandering round the W40K universe as a bit of a loose cannon. An Imperial guard stormtrooper kill team would fit the mold, as would a mercenary unit - for the first you could replace the deus ex machina of the Inquisitor with a fully trained Commissar, and the second a random noble.

Equally a guard unit seconded to the Inquisition is a good place to start and merge the two backgrounds if you want to - pull them between inquisitor and commisar perhaps. The advantage on that means you can mak the mission inquisitional when you want. When I started at my local games club, in fact, that was how half the players came into the game - seconded guardsmen (one line guardsman, one psyker and one sniper - we've added an ogryn during play).

Most of the published adventures that are combat heavy could be tweaked to be guard involvement (or naval troopers). Most that aren't can be made that way. I can think of the original demo adventure that I have being that way, just start as guardsmen sent in by the Commissar - the one in the main rulebook is adaptable with a little setup work to give a reason to be there that is more imperial guard related (bodyguards rather than inquiitional team for the Seer). In Purge the Unclean one adventure is great for a merc unit, or even guards by making the main NPC an exGuard colonel rather than a Navy Captain. The second is a space hulk dungeon crawl so perfect for guard as expendable meat. The third also works to some extent - less easy but once you slot it in its fine. The one in the GM kit works too. One change from the Inquisition to the Guard is you can make it more Cthuloid - Guarda have been told a lot of crap concerning xenos and other enemies. As they run into demons and aliens you can have a good culture shock element lifted from Cthulu as they discover the truth - and posibly as they try to hide it from their Commissar....then you can bring Inquisitional elements to the game if you wish.

Rogue Trader is based around independants and so some of the advenutres could be back retconned there. In some ways you could take the profit factor they use there and convert that to Imperial Guard standing/influence and use some of the Rogue trader mechanisms for adventures (kinda like the way spycraft does stuff). Also tweaking of Rogue Trader gives you an Imperial Guard Colonel and his elite command staff with the regiment aboard a ship.

Plus there is a bunch of downloadable stuff on FFGs and fan sites....so look at that and see what is tweakable if its of interest.

Magic, thanks for those tips lads, much appreciated. Good post Myrm.