Death Korps of Krieg

"The Krieg method of war is a measure of discipline and their sacrifice. It demands respect from all - friend and foe alike."

- Lord Commander Militant, Segmentum Obscurus

The Death Korps of Krieg is the name given to all of the Imperial Guard regiments that originate from the devastated, post-nuclear Hive World of Krieg in the Segmentum Tempestus. Krieg was the site of a rebellion against the Imperium of Man over 1,500 standard years ago in the 40th Millennium and was bombarded with nuclear weapons followed by five hundred years of grinding warfare to purge the heretical rebels. After all those years of nuclear destruction and bitter trench warfare, Krieg was reduced to a scorched, radioactive husk of a world composed of dust and mud whose surviving people were forced to retreat into underground hive cities to survive the toxic planetary environment. The Death Korps of Krieg is a siege specialist regiment of the Imperial Guard and the regiments raised on Krieg seek to repent for their former treachery against the Imperium by displaying a disturbing disregard for their own lives in combat. Death Korps troops excel at wars of attrition and defensive combat in particular.

Before the Fall
Much of the early history of the Hive World of Krieg in the Segmentum Tempestus is shrouded in rumour, allegory and dark myth. Its dreadful history of rebellion and treachery has been obscured and lost by the mists of time. This once-thriving Hive World was a trading and manufacturing centre that was populated by billions. Yet Krieg is now covered in a wilderness of ruined cities that span the poison-choked world. Bloated with wealth and corrupt with indolence, the former rulers of this world -- the Council of Autocrats -- was rife with petty vendetta and vice. This ruling oligarchy became increasingly insular and debauched over time. Their paranoia over an outside threat that could shatter their dictatorial rule caused them to sink vast resources into strengthening the defences of their hive cities, building private armies and further surrounding their world with an outward facing ring of steel. Worse, the Autocrats grew to resent the influence of the Imperial Administratum on "their" world and in particular the heavy tithes levied on them by the Departmento Munitorum, taking resources they protested were vital to their own defence. The citizens of Krieg were sadly ignorant of these slowly spiraling events and the terrible ruin the misrule of their leaders was about to bring down upon them.

Revolt
In 433.M40, the end came for Krieg in the form of the High Autocrat of Krieg's largest hive, the Chairman of the Council of Autocrats and the de facto Planetary Governor, (a man so hated that his name has been purged from all Imperial records by an Edict of Obliteration) who declared planetary-wide martial law and that Krieg was now independent of the Imperium of Man. The High Autocrat further renounced the Emperor of Mankind as his divine master and political overlord. Krieg was then immediately devoured by a civil war which erupted suddenly and violently, between the heretical rebels who supported the High Autocrat and those citizens of Krieg who remained firm Imperial Loyalists. After the rebels' initial attacks much of Krieg quickly fell to the Heretics, save for Hive Ferrograd which remained under Loyalist control under the command of the now-infamous Colonel Jurten of the 83rd Krieg Imperial Guard Regiment.

In response to the revolt, Colonel Jurten moved quickly to take control of the hive city from its vacillating rulers in a military coup. With the veteran colonel at its helm, Ferrograd rapidly became the rallying point for the remaining Loyalist factions. But the situation for the Loyalists was dire; the rebel forces numbered in the millions and Ferrograd was soon cut-off and besieged. The Loyalists were on their own; the planetary defences were under the Traitors' control, and those defences were strong enough that a full-scale fleet action would be required to breach them. Colonel Jurten had been informed in no uncertain terms by the Segmentum Command that an Imperial fleet on the scale necessary to invade Krieg would not be forthcoming. His orders were to resist with all means at his disposal, to engage the enemy, to punish their treachery and emerge victorious -- whatever the cost. So faced with the horrific odds stacked against him, Colonel Jurten came to the fateful decision that Krieg would either belong to the Emperor of Mankind or to no one at all. Within a secret Adeptus Mechanicus storage facility located deep below Hive Ferrograd, Colonel Jurten, with his loyal Adeptus Mechanicus ally, Archmagos Greel, moved to unlock the facility and to unleash the forbidden and ancient weapons within. While outside the siege ground on, within Ferrograd's walls the defenders laboured on a desperate plan.

