Inquisitor and others Publisher(s) Games Workshop Players 2+ Setup time 5 - 30 minutes Playing time 30 minutes - 3 hours Random chance Website Inquisitor was a game based in 's (Warhammer 40K, or simply 40K) universe. Whereas the main line of Warhammer 40K games is based on squad based tactical warfare, Inquisitor focused on a small group of akin to many. Inquisitor miniatures are no longer produced by Games Workshop but, whilst they were, the game had its own website and 54 mm scale models were available as 'Specialist Games' from the Games Workshop catalogue. Players choose a warband, typically made up of an and his/her, but also potentially led by any of a huge variety of characters from throughout the 40K universe's, such as Rogue Traders, or Tech-priests. It also offers the chance for players to take on the guise of some of the Imperium's greatest enemies, such as Chaos Lords,The Demonic legions of Chaos, Cult Leaders, or twisted Mutants.

Contents • • • • • • • • The game [ ] The game was supported by Games Workshop's division, which periodically released new rules for the game through the Specialist Games website. The game was intended for older wargamers, aged 16 and up.

The Inquisitor rulebook was available as a hard copy from Games Workshop, or as a from. It gives information about the Inquisition and the Warhammer 40K universe in general.

The name, when written, is sometimes shortened to =I=, =][=, or -][- by fans, in homage to the symbol of the as depicted on the cover of the rulebook. Inquisitor uses a rules system in which two 10-sided dice (known together as a or d%) are thrown to generate a percentile value, with one die representing the 'tens' and the other representing 'units'. Standard six-sided dice are also used for several of the game's mechanics. There are, technically, no limitations on the effective power and equipment of a player character - the rules do not prevent a player from creating a character armed with extremely potent combinations of equipment and skills. The game rulebook does offer an optional 'points' system that the organisers of a campaign might use to limit or guide their players, and the general expectation is that players exercise common sense when creating their characters. Unlike a tactical wargame or role-playing game, Inquisitor describes itself as a 'narrative' skirmish game, with an emphasis on storytelling in the nature of action movies or adventure novels, as opposed to a focus on winning at all costs.

Dark Heresy Adeptus Read more about lore, scholastic, forbidden, marine, armor and combat.

Source books [ ] There were several additional companion rulebooks for the Inquisitor game available: • Thorian Faction Sourcebook: This book details the background and history of the and those who follow it. Amongst other topics, the book focuses on the efforts of Promeus, a semi-legendary figure from the earliest days of the Imperium, and his desire to revive the from his half-life existence on the Golden Throne.

It traces his and his followers', the Promeans, attempts to achieve their end, and their conflict with their allies and later rivals led by Moriana. Over millennia, the two factions slowly disappear, but their history and achievements paved the way for two factions, the Thorians and the Horusians, to rise and seek out a new way to approach the divine nature of the Emperor. The book details additional characters and how the followers of the Thorian philosophy interact with other. It also provides additional weapons and powers to be used by the Thorians. Campaigns [ ] There are three campaigns in the game and each has a Conspiracies book: These books are no longer available from Games Workshop. • The Cirian Legacy details the planet of Cirian V, controlled by Tech-Priests of the. It includes three individual campaigns, lists and details on important characters, groups that deal with Cirian V, and background on the Scarla sector surrounding Cirian V.

The campaign begins as a simple mission for the players to discover why the Adepts of the Conclave have ceased paying their Imperial tithes. But as the situation deteriorates - in a mess of rioting miners, psychotic tech-priests and hallucinogenic smoke - the players are confronted with even more sinister events unfolding. • Death of an Angel contains three different campaigns. Set on Karis Cephalon, the campaign guides the players both as allies and opponents in a storyline that begins with a simple mutant uprising, which swiftly takes a turn for the worse.

Who is trying to release the daemon Phraa'gueotla, and why? And can there really be any substance to rumours of a pre-Imperial superweapon - the Angel - hidden somewhere beneath the planet's surface? • Heavenfall contains two campaigns with details on important characters and background.

The machinations of Inquisitors Scarn and Lichtenstein have collided on the once-beautiful Equinox. Faced with a rogue assassin on the loose and the enigmatic taking an interest in a world that was once theirs, the players are presented with a dire situation with no obvious hope for success. Characters [ ] Player characters are usually represented in-game by 54 mm miniatures purchased from Games Workshop, roughly twice as large as the standard 28 mm Heroic scale of WH40K miniatures. The models available represent existing characters (such as, or ) presented in the rulebook.

