As you read this, please remember that I am generalising,
this is an exploration of ideas for the background for the Grimdark, not a real
political/military essay, despite the illustrations. Hopefully it’s food for thought.
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| Tiawanese conscripts |
The fluff is stuffed full (and always has been, which is
weirdly consistent for this game) of tales of martial societies presenting
regular tithes of fully formed and armed regiments, gangs from underhives
conscripted by force and tribes from deathworlds, horse borne warriors from
feudal worlds and loads of others in between.
Whole armies of volunteers, holy warriors, conscripts, professional
soldiers, militia, farmers, criminals, web designers, redeemed harvest
clanners, people who fight because they must, because they can, because they
should and because they don’t have any other option.
All of these people represent 10,000 years of human diaspora
since the Horus Heresy. Across over a
million worlds, living in every conceivable mode of governance and variation of
society, family and culture. We have
examples in the fluff of where stiff upper lip formations jeopardise or harm
the Imperial war effort due to their mindset.
The Imperium has had 10,000 years to sort this out, but hasn’t.
The obvious answer to this seemly solvable conundrum is that
the losses involved have always been made up from available resources. But as world after world is lost and the
available resources decrease over time, this will become a problem. The fluff as is seems to leave the impression
that, possibly only a century or so after this tipping point, we are witnessing
the point where the Imperium is under such pressure that if it does not embrace
critical thought instead of ages old dogma, it will pass the point of continued
viability.
But what of the problems with integrating all of those
disparate humans into a working military apparatus ?
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| USMC Drill Instructor giving some handy hints to one of his charges. |
The issues the US military has taking young men from the oil
field of Alaksa, farms of Arkansas,
Bible thumping heartlands, Hispanic communities and hard edged
east-coast capitalist bastions are, these days, somewhat mitigated by America’s
widespread access to common culture through television, education and
technology. Contemporary accounts from
recent conflicts do mention these differences, but more as literary colour than
any real difficulty
.
 |
| May Day Parade. Very 'IG' in scale. |
Across the vastness of the former Soviet Union, a vast army
has well documented troubles due at least in part due to its scale and the
relationship between geography and communication technology. Russia’s paramilitary security forces were
widely mobilised for the first Chechnya war – they were noted for having vastly
different performance in combat due to units from different locations having
vastly different levels of training, professionalism and equipment.
At what might be the zenith of its power, the end of the 19
th
and early 20
th century, the British Empire managed to meld together
armies from across what is now the commonwealth by dint of officering almost
all of its units with public school boys from the UK who had been through the same
officer training establishments.
Arguably, this was possibly the most important factor in successful
imperial wars
,
not necessarily that these officers were any good (although the war office did
obviously recognise a need for a certain level of common professionalism), but
that they were culturally homogenous and shared understanding of military
knowledge
and purpose.
The British Military has for a long time, stretching back to
Napoleonic times
, a
culture of institutionalised off duty alcohol abuse as bonding mechanism, in
certain units, being in the right drinking circles has been as important as
blood and class ties of previous centuries.
With Operational theatres being
‘dry’, parts of the modern US military wholly embrace chewing tobacco. The Afghan National Army was often viewed as
barely functional when off duty soldiers were smoking marijuana – by western
mentoring teams were probably incapacitated to a far greater degree during
their last mess function
.
Armies that commanders expect to function must have
self-belief, for some contemporary
armies, this manifests itself as in certain uniform items which in past have
designated elite status being worn by a much wider population to encourage
espirit de corps . We (on both sides of
the pond) are familiar with a regimental system which embraces tens or even
hundreds of years of history – ask most people who have served in the British
Army where their Regiment was at Waterloo and most of those in the combat arms
can tell you. Thousands of words have been written about why
men fight, ‘for their comrades’ always comes out on top, but the weight of
history and expectations of wearing that cap badge is also very strong.
 |
| OMON Officer wearing striped jersey copied from the Russian Airborne Forces. |
Rolling forwards 30,000 years and that espirit de corps may
well manifest itself in units raised from militarily focussed worlds like
Mordia, Kreig and Vostroya
. Others do not enjoy this historical (military)
advantage.
People drawn from worlds where the unit for warriors is the
tribe or liege lord’s retinue or warband
are going to behave differently; on parades where they are being addressed by a
General these cohesive groups of individuals might spend more time eyeing each
other up than listening to a keynote speech
. Individuals unused to parades like this may
just get up and walk off
.
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| Zulu. A few Impis could well satisfy a planetary Governor's obligation |
There are many apocryphal tales of individuals from 2
nd
and 3
rd world countries attending 1
st world training
establishments (including other non-military situations, the Olympics spring to
mind for some reason) where persons have to be constantly dissuaded from
cooking their own food over open fires or petrol burners in corners of
accommodation blocks or other public spaces.
You can tell people where the cookhouse
is but if they culturally all cook their own food, then they might just nod and
smile and carry on doing what they always have done. Dropping a pastorialist or hunter gatherer in
to a barracks in uniform is only the beginning. Some of these people will not have worn shoes before and will be required to learn a new language (hey, they got there in a space ship, they'll cope).
 |
| Sierra Leone's West Side Boys. |
Some of those who are enlisted for the Emperor’s wars will
be from strongly patriarchal, even misogynistic cultures. Others will represent more enlightened
cultures with mixed or wholly female units.
Some will be deeply religious, others less so. Some will feature units where holding hands
is common, some where favourite off duty pass times include cross dressing,
some where individual morality is a strong factor, some where catamites are a
perk of higher status. Constant assessment at every stage and finding a suitable army for the unit to join will be what the Departmento Munitorium officials have been doing for thousands of years.
 |
| More Russians. Just different ones. |
The incredible diversity of the Imperial Guard and the
almost constant risk of internecine combat breaking out, the inadvertent
burning down of training establishments by accidental cookery, mass food
poisoning through bootleg bushmeat and reheated poultry, mean that the
Departmento Muntorium has had to develop
a strategy for ensuring that the tithe is not wasted.
