As far as I'm aware, aren't all the Imperial Guard troopers in a regiment all recruited from the same planet, be it Cadia, Catacha or elsewhere? I can't think of any unit that consist of troopers from mixed worlds. Compared to RT and DW, surely this will limit options concerning origin paths and palyer backgrounds. The only method around this I can think of is if the PCs are forming some mixed company of vets from broken up regiments. Any thoughts or comments are welcome.

As I recall from Lexicanum after Tanith 1st took new soldiers from other planet:

*minor spoiler*

The Ghosts' eventually garnered a strong reputation after a number of actions, in particular the defences of Vervunhive, the Beati's Shrine on Hagia and her apparent person on Herodor. Unfortunately, this success did not come without its drawbacks and the Ghosts suffered heavy casualties on a number of occasions. However, two large personnel intakes during the regiment's history (one from the citizenry of Vervunhive, the other from the folding in of the 81st Belladon Recon regiment) managed to offset these losses.

*spoiler*

But yeah they are special case.

I think FFG will prefer rule of cool then sticking to the fluff. Imperium is so vast that surely they can put some mixed units. Playing all catachan/cadian/mordian squad could be fun for some time but it can be boring after some time.

I'd assume that the PCs aren't going to be "fresh" troops. Rather they're going to be some sort of special ops type of squad drawn from various regiments for a specific purpose.

It's quite common that two undermanned companies to merge into a new company if there's no chance of reinforcement.

Let's say that the 5th Krieg and the 45th Catachan's both suffer heavy casualties during the siege of city X on planet Y during the "For the emprah!"-crusade, with no chance of reinfrcement in the forseeable future. They'd merge into a new company where the old parts would take specialist roles in the new. In this case the catachans would most likely be forward scouts and the Krieg the shock troops.

Commisars aren't necessarily from the same planet as the regiments they oversee.

Also, a penal legion would be made up of units from many different planets.

It's my understanding that numerous Guard regiments are formed from various worlds of influence; each world trains its own forces, and then must donate 10% of its fighting force to the Imperial Guard, as a tax of sorts. So, if I was born on Cadia, where military service is mandatory, I'd get Cadian training (the good kind). If I was then tithed to the Guard, I'd take that training to wherever I went, and go about my work. After a time, when new recruits would show up, I'd give them the extra training in the Cadian fashion.

At the very least, yeah, many regiments are formed when two other regiments join up. My again example is my 1st Lokarin, the Skyshock Drop Troops, a regiment comprised of what was once the 1981st Cadian and the 103rd Elysian regiments. initially, the 1981st Cadian, under then General Markus Krueger got sent to a warzone in Elysian space, but had to leave the bulk of their heavy vehicles behind, for speed reasons. Once there, and after some casualties, the leftovers of both forces united, and the Elysians passed on their skills of battle without tanks. After the situation was ended, the group stayed a composite regiment, and its combination of hold the objective and rapid deployment without tanks got the notice of Segmentum Command, whoneeded to send a group to the planet in my story. Once there, they became the 1st Lokarin regiment, and took up residence in Titanspire, digging in to fight off occasional waves of Orks, who hide out in the forests beyond.

Legit/canon regiments have been built in similar ways, allowing the IG to tailo-make their armies by cobbling together various assets of different training, and capitalize on the flexibility of human experience within the Imperium. That's why numerous worlds have Cadian trained Guards, or hope that they do, until the see the Catechans coming in, acting all hick.

There's also the chance that your 'regiment' might be handled more like the Rogue Trader "Dynasty" is and you all make the regiment for your PCs

I think it will be something like Deathwatch. You have your Regiment/Chapter and your Speciality and then you're ready to go.

The drawing of Marines from different Chapters for the Death Watch is all canon, and the mixture of backgrounds for Rogue Trader dynasties made all good sense - I guess the question was really what reason could be given for creating a guard squad from mixed regiments in order to provide the same background diversity for OW as DW and RT. I'm aware that attached units from different regiments could easily be imagined fight alongside each other, but it's the excuse of why a Mordian, Catachan and Cadian would be in the same unit that I was curious about. All the replies give good reasons and food for thought, so thanks very much.

Scribbs said:

Exactly.

And honestly, I personally hope it's not mixed units. I want it all to be one unit, a better band of brothers feel then. The 'add ons' such as Commissars and Psykers can all easily come from elsewhere, but even in the books they definitely pick up traits of the people they fight with, if only by assimilating to their fighting style.