The Purging
On the day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, Jurten unleashed his long-planned counter-attack using atomic weapon to enact a great cleansing of the planet's heretical population. The Traitors watched their Augers helplessly as Jurten's ballistic missiles arced high into the planet's stratosphere before detonating in blooms of blinding light, and unleashing tonnes of lethal isotopes which blanketed the entire world in a deadly fallout. For days Krieg was engulfed in a sea of nuclear fire. Krieg's already tainted and marginal ecosystem collapsed, and as a result, untold billions died due to the raging fires blocking out the sun and the nuclear winter that followed. To future generations who would live with the terrible consequences of the atomic attack, Jurten's plan would come to be known as the "Purging." Krieg might have been transformed into a blasted wasteland, but the Purging had evened up the odds. The Loyalists had been well prepared for the attack, while the Traitors suffered terribly.

But the civil war dragged on, regardless. The survivors from Jurten's nuclear purge were forced to exist in underground bunkers or deep in the radioactive chem-wastes of the Hive World, as their descendants do to this day. To the Imperial authorities Krieg was a prize no longer worth saving, its fate a red mark in the ledgers of the Administratum. Krieg became a man-made Death World, trapped in the freezing grip of a radioactive nuclear winter. The bloody war of attrition continued to rage between the surviving Secessionist and Loyalist troops across a planet where every inch of ground was eventually be littered with trenches, rusting razorwire and shell craters, in a deadly landscape where drifting fallout ash shrouded the numberless bones of the unburied dead.

A full accounting of those terrible centuries of civil war will never be known. Jurten finally perished, how, it is not recorded, but the descendants of those that followed him lived on, and became as fearless as they were callous. War would become all that they would ever know -- raised to fight from the cradle to the grave. The warriors that advanced great-coated and vapour-masked through the rad-wastes and blasted cities of Krieg would become known as the Death Korps -- existing only to endure the hellish planetary surface, in order to do their duty and to kill in the Emperor's name. The Loyalists slowly re-took their blasted world in the name of the Emperor over fifteen generations of terrible bloody attrition -- trench-by-trench and tunnel-by-tunnel -- with bayonet, brutality and when needed, atomic fire. After more than 500 standard years of the most nightmarish warfare imaginable and an incalculable price paid in human life and suffering, Krieg belonged to the Death Korps. From this long civil conflict and the unique military culture it engendered was born the tradition of naming Imperial Guard regiments drawn from Krieg as the Death Korps. Krieg was finally returned fully to the Imperial fold in 949.M40.

Engine of War
Though Krieg was returned to Imperial rule with little fanfare or regard, the Departmento Munitorum took note. Krieg was in arrears, so a new tithe of men for the Imperial Guard was placed upon it. The Munitorum Adepts were surprised when the Krieg authorities offered them not one but twenty regiments for immediate deployment, all formed, trained and equipped, and each commander requested the most hazardous Imperial war zones available. During five centuries of warfare, the people of Krieg had not sat idle, as beneath the blasted exterior of their world entire subterranean cities had been founded, tens of thousands of miles of bunkers and passageways dug, and a vast underworld of industry and manufacture geared specifically to the production of arms and equipment, but most of all to the production of soldiers, soldiers who proved to be implacable as the factory lines that armed them and as pitiless as their blasted radioactive world. Acting quickly, the Departmento Munitorum's need for soldiers was immediate. These new "Death Korps" regiments were inducted into the Imperial Guard, re-organised and issued with Commissars before being sent straight into combat.

The deployment of the regiments from the Death Korps of Krieg were immediately successful, despite the misgivings of some of the regiments they served alongside. In war zones that mirrored the horrific state of their homeworld, the Death Korps regiments proved superior to other Imperial Guard regiments. On worlds that were radioactive wastes, toxin zones and polluted ash-worlds, Imperial Guard generals quickly capitalised on deploying the Death Korps on such worlds. Stalemates were broken and advances achieved that otherwise would have required the massive expenditure of Penal Legion troops or the use of valuable elite forces such as the Adeptus Astartes.

