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The actual number of times the Guard faces Chaos are fairly small. The #1 enemy of the Imperial Guard are just rebellious planets, so their enemies are just other humans.
It is best to be a pessimist. You are usually right and, when you're wrong, you're pleasantly surprised.
Psienesis wrote: The actual number of times the Guard faces Chaos are fairly small. The #1 enemy of the Imperial Guard are just rebellious planets, so their enemies are just other humans.
Any source for that?
From the fluff I read, it looks like the IG fights Chaos most of the time. Of course, I am not even close to having read all fluff.
IG Codices from the past 20-something years to now.
The BL novels basically capture only the "most exciting" (to a modern-day reader) events.
But in-universe, you have planets and break-away provinces and worker uprisings and all that kind of thing happening all.The.Freaking.Time. So the Guard gets to go in, kick ass, and pacify an ostensibly-Imperial world.
Then you have the various non-Chaotic Xenos to deal with. The Eldar. The Dark Eldar. The Tyranid. The Necrons. The Tau. All those minor Xenos races that get mentioned by name but never pictured or given a Codex.
Chaos is just 1 faction (or 2, if you want to split them into CSM and Daemons, or "Guys In the Eye" and "Traitor Guard"... maybe "Guys Not In The Eye"?) out of what is, potentially, *dozens* of other things that threaten the Imperium.
Going purely by statistics, events of Chaos-born insurrections or invasions and the like just aren't happening that often... but when they do, they are a Very Big Deal.
It is best to be a pessimist. You are usually right and, when you're wrong, you're pleasantly surprised.
Psienesis wrote:The Sabbat Crusade is featured in a Black Library series, which is not required to adhere to anything published anywhere in a Codex (which is why most everyone in the Ghosts wears carapace armor, for example).
Uh, what? Ghosts don't even wear flak armour most of the time. Their battle dress uniform is described as fatigues.
They also only encounter Traitor Marines... like, twice. And then it's basically the command staff, and thus almost all of the "named" characters, and Abnett isn't going to kill them off, because otherwise he's out a book deal.
Ahaha... you... really need to read these books. Of the original named characters, I can count the survivors on one hand. Including command staff. The only one with real contractual immortality is Gaunt. And Sabbat, I guess, but that's a more in universe kind of immortality.
"That time I only loaded the cannon with powder. Next time, I will fill it with jewels and diamonds and they will cut you to shrebbons!" - Nogbad the Bad.
The burning pits of Hades, also known as Sweden in summer
Psienesis wrote: IG Codices from the past 20-something years to now.
The BL novels basically capture only the "most exciting" (to a modern-day reader) events.
But in-universe, you have planets and break-away provinces and worker uprisings and all that kind of thing happening all.The.Freaking.Time. So the Guard gets to go in, kick ass, and pacify an ostensibly-Imperial world.
This is true. This unproportional representation is why the majority of the novels feature Space Marines when, in the actual setting, the battles featuring Space Marines are in minority.
Uh, what? Ghosts don't even wear flak armour most of the time. Their battle dress uniform is described as fatigues.
I have read them.
Rawne wears carapace, as his breastplate gets cracked by a solid slug at Hinzerhaus. All three Commissars have ballistic plates in their stormcoats. Brostin is described in... one of the books, I forget which... of affixing his flamer tanks to the harness over his breastplate.
