The 41st millennium is a universe drenched in anachronistic antiquity, with futuristic technology juxtaposed at every turn with gothic aesthetics and culture. The Imperium is a setting that features spaceships that look like cathedrals, and knights jousting in giant robots, and fashion, architecure and decoration that ranges from the early twentieth century to medieval times. As such, it makes sense to indulge in that antiquity by using a suitably old, or even ancient name for your regiment. As long as there has been human history, there has been a history of warfare, and that history has produced a long list of military formations and roles across dozens of cultures (as any history buff or Total War aficionado will tell you). By the same token, the Imperium is a huge place with a huge variety of cultures, many of which, conveniently enough, are similar to those of ancient Earth (hence why you end up getting things like Space Vikings and Space Mongols). The Imperium is a huge place with seemingly limitless possibilities in terms of cultural or social divergences, or historical allusions, so your imagination really is the limit.
Imperial Guard Regiment Name Generator
Perhance is a platform that allows you to create your own custom random generators. You could use it to create your own random text generator for a tabletop RPG, or to make your own random name generator, or to simply create a generator which selects a random item from your list with different weights. You can also save your generator so it has a permalink that you can share with your friends.
Instead, the practicalities of command fall to the officer of highest rank in any given Imperial theatre of war. Though assigned the Munitorum rank of General, native honorifics such as Lord Marshal or High Chenzin are often maintained. These officers are supported by a cadre of loyal personnel who between them comprise localized high command. Individual generals vary enormously in their approach, some coordinating their forces from well behind the lines -- possibly even from low orbit -- while others take to the field amid dedicated retinues of bodyguards. Surrounded by the chatter of servo-skulls, the whispering scratch of auto-quills, and the barking voices of subordinates, wreathed in the reek of promethium-smoke and holy censers, these men direct their mighty armies to victory in the Emperor's name
According to the Tactica Imperium, Imperial Guard regimental command officers range in rank from Colonel to Lieutenant. In practice, however, the individual regiments making up the vast Imperial Guard are drawn from so many different human worlds and cultures that the actual name given to an officer rank can vary widely across the Guard. Regimental officers always hail from the same world as the troops they command, assuming their officer rank at the initial formation of the regiment. Providing a regiment with officers from its homeworld is an easy but extremely effective way to enhance an enlisted Guardsman's loyalty and morale.
While many regiments have long-standing reputations, forged by generations of predecessors across countless worlds, others may not be so renowned. There are countless millions of Imperial Guard regiments in service to the Imperium at any one time, scattered across tens of thousands of warzones. No one man knows for certain how many souls give their lives in service to the Emperor in any given year, but the hard truth is that more must serve to replace those who have fallen, which means that new regiments must constantly be raised. Thus continues the cycle; regiments fall in battle, and new ones are raised to replace them, or to begin new campaigns under the light of a distant star. As a result, it is important to make room not only for those regiments whose histories are long and bloody, but also for those who are newly mustered, and have yet to either gain glory in the Emperor's name or vanish in ignominious defeat.
Less common than line infantry, mechanised infantry serve as a fast-moving, hard-hitting force, pairing the utility of infantry with the speed and firepower of armoured vehicles. The availability of Chimera transports is the main limiting factor to the number of mechanised infantry units in any given warzone, and this rarity means that many mechanised infantry regiments are divided into a number of smaller Armoured Fist groups - single squads or platoons - attached to armoured regiments (to provide infantry support) and line infantry regiments (to provide a fast reserve or armoured vanguard).
A Mixed Regiment always consists of two or more Component Regiments, each of which is created independently of the others. One of these Component Regiments is also the Core Regiment. The Core Regiment is the regiment into which the others have been folded - at least according to the Departmento Munitorum - and, as such, it frequently bears that regiment's name and receives resupplies based on its standard kit.
As already seen, earlier in this guide, every regiment must be uniquely identified. For some, more formal forces, a simple number and a factual designation is entirely sufficient, and often even those plain identifiers can be heavy with ancient legacies and traditions, where numbers have been used and re-used over the millennia. At other times, a regiment may be given a moniker all its own, distinct from its official designation. Commonly a source of pride for the regiment's men, their collective name helps distinguish them from all others who have come from their home world, and gives them a stronger sense of identity. In particular, this seems to be commonplace with regiments from worlds that are naturally deadly, with regiments named after particularly deadly predators, bearing stylised images of those creatures upon banners and medals, or emblazoned on the armour of tanks.
Having already defined the personality of the commanding officer, it is worth considering him in a little more depth. Particularly as a campaign continues, the regimental commander is likely to become an increasingly relevant figure within his Guardsmen's lives. Determining his name, at least, is something worth putting a little thought into. Beyond the regiment's commander, there are other figures within the regiment to consider, ranging from Commissars, whose judgement is all that stands between a man and execution, to attached preachers, who guard the souls of troopers and lead them in their prayers to the Emperor. The regiment's command structure contains many whose personalities and responsibilities will bring them into contact with even the most junior of Guardsmen, and it's worth putting a little time and effort into deciding who those people are.
Among the officer cadres of Astra Militarum regimental commands, it is considered a great honour to have an oath-bound Ogryn bodyguard. Normally, Ogryns are such a valuable asset that they are formed into squads and used as shock troops or blocking detachments, but sometimes a high-ranking officer manages to requisition one for his own personal retinue.
If you don't have a naming convention already, for example inspired by the themes of your regiment, then a good option is to let them earn names in battle. Great deeds and heroics can give them a fitting name that they will live up to in future games ;)
All but one of the command tanks, the Shadowsword and the rarer variants, plus an LRMBT or two that have been around since the regiment's latest founding. Anything that comes in as a reinforcement later (and isn't a super heavy or something like an executioner), tends to just get named by the crew as more often than not it's literally just a vehicle that was picked up somewhere else.
If you don't have a naming convention already, for example inspired by the themes of your regiment, then a good option is to let them earn names in battle. Great deeds and heroics can give them a fitting name that they will live up to in future games
How does your regiment recruit its members? This question is another important part of your regiments culture as well as the culture of the planet they are on. Are they the Spire-born sons and daughters of the sectors elite, trying to make a name for themselves, or are they the dregs of the underhive, whom were press ganged into service. There are countless ways people are brought into the Imperial Guard, either by choice or conscription.
All regiments have some of uniform, something to identify them and distinguish them from other regiments, from other worlds or even from other regiments of their world, be it their armor painted a different color, a tribal totem, or even an ornate banner depicting the regiments stories, or even something as simple as a number painted on their shoulder guard.
Earthshaker Cannons and Heavy mortars are often assigned to provide close support to infantry and armoured units, or entire artillery regiments will be called on to give fire support for a major action: the Imperial Guard maintains possibly the widest array of heavy artillery of any army in the galaxy, and that fact has often led to victory. The most common artillery variants listed beneath include on the left the weapon and on the right its self-propelled variant's name.
I am a former infantryman and a current signaleer. I believe that while discipline is essential to the survival of the grunt it is still most definitely necessary for POGs too. It takes discipline to perform proper PMCS and validation of your systems so that they won't fail during a critical time. Then when Murphy shows up anyways and you have a mass casualty type situation where all the redundant systems magically fail at the same time, you need discipline to keep your head attached and logically work through the problem while under stress. An outpost should never lose comms because someone forgot to fuel the generator, but it happens all the time. That type of thing can be just as dangerous as sleeping on guard duty. 2ff7e9595c
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