When Krieg was taken directly under the authority of the Departmento Munitorum, the maximum tithe levels were enforced. Krieg's sole purpose was to turn out Death Korps soldiers as another world might mine ore or sow wheat. By the direct order of the High Lords of Terra nothing was to be allowed to interfere with this purpose. This has resulted in suspect practises being tolerated -- some, such as the eugenic policies designed to weed out mutations caused by Krieg's damaged, radioactive biosphere and universal conscription are continuations of policies once required during Krieg's centuries of civil war. It should be noted that Krieg raises an unusually large number of Imperial Guard regiments for such a devastated planet. This is attributed to the enforced use of the "Vitae Womb" birthing technique, which Krieg has been granted special dispensation to use as the result of their famous steel, determination and unswerving loyalty to the Emperor. Use of this technique is largely unknown outside of the Adeptus Biologis and are seen as dangerous and abhorrent by many Adeptus Mechanicus Magos Biologis.

As it stands today, Krieg is a true War World: its tithes are the maximum for the planet's population, raising tens of regiments every year where a comparably-sized world might be expected to tithe one regiment every decade. The rate of attrition and destruction among these regiments is likewise disproportionately high, as they are assigned to some of the most hazardous battlefields and dangerous worlds known to Mankind. Proving themselves extremely effective troops, the Death Korps has proved capable of achieving victories against the odds by dint of bloody sacrifice, endurance, aggression and unbreakable loyalty. But despite their glorious service record, Krieg units are not well-liked by Imperial Guard commanders who find these troops to be morose, taciturn, all too willing to accept high casualties (evon amongst their commanders) and difficult to deal with by non-Krieg natives. But in the strife and unending state of war that exists in the grim darkness of the late 41st Millennium, the Imperium of Man has dire need of such men. The use and number of Death Korps regiments is on the rise, as are the resources being devoted to their creation by the Departmento Munitorum.

Notable Campaigns

 * Siege of Vraks (813-830.M41) - The Siege of Vraks was an Imperial miltary campaign fought over the course of 17 standard years to retake the Imperial Armoury World of Vraks Prime from the heretical Forces of Chaos led by the Apostate Cardinal Xaphan. Vraks was besieged by the forces of the Imperium of Man in 813.M41, including the Death Korps of Krieg regiments. The Death Korps of Krieg acquitted themselves well, fighting in many major engagements throughout the entirety of the campaign. At the conclusion of what became a 17-year-long campaign of attrition requiring 34 Regiments of the Imperial Guard to re-take the planet for the Emperor of Mankind in 830.M41, 14 million Imperial Guardsmen had been lost and Vraks Prime's entire original population of 8 million souls had been consumed in the violence or exterminated after they fell to Chaos corruption. The world was then declared Perdita by the Imperium.
 * Castigation of Derondis (936-946.M41) - The Hive World of Derondis withholds its annual tithes and Krieg's Death Korps are deployed to act as the honour guard of the Departmento Munitorum investigation team. After the Imperium officials are hanged, the Krieg deploy in the towering mountains that overlook the primary hive. Several artillery and siege companies begin to bombard the city spires and the inhabitants are mercilessly gunned down as they try to break out from the besieged city. After ten years of relentless shelling, the hive is reduced to naught but rubble and dust, two years after all signs of life from the hive ceased and five years after the hive issued its unconditional surrender.
 * Third War for Armageddon (998.M41) - On the day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, fifty seven years to the day after his first invasion of the planet, Ghazghkull Thraka returns to the Hive World of Armageddon at the head of a Waaagh! of unprecedented size. Hades Hive is destroyed utterly by the Ork Warlord's devastating bombardment of captured asteroids. The Death Korps of Krieg sends 5 regiments in support of the Imperial defence against the Greenskin tide and only saves the beleaguered planet by sheer stubbornness during their defence and the onset of the Season of Fire.
 * Hive Tartarus - The regiments from Krieg were deployed to Hive Tartarus, which was beset on all sides by great waves of Orks pouring out of their Rok Fort to the north. The Death Korps was stationed in a vast network of trenches blocking the Ork advance into Hive Tartarus. They also made excellent progress in their efforts to reach the Rok itself. Having already earnt a fearsome reputation with the Orks in the sector, these grim soldiers seemed to be determined to take down the Ork stronghold by themselves. However without adequate reinforcements by the Adeptus Titanicus, the Death Korps of Krieg looked to be fighting a futile and costly war. Wearing their dark greatcoats and trademark gas masks, their sinister appearance reflected their uncompromising nature. The Death Korps soldiers did not fear dying and were more than willing to sacrifice their own lives for the greater good of the Korps. The first attack on Tartarus was led by the Blackskull Tribe in overwhelming force. The 14th Jopal Indentured Squadron mounted fierce resistance but the hive militias were routed and abandoned the Skeletus Factory Complex. Soon its small arms workshops were producing ammunition for sluggas and shootas. The main Ork attack was then launched by Morfang's Gargant Big Mob. Breaking through the front of the Imperial Guard position (known as Clain's Stronghold), they stormed into Tartarus pursued by a Legio Metalica battlegroup who engaged them before they could overwhelm the beleaguered Jopal Squadrons. Morfang's Boyz mobs swarmed over Clain's Stronghold in the Gargants' wake but were pinned down by the mortars and heavy bolters of the Death Korps of Krieg. Morfang's Gargants were making short work of Legio Metalica's Reavers but the odds were evened by the fire of the Ordinatus Golgotha from its eyrie on a spire shuttle pad. Three Gargants were destroyed before Morfang withdrew. The Legio Metalica could not pursue and so reinforced the Jopal line. The Death Korps of Krieg counter-attacked, timed mortar barrages pinning the Orks down while infantry and armoured units burrowed deep into the Ork lines. Once in place the Death Korps redirected their mortar batteries, herding the Orks together. Well-supplied by Tartarus's munitions factories, the Korps fired non-stop. Disjointed and unable to act coherently, Morfang's Boyz were destroyed. Briefly it seemed as though Morfang's Gargants would be trapped as the gap closed, but the Red Wheelz raced to their aid and held long enough for Morfang to escape. With Ork reserves fully committed, the Space Wolves of Harald Deathwolf's Great Company seized the opportunity to lead a breakout from Hemlock Cordon. The vanguard entered Tartarus after a four day march.

