In my current game the Players are part of a light infantry regiment comprised of sharpshooters from an Imperial World. Their standard squad build up: Sgt, Vox operator, medics, Longlas, Heavy Bolter, scount/point, with four weapon specialist.

How have you build your regient's squad?

I think it was built so that the main specialties build a traditional squad; an Operator to drive the Chimera, a Weapon Specialist, a Heavy Gunner, a Medic, a Sergeant to boss them all around, and their five Comrades, one of whom is a Vox-Operator.

Is this your current PC squad, or your "regiment-standard" squad as you imagine it?

If it's the first, I have a Sergeant, a Heavy Gunner, a Storm Trooper, and a Commissar.

If it's the second, the Vostroyan Firstborn 55th Line Infantry "Rifles" as I envision it has a standard squad setup of one sergeant, one vox operator, one heavy gunner with heavy bolter, one loader, and six troopers. The platoon level adds a lieutenant, two medics, an enginseer and servitor(s), and other specialists or veterans as required.

Plushy said:

I got the idea that the Operator ws more than the squad's chauffeur. That he/she was the tech guy sort of like Huddson from Aliens.

So how would you build a light infantry squad?

Kharol said:

I was thinking standard squad.

But I like what you've outlined for the 55th Vostroyan, is that your own creation or from a book - if so which one?

For us, the Squad looks like this:

- Operator: squad leader and "I can do stuff the others can't" guy. We houseruled him to have 10+D5 starting Wounds, and the Specailization is pretty awesome since then. Oddly enough, he rarely acts as a driver/pilot as he often takes over the position of the commander/gunner in the vehicles.

- Medic: we always have him. he is like a compulsory choice, as Squads tend to lose combat efficiency rather quickly without a dedicated Medic character.

- Weapon Specialist/Heavy Gunner: an or/or selection - we either have one or the other. Past experiences point towards the usefulness of having only one "dedicated weapon guy". My group favors the Heavy Gunner, but two other groups in my gaming club favor the Weapon Specailist (and tow groups are neutral). Personally, I would lean towards the Weapon Specialist…

- Storm Troopers x2: Squad powerhouses, nuff' said. They kill stuff, and since OW is all about killing stuff, the game is usually theirs.

Others we plan to do/we tried to do:

- Ogryn: yeeeeah…. Proved himself to be very situational and generally unreliable. Also, the GM has a special hatred towards characters with stupid Traits ('Its Dark in Dere!' is a good example) so the Ogryn quickly earned the "suicide class" badge.

- Sergeant: we really-really-really wanted to like this guy, but it fell flat on so many levels that we abanadoned this Specialization entirely.

- Sanctioned Psyker: we will have a try with this guy in our newest Squad (replacing one of the Storm Troopers). I'm looking forward to have a Psyker Guardsman on my side! It sounds neat!

- Techpriest: no idea why he never makes his way into our Squads… Even though we houseruled him to have the "zero Fellowship" thing, it doesn't really make a difference (we are talking about OW after all), so mayvbe it should be something about being "out-of-place"… or something.

here is the group I am playing right now through the Final Testimate campaign They are playing as a platoon command squad of the Valhallan 597th. Commander (just the basic squad leader), Breacher (for buiding defenses and blowing up things), Sharpshooter (self explanitory), Chirugion (again self explanatory), and a Tank Ace (for driving vehicles).

My group's doing the "Final Testament" mission book, our regiment is a Drop Trooper regiment.

Squad setup :

Sgt

Medic

Tech priest

Psyker

Ogryn

Stormtrooper.

We are debating about the lack of a heavy gunner, as the regiment has Plasma gun and Las Cannon as our favourite weapons, so we're lacking something to bust down the heavy units. We were all asked to make three characters (So we have some in reserve) as the GM was pretty clear that we should expect to die, often.

So far though, we've had a couple of squad members on -7 critical damage, and two fate points have been burned to avoid blood loss death, but no real losses yet. We only got the first chapter of that book done though, so we're just getting warmed up and I expect the next few sessions will end in the GM clapping his hands as he mets his quota.

