Guide:How to make a fanon Imperial Guard Regiment

Just a few tips to help make a canon-friendly IG regiment; please feel free to add to or edit this if you see anything missing.Jochannon 09:42, November 16, 2010 (UTC)

Note: much of the text here has been copied from Lexicanum under the Fair Use doctrine

What is a Regiment?
A regiment is the primary organisational unit of the Imperial Guard. The size and composition of Imperial Guard regiments is not standardised across the Imperium; though the average strength at founding is about a thousand soldiers, that number can vary enormously between regiments, with some only a few hundred strong at founding-strength, whilst others possess tens of thousands of fighting troops.

A regiment is divided into a number of fighting units commonly called companies, each with a command staff of its own. Each company can consist of a number of further sub-units again called platoons, each platoon in turn being made of a number of individual squads of Guardsmen. The actual terms used for these fighting units, their numbers and equipment can vary between regiments.

Equipment
Obviously, with Imperial Guard regiments coming form such a variety of sources, there will be a wide variety of equipment, but there are standard equipment that can generally be found.

Personal Weapons
Most men in a regiment will be armed with either a longarm; a Lasgun or Autogun, or the more rare Hellgun. Some regiments will exchange their longarms for a close combat weapon and a pistol version of the longarm.

Elite troops and officers may be equipped with more powerful weaponry, such as power weapons and boltguns.

Special Weapons
Treading the line between personal weapons and support weapons, these weapons are carried with the ordinary infantry troops on attacks and retreats, to provide very close support.

Common special weapons include flamers, shotguns, meltaguns, grenade launchers, and plasma guns. Typically, there will be one or two special weapons in a squad. Although in special cases, there may be an entire squad or platoon armed with such specialized weapons.

Heavy Weapons
Heavy weapons, such as missile launchers, heavy stubbers, heavy bolters, Lascannons, and Plasmacannons, are typically organized into heavy weapons squads, attached to company and platoon HQ; standard infantry squads qill often be equipped with a single heavy weapons, addin significantly to their firepower.

Heavy Weapons, while lacking the punch of artillery add much to Imperial Guard short range firepower, and are often central to Guard strategy.

Artillery
Coming soon

Armour
Coming soon

Type/Specialization
Every world that produces Imperial Guard regiments has its own martial traditions, practices and experiences which all combine to dictate the manner in which its inhabitants choose to wage war. Despite this, it is possible to classify Imperial Guard regiments into different types by the nature of their equipment, training or battlefield role.

Light Infantry Regiment
A regiment formed up with no organic fighting or transport vehicles is known as a Light Infantry Regiment. These regiments display tendencies towards battlefield infiltration and reconnaissance, display skill at moving through all manner of difficult terrain and often possess highly effective sniper cadres. They tend to be somewhat deficient in heavy weapons support.

Drop Regiment
Some regiments exist within the Imperial Guard who specialise in arriving on the battlefield from the skies. Such regiments are termed Drop or Drop Troop Regiments. Lightly armed and equipped (although not as light as Light Infantry), Drop Troop Regiments typically attack from behind enemy lines, or are dropped right on top of enemy defences. All personnel in a Drop Regiment will be able to be equipped with grav-chutes, although this is not their only method of attack. Such regiments will also feature a large amount of airborne vehicles such as the Valkyrie troop carrier or Vulture gunship.

With no tanks or other heavily armoured vehicles to land in an assault, the highly mobile drop regiments are often tasked with forming the initial beachhead in an assault or capturing and holding an important location until the armoured reinforcements can arrive to relieve them. This means that the casualty rate amongst Drop Regiments tends to be higher than that of "regular" Imperial Guard units, as the regiments are ill equipped for a protracted fight with a superior force.

Regiments of Drop Troops often make use of specially adapted equipment such as Drop Sentinel, Cyclops and Sentry Gun. These machines are often dropped into combat via Grav-chutes alongside the Troopers or deployed from the holds of Valkyries.

Infantry Regiment
A 'standard' Imperial Guard regiment will feature a predominance of fighting Guardsmen, as well as a number of organic fighting and transport vehicles. Despite being percieved as the most common of regiment types, the variation between Infantry regiments of different worlds will be marked.

Heavy Infantry Regiment
Similar in style to Infantry Regiments, Heavy Infantry Regiments are marked out by the personal equipment of their Guardsmen. Almost all troopers in a Heavy Infantry Regiment will be equipped with heavy armour, such as carapace armour or a more exotic design unique to their world of origin. Similarly, weapons issued will be of a 'heavier' nature with a preponderance of plasma or similar high-end energy weaponry issued to specialists and teams. It has been known for all troopers in a Heavy Infantry Regiment to be armed with hellguns instead of the standard Guard weapon, the lasgun.

Mechanised Infantry Regiment
A regiment where all infantry units possess their own organic transportation. Mechanised regiments feature a preponderance of the Chimera vehicle, but may also feature other transport vehicles, including designs unique to their homeworld. Mechanised formations can often be found providing support for armoured units, and may possess armour of their own, amongst other variations of fighting vehicle.

Armoured Regiment
The hammer of the Imperial Guard, Armoured Regiments are made up entirely of fighting vehicles, and can be expected to field very high numbers of Leman Russ Battle Tanks or variants. Typically bereft of organic infantry, but many contain their own artillery and flak tanks. Some Armoured Regiments may also possess Super-Heavy Tank units.

Artillery Regiment
Regiments made up entirely of artillery pieces are known as Artillery Regiments. Such regiments can deploy a mixture of destructive weapons types or may specialise in a particular brand of long-range ordnance. Some such regiments contain small numbers of infantry and are likely to contain large amounts of transportation and anti-air vehicles. Since Artillery Regiments are not intended for direct frontline combat, they are generally much smaller then other Imperial Guard regiments. For this reason, Artillery Regiments are often attached as auxiliary units to larger regiments or are placed under the direct control of the local Commanding Imperial Officer.5

Siege Regiment
Regiments specifically trained for siege warfare often contain more artillery, both heavy and light, then standard Imperial Guard Regiments. Siege regiments often are larger and more well equipped then other types of regiments as they are expected to stay and fight in a warzone for at least several years if not decades if the war is particularly brutal. Due to the high casualties such regiments will inevitably take, siege specialized forces often have large contingents of conscripts so that the regiment's pool of manpower always remains high. Siege regiments often work in concert with Light Infantry or Armoured Regiments so that a breach in enemy lines can quickly be reinforced and if possible, pushed forward deeper. More well equipped siege regiments often have a large number of super-heavy and heavy tanks.

Abhuman Regiment
Abhuman-populated worlds raise their own regiments of Imperial Guard, although very few in number. Because of the specific levels of competence and/or skills possessed by Abhumans, these regiments are normally raised only to be immediately split up into small units, which are then parcelled out and attached to other Imperial Guard regiments.

Cavalry Regiments
Cavalry Regiments are entirely mounted on horses, camels, giant lizards, mechanical mounts, or some other such beast of burden. They are typically lightly equipped, without much of the heavy weapons and artillery of Infantry Regiments, but they are very mobile, and are often equipped with explosive Hunting Lances.