Regiment Recruitment and Training
Recruitment for members of the regiments of the Death Korps of Krieg is similar to many other Imperial worlds throughout the Imperium and conscription depends on varying circumstances. Though their harsh training methods, combat doctrines and regimental organisation are not in themselves unique amongst the units of the Imperial Guard, the Death Korps regiments are both unorthodox and extreme in their application. Tested, selected and relentlessly trained almost from birth for their appointed role as Imperial Guardsmen, the rates of fatality and injury during training are high amongst Death Korps recruits. To ensure that only the toughest and best make it into the new regiment, training is brutal and quickly weeds out the weak and unworthy, for fear and weakness are not tolerated. The minds and characters of the young prospective Guardsmen are purposefully broken and remade stronger, just as their bodies are trained to withstand hardship and endure suffering that would kill other men -- a task already begun by the mere fact of living a life on blighted Krieg.

Amongst the wreckage of the old radiation-blasted battlefields the training regiments march, dig trenches, clear minefields and fight mock battles against other cadets. Only those that endure are judged fit enough to take their place as members of the Death Korps. For this reason the regiment is able to maintain its famous standard of discipline and selflessness in combat. Gas masks are conventionally viewed as a second skin, as soldiers are trained to permanently operate with them if required. Fear of failing the Imperium and one's comrades, and a ceaseless devotion to duty, honour and the Emperor are instilled in new recruits to make certain that they will stand their ground in combat under any situation. Mental conditioning is the key part of their training so Death Korps troops are prepared for the myriad horrors to be found on the Imperial battlefield and beyond.

Combat Doctrine
"In the Emperor's service, the Death Korps will pay any price."

- Lord Marshall Arnim Kagori

During its great civil war, in order for Krieg's society to survive, it could not afford to sustain its weakest members. No sacrifice was considered too high a price to pay in the Emperor's service. This "Cult of Sacrifice" mindset continues to this day and it permeates every aspect of the Death Korps' combat doctrine and organisation. The character and tactical doctrine of the Krieg soldier was created by war. Having been raised only to fight, and having known nothing but constant battle, generations of fighting men came to see death in the name of the Emperor as their ultimate goal. This attitude remains even today, for Krieg Guardsmen are always willing to die as a sacrifice to the God-Emperor. For Krieg commanders, battles are won by the merciless application of overwhelming force. Their combat doctrine dictates that any battle where their capacity to fight and willingness to die exceeds that of their enemy is a battle already won -- everything else is merely a matter of time and attrition. The Death Korps' faith in the God-Emperor is instilled in every soldier from an early age. These established patterns of worship serve to amplify the culture of willing sacrifice and militancy among the Krieg.

