Imperial Guard Regimental Organization & Nomenclature

[Scorpion]

In the Imperial Guard Codex, we're given very little information about the Imperial Guard's Regiment, only that they amount to about 3000 men and that they're allways raised from a single world.

But that wasn't enough to quench my thirsty mind.

Per example, when we talk about the Cadian 412nd, are we talking about the 412nd regiment (of the entire Imperial Guard) that comes from Cadia, or the 412nd Regiment raised from Cadia?

Are regiments that are raised for emergencies (Eyes Of Terror and assorted wannabes) dissolved after the emergency ends? The dudes just walk back home or are they used somewhere else? When and if such regiments are dissolved, what happens to their number? Is it reused or it's a one-time deal?

And finnally, are Regiments specialised formations (infantry, armour, artillery) or combined arms formations? 3000 men just seems very little (especially considering a good part of those 3000 men will be tank crewman, gunners, officers, medical officers, etc...) for the scale of conflict the IG usually gets themselves into.

I came to see the Imperial Regiment as a self-suficient unit, like today's armies (the unit, not the institution) capable of landing on a planet, securing the beachead, whacking them pesky orks with da big gunz, smashing with the armoured fist of the emperor's wrath and securing the ground with da good ol' footsoldier. Again, 3000 men seems like a terribly small number for all that.

Hope my questions will find good answers, and thank you for the ones they find,
Scorpion

[mikel47091]

>>Per example, when we talk about the Cadian 412nd, are we talking about the 412nd regiment (of the entire Imperial Guard) that comes from Cadia, or the 412nd Regiment raised from Cadia?

**I am reasonably sure that your example would be the 412nd Regiment raised from Cadia, IIRC

>>what happens to their number? Is it reused or it's a one-time deal?

**Numbers are reused, much as in the current US Army. Your 412nd would be disbanded at some point (I seem to recall that some regiment, if broken up far from home will colonize a new planet. Some where down the road, the PTB will muster up a new 412nd, who will (one hopes) carry on the glorious history of their predecessors.

[-V-]

Per example, when we talk about the Cadian 412nd, are we talking about the 412nd regiment (of the entire Imperial Guard) that comes from Cadia, or the 412nd Regiment raised from Cadia?

The one raised from Cadia, as standart guard nomeclature is regiment #, World of Raising, so the 987th Brimlock Dargoons are the 987th regiment commisioned from the world of Brimlock.

Are regiments that are raised for emergencies (Eyes Of Terror and assorted wannabes) dissolved after the emergency ends? The dudes just walk back home or are they used somewhere else? When and if such regiments are dissolved, what happens to their number? Is it reused or it's a one-time deal?

It's usually re-used. For example the Cadian 8th was the 8th regiment raised on Cadia since its colonization close to 10,000 years ago from 'present' 41k, so the re-use of numbers is definate. However this harkens the question of, is there more then 1 Cadian 8th running around?

And finnally, are Regiments specialised formations (infantry, armour, artillery) or combined arms formations? 3000 men just seems very little (especially considering a good part of those 3000 men will be tank crewman, gunners, officers, medical officers, etc...) for the scale of conflict the IG usually gets themselves into.

This varies from regiment to regiment. Some regiments are light infantry regiments, others are armored regiments where there are no foot-sloggers yett others are heavy infantry regiments. Also like you stated there are mixed-arms regiments that have both armor and light infantry mixed together.

I came to see the Imperial Regiment as a self-suficient unit, like today's armies (the unit, not the institution) capable of landing on a planet, securing the beachead, whacking them pesky orks with da big gunz, smashing with the armoured fist of the emperor's wrath and securing the ground with da good ol' footsoldier. Again, 3000 men seems like a terribly small number for all that.

The nuber of men in a regiment varies from 2,000-7,000 to as high as 70,000 as stated on GW-Uk in this story:http://uk.games-workshop.com/tyranids/malvolion/1/

Also guard regiments do not have any logistic capability, and must always have a logistics regiment/company deployed with them to oversee more mundane things like food and ammo shipments.

