Topic: "Uh, who are you again?" (Telling Guard Squads apart)

[*Nosferatu*]

So, just a simple question, how do you tell which Imperial Guard squad is which? I know you could simply just let them rummage out there with the squads slightly separated, but occasionally you've got to lump them all together in a desperate close combat fight to save something (Maybe only I do this).

Some people have taken akin to writing numbers on the shoulder pads.

I like to paint a line on the back of the bases a different color for simplicity. No transfers, no writing, just a short red/green/blue line and I can separate them with ease.

[Ailaros]

meh, I just make sure that my squads are grouped together, and aren't intermixing with models from other squads.

As well, in the past, I would lump all of my models that would have bayonets attached into one unit, and then have units that didn't have bayonets attached in another.

Otherwise, you just have to remember, which shouldn't be TOO hard, I'd think.

[Afrika]

A lot of times I hear.

Opponent, "I'm shooting at that squad."
Me, "What squad there are three in that building."
Opponent,"Oh, well...er.."
Me, "Ok ther are two on the second floor and one on the ground floor"
Oppenent, "The one with the taleran guy.."
Me, "both on the top floor have some talerans."
Opponent, "The one with the three auto cannons."
Me, "Ok"... thinking why didn't he just say so from the start...
Me, "Darn you killed a loader..."

My cadians have numbers on their shoulder padds for the different squads. My catachans are mostly my more elite squads.  And the valhallins and talerans are mostly fire support squads with heavy weapons.  But it does get confising, that is why I paint each platoon slightly different and have different numbers on the guys for each squad they are in.

[Admiral Stukov]

do things to the shoulder pads

story-

buddy of mine, lets only say he has 1 friend for the story purpose, went out to lunch during a 40k game, so his companion (cough) slaps on paint in the shape of testicles on 1 of his space marine squads, needless to say after a few painfull punches to the kindeys when he came back to his paintjob tarnished, he never looses track of that squad, they were painting bleached bone, we call them boners.

[Ghaz]

do things to the shoulder pads

Like use the different number decals that they provide with the models in the first place for just that reason.

[Skankin_Catachan]

shoulder pads work well. if you want to have squads modelled differently, you could always have a unit of walking wounded, or a squad that have a particular trophy as a memento of their units bond.

frankly, i never try and models differently. i know how many models are in each unit and what they are equipped with. as long as you have an army list present, keeping track of casualties won't be hard

[Col.Fergeson]

I thought of that before I even bought my army, knowing I would be fielding a lot of infantry squads, and that there would be times when they would be close together and I wouldn't know which belongs to which. So I devised a system:

On the left shoulder pad I have the number identifying what squad that model is in.
On the right shoulder, I have the number identifying what platoon they're in.
On Platoon HQ's, the left shoulder just has a white bar or no mark at all.
On Command HQ's, I basically do whatever I want with the shoulders so long as I don't put a number on them lest I confuse them for a line squad.

The only thing I consider weird about my system is I hand paint the numbers on each one via toothpick as opposed to using decals, as I dislike putting stickers on my models.

[Lord Commissar Spiteful]

So far my guys are reasonably easy to tell apart. Distinctions between 2 Grenadiers may be an issue, but they are each modeled on a different theme. One is on patrol (tracker, officer calling a halt, guy drinking from a cantine) with the other an assault (officer dragging a wounded man away, guys cowering under their arms, grenades being thrown from dynamic spots) So hopefully shouldn't be an issue. No markings as they are a dark ops unit.

In the future I have big plans for a sheet of printable decals I have. Unfortunately bought the white background variety, but shouldn't be an issue.

@ Col. Fergeson
I also hate decals. But I trust it ver my freehand skillz anyday. Does the toothpick help alot?

EDIT: Thanks for the PM Helps a lot

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I do their left shoulder pad - its a circle, top blue (the company colour) bottom the platoon colour (gold for HQ, and so far red and yellow for my 2 platoons).  Then, on top of the circle is the squad number - or a kind of tread symbol for my armoured fists (according to my fluff, each platoon has one chimera attached.

Here is an example - my armoured fist (guy on the left):



For my storm troopers, I painted a playing card on their helmet visors - melta squad has an ace of hearts, plasma squad an ace of spades.  That, and all the plasma squad is wearing rebreathers and the melta squad is not.  I have no decent pic of their helmet art, though...

Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui

[The Voivod]

My cadians have a colored stripe on their right shoulder, denoting which platoon they are. Command squads have a C on their left shoulder, the rest roman numerals.

[evilmonkey]

I have colour coded all my squads with a little mark on the bottom of the base.

[Cpt. Pain]

Right here we go...

• My platoons have two colours in them (because I have two sections in each), with each individual section having their right shoulder guard painted red or orange for platoon 1, and blue or yellow for platoon two.
• The command sections for each platoon have a split should gaurd of red/orange or blue/yellow bepending on platoon of origin.
• My HQ Command Platoon (paint wise, the HQ section and the two kasrkin squads) has a similar system, but with Gold (or silver, haven't desided yet...) left shouders aswell.
• The heavy weapon sections and sniper sections have their left shoulders painted a coded colour based on the weapons they man.
• My medics have a white helmet and white left shoulder guard.
• My Tanks will also have troop and squadron markings, as well as individual names/pictures.

[Jonik]

I colour coordinate my shoulderpads, with normal armour on the left and coloured on the right.

Yellow for command (even platoon command) squads, then a different colour per troop unit. Any special or heavy weapons are in black (so I can switch special and heavy weapons reasonably easily - there are issues such as if I don't want a special weapon I'm a man down in the squad sice I havent catered for that situation....)

[eek 107]

I use the split coloured circle shown in the previous codex.  Left half is company colour, right half is platoon colour, and a squad number over the top (or a "C" for command squads).  Matching chimeras get two coloured stripes on the side of the turret, again with the number to match the squad they're attached to.


This is the first squad of Blue Company, Red Platoon.  Not terribly clear, but you can see it on the loader and the guy in the middle at the back.

[Andro Ist Keine Schwedischen]

I must admit I get confused with my squads sometimes as well, especially after a big assault.  Trying to work out how many models are in each of the five or six squads involved can be rather taxing on the head muscle sometimes.

Marking the bases, helmets or shoulderpads is a good plan though.

~Andromidius

[Marshal Argos]

I did mine a lot like the OP.  Colored line on the base.   Each Plt has a different color, 1 line = 1st squad, 2 lines = 2nd squad, you get the picture, and the plt HQ i just wrote HQ in that color on the base.

In addition to this I painted tine colored stripes on the back of each helmet to match those on the base.  This was my original plan as it was based of what we used to do when I was in.  Different color bands on the helmet denoted different task forces and companies.

[TrooperJ]

I put white numbers on the back of the helmet.  I got the idea from "Band Of Brothers", where officers had a vertical stripe on the back of their helmet, and sergeants had a horizontal stripe.

[Col.Gravis]

I used to use coloured segments on the top of my models Epualettes, though I tend not to have too much trouble keeping an eye on which models are from which squad, I'm cotemplating base marking also though more for the benefit of my opponents over anything else.

[Parak]

I usually paint squad numbers on the bottom of the bases. Not terribly efficient for combat though. Might experiment with squad markings, but Ive never had too much trouble with multi squad combats.

[Firenze]

I put numbers painted on (badly) on the right pad as they dont want anything on the left pad or when aiming theyll get seen cos they are a stealther regiment (from a forge world/ice world i might add). buttheis is what i have done:
Command hq:i put RC for regimental command
Platoon command: i put PC and they have red helmets (red platoon)
All of the other poor buggers: numbered the squads.