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Imperial Guard (warhammer 40,000 Army)




In the tabletop Strategy Game , '' Warhammer 40,000 '', the Imperial Guard are the largest body of fighting men and women in the 41st Millennium Imperium .


THE IMPERIAL GUARD

The Imperial Guard is a colossal organisation, consisting of billions of men from millions of different worlds and systems within the Imperium. Each regiment is a force of between three and ten thousand fighting men, supported by a dazzling array of light and heavy armoured vehicles. Each regiment also has its own entourage, consisting of support staff, camp followers, suppliers, tech-priests, doctors, religious leaders, and the like.

The Imperial Guard are far more numerous than the Space Marines , for while there are only a thousand Chapters of a thousand Marines each, the contributions of some planets to Imperial Guard regiments over the ten thousand years of the Imperium runs into the billions. The Imperial Guard are constantly at war, freeing worlds from Chaotic or alien influence, or defending them from the same.


APPEAL TO PLAYERS

The primary appeal to Imperial Guard players of the Warhammer 40,000 game is that the Guard are 'human'. In a game filled with genetically modified supermen, alien mystics, and all-consuming hive-minds, the Imperial Guard are just soldiers. Carrying a lasgun and wearing flak armour (commonly believed by fans to be the most ineffective standard equipment in the game, and referred to as the ''"flashlight"'' and ''"T-shirt"''), the Imperial Guard are forced to rely on numbers, massed-fire tactics, and bayonets to win their battles.

Secondly, the Imperial Guard has the largest range of tanks and armoured vehicles of any army, and have been heavily supplemented by the Forge World Imperial Armour series of books and resin kits. This appeals to the 'treadheads' among the player community, and was catered for in the third edition of the game by the release of rules for an Armoured Company composed entirely of tanks.

The various Imperial Guard regiments produced by Games Workshop draw on a variety of historical and fictional inspirations; from the Rambo -styled Catachans, the Soviet-inspired Valhallans and the Zulu-war style Praetorians to the basis of the fourth-edition Cadians in the US Army and Russian Ground Forces . In addition, skilled modellers have been able to convert several of the released regiments to conform to numerous armies past and present, from the ANZAC s of the Battle Of Gallipoli to the British and French armies throughout the Napoleonic Wars .


NOTABLE REGIMENTS

There are millions of worlds contributing Imperial Guard Regiments to the Imperium's defence, each world having its own methods of training, its own unique equipment, and its own specialisations.

Even so, the regiments of certain worlds stand out, and are renowned throughout the Imperium for their deeds, strengths and methods of combat.

A summary of these regiments can be found at History Of The Imperial Guard


NOTABLE CHARACTERS


From the PC game, '''':



NOVELS

There are several novels featuring the Imperial Guard, published by the Black Library
  • The '' Gaunt's Ghosts '' Series, by Dan Abnett :

  • ---''First and Only''

  • ---''Ghostmaker''

  • ---''Necropolis''

  • ---''Honour Guard''

  • ---''Guns of Tanith''

  • ---''Straight Silver''

  • ---''Sabbart Martyr''

  • ---''Traitor General''

  • ---''His Last Command''

  • ---''The Armour of Contempt'' (projected title: not yet published)

  • ---''Only in Death'' (projected title: not yet published. Also known as ''Even Unto Death'')

  • The ''Last Chancers'' Trilogy, by Gav Thorpe:

  • ---''13th Legion''

  • ---''Kill Team''

  • ---''Annihilation Squad''

  • The ''Ciaphas Cain'' Series, by Sandy Mitchel:

  • ---''For the Emperor''

  • ---''Caves of Ice''

  • ---''The Traitor's Hand''

  • ---''Death or Glory''

  • ''Double Eagle'', by Dan Abnett.

  • ''Fifteen Hours'', by Mitchel Scanlon.



PC GAMES

  • The Imperial Guard make a guest appearance in the single player campaign of '''' led by Colonel Brom as NPCs and playable units in some missions, and have been expanded into a playable faction in the Expansion Pack ''Winter Assault'', with the Cadian 412th Infantry under the command of General Sturnn in the Order Campaign.

  • The Imperial Guard were present in Warhammer 40,000 Epic: Final Liberation.

  • The Imperial Guard also make appearances as opposition in the '''' first-person shooter.



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