Infantry Roles

[Inquisitor Trinity]

I was curious to get an idea of an exhaustive list of Infantry combat roles I could represent on the tabletop drawing ideas from both 40k lore AND real world army specialisms. Anyone get any list ideas? This would be for imperial armies and just infantry not vehicles etc. So far I've got these:

 

Rifleman (basic general infantry)

Medic

Combat Engineer

Communications specialist

Weapons Specialist

Grenadier

Commando

Sniper

Heavy Weapons Specialist

Officer (various ranks)

Scout/Recon Specialist

Veteran

Breacher

Military Police

Conscript

Explosives Expert

Paratrooper

Marine

[jaxom]

Would CQC specialization fall under Breacher? As far as I'm aware there aren't unit specialisations in that?

 

I do like these two videos though:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Clh5C38Eg - British Infantry Division 1914/1916 - Visualization - Organization & Structure
2. https://youtu.be/w5nDcoXJMrg - How British Infantry Squads Evolved in 100 Years

[Sky Potato]

Real world, you can remove Military Police from being in the Infantry. They're terrible at being Soldiers and aren't trusted with being actual Police.

[sitnam]

I think you can add in servitor/drone operator to the list. In real life drone technology is getting handed out pretty far down the tactical level, and we also see this with the Tau and Navy Breachers.

 

A political officer/overseer also makes sense. Imperial Commissars, Chaos Enforcers, and Ork Runt-herds could be examples.

[Brother Captain Vakarian]

2 hours ago, Sky Potato said:

Real world, you can remove Military Police from being in the Infantry. They're terrible at being Soldiers and aren't trusted with being actual Police.

If you’re talking about US Army MOS, this is true enough and I haven’t met any MPs that would contest the point. But the OP includes plenty of examples that also aren’t 11B’s, but fulfill some form of ground-combat role or specialization. An MP role is perfectly meaningful, especially with Arbites (yes, not MPs, but definitely police) having a role in the game now. 

 

As for whether MPs qualify as “soldiers” or “police,” I would hazard a guess there are several frater here who would disagree with the point as stated. And there is also quite a world of military police roles other than the US Army’s, or similar, MPs. Plenty of MPs I’ve worked with more than qualified as “soldiers” under pretty much any definition. And many are qualified police officers, with jurisdiction heavily dependent on how their countries conduct law enforcement duties. The Imperium definitely doesn’t seem like the sort of place that would shy away from using MPs for civilian law enforcement, if necessary or appropriate. 

[Felix Antipodes]

I believe there is room for both commissars and MP’s within the Guard force organisation.  They fulfil different roles after all, with one concerned with unit morale and purity while the latter would be closer to the traditional intra unit role.  Commissars wouldn’t come under the infantry remit of the OP but MP’s would imho.

[ThePenitentOne]

In 40k, you need leaders of the faith- preachers. And you need psykers. Advisors, bodyguards.

 

You might distinguish between concripts and penal troops- there are differences, but I'm not sure the differences constitutes a whole other role. 

[Inquisitor Trinity]

Some good info so far guys! So to add to the list would be:

Drone/servitor operator

Close combat specialist

Morale officer (commissars etc)

Preacher

Psyker

Penal legion

Bodyguard

 

Regarding the discussion around Military Police let's say Arbites more or less fulfill this role

 

Is there anymore more general suggestions? Some form of weapon or skill specialist I've missed off the list ?

[apologist]

Interesting topic; the list you're collating will be great for suggesting characterful conversions. The lovely thing abut 40k is that it can encompass every soldier's role from every period of history, along with near-future and speculative sci-fi stuff.

 

Here are some further ideas – though whether some count as combat roles is questionable!

• While this probably fits under weapon specialists more generally, there are a couple of specialisms that might warrant particular note above and beyond proficiency with an unusual or specialist weapon:
  • Flamer specialists are (thankfully!) rare in the real world, but common in 40k. 
  • Chem-warfare (or more generally, atomic/nuclear, biological and/or chemical specialists)
• Likewise these are probably roles within combat engineer, but might provide some further inspiration
  • Sapper
  • Mine-layer/mine-sweeper
  • Static fortification expert
• Runner/messenger
• Vox/comms-handler
• Wrangler (animal handler)
• Abhuman liaison – e.g. ogryn/ratling/beastman/squat
• Xenolinguist/codebreaker
• Alien environment observer (e.g. a medical officer who specialises in acclimatising Guardsmen to variations in gravity, oxygen levels and similar).
• Sentry
• Ranger
• Urban operations specialists
• Submarine operations specialists
• Void operations specialists
• Assassin
• Cyber/noospheric warfare specialist
• Counter-psychic specialist
• Intelligence operative
• Local liaison – those who work out how to contact/communicate with local human populations

Edited March 28, 2023 by apologist

[Bouargh]

if you also overlap with some less common roles from WWII and the moderns wars that took place right after, you might add as well;

- Air cav.

- Paratroopers 

- Mounted infantery (bad temperered camels rock)

- Fortress infantery (interestingly enough they were partly taken from marine troops, especially for artillery marine guns operation)

- Instead of Moral Officer, better call it Political officer 

- Beyond basic medic -> battlefield surgeon

[Noserenda]

Arbites arent MP's but im sure some have turned up in novels before, like em or not its a job that needs doing.

[gideon stargreave]

Marching bands

[Bloody Legionnaire]

I don’t know if combined roles are something you’re considering, but as an example engineers typically performing breaching, explosive employment, and engineer duties. 

[Inquisitor Trinity]

28 minutes ago, Bloody Legionnaire said:

I don’t know if combined roles are something you’re considering, but as an example engineers typically performing breaching, explosive employment, and engineer duties. 

 

There will be a lot of crossover between roles for sure. Explosives/grenadiers/breachers for example.

 

Okay everyone how about roles you might find more specialised like in the inquisition or Arbites for example?

[Bloody Legionnaire]

I’d argue grenadiers belong with the riflemen and I’m glad GW designed Primaris intercessors to include them. But I’m a little biased (indoctrinated) =p