Although there is a great deal of standardisation within the Imperial Guard, there are many regimental traditions and skills peculiar to each home world that make many regiments slightly different. It is this widespread diversity that produces the myriad of different colours and flavours of Imperial Guard troopers and regiments.

Doctrines are variations in training and organisation that have an effect on the way a regiment fights. They are only useful if you want your army to represent a particular regiment with minimal external support. Using the full list without Doctrines is always a valid option and is perfectly representative of any number of regiments from Cadian Shock Troops to Catachan Jungle Fighters to Drookian Fen Troopers.

So, let's say you wish to have an army heavily influenced by the mysterious Adeptus Mechanicus. Perhaps the force in question was created entirely by their half-man, half-machine masters to be more like them. Looking through the four Doctrine categories and all the options contained therein, you'll find plenty of choices. However, you are only able to spend up to five Doctrine points in order to create the army. Such is the penalty of specialisation! Here is how you could spend the five points:

Of course, all these cool upgrades are going to cost you big. The base cost for an Infantry squad under this list would be 110 points + 70 more for the Chimera. Also, by spending lots of Doctrine points on neat stuff like carapace armour instead of making more restricted troops available, you are going to have a slim selection of unit choices.

You really have to play a game of checks and balances in your head as you design an army under the optional Doctrines system. It's easy to get carried away and go overboard on one Doctrine. Nevertheless, the beauty of this system is that it allows players the freedom to customise their armies as they see fit!

Next: Unorthodox Doctrines