Have we seen any indication yet that planet of origin will be the exact same as it is in the other rulebooks? As stated, I could see both commisars and sanctioned psykers being from other planets, but for the most part the unit should be from the same planet according to the vast, vast majority of the material I've read from both Warhammer 40,000 rule/codex books and the Black Library novels.

Dulahan said:

So do I. On the other hand it may lead into "I do not like Catachans, yet I am forced to be one because my other squadmates want to be them" situations. However I think that there will be mixed units, where you will have to use pull-out-of-your-arse explanation why are your regiments fighting together. Bonus points when one character dies and the player chooses a Guardsman from yet another regiment.

tuco said:

The origin path in RT and marine Chapter in DW offered a good starting point for character background creation and added good flavour to PCs. With the guard I believe planet of origin and regiment should probably be the same thing background wise, and as mentioned I don't think mixed regiment units are really suitable for the guard according to the canon - so what are the alternatives to give the same depth to OW as DW and RT? I agree that Commissars and physkers plus any ab-humans (if included) could / should have different planetary backgrounds to the average guardsman grunt, but I feel the majority of squaddies should have come from the same Deathworld,Hive planet etc. The only convincing 'mixed regiment' unit mentioned so far to my mind is a penal squad, plus Commissar to keep them in line…

I've already pretty much decided that if I run this game my group will be a penal legion. Having my players put together their own "last chancers" is just too rich a vein to not mine it. Especially considering some of my players. If there's not an option for disseperate planets of origin, I'll just take one from one of the other lines, so I can be happy with whatever FFG decides to do.

I don't know how indicative this is of anything, but all of the guardsmen on the cover page or whatever have the same regimental number on their shoulder, and all the released art so far has shown members of the same regiments…

I certainly hope they include options for everybody in regards to single or mixed-regiment units.

The imperium is vast, I'm sure that it's perfectly reasonable extrapolation on the fluff to have a bunch of guardsmen from different regiments brought together for some sort of spec ops mission, to take advantage of their varied skills and backgrounds. Would make a perfectly workable plot hook to explain why the party is all together.

Hell, it'd be pretty awesome actually, if DH had enough overlap with OW to allow for an inquisitor to lead a "requisitioned" team of guardsmen into battle. You know, the same way that Eisenhorn took a bunch of Gudrunite riflemen with him on a couple different raids. Or when he and Inquisitor-General Neve borrowed a team of Kasrkin on Cadia.

That said, playing a party from a single regiment also has the benefit of a clear focus and flavor, and tight bonds between characters.

I do hope they've got options in both cases. I'd love to play a mixed-bag group, but I also see great appeal in playing a group of, for example, all Kriegsmen, or all Ghosts.

While we're still on the subject of origin options, though, I hope they include a wide variety of pre-generated origins from the fluff, from particularly famous guard units. In addition, I'd love to have the ability to generate my own homeworld and regiment, the same way you could generate a new chapter in the Deathwatch ruleset. Even if said generation rules don't exist in the launch book, I'd immediately snap up whatever supplement put them out.

I am sure that there is more then one Guard origin option, So if you dislike the Catachans for example, you should be able to convince your fellow players to choose another origin instead. Or even make a mixed regiment. Though I think that it is more fitting to start at least with a squad that are all from the same regiment. Naturally, after a few battles, the regiment will probably adopt guards from other regiments as losses add up.

tuco said:

I was thinking the same thing, though mixed with a dash of Band of Brothers, and a dollop of A-Team

MILLANDSON said:

What Specialty is Mr T?

Dulahan said:

No-Fool

i was wondering if they were going to make you part of a vet squad thats been made up of remnants from decimated regiments or hand picked for the vets squad. as the sas are mixed regiment and service.

Drake56 said:

Well, actually, the SAS are their own regiments, being 22 Special Air Service Regiment (Regular Army), 21 Special Air Service Regiment (TA) and 23 Special Air Service Regiment (TA). Whilst they come from other regiments, they are all then given training so that, whilst they may have come from different origins, they all have the same general skills. They don't keep on acting like they did in their old regiments.

A 40k Penal Legion would be the best suggestion for a true "every soldier from a different regiment" game, in my opinion.

tuco said: