Death Korps of Krieg
"Animals flee this hell, the hardest stones cannot endure it; only men endure."
-Diary of an unknown German soldier at Stalingrad
The Death Korps of Krieg, the most Grimdark of Grimdark
The Death Korps of Krieg is an Imperial Guard unit which hails from the planet of Krieg. They like trenches and gas masks and are known for their iