I'm wanting to create an Imperial Guard Sergeant who was inducted by an Inquisitor. At first he will only have access to the ten-man squad directly under his command. But eventually he will rank up to a Lieutenant and have command of a platoon of 4 squads. I'm planning on using the horde rule from Deathwatch to keep running my squads quick and seamless.

Is Dark Heresy the kind of game for a character like this or should I be looking at Rogue Trader?

Honestly, what you are describing here is more in the realm of Rogue Trader or Ascension (If you must have it be a Dark Heresy game). Dark Heresy involves the exploits of a small cell of Inquisitorial Acolytes as they scrape and struggle against odds that are very much against them. As written an officer with a squad of guardsmen at his command would be very out of place in an investigation being conducted in this game.

If you are on a mission that JUSTIFIES that many troops, then yes, its 100% reasonable for an IG officer to have that many troops.

Cool. Thanks for the replies. Like I said, this character would only be a sergeant in command of a single squad for the first couple ranks anyway. Maybe Rogue Trader is the better option... I'll see what they say over there....

The men in his squad would be more competent than him.

What's the squad for? You need to give a reason for that. Otherwise, why would the Inquisitor use this IG officer as an agent at all? You don't make simple soldiers agents, as if you need muscle you can always requisition those. I really don't see this working because Dark Heresy games are about intrigue and subterfuge. You really can't do that with squads of men tromping around behind you wherever you go.

I have to agree with some of the others. Dark Heresy is not the game to consistently use goon squads in. You can always call for backup in DH but the bread and butter of the game shouldn't involve tons of extra NPCs.

You guys forget that Dark Heresy is not just a game, but a system. The system can be applied to many more settings in 40K. I think it would be interesting to give each player a few troops to command so you can take on much stronger enemies once they find that chaos or genestealer cult. The troops could be made to trail like 1000XP behind the player.

You could potentially even houserule the horde rules to include a dude with a special weapon like a melta, nade launcher or a flamer, say the last dude in the horde, or the second last if you count yourself a part of it too, giving the horde it's single lasgun attack with the damage bonus conforming to the horde rules, plus a special attack, plus your own, if you carry something different too (otherwise it contributes to the horde attack). Magnitude used to determine extra damage is total magnitude minus 1 for every dude carrying a different weapon, while magnitude for taking losses is just the total magnitude.

The Sergeant player can of course split up the horde however he wishes, "You two, take the left, you and you take the right, Fertan, you're with me, we take the front.", (unless the GM imposes a limit to the amount of sub-hordes to save time rolling).

The alternative is that all players are part of a squad. Sergeant, Fire-team leader, 2 players with a special weapon (1 for each kill-team) and the rest are NPC's to be commanded by the sergeant if the squad operates as one, or by the sergeant for the first fire-team and fire-team leader for the second, when the squad splits up. The fire-team leader could potentially also act as the squad's designated marksman, taking a longlas, while the sergeant is issued a laspistol and something special that suits the mission. (could be an auspex, krak grenades, etc) If necessary, a fifth player can play the tech-priest attached to that squad.

This gives players a choice: Take command, or get those guns that bring a smile to your face every time you press the firing stud.

Im thinking about this way too hard.

I find one major flaw in this logic of "gaining more command" and that is that the guardsman is a Inquisition acolyte now. Rankings account more along the lines of describing how skilled the player is and what type of skills they wish to pursue. For example: an experienced Acolyte (Rank Commander) retains the same level of Inquisitional authority as an acolyte (Rank Conscript). The only differences that I could think of would be that the Command Ranked Acolyte might be considered trustworthy while the conscript may be regular.

Of course, if you are more of the creative type like myself, I would recommend making the whole "command more troops" policy restricted to certain settings such as entering large battles against even larger foes, maybe even diverting them as a distraction to buy the PC a certain amount of time (based on the # of troops). Just try not to add too much depth to the commanding aspect otherwise you risk bogging down the campaign.

Granted I've haven't gauged myself in a full-length campaign yet but I find that studying others and listening in on many other GM's experiences adds to my knowledge, and further increases my success for a good campaign.

"Knowledge is power. Power wins battles. Battles win wars. Existance is War!"

-Inquisitor Balthazar Jeremiah Skult A.K.A. The Edict of Fire A.K.A. My Inquisitor/GM Name

An acolyte rank commander could certainly have command over an acolyte rank conscript. Besides, as I mentioned, Dark Heresy is not just a game, it's a system. You can throw out everything that isn't just numbers, and come up with an entirely new setting. This setting may be about a squad of guardsmen who pull crazy stunts sort of along the lines of Ciaphas Cain.

A fellow GM has been running a campaign about one such a squad that was dedicated to titan hunting. Players made a guardsman according to the DH character creation rules, and fight according to the DH combat rules, and nearly everything else went out the window.

That is what it means to be creative.