[Robert Frazer]

The Imperial Guard is arguably the most diverse organisation in the Imperium, if not the entire galaxy, Scorpion - that's always something to be borne in mind when discussing it. Anyway, to respond to your specific questions:

Per example, when we talk about the Cadian 412nd, are we talking about the 412nd regiment (of the entire Imperial Guard) that comes from Cadia, or the 412nd Regiment raised from Cadia?

The latter would be the case. For one, it entails easier record-keeping - not even the Lord Commander Militant (the chief of the Guard) and his staff know exactly how many men serve in the Guard, and bestowing upon regiments the title "The Cadian Somewhere Between 15,067,999 And 19,327,906, Although We May Have To Add On a Few More To That Because Our Record Office Took A Hit During The Age Of Apostasy" doesn't exactly trip off the tongue, does it?

Are regiments that are raised for emergencies (Eyes Of Terror and assorted wannabes) dissolved after the emergency ends? The dudes just walk back home or are they used somewhere else?

In a sense, every Imperial Guard regiment is "raised for emergencies". Levies of troops on Imperial worlds are irregular and ad hoc - men are recruited into the Guard typically in reaction to an invasion of another Imperial world in the vicinity (the catchment sphere, according to the Second Edition Codex Imperial Guard, is ten thousand light years in diameter), and although certain worlds supply regular recruits for their soldiers' superior qualities (e.g. Catachan Jungle Fighters), this is not the uniform situation across the whole Imperium. Once entered into the Guard, a soldier is a Guardsman for life - once a campaign is complete, he'll either be granted right of settlement on the land he's conquered or reclaimed, or ferried off to the next warzone. It's possible that some may be able to return to their homeworld in certain circumstances when they grow too old to fight, but I'd imagine that it would probably require a lot of cajoling, calling in favours, and hoping a Munitorum ship is passing by your system when you receive your retirement papers. Although given how ubiquitous the Guard are, that need not be a very difficult matter.

When and if such regiments are dissolved, what happens to their number? Is it reused or it's a one-time deal?

Regiments with particular numbers can be raised again - in the Codex Eye of Terror, reference is made to the "fourteenth founding" of a Cadian regiment. Another example is the 8th Necromundan, famously known as the "Spiders", which are repeatedly recruited specifically from the gangs of Palatine Hive.

I came to see the Imperial Regiment as a self-suficient unit, like today's armies (the unit, not the institution) capable of landing on a planet, securing the beachead, whacking them pesky orks with da big gunz, smashing with the armoured fist of the emperor's wrath and securing the ground with da good ol' footsoldier. Again, 3000 men seems like a terribly small number for all that.

I'm afraid you're wrong there - Guard regiments aren't self-sufficient. Regiments are equipped and trained for specific roles, and are conjoined into battlegroups and divisions for the purposes of mutual support, supply and strategy for the duration of a campaign. It's not for nothing that the tabletop regiments have "Ice Warriors", "Rough Riders", "Shock Troops", "Desert Raiders" and so on affixed to their name! And no matter how large or flexible a Guard regiment is, they still need the Navy for air support!

Imperial Guard regiments also vary massively in size - a single Armageddon regiment can be the size of an entire army corps by our reckoning, but a specialist regiment of Elysian Drop Troops can be no more than a couple of thousand.

[Klaus88]

A quick note: When i first started reading WH40K fluff the thing that most confused me were the "regiments" of guardsmen numbering 50,000 men and besieging citys. I was like WTF!!!!!!!!

And in the third Gaunt's Ghosts book (cant remember the title) the hive city is defended by about 5 regiments but this actually adds up to about three quarters of a million men. So the term regiments in 40K has a rather... different meaning my our use of the term

[Aquila]

In the old days, a Regiment was simply all the men raised from one planet at the same time. If you went to an agri-world and could only scrape up 5,000 men from the PDF, that was a regiment. If you went to Cadia and grabbed 50,000 shocktroops, that was a regiment.

