The Imperial Guard

[Magos]

Im curious. Having read different accounts of how the Imperial Guard conducts itself, either

A-Horde
B-Trained, Professional Military Force

Which do people prefer for the Imperial Guard.

I must say I personally rather prefer a trained, military force, becouse its sorta like rooting for a little guy when they do their best to fight a bloodthirster or something.

[Marshal Argos]

I'm for this one

B-Trained, Professional Military Force

Although every worlds military would fight differently, I think option B is the better of the 2.

[Valdore]

Semi-trained Military Rabble in my opinion :D

At least on average, the fact that the Guard is such a massive entity, there will be different standards among the different regiments, for instance the Cadians are highly trained, and battle-hardened from constantly defending their borders, whereas planetary defence militia are often untrained or extremely poorly trained, but still part of the Imperial Guard as a whole, and then you get the other planets that aren't as advanced as places like Cadia and have rudimentary training for their regiments. Essentially, you can take your pick when you start your Guard army ;)

My opinion of course :)

[Hal'jin]

I'm pretty sure that varies through the different regiments. Some are A some are B. My Cadians are definitely B. ;) But for example Valhallans strike me more as A. Both flavours can be fun, in my opinion, though I lean on to B.

[Inquisitor McSagington]

B is what I prefer. Then again if you run a traitor guard/LatD army or a Penal legion I'd say A is awesome.
Actually a massive penal legion army would be awesome-Conscripts everywhere, Arbites as squad leaders....Hm an idea is forming ;)

[Magos]

Do it!

Though I rather actually rather like the idea of a disciplined, trained, military force. That is loyal to chaos.

[DevilUknow]

I kind of like the idea of the Munitorium using math to win wars.

"A heavy bolter can kill 20 guys at 100 yards, so we'll send 40 at it and win"

its way more grimdark and fits into the blundering behemoth of headless beurocracy image GW always paints of the Imperium
The Astartes and the Inquisition are supposed to be the elite strike teams.

I guess I fall into the A category (and calls me out as an SM player)

[ThePov]

Well, personally, I always felt that a mix of A and B was fun. Like, if anyone's read the Gaunt's Ghost novel Necropolis, how after months of siege warfare, some of the regiments, especially the PDFs, devolved for B somewhere into the neighborhood of A, and the more cut off and desperate they got, the more A they got. I always liked that idea for my Guard, a unit that HAD been very disicplined and well-supplied at one time, but months of constant warfare had forced to become more... flexible in both those respects.

[JuiceSpringsteen!]

Once I complete my Empire pirate army for fantasy, i will embark upon another A style guard army......SPACE PIRATES!

ARRRGGGGHHH!!!!(In Space!)

[Magos]

I gotta say, a Space Pirate IG army is a cool concept

[bob]

It's a mix very much so even on the same planet (fighting not raised)

and why do people think bureaucrats direct battles *cough*deviluknow*cough*

Also the pdf is not a part of the guard

overall B is my favorite , the reason being the each planet raise it's own troops and if their not the best they can give, the govener is meant to be shot/killed in general

[imperialsavant]

[QUOTE=Magos;2365]Im curious. Having read different accounts of how the Imperial Guard conducts itself, either

A-Horde
B-Trained, Professional Military Force

:rolleyes: Really depends on which IG Army you think about.

Cadian: Very disciplined.
Mordian Iron Guard: Extremely disciplined.
Catachan: Pretty "Wild"
Valhallans: Dogged, wont retreat.
Steel Legion: Disciplined.
Chem Dogs: Just a rabble!
Tallarns: Gurrilla type force.

Anyway just my take. Iam sure others would have another view.

[Javin]

Couldn't it be both? Look at the Chinese Army. They are a horde but professional and well trained. I would say the type of IG would be the result of of the area where they live. Cadia produces hordes of well trained IG. I am sure many planets for for quantity rather then quality.

[DuskRaider]

Well disciplined and devoted to Chaos? Yeah, that's the Blood Pact. Truthfully, even the Vraks renegades seem to be quite organized, beating the Death Korps at every turn, using tactical withdrawls, and many other nifty tricks to turn the war in their favor.

[Forhekset]

It's worth mentioning that how an army is trained and how disciplined they are etc doesn't nessicarily have any bearing on how they're going to be USED.

You could have super elite uber trained regiments, and the target is a giant bastion with no way to break it open, the result will still be the same, unless they have a particularly caring commander - send them in to the meat grinder en masse.

I would say nearly all IG regiments are trained to a certain standard as a military unit, along the lines of what we have in real life. It just so happens that tactical doctrine in the Imperium can be pretty retarded, and they always have that one thing in mind - the only abundant resource we have is manpower. It may be Sci-fi but there are alot of primitive, medieval sort of battlefields, as in sieges mostly, and never any respect for infrastructure or care for the condition of the field. Whereas we in real life tend towards elite covert op units and stuff since we value human life above all and our objectives are never on such a grand scale (and if they are, infantry are never involved), Imperial commanders just hammer to death anything in their way.

So who cares about using them to do a complicated array of manuevers and counter-strikes when we can just have them swarm the target to death? Remaining forces seems to always take a backseat to the most valued outcome, which is how fast a war can be ended. They generally don't care whos left at the end, only that it's finished as quickly as possible.

[TSINI]

Once I complete my Empire pirate army for fantasy, i will embark upon another A style guard army......SPACE PIRATES!

ARRRGGGGHHH!!!!(In Space!)



HAHAHA love it, although after 5 years at Bournemouth University i can say that the official way to spell it is

JEAAARRGG!!!

anything else sounds like screaming :D



in reply to the thread, ive gone for a combination, the main force is a hard bitten downtrodden bunch of skilled cityfighters after a long grinding campaign. the discipline is supplied by the commissariat who have taken control of the army.

and the horde element is from the mass recruiting of conscripts to boost the numbers of the army.

the veterans are squads of men who during the campaign were cut off from the main forces, and simply fortified themselves in buildings and awaited the arrival of friendly troops

[Aldramelech]

Bournemouth has a University????????????? Damm.....

[TSINI]

Bournemouth has a University????????????? Damm.....

hehe yes, its where us pirates go to learn about the seven seas, and we have workshops to make ornate wooden legs and cutlaces... too much?