Players wishing to depict their own unique characters are generally required to extensively their models, or give them unique paint schemes. However, the distances given in the rulebook are written as, so that players can use any scale of miniature they wish, including the same models with which they play standard Warhammer 40,000. There are many different groups that players can play.

Presented here are the archetypes represented in the Rulebook: • The titular: An order that operates as a secret police of the, charged with rooting out threats to mankind from both within and without, and granted absolute authority in its mission to do so. • The: They are the 'Space Marines,' a legion of warriors that serves the Emperor of Mankind, being genetically enhanced, fanatically devoted to the cause of the Imperium. • The: The engineers of the Imperium, focused primarily on technology and research.

• Rogue Traders: Bands of merchant-adventurers or similar people, whose allegiance may vary. • Cultists and Fanatics: Street preachers and zealots who mostly serve the and worship the Emperor of Mankind. • The: The primary military force of the Imperium - unlike the Adeptus Astartes, they are most often normal human beings. • Desperados: Gunslinging rogues akin to Rogue Traders, their allegiance may vary. • The: They serve the Imperium but may also operate as independent/rogue groups under the command of a disloyal commander of an individual ruler of a world. • Mutants: Mutants are humans either warped by the power of or mutated due to genetic deviancy. They are hunted down by those Inquisitors who deem any as a threat against humanity and the Imperium.

• The: The religious organization of the Imperium, officially known as the Adeptus Ministorum, they maintain and spread the of the Emperor of Mankind. •: Heretics deemed by the Ecclesiarchy only able to gain redemption through their use as mindless living weapons against the enemies of the Imperium.

• The Assassins: Formally known as the Officio Assassinorum, they are trained warriors who specialise in, killing in the name of the Imperium and the Emperor. Daniel Garcia Fraud Files on this page. Daemons of the Warp which are imprisoned within human hosts.

Primarily used by the chaos cults, as well as some factions of the Inquisition. Critical reception [ ] Inquisitor was given two primary critical reviews by upon its release: The first, in July 2001, was written by Charlie Engasser. In his review, he states that the positive aspects of the game include that Skymaster Dxh 30 Software Engineer. 'the production values as far as the printed material are excellent' and that 'Anyone familiar with the Warhammer universe will be pretty much at ease here.'

Conversely, he includes as negatives the cost of the game, and stated that 'Completely ignoring races like the Space Orks, Eldar and most importantly, the Tyranids is a pretty glaring omission.' The later release of random character generators (such as in White Dwarf Magazine, issue 258 and the second issue of the Inquisitor supplement Exterminatus) has partially rectified the latter problem, as well as the release of a supplement specifically describing a campaign against the Eldar. The second, in August 2001, was written by Sean Broughton-Wright on the gameplay and mechanics. After noting problems with the variability of product quality ('the usual excellence displayed in such figures as Artemis to the rushed look of some others like Slick Devlan') and complimenting the quality of artwork ('all the good stuff that you'd expect of a Games Workshop product set in the 40K Universe'), he discusses the mechanics; he states, 'The great strength of the GW game in its gearing towards competitive play is understandably missing here. As a war game it isn't very successful either.'

Among other issues, he was 'bogged down in rules' and stated that he 'Can't help but feel this would have been better as a first person shooter.' This revolves around the issue that he points out, that 'There seems to be very little support, even when compared to other sideline games like Mordheim.' However, while the above points on competitive play are accurate (although there is an annual tournament, the players are primarily ranked on their contribution to making the game an entertaining story), the introduction to the game rulebook sets out the game as having a narrative basis, with a focus on the internal machinations of the Imperium, and that it is designed to allow players and their a large galactic sandbox for storytelling, and is not intended to present a balanced competitive experience. Decline [ ] After a good period on release where Inquisitor experienced relatively good popularity when compared with other games outside of ’s main franchises (, ), the game has slowly lost both appeal and support from.

For a time articles featuring Inquisitor were commonly featured in ’s flagship magazine together with new miniature releases. Partly due to the introduction of Games Workshop's, and the resultant use of the magazine space for articles relating to it, Inquisitor's coverage was later moved to the games own magazine, Exterminatus. Exterminatus ran for a short period (10 quarterly issues), until Games Workshop grouped all of its ‘’ range magazines into one larger magazine named 'Fanatic' (for much of its run, Fanatic was solely an online magazine) which was also later discontinued. Together with this miniatures were restricted to online sales only and some have since gone out of production such as the model. In 2004 the rulebook was made available as a free within the specialist games section of the website. The decline has also been reflected in the game's online support. In 2007 the game's online forum was removed from Games Workshop's servers (although a replacement is now hosted and run privately by fans at, where it still has a loyal fanbase).

At the same time, a considerable majority of the Fanatic online articles were taken down from the site. No 'official' content has been released by Games Workshop since its site redesign, thus any new articles or updates since then have been fan- written.

Production of Inquisitor miniatures by Games Workshop has now ceased and, following a period when the remaining stock was sold off, the miniatures are no longer available from GW either online or in store. References [ ].

—, Officer Commanding, Cadian 412th In, the superhuman may be the Imperium's most exalted warriors, but the overwhelming majority of its battles are fought by the untold billions in the Astra Militarum, more commonly known as the Imperial Guard, ordinary men and women who hold the line in defense of humanity. The worlds of the Imperium are required to pay a regular tithe in support of its endless conflicts, and part is paid in regiments for the Imperial Guard. Each Guardsman is equipped with a lasgun that while capable of blowing off limbs is among the weakest weapons in the setting, as well as that most other armies' standard weaponry can punch right through.

His training is filled with propaganda and misinformation, his commanders are in a conflict like he himself will expend ammunition, and if he harbors any doubts there are and. A Guardsman's individual odds aren't good, but if the Imperium has any resource in abundance, it's manpower. The Imperial Guard is descended from the Imperial Army that supported the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade, though after the it was divided into a separate army and Imperial Navy so that a renegade general couldn't command both troops and the means to deploy them. The Astra Militarum encourages both standardization of equipment and specialization of regiments, allowing worlds or cultures to contribute troops that play to their strengths. Thus, the regiments from the death world of Catachan are renowned jungle fighters, the Armageddon Steel Legions are famous for their mechanized infantry, the Elysian Drop Troops are the Guard's premier airborne infantry, and so forth. This gives Imperial commanders a variety of tactics with which to smite the Emperor's enemies, from aerial assaults to artillery bombardments to armored blitzkriegs, though many generals are satisfied with throwing Guardsmen into a conflict until it is won.

On the tabletop, few armies can field as many soldiers as the Imperial Guard, which is fortunate, as they are comparatively lightly-armed and -armored, and have morale that's highly contingent on their proximity to a commanding officer or commissar. On the other hand, few armies can bring as many weapons to bear in a single Shooting phase as the Guard, so while one lasgun is unlikely to get results,.

The Imperial Guard is also famous for their tanks, unsophisticated and unsubtle metal monsters deployed in numbers bordering on the absurd, and capable of reducing any target to a smoking crater. However, the key to the Imperial Guard's popularity may be that they're basically normal people forced into unimaginably bad situations, but who can prevail with luck, faith in the God-Emperor, and overwhelming firepower. A part of the Warhammer 40,000 game since its 1st Edition, the Astra Militarum were initially known as the Imperial Army before later being renamed the Imperial Guard, with the original term being subsequently used for the pre-Heresy era organization. The 2nd Edition of the game saw the introduction of various famous regiments based on real world military forces, with 3rd Edition giving some of these regiments (such as the Catachan Jungle Fighters) their own mini-expansion rules.

The 6th Edition of Warhammer 40,000 saw the army renamed again to become the Astra Militarum note keeping Imperial Guard as the common name, with the elite Storm Troopers also renamed as the Militarum Tempestus Scions and given their own mini-codex. 7th Edition’s Codex: Imperial Agents saw a number of other Astra Militarum units, such as the Wyrdvane Psykers and the Valkyrie aircraft, spun off into their own sub-factions. The rules for using the Astra Militarum, their most famous regiments note the Cadian Shock Troops, Catachan Jungle Fighters, Armageddon Steel Legion, Tallarn Desert Raiders, Valhallan Ice Warriors, Vostroyan Firstborn and Mordian Iron Guard and their sub-factions can be found in Codex: Astra Militarum while the rules for the Death Korps of Krieg and the Elysian Drop Troops can be found in Forge World’s Imperial Armour Index: Forces of the Astra Militarum book alongside rules for a number of additional tanks, super-heavy vehicles and artillery. •: • According to The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, virtually every standard violation of regulations is punished by being flogged, shot, or some combination of the above, with death by hanging or starvation mixed in for occasional variety. Most fiction though shows that minor dereliction is rarely enforced quite as harshly as called for.

