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Losing both legs, maybe? Or would the Imperium just fit him with cybernetics and send him right back in?

I doubt they'd spend the resources on some random guardsman who got his legs blown off- he'd probably be honorably discharged. I believe there are actually cases of old commissars being allowed to retire, but I can't remember where I read that.

 Vitali Advenil wrote:
I doubt they'd spend the resources on some random guardsman who got his legs blown off- he'd probably be honorably discharged. I believe there are actually cases of old commissars being allowed to retire, but I can't remember where I read that.

In many of the Commissar Cain books he talks about retiring. As for guardsmen, I'd probably agree that if they could no longer fight and cybernetics were not practical (e.g. They just aren't important enough for one) I reckon they'd just be ditched anywhere, or 'honourably discharged' as soon as possible. Emperor bless the imperium.

1) If they were injured to a point were simple bionic replacement aren't possible.

2) Colonisation rights are given them.

3) The war in their sector is over and they won't be relocated anywhere close.

4) If they reach an age where they are no longer fit for duty.

5) If the individual is reclaimed by another institution like the Inquisition, the Ecclesiarchy or even a Space Marine Chapter or Sister of Battle Order.

There is probably other reasons, but I can't think of more.

It takes a lot more than a missing limb to put a Guardsman down for good. The novels, background, tie-in RPGs, and even the models have a number of cybernetic replacements and augmentations.

Typically, they'd get rotated out either by being given settlement rights or put on some sort of permanent garrison duty...neither of which are things that happen particularly often. That's about it, although I suppose there might be the odd Guardsman who gets retired due to advanced age.

That probably doesn't happen a lot.

I swear I read after 20 tours they are retired.

It wouldn't be available to most guardsmen, but some prominent soldiers may also have access to things that reduce the aging process. For example, Cain and Gunner Jurgen have served for over 70 years, and they had an uneasy retire. (Uneasy as in very likely to still go out and be on the front line) That isn't the best example though, since Cain is a hero of the Imperium, and Jurgen is his aide and friend.

Politics or lack of resources

Worthless guards men -> would just be recycled in some sort of way. Either as food or servitor or organ donor etc.

A really worthy guards men would be worth fixing up unless there are not enough resources.

But those who create a unwanted political situation might be honorably discharged

Would likely be left behind on what ever planet they were injured on.

epronovost wrote:
1) If they were injured to a point were simple bionic replacement aren't possible.

2) Colonisation rights are given them.

3) The war in their sector is over and they won't be relocated anywhere close.

4) If they reach an age where they are no longer fit for duty.

5) If the individual is reclaimed by another institution like the Inquisition, the Ecclesiarchy or even a Space Marine Chapter or Sister of Battle Order.

fixed dat for you

In the case of wounds, I suspect that the guardsmen would be reassigned to something they can still be useful in. You don't need legs to teach new meat how to shoot, or to operate a vox. If you lose an arm that's a bit trickier, but they could still serve as runners or some such.
Otherwise, the way I would expect it to go is the regiment in question (lets say the Shraan 182nd Gravediggers) has fought for a decade or so, but then they get the crap kicked out of them and only a few hundred veterans are left alive. Unless the sector is desperate for more highly experienced men, then reforming the regiment would be more trouble than its worth. In such case the regiment would be released from service, and the men discharged.

In one of Abnett's books, he mentions Guardsmen who returned home after 20 years of duty, but remember that what Abnett writes takes place in what he calls the "Daniverse". That is to say, it is Dan Abnett's own take on the 40k setting, so what he says happens in his version of the setting may not hold true in the settings of other authors.

 Psienesis wrote:
In one of Abnett's books, he mentions Guardsmen who returned home after 20 years of duty, but remember that what Abnett writes takes place in what he calls the "Daniverse". That is to say, it is Dan Abnett's own take on the 40k setting, so what he says happens in his version of the setting may not hold true in the settings of other authors.

Indeed although 40k seems to mainly follow the ancient Roman method of settling veterans on conquered worlds or indeed reconquered worlds:

It provides a core of tough and loyal citizens who will also be a useful militia / pdf straight away

Most Guardsmen are given colonization rights to a planet after a certain time of services. The casualties are high enough that very few live long enough to see it.

Horrible wounds could do it as well. In Chapter's Due, there's a space marine who was placed in a reserve position because he was too wounded to fight but not quite bad enough for a dreadnought. I'd imagine there are plenty of other options as well.

The easier route is to be promoted out. Higher ranks get safer conditions and some will be pulled out to serve as instructors or other reserve positions

 Psienesis wrote:
In one of Abnett's books, he mentions Guardsmen who returned home after 20 years of duty, but remember that what Abnett writes takes place in what he calls the "Daniverse". That is to say, it is Dan Abnett's own take on the 40k setting, so what he says happens in his version of the setting may not hold true in the settings of other authors.

There are a few cases where Guardsmen return to their homeworlds. The Brimlock Dragoons, for example, has a tradition where the color guard of a regiment returns home. From there, they either form the core of a new regiment, or become instructors known as "magisters".

A bullet?

If you lived long enough I'd imagine they would leave you behind on what ever planet your last tour was on and have you start teaching the PDF. Any guardsman who lived that long would have a wealth of tactical knowledge.

Badly wounded probably, though he might just be recycled into a Servitor under those circumstances.

So lets add bad wounding + honorable record

As a living battle cannon shell.

He's being honored by replacing one of the Emperor's holy battle cannon shells and is being discharged by the cannon.

Death most likely.
20 yrs a soldiering. Doubtful, but possible. Then turn into farmers.
Dropped off on a planet, problem wasnt that bad, not worth sending a ship to fetch them.
The war zone wasnt active enough, so they were left on permanent guard duty.
There wasnt enough of them left to fold into a new regiment.

