Infantry Squad
"Let's see them take all of us!"
- – Guardsmen doing what they do best
Aaaahhh yes...the humble Infantry Squad of the Astra Militarum Imperial Guard. These units form the backbone of most Imperial Guard Regiments. While you could say that that more glamorous units like the Leman Russ get all the glory, it is the infantry themselves who hold the line against humanity's innumerable foes.
Overview
Like all Guardsmen, each Infantry Squad members get an issue of the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, a T-shirt with some cardboard armor, a standard flashlight, a butter knife, a few pop candies and some hefty steel balls. Usually an Infantry Squad consists of a Sergeant and nine Guardsmen. However, as with the countless billions of Guardsmen within the Imperial Guard, infantry squads from different regiments can vary greatly between each other in tactics, training, equipment and other areas. In some regiments each infantry squad is further divided into two five-man fire teams, which allows the squad to divide if necessary and affords it greater flexibility in combat. An Assistant Squad Leader (normally a Corporal or other non-commissioned officer) is usually detailed to take command if the leader is killed or incapacitated, or leads the second fire-team if the squad splits into two. The officer him/herself is armed with the standard-issue chainsword, pocket flashlight, boomstick or a even bigger boomstick if (s)he wants to come-in packing. The squad also comes with a Voxcaster and two specialists armed with either a Flamer or a Grenade Launcher.
Infantry squads often contain specialists such as Vox-Caster operators, Special Weapon troopers, and Heavy Weapon teams. Indeed, the weaponry that can be issued to a squad is quite diverse, running the gamut of "standard Imperial" special and heavy weapons that you'd expect. These weapons considerably enhance a squad's firepower, and for that reason they are often far more valuable than the troopers who are actually operating them.
Occasionally, a Commissar is included in the ranks of the squad to 'help' with morale and BLAMing any cowards in their sites. On the other hand a Ministorum Priest may replace and/or supplement the Commissar and provide fiery speeches instead of a Boltshell to the cranium.
By themselves, Guardsmen are quite fragile, having stats similar to Termagants, Fire Warriors, or Eldar Guardians, and being considerably inferior in some respects to Ork Boyz. Individually they also have limited firepower and limited tactical capability. However when fielded in numbers, the amount of laser pointers can become a frightening sight indeed, melting Power Armor and Necrodermis alike with a withering barrage of Dakka.