Fear not history fans, we've got a lot more content on the way on (Battle of Plataea part 2, Rise of the Mali Empire, True Size of the Battle of Cannae, and more). Just fell sick the last week so I wasn't able to get these out as soon as intended.
The Tallern has some very very very well done tabels for squads. They are also a totally diffrent culture, with more armor, more flexiblity and less heavy units. Just to really show the diffrence between Guard Cultures, you should do them next. That would be very cool to hold up next to the Cadians.
I'm sure this is a very good video for the subject but after studying ancient military history for 50 plus years I am rather partial to real events. You mentioned CANNAE true size. Absolutely cannot wait for it. Seriously. Thank you friend.
You forgot to mention the esteemed representative of the adeptus mechanicus who are attached to regiments in order to maintain their sacred machinery. Typically a company will have 1 engineer or lower ranking machine priest while the overall regiment will have a mechanicus contingent with several tech priests servitors and possibly even a magos. The priesthood of mars will take note of this transgression and may revoke their services to the adeptus invicta branch of the administratum.
I love the Guard because there is something much more appealing about average men and women fighting for the people beside them and for their love of humankind, often charging into certain death against the unspeakable horrors of an uncaring universe. Those people are brave, not 300 year old 9ft tall emotionally stunted teenagers in power armor. The Astartes know no fear, but bravery is facing your fears.
@@CousinJesse1 Correction a Thousand to be exact but to compensate they are split into sub platoons for this Issue so technically a battalion but not a battalion at least that is in my headcannon/Opinion
@@cedricnash725 a thousand or more for a Krieg platoon wouldn’t surprise me in the least. Krieg is definitely a very unique case, and for them to have the privileges & status that they do must mean that they are producing armies that absolutely dwarf planets that are themselves notorious for their massive populations & huge tithes in soldiers (Necromunda, Vostroya, Mordia, etc etc).
After reading Guant's Ghosts (not a Cadian regiment) these numbers seem accurate for what you'd expect within a realistic regiment. Well done, another great video.
Looks based on the models that came with the Assault on Black Reach set (others too? I'm not sure), where the bolter snapped into the chest piece for easy assembling
@@MidgardMessiah, looks older than that, more like the 90s style of Space Marine. Black Reach had decent quality minis at the time, the mini shown is too bulky for that era of GW production.
Cadian born white shields are always enlisted into the guard. Half of them stay on world, the other half are deployed across the stars. Kasrkin are also recruited from the youth army and trained extra hard from their teens, being used as the backbone of the defense of a Kasr and being rarely deployed outwardly. Cadian regiments may also be deployed as organic combined arms formations becoming FAR more complex. Commissars are also generally not attached on the platoon level. Especially not in cadian regiments.
Even Cadian Regiments can vary wildly in size, Examples such as the 180th Infantry Regiment which numbers ~360 fighting men, including Commissars, Ogryns and Psykers (but not including the 83 preachers and 101 menials of the ministorum) to the legendary Cadian 8th, which numbers ~8,000 at full strength. Some Regiments are fewer than the Company size listed here, others are almost double the size of the Regiment in this video's example. And then there's the Krieg Regiments where even just their companies dwarf even the largest Regiments of other Guard worlds.
A regiment is just a single troop formation founding. It's not an organizational structure at all in 40K. They vary in size because a founding can be llarge or small on demand and context.
Still not used to commentary rules. I like that Invicta is displaying this. Cadians. Their my favourite. No enhancements, minimal if any, just a lot of armor, a lot of tanks, guns, artillery and everything nice. They pissed off a high ranking demon into shattering their home planet. Whoever wasn't dead still fought hard. THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF CADIA LIVE ON!!! THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!!!
For perspective, in my opinion, 2000 army points of Guards is usually the size of a smaller Company, maybe one of two platoons smaller than the one shown here, but it depends on your composition. Anyway, that is why my Warlord is always a Captain. I find it very thematic.