The soldiers of Krieg are most famous for never flinching, even in the face of sudden death, and they see their deaths in war as a collective penance for the heresy of their ancestors so many years before. They are a dedicated trench and siege warfare force and perform best during wars of attrition. The Death Korps of Krieg regiments routinely volunteer for tours of service in the most dangerous warzones in the Imperium which means they have earned a fierce reputation across the galaxy. They excel in trench and siege warfare but have taken part in various different combat actions across many campaigns such as the Taros Campaign, the Third War for Armageddon, the Atria Wilderness Campaign and the Vorenz III Campaign to name but a few. They can be counted on over most other Imperial regiments to hold their ground and when advancing prefer a massive offensive over an extended front with a rolling barrage of artillery support. Many Krieg regiments are adept raiders of entrenched positions should a massed offensive be impractical or require the softening up of enemy positions before any such offensive can take place. The fact that the Death Korps of Krieg are known for unconditional loyalty and ruthlessness in prosecuting their wars mainly comes from the atomic purging that the 33rd Krieg Infantry under the command of Colonel Jurten inflicted on their own planet during the Krieg civil war, an event that the Death Korps of Krieg in general and the 33rd Krieg Infantry Regiment in particular are deeply proud of.

Regimental Deployment
Regiments are raised on Krieg with great frequency. The form and composition of these regiments will differ according to the edicts of the Departmento Munitorum and the strategic needs of the moment. Krieg supplies the manpower and the Departmento Munitorum organises that manpower in various different types of regiments. Infantry regiments, mechanised infantry and armoured regiments are all known, but by far the most common use of Krieg's manpower is as siege regiments. The Death Korps' philosophy of total war reaches its ultimate expression within these regiments. But what makes Death Korps of Krieg regiments distinct is not their wargear, but their mentality. Regardless of their assigned role, they retain the Death Korps' strengths of discipline, endurance, expertise in trench warfare and most notably their tolerance for high attrition rates and environmentally hazardous warzones.