• The Penal Legions are made up entirely of convicts sentenced to death, and nearly all of them will have that sentence carried out in combat. The sheer number of offenses considered capital crimes by the Imperium is why die in droves alongside each other. •: The Phantine Air Corps are an anomaly of the Guard; they come from a planet where the cities are built on high mountain plateaus, and so are better atmospheric fliers than infantrymen.

So when the Imperial tithe came up, the Phantines were ordered to form the Phantine Air Corps. This puts them in the sights of the Imperial Guard (who don't consider the Phantines true Guardsmen) and the Imperial Navy (who consider any aircraft their personal domain). •: While the Imperial Guard was never an insignificant presence, it tended to be little more than background in older editions. More recently however, the Guardsmen have definitely become more prominent in fluff as well as a more formidable force to be reckoned. •: In the fluff, there are entire armies of Imperial Guard that are composed solely of women, but this is not supported so much in the models.

In the novels, where it's explained that women make up roughly 10% of the draftees for the Imperial Guard, and are typically formed into women-only regiments, which among other things has certain practical benefits.namely, avoiding that can only result from a mixed-gender unit. •: Played with.

On one hand, the Imperial Guard is largely made up of regular (if badass) human beings who want to live to see another day and will fight if that's what it takes. One the other hand, certain regiments have rather dark themes like the or the and can't really be called noble, average people.

This of course doesn't go into how. On the tabletop and in the overall fluff, a Guardsman's standard-issue flak armour is only enough to stop other lasguns, nevermind the heavy weapons varieties of lasguns or the multitude of heavier weapons that the non-human armies use. There's a reason that Imperial Guard armament is referred to as ◊ by fans. However, in such as and, flak armour is actually a reasonably effective and inexpensive armour choice, and can stop stubber rounds (functionally a -era firearm) and even a shot from a lasgun.

It's telling that in this universe, stuff that is regarded as bottom-rung and hopelessly inadequate is stuff that real life special forces would kill to get their hands on. •: Some of the Imperial Guard's famous vehicles are mighty on paper, but in practice are over-costed or have too many drawbacks to make use of. This is mitigated somewhat in Apocalypse-scale games, where hordes of powerful vehicles tend to dominate. In-universe, the Imperium would love nothing more than to equip as many of its forces with Baneblades as possible, but the immense difficulty of manufacturing and maintaining them leads to massive shortages everywhere. • The famous Baneblade tank and its is a very impressive-looking tank and has impressive stats, but even it lacks the punch it requires to eat up 500 points in a small-scale game It's slow, is vulnerable in the rear (like all armor), and it's far from invincible: repeated combined tank or heavy weapons fire will do the trick.

Failing that, lots of anti-armor weaponry (and everyone packs some form of anti-armor for inevitable Astartes battles). It shines in Apocalypse games along with its even more advanced brethren, but even then often times a Guard player is better off taking a larger number of Leman Russes in squads. • The Deathstrike Launcher, which is more or less a small ICBM mounted on a truck launcher. While devastatingly powerful (its blast zone is an for nearly everything without Eternal Warrior) and has a massive blast zone, it has several prohibitive drawbacks. Namely there's the real possibility of it missing and, it can only fire once, its minimum range renders it useless on most maps, and it's expensive points-wise. Not to mention that it's lightly-armored and a gigantic 'shoot me' sign for the enemy.

•: Without,,,,, or the most advanced technology, the Imperial Guard gets by on good old-fashioned combined arms warfare.and. • Put another way, the Imperial Guard are paradoxically a strong contender for the biggest example of this trope in the entire setting precisely because they aren't. Unlike the other bioengineered killing machines and technologically-advanced ancient warriors of other factions, Guardsmen are just ordinary men and women handed rifles and flak vests and pitted against superhuman adversaries. And sometimes they'll even win. •: Every regimental motto. •: Trenchcoats are a common part of many regiments' uniforms, such as the Death Korps of Krieg or the Armageddon Steel Legion. Regiments from ice worlds such as Valhalla usually are issued them as well, though of course their dress will depend on the local climate.

•: Their whole schtick. In a setting with super-soldiers so augmented they barely count as human any more, hulking monstrosities that can rip men apart with their bare hands, psychic bullet-dodging ancients who train for centuries in deadly warrior arts, undying alien zombie robots, and unstoppable devouring hordes from beyond the edges of the galaxy, one of the strongest factions is basically a lot of ordinary humans with laser rifles and flak jackets backed up by tanks and artillery. Although, that's only counting for regular Guardsmen and Stormtroopers: Ogyrns, Ratlings and psykers obviously don't count, and even some of the more impressive people (like Sgt.

