You can take pretty much any cool picture involving war, combat, or soldiers...

You sure?

Time for the Astra Militarum to get radical!

>The Dindu Rainmen
>From a jungle world where it always rains, the Dindus carry their war umbrellas high in battle to protect against the torrent of artillery and precipitation

I mean, why wouldn't you?

A guy with a gun beats a guy with a sword, and if the guy with a sword gets too close to use a gun the guy with a gun also has a sword.

How about we go with hive gang instead of a world where it always rains ?

There the liquid dripping down on you is not anything you want on your skin.

Urban jungle, same thing.

The reasoning is flawless, the problem lies in who's using the weapon

To be fair he said 'cool' picture. It could just be that OP doesn't think that picture is cool.

If I can teach an urbanite to hit a target from 300 meters with an M4 in three weeks then I can teach a peasant to competently shoot a lasgun during a voyage to the battlefield.

This is OP:

You could be dealing with cavemen that have hundreds of years of melee-focused warrior culture behind them. That's why sometimes the munitorum just settles for just giving them a pistol and letting them use that sword they're so fond of

>The Zanbarii 9th Militia
>Zanbar is a world perpetually torn by civil war due to ancient tribal conflicts, poorly managed resources and a lack of central leadership. The massively corrupt Planetary governor simply sends his heavily armed troops down from his orbital station to the capital and rounds up whichever militant group currently occupies it.
>Ironically, most Zanbarii see a harsh life on the frontlines of the Guard as the greatest opportunity they will ever have. Equipped with whatever gear they were carrying at the time, they often carry an eclectic mix of equipment scrounged from various sources.
>Zanbarii are known to be aggressive, ill-disciplined but highly adaptable troops. They are known for stealing and deploying civillian harsh weather gear in the midst of combat, carrying umbrellas and wearing stolen fur cloaks and even wedding robes over their combat kit.
> Their profound faith in a Shamanic version of the Imperial Faith means that they assume certain amulets, oils and rituals will make them invisible, immune to bullets, or able to shift shape at will.
>Due to their immense superstition and belief that the number '9' is lucky, all Zanbarii units are designated the 9th. This causes an endless amount of confusion for beleagured Munitorum scribes.
>Rumor has it that Zanbarii troops have a larger proportion of Wyrds in their number whose powers give credence to their traditions. That the Zanbarii are not more thoroughly visited by the Black Ships is a subject of great mystery.

Well if it's a cultural thing then yeah.

It would be like teaching middle easterners to have effective NCOs

I wouldn't know anything about the effectiveness of Middle Eastern NCOs so this one goes over my head.

No one would, that's the point

>Dindu Rainmen

Dude, bicycle regiments were not FOR roads.

On roads they're less fast than mounted infantry anyway, i.e. the rough riders.

Bicycle regiments are cheap, can go cross country, and can adapt to difficult terrain (They can carry the fucking bike, you can't do that with a horse).
They're flexible, they're not fast.

After artillery has had their way with the road you're better off trekking on foot.

The middle eastern cultures has certain problems when it comes to authority and the chain of command due to having to know one's place and never question anyone above you or make them look bad. That was a poor way to explain it since I am having trouble wording it.

I read the horror stories from American advisors deployed in the middle east, and I always reach the same conclusion:

Just let them kill each other man. It's not like they'll hit anything anyway.

Now THIS is some good shit.

Thanks for that user.

Could you post about it?

The most often cited and most hilarious example to me is that the Saudi air force has seemingly modelled itself entirely on the movie "Top Gun", up to and including always wearing stupid fucking aviators.

But genuinely the biggest problem that always, always gets brought up is the fact that Arab soldiers do not trust one another, they don't trust their leaders, they don't trust their subordinates, and they don't trust their allies. Partly because of cultural factors such as the heavy focus on clan and tribal bonds in much of the Arab peninsula (And the lack of a cohesive national identity, very few Saudi Arabians consider themselves Saudi Arabians first, second or even third), partly because of a rigid class idea and most importantly heavy focus on "honor" meaning that losing face is only salvageable by retribution or by an extraordinary gain in face. (I.E. someone calls you a faggot, you either have to bang ninety ladies or punch him in the face. Guess which one you're going to choose?)

This means that a lot of higher ups (Or those with prestigious positions like pilots) in the military got there because of clan connections, and once they're in a higher position they cannot allow themselves to be corrected or to take ideas from those below them as that would lose them face.
So the lower ranks don't try to give advice, but they're perfectly aware of the fact that their boss is a moron, so they don't want to follow his orders.
The leaders know this and don't trust their troops as a result, so often disciplinary solutions are employed when it isn't needed or outright spying is done on their subordinates.

Now this is not to say that all the lower ranks are geniuses of course, because recruiting standards tend to be abysmal, and the pay a joke.

Huh, that was interesting. Thanks, based user.

Another problem is petty power struggles combined with the idea that knowledge is power.
Anecdotally, one guy gets trained in how to repair something. He doesn't pass this along so that he can make himself important as the only person that can repair the thing instead of training other people like he is supposed to do. To add to this he will also hoard or destroy all the instruction manuals he was supposed to distribute in an effort for further consolidate power.

I stand corrected.

Seal team 6

>(They can carry the fucking bike, you can't do that with a horse).

Laughing Catachans

>Implying you can carry what passes for a horse on Catachan.

>"The fuck is a horse? Oh, you mean a Glade Ripper! Yeah, you can't ride those, they have a mouth filled with razor teeth where their spine should be."

