Cadian Shock Troops - Regimental Organisation: The sheer amount of personnel required to keep an Imperial Guard regiment in the field is staggering, and to organise such an effort requires thousands of dedicated Departmento Munitorum scriveners and notaries. In any active war zone with multiple regiments in the field there are hundreds of senior Imperial Guard commanders with thousands of supporting officers on their staffs. Indeed, for every fighting man there stands behind him a virtual army of bureaucrats and support personnel whose heroic efforts keep the Imperial war machine going.However, operational command of a Cadian Shock Troops regiment is held by a senior ranking Imperial Guard officer, usually a Colonel, who is most often a noble-born son of Cadia whose family has held command in the regiments of the Imperial Guard for many generations. In most war zones, there is no need to employ ranks above this level, though sometimes the Departmento Munitorum judges it necessary due to the scale of the conflict.For example, in the Chondarax Campaign of 342.M34, Imperial records speak of no less than eighteen officers of more senior rank than Colonel commanding different regiments, ranging from a Lord General Militant, to the Master of the Imperial Purse and Regulator of the Militant Ordos. Other ancient titles used in Cadian regiments, such as Scourge Imperialis and Reductor Mineralis, remain a mystery as to what role or purpose they served.The Regimental Commander leads from his Command Platoon and is accompanied by support squads equipped with specialised weapons, such as Missile Launchers and Mortars. They provide the Command Platoon with concentrated fire support and security for the commander himself. The Regimental Battle Standard is carried by a designated member of the Command Platoon and depicts the regimental insignia.In addition to the Cadian command element, the Regimental Commander may be accompanied by other officers of the Departmento Munitorum, such as Commissars. It is a sad fact of war that some despicable cowards renege on their debt to the Master of Mankind and flee the field of battle when the blood begins to flow. Though such occurrences are, thankfully, rare, it is the duty of the Imperial Commissars to ensure that the disease of cowardice does not pollute the command echelons or rank and file of the regiment.Commissars are some of the finest military officers in the galaxy and dispel the myth that the Departmento Munitorum is made up solely of rear-echelon clerks and notaries. Many will have been recruited from the Schola Progenium of the Adeptus Ministorum and may have served as Storm Troopers before their selection for duties as Commissars, so they are often no strangers to war. It is the tradition for Cadian regiments to have Commissars that were born of Cadian blood assigned to them, although sometimes the expediencies of war (or the spite of a non-Cadian superior officer) makes this impossible.As Guardsmen are well aware, the prime duty of the Commissar is to preserve the fighting spirit and loyalty to the regiment. If discipline is lax, the Commissar will step in to reinforce it. If the regiment's officers are incompetent or lack courage, the Commissar will remove them by the sternest measures, up to and including an immediate battlefield execution.There is no one in the regiment who lies beyond the unflinching gaze and lethal Bolt Pistol of a Commissar, not even the officers, so every soldier can be sure that the morale and fighting spirit of the regiment is safe in a Commissar's hands. Commissar Yarrick, while the most famous of Imperial Commissars, almost never had to resort to employing the ultimate sanction during the Second War for Armageddon, for his reputation alone was enough to stiffen the backs of even the most recalcitrant coward. However, Commissar Eyurban, while serving in the Yndolac Redbacks during the Assault on Hyrus Hive was known to have killed more of his regiment than the enemy.Serving below the Colonel of the regiment and the Commissar are the company commanders, usually officers of the rank of Captain with many Terran years of experience in leading troops into battle. A Guardsman is expected to follow the orders of his officers with alacrity and vigour at all times. Each Captain has his own command unit, usually a platoon, from where he leads his company.Each company is a formation that will generally range between one and four hundred men. Most of these companies will comprise two to six platoons of infantry, the backbone and workhorse of the Imperial Guard. Each platoon is also led by a command squad made up of a Lieutenant and his retinue of Veteran Guardsmen. The Lieutenant's platoon will comprise between two and six squads of Guardsmen. These sizes are not fixed and in times of war can change drastically, but they serve as examples of the flexibility inherent in the command structure of the Imperial Guard.Each infantry squad will contain ten men and these soldiers will have a variety of weapons available to them, ranging from heavy weapons such as Missile Launchers, Lascannons and Heavy Bolters, to more specialised and rare weaponry such as Plasma Guns or Meltaguns.An infantry regiment is often supplied with Chimera armoured personnel carriers, with many of these doughty, ever-reliable vehicles at its disposal. These tanks allow the regiment's commander the option of mounting a number of his infantry squads to provide Armoured Fist units for greater tactical flexibility. In addition, they are used to transport command squads that can make good use of the long-range Vox-casters that they carry as standard equipment.Imperial Guard companies are usually divided into three platoons, each platoon consisting of a command squad and three other squads, which may be either infantry squads or Armoured Fist squads or a combination of both. Each squad (if it does not already have one) may be given its own mechanised transport in the form of a Chimera. In addition, the platoon may include additional units, such as tanks, squads from other regiments -- including Abhuman regiments -- or extra squads from the original regiment.A platoon may include as many as three of these additional units, one for each of its squads. Each squads consists of ten Guardsman, one of whom will be a sergeant. These non-commissioned officers are the glue that binds the Imperial Guard and every soldier should take special note of his sergeant's words, for he will have seen a great deal of active combat.Where familial connections may secure an individual high office within other regiments, resulting in some officers lacking of combat experience, such does not happen within the Cadian regiments. Trained to fight before they can read and write, Cadian adults have already served the Emperor and their homeworld for many years before being recruited into the Imperial Guard.Each Guardsmen is armed with a standard issue Cadian short-barrelled Lasgun, manufactured to the highest specifications in one of the many manufactorum dotted across the surface of Cadia. Two Guardsmen may form a Heavy Weapons Crew, to allow the squad to engage either multiple targets or enemy armour with a high probability of success.To further specialise, a skilled Guardsman may be equipped with a weapon more advanced than a Lasgun, such as a Flamer, Meltagun or Plasma Gun. These weapons are rare and when Guardsmen trained to utilise them are killed, every effort should is made to retrieve the weapon intact. Even if the bearer is only wounded, the weapon's retrieval takes first priority. Failure to observe such protocols usually result in swift disciplinary action being taken by the regimental Commissars.