Harker and Sly Marbo). •: Many officers, commanders and generals are this, spending their soldiers' lives, munitions and tanks like credits in a casino. •: The Leviathan mobile command center, as well as the Capitol Imperialis, which can house tank companies. •: Regiments raised from worlds that have been on the wrong side of an Imperial conflict in the past and have since been reconquered tend to be thought of as 'penitent,' raising soldiers en masse to fight for the Imperium to absolve themselves of the sins for their ancestors. They tend to fall into the 'Taskmaster' type, because rather than fighting grudgingly, many of them are whipped up into a zealous -like state as atonement. The Death Korps of Krieg are an obvious example; the Vostroyan Firstborn are a more example.

•: The bayonet is nearly as synonymous to the average Guardsman's weaponry as the lasgun that it's attached to. Being forced to use it as a comparatively weaker and/or saner to one of his many enemies individually is a fairly powerful image. •: The only way to effectively use lasguns is, as explained ◊.

•: The Vostroyan Rough Riders are literal Bear Cavalry. •: Heavy Weapon Teams, the Basilisk mobile artillery's Earthshaker cannon, and then we move into super-heavy battle tank territory. •: The is a collection of countless commanders' combined battlefield experiences, containing advice on topics from barricade construction to force organization. Imperial generals may find it useful, though they have to keep in mind that it occasionally contradicts itself, should not be adhered to too strictly, and some passages are best read as metaphors. •: Codified in Imperial deployment doctrine. The harder a given force pushes, the more regiments are raised and deployed in response.

•: • One specific Catachan rule has the player roll before battle starts to see if the local Commissar dies to a behind his own lines. The rule is even called 'Oops, Sorry Sir!' • The Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, a sort of instruction manual handed out to Guardsmen, contains a lot of these especially, as far as details on the enemy are concerned.

It puts forward such gems of information as 'Orks are feeble and brittle-boned', 'Eldar technology is far inferior to our own', 'Tyranids are dim-witted sluggish mindless beasts' and 'Tau weapons are puny and require sustained fire to even injure a human being'. Of course, such lies are necessary: morale is bad enough without Guardsmen learning that Orks can rip a man apart with their bare hands, that flak armour does jack against Eldar monomolecular shuriken guns, that the Tyranid hordes are guided by a superhumanly intelligent Hive Mind that often humiliates competent human generals, and that Tau railguns can hit with such force that they not only punch holes through tanks but also. This does however beg the question, why they don't tell the Guardsmen the real disadvantages of their enemies (i.e.

The Tau's weakness in close combat and lack of heroism, the Eldar's low numbers and lack of heavy weaponry, the Orks' lack of effective ranged weapons and, and 'nid fighters and 'tech' being very inferior to that of any other race)? •: Many planets, and the scions of these families often end up forming entire regiments together. These 'highborn' regiments can generally expect than what is entrusted to the regiments of more common Guardsmen, and () their deployment will generally avoid some of, but on the other hand they may be first in line for the assignments that will garner them (and by extension their families). The of any given operation will usually keep a close eye on such regiments, as they are seen as crucibles for candidates they can groom for later command roles. •: Lasguns and stubbers are far from the most impressive weapons in the 40K universe, but they're cheap, reliable, and have easy logistics (lasguns can be recharged by any light source, including campfires and stubbers are just heavily modified firearms). Despite the reputation they have for being as good as flashlights, they are deadly weapons at least on par with modern assault rifles, that can blow limbs clean off of unarmored humans. It's just that all the other armies' standard weapons are ludicrously overpowered.

• This is why (!) carries around a humble laspistol when he has access to a much more potent bolt pistol or hellpistol; the difference in ammo count the laspistol affords has saved his life many times in the field. He's also so used to the weight that he thinks a heavier, more powerful weapon would throw off his aim enough for him to possibly miss at a critical moment and get himself killed. • In an extreme example, judging from the fluff and model, the Heavy Stubber is actually a contemporary Browning 'Ma Deuce' (M2) Machine Gun, still produced and used thirty-eight thousand years into the future.

• Also reflected in their vehicles. In a universe with hover tanks, spider tanks, cathedral tanks, aircrafts that think they're tanks, and tanks that think they're aircrafts, the humble guard makes due with WW2 style artillery, mortars, missiles and (implied to be) a modified tractor with a turret on top.