Some great ideas so far…

So if the squad consits of 9 guys/gals not including support specialists. Does a Lieutenant replace the sgt for for squad command? Or would the lieutenant also have a sgt in the squad?

Come to think of it, what should a typical regiment look like from it chief commander to lowest trooper? What I mean there is ten men to a squad, three to five squads in a Platoon, three to five platoons in a company, and three to five companies in a regiment? Where does the command struct fit in say with Captains, Majors, and such?

I know from attrition a Regiment could be the surviing members about squad size and still be considered a regiment.

In Gaunt's Ghosts (the novels) they have Master Scout, how would you fit that rank into a Regiment.

Or from the 40k minatures (which I know next to nothing) I see snipers in four man unit, I think…

Thoughts?

Darck Child said:

The 55th is the Regiment in the game I'm running, and we just used the Vostroyan Firstborn out of the Regiments of Renown in chapter 2. Line infantry seemed like a safe choice for our first game. The only modification was switching the Favored Basic Weapon to plasma gun.

The way I see it, is that on the squad level - there's no Officer attached. Sgt's are consider Non-commisioned Officers (NCO), and are more rank and file than they are commanding officers..

So it would make no sense for a Lt. to "lower" himself to command a single squad, he'll be busy with running 2-4 squads instead on a strategic level, and would only really come into play if the squads under his command were all partically destroyed while deep in a mission, so they were consolidated instead.

Captains would then be running 10 squads, and have two Lt.'s under him. Majors would prehaps be in charge of 25-50 squads and so forth.

Now given the scale of the Imperial Guard, likely Captains would run 100 squads rather than ten, and so forth as tens of thousands of men are on the front line on the major conflicts, which would also leave alot of communication to the Lt's and Sgt.'s, and would account for the slow and ponderous nature of the guard. Accurate Real Time data can be hard to come by for the command structure, and can take some time for orders, and counter orders to be funneled down through the various ranks.

The Imperial Guard structure is a mixture of the British Army, with the odd elements of the soviet forces mixed in (Commisars). You could look it up on Wikipedia as there is to my knowledge no solid account of troops under each tier of command.

The title "Master Scout" is just that - a title. Often given to whoever survived the longest as a scout, or shows the best aptitude at that job. Depending on your mood, I would give such titles to players after some time if they continually suceed with their missions. (Also making the checks, providing solid information to command etc.). It would provide no real in-game benefit, since they'd still just be another grunt, but Players tend to like that little something that makes their own characters stand out, outside of the huge stats block they often end up with late game.

Darck Child said:

Obviously this will vary by Regiment, but I think of the lieutenant leading a smaller, more elite/specialized command section rather than a normal squad + specialists. So, you'd have 3-5 squads + command section in a platoon. A company would consist of 3-5 platoons + the captain's command section. A battalion would consist of a couple of companies, and be led by a major and his staff. At the top is the Colonel and his staff. This is the layout we used in our game, but more exotic units could use totally different setups. I could see 20 man siege squads, or 5 man guerrilla squads.

Master Scout is probably like Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps: a one of a kind honorific that grants cachet without specific command ability.

What would a command section look like then?

The Command squad would be the Captain and above and military advisors, scribes, Munitorium officials etc. I don't see them as doing much real battle, but rather they try and keep their little piece of the puzzle going according to plan.

Command in the IG is as much a political battle as it is a battle against the enemy of the Imperium. You have to remember that each of the regimental types are removed from a coherant whole by divine mandate in the after hours of the horus heresy so that no one man would ever again command the whole of the Emperor's military might, which means that in practice, the IG needs to broker deals with the various other branches for support (From the Navy, from the Munitorium, from Mars (Adeptus mechanicus) from other regiments own commanders etc.)

Some great ideas so far…

So if the squad consits of 9 guys/gals not including support specialists. Does a Lieutenant replace the sgt for for squad command? Or would the lieutenant also have a sgt in the squad?

Come to think of it, what should a typical regiment look like from it chief commander to lowest trooper? What I mean there is ten men to a squad, three to five squads in a Platoon, three to five platoons in a company, and three to five companies in a regiment? Where does the command struct fit in say with Captains, Majors, and such?

