Collaborative Astra Militarum Creation Project

[Commissar Molotov]

As part of the Liber Unity Project, this thread exists as a place for us to start to create a new recruiting world for the Imperial Guard. 

 

Our eventual goal would be to showcase some of the different types of regiment that hail from this one world. 

 

Perhaps, in the vein of the CCCP, we might wish to flesh out an Imperial Guard regiment that has been mentioned but never detailed. 

 

For that, we could perhaps look at this image from one of the old Imperial Guard codices: 

 

Link

 

I would appreciate your thoughts on this! 

 

 

Mol. 

Edited October 15, 2017 by Commissar Molotov

[Minigiant]

May I also suggest some sort of composite regiment?

 

All sorts of crazy combinations. Praetorians and Elysian Drop Troops.

Tallarn and Mordian Iron Guard (Lawrence of Arabia?)

 

My own IG army when I write it is a composite Savlar Chem Dogs and Highlanders

[Commissar Molotov]

Whilst composite regiments certainly exist, they don't add anything new or unique for us. It's just copy-and-paste. 

 

The purpose of this project is to create a new Imperial Guard recruitment world, so that we can showcase the regiments that come from that world. 

 

At the moment I quite like the character from Justus (left page, bottom row) - I feel the Justinian regiments might be something we could work with! 

[Nomus Sardauk]

Two words my friends: Space Gurkhas.

 

You're welcome. B)

[Conn Eremon]

No reason why we can't both create a muster world and present composite regiments. Provides comparisons and differences that can highlight the muster world's traits.

 

I'd like to see a muster world that doesn't just produce a single type of regiment over and over. It's very common in 40k for that to happen, but it often means that the only thing that really separates its regiments is their number. While it may be more common for single-type regiments to be shown, I like to think that in truth most muster worlds would provide varied regiments depending upon war needs more than basic predilection.

 

So, in an effort to avoid retreading ground (my regiments arise from competitive war colleges with the same thing in mind) . . . what do you guys think of a hive world, where each hive has its own identity as a subset of the overall planetary culture?

 

You could still have specializations, just by connecting them to particular hives rather than the world itself. You could also still have composite regiments by mixing hives, something the world is often loathe to do but can't exactly ignore a direct order to muster for crusade.

[Beta galactosidase]

Commissar Molotov, I can't think of where to find a legible version of that image you posted.

 

I think that, while looking at that image and things like the Armageddon book - jopall indentured sqdns, Pyran Dragoons, and Zouvan Skirmishers are all given models there - you should pick some themes.

 

Is the regiment and planet

 

Primitive

Technobarbaric

Modern industrialized

Futuristic

Exotic ( chiliad?)

 

what is the social structure of the regiments?

 

They import preexisting classes - officers were nobles and troopers were commoners

They import preexisting political divisions - each company or platoon was a gang, tribe, or religious order that was inducted wholesale

Professionalized neoliberal - the hierarchy is determined by the military and not explicitly by class or caste

Chaotic - hierarchy is determined by bribery, personal combat, etc

 

Biology

 

Everyone is baseline human

Everyone an abhuman

There are multiple formations and some are abhuman

The regiments are often paired with abhuman ones from elsewhere

 

Sex

 

Single gender

Fully integrated

Mixed regiment with some deliberately mono-gender units

 

Assignments -

 

Off-world garrison and compliance

Crusade

Rogue Trader

 

Usual specialty

 

Light, heavy, airborne, or mechanized infantry

Siege

Armor, light armor, artillery, super heavy

 

This last is less important because many worlds produce several of the above

 

 

Regarding composite regiments, it seems like at least Molotov was talking about existing, official regiments - the Mordian 821st / Harakoni 56th, commanded by Henry Whatsisbucket, assigned to Planet X, etc.

 

I think that it would very useful to simulate creating a specific regiment from one or more of the official homeworlds, because that forces the use of specific personal details, which is important because it's easy to keep too much to aesthetics.

[Reyner]

How would everyone feel about making this Regiment come from the Liber Cluster? 