Cadian Sergeants can also get tommy guns with dum mags. And yes, the model is a tommy gun with a perferted shield over the top of the barrel. Because tommy guns are the best, even in the 41st millenium.
I like your regimental struture. At the size of a full modern brigade, the unit is absurdly large by modern standards. But it is still realistic, unlike the "regiments" of some sources, which have 10.000-20.000 troops under colonel. Keep it up!
That's about the force I settled on for my regiment. Although organised as having 2x combat battalions and a support battalion, along with administration(logistics). Call me a traditionalist but I believe trucks are superior to chimeras, for performing the role of supply chain behind the front lines, as they do not eat into their own supply as much, and they are easier to maintain and drive than tracked vehicles.
Cadians are the finest Guardsmen because they are versatile. Unlike other regiments they are rarely out of their element. They might not be Armageddon in Mechanised warfare, Tallarn in Desert Warfare, Valhallan in Cold Warfare, or Catachan in Jungle warfare. But they will do better in Mechanised warfare than Catachans, Valhallans or Tallarns. And they will do better in Jungle warfare than Armageddon, Tallarn, or Valhallan. ETC.
One thing to consider is that the Imperial Guard regiment is a force designed for space lift. The logistics tail is presumably going to be supplied by the Navy or the local government when they arrive in-theater. Transporting regiments to their theater of operations isn't fast or cheap. So IG regiments would be heavier on combat power and lighter on support than their PDF cousins.
There are also some representational things. Small things which I noticed. I believe that I saw 9 Ogryns, but in the table there are 10. Likewise, presentation of heavy weapon squads was unrealistic. They work in teams of two or three. However, only heavy bolter team was somewhat realistic. However, who is carrying rocket squad ammunition? Why mortar guy has to manage entire mortar by itself while spotter sits and looks at pretty sights all day long? Small things like that are not well refined. And I was kinda amiss why regiment has loose Chimeras around. It is not like they can fill up squads more than they already have. If they need armored punch, they need more heavily armored vehicle. Maybe Lemon Russ tanks instead? Sure, it can't be an armored regiment, but Imperium makes exceptions for combat performance and small, practical cases are routinely overlooked. Likewise, command squad of company was kinda light on chimeras and heavy on medics. This is where those transports should had went. Also, there are kinda too few conscripts considering that Cadians are using them to replenish ranks of regiments as they get their right of passage.
Great vid, love these types of breakdowns. One thing I would add here is that the line regiment feels like it should have a lot more non combat related vehicles. A single chimera per platoon seems rather pointless if everyone else is just on foot. I suspect there ought to be cars or trucks assigned to every squad and every command squad should have a jeep like vehicle. I also think there could be a string of much more junior officers in training serving under the command staffs of every command staff.
Just noticed that there's a lot of support staff missing from the regiment. Where is the intelligence company, the quartermaster company, engineers, communications, service, ordance, etc.?
you forgot the maintenance stuff (well..... even GW most of the time), the tech priest, servitors, workers and skitari troops to guard the tech priests. Because no way the combat personnel will be able to repair their equipment. That will mostly double or triple the support stuff of a regiment
I kept thinking the numbers on their shoulder-pads were from what "Regiment" they belonged too like 319th or something like that as an example...because my Tabletop army of Cadians are based on the 8th Cadian regiment (Ursula/Ursarka Creeds Pride/Own)
Alright nerdy observations So companies are the main tactical unit with regiment taking a more operational role, sounds about on par with what happens irl except you need to swap regiment (which are typically purely administrative) with divisions (the unit just above regiments). This is very reminiscent of ww2, except the imperial guard don't have divisions but battle groups which are VERY loosely portrayed and have no canon structure beyond smashing different regiments together and calling it a day. I am concerned about the lack of support personnel, 5% is a suspiciously low number considering it's not just the maintenance staff being accounted for in these 5. there is a distinct lack of even more specialized units, where is the train (attached to a division?). The IG seems very weighted toward regiments rather than division so it is weird that these core component would be missing from the main operational body. where are the cooks, engineer and such? If they are to be operationally independant