Nowadays, though, GW tends to put a LITTLE more order into it. For example, if you've got 50,000 troops, rather than forming one super-massive regiment, they'll divide it into many, for the sake of making sense of logistics.

[Armor of Vaul]

What's the max reasonable number for a given regiment? Is a regiment of 50k alright? It just seems that everybody considers regiments to be about 3k men or so only, but if I want to have a larger one could I? Also, there are some references to "divisions" that are made up of multiple regiments, ie 2nd Valhallan, 17th Valhallan and 406th Valhallan making a Valhallan Division. Is that authorial license at work or is that canon?

[Apocalypse_now1]

I will try and explain this as best I can with examples:

As stated the regimental number is a constant used to describe a unit raised at a particular time, only time a new number is used is when there aren't any old numbers awaiting a regiment.
The 412th Cadian may have been raised more than once, it just either got disbanded or destroyed.

The men of an IG regt are not simply raised for a single campaign, they are raised to fight and once the campaign is over they are shipped to another warzone to continue fighting. Once a regt has been fighting for 10+ years becomes an army of conquest and gets the right to settle any planet they conquer.

If a regt falls below strength or loses the majority of its officers then it will be merged into another regt and so a Cadian regt may end up being merged with a Mordian Regt, with the Cadian Regimental number going back to Cadia to await an new force to adopt it.

The IG Regts can be either specialised traditional forces such as an armoured regt or heavy tank regt, but normally are a combined arms force, with the balance of infantry and armour.
Armoured infantry companies have tanks but are armoured inf heavy, Tank regts are armour heavy with limited integral armoured inf support.
Also as stated every force will form up into a larger battlegroup featuring armour, artillery, air support, infantry, etc... any regt can have another regt's armour or inf / artillery seconded to it for a brief period or extended campaign.

As for the IG forces being independent, this is a double-edged blade of a question. The IG are not self-sufficient in that they require the IN to get them places and bring in supplies, the Adeptus Munitorium is responsible for acquiring arms and supplies and the Ad-Mech for producing said items so the IG is not in anyway self-sufficient.
However the IG does operate its own supply infrastructure once on the ground, using Trojans, Sentinel Power Lifters and others to ferry the goods to the boys at the sharp end.

In the original fluff (IG Codex 2nd Ed) the IG were deposited on a planet with a set ammo and equipment supply with the Commissars being responsible for grabbing whatever they needed once their, this was redressed in later versions though I believe garrison forces still run on this principle.

I think Division, Task Force, battlegroup and Army Group have all been banded around as the title for formations of regts under a single General. Most popular is Army with an Army or more being assigned to a campaign / conquest.

Any imperial army force may find itself deployed on any planet type - Valhallans could be sent to deserts if need be but it works out harder for them to aclimatise, so generally the men are tailored to the planet they are landing on. In Taros campaign the Tallarn made up the bulk of the force, but forces from Cadia and Krieg were also used.
Also the immediate response to a threat comes from the neighbouring worlds so if someone attacks Ryza the nearest IG would be the Catachans and so first response would likely feature Jungle Fighters due to the logistics in getting men in quickly.

Generally a regt will be around 10000 fighting men and officers, for instance 17th Tallarn (inf) on Taros or 5000 for 12th Tallarn Armoured (tank) Regt in same campaign.
However bigger regts exist and these could be made bigger by attaching specialist support teams such as additional artillery or tank units.
The smallest regt may be company strength as long as it still has a commander and men, though these normally exist because of casulaties or are being refitted / reinforced.

Hope this fully answers your questions, for a full OOB for regts take a look at the IA:3 book it is full of nifty insights.
Once again Sved and Rob are in there fast with the detail, kudos guys.

[Zatrais]

In Taros campaign the Tallarn made up the bulk of the force, but forces from Cadia and Krieg were also used.

No regiment from Kreig set foot on Taros.

Anyhows, going by the Taros book the various and common regiments should be round:

Mechanized infantry: 4 000

Drop Troopers : 3 000

Armoured : 4 000

Infantry : 11 000

[Scorpion]

Thanks for the elucidative replies, boyz!

