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Continuing on with the most random questions to afflict the 40K universe.

MREs - Meals Ready to Eat offered up to the modern day serviceman.... has there ever been a written fluff/fiction equivalent for the IG?

Yes yes i know, usually the stories are written about hunger, starvation, foraging on local produce, canniabalism, etc. etc.


But stepping away from that end or a second.... I do have to wonder what the folks in the IG eat in their canteen, or munch on while engaging in long operations where the situation isn't completely and totally bleak- hence the MRE question

Sort of, yes. Depends on the regiment. The Tanith First are often commented on as having what is, basically, an MRE, complete with the vac-sealed, tear-open pacs of nutrient bars, dried goods and heating tabs, while other mention is made, of other units, of needing to set up cook-stations and mess-tents and the like.

Usually the Guard doesn't have to eat bodies or starve...
They have MRE equivalents no idea what they're called though...

MMMMM..... I love MREs. So I hope IG eat them.

You like MREs until that's all you eat. Kinda the same effect as ramen but better.

Except ramen tends not to cause the, uh, gastro-intestinal distress that a few weeks of living off MREs can cause.

Dayvuni wrote:You like MREs until that's all you eat. Kinda the same effect as ramen but better.

LOL. A number of my friends in the armed services would agree wholeheartedly.


I've "taste-tested" a few brought back by friends.

The Pound Cake wasn't half bad. I think i'll leave it at that.

MRE- Meals Rejected by Everybody.

Guard MREs are manufactured by the Soylent company.

I left our army when our MREs (or RAT packs as they were then known) were crap- and not even RATs would eat them (although more than a few sappers loved them).

To answer the OP's question, the Ciaphas Cain books are a great source of info on this.

Cain often mentions Imperial Guard rations including small water rations and protein bars. A strong emphasis on those protein bars and how they have little to no taste and the consistency the same as many modern day meal replacement bars.

Other IG food, served at mess halls and on starships includes bread, grot buns which is kinda like a grade D hamburger and on occasion I seem to recall something along the lines of mashed potatoes but that it has clearly been supplemented with other artificial ingredients to increase its sustenance but has the side effect of diluting its flavor to the point where it is very bland.

Think they're generally called 'Starch Rations'. What they're made from or contain will depend on where they've come from.

An interesting idea a friend of mine had for his Deathwatch RP campaign involved an Ork invasion of a world that supplied tubes of protein which were sent forward to the Guard army on campaign. I'm sure there are all sorts of angles you could take with Guard rations.

coming from an actual infantryman. i hate mre's. lol but at least i dont starve

I think it'd be on the same level as every form of military supplied food ever. Great if it's only for a week, but any longer and you start fantasizing about killing your CO to get a steak....

They'd definitely have the plugging cheese and the unplugging chocolate, and probably be laced with that drug that lowers your sex drive. And everything would taste exactly how it looked - like a mixture of vomit and diarrhea.

Doesnt Cain also imply that the nutrient bars are made from the waste of forge worlds?
Also i have an MRE once when my HS class trained with the marines(they called it team building, we called in punishment)
It was one of those where you put water in and it turns into a cooker.
I remember one kid buy some off a marine so he could eat it.

hotsauceman1 wrote:Doesnt Cain also imply that the nutrient bars are made from the waste of forge worlds?
Also i have an MRE once when my HS class trained with the marines(they called it team building, we called in punishment)
It was one of those where you put water in and it turns into a cooker.
I remember one kid buy some off a marine so he could eat it.

That's them.

Often the meals are refered to as simply "Meal bars" or "Meal Bricks" being a meat/grain type concoction that is hardened into a brick for ease of distrobution and for long lasting storage.

Their size is unknown but they are either a foot long and approx 2 inchs thick by 2 tall for feeding a squad (my estimate i've not looked it up). or are the size of a large candy bar (for individual soldier meals). Water rations are in your normal canteens or can be made through a chemical process via urine when your desprate(Gunheads novel mentions this) (apparently leaving the "water" with an extreamly unplesant salty taste, but would youn rather die of dehidration?)

Otherwise should the local animal life be non toxic troopers have been known to shoot things for food (as in many real wars), should the animal life be toxic then Meal bricks are distributed throughout the troops.

a Meal brick would probly be very bland in taste but when out in the field of battle that doesn't matter, i would imagine they are similar to the meal bars distributed in WW2 to US troops made by Herseys (yes the candy company). the War department told Herseys to have the bars taste "like potatoes" or somethign akin to that so the troops wouldn't eat them willy nilly.
Same could go for the IG rations.

Alleggedly rations come in barrels that can be carried by a single trooper easily.




For proper kitchen meals from mess halls Cryptek got alot of it. but then again what you get depends on rank as well (sometimes)

The higher up you go the higher quality food you can get. Lord Generals can even have personal chefs to prepare everything for them. Also officers can benfit from the Lord generals chefs by way of banquets held by the General (while rare it happens), such as in the begining of Gunheads novel.
When you have connections you can have higher quality food. and the lower you are on the totem pole the less you get.