[Commissar Molotov]

Personally, I'd rather not. The LUP in its first iteration is supposed to be small and self-contained - the idea being that each of the five end products will be joined in a campaign together. The Liber Cluster is a very large project and is somewhat separate. I have no doubt that the participants in that project will create many, many Imperial Guard forces to fight - but there are a lot of other worlds in the Imperium from which soldiers and fighting units can come.

 

Curvacious: Are you viewing via mobile? On both PCs I have access to I've checked the image and can view it full-size. Once you're on Imgur, be sure to click the image itself to view it full-size.

Edited October 17, 2017 by Commissar Molotov

[Beta galactosidase]

The most important question: do they have Ryza pattern lasguns or something with a stock? Can be revisited at any time, since it is both superficial and totally drastically the aesthetics.

[Doctor Perils]

Oooh, I like the look of those Ezelti lancers - norman knights in space? With riot shields? What could be better?

 

Adeptus Arbites mixed in there somewhere? Well, now the madness just makes me love the idea all the more XD

 

 

What would you be thinking with the Justinian regiments? To me, they mostly look like Mordians with even bigger hats...

[Commissar Molotov]

These were the five regiments that I saw that immediately stood out to me as being interesting candidates that we could use: 

 

 

The Phyrussian seem like capable, organised soldiers on a level that is similar to the Cadians. Their armour is a different pattern, which in itself is interesting. However, their homeworld may be very different from the Cadian Fortress-World archetype. 

 

The Al-Arach Cultists allow us to show Redemptionists - but that might not be that useful for us. 

 

I like the Justinian partly for their name, but they might also be interesting as a noble regiment like the Volpone Bluebloods. 

 

The Ogryn wouldn't be a main force, but I like the idea of them supplementing the main Imperial force. 

 

The Cthonol interested me in part because of the fact that they have "sustained over 1000 attacks in the last five years" - who or what is attacking their world? 

[Doctor Perils]

That cthonol regiment has a very interesting vibe: their large backpacks and reinforced bevors (neck guard) and skull caps could indicate that they make use of heavy weaponry?

 

and I just realised the justinians seem to be wearing something ressembling riding boots - some kind of rough rider regiments could be possible with them i suppose, and we know they have tanks because of the other page you posted

 

The Al-arach could provide an intersting opportunity to show a pious force that hasn't got direct links to the ecclesiarchy and might not be quite as obsessed with the emperor as sisters of battle or redemptionists are

[Zhiv]

To me Justus comes of Judge-Dreddesque, semi-comissar regiment with that uniform and hat... and the whole name 'Justus'.  While uncompromising justice is a valid story element, it might have place some restrictions on the background. 

 

Phyruss seems like a nice clean slate, with maybe some Cadian/ Valhallan vibes. Competent, but not particularly charismatic. 

 

Al-Arach, while appearing redemptionist and thus fanatical, could allow the background to tap into medieval muslim scholastic virtues / art - something that could give an interesting twist to the fanaticism.  We perfect our tactics, our gear, our moral - because it all serves the emperor. 

 

Cthonol is also pretty interesting world, seemingly constantly besieged - or perhaps serving in worst hellholes of the galaxy. But if pseudo-krieg, why?  Also what is with all the equipment? Are they descendants of settlers, self-sufficient and used to harsh environment? 

[walter h]

The world my own guard come from were settled from followers of ,Istvanian philosophy that came from many established worlds. I have in the lowest valley those descendents of,Catachan,while the upper ridges,and highsteppes are settled by ,Cadia while the high desert is settled by ,Tallarn.They each keep to their customs,including their particular style of dress,and war gear even when musterred for deployment. They have even kept to their variation of gothic,while still being taught the more accepted style.

I think the first thing that would have  to be done is to create the planet,as that would help us to imagine the forces that the move these people. The weather the geography,and even the fauna. Where did they originate from,Terra or did they come as it were from a second founding(lol, couldn't resist) like ,Cadia etc.

Edited October 26, 2017 by walter h

[Zhiv]

 

I would like to toss these three into the mix.   

 

Tekarn guardsman looks like ashigaru - how feudal system generates modern regiments could be an interesting thought exercise. Are the nobles merely the officers, or are tank regiments crewed by 'samurai' who ride to war on steeds of steel?

 

Nordians are obvious... but on the other hand thematic. 

