History and Organisation of the 768th

This is what I have come up with so far about my new IG regiment. It is very much a work in progress and will be added to as I carry on with this army. I am going to try and weave the results of games that I play into the narrative.

History and Organization of the 768^th (Calths Own) Heavy Foot

The 768^th Heavy Foot Regiment has a short yet distinguished history. The Regiment was formed from elements of Calth PDF formations that were severely depleted during the Legendary “Battle of Macragge” in 745.M41.

Though none involved survived, there are elements that formed the backbone of the newly formed 768^th who can boast that their brothers-in-arms were there at the Polar Fortress and who fought and died alongside the Ultramarines First Company.

This pride at the achievement of their comrades and indeed the pride of the individual achievements of each trooper, squad, platoon and company ensured that there was an excellent “Esprit de Corps” when the new regiment was formed. This meant that the usual bickering and friction normally to be found between unassociated units at such regimental founding’s was not evident. There has since been an excellent rapport to be found within the regiment.

Since then the 768^th has seen action throughout the Segmentum Ultima and in one instance have even gone as far afield as the Segmentum Solar. Their prior experience and expertise gained against the Tyranid Hive make them a welcome addition to any force battling the scuttling monstrosities. The 768^th  have also fought many, if not all of humanities most bitter enemies at one point or another.

The 768^th has been involved in some notable victories such as Ichor IV, 2^nd War for Armageddon and the Purgation of Cygnus III as well as numerous minor engagements.

Organisation

The regiment is almost pure infantry with only a single artillery battery within its structure. As such, there are not many Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) in its inventory, though chimeras are assigned to those units that require them. Such as Command Squads, Psyker Battle Squads, Veterans and other special weapon and support teams.

The regimental structure is a traditional one with the regiment being broken down into 4 Battalions. Each battalion is in turn, broken down into an HQ, 3 rifle companies, a support company and an artillery company.

Each rifle company is then broken down into a Company HQ, 4 infantry platoons, a platoon of Veterans with chimeras. Pysker support is provided on a “as and when needed” basis. The psyker support can range from a single astropath relaying information right through to an entire choir depending on mission requirements.

The veterans primary role is that of Force Recon. They are tasked to range ahead of the company and gather intelligence about the Opfor and then use the speed,  survivability and long range radio ability of their vehicles to return that intelligence to the HQ.

Each Infantry platoon is broken into a Command element of 5, 4 squads of 10 men and a heavy weapons squad which is traditionally composed of 3 weapons teams.

This gives the each regiment a total book manpower of roughly 4600. In reality however, this number is far larger as the regiment also has the usual group of cooks, MP’s, admin staff and camp followers who travel with the regiment. This group adds up to almost 1000 addition personal.

The 768th has traditionally fought alongside 2 other notable regiments from Calth. The 42^nd (Iron Fists) Mechanized Cavalry and the 6^th (Red Devils) Airborne. These 2 regiments provide armoured (MBT, Superheavy and sentinel) and storm trooper support when needed.

Transportation is provided the Munistorium and air support is via the Imperial Navy

Doctrine

Unlike the Ultramarines, who are said to have a fairly structured and rigid battlefield doctrine, the 768^th pride themselves on a tactical and strategic flexibility. Each commander, right down to individual squad sergeants are trained and expected to act on their own initiative – to size up each individual scenarios and act accordingly. Due to this, the 768^th has been able to accomplish all their missions far more efficiently than those units who favour quantity over quality.

It is also this approach that has ensured that in the whole history of the regiment it has never become combat ineffective due to loss of manpower.