I know from attrition a Regiment could be the surviing members about squad size and still be considered a regiment.

In Gaunt's Ghosts (the novels) they have Master Scout, how would you fit that rank into a Regiment.

Or from the 40k minatures (which I know next to nothing) I see snipers in four man unit, I think…

Thoughts?

The Imperial Guard Codex lays out the default set up of an Imperial Guard Regiment as a command squad headed up by:

Regiment Commander: 5 (1 is the commander) veterans that can have advisers, bodyguards, and heavy weapons added to it

Platoon Command Squads: 5 troopers (1 is the commander) that can take an extra Commissar and replace people for a heavy weapon

Infantry Squads: 10 troopers (1 is the sergeant) with the option to take a heavy weapon, vox, and flamer/grenade launcher. There are 2-5 squads to a platoon.

Special Weapons Squad: An optional squad with 6 troopers, 3 of which carry various special weapons

Heavy Weapon Squad: Another optional squad that has 6 trooper, all of them are set up in heavy weapon teams

Conscript squad: as many as 50 conscript cannon fodder troopers

Thanks MagosSteel .

My current squad is a Heavy Gunner (autocannon), Sergeant, Tech-Priest, Psyker, Ratling, Commissar, and until she moved I had a Operator. Which has led to some interesting situations with them belonging to an Light-Infantry regiment. Now as for a regimental build their outline is= heavy-gunner with a autocannon, one weapon specialist with hellgun, sergeant, a ratling, and the rest as regular troopers.

We started out we a Sgt, a heavy gunner, a medic and 2 weapons specialists.

Oh, and a psyker.

By now the sgt is a commander. the heavy gunner and medic are both dead, one weapons specialist is a sharpshooter and the other a heavy (I think, he was absent last session). And the Psyker ... is still a psyker

New characters for the dead one haven't been introduced yet, but I believe we're getting a priest...

Current squad:

Sergeant (w/ Vox-Tech)

Ministorum Priest

Psyker

Heavy Gunner

Heavy Gunner

Medic

Weapons Spec.

No real balance there, but a good group of players.

Currently running eleventh hour...

Our squad consists of.....

A Sergeant (out of fate points, but has been vital in 'getting them'

Ogryn (best shot and uses an autocannon) 'nuff sed!

An undercover Dark Heresy Hive World Scum plays like a resourceful trooper tends to 'acquired' good equipment for the squad.

A rogue trader senechal (caught up while 'inspecting' her Rogue Traders investment) plays like a weapon specialist due to better equipment.

A Commissar.....

A heavy weapons guy

and another DH character 'psyker' who is likely to become an OW Sanctioned version.

Having played tabletop Warhammer 40k for 15+yrs and the imperial guard at that i adhere to the classic squad breakdown of the tabletop game as such:

1 Srgt (with vox caster comrade)

1 Heavy (with loader comrade)

2 Weapon Spxecialist (1 with a special weapon and generic comrades all around)

1 Medic (with comrade)

Any Priests, Commisars, Psykers, Enginseers, etc can be added to this in an ad-hoc fashion

Having played tabletop Warhammer 40k for 15+yrs and the imperial guard at that i adhere to the classic squad breakdown of the tabletop game as such:

1 Srgt (with vox caster comrade)

1 Heavy (with loader comrade)

2 Weapon Spxecialist (1 with a special weapon and generic comrades all around)

1 Medic (with comrade)

Any Priests, Commisars, Psykers, Enginseers, etc can be added to this in an ad-hoc fashion

Same here:

Sergeant

Heavy Gunner

Weapons Specialist (Special Weapon)

Weapons Specialist (Lasgun)

Medic

each with their appropriate specialised comrades. The lasgun specialist initially complained, as he's used to Dark Heresy las weapons, until he realised just how scary an overcharged M.36 lasgun is with the Lasgun Barrage talent.

Got a campaign just starting up now. Big group.

Sergeant

Medic

Heavy Gunner

Weapon Spec (x4) - 1 of them is sort of sniper(ish)

Psyker

Custom regiment. Light Infantry from Frontier World.