 

Tachomans.. that uniform raises so many questions. Are all of their men as poshly dressed? Is this fellow an officer?  Also 'slaver world'? Are the guardsmen 'free men' while slaves toil away in misery? How that came to be?

[Reyner]

I really like the look of the Cthonol Regiment - all that heavy gear and a 1000 attacks in 5 years? Their theatre of war sounds mental - Cthonol seems like a pretty heavy nod to Chthonic underworldy stuff, their homeworld on the edge of a warp storm or an edge of space under constant xenos raider attacks? 

[Schlitzaf]

Could we have maybe some Cavalry of some kind? Be kinda cool to see some non-feudalistic drawn Rough Riders beside Krieg. That still embrace the glorification of the cavalry regiment over Infantry (ala Civil War Cavalry Regiments).

[walter h]

Why don't we each choose one regiment. We could each assemble,a ten man squad representing said regiment,and tie it to the liber project. This would allow each of us to pursue an idea,or style that speaks to us. Edited October 31, 2017 by walter h

[Commissar Molotov]

Well, if you look at the Liber Unity Project's main thread, it is within the scope of possibility that multiple worlds could have diverted or raised troops to the defense of an Ecclesiarchal cathedral-world. It is possible that we could detail more than one recruiting world - but the point of the project is that we are supposed to be doing it collaboratively, as a group, rather than working alongside one another.

 

 

Zhiv: I'm really not a fan of the Tekarn - but the Tachoman seem equally heavy-handed and overt with their Roman influences. When they mention a culture of slavery, I can't help but imagine a world of mutant (or abhuman) slaves that are exploited by a ruling class of "purebloods" - though whether that's a good thing I'm not sure. 

 

When the Space Marine Chapter for the LUP is chosen, we can try to set up a poll here to see if we can narrow down our primary Guard force (which could then potentially be supported by smaller forces.) 

[walter h]

If you approach it from the Ottoman,policy. You boys were taken as slaves,but trained to be soldiers,those showing aptitude being moved to officer,or to civil service. Freedom given once service complete perhaps a period of years,or rank achieved by the individual.

[Beta galactosidase]

When it comes to slave societies, you could expect that if they use slaves in battle they would need an enforcer unit that is more focused on controlling the conscript troops than on fighting the enemy, although capable of doing that too. Also, while they may be a slaver world, there is no reason to think they wouldn't continue the practice after being deployed. The guard are commonly used to garrison foreign worlds, ones that are only provisionally compliant, and then possibly redeployed from there in event of major interstellar wars beginning nearby. It would be possible that the Tachoman are founded with richly equipped enforcers along with conscript and abhuman troops, but are very able to conscript new troops from local populations and, just as horrifyingly, from broken regiments of fellow guardsmen. The enforcers might even have horse mounted units for crowd control, although I think that might be a mistake.

 

 

 

As far as heavy handed-ness and the Tekarn, I think some of the best things in 40k and this kind of thing generally will take one thing from inspiration, and then leave everything else from that source behind. So the armor is a bit much, but I like the idea of mass infantry with an elite cavalry (maybe airborne, mechanized?) class all in the same regiment. This is similar to describing a type of grenadier or kasrkin, which appear all over the Imperium, so it should be interesting to explain what use this particular brand of knight is put to.

 

In some places there are officers' companies or regiments, for instance in the Russian civil war the reactionaries sometimes used officers and military cadets as infantry companies, because their conscripted soldiers had poor morale, often poor training, and might defect to the workers' parties. Obviously, noble units in feudal societies had a reversed purpose and use, where the mounted, armored archers were very expensive, skill intensive, and politically independent, and had to be supplemented with cheaper, less politically powerful infantry units. While you wouldn't want Japanese names, honorifics, and katanas everywhere, when I see Tekarn I imagine a regiment could be very "themed" to be built around a few companies of elite, fast moving units with several companies of backstopping infantry units.

[Doctor Perils]

I'm still very much liking the look of the Cthonol regiments, and as previously mentioned the multitudinous attacks on their homeworld could be fertile ground for storytelling elements. What's more, several fraternity here are suggesting a modelling sub-project, and I think the Cthonol regiments could be fairly easy to convert from genestealer cultists.