As far as named characters that die:
Spoiler:
Colm Corbec
Lucien Wilder, though his entire story-arc is to die valiantly so Gaunt can take command of the Ghosts again
Vigo Kamori, who's only real mention is him being KIA
Doc Dorden, who was dying of cancer anyway
Lhurn Adare, who gets killed by a Loxatl merc, and in so doing is basically where we learn who the guy was
Agun Soric, mercy-killed by Gaunt
Dermon Caffran, kind of a major deal
Sergeant Baffels, a minor minor character given a bit of backstory just to get gunned down by the sponson weapon of a Baneblade
Sergeant Blane, killed in what amounts to a friendly-fire incident (actually an attempt to wipe out the Tanith by another IG Regiment)
Sehra Muril, murdered by Lijah Cuu
Sniper Rilke, killed when his dropship explodes
Sniper Raess, killed by a booby trap
Doyl, killed by Loxatl
Corporal Baru, killed in action
Scout Trooper Logris, killed in action by a falling tree
Trooper Mkendrick, killed by Loxatls
Dec Coir, killed in action in Hinzerhaus
Trooper Suth, died on Planet Eastern Front, IIRC Scout Trooper Preed, booby trap
Trooper Bragg, murdered by Cuu
Murt Feygor, died trying to blow up a Chaos Gate... failed to do so.
Lijah Cuu, shot and killed by Larkin (richly deserved it)
Piet Gutes, died on Planet Eastern Front
Trooper Cole, a basic red-shirt
Trooper Brown, also a red-shirt
Trooper Roskil, yet another red-shirt
Trooper Fulke, is a victim of Logris, to prove how much of a hard-ass Logris is
Flame-Trooper Furrian, serves as an object lesson in why being a flame-trooper sucks
Niceg Vamberfeld, is one of the martyrs for the machines in the Saint's tomb that wipes out a fethload of Chaos troops
Loglas, died on Planet Western Front, just so Larkin could gain more fear of Cuu
Rhen Merrt, dies with Doc Morden in combat
Mikal Dorden, KIA in Vervunhive
Trooper Costin, is set-up to be killed by Loxatl
... of those names listed, there's about half a dozen of them that could be considered "major" characters. The list of living, named characters in the Tanith First-And-Only is about twice as long as that list.
It is best to be a pessimist. You are usually right and, when you're wrong, you're pleasantly surprised.
Flak armour has a breastplate too, but fine, not just fatigues. If they were meant to wear carapace armour, they would not be called light infantry. Even Abnett's not that senile.
"That time I only loaded the cannon with powder. Next time, I will fill it with jewels and diamonds and they will cut you to shrebbons!" - Nogbad the Bad.
Furyou Miko wrote: Flak armour has a breastplate too, but fine, not just fatigues. If they were meant to wear carapace armour, they would not be called light infantry. Even Abnett's not that senile.
You ever read Brothers of the Snake? It's got a recurring character who goes from Aspirant to Tactical Marine in one year and is incredibly soft-spoken and patient with backwater humans, an Apothecary who has to manually crack open dead and dying Marines in order to extract, sterilize, and preserve Progenoids, Space Marine Helmets that can flip the front part up, and an Inquisitor who makes TWO Khorne=Corn jokes and says 'whatever' like a tweenage mall-rat.
It's like if C.S. Goto was a good enough writer that you could forgive his constant screw-ups.
Carapace isn't that heavy but, also, what differentiates Heavy and Light Infantry is not specifically their gear, but their tactics.
Light Infantry is a scouting/skirmishing unit, while Heavy Infantry tends to fight in infantry formations, being a solid core around which other army elements are arranged. You can have a Heavy Infantry unit dressed in flak, or even no armor at all, provided they remain in formation and are providing the brunt of fire-power in the face of the enemy. The Light Infantry acts as a screening/skirmishing unit that supports the Heavy Infantry.
... also, Flak Armor is ballistic fabrics, not a solid plate-like shell that could crack. It would shred, like a kevlar vest, but flak is not a "solid" armor like carapace is.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/04/11 21:21:04
It is best to be a pessimist. You are usually right and, when you're wrong, you're pleasantly surprised.
Furyou Miko wrote: Flak armour has a breastplate too, but fine, not just fatigues. If they were meant to wear carapace armour, they would not be called light infantry. Even Abnett's not that senile.
Space Marine Helmets that can flip the front part up.
That could actually make sense. If you look closely at the SM helmet, the faceplate seems to be loose from the rest of the helmet.
