# COED Imperial Guard?



## SunTzuDiciple (May 9, 2008)

I'm a lifeguard so I have plenty of time to sit on my butt and think about some really random stuff. So my random question for today is whether or not they let girls in the imperial guard? Just any random thoughts on the subject will be helpful.


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## Cole Deschain (Jun 14, 2008)

Cadians do.

"Birth rate and recruitment rate are synonymous"

To say nothing of the Tanith First and Only.

So yes, there are female Guard.


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## Engelus (Jul 26, 2007)

everyone fights.


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## jake264 (Apr 6, 2008)

Nobody quits. (couldn't resist)

While we're on the subject I would say that while it can be fun to do, you shouldn't feel it necessary to specifically model female Guard (Cadians at least). Although some have done some admirable and interesting conversions and sculpts. I reckon by the time the gals put that armor over their boobs and a helmet over their short battlefield practical haircuts, it would be hard to pick out the females, from a distance at least. I know from my time in the military that the BDUs (camo uniforms) do a pretty good job of taking the curves out.

My point is I think it's perfectly fine to think that I have females sprinkled into my Army of unmodified Cadian figs. Hmm though it might be fun to make up a distinctive female Sargette (like I don't have enough to do already haha).


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## Inquisitor Aurelius (Jun 9, 2008)

Heh. God, I love Starship Troopers. Rico's Roughnecks - now that's a regiment.

Anyway, to the topic at hand - it's on a case-by-case basis, really. Some regiments might not draft women due to their lower average physical strength, misplaced chivalry, the fact that men tend to find a woman being shot in the face right next to them more demoralizing than the same thing happening to another man, or simply out-and-out chauvinism. On the other hand, some regiments might draft _only_ women, perhaps due to their slightly higher tolerance for physical pain or their lower target profiles. It really depends on the regiment. I think the real question is, why hasn't GW done more decent female guard minis?


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

Inquisitor Aurelius said:


> why hasn't GW done more decent female guard minis?


Because they'd pretty much have to be topless or have gigantic, back-breaking implants to be able to tell they're women. The amount of body armor, laughable as it may be in-game, is enough that you wouldn't be able to tell if a Cadian Guardsman was a man or a woman. The Sisters kind of have the same problem... their armor has sculpted boobs, but they're gigantic, and on the armor, they're probably at least partially ornamental-- the Sisters' power armour is meant to be excessively curvy. There's no hardware in there, after all... and I somehow doubt all Sisters are pushing multiple D's.


Back on topic-- in the great Imperium of Man, the Adeptus Munitorium does not sit around and look at a file and worry about whehter or not the soon-to-be draftee is a man or a woman. Barring regiments raised from worlds that have very "classical" ideas about gender roles, and tend to be from worlds that have closer to a Feudal or Napoleonic technology base, pretty much every regiment is around 50/50 men and women. The Emperor is, outside of the Astartes, an equal-opportunity employer.


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## Engelus (Jul 26, 2007)

I made a female sarge. I don't really give a damn if it wouldn't be noticeable, or that the manufactorums wouldn't make custom armor, but its a damn miniature game and I wanted to convert a miniature.


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## shammus_the_scout (Apr 19, 2008)

Well, its actually more like 50% of regiments are exclusively male and 50% are exclusively female. They usually don't mix men and women, I mean, look at the Valhallan 597th (Cain's regiment).


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## G_Morgan (Mar 3, 2008)

There would be too many potentially dodgy scenes involving Commissars catching them in the act.


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## Inquisitor Aurelius (Jun 9, 2008)

The Son of Horus said:


> Because they'd pretty much have to be topless or have gigantic, back-breaking implants to be able to tell they're women. The amount of body armor, laughable as it may be in-game, is enough that you wouldn't be able to tell if a Cadian Guardsman was a man or a woman.


But the Cadians have no female heads, either, and anyway, what about the rest of the thousands of IG regiments? Remember Rocket Girl? Great mini, obviously female, obviously soldier-y. I just wish there were a few more like that. Not that it'd really be relevant to the Renegades and Heretics army I'm looking to start up, but still. It'd be nice to have some variety, even if only theoretical.


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## Cole Deschain (Jun 14, 2008)

Green stuff some uniforms onto Absadrul Vect's Prisoners.

