Imperial Guard Regiments of the Loyal One Hundred

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The Imperial Guard, are the ground forces of the Imperium of Humanity. Countless billions of soldiers from every planet of the Imperium fight and die on thousands of worlds across the galaxy, often hundreds of light-years from home. Life in the Guard is bloody, gritty, work, few survive service as they fight for the very survival of Humanity against the Imperium’s foes.

Five Things To Note About the Imperial Guard

They are Humanity’s Fighting Elite. While it is easy to think of the Guard as being used as cannon fodder by uncaring Imperial commanders, and it is true that they are simply -numbers- to many. The majority of Imperial Guard represent the cream of the crop of humanity’s fighting forces and while the vast majority are basically-equipped infanteers or armoured units – there are several elite regiments focused on stealth and special operations

They are diverse. While all fall under the banner of the Guard, each Regiment’s traditions, command structure, equipment and ranks are unique. Rank across different Regiments is a difficult and delicate business to work out, and even the size of a Regiment can differ wildly from planet to planet.

They do not have ships or aircraft. The Imperial Guard do not have their own Warp-capable vessels, and, due to a unique covenant signed at the foundation of the Imperium, rely entirely on the Imperial Navy to fly anywhere even in atmosphere.

They rarely come home. Service in the Imperial Guard is not the kind of life where Soldiers are given leave to return home and see their families. To serve in the Imperial Guard is to commit to a lifetime on campaign moving from one warzone to the next and because of the difficulties of finding transport few Troopers ever see their home even if they live to retire from the Guard settling on distant worlds as 'colonies' of their people.

They do the fighting. While the Imperium likes to tell dashing tales about the superhuman Astartes, and the faithful Sorors, it is the Guard who are involved in 99% of all of the Imperium’s engagements. They own their title as the Hammer of the Imperium, and although other forces may steal the credit, the Guard are responsible for the majority of its major victories.

Five Things To Note About the Loyal One Hundred

Most Regiments are Natives. In a 'typical' Crusade it might be common to find regiments raised from across the Imperium in service, and at one stage that was true for the Prosperitas Crusade. But as the Crusade has ground on it has increasingly become an undertaking of the natives of the Prosperitas Sector and as a result the majority of modern Prosperitas Crusade regiments are drawn from local worlds rather than more famous far-flung regiments.

Some Regiments are "Terran". Due to the origins of the Prosperitas Crusade striking out from Segmentum Solar at the beginning of 013.M41 the oldest regiments of the Prosperitas Crusade can claim to have Terran roots. These regiments, drawn from the hives of the Holy Homeworld of Humanity, have not seen Terra in nearly six hundred years but claim their proud heritage from their regimental history. These 'noble' regiments often refuse to mingle with 'native' blood and stand a step aside from their Crusade brethren in a manner similar to the Navy.

They rely on locally manufactured Equipment while Forge Ferraeus has some STC patterns for the more famous vehicles and weapons patterns found across the Imperium, many Imperial Guard regiments of the Prosperitas Crusade rely on locally produced equipment and vehicles commonly used at the frontiers of Imperial space, the Rhino Armoured Transport, for example, is more commonly used in the place of Chimeras whereas the Sayf Light Tank has its place alongside the more common Leman Russ.

Regiments are like families. Because, as noted above, Imperial Guard Regiments rarely return to their homeworld they are supported by Civilian 'Camp Followers' who form part of the baggage train of any Imperial Guard Regiment. Filling roles that the Departmento Munitorum does not provide many Camp Followers are the children and spouses of members of the Regiment they follow and often new recruits are drawn from them when a child comes of service age. This can have an effect on morale and discipline but most Commanders value the tight bonds within regiments it creates.

Fighting in the Prosperitas Crusade is brutal for Imperial Guard. Nearly six hundred years of war have been fought in the Prosperitas Sector. A Civilian might think why they have not heard of the 1st Merewald but the 18th and 19th are so famous, this is because the 1st Merewald was obliterated centuries ago and the Munitorum as simply continued to sequentially number subsequently founded Regiments. This is not true in all cases, where a particularly legendary regiment is annihilated its name will often be reused for a subsequent founding or its survivors amalgamated into another 'lesser' regiment which is subsequently granted its name and uniform in order to preserve the morale of civilians by not admitting to the destruction of an elite regiment.

The Loyal One Hundred

When Warmaster Jacinta Durovera’s Crusade began in 013.M41, the Imperial ships who came to relieve her carried in their holds thousands of Guard forces to suppress the heretic-held worlds of the Sector. These forces were soon exhausted in the decades and centuries that followed, however, and with world after world falling compliant before the Warmaster’s sword, all were soon called upon to provide a tithe of troops to the Crusade.

Today, the bulk of the Imperial Guard forces subordinate to the Crusade are composed of locally raised Regiments. As a result, none can claim seniority dating back more than four or five centuries – a very brief history indeed in Guard terms.

Only a few of the worlds in the Prosperitas Sector have suitable population densities to pay Crusade tithes in any reasonable fashion - most provide a slow trickle of recruits to existing regiments and new Foundings have been slow to be risen to replace the regiments destroyed over the course of the Crusade. Most worlds of the sector simply cannot sustain the population loss associated with a founding, and remain productive.

As part of her investment in the post of Warmaster in 595.m41, Warmaster Khan I has reinforced the Crusade with seven new regiments - bringing the total number of regiments fighting for the Crusade to one hundred.

Such a founding was unprecedented, and that it was accomplished was no mean feat of the Departmento Munitorum to undertake in the months they had to enact such an order. These ‘shinies’ are a combination of void-born detritus, a hodge-podge assembled from multiple near-destroyed regiments pulled from distant frontiers, and four fresh Foundings from the core worlds of the Prosperitas Sector.

