Let us start with an unrelated real life whine, I hate working day shift after having gotten used to overnights. It completely screws up my ability/desire to analyse RPGs. With that out of the way lets move on to the Army.
It is the easiest military force to volunteer for and has markedly lower characteristics to qualify for DM's on just about all the rolls. Where as it would be easy to just see it as having lower standards my premise of every (again let me emphasize every) 18 year old in the Imperium is required to serve in some way make me think otherwise. I see this as a deliberate decision on the Imperium's part. Train a insanely huge number of beings to kill other beings who come to a world uninvited. The army is not going to station very many (if any) people on their home world so important worlds will have a large number of armed and trained people from somewhere else loyal to the Imperium (most likely) rather than local government. Also to foreign powers Imperial worlds are probably stuffed full of trained militia. It is less a matter of not being picky as it is having such a crap load of troops. The Imperium isn't as nervous about the Army as the previous two services because they are pretty much stuck on one world.
Okay so it is fairly easy to get in and the traits a tested for are DEX and END so the exam is probably a very physical one.
Survival is the same as in most services excluding the Scouts and the slightly more dangerous Marines. Interestingly it is EDU that gives the DM suggesting a lot of time spent in field training with those lessons covering knowledge rather than tactics.
A commission is fairly easy to get with END giving the bonus. To me this suggests a desire to put people who give everything they've got and then a little more are put in charge.
Promotions are also markedly easier to come by and the DM is for EDU. So the Army is the only one of the big three military services where who you know or are related to doesn't impact promotion. Not immediately gameable but something for a GM to keep in mind on inter-service relationships.
And the kicker the Army is the service you are least likely to be able to continue in. There is no DM for reenlistment and a 7+ is a 50% chance you get shown the door. So the Army is the young person's service.
The Material Benefits table is Low; INT; EDU; Gun; High; Medium and SOC. I am going to revise my earlier take on the passages and say every Imperial registered ship that can carry passengers is required to offer some quantity of free passages. These are pooled by the bureaucracy and awarded by lottery on separation explain how an Admiral ends up with a low passage and feeding into my idea of the Imperium encouraging gambling. The EDU bump is greater than the INT one so the Army is big on facts more than process. The Gun award is interesting because the first two services award Blades and the Army a firearm, they show off the manual of arms and target shooting while processing out. And finally the SOC award is only +1 not the +2 of the Navy and Marines so I see there is a distance between the Nobility and the unwashed masses of the common man's service. Is the hand of the Iridium Throne at work here?
The cash table doesn't really speak to me much other than the high end rolls give less cash than the previous 2 services.
Default skills means everyone is competent with a rifle and LT's are trained with SMG's. This suggests to me the Army wants it's members killing their enemies at range and in close quarters it's leaders should be in the middle of the fray.
The Personal Development table has STR; DEX; END; Gambling; EDU and Brawling. Interesting the Army gives more general knowledge training than the Marines. Considering the low likelihood of retirement the brass pushes soldiers toward an associates type of degree.
The Service Skills have ATV; Air/Raft; Gun Combat; Forward Observer; Blade Combat; and Gun Combat. I have stated my dislike of ATV now let me add Air/Raft which should be Grav Vehicle, screw it both should be Vehicle. Blade Combat isn't to far fetched if you think about it with the amount of training in blade combat going around anyone with only Blade-0 is going to be shredded meat if an enemy gets close. I suspect I am adding T4 rules here and if that is the case be ready for a house rule to add them in.
Both Advanced Education tables are exactly the same as the Marine ones and I don't like it. It isn't any of the skills or which tables they are on just that they are exact duplicates. When I am done with the first take on the Careers I am planning on going back and doing a comprehensive reworking of the tables these two are at the top of the list.
So My Imperial Army is a huge force broken up into mostly battalion sized units scattered through out the Imperium. Soldiers don't serve on their home worlds but the Imperium does try and have regional units for cohesiveness (or siege mentality your pick). It values physical attributes giving a DM 3 times as opposed to twice for the Marines. It is easier to get commissioned and promoted but very hard to make a career of. So there is a up and out nature to the Army get 'em in, put 'em in charge and then get rid of them. The sheer size of the Army serves as a diplomatic tool similar to the rest of the world being aghast at the US civil war mobilizing as many troops as it did. Being willing to pull that many citizens out of society says something to anyone thinking of getting belligerent.
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