Regimental Organisation
Krieg regiments operate under the standard and recognisable Imperial Guard command structure laid down by the Departmento Munitorum, with some minor local variation in insignia and designation, one example being that infantry sergeants are known by the title Watchmaster, whilst sergeants of the Death Rider companies are known as Ridemasters.
 * Death Korps Officer - Death Korps Officers, right up to the level of regimental command, typically lead and fight from the front -- this is not so much a conscious decision as a simple expression of the Death Korps mentality, as every Krieg Guardsman expects to fight and die for his Emperor. To this end, officers commonly equip themselves for the front line with grenades, powerful sidearms and either a Chainsword or Power Sword. Command squads wear their squad insignia (a "C" for command) on their right shoulder. Officer's helmets typically bear an ornate Imperial Aquila. Unlike many other Imperial Guard regiments that draw their troops from worlds with a long-standing militarised culture (such as the Mordians or Jantines for example), Krieg itself has no standing aristocracy or hereditary officer class. Instead its officers are drawn from the body of the rank and file. This means that the majority of the Death Korps officer cadre has been promoted through the ranks through a mixture of ability, seniority and often, by dint of simple survival. As veterans of the Death Korps' way of war, they have no regard for high casualties, which has led to morale problems where senior Krieg officers have been placed in charge of non-Krieg regiments in a wider theatre of war. It is also a noticeable feature of Krieg officer battledress that Krieg regiments do not issue medals or decorations as Krieg soldiers view such rewards as insignificant. Bravery is expected and commonplace, therefore Death Korps Guardsmen are not recognised with special rewards.
 * Death Korps Commissar - Commissars are present in Death Korps regiments as mandated by Departmento Munitorum regulations, being the only non-Krieg natives to serve in the Death Korps. Due to the relatively low rates of infraction and morale problems among Death Korps regiments they more often find themselves employed in reining in any excessive "zeal" on the part of the troops, and act as tactical advisors rather than enforcers of discipline. Commissars assigned to a Death Korps regiment are often well placed to become a voice of restraint for Death Korps officers, reinforcing the wider strategic goals of the war-zone over the short-term victories through expenditure of men and materiel that might be needed later. In theatres of war where Death Korps regiments must fight alongside other Imperial formations, Commissars attached to Death Korps staff also find it prudent to act as the liaison between regimental commands where needed, as well as keeping a sharp eye that any acrimony between the Death Korps and other Imperial Guardsmen deployed to the same areas does not become a problem.
 * Death Korps Grenadier - Death Korps Grenadiers form a strong and sizable elite force within the larger Death Korps. Grenadiers are chosen from the ranks of infantry squads, usually by their Watchmaster or a Commissar and recommended for appointment as a Grenadier. They are also drawn from veterans and survivors of decimated squads and platoons. This is not a promotion, as Grenadiers still carry the same rank, but they are regarded as having a seniority over rank and file Guardsmen by dint of their experience and veteran status. After serving with a Grenadier squad for a time, Krieg Guardsmen can then be returned to the infantry as a Watchmaster. Casualty rates amongst grenadiers are very high, and although service in the heavy infantry is regarded as a privilege, it is also seen as a duty. A Krieg soldier appointed to a Grenadier squad cannot refuse, and adopts the skull facemask as a symbol of accepting his fate. Statistically, eight out of ten Grenadiers are killed in action. The men behind the skull masks have accepted that they are essentially already dead.
 * Death Korps Engineer - Like Grenadiers, Death Korps Engineers are infantrymen who support Krieg campaigns in a specialist role. The Engineer Korps provides expert knowledge, specialising in subterranean warfare, digging shafts, tunnels and spas to undermine the enemy's strong points and launch surprise raids behind enemy lines. Krieg Engineer squads carry a lot of technical equipment as well as the standard equipment that is used by those of their profession. As well as soldiers, they are miners, digging forward from the frontlines with deep shafts to bypass enemy defences, set large explosive mines below positions or dig sap trenches. Saps are shallow tunnels which are dug to just below the surface, allowing a squad to blow an entrance to the surface and quickly assault an enemy position without crossing no-man's land. Engineers are also trained and authorised to use chemical weaponry. If required, they carry small gas canister grenades, which are used during assaults to shroud the enemy in highly corrosive gas. These are weapons of last resort, but have helped to give Krieg regiments their ruthless reputation.
 * Death Korps Watchmaster - A Death Korps Watchmaster is the Imperial Guard equivalent of a Sergeant of other regiments. Infantry platoons form the bulk of the Death Korps siege regiment's manpower. Each regiment consists of five companies, which are broken down into ten infantry platoons and one heavy weapons platoon. Each company is led by a Death Korps Captain who is assisted by one Veteran Watchmaster. Each platoon consists of a command squad and up to six infantry squads. These squads are led by the Watchmasters who act as squad leaders. The Watchmaster is assisted by an appointed senior guardsman, usually the longest serving guardsman in the squad. Like their fellow guardsman, Watchmasters have been indoctrinated since birth in the martial traditions of the Korps. They are highly proficient with all the basic weapons of the Imperial Guard and most especially with the bayonet, and favour the bayonet charge in battle. They fearlessly lead their squads across "no-man's land" to storm enemy trenches and defences. Having no fear of death, a Watchmaster demand and expect nothing less from their men.
 * Death Korps Guardsman - Each Death Korps soldier is fully trained to the standards expected for combat-readiness set down by the Departmento Munitorum, with particular emphasis placed on hazardous-environment survival and endurance, and physical and mental resilience. Proficient in the use of all basic Imperial Guard weaponry types as well as the use of grenades and explosives, a Death Korps soldier is also proficient in rapid and skilled construction of trench works and defences. They are also exemplary hand-to-hand combatants, with bayonet-drill being practiced from childhood. Accuracy is secondary in Death Korps weapons training to fire discipline, with the ability to maintain continuous fire en masse as part of an infantry formation considered to be of paramount importance. Death Korps Guardsmen have a tendency to be highly insular, unemotional and often taciturn to the point of silence outside of their duties. They also display a high degree of fatalism and an unusual morbidity of habit, such as carrying relics, ossuaries of bone or other memento-mori about their persons as a form of religious observance to honour those who have fallen in the service of the God-Emperor.
 * Death Rider - Superficially similar to the standard Rough Rider cavalry units found among numerous other Imperial Guard regiments from worlds where riding mounts are commonplace, the Death Riders of Krieg are one of the most justly famous of the unique formations found within the Krieg forces. The Death Riders of Krieg are also a direct result of Krieg's centuries-long civil war. Their most singular aspect is the nature of the Death Rider mounts -- the legendary Krieg Steed -- that is a highly adaptable form of the original Terran horse. This animal is now the product of extreme genetic engineering; tailored for strength, endurance and aggression, with numerous additional bio-sculpted organs that allow them to survive on the most polluted and toxic battlefields unscathed. Vat-grown on Krieg under the auspices of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the animals are further augmented with sub-dermal organic armour, osmotic lungs, and a fully integrated drug injection system rigged with a potent mixture of stimulants, pain-blockers and other palliatives. The end result is that the Krieg Steed is capable of incredible levels of endurance and environmental tolerance. The Death Riders form a special cadre within the Krieg regiments, and their inductees are chosen not only on the grounds of aptitude but also for independent thought and initiative. Many future Death Korps officers are drawn from the ranks of their survivors. Death Riders are equipped with a variety of sidearms and sabre-blades, in addition to the signature explosive-tipped lance found in similar units.
 * Death Korps Quartermaster - Death Korps regiments feature a most unusual and unique position -- that of the Quartermasters. These individuals have replaced the battlefield medics found in most Imperial Guard regiments. Their role has its roots in Krieg's own war-torn past. In that merciless civil conflict the recovery of arms and wargear of the fallen was of paramount importance, and field medicine and battlefield triage was a luxury that could be seldom afforded for the more seriously wounded. So it was that in Krieg's civil war a soldier that could not be readily brought back to the fray or at least retreat under his own power was considered a liability and to such unfortunates the "blessings of the Emperor's Peace" was given -- an honourable field execution. This onerous task, along with the recovery of a soldier's equipment was the responsibility of the Quartermaster cadre and remains so to the present day. Quartermasters are chosen from the ranks of the Death Korps by selection during training, particularly for their faith in the God-Emperor as well as their mental aptitude and occasionally from individuals who have survived against the odds. These individuals are then given additional training in field medicine, basic tech-lore, and extensive indoctrination in the specific beliefs of Krieg's sect of the Imperial Cult.