Oh, right, we're not supposed to suggest ADDING clothes...


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## Kickback (May 9, 2008)

A female IG is mentioned in Crimson Tears, I cant quite remember who said it I think it may have been Xarius but there is definatley female Guard


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## Israfil (Jul 6, 2008)

i found this OOP model on ebay


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## rob12763 (May 2, 2008)

*female guard*

I have a couple of old gaurd figures that are women and they are not topless or have giant high beams.Rob


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## Lord Reevan (May 1, 2008)

Maybe they should make a female only regiment. Like sister guard. OR do it dark elf styley. One in 5 are women on that... and they don't have boob (hehehe boob) armour....


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## loyalist42 (Sep 7, 2007)

It was mentioned in the Ciaphus Cain novels that a fair number of all-female regiments exist, and that mixed regiments, whilst certainly a rarity, do exist. So the answer seems to be a comprehensive yes, there are female Gaurdsmen. 

I'm firmly on the side of 'no need to model boob-shaped armor.' I mean, the Munitorum personify the 'one size fits all' approach; I see no reason they'd cater to females...


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## Falsegods (Jun 9, 2008)

In the Novels written by Graham McNeill he seems to suggest that mixed regiments are the rule rather than the exception. In _Storm of Iron_ the 383rd was a mixed regiment, in _Warriors of Ultrmar_ The PDF forces where mixed, in _Nightbringer_ the PDF forces and the local Arbiter Judges where mixed. Finally in _Dead Sky Black Sun_the 808th was stated as containing both male and female soldiers. 

In the Gaunt's Ghosts novels while female regiments or mixed regiments are not the standard they are clearly not a rarity, as otherwise the Ghost would not have become a mixed regiment. 

It is important to remember that the Imperium is so vast that nothing within it is consistant. What is true in one region may not be in another.


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## Angel of Retribution (Jul 10, 2008)

Yes but you have to think with the Imperium as large as it is and constently under attack from a multitude of xenos and heretical abominations, they don't really have a choice but to throw men and women together, especially with the casualty rates of the IG. Can't be too picky when your backs against a wall an all!


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## St.Germaine (Jan 4, 2007)

While Cadian regiments are the only ones specifically mentioned as being coed, the same rationale that they used to justify it on Cadia is applicable on many worlds and applies to a lesser degree to the Imperium as a whole. Some societies may have strictures that would preclude this but given that as a whole females outnumber males in the human race, it is ludicrous to assume that there will be no female Imperial Guardsmen. Once again, what they hell is wrong with GW for not jumping on this bandwagon. There is a substantive demand that is long standing. I believe that in the early days, their sculptors simply didn't have a knack for females and they just steered away from the idea. They clearly have sculptors now who are not afflicted with this problem so the reason for the lack of these figures lies elsewhere. The bean counters haven't figured out how much they could make off this idea.

Whenever this topic comes up on any of a multitude of forums, the idea that modern military garb hides feminine attributes always appears. While that is true to a degree, only the blind would apply this universally. Most women are recognizable as such unless heavily accoutered in body armor and accessories. In a uniform such as the Cadian figures wear it would be clearly obvious unless she were very underdeveloped in the mammary area and even then hips and general body structure would shout "female".

However the idea that equipment and armor may hide a woman's structure is not what this all really boils down to. You may have noticed that GW's style of figures is rather exaggerated, be they female or male. This is a conscious decision because the figures are designed to be recognized from a distance as one looks at the table. Exaggeration of physical attributes clearly plays into this concept, some figures more than others. On female figures it is more clear than on male figures for obvious reasons. I don't believe that there is a conscious decision that female figures are stripperesque in proportion merely that larger breasts more clearly indicate the femininity of an inch high figure from 6-10 feet away.


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## Son of mortarion (Apr 24, 2008)

back when the current IG 'dex was released, white dwarf had an article on "famous imperial guard regiments," a few had examples of mixed regiments, and the regiments from necromunda, by virtue of recruiting hive gangers, and therefore from clan escher, have exclusively female regiments. It depends on the level of need, the prevailing culture of the planet recruited from, and the nature of the recruits. Way back in '98 they even released a female commisar.


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