Lore Help on Guard Companies

[Lord Lee]

Hi guys

 

So I have some questions for the lore wardens and fluff bunnies among you before I start my Vostroyan Firstborn work in progress thread.

 

For information my army will include the following:

Approximately 135 Firstborn Infantry including Commissars and the like

9 Armoured Sentinels

4 Chimeras

1 devildog

2 Basilisks

1 Manticore

12 Leman Russes (one of which I hope to make a Commissars)

1 Shadowsword Superheavy

1 Stormsword Superheavy

 

 

One: Its my understanding lore wise the Imperial Guard companies are all made up of singular types (ie infantry, ordinance, russes etc) which would mean lore wise my army would have to be made up from multiple companies to have a strong mix of these units. Is that correct?

 

Two: if the above is true which units are part of what companies and what sort of makeup do those companies normally come in?

 

For example, the Leman Russes are obviously part of a tank company but is the Devildog, and how many Russes make a company?

 

Three: how many companies make up a regiment and can those companies be a mix of types?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read and answer, I just really want my first fully painted and fully finished army to be the best it can be.

 

Thanks Lord Lee.

[Meps]

Im not a lore expert but this is what ive picked up from things i have read etc.

1) Generally speaking yes, a regiment would be made up of a singular type such as infantry, artillery, armoured etc. But there will be some cross over such as an armoured infantry regiment, where the units are mounted in transports etc. Some armoured regiments may have foot soliders that accompany them. There is no hard and fast rule. 

 

Generally speaking a regiment = multiple companies (2 to 100 depending on the world) = multiple platoons or troops (depending again on the world)

A company may be, light infantry, or armoured infantry and these could be in the same regiment.

2) Think of your CAD (Combined armed detachment) as exactly that. Your HQ and 2x platoons might be from the  2nd Company of the 23rd Firstborn.  But the 2nd Company could be 10 platoons big so you only represent a slither of it. Your sentinels could have been attached to the company as support units - the tanks may come from the 19th Voystron Armoured Division. Its kinda impossible to say how these are internally organised as every world / regiment is different and there are so many mergers when units get obliterated.

3) It could be 2 companies, it would be 100 - it depends on the world - generally no the companies would be one type (infantry or armored etc) but within those companies / platoons there may be mixed types eg. Armoured Infantry, & light infantry, or Heavy Tanks & super-heavy tanks.

 

 

For your army for an example I would do something like follows

2nd Company: 17th Firstborn Regiment
HQ - A rank that leads your company (Major - Captain etc)

Pathfinder Platoon: Attached to the unit from another specialist regiment or my preference is the have them as the well trained men within a company.
- Squad A (Veterans)
- Squad B (Veterans)

Platoon 1: Lead by a Lt / Captain
Platoon 2: Lead by a Lt/Captain

 

7th Artillery Company: 14th Firstborn Ordnance
2 Basilisks
1 Manticore 

 

12th Armoured

Troop 1 (or whatever the platoon equivlent to a troop is)
3x Leman Russes

Troop 2
3x Leman Russes

Your sentinels could be parts of the armoured support, attached the the company perminantly or be from a light support unit with your devildog


 

[WarriorFish]

The background is more flexible than you might expect at first for Guard. Regiments are usually built with a purpose in mind but can and will be split up, reformed etc. They may retain their original designations or be formed into a new entity complete with name and number. So if you want you can make the infantry from one regiment and the various armour from another (e.g. assault armour company for Devildogs, heavy armour company for Russ), or maybe all the vehicles were merged beforehand so there's just an infantry and armour regiment split. Or maybe they're all merged to create the xxxth Vostroyan?

[apologist]

Hi guys

 

So I have some questions for the lore wardens and fluff bunnies among you before I start my Vostroyan Firstborn work in progress thread.

[...]

One: Its my understanding lore wise the Imperial Guard companies are all made up of singular types (ie infantry, ordinance, russes etc) which would mean lore wise my army would have to be made up from multiple companies to have a strong mix of these units. Is that correct?

 

Two: if the above is true which units are part of what companies and what sort of makeup do those companies normally come in?

 

For example, the Leman Russes are obviously part of a tank company but is the Devildog, and how many Russes make a company?

 

Three: how many companies make up a regiment and can those companies be a mix of types?

 

As a general note, the Imperial Guard are far less regimented than the Astartes; simply owing to the sheer size of the organisation. The basic unit is the Regiment, which may be made up of just one type of Company (e.g. all infantry Companies, all Tank Companies), or may be made up of lots of different types. While there are general rules on how they're organised, most planets' Regiments show some deviation. Some are very different in how they're organised – including the Vostroyans.