Regiment Appearance
The Death Korps are similar to the Armageddon Steel Legion in the appearance of their uniform and equipment, but they make use of darker colors, and their masks usually have a skull motif. Of all the regiments of the Imperial Guard, they are the most grim and fatalistic, both in appearance and in spirit due to the 500 standard years of civil war in a nuclear wasteland that the inhabitants of their homeworld inflicted on themselves. Uniform cut and design is almost consistent throughout the entire Death Korps but colours can vary from regiment to regiment and the officer ranks tend to have slightly more ornate uniforms than the rank and file. Spiked helmets are famously worn by the troops of the Death Korps of Krieg; however this is in truth rarely the case in the field, but many Krieg troops maintain the tradition either with improvised spikes or, less commonly, older patterns of the spiked helmet that have survived and been passed down through families.

Wargear
The standard issue Lasgun in service with the regiments of Krieg is the Lucius Pattern Lasgun. Its power pack operates at a higher charge than many other more common patterns of the Lasgun used by other Imperial Guard regiments. This gives the weapon more punch, but drains the power pack after only 25 shots. The weapon is single shot only and has a slower recharge rate than many other Lasguns, however it has been judged by Krieg commanders that the additional stopping power of the gun more than makes up for this. The barrel of the weapon is fitted with distinctive heat sink rings to help dissipate the enormous additional heat this high-powered Lasweapon generates after sustained fire. The weapon's furniture (the stock and foregrip) are typically made of synthetic wood, although metal variants are known.

Death Korps units prefer to use Meltaguns and Heavy Bolters as heavy weapons, but also have access to Mortars, Heavy Stubbers, Lascannons, Autocannons and Flamers. As with most Imperial Guardsmen, the Death Korps infantry's standard-issue individual weapon is the Lasgun and many also carry an additional Laspistol. The multi-purpose Combat Knife carried by all members of the Death Korps is a bayonet but also a field tool. The citizens of Krieg are gloomy but hard working folk, and this is reflected in the weapons and equipment used by the Death Korps which tends to be very utilitarian compared to that of other, flashier Imperial Guard regiments, but ultimately stands up well in any fight and helps the troops of the Death Korps accomplish their mission.

Trivia
As with every Imperial Guard regiment, the Death Korps is based on a real world army from human history, and are similar in uniform and style to the Imperial German Army of World War I and the Wehrmacht of World War II.

Gallery
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