Imperial Guard
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The Imperial Guard is the standing army of the Imperium of Man. It is a massive army with trillions of soldiers.
Equipment
The standard armament of an Imperial Guard infantryman is a lasgun -- a laser-based weapon with firepower rated in the megajoules. Physical protection consists of a flak jacket and helmet capable of handling simple bullets and shell fragments. The Imperial Guard makes heavy use of armored fighting vehicles (such as Leman Russ and Baneblade Tanks and the Chimera APC) and heavy artillery (including Basilisk self-propelled artillery and Bombard heavy mortars) and are generally trained to levels comprable to those of the armies of early twenty-first century Earth. Never the less, in an era of power armored soldiers, superhuman creatures, arcanely advanced technology and psionic and daemonic threats, the Imperial Guard often has to rely on sheer overwhelming numbers to win.
Tactics and Methods
The tactics of Imperial Guard forces vary immensely between individual units, some placing more focus on fields including trench warfare or urban combat. Never the less, general Imperial guard tactics place heavy emphasis upon heavy armor and artillery as well as static and well defended firepower. Imperial Guard infantry are often (although far from always) used in human wave attacks against enemy positions during advances.
To maintain order and discipline on the field, the Imperial Guard makes use of specially trained officers known as Commissars to keep order. These personnel have full authority to execute soldiers in the field for offenses including cowardice in the face of the enemy to ensure loyalty, obedience and discipline.
Organization and Recruitment
The Imperium of Man is ultimately a feudal society, in which most worlds have to supply various resources to the Imperium in tithe. These range from food and ore to manufactured goods to soldiers for the guard. The quality of these soldiers varies immensely: some worlds have Imperial Guard regiments that are nothing more than screaming mobs with lasguns, while others produce well-trained, well-disciplined and relatively well equiped fighting forces. Uniforms, equipment and military tradition vary immensely from planet to planet.
Planets that produce notable Guard regiments include...
- Cadia
- Kreig
- Catachan
Elite Imperial Guard soldiers are known as Stormtroopers; they receive superior equipment including carapace armor and Hellguns. The Guard also employs human offshoot species loyal to the Emperor, such as Ratlings and Ogryns, to supplement the human baseline forces, as well as psionic humans. For technical assistance, Techpriests from the Adeptus Mechanicus -- as well as their Servitors -- support the Guard.
Imperial Guardsmen of Note
- Commissar Ciaphas Cain
- Commissar Sebastian Yarrick
- Commissar Ibram Gaunt
See Also
- Gue'vesa, Human forces of the Tau Empire
- Blood Pact, a professional orginization of Chaos cultists which is equiped like and prefers to recruit from captured guardsmen.