Hey guys i was thinking about doing a few things with comrades and i wanted your opinion!
Guard squads are typically 10 men, so i think that the number of comrades should be 10- the number of PCs. comrades are allocated one to a player, and the rest are given to the sergeant.
comrades can also apply their buffs to anyone. not sure if this was a rule but it should be. so 3 comrades can support one player in firing giving a +15BS. the logic behind this was it captures one of the main things in only war: you are only human, you are rubbish, but with you squad supporting you, you can do great things! I'm not a fan of characters being that good, IMO one of the main stand out points of this game is that all your opponents are better than you, and this means that technically the squad is achieving stuff together but the PCs roll the dice and take the credit.
This also means that the squad can be quite powerful as long as the comrades all survive! Players have a motivation to keep them alive as they may not be able to win fights if all the comrades are dead, and they also remember to use their comrades. on the flip side more comrades means the GM can kill them off easier to represent the high turnover of bodies that the guard has. GMs, if your 10 man IG squad survives anything other than light skirmishes without losing men you are not being faithful to the guard IMO! this was partly in response to my group who constantly forgot their comrades and didn't care when they died.
let me know what you think!