 

Most of the other regiments on here seem to have a clear real-world culture as inspiration, just as most official guard regiments out there atm - the Cthonol also look distinctly sci-fiyish, with a hint of propper cyberpunk without going admech levels of over the top: and surprisingly enough, I can't think of any cyberpunk regiments presented in the official fluff.

 

In a 40k cyberpunk setting, I can't see any reasons to not include cavalry, whether borne on bio- or mech-steeds (incl sentinels), bikes, vehicles, or airborne units - so anyone wishing to explore unusual regiment types would be fine doing so with these guys, whereas some of the more historically-inspired regiments might prove more complicated to play around with.

The image also includes a circle on the shoulder - whereas this could simply be a rank or unit symbol, it could also imply some kind of societal division on the world (which could be anything from noble houses and multi-continental conglomerates to religious sub-factions worshipping the emperor in different ways)

[Zhiv]

I'm still very much liking the look of the Cthonol regiments, and as previously mentioned the multitudinous attacks on their homeworld could be fertile ground for storytelling elements. What's more, several fraternity here are suggesting a modelling sub-project, and I think the Cthonol regiments could be fairly easy to convert from genestealer cultists.

 

The image also includes a circle on the shoulder - whereas this could simply be a rank or unit symbol, it could also imply some kind of societal division on the world (which could be anything from noble houses and multi-continental conglomerates to religious sub-factions worshipping the emperor in different ways)

 

Two comments on this. 

 

It says nowhere the attacks happened on their homeworld. It is a conclusion we can make, but it's not the only explanation The attacks could have also occurred during  a campaign, say against rebellious planetary governor.  Maybe besieging Chtonol regiment was assaulted 1000 times during the five years it took to take the siege into conclusion?  This would paint the regiment particularly stubborn or dogged, much akin to To Deathkorps.  Which of course raises question  - why are they so devoted?

 

The societal division is an interesting angle. Perhaps the sons and daughters of the Imperial houses serve in the armored / mechanized regiments, giving them 'elite' reputation while the commoners serve in the massed infantry regiments.  Different backgrounds, yet both loyal and devout servants of the Emperor.

 

An alternate idea could be that the planetary economy revolves around guilds that control particular aspect of production and commerce. Guilds might have had armed forces, which in turn would form PDF's.  And PDF's form Guard Regiments.  So we could have regiment of miners, regiment of farmers.  I mean - this is way way expanding what is not entirely unfeasible.  The point is that the societal division is an interesting point that is not widely explored in the known canon.  

[Doctor Perils]

Okay, we have a fair amount of possible homeworlds suggested now. I think it's time we moved on from suggesting new possibilities to actually choosing which one we roll with:

[*] Phyruss seems like a planet that produces no nonsense fighters, but we'll have to be careful about not making them too close to Cadians

[*] Al-arach is dominated by the imperial cult, yet still sends troops to the Astra Militarum - interactions with the ecclesiarchy could be good, but may provide friction sometimes?

[*] Justus and it's Emperor's Shield are probably a stalwart and honourable bunch, who may take discipline a bit too far in some cases

[*] Asark Zeta has a large Ogryn population it seems, which poses a question: how would an Ogryn society work anyway?

[*] Cthonol's regiments have endured a thousand assaults in five years - what happens to men that have weathered so much for so long?

[*] Tekarn Looks very much like the very end of feudal Japan moving into industrial imperial Japan - how would they react to a legion of godzilla equivalents?

[*] Perkuni has harsh conditions creating harsh men. A culture of the hero might be possible, but can there really be any heroes in the uncaring grinding campaigns of the Astra Militarum ?

[*] Tachoman relies on its slaves to continue production, and sends it's most honoured nobles to serve in the Imperial Guard - how do other imperial troops see the servitude of men that haven't yet earned the punishment of being made a servitor, and what may happen if there was a slave uprising on the homeworld?

 

So, what's everyone's prefered choice, and which would you absolutely not like to do?

Edited November 15, 2017 by Lord Thørn

[walter h]

Against, Justus,Phyrus

FOR,Al Arach,Tachoman,Tekarn, Asark Zeta.