But since every good answer raises two questions...

So, it isn't regular practice for the Imperial Guard to continuously recruit men to make up for combat losses, and in doing so, keeping the regiment at full strength?

If so, how do they do it? They just keep the regiment going with the same men untill there are too few of them to be of any combat efficiency and they have to raise a new regiment from Cadia?

Isn't that impractical, dangerous, even? (Let's say a new Tyranid hivefleet decides to show up just when the folks at Cadia are thinking they should really think about raising a new regiment to replace the osteoporosis-ridden Cadian 36457493163272th...)

[Agdune]

Probably, but it's the imperium! Red tape everywhere!

...'sides, If it's only one regiment, it isn't going to stop any hivefleets/crusades/just about anything worth taking note of, full strength or not. As I understand it, you need a SERIOUS buildup of men and equipment to stop a hivefleet (see: hive fleet scarabus). I'd assume something along the lines of hundreds or even thousands of regiments concentrated in a few strongholds. At that scale, a few understrength regiments don't really matter.

[Aquila]

Ok, hate to nitpick (no I don't) but just to clarify a few things:

The IG Regts can be either specialised traditional forces such as an armoured regt or heavy tank regt, but normally are a combined arms force, with the balance of infantry and armour.

This isn't quite correct. The large majority of regiments will be Infantry regiments. The officers may issued APC's but the only battle tank that is ever part of the regiment is the Leman Rush Demolisher siege tank. All other armour units make up their own regiment. Usually these regiments will be split up and tanks will be assigned to Infantry regiments for the duration of a battle or campaign.
Armoured Regiments will usually have companies of mechanized infantry, called Armored Fist Companies. These companies are the source of the Armored Fist Squads you can use in your Imperial Guard army. Like the battletanks, Armored Fist squads are not part of the infantry regiment, and are assigned to them on a temporary basis.
The other popular regimental organization is mechanized infantry, of which the Armageddon Steel Legion is the most famous. A mechanized infantry regiment consists of multiple armored fist companies, and each squad will have it's own transport.
Then of course there are specialized regiments such as drop troopers, cavalry, siege regiments, and the like.

Generally a regt will be around 10000 fighting men and officers

Although 'normal' means little in the Imperial Guard, typical full-strength regiments run 3-5,000 men.

So, it isn't regular practice for the Imperial Guard to continuously recruit men to make up for combat losses, and in doing so, keeping the regiment at full strength?

Absolutely not. Imperial Guard regiments just keep fighting until they are no longer combat-worthy, at which point they will be attached to another regiment or combined with other depleted regiments. This is especially common in siege regiments and urban fighting. Veteran regiments take a perverse sense of pride in the number of casualties they have taken, as losses are in direct correlation to experience. I can remember one Officer who boasted that his regiment was at half strength when asked if his troops were any good.

[Armor of Vaul]

Actually, it's said that it is general practice to recruit some from the homeworld and reinforce the regiment (from Traitor's Hand). When they get particularly mauled they do disband and then remake the regiment. It probably varies from regiment to regiment or world to world.

[ZellFish]

Sved, not to nitpick, But I believe that in Guants Ghosts, his unit, his Regiment, is replenished at a five year interval after about four major battles in the Sabbat Worlds. But then, the Sabbat Crusades are technically Imperial History, so things probably changed since then.

[Aquila]

Did you actually read Necropolis? The only reason they picked up the reinforcements from Vervunhive was because they had nowhere else to go. They got special, one-time permission from the Warmaster to recruit any volunteers, because the hivers had fought so hard to defend their home and proven themselves in battle.

That sort of thing just doesn't happen very often, ya know? It was done more so that the Gaunt's Ghosts series could continue rather than for fluff accuracy.

[Julian]

SvedishFish is right, after the battle of Vervunhive, the ghosts are given a special dispensation i beleive its called the act of Consolation - the hive is so badly destroyed that the scratch squads formed to defend it no longer have any real domestic attachment to the place. Like the Tanith Ghosts there Homeworld no longer really exists.