But when everyone is knee deep in mud, guts and who knows what else, just getting a good meal is all that matters.

I remember the marine saying they have some "Unfortunate" side effects.

Psienesis wrote:Except ramen tends not to cause the, uh, gastro-intestinal distress that a few weeks of living off MREs can cause.

I quoted this because I couldn't agree more. Honestly, I live off the wheat bread snack (which is terrible too) and any other extras I find in the thing. The cooked meals almost all suck, and finding skittles or m and m's suddenly turns you into the richest man in the unit.

Soylens Viridians bars are standard IIRC, which are described as having no real taste to them, and the only way to really give them taste is to make a soup and add some spices to tehm.

Just a little food for thought:

10,000 men eating 3 MREs a day, for a year (a pretty average there-and-back-again deployment for the IG, I'd reckon) will require about 8 million tonnes of MRE

During the Thirteenth Black Crusade MREs were distributed amongst Imperial forces by chaos forces. They were tainted and caused the zombie plague to spread quicker, but the original versions looked just like a standard (if cardboard) MRE pack with an Aquila stamped on them.

I'd say that they would be munitorum standard issue for in field units, otherwise troops would just go to the mess, etc. =P

Kaldor wrote:Just a little food for thought:

10,000 men eating 3 MREs a day, for a year (a pretty average there-and-back-again deployment for the IG, I'd reckon) will require about 8 million tonnes of MRE

Actually that's a pretty light deployment, not average...

Melissia wrote:

Kaldor wrote:Just a little food for thought:

10,000 men eating 3 MREs a day, for a year (a pretty average there-and-back-again deployment for the IG, I'd reckon) will require about 8 million tonnes of MRE

Actually that's a pretty light deployment, not average...

I was only referring to the duration. I don't think theres many figures on average numbers of guardsmen per deployment.

Actually, that raises another interesting question. Is there anything like a 'deployment' for the IG? It seems like their standard procedure is to either be in a war zone, or en route to a war zone, or garrisoning a potential war zone. They'd never really spend any time 'at home' would they?

Once Guardsmen leave their homeworld, they will almost never, ever see it again.

Brother Thomas wrote:coming from an actual infantryman. i hate mre's. lol but at least i dont starve

Don't worry, the British ration packs (or Ratpacks) aren't any better, probably worse - I hated them when I was in the TA, which was a good 10 years ago (having a gluten allergy did not help!). Still, there was a bonus with the British ones - we used to, don't know if they still get them, get slabs of Yorkie chocolate with "Not for civilians!" stamped on them. There were also energy drinks we called 'Esther Rantzen' because of this bit in the TV comedy Bottom - the result was more or less the same.

@ Kaldor

When Guard units aren't fighting they're moved to planets typically away from the warzones. Here they serve as a tempory garrison until they're called upon to fight once more. Once they are they move to a staging world where multiple regiments are for transit (or just skip this stage and head straight to a warzone). ^^

Kaldor wrote:Actually, that raises another interesting question. Is there anything like a 'deployment' for the IG? It seems like their standard procedure is to either be in a war zone, or en route to a war zone, or garrisoning a potential war zone. They'd never really spend any time 'at home' would they?

Vague recall on my part would say "no." Once an IG regiment leaves their home planet, the likelihood of them seeing home again is next to nil.

ContemplativeSphinx wrote:Vague recall on my part would say "no." Once an IG regiment leaves their home planet, the likelihood of them seeing home again is next to nil.

Indeed. With the huge distances they travel, it's far easier to keep shipping the Guard regiments on to new warzones than to detach ships to return the Guard regiment to their home planet. It happens on occasion, but it seems to be that the regiment is either wiped out/amalgamated with another or the remnants given land on nearby Imperial worlds or recently taken worlds to boost the population levels.

In Emperor's Mercy the guard's rations were described as a tasteless protein gruel. I imagine it varies from fleet to fleet, depending on where the fleet is getting supplied and by whom.

Kaldor wrote:

Melissia wrote:

Kaldor wrote:Just a little food for thought:

10,000 men eating 3 MREs a day, for a year (a pretty average there-and-back-again deployment for the IG, I'd reckon) will require about 8 million tonnes of MRE

Actually that's a pretty light deployment, not average...

I was only referring to the duration. I don't think theres many figures on average numbers of guardsmen per deployment.

Actually, that raises another interesting question. Is there anything like a 'deployment' for the IG? It seems like their standard procedure is to either be in a war zone, or en route to a war zone, or garrisoning a potential war zone. They'd never really spend any time 'at home' would they?

There is, but a deployment can last decades-- new recruits are shipped to them, they don't go back for them usually.

Usually it ends with the regiment settling down on the planet they conquered.

Guard units only return home at the end of they're career (ref Imperial Glory). This is purely to return the colours and start up a new regiment based around a honour guard of the previous one. Otherwise after a regiment retires its given a world and left to cultivate it as they please. However guardsmen are probably free to do what they want after retirment, thus they could go home. ....Though due to warp travel it is noted that the world they return to could have changed drastically due to time discrepencies (ie like War and Peace).;