Whatever technological edge or grace they lack, the Guard vehicles more than makes up for in raw reliability and sheer firepower. •: Flak Armour is standard-issue for Imperial Guard infantry, and isn't entirely as it serves them well enough against the Chaos Cultist rabble, but it can't stand up to the higher caliber weaponry usually fielded by the rest of their foes. •: Most of the named regiments have at least a few traits as a result of their homeworld that others find odd or downright strange. Despite this, most of them are the most badass normal soldiers that the Imperium has to offer and try their damndest to see victory at the end of the day. • The Catachan Jungle Fighters wouldn't take a bath even on pain of death note because they're convinced that washing off their stench will get them promptly eaten by some predator that will notice their lack of ambient smell, are so paranoid about their surroundings that they'd be institutionalized on other any other world, and are so infamously and gung-ho that they make Rambo look like a Cub Scout.

They get away with it because they are the single best at Feral World survival (bar none) and get deployed in any conflict on a world that would literally eat another regiment alive. • The Death Korps of Krieg are a race of fanatical who seek atonement through their deaths and are so augmented that they just barely count as human anymore, which creeps other Imperial Guardsmen out and makes them stay as far away as possible during joint-forces operations. Note This suits them just fine, since their internal emotion dampener prevents them from even wanting such things like camaraderie. This is tolerated by the higher brass because their augments allow them to survive hellish conditions and their legendary indifference towards their own deaths lets them fight through protracted and bloody sieges that would break any other unit. • The Mordian Iron Guard are a very highly regimented unit of soldiers who eschew in favour of at all times, even in combat. Note It probably helps that their armor is described as being sewn into said dress uniforms.

They also spend as much time marching around in parade formation as they do actual training and go so far as to march in goose-step while being fired on during combat. Everyone overlooks these oddities because they are a with competence that gets belied by their appearances and have a reputation for being so disciplined that they rarely if ever break their showy formation. • The only aversion is the Cadian Shock Troopers, who have no such quirks and are just extremely disciplined, strong, and sane troops who widely considered the most badass Imperial Guard regiment all-around. Ironically, this could also be an, as the military professionalism of the Cadians on the battlefield is contrasted with. The military professionalism of the Cadians off the battlefield.

Every Cadian is a soldier from birth, and even their 'civilians' (who are actually reservists) do things like wear camouflage patterns in their clothes, and they do live-fire mock warfare on a regular schedule to stay sharp. •: A serious example, which even extended to the players, until around the 4th Edition codex. •: A popular image for the Imperial Guard, though this varies between regiments and commanders. In-game, this is usually the role of Conscript Platoons and Penal Legions, who can serve as for other units.

Certain rules can even replenish one's supplies of Whiteshields (conscripts) at the end of a turn if certain conditions are met, incentivizing their treatment as this. •: Due to the logistics of mustering Imperial Guard regiments together and readying them to make war, a Guard deployment often ends up this by default, reaching warzones where fighting has been ongoing for a while but always arriving in force. Even Astartes,, sometimes find themselves relieved by the arrival of larger numbers of Guardsmen, if only because it frees them up to while the Guard do the more mundane work of full pacification. •: Chainswords are a common melee weapon for Sergeants and other mid-ranking officers, as while they rarely get hold of power weapons, they tend to get better gear than the common grunt who has to make do with a bayonet or knife for close combat.

•: The people in charge for the Imperial Guard are frequently portrayed in fan works are being either so sociopathic and/or incompetent that it makes one wonder why the Imperium didn't fall long ago. There certainly are such cases, the Imperium being very vast, and it's likely done to emphasize how 40K is (or is as in the of it). •: Sentinels, light used for scouting and fire support.

•: In extreme situations, the Imperial Guard will muster regiments of 'Whiteshields' that would otherwise be too young to be considered for normal recruitment. Cadia in particular is so heavily militarized that it uses Youth Armies for training, which includes fighting on actual battlefields. •: Considered to be an aspiration for the Imperial Guard, though the success and extremity of this heavily varies between regiments; the Tallarn Desert Raiders for instance are particularly pious to a fault. The regiments raised from Ecclesiarchal fiefdoms, or 'shrine worlds', are often this in a nearly literal sense, though they're considered lay-members of the church rather than armed clergy like the Sisters of Battle.

•: The Death Korps of Krieg are mostly vat-grown to make up for the high casualty rate and life in a nuclear wasteland. The Mechanicus see this as abominable but the Munitorum tolerates it because of the results. •: More than a few regimental Colonels. •: Anyone Guardsman with medical skills is otherwise trained and armed similar to standard infantry. This setting being what it is, no quarter is granted to medics by anyone, Imperium included. •: Many veterans are aware of how terrible their odds are, so they use every dirty trick in the book to get things done, up to and including procuring black market Astartes or Xenos arms. These methods are not strictly speaking legal (as they're not covered in the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer) but every veteran knows that they're only illegal if you get caught.

