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I own quite a few IG books and i have noticed that with most of the "one-off" books, the ending almost always has the same result. this is not really a rant, just more of an observation which is peeving me off a bit:

Well, you should start to read Gaunts Ghosts. èthe story continues, so it has that 'Ready to fight another day.

i do actually own the first 2 GG omnibuses. what i was inferring to was many of the books that are "one-offs".

F&I, sounds cool, i'll look it up!

Well, I think it's called Flesh and Iron, I read the book, and I want to read it again. Now, I only need to find that book.

But you are right, most of the guard novels end 'heroically'. I think that's a reason why most of them are so good. It's realistic I think. Picture a regiment of guardsmen fighting off an ork WHAAAGH, Not much will survive.

lol yeah, heroic for the pratoganists who kill like a warboss or Chaos daemon or whatever.

not so heroic for those unnamed thousands who died from a suprise attack or brutal onslaught, who barely get any reference. poor them :(

But i understand, people will enjoy the book more if there is untold slaughter and hardly anyone survives. realistic, yes, in the 40k millenium. if only they got to cherish life a bit more in that time, but then the stories will become soppy and romantic and then the death of one nameless guardsmen will make everyone start weeping....

BRING ON THE SLAUGHTER!!!

I think I'll like those kind of books more then those mass slaughter parties.

I'm still young, but I can appreciate a good book. I like a book with a more poetic feeling to it, or a book that puts a lot of attention on the protagonists feelings. And No, I do not mean I like to read 'Romantic lover' books.

to relate the above t a black library book, I'll chose Dead men walking. The protagonist is just a civilian, who, because of his emotions, does some pretty heroic things.

Don't forget "15 hours" (aka how long the life expectancy of your average fresh faced conscript thrown into a war zone). Pretty much sums it up right there. They are the definition of cannon fodder. Sure they all have names and faces and families, and maybe this one is good at volleyball or that one likes birdwatching, but they are ALL IRRELEVANT MEAT MWAAHAAHAAA!

Ciaphas Cain books are the only ones I like. They don't over-hero it against all probability for recurring characters between novels, everyone else always dies anyway except Cain because he is a wiley cowardly craven smartass that he is. Sorry Gaunts Ghosts, but your scout Sergeant did not singlehandedly off a Chaos Dreadnought in any 40k universe I know of. They make for good stories, but the plausible stretch of the low attrition and how many of the random irrelevant nobodys seem to survive (I mean, cmon... Caffran? who the heck is he? some dude with a lasgun who found a girlfriend in the second book...) Lots of recurring characters in gaunts ghosts books makes me think either they have some kind of emperor watching over them or they must get the easiest assignments of any regiment. Where is the emperor's finest "SHOVEL THEM IN, there's always more!" attitude?

yeah, 15 hours is a great attritional book, but atleast quite a lot of the company survive to fight in a short story. i'm a young reader aswell, i just like stories with a good plot and a good use of vocabulary. other than that: BRING ON THE PAIN!

yeah its wierd for GG, it sounds like so many die when they attack a position in their stories, but they always seem fit to fight another day. damn scottish ninjas, you got style!

Oddly enough in 15 hours the guardsmen are treated like cannon fodder despite the fact there are so few remaining and they are entirely surrounded.

Well, in 15 hours, the guard doesn't have a choice. They are surrounded by an ork WHAAGH. They got nowhere to run, with no hope for breaking the siege. They would just fight to the death.

Yeah but would you still treat them badly? And use them like cannon fodder?

And one of them was supposedly some kind of political person of note before something screwed him up and he became a grunt like everyone else. I think that book was meant to make them all seem personable, likeable, actually kind of badass (the 4 veteran guys at least must have offed scores of orks just as another day's shooting across no mans land) and still, ultimately screwed kind of idea. I think that book best does the heroic but pathetically screwed plight of the IG best. Ciaphas kind of takes that and adds a sense of humor that, yeah, while it is just as horridly bleak, at least this guy lives to tell the tale over and over because of his uncanny knack for self preservation (aka cowardice).

Actually, in the guard omnibus, with fifteen hours in it, there is a small extra part of around fifty pages I think. Thta part focusses on the effort of those four veterans after the death of the protagonist.

Hmmm. all this talk of fifteen hours makes me want to read it again.

Scrazza wrote:Actually, in the guard omnibus, with fifteen hours in it, there is a small extra part of around fifty pages I think. Thta part focusses on the effort of those four veterans after the death of the protagonist.

Hmmm. all this talk of fifteen hours makes me want to read it again.

I hate it when they do that... i have 2 of 3 books from the omnibus and it isn't worth getting but with the added content around 15 hours i am missing out on something i have already paid for.

It is one of the best ones. Gaunts books were too dry and generic for me. They didn't have the character, just some badass story about badasses being badass doing badass stuff. How dull.

Guitardian wrote:It is one of the best ones. Gaunts books were too dry and generic for me. They didn't have the character, just some badass story about badasses being badass doing badass stuff. How dull.

I don't agree with that. Sure, it's badass, but I really hated it when some of the characters died. I'm reading the third book now, and I still enjoy the Gaunts Ghosts novels.

Guitardian wrote:It is one of the best ones. Gaunts books were too dry and generic for me. They didn't have the character, just some badass story about badasses being badass doing badass stuff. How dull.

