Baldeagle91 wrote:
Most guardsmen will probably never see an xeno. Most of the time they fight fellow humans, of which it's extremely questionable of how many are actually followers of Chaos.

After that it's orks.... probably followed by followers of Chaos, the nids, then everyone else. Necrons are potentially the least well known.

People also forget that most planets in the imperium don't actually know about tyranids as their excursions have been small enough to be largely covered up in most of the imperium. Generally speaking only veterans of campaign against chaos or tyranids know of their true horror. Most normal humans who fight the forces of chaos for example will be mind wiped, forced into camps or killed to keep the secret.

By comparison rebels and Ork xenos are fairly well known about. Eldar raids are common enough to be known about along major trade routes and humans in the area's around the Tau empire trade with them to have fairly good knowledge about their species.

As such the vast majority of combat you see guardsmen undertake is against other humans. The variety of quality between both Imperial Guard regiments and PDF forces means it can be either a total mismatch or a fairly even fight, akin to modern combat situations, albeit with potentially even larger extremes (aka cultures without even blackpowder tech vs lasguns).

Also some planets potentially have better weapons than the imperial guard. For example the lasgun is mostly used to it's ease of supply, which is needed when you have a military so large. Arguably the Autogun is more deadly, exchanged for larger supply lines due to ammunition and a slight decrease in reliability. You can also bet that there are going to be many native forces with weapons akin to what we have today that would fare quite well against Imperial Guard tactics.

Also the claim the imperial guard are the best of a planets armed forces is questionable, as many planets keep their best soldiers (albeit illegally) for themselves.

The TLDR version, around 99.99% of the fighting in the imperium is done by the imperial guard. The real world comparison of their actual fighting capability (and equipment weirdly enough) would range from anything from arming a medieval peasant with an assault rifle all the way up to modern special forces.

locarno24 wrote:
True, but then other, later games had the Autogun be more effective - Inquisitor and the first Dark Heresy rules had the two weapons have the same punch, but the autogun could fire single shot, semi-automatic, or full automatic whilst the lasgun was limited to single shot or semi-auto, making the autogun much better for suppressing fire.

Sone patterns of lasgun did have overcharge options (or hot shot packs), but then the autogun could get manstopper bullets and similar special ammo.

 jhe90 wrote:
Also some guard regiments are specalist units.

Catchans on a open artic world is bad. Confined hive city or jungle gonna get gak done.

Got a seige. Death korps. Useless in a manoover war that requires initive though.

The guard has a few who excel used right. There is a enormous range of regiments. Some even rarely geneticaly altered for campaigns on perticarly tough worlds.

 NoiseMarine with Tinnitus wrote:
For a pretty Grimdark view of the DKoK at work read Dead Men Walking. Not too shabby a yarn.

 Bobthehero wrote:

 NoiseMarine with Tinnitus wrote:
For a pretty Grimdark view of the DKoK at work read Dead Men Walking. Not too shabby a yarn.

And its sorta sequel/prequel Down Amongst the Dead Men. Steve Lyons writes wonderful DKoK

Those weren't GW games though we're they? I was under the imression FF games were kind of ambiguous in terms of fluff

123ply wrote:
The autogun is NOT more deadly. It's common knowledge that lasguns are more powerful. Even In the Necromunda rules lasguns had a -1 save modifier while autoguns didn't.
SW:A has them with the same stats because it's a game which features almost all factions, not just gangers where the differences in weapons can be seen in more detail

 Baldeagle91 wrote:

Autoguns are generally represented as causing more damage than lasguns, because despite having a very similar 'punch' the lasgun cauterizes the wound. The Autogun doesn't which can leave people to bleed out. then you have issues like tumbling slugs etc, which will cause worse wounds. Lasgun shots simply will not do that due to the physics of how the laser rounds kill. Aka lasguns kill via raw damage, autoguns can drop opponents without necessarily killing them outright.

 Amanax wrote:
Oooh, but what if the autogun works better against Orks because they hear the gun, and think it does more damage then the lasgun, therefor, since the Ork thinks it does more damage, it actually does do more damage?

Ork Logic.

 Formerly Wu wrote:

 Amanax wrote:
Oooh, but what if the autogun works better against Orks because they hear the gun, and think it does more damage then the lasgun, therefor, since the Ork thinks it does more damage, it actually does do more damage?

Ork Logic.

Ah, but that's balanced by the orky instinct of "dat shoota's proppa loud, I gotta get me hands on it!"

 Melissia wrote:
It's either leadership or numbers. With enough numbers, they're fearless regardless of the leader. With a strong enough leader, they're fearless regardless of the numbers. With both, they're nigh-unstoppable.

 Melissia wrote:
Not really, casualties aren't always large for every battle. Sometimes firepower and preparedness is enough to win the day decisively without needing to expend bodies. The "dies to a man" meme is stupid, and not fluffy.

 Schadenfreudig wrote:
How effective are Imperial Guard lore wise? Do they get s*it done? Or do they just hold the line until their bigger, badder forces of the IoM arrive?

P.S. Does this included the Imperial Navy or are they a separate entity?

Munga wrote:
The IG, in a "fair" fight, can steamroll pretty much anything.

 Bobthehero wrote:
At range, an Ork boy should lose to a Guardsman, same goes for the smaller Tyranid gribblies.

 Ashiraya wrote:
And that's okay. That's what Space Marines are for (just as Marines can't deal with all the rebellions and pirates and what have you).