•: Deliberately at the company level by the when levying Imperial Guard. Any given Imperial Guard company will be trained and equipped for exactly one role, be it foot infantry, mounted infantry, armor, or artillery.

The intention being that no company can survive long going rogue, and must rely on other companies for combined arms warfare. •: The Imperial Guard has no less than five different artillery platforms for battlefield use, which can be deployed in squadrons, thus letting them drop more shells or rockets on the other side of the table than any other army. •: Nearly all of the famous Imperial Guard regiments hail from one of these, since the most brutal environments breed the toughest badasses.

•: Some of the more fanatical regiments fall into this. The have this as part of their. •: The individual Guardsman may falter, and even an entire unit will rout. But the Guard as a whole will stand resolute, funneling men and machines and ammunition into the warzone against nearly any imaginable enemy, and will destroy the enemy or die where they stand. In particular is the final defense of Cadia, where the Imperial Guard held on even while the planet itself was breaking apart under Chaos assault.

•: The effectiveness of individual Guardsman varies from author to author even after the Guard receives a treatment. Some depictions show them as being utterly helpless against everything (except for other humans) without huge numbers and heavy support, while others have small squads of Guardsmen holding the line against entire enemy hordes. Not helping the matter is the inconsistency in the strength of lasguns.

In some works (such as ), almost every creature can soak up a ridiculous amount of lasgun fire without slowing down, while in others (such as the novels), lasguns are shown to be capable of bringing down a fully-armored Astartes within twenty shots. •: Some regiments lean in this direction, though the Death Korps of Krieg are one of the most obvious and archetypal examples. •: The Hades Breaching Drill, used as a siege-breaker weapon to undermine fortified positions or breach into a reinforced bunker from an unexpected vector.

While not a primary attack vehicle in itself (being more of a tunneling,) its power-drills and melta cutters spell death for anything caught in front of its cumbersome path. Note though that is largely averted. The Hades Drill works quickly, but not so quickly it can dig its own complete tunnel, which must be dug by other means so the Hades can use its power to quickly breach the last few meters to the target. When the Astartes are deployed into an ongoing conflict, odds are thousands or millions of Imperial Guard and/or PDF have been for quite some time already. When the intervening Astartes are credited for saving the day, IG reactions vary heavily between gratitude and relief, sheer awe at the sight of Space Marines, or bitterness about lack of recognition. This of course assumes that Imperial Guard troops or leadership get enough screentime to even seen their reaction. •: The Guard's equipment is meant to invoke this in-universe as much as possible: • Lasguns are ubiquitous, simple to manufacture, easy to maintain and can be charged by sunlight, campfires and vehicle power plants.

• The vast majority of the Guard's vehicle pool derive from only three base chassis; the Chimera, the Leman Russ and the Valkyrie. Thus they share a commonality in components that greatly facilitates logistics and repair. For example a set of tracks for a Chimera will just as easily fit a Manticore, a Basilisk, a Hydra or a Hellhound and will have a very similar mode of installation. •: • Stormtroopers, or formally Militarum Tempestus Scions, are orphans or children plucked from nurseries to be trained as fanatically-loyal special forces units.

They're outfitted with improved versions of a Guardsman's wargear (such as the fearsome Hellgun, a more powerful automatic lasgun), earning them monikers such as 'Toy Soldiers' and 'Glory Boys' from the resentful rank-and-file. • Cadia's equivalents, the Kasrkin, are chosen from the best recruits or the most skilled veterans, and are therefore closer to the average soldiers, but still able to perform on par with Stormtroopers. Unlike the latter, Kasrkin are looked up to. •: The Death Korps of Krieg's gas masks are fitted with a small augmetic rig which keeps chemicals circulating through their blood ostensibly to help them survive in harsh environmental conditions, but that also keeps their mood extremely even. As a result they feel little depression, hope, or fear, and tend to keep to themselves during combined operations.

•: The archetypal flak jackets and helmets favoured by most regiments, and especially the Cadians, look a lot like or gear. •: The Imperial Guard owe a lot of their popularity to this trope. The 5th Edition Codex intro puts it best. 'The Imperial Guard is an army that appeals to both the and, and those who wish to see the prevail against the hordes of bio-engineered aliens and Warp-born monstrosities that would otherwise tear the Imperium asunder.' •: Valkyrie transports are equipped with line spools for precisely this reason.

