Imperial elites

[taffy501]

tbh what about all of the recon and spec ops regiaments??? i mean.. look and the 81st(1st) (now back as tanith first and only? there are 3000 of them and who knows how many milita and other regiaments there are?? i know that the ultramar system have at LEAST six regiaments and that the volpone have their blubloods...

[Koppenflak]

"God created Earth in six days, and on the seventh he rested"

The problem with the above statement is that we didn't have a Gregorian Calendar by which to measure time until about 1580AD. For the religious out there, there are multiple interpretations of the statement - all of them valid, depending on your theological inclincations. A Roman Catholic may tell you a "Day" is merely a period of time. An evangelist Baptist may tell you that it's exactly 24 hours, backdateable and assured.

It's also worth noting that 40k has 'expanded' in terms of the scope of its fluff and the grasp of its own universe. Were we to take everything written in 40k's lengthy creative history as absolute canon, then by all rights, Lord High Inqusitor Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau is getting around the galaxy with an army of jetpack armed Imperial Guard veterans, all of whom possess beltpacks with multiple vortex grenades, deployable from the back of anti-grav Jet bikes, hunting down the traitorous factions of the ultramarines.

(Look the above up if you do not believe me... )

The big problem with the argument is that all suggestions that the above may no longer be accurate relies on a retraction of the original author. Because of how Retcons work in literature - you will probably never get one, and the only 'retraction' you will ever see is a "reinterpretation" (or more detailed explanation) in subsequent texts.

I personally do not believe that the codex statement from ways back saying that there are only "10,000 storm troopers" is in any way accurate as to the 'true' intended figure of the current canon. 10,000^10... maybe.

(No doubt the scrivenor who wrote the ancient and revered document forgot to carry a one...)

[modelguyicmt]

The previous IG dex had half of the 8th lined up in parade formation. Company (Infantry)-- 6 Platoons of 6 squads of 10 men plus 5 man Command squad. 3 Support Weapon squads attached to Command. Then of course you can add sentinels, Heavy Weapons squads and maybe a Chimera or two, plus Commissars, Preachers, Psykers, ect. Then ~20 Companies per Regiment. A two page spread from the last IG dex- pgs 10-11. So, that's apprx 7,500 for a standard Cadian Regiment, which is considered the standard for an IG unit. Note that this figure is ACTUAL FRONTLINE UNITS, not including logistical/signals/staff,ect,ect,ect. BTW, LO is back online if you've been waiting the past 18 hrs like I have X/...

[Aknon]

Persoanlly in a Imperium with millions of worlds, billions/trillions of Guardsmen and god knows how many battlezones, the flow of orphans to the Schola Progenium is rich and plenty. If only a fraction of orphans are accepted, and only a fraction become elite troops (SOB/ST/Commisar/Arbites.) that number could still be in the billions given how large the Guard is.

On top of the number of IG orphans the scholam gets the orphans from all "imperial servants" (after all war doesn't just kill the military) although i'm fairly sure thay palm a lot of administrative clerk's children off into orphanages like the one one of Eisenhorn's team comes from