Ok, the numbers for an Imperial Guard regiment are based upon the Guards origins in the great crusade. The number exists because that was the average number of troops which would fit in the various interstellar craft available to the crusade army. This roughly equals around 3000.

'Many sources concur that the basis for regimental formations is what would fit into the interstellar ships available to the crusades - typically producing three thousand man regiments...a regiment is recruited from a single world and stays and fights together wherever possible ' - Imperial guard Codex page 4

This is where the vervunhivers come in:

'However over the course of campaigns, regiments are invariably whittled down by casualties, neccessitating the combination of shattered formations into ad hoc groupings. References exist to the...'split' regimental formations such as the 17th/21stTiger lizards and the 61st/320th Orenian.' - Imperial guard Codex page 5

Then specialist regiments:

'Likewise some specialised troops, such as xeno-cavalry or Ogryns have apparently always been split between larger formations to bolster their efforts. Their specialised capabilities make them unwieldy to operate at regimental scale except in rare and often excessively over-emphasised campaigns.' - Imperial guard Codex page 5

Commissars:

'The first Imperial commissars emerged as a tool for ensuring proper integration of remnant regiments, and by the 31st millenium their role expanded to maintaing the quality and morale of all Imperial regiments.' - Imperial guard Codex page 5

The Imperial Navy:

'The link between fleet and army was severed - never again were Imperial guard ship commanders given direct control over interstellar ships.' - Imperial guard Codex page 6

Ok as for regiment numbers - in one of the Gaunt's Ghost's aunt makes reference to the re-founding of his previous regiment the Hyrkans after the Battle of Balhaut and his unwillingness to train them anymore because of the 'Filling of Famillar uniforms with unfamilliar faces.' This is evidence to show a re-usal of Regimental designation. The new Regiment contains the veterans who still want to fight and the new raw recruits.

As already mentioned the only heavy tank maintained by standard regiments is the Leman Russ Demolisher, with Chimera's retained occasionaly - however, the armour used by the regiment is not the regiments it is requistioned from the Departmento Munitorium. (the Body in charge of the Governance of the imperial Guard) However specialised armour regiments do exist and if tanks feature on the battlefield it is because of inter-specialisation to take another example from Dan Abnett look at Honour Guard in which the Ghosts work closely with the Pardus armoured. Armoured Regiments maintain their own vehicles with the crew and its tank comprising a single unit.

There is a key difference here between an armoured Regiment and a mechanised army. The Steel Legion are in general Mechanised regiments - This means that each platoon has its own armoured transport and each unit can redeploy rapidly because of this. A true armoured regiment such as the Pardus eigth consists purely of Tanks and no transports. Artillery comes under further division look at today's modern armies for an example of this.

As noted custom varies from regiment to regiment. Units such as the Catachan eighth differ hugely to that of the Cadian 122nd grenadiers. This is to do with the units own background, and founding world. The Steel Legion are another key example and are representative of a mechanised army. A units deployment depends upon its specialisation.

Each planet is required to supply forces to the Imperial army, this is relative to the planets tithe grade. Khai-Zhan the Imperial alpha class agriworld does not supply troops but instead provides supplies the same holds true for other planets such as Adeptus Mechanicus Forgeworlds or Naval Worlds. However every planet maintains its own Planetary Defence Force (PDF) the numbers of regiments vary hugely from planet to planet. Khai-Zhan has a few regiments - Two Regiments of elite Mountain Rangers (think US Rangers) and a couple of Marine regiments.(Khai-Zhan is 97.3 percent water) Also stationed on Khai-Zhan however or more accurately in its capital Vogen are the Men of the Cadian 122nd, Khai-Zhan is strategically important to the Cadian system as it supplies a large proportion of the surrounding worlds diets.