"Only in death does duty end."

According to the old fluff (circa 2nd edition), IG troopers served a single 20 year-long tour of duty. At the end of that tour, their regiment would be assigned to conquer a new world and bring it into the Imperium. If they survived that battle, they were discharged from the IG and put in a position of authority on the newly conquered world.

As for being discharged due to combat injuries, there hasn't been any official word on this, as far as I know. Back in the day, there weren't many appearances of cybernetic limbs on things apart from in John Blanche's artwork, and he puts cyberlimbs on bloody everything. These days, we are seeing more cybernettics showing up in the various art sources, and they are showing up in the novels more often, so it isn't unreasonable to assume the Imperium actually has large-scale production of crude cyber replacements for limbs. They can make lasguns by the bajillions; I'm sure they can crank out a few billion robot arms for wounded Guardsmen to use. Especially if giving a wounded soldier a robot arm means that he can keep fighting the enemies of the Imperium.

An IG trooper would probably only be discharged for battle wounds if those injuries were too severe to warrant cyber replacements (such as multiple limbs being lost at the same time, or severe brain trauma, or accidental misplacement of all internal organs). Although, an IG trooper with those kinds of injuries probably wouldn't be saved by the medics in the first place. He would most likely be allowed to die and then be recycled into a servo-skull so that he could continue serving the Emperor.

I'm not aware of any fluff case that even begins to imply that physically disabled loyal servants who were still mentally functional were involuntarily recycled as servitors, human cannonballs, or sent on suicide missions.

(failed space marines that become servitors are already braindead by that point anyways, if I recall correctly)

If anything, that's one of the few things that consistently morally differentiates the Imperium from Chaos.

Being made into a servitor is a punishment, iirc. It is reserved only for criminals that are worthy of being given a chance to redeem themselves. Pretty much the AdMech's version of arco-flagellation.

One does not redeem themselves from being a servitor. Your mind is erased, all vestiges of personality destroyed, and your brain rendered into an organic hard drive and processing unit, awaiting the installation of basic programming functions for whatever it is your meat-parts are going to be doing until they rot away to uselessness.

The only transformation I've read to be consider an honor is being turned into a servo skull when you die and that is done after you died of natural causes.

Well in "know no Fear", good ole Ollanius Pius was a private in the Imperial army for 25 years before he was able to retire. He served 25 years and then retired with a service-share of land proportionate to his time served, rounding down. So he retired with 20 acres and he kept his lasgun and uniform. He was about 54 in the book if I remember correctly, so he was 29 when he entered the service. Retiring in the guard is a rare thing tho, most guardsmen don't go 5 years without being killed or maimed beyond recognition.

 Psienesis wrote:
One does not redeem themselves from being a servitor. Your mind is erased, all vestiges of personality destroyed, and your brain rendered into an organic hard drive and processing unit, awaiting the installation of basic programming functions for whatever it is your meat-parts are going to be doing until they rot away to uselessness.

There are cases of servitors getting some very basic memorys back.
Unless they keep some aspects of their personalities underneath the core programming, Its not much of a problem being a servitor.

There was that GK story about a ex Colonial, Commissar and the remainder of his company. Farmers on a Agri world. The orks turned up. I think some were missing a limb or 2, they didnt have much in the way of weaponry. Some only had blades I think.

the ancient wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
One does not redeem themselves from being a servitor. Your mind is erased, all vestiges of personality destroyed, and your brain rendered into an organic hard drive and processing unit, awaiting the installation of basic programming functions for whatever it is your meat-parts are going to be doing until they rot away to uselessness.

There are cases of servitors getting some very basic memorys back.
Unless they keep some aspects of their personalities underneath the core programming, Its not much of a problem being a servitor.

There was that GK story about a ex Colonial, Commissar and the remainder of his company. Farmers on a Agri world. The orks turned up. I think some were missing a limb or 2, they didnt have much in the way of weaponry. Some only had blades I think.

If those were meant to be servitors, it seems that they (like Abnett) have a different take on what constitutes a "servitor", compared to the rest of the information regarding the AdMech and its creations. In the Ravenor books, one such servitor is, in physical appearance, almost entirely human, excepting some I/O ports for interfacing with the submarine he pilots. He also cracks jokes, makes witty remarks, is capable of displaying and feeling a wide range of human emotions and, obviously, has memory and personality. Even speaks and uses slang.

In pretty much every other example, a servitor is a vegetable, mentally, apart from the engrammatic programs implanted (sometimes in a very literal sense) into their brains, with their limbs replaced with augmetic parts used in their task. If, for example, you are a Lifter Unit servitor, your legs get replaced with tracks and your arms with forklift tines and hydraulic pistons. Servitors are used where either human labor is either inefficient, unavailable or otherwise unfeasible (such as extremely toxic environments), or where one has enough funds to replace an entirely human staff with the 40k version of droids (like the bridge of a Rogue Trader vessel). They are also used in places where a human cannot be quickly or easily trained for a task that involves rote, repetitive action that requires precision and accuracy... like copying books, translating text, being the door-greeter at Space-Mart, etc.

I always thought the fluff stated that if a Guardman survived for seven sidereal years, he could leave the Guard.

This seems to have been retconned out: survival rates are low, there was no explanation of how temporal warp distortions or space travel might impact this "seven years", and it generally seems that "once a Guardsman, always a Guardsman".

Occasionally we hear references to ex-Imperial Guard veterans doing other things, i.e. working with Inquisitors, but I don't think I've ever read about a Guardsman actually being discharged from service.