Abhuman Auxilia

In truth, there are now arguably over one hundred regiments in the Sector, but the auxilia regiments of Abhumans are not traditionally counted as ‘Imperial Guard’ for the purposes of accounting.

The life of an Abhuman is one of servitude, and discrimination, their genetic code and appearance too 'deviant' from that of the human norm they live in isolated colonies, permitted to live by the Imperium because they possess some desirable trait that has saved them from the pogroms the Imperium commits against 'genetic deviants' or 'mutants' as those once-humans less fortunate with their genetic deviations then them are known.

Though they are inhuman in the eyes of the Imperium at large, in the Prosperitas Crusade they find some form of acceptance by their human peers, out here on the frontier where reliable supplies of human troops are not nearly as guaranteed as in more stable sectors, the Abhuman populations of various worlds in the Prosperitas sector find themselves more valued - though not remotely treated as equals they are at least afforded respect and more dignity then they would find in other walks of life.

Abhuman's are, however, forbidden from holding Officers ranks, and the Officer cadres of their regiments are made up of humans of high status. Some see this as being a poor posting reserved for those Officers and Commissars disliked by their superiors, but many see great honour in it. The Scions of House Vilas-Lobo for example are often quite fond of their Beastman charges the 'products' of their Houses breeding programs to provide abhuman miners for Bachian IV and those Officers assigned to regiments comprise of Raivans speak incredibly highly of their troops.

Rank and Status in the Imperial Guard

With forces drawn from every conceivable planet and culture in the Sector, rank across Regiments is a tricky business. One trooper’s Colonel might be called a Castellan-Major elsewhere; a Sergeant might command thirty troops in one regiment, but act as advisor and aide to a junior officer in another. Insignia is just as variable, and many an unwary trooper has been caught out with a tongue-lashing for saluting the wrong number of pips on a sleeve.

Overall command of the Imperial Guard falls generally to the Generals who advise the Warmaster as a part of Crusade High Command.

Staff Officers find themselves detached from their Regiments to serve as aides and functionaries on the Staff of their Salient Commander or at Crusade High Command. These officers do not command troops directly, but instead spend their time planning and shaping the next battles of the Crusade. Staff service is seen as boring, lacking glory, but a positive career move for a young officer looking for higher rank.

Regiments each fall under their own commander – usually called a Colonel. This senior officer leads their Regiment in the field and takes their orders directly from the Salient Commander.

Below the commander, regiments are led by Officers. The method of selecting these officers varies wildly; some Regiments accept only officers from high-status families, some select based on aptitude and merit, some promote the most senior and promising soldiers into these roles and others have stranger and more unique traditions. Officers of a Regiment are often referred to as holding the Emperor’s Commission, a document which entitles them to issue legal orders to any soldier. Typical Prosperitan rank names for regimental Officers, sometimes called include Lieutenant, Ensign, Cornet, Fo-Chennard, Breedman, Subaltern; Captain, Toran, Chennard, Qayid; Major, Jakaran, Commandant, Ceanfort. Officers ranked “Captain” who serve or travel aboard Imperial Navy vessels are usually given a “courtesy promotion” to the next rank up while aboard, to avoid confusion with the vessel’s master.

Each Regiment will be divided into sub-units, whose names and command structure are as variable as their homeworlds. One classic pattern has each Regiment divided into four Companies, each led by a Major, and each Company divided into three Platoons, each led by a Lieutenant or Captain; but to the despair of the Munitorum, this pattern is by no means universal. The internal organisation of a Regiment is entirely in the gift of the Colonel, bound only by her whim and the traditions of her homeworld.

Soldiers who show particular aptitude are selected to become Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs). These soldiers are not usually saluted or entitled to the same privileged as a Commissioned Officer, but are promoted by dint of seniority and expertise to leadership positions. They act as subordinate commanders and specialists for the Regiment, advising and assisting the officers. Very senior NCOs can rise to high status, advising Colonels and Generals with the benefits of their decades of experience on the battlefield as Regimental or Command Sergeants-Major. In the Prosperitas Sector, common NCO ranks include Corporal, Arif, Sergeant, Sairsint, and a thousand variants; Lance-Corporal, Colour-Sergeant, Corporal-of-Horse, Colour-Arif…

Finally, Troopers make up the billions-strong forces of the Prosperitas Crusade. Recruited from worlds across the Sector. The majority of Troopers recruited for the Guard will be drawn from the cream of the crop of their worlds defence forces, or from volunteers, the Guard would -prefer- to take willing and quality soldiers where it can find them.

In rare circumstances where a force is needed to be raised with some rapidity, the Imperium will consider mass conscription, but this is a rare choice, and such regiments (referred to as ‘Conscripts’) are often raised from prisoner populations on penal worlds and are often obliterated in meatgrinder campaigns where they are used to slow enemies while more elite Regiments and Imperial Forces are brought to bear.

Although the Departmento Munitorum is eager to provide endless propo-vids and posters advertising the benefits of pay, glory and pensions available to those who serve in the Guard, most will never return to enjoy them. While some worlds like Shadowglow consider Guard service a great honour and run extensive selection events to send only their best and brightest to the stars, for many others though, selection for duty is the promise of never seeing home again and dying under alien suns. The rank of Trooper is common, but soldiers might be called Private, Fusilier, Guard, Askar, Recruit, Earcach; and in some specialist regiments, Signaller, Sapper, Crafter, Gunner, Tanker and so on.