On the outset of an invasion the inital defence of a planet falls to the men of that planets PDF, however with the escalation of the crisis more soldiers are called from an ever-increasing radius of nearby planets. The system means that as the invasion increases in size so does the response to it. In the example of Khai-Zhan the inital conflict was fought by the PDF against the inssurectionists, the arrival of the Nightlords and the strategic importance of the planet meant that further commitment was required and elements of more Guard Regiments where deployed as well as a full Company of Imperial Fist Marines.

Imperial Nomenclature:

The ranks of a regiment are generally dependent upon the Regiments background, however most Imperial regiments are comparable to modern formations. The Cadian Grendadiers bear most simmilarity to the Royal Marines. Catachans are vary simmilar to the Generic forces which were deployed by America during the Vietnam war - think GI's. The highest rank of all is quite obviously The lord Commander Millitant of the Imperial Guard - who is one of the High lords of Terra. Below him at unique times stands the Rank of Warmaster only appointed at times of great need or great deeds. Horus held the Rank of warmaster so a certain air is held by the title so sometimes other substitutes are used. One such example is the Lord Solar most famously held by Macharius. Below the Warmaster is the Lord General or lord Commander, who is generally in charge of a single campaign. To take another Abnett example - Slaydo Warmaster of the Sabbat worlds crusade is in overall charge but in command of the liberation of the shrine world Hagia Lord-General Lugo is in overall charge. The lord General has a caste of advisers and his private staff which are drawn from the best of those of the regiments which are under his command.* Under this are the individual Regimental Commanders who generally possess Colonel Rank, the progression from here is based almost entirely on contemporary armies. From Colonel to Major to Captain to lieutenant to Sargeant to Corporal to private to Recruit. Actual naming policy (like everything else) differs from planet to planet such as in the Cadians where the lowest Rank is 'Trooper', or in elite Kasrkin regiments 'Kasrkin'.

Hope this cleared some stuff up - or at least made more complications and questions.


*Curiously i have detected a contradiction in the fluff here as well as a conflict between DoW and TT in the Codex it says that the lord generals staff contains ranks such as: 'Lord marshal, Captain-General and Lord Castellan.' Curiosly Ursakar Creed overall commander of the Defence of the Planet Cadia is Lord Castellan however his control is ultimate he is in overall command of the forces in the eye of Terror (asides from the Astartes and Soritas) Secondly General Sturmm in WA is in charge of the liberation of the Titan - but is only in charge of a single regiment.

[Apocalypse_now1]

Fantastic depth there Julian mate I think you covered it all

[Aquila]

Bravo, bravo! You get an A+

Only one minor, minor error:

A true armoured company such as the Pardus eigth consists purely of Tanks and no transports.

The Pardus Eigth is an armour regiment, not a company. Armoured regiments consist of armoured companies for the most part, but usually also contain armored fist companies. The 19th Krieg Armoured Regiment that was deployed to Taros (but didn't actually see combat) was also joined by an artillery company, an anti-aircraft company, a recon company, and a tank destroyer company. Most of these vehicles would probably have been split up and attached to other combat units, though.

(Side note for Frazer: ) The 19th Krieg Armoured even brought a Leviathan with them! Imagine what kind of difference they could have made on Taros if they had actually seen combat!

[Invictus]

The 19th Krieg have a Leviathan?! Dear God! (I don't have IA3 BTW)

The image of this massive tracked block rolling over Hammerheads, oh god...

Always wanted to model Krieg. Perhaps if the new IG troops look a bit like the Armageddon Steel Legion troopers with the longcoats then I'll give it a shot. Always liked trench troops.

[Robert Frazer]

(Side note for Frazer: ) The 19th Krieg Armoured even brought a Leviathan with them! Imagine what kind of difference they could have made on Taros if they had actually seen combat!

One can only dream...

however, being honest, I don't think that the 19th Kreig would have made a pivotal contribution which would have swung the war back in the Imperium's favour. The injection of a fresh regiment during the withdrawal would have greatly eased the pressure on the broken Tallarn regiments and prevented so many being lost as prisoners during the pursuit back to the landing zone, but really the only opportunity the 19th Kreig had was the period of "stunned inactivity" that followed Operation Deathblow... and with the will to fight completely knocked out of the Tallarn troops it wasn't certain whether the Kreig could actually make a lasting contribution or just effect a bloody terror-raid on inert Tau formations.