The first part of the strategy is cadres. In the same way that colonial powers of the
19
th century led their locally raised units with their own officers,
so the DM will use cadres from its reliably military sources
to train and lead units raised form places with a less martial outlook. Whether this is a permanent arrangement,
with the cadre become the command echelon of the unit, or whether they are
‘only’ there in a mentoring role, is going to be dependent on circumstances.
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| Legion de Etranger - successfully doing what I'm talking about for about 200 years. |
Second phase cadres will be those IG regiments who have
‘done their bit’. Possibly settled on a
‘trophy world’, possibly retired to a quiet garrison post – a regiment where
the bulk of the personnel are getting towards the top end of fighting age,
settled with intention of allowing time for them to raise a new generation (who
will grow up in a culture where nearly everyone in authority was a member of
the same military unit) who will them provide the next tithe. This could go for generation after
generation, if circumstances allow. Some
of these garrison worlds, by M41, will have been inhabited by retired iggies
for possibly thousands of years, its own population subsumed in the population
so long ago it’s not even in available records
.
Much rarer would be the circumstance where a regiment could
be reinforced by a fresh intake of recruits from its own homeworld. Much more common would be breaking up no
longer functional regiments as Battle Casualty Replacements for still
functional regiments from the same homeworld, or at least one where they have
something in common. The
sensationalistic GW fluff loves smashing regiments from disparate
origins/different strategies, tactics and technological competence and them
either being the worst things ever or superlatively good
. The point is that arrangements are in place to preserve experience and that invaluable espirit de corps.
The second part would be mustering/training/equipping
worlds. The Departmento Muntitorium
supports war on a vast scale; the Sabbat Crusades, the “100 Regiments of the
Crusade of Fire” and even 72nd Army Group on Devos IV. All of these require tens or hundreds of
regiments. These would have to be
supplied from Forge Worlds to ensure some degree of interoperability of weapons
and equipment. Tithed bodies of men
would arrive in whatever state they arrived in and leave, perhaps years later,
organised and deployable as an Imperial Guard regiment. This is not to say that they are all going to
look and behave the same, simply that they can function as a part of a larger
army.
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| Irish OCS |
These establishments could also possibly be thousands of
years old (maybe not the infrastructure, but it’s place in wider imperial
culture and in administrative terms as far as the DM is concerned). And well set up and practiced at taking a
body of men in whatever state they arrive in and taking appropriate action to
turn them into a formation which can contribute to the fighting power of a
larger army.
A third part is the Schola Progenitum. I’m guessing if you’ve read this far you have
your own ideas and opinions about these.
I think that there probably ought to be one on every planet with a space
port. Some will be modest, some could be
huge. Vast, even.
The fourth facet of the strategy is the Commissariat. This is why Commissars belong to the DM and
not the Imperial Guard – the power of life and death has the net result of
furthering the aims of the IG, but is granted on behalf of the DM in order to
provide continued assurance that the unit will continue to do what it is
supposed to. The Commissar's purpose as part of the Departmento Munitorium is to take any measure necessary to ensure the functionality of the unit.
What these training establishments do not have to do is to
train people who are already seasoned fighters into a crack infantry
(armoured/airborne/artillery/etc) unit.
Of course, if the draftees have no combat training or experience when
they arrive, then this is provided.
However, if they are already capable, they may only need conversion
training to new weapon systems; the establishments are more properly concerned
with the new intake addressing administrative detail like accurate reporting
(of manning levels, casualties, numbers of enemies sighted, etc).
A military structure that many of you may recognise as a
modern military pattern is also not something strictly necessary for
assimilation into the IG or successful campaigning. I refer you to the Tanith 1
st and
Only, who appear, despite being the size of ‘a normal IG Regiment’ seem most of the time to have
only two commissioned Officers and one NCO and still manages to function. So there is no requirement for a regularised
rank structure. It is entirely possible
that the DM doesn’t give a hoot how big sub units are either – so we needn’t
expect a Regiment to be split into three battalions of four rifle companies of
equal size
.
A ~5,000 man IG regiment from a feudal world could include
the warbands of over 800 cheiftains of varying size who would constantly
re-brigade together along ethnic or tribal lines depending on the current
situation. As long as the overall corpus
follows the leadership of their anointed leader, the regiment can still hold a
place in one of the IG’s expeditionary armies
. This is what the Commissars are really for,
ensuring that the mid-level chiefs use their influence to ensure that the
commanders intentions are carried out. Given these circumstances, the on the spot
execution of dissenters looks like a viable management tool. The DM is not short of recruits for the IG,
some bits more skilled (useful) can be more carefully handled, those which are
used as a blunt tool will tend to be controlled with blunt tools.
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| FARC |
Of course the Departmento Munitorium would prefer to accept
foundings of Regiments like the Gudrun Rifles, Tanith Frist and Only and
DKK. But more often will take even
formed military units and pass them through its training establishment worlds,
just to be sure of a good fit into whatever army they are going into. And to assess the unit’s capability and
readiness for deployment.
This is getting a bit long so I’ll leave you with a couple
of things to think about:
·
Staff colleges where those earmarked for
greatness are removed from their native culture and schooled in the ways of the
DM and the wider Imperial Guard.
·
Some Regiments leave behind their nearest and
dearest forever.
·
Some Regiments will have a ‘baggage train’ of
families, children and other non-combatants.
·
The institutionalised inflexibility for which
the DM is (in)famous.
- Locally raised Regiments who havn't been through homogenisation.
I know that none of this new or spectacular, but it does make
for some interesting fluff….