Have you read the more recent ones?

oh I think you guys might want to use spoilers now. I dodn't want to know anything about the newer ones, as I'm not there yet. Don't spoil it for me!

Scrazza wrote:oh I think you guys might want to use spoilers now. I dodn't want to know anything about the newer ones, as I'm not there yet. Don't spoil it for me!

I'll use a spoiler on anything i think will wreck it for you.

I just seen the origional 3 compilation. Didn't even know there were newer ones. How does any IG character survive a first trilogy let alone a second one?

Guitardian wrote:I just seen the origional 3 compilation. Didn't even know there were newer ones. How does any IG character survive a first trilogy let alone a second one?

There are 13 GG books.
And (Only look if you have no intention of reading the books, don't mind having them slightly ruined or have read them)

EDIT:Stupid not working spoilers... sorry

Guitardian wrote:I just seen the origional 3 compilation. Didn't even know there were newer ones. How does any IG character survive a first trilogy let alone a second one?

Because even in all out war to end all wars people survive. Just look at the first day of the Somme. 57,000+ casualties of whom around 20,000 died. The First World War claimed millions of lies but still many more survived to the end. Look at the exploits of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne in WWII. They fought in some of the toughest battlefields of WWII and, while they took heavy losses over the course of the war, the same core of individuals survived to the end.

I'd rather read a series of novels that tells the story of a few characters that I can develop an attachment to rather than a stand alone novel where I don't really care if the protagonists survive to the end or not. And that's why authors write those kind of novels. get people hooked and you can sell the next book... and the one after that.

I am currently working through the ”The Last Chancers” omnibus. Not many people have mentioned Schaeffer in this thread. I am interested in what you guys may think, not being an avid reader I'm working my way through it and am enjoying it. Would be interested in some other titles you guys might recommend in order to get more of a feel for the 40k universe and the role the IG play in it. Well the roll in the battlefield other than cannon foder lol.

Thanks

Grix

@grix: I've never even seen a Sheaffers Omnibus. I know they exist, and I know the basic fluff behind them, but I never saw GW actually sell them anymore.

The guard recomendation list.

-Gaunts Ghosts. (all 13 of them)
-Flesh and Iron
-Dead men walking.
-Ice Guard
-a lot more [insert book name here]

1.) YAY people are actually discussing on my thread (this has never happened to me before...
2.) yeah, omnibuses are great because they normally add mini stories to them.
Bowman the only thing with Band of Brothers is that they got reinforced by newbies all the time.

AFAIK in GG they only got one big batch of reserves from vervunhive (i don't own the 3rd omnibus :(). of course, yes ,the elite/natural survivors etc will live on, just like many in BoB, but they would eventually die if the ranks get whittled down without replenishment and barely anyone is left. just like what happens in many IG regiments

There are some guard regiments that get reinforced by new grunts. The Vostroyans are one of them, IIRC

ah yeah your right. clever vodka drinking people! i love the vossys, its the russian/grenadier guardsman thing that gets me....

Anyone read "Desert Raiders"? By far the best IG book I have read but I've yet to find someone else who has.

GG Spoiler



I'm not a fan of omnibus's they too chunky to carry around with you and the spines seem to suffer plus i'm really impatient. It does annoy me that they add extra content, feels like i'm being punished.

Redemption Corps is ok except the first half of it is pretty much black hawk down. 15 hour is one of my favourite one offs but for my guard fix I prefer GG and Ciaphis

Guitardian wrote: Sorry Gaunts Ghosts, but your scout Sergeant did not singlehandedly off a Chaos Dreadnought in any 40k universe I know of. They make for good stories, but the plausible stretch of the low attrition and how many of the random irrelevant nobodys seem to survive (I mean, cmon... Caffran? who the heck is he? some dude with a lasgun who found a girlfriend in the second book...) Lots of recurring characters in gaunts ghosts books makes me think either they have some kind of emperor watching over them or they must get the easiest assignments of any regiment. Where is the emperor's finest "SHOVEL THEM IN, there's always more!" attitude?

SPOILER
Caffarn gets shot and killed by a malnourished child in cantible(Armour of Contempt)
Mkoll killing the dreadnought is perfectly reasoned in the writing as the dread was prettly heavyily damaged from the battle with astartes

The ghosts dont ahve the easiest missions, they are a smallish regiment but are rarely assigned front line battle dutie as the cadian 8th will as the Tanith/Vergast/Belladon are a scout/light infantry regiment. This means they aren't the right kind of material for cannon fodder and are effective when you tell them to sneak around a flank or exploit a enemys weakness.
The only examples of them fighting and dying in a line are Axes Cardinal where the high command didn't understand that they were scouts, hinzerhaus where they had to hold a building as no own else was trustworthy and in His LAst Command where they are figtning basically in boxes and they still do pretty good stealth fightning.

When they started they got about 3000 men off tanith and feth all of the artillery,
by the end of the vervunhive siege they were down to around 1200 men but took on board enough recruits to get back up to around 2500 men and by the time of His last Command they were down to around 1700 men with the ranking officer being Major Gol Kolea, the Belladon influx boosted them to aroun 3000-3200 men but Hinzerhaus cost them ALOt of men and now have around 1800 men after 47% confirmed casulties from the blood pact assualt, and they took small casulties after Balhut but dan Abnett will propaly kill them all off so Nathan Long can't hijack gthem and ruin them like he did to Bill King's