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Tyrannids will just kill you. Daemons will destroy your mind and consume your soul for an eternity.

Daemons have reality shifting, mind fuking, flesh mutating effects that literally turns the world around them into an extension of the warp.
First your mind will be subjected the the foul taint of the warp. You and/or your buddies will be turned into broken husk of raving madness.

Then the daemons will come for you. Khorne is your cleanest bet, plop goes your *insert body part here* and you're dead. Slaanesh will torture you first. Nurgle will turn you into something that would turn you mad - if not for the fact that you have already become mad by that point. Tzeech will turn you into a mindless mutant raving madness.

Then, when what little of what made you, you is gone. Your soul will become the playthings of the entity of the warps for an eternity.

Daemons. Are. Messed. Up.

ERJAK wrote:
Not sure about enemy but Sisters would be the scariest ALLY. From what I understand SoB tend to be...less concerned with friend/foe recognition than they should be.

Not so much - Sororitas are often a more reliable ally than Astartes - neither are exactly forgiving but the latter has elements that turn into frothing super powered madman who can't tell friend from foe.

A Guardsman - especially a new recruit will likely see either of them as holy warriors and be a bit overwhelmed at fighting alongside them.

In terms of enemies - well if the recruit has read his primer he will know all the weakness of his inferior foes

With regard to demons, I'd have thought they'd be scariest when not on the battlefield.

Sure, they're a terrifying foe (but what isn't in this universe?). However, I'd have thought the real fear would come from the possibility of corruption.

Most terrifiyng? Daemons, because we already have depictions in the fluff how even saying the NAMES of the Chaos gods can make Loyalists feel uncomfortable. Once the Daemons start popping in, a Guardsman would have trouble focusing and recognizing the taraget. Any potential dissenting voice that was in their mind would become louder and louder. Once the Warp opens up and Daemons begin to take to the field, most mortal men would not know how to handle it in many cases. I remember references in the fluff that Guardsmen aren't really given information on Daemons, because to think about them can bring them to you in ways, and that not sharing anything more than "shooting the red, green, pink, and purple monster things!" isn't enough. Daemons would prey on the primal, psychic fear present in the ranks.

Most worrying? Tyranids, as they are relentless. Aside from the potential of the Shadow in the Warp causing unease and headaches, they just KEEP COMING. As a soldier, you will run out of ammo before the onslaught ends. Even if you win a battle, it's just barely a moment's reprieve, as there will BE MORE COMING. The Great Devourer just wants to overwhelm you and eat you, which is a primal fear that is instinctive in itself. However, the Tyranids are a Xenos threat, and if it bleeds, we can kill it! Information can be shared openly with the ranks of troopers on Tyranids, which can give confidence to the Guardsmen and improve their chances.

I said Dark Eldar.
Because they take you, not just kill you.

Regarding dark eldar - I imagine that they strike so suddenly, and guardsmen know so very little about how DE treat prisoners (it's not like anyone comes back to tell about it), that I feel like there's probably not enough knowledge to be afraid. Just a bunch of knife-eared bastards zooming around on hoverbikes. Dangerous, but not entirely scary, at least from their perspective, imo.

Ditto (but to a lesser degree) for daemons. They pop out of nowhere, and guardsmen don't know what they are or what's going on. Probably far more scary than DE, imo, as daemons literally are the stuff of nightmares and can materialize anywhere. Again, though, it seems like the attack is so sudden, and there is so little they know about their enemy that there may not be much time to be afraid.

Bugs, though. They devour planet after planet, leaving them bare in their wake. They come in unending swarms, and are utterly alien. DE and even most demons are at least generally humanoid, so there's some degree of familiarity, but bugs don't even have that. Your average dudesmen just has to sit and watch them come and know exactly what happens if he fails to stop them. That sense of knowledge and dread, to me, would probably be more terrifying than DE or even demons.

To see what's coming and know you can't stop it.

Daemons. Even if you survive some jerkface Inquisitor is going to come along after and kill you anyway.

Dark Eldar. Everything else in the universe is only going to kill you or drive you insane. Dark Eldar will do things to you that makes being dead or insane seem like a blessing. Even their weapons are designed not just to kill, but to kill in the most painful and horrific way possible.

I said 'nids cause not only are the ripping you apart but they're descending from the sky, bursting out the ground, digesting the very earth beneath you feet and infiltrating you mind.

And all that comes after your mate has told you he's part of a dodgy cult, the emperor has four arms and if you don't join him he's going to get his weird looking mates to kill you.

 EnTyme wrote:
I would say Daemons. There is a primal fear involved in that one. There's a reason some version of them exists in every world religion and culture. Daemons are a living embodiment of the things we hate and fear about ourselves.

The same argument could be applied to Tyranids - they have that perfect predatory form that inspires an instinctive fight or flight reaction - just as demons have been present in every world religion and culture, pretty much every single version of humanity has had an instinctive desire to run around from the large thing with claws and sharp teeth, even before we had religion.

I'd say Daemons for the pure reason of even if you survive that nightmare, you'd still find yourself with a Ordo Herecticus round in your skull. Even if you did a good job, you wind up dead along with a pretty bad case of PTSD.

I'm confused as to why Dark Eldar arent topping the list,. the only people with the capability to keep you alive indefinatley while tormenting you and gaining strength from your agony.

live dissections... *shudders*

 supreme overlord wrote:
I'm confused as to why Dark Eldar arent topping the list,. the only people with the capability to keep you alive indefinatley while tormenting you and gaining strength from your agony.

live dissections... *shudders*

I think the trick is, in my mind, that a fresh-faced guardsman, as the OP's title says, wouldn't know that's what DE do.