Whilst it would have been an impressive sight to see a Leviathan in operations, again I don't think that it alone would have saved the Imperial war effort. The Imperium actually already had a Leviathan on the ground - Lord Marshal De Stael's command vehicle - and its own contribution was exactly nil. Whilst that's only to be expected - obviously you wouldn't risk your generals out on the front line! - given the reticence seen in the deployment of the 19th Kreig in the first place, Gervalt would probably have decreed the Leviathan too valuable an asset to risk and just had it skulking around the landing zones like its sister. If the Leviathan had been placed in a forward position, I also have the worrying feeling that the Tau would have just either painted it with more markerlights than a Christmas tree, or wheeled out the railgun-equipped Tiger Sharks again...

Always wanted to model Krieg.

From what I've read in White Dwarf, modelling the Kreig Death Korps on the tabletop is achieved by a combination of Armageddon Steel Legions and Legion of the Damned - utilise Armageddon models, but colour them black and festoon them liberally with skulls, bone motifs, and other imagery of doom, despair, and assorted emo-ness.

[Apocalypse_now1]

I was always under the impression that a Leviathan was less powerful than even a Warhound titan, so based on that reckoning the prototype Tigersharks would have been able to destroy it. However it would have been nice to see the Tau facing up to some serious opposition such as the 12 (or 20) penned regts for the operation.

[Invictus]

From what I've read in White Dwarf, modelling the Kreig Death Korps on the tabletop is achieved by a combination of Armageddon Steel Legions and Legion of the Damned - utilise Armageddon models, but colour them black and festoon them liberally with skulls, bone motifs, and other imagery of doom, despair, and assorted emo-ness.

Using ASL troops is a bit of a put-off because they're pricey, as they're all metal.

Anyway, what is a Leviathan exactly? I know it's a massive moving fortress, but is there any more info apart from this, like it's weapons loadout etc. I also thought that the Leviathan was a smaller version of the Capitol Imperialis, this true or not? (I reallt don't know anything specific about these vehicles BTW)

[Zatrais]

however, being honest, I don't think that the 19th Kreig would have made a pivotal contribution which would have swung the war back in the Imperium's favour. The injection of a fresh regiment during the withdrawal would have greatly eased the pressure on the broken Tallarn regiments and prevented so many being lost as prisoners during the pursuit back to the landing zone,

Wasn't the Dragoons and Kriegs scheduled to land before the imperial forces started to retreat? The navy gave up securing the spacelanes onto the planet a good while bfore the last push i think so had those regiments arrived who knows what would have happened.

[Apocalypse_now1]

But extra troops means extra mouths to supply water for, a major problem already for IoM forces.

[Zatrais]

Or the extra manpower would enable the imperiums forces to secure their lines better, we'll never know so it's just speculation on what would happen but Krieg regiments arn't known for being pushovers and the Brimlock Dragoons have fought the Tau before, in damocles.

[mogs]

I believe the Leviathan has more shielding and much heavier armour than a Warhound more in line with a medium class titan, but they lack the manoeuvrability combat effectiveness.

[Touristo]

If I recall from Final Liberation, Leviathans have 4 void shields against a Warhound's 2, but didn't have any of the special/funky titan weaponry Warhounds can mount. Instead it used standard battlecannons and lascannons, and one huge frackin' artillery cannon mounted in the front, except that in Final Liberation the damned thing couldn't hit ANYTHING. Seriously. I don't think I have ever seen that thing actually hit whatever I shot it at(including entire buildings!). Oh yes, and! the Leviathan is considered a superheavy vehicle in Final Liberation, making it susceptible to ork supa lifta-droppa weapons(imagine a big version of the Half-Life 2 gravity gun- picks up tanks and throws them into other units!).

Kinda nifty idea for a unit, probably poorly executed in FL, and as Robert pointed out, it probably wouldn't have been too useful on Taros.