Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So how does the Imperial guard get their initial invasion force onto a planet? Do they have the ability to use drop pods? Or do they just use tons and tons of Valkyries till they get a beach head?

Seeing as flying a huge ship into the atmosphere to unload 400,000 troops would seem kinda ballsy with all the anti-aircraft fire coming from the planet.

They use landing ships/retro fitted small cargo ships:
from memory they can carry upto ~100 men each and would/should have air support.

There's no way that a planet can be fully covered in defenses against a landing force. The Guard can establish a beachhead far from any important target and use this foothold to anchor their assaults on strategic objectives. The Siege of Vraks describes the Guard establishing their headquarters hundreds of miles from the fortress (Vraks had only one settlement, but any planet has to have remote reaches just from sheer size) and enclosing the Chaos positions gradually. Valks are only really used for short-range combat actions.

They use something called Bulk Landers. They are enormous Cathedral-shaped landing craft that can carry entire Regiments. You see them in the background of most Imperial Guard model boxes.

Or they just blast an area from orbit to land on. Finesse is not really in the Guards vocabulary!

Harriticus wrote:They use something called Bulk Landers. They are enormous Cathedral-shaped landing craft that can carry entire Regiments. You see them in the background of most Imperial Guard model boxes.

In the top left corner, you can see it.

Check the Siege of Vraks serious. They detail a 40-year war from start to end, including the landing of troops.

The front cover of the codex gives a good example of a troop drop. One thing you can't call the Guard is subtle.

DeadlySquirrel wrote:

Harriticus wrote:They use something called Bulk Landers. They are enormous Cathedral-shaped landing craft that can carry entire Regiments. You see them in the background of most Imperial Guard model boxes.

In the top left corner, you can see it.
]

I've never noticed that before, makes me wonder what else is hidden on box art.

The middle book in "The Lost" gaunt's ghosts omnibus quite vividly depicts an IG invasion.

First the assault landers go in. Each carrying 100ish foot soldiers. We're talking hundreds upon hundreds of these things.


They enter the atmosphere at the same time. This causes a massive pressure wave from the dropping of several hundred million tons of steel into the atmosphere that can flatten forests and level small buildings. Then once the beachhead is established, then the Bulk Landers start coming in and dropping armor and Titans.


Imagine a huge wind, hundreds of miles an hour. Followed by a cloud of landers disgorging thousands upon thousands of men right into your face, and that's just the vanguard...

Step 1: bomb the *bleep* out of a "landing zone" from space with all guns on the mighty naval ships.
Step 2: strap into numerous landing ships (of varrying sizes depending on cargo be it infantry regiments, mechanized etc.) and plummet enmass into the atmosphere in waves.
Step3: establish a base of operations on the now flat, glassed landing zone.
Step 4: venture out and crush anything thats gets in the way.
step 5: after crushing the threat, establish new government (or but old one back in place), and leave a large contingent behind to make sure they stay under imperal control.
Step6: gather together and leave for next war zone.

rinse hands with blood of foes and repeat.


Guardsmen don't know the words of Sublty. least not most of them.

Grey Templar wrote:The middle book in "The Lost" gaunt's ghosts omnibus quite vividly depicts an IG invasion.

First the assault landers go in. Each carrying 100ish foot soldiers. We're talking hundreds upon hundreds of these things.


They enter the atmosphere at the same time. This causes a massive pressure wave from the dropping of several hundred million tons of steel into the atmosphere that can flatten forests and level small buildings. Then once the beachhead is established, then the Bulk Landers start coming in and dropping armor and Titans.


Imagine a huge wind, hundreds of miles an hour. Followed by a cloud of landers disgorging thousands upon thousands of men right into your face, and that's just the vanguard...

Subltey, I guess we can say, is not an Imperial strong point.