 

With that proviso, the following are short general answers, with appropriate notes on your army:

 

One:

The Imperial Guard are broadly made up from companies specialised in one type of unit – e.g. Infantry Companies, Tank Companies etc. – but also attach individual units to existing companies. The Leman Russ Demolisher is a good example – while there are Demolisher Companies, they're relatively rare, and the tanks are more often individually attached to support Infantry companies. For this reason, your army could either represent an Infantry Company with various permanent or temporary attachments, or it could represent a 'snapshot' of a group of different Companies all together.

 

The most common types of Company are Infantry, Mechanised Infantry, Tank and Artillery.

 

Two: I've added the most common appropriate Company types after each group, plus notes where appropriate.

 

Your core Companies:

135 Firstborn Infantry – Infantry Company

Commissars and the like – Appropriate for any Company type, Commissars, Enginseers, psykers etc are drafted at Regiment level and tend to be attached as appropriate on a mission-by-mission basis.

12 Leman Russes (one of which I hope to make a Commissars) – This would form an entire Tank Company.

9 Armoured Sentinels – Recon Company (a type of company made up of ten Sentinels).

 

4 Chimeras – Common permanent attachments to your Infantry Company; but could represent an attached platoon of a separate Mechanised Infantry Company.

1 devildog – typically permanent attachments to an Infantry Company, but occasionally fielded en masse as a Tank Company.

2 Basilisks – Mostly fielded as part of an Artillery Company, but occasionally attached to other types,

1 Manticore – Mostly fielded as part of an Artillery Company, but occasionally attached to other types,

 

1 Shadowsword Superheavy – Superheavy Tank Platoon

1 Stormsword Superheavy – Superheavy Tank Platoon

 

 

 

and how many Russes make a company?

Typically, ten. The most archetypical Tank Company would be one command tank (often a Vanquisher) and three platoons which each consist of three Leman Russ Battle Tanks.

 

However, Tank Companies can be very varied – Platoons of specialised tanks (such as Demolishers) might be detached or attached, so you could have a Command Tank that is a Leman Russ Eradicator, two Platoons of three Exterminators, one platoon of three Leman Russ Battle Tanks, plus an attached Platoon of Leman Russ Battle Tanks, another attached Platoon of Hellhounds, a third attached platoon of Mechanised Infantry (i.e. Armoured Fist Squads) plus an individual Hydra.

 

In your army, you might have the Commissar-led tank as your Command Tank, then three platoons of Leman Russ Battle Tanks, and use the other two as an additional understrength tank platoon.

 

Three:

This varies hugely. Some Regiments are made up of as little as two Companies; others can be many hundreds. Similarly, some Regiments are mono-type, while others are very varied. 

 

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Typically, Regiments are raised and sent off from their homeworld. They are gradually whittled down until they understrength, at which point they are amalgamated with other regiments to get them back up to fighting strength. However, in the case of the Vostroyans, they receive reinforcements from home. This means it's entirely appropriate to have an unusually diverse mix. Vostroya is also well supplied and stocked, and produces excellent materiel, so there's lots of potential for virtually any type of unit your want to include.

 

If you can get hold of the old Epic material, there's some great guidance on how a typical Imperial Guard army is organised. In brief, you get a core Company (that can be adjusted and expanded with attachments, plus up to two Support formations (such as a Super-heavy Tank Platoon or a formation of Stormtroopers in Valkyries) per Company.

 

Given the models you have, I'd suggest the following sort of thing might work, background-wise.

• Company: The Vostroyan 77th – an Infantry Company made up of two platoons of thirty-five men each (three ten-man squads plus a five-man command squad in each) plus a Command HQ (five men).
  • Attachment: Artillery Platoon – two Basilisks and one Manticore
  • Attachment: Tank Platoon – Leman Russ battle tank squadron
  • Attachment: Specialist Tank – Devildog
• Company: The Vostroyan 1414th – a Tank Company made up of two squadrons of three Leman Russ Battle Tanks plus a Command Tank.
  • Attachment: Armoured Fist platoon – of two ten-man squads in Chimeras plus a five-man command squad in Chimera.
• Company: The Vostroyan 819th – a Recon Company made up of two squadrons of three Sentinels, one understrength squadron of two Sentinels, plus a Command Sentinel.
  • Attachment: Armoured Fist squad – a ten-man squad in a Chimera
• Support formation: Super-heavy Tank Platoon – Pavlov's Dog, Shadowsword 
• Support formation: Super-heavy Tank Platoon – Molot Boga, Stormsword

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Hope that's helpful! :)

[calgar101]

The brilliant thing with the guard is that both game wise and fluffy wise you can make such a diverse force. Some great info posted above.

[Lord Lee]

Wow thanks for the great feedback guys :)

 

Apologist just wow I wish I could double like that post, your a god of background info.

 

Thank you. Lord Lee.