In particular tend to train heavily in this technique, and are the most likely to attempt it on the battlefield, forgoing a more cautious insertion when speed of deployment is a priority. •: No shortage of these generals, either. •: The IG is often portrayed as a who only ever wins battles via and by being egged on by psychopathic commissars.

The reality is a bit more complicated. While it's true that there are plenty of commissars such as, there are also more sympathetic ones such as and, and any number in between. Naturally, the troops under their command run the gamut from to, and many are perfectly capable of holding their own against the galaxy's horrors.

It really depends upon the unit in question. •: invoked Quick, picture a standard Imperial Guardsman right now. Are you thinking of a man in green flak armour and helmet? That's because the Cadian Shock Troopers have such a reputation as a that their designs and doctrines are copied by countless other regiments and PDF forces. There are unique regiments, of course, but the Cadian way of doing things is so widely adopted that it's practically the Imperium standard.

•: Not all of the Guard's senior commanders are. There are plenty of Guard Generals that are strategic geniuses and kick ass just as well. •: The Imperial Guard is the single biggest military organization in the galaxy, and the single biggest user of laser-based, coming in multiple varieties: • Lasguns — The most common weapon, the 'old-standby' of the Imperium.

A rifle-like laser weapon with greater stopping power than the majority of modern conventional projectile firearms, but still one of the comparatively weakest weapons in the setting. There are many regional and functional variations on the design, some with different settings for rate of fire and damage, but all share certain common core parts and take the same charge packs for ammunition (which can be recharged in a few hours from field generators).. Tend to be easy to keep functionally clean and keep working in rough conditions.

Desperate Guardsmen are known to set them to as. • Long-las — A of the common lasgun. These are tuned to produce a killing shot at greater distance, usually sacrificing rate of fire and shot capacity per charge pack to achieve this. Experienced Guard snipers often prefer to equip their long-las with overcharge packs to increase their power per-shot, but this results in even fewer shots per pack, and they need to keep several spare barrels on hand as this wears the barrel out very quickly. • Hellguns — An upscaled version of the lasgun, this achieves a greater punch through the expedient of being bigger and., making a hellgun much more bulky and mechanically complicated than a lasgun. Because the power draw is so much higher, many hellguns attach to to allow a wielder to, though there are variations which use standard charge packs as well. Because of their size, they are often only used by heavy infantry or dedicated elite forces.

• Hot-shot Lasguns — Lasguns with overcharge packs and special tuning to increase their lethality. The combination of the of the heavier hellguns with the portability of the more common lasguns has made these weapons highly popular with special forces who need to keep their equipment light, such as. However, of wearing out the weapon very quickly;, making it unsuited to long deployments or situations where supplies are limited. Any guardsmen who is issued one of these must first pass very strict equipment maintenance expertise certifications above and beyond what is expected of a typical guardsmen, as practicality demands that they need to be able to field-strip and replace failing parts themselves.

This in turn limits their circulation to mostly elite forces specially trained in their use. • Multilasers — Essentially a of the hellgun, it is a multi-barrel weapon capable of maintaining a. They are usually too big to be used by infantry, but are often mounted on vehicles such as the to suppress enemy infantry and light vehicles.

• — Not as commonly used as the lasgun, these fire superheated bolts of energy that cut through or vaporise the target. Unfortunately, they are much more difficult to manufacture, with only a few forge worlds still capable of doing so. Also, plasma weapons have a tendency to overheat and explode (shown in the game as the 'Gets Hot' rule), but sometimes the extra firepower they provide outweighs the risk.

The Executioner variant of the Leman Russ, for example, uses a large plasma cannon. •: The Valkyrie Assault Carrier, the Guard's air transport of choice, is also well armed with a and missiles. However, even more deadly is the Vendetta Gunship, an up-gunned variant that trades out its lasers and missiles for the massive firepower of while still retaining its. •: According to the fluff and art female troopers are everwhere, mostly in gender segregated regiments but mixed gender regiments are fairly common too. If you were only to read the novels you would probably be suprised mixed gender units aren't considered the norm. In the actual models there are no women whatsoever. What makes it especially odd is that the Cadians, who represent the bulk of the models in print, explicitly include every man and woman on the planet.

•: Many regiments, depending on their home environment. The Armageddon Steel Legion wear them because they come from a, while the Death Korps of Krieg wear them because they come from. And also to disguise the fact that they're.