IG/SoB 'Holy Crusade' army

[TheShredder]

Someone suggested elsewhere the idea of a Holy Crusade army - with a small core of SoB leading a regiment of Imperial Guard. 

 

This idea really appealed to me but I'm looking for some advice with regard to implementing it:

Firstly, which SoB units to use as the leaders of the crusade. I was thinking St. Celestine and maybe some Priests, but are there any other units I should consider?

 

Second, any suggestions regarding the IG part of the army? I'd like to use primarily infantry but I'm wondering how best to kit them out to represent their being led by SoB. Should I use Meltas and Flamers? Also, should the sergeants have melee weapons or such? Any specific IG units you think would work for this theme?

Finally, any other advice or suggestions for this theme?

 

(I might post this on the IG section as well.)

[Servant of Dante]

Well, there are a few fluff considerations I'd make (though I can only really talk about Sisters), starting with the difference between a War of Faith and a Crusade (these are the technical terms). From Codex: Sisters of Battle (second edition, page 6):

Next is the structure of a detachment of Sisters. It's actually very lose, the only real delineation is the total number of Sisters. The size and kind of units all depends on what's available and what the task at hand is. A "few squads" is considered a Mission, and is usually led by a Palatine (more or less a senior Sister Superior rank). Up to 200 Sisters is a Commandery, led by a Canoness Commander. More than 200 up to 1000 Sisters is a Preceptory, led by a Canoness Preceptor. It is stated that Sisters almost never deploy in excess of 1000 at a time, and if they did I imagine it would be as several Preceptories, led by council between the Canoness Preceptors (or perhaps the Canoness Superior of the Order at that point). For reference, the head Canoness of an Order (often just refered to as "the Canoness" is technically the Canoness Superior.

So your Sisters detachment would probably be a Mission if it's just a few Squads. The Palatine rank does not have rules, so you'd just use a Canoness and say that she's your Palatine (alternatively, it is noted that some Missions are led by more senior Canonesses, I think that if the Mission is also leading a group of IG a Canoness leading a Mission is not out of the question). The squads in the Mission can be whatever you want. There are no fluff guidelines. You'd probably want to decide what Order the Sisters are from though :D (and note that Sisters Hospitaller come from one of the Orders Hospitaller, same for Sisters Diologus and Orders Diologus, so they would be from different orders than your Sisters Militant).

For reference:

Personally, I would avoid any kind of psykers or abhumans (Ogryns/Ratlings/etc.) for your IG, but I guess that's up to you . . .

Yes, posting in the IG section would be good for getting more details on the expected structure of the IG side of things :) Hope some of this was helpful!

[TheShredder]

Thanks for all that. I'm not very familiar with SoB so that's a great help. I guess it would be a Holy War rather than a Crusade then (Crusade sounds better though  ). 

 

Out of interest, how many sisters do you need for a Commandery?

 

Also, does it matter that, whilst there are relatively few sisters, there are lots of guardsmen being led by them?

 

No psykers, ratlings or abhumans is a good idea, cheers. 

 

With regard to their order, I might have to make up my own as the 'Living Saint' I'm using is somewhat . . . er . . . unorthodox.  

http://i.imgur.com/FPgVh9vl.jpg

 

Design aside, does that sort of colour scheme (such as it is) bear resemblance to any of the existing orders?

Thanks for all your help. :) Edited July 24, 2017 by TheShredder

[Servant of Dante]

The Major Orders (except for Argent Shroud that has silver armor) use red white and black.

 

Unfortunately there is no defined number for the divine between a Mission and a Commandery (though personally I'd make a Commandery no less than 50 Sisters).

 

I don't think it's an issue to have a large detachment of IG, though remember that the Sisters and IG are separate command structures, one is ultimately part of the Adeptus Ministorum, and the other ultimately part of the Adeptus Terra

https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/5/51/ImperialAdministrativeStructure.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120703093321

 

Although, since this is a war of faith I think you could assume that the IG regiments involved singed up for this and are ok with being led by the Sisters, since a War of Faith is prosecuted by the Ecclesiarchy. Realistically, you might end up with a rabble of Frateris Militia (basically just the faithful that turned up with weapons to help fight), but they don't have rules. If you like you could even write about how the priests have to keep turning people down who want to help fight in a War of Faith (though you'd have to decide why they don't want the Frateris Militia around, for example they are historically hard to control and organize), or you could just say the Militia is on a different part of the battlefield or something when you play a game.