then you CANNOT forgoe them. This is why a division sized unit is inherently superior to a regiment, it can accomodate far more amenities while retaining its combat capability I am also weirded out by the dramatic lack of mechanization the total here is 1 chimera for 38 infantry (3 times more than what it can carry disregarding space taken by ogryns and weapons team) and only has a crew of 3 which is not enough to fit all the platoon staff so you need at least half a chimera plus the sentinels to mount the staff alone which means it's more like 1:41 or 42 What's even weirder is that they don't have intermediate transports, you're either on foot or inside an APC there's no in between, no jeeps or cars or even trucks, just the chimera. The result is that guard infantry regiment are slooooooow they're only really good enough for defensive operations and even then you can't realistically truck around spare parts, reinforcements, and general day to day activity since it's "oops all chimeras". So even if we assume they get vehicles from armored regiments it would still be inadequate unless that regiment can spare 300 or 400 chimeras to a single infantry regiment without hurting their own transport needs and even then apc aren't ideal for every tasks. Might as well mention this but yeah you do need quite a few specialised vehicles too like mine sweepers (tbf mines don't seem particularly common), medical, recovery for when your tanks need to be flipped back on track or brough back for repairs etc... I understand this is meant to mirror ww2 which had lower mechanization level, but even then no trucks seems foolish at best It's also interesting how heavy weapons are spread over multiple companies instead of being merged into 1 or 2 weapons company, to me that sounds like a problem as some companies may not need their plasma gun right now whereas other desperatly need them, the cool part about weapons company is that you can split them however you want since they're not supposed to be independant anyway. people looove to keep their toys all to themselves so gathering them is the natural course of action to ensure they're properly distributed
You’d think a platoon would have more than just one medic. I was thinking there’d at least be one combat medic for each infantry squad, with one for every two special/heavy weapons squads. As medics are highly important, and having just one medic means that they’ll likely be overworked/overwhelmed. Additionally having a single medic means that there’s no redundancy if the medic themself is wounded or killed. Edit: Ah, so most of the medics are on the company level? With I’m guessing around half dispersing among the platoons to act as combat medics while the other half forms a field hospital?
"Finest Soldiers of the Imperial Guard" man the Catachan's use "Cadian" as an insult, if Catachan had been situated in space where Cadia was it'd still be there, and we'd only know of about like 2 of the Black Crusades
I'm curious Kasrkin weren't really apart of the regimental structure there. Is it because being special forces they don't really count as being in the standard chain of command and operate independantly?
Good video! The animation is superb and overall production quality is impressive! However, while I agree with your assessment of the combat capabilities of this theoretical regiment, I've noticed some strange things in regards of organization of the support staff. I am not a military specialist or a soldier, but I do have some knowledge about how modern armies organize their combat units. These are the things which seemed weird to me: 1) While there are enough medics in the regiment to theoretically cover medical needs of the troops, there is no dedicated medical company, which is usually attached to large combat units, such as regiments or battalions, in modern days. I don't really understand the reasons behind attaching medics to platoon, company and regiment HQ's, since their line of work is very different from the duties of officers. 2) There is no dedicated logistics staff at all in this regiments, which is absolutely insane! How these soldiers are meant to get their ammo, medical supplies and food? How their Chimeras get their fuel and shells? Troops cannot transport supplies themselves, because they are busy fighting! Also, they don't have dedicated vehicles, such as trucks, to haul all the necessary stuff around. There has to be at least one logistics squad per company and a separate logistics company on top of that attached to the regiment with dedicated staff and vehicles (usually, trucks are used for this). 3) There is no maintenance staff to maintain vehicles in good condition. This regiment has 100 Chimeras and 40 Sentinels, how they are keeping them operational? What happens when vehicle get damaged in fighting or one of its parts breaks, who is repairing them? Once again, soldiers cannot do this work themselves, their job is to fight! As some commenters already noted, in 40k usually there are some Mechanicus personnel attached to the regiment, who handle all this stuff, but you didn't show them. 4) There is not a single engineer in the regiment. No, I am not talking about mechanics or vehicle maintenance staff, I am talking about guys who can build something and have tools to do so. The size and composition of this regiment suggests that they will at some point have to dig in and hold position (they are infantry after all), which will require some fortifications to be built. Trenches, bunkers, minefields, etc. Yes, soldiers can dig some basic fortifications with good ol' shovels, but anything beyond that will require specialized equipment and staff. Engineers typically handle that. They have knowledge and tools and vehicles to move dirt (and other shit) around quickly and effectively. Also, they can build a bridge, if your mechanized column suddenly needs to cross a river. And then there is vehicle extraction. When the combat vehicle is stuck or damaged and loses the ability to move, it has to be towed. Sometimes it has to be pulled from ditch or a river and towed to the repair facilities a dozen kilometers away. Engineers handle that too. Ever seen military APC with big metal arms or cranes on them instead of guns? That's what they are for, and they are driven around by engineers. Your regiment and its 100 Chimeras will definitely need these guys. 5) Also, I'd say this regiment needs a signals company/ These are guys who handle military communications. Your regiment is 4500 men strong, which is almost the size of the modern brigade. There is going to be a lot of information exchange internally (between troops) and externally (with command and other units in the area), and you will need a separate team of specialists to handle and maintain communication networks. Having a vox operator in every HQ is good, but not enough. Remember those cool futuristic holographic maps, where friendly forces are green, enemies are red and everything is in 3D? Somebody has to get the info for them and set the hardware up. Also, when you are fighting some technically advanced foe, signals operators can try to tap into their communications and get some intel from there! 6) This regiment doesn't really have a military intelligence company. Yes, you have scouts on the ground (recon teams and Sentinels), but you also need some people to analyze and organize the intel. Poor colonel and major cannot do this job on their own, they have 4500 idiots to manage! In a brigade-sized force there is usually a separate unit of officers and specialists who deal with the collected intel and try to interpret it and get into the enemy's head. It can even be attached to the regiment a separate support company. As you can see, you forgot to include a lot of support staff, so the analytics in the end is unrealistic. Having 83% of personnel dedicated to combat roles in a brigade-sized unit is crazy high, in modern fighting forces this percentage is much lower. This regiment will probably lose all of its combat capabilities in 5-7 days of fighting due to insufficient support staff. It has to be way larger and have more people and different vehicles. I am not accusing you of anything (most likely all of this weirdness is GWs fault), but since you did the data analytics at the end, I couldn't ignore those numbers. Hope this was helpful. Looking forward to see the armored regiment video!
The planet broke before the guard but the kriegers blew up their own planet. The death corp are great at sieges, attritional warfare, and chemical weapons but not as good at being flexible or mobile. Also the jungle fighters exist
They are not comparable, Cadians are the quintessential exemplary soldiers, high moral, high competence and highly flexible to the mission at hand, and while the Korps certainly isn't incompetent at what they do, if they are taken out of their specialization they are actually detrimental to operations.
Stupid suggestions: Tau Firecaste Cadre, Dark Eldar/Drukhari Cabal or a sample Necromunda Van Saar gang or something....at least from 40K - though i think you could make a good video on a FedCom Regimental Combat Team from Battletech.
the content is great love it. but i just realized that gw doesn't know how military unit organizations work, simply because military unit composition goes 4-5 companies make one battalion then 3-5 battalions make a regiment and 3-5 regiments make a division and 3+ divisions make a army group, sigh my dense amount of military information is a curse sometimes. i might just start referring to guard regiments as battalions.
Ah, yes, the Poster Boys of the Guard. I wish that they will recover on El'pahanor(or whatever the "New Cadia" Planet is named that Abaddon stomped in the third Black Crusade i think) and dont perish. They deserve this... and i say this as a Krieg/Vostoryan/Elysian Fanboy. But after i watch all of this... what about the Techpriests of such a Regiment? Did he forget them or did he count them in the Groups of Specialists?
![True Size of a Cadian Regiment [999.M41] 3D Documentary](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