>The most often cited and most hilarious example to me is that the Saudi air force has seemingly modelled itself entirely on the movie "Top Gun"

From what I understand, if you quote the movie Top Gun in the US Navy/Airforce, they fine you like 50 bucks. They did it just to shut people up.

More mobility than walking, less maintenance than horses or APCs. Can also be carried over terrain to rough to ride.

Sounds good to me.

meforum.org/441/why-arabs-lose-wars

A regiment of antmen?

...

>Can't carry a horse, what a manlet
>laughin_ogryn.finger_color_picture

>can't cycle and shoot at the same time

6/10 needs work

The Condemned Regiment
Survivors of a mutiny abord an imperial fleet, the Condemned are used as first wave attackers until they can clear their shame

Aww, thanks anons!
Here's a bit more
>Zanbari tend to be not much use as a standard part of the order of battle. While extremely aggressive in the initial phases of an assault, they have a tendency to become disheartened quickly and will withdraw to cover rapidly when confronted by stiff resistance.
>Therefore, they're best deployed either as a skirmishing screen to disrupt the enemy before the main assault, or sent behind enemy lines to operate as insurgents, putting their skills at scavenging and improvisation to good use.
>Zanbari units tend to be extremely unpopular among allied regiments. They frequently pick fights with other troops, steal equipment and supplies, and their unconventional religious practices are highly provocative to more devout regiments.
>Despite their notoriously poor discipline, Commissars are very uncommon in Zanbari units. Their attrition rate is higher than that of Catachan regiments, and their ability to instill a conventional sense of discipline is close to nil. The most effective Commissars tend to "go native", adopting Zanbari tribal customs and becoming feared headmen within their regiments.

>implying I haven't already planned out how i'd built an African militia guard regiment
>loads of catachans with dark skin and clothes in various colours
>wood furniture on the lasguns
>various toyota kits with catachan heavy weapons teams added as salamander recon tanks
>lots of conscripts and dudes running or standing with missile launchers without the supports

>Despite their notoriously poor discipline, Commissars are very uncommon in Zanbari units. Their attrition rate is higher than that of Catachan regiments, and their ability to instill a conventional sense of discipline is close to nil. The most effective Commissars tend to "go native", adopting Zanbari tribal customs and becoming feared headmen within their regiments.
I don't know why, but this right here has brought legit tears to my eye. Bless you user.

YOU PUMP ME UP DRILL SAR-GENTT

The biggest problem here is probably that western nation-statehood doesn't suit the middle east very well at all. The west had modern nation states that formed organically; we know where our borders are because we fought over them, negotiated them, had people living there whose regional identities were shared with given groups around them, and so on and so forth. Even then this is sometimes shaky; the western nation-state is immortal, but nations come and go all the time, even on a human timescale, but at least it kind of works out.

Conversely most ex-colonial nations just got given borders in semi-random places that lump wildly disparate groups together based loosely on where a given colonial power was occupying and their surface-level understanding of the tribal situation there.

If you don't believe me, just look at the kurds; they're not even an official nation but they've got a functional military that's actually capable of fighting IS.

This is a bit rich given it was a recruiting tool to start with.

No user.
WW2 bikes were terrible on anything but roads.
And cavalry marches something like 50km a day (Napoleonic wars), because horses aren't machines and aren't really that fast when they're not galloping.

Somebody screencap this

Try this one.

>Tourde Dragoons
>Tourde

I can't help but say 'Turd Dragoons' when I try to pronounce that, I'm so sorry.

Bicycles with las pistols instead of headlamps

Are there IG regiments that use autoguns instead of lasguns? heard conflicting information

>"No Stairway, Denied!"

>Dindu Rainmen

Probably not entire regiments, but certain segments and squads within a regiment.

Planetary Defense Forces on relatively primitive worlds may more likely have autoweapons in place of lasweapons.

While we're at it why do you see any guardsmen bothering to use shotguns?

I mean you can excuse the notJudge Dredds using shotty's for their signature weapon, since they have a different role and they benefit from a really fancy high-tech ammo that is basically made just for them to even better fit that role.
Wouldn't anything that can shrug off a las shot be able to laugh off a shotgun blast?

how about a las-shotgun?

Anybody wanna give this fine servant of the Emperor a back story?

Same reasons they're carried in real life, I'd assume.
They're good for cqb
They can carry a variety of shells
For "Aliens" type scenarios they have low penetration but high lethality.
There are models that are small/light enough to carry as back up.
They're pretty reliable.
Also, remember that las weapons and solid projectile weapons do *about* the same amount of damage in 40k. Advanced propellants/materials have kept pace with lasers, with the primary advantage of las weapons being their extreme reliability, low amount of recoil, and light weight.

Aren't Cadian Shock Troops basically British soldiers in space?

Hey

They aren't Stormtroopers anymore.

Just like the army isn't the Imperial Guard

Yes and no. They're basically standard modern/sci-fi infantry in space.
You have to understand the spirit behind miniature making for the IG in 2E and early 3E.
Basically, they wanted a large range of minis, so they made jungle guards, desert guards, winter guards, frilly dress guards and so on.
Then they invented fluff to go with it.

Of course, GW being british, their vision is influence by their culture, but at the time they were pretty cultured people (and wargame fans when it meant knowing napoleonic OoB and uniforms by heart), so it's more than just "Mordians are US marines in gala dress" or "Tallarn are Bedouins". Even if we discard the original sci-fi additions for each regiment, you can draw bits from various forces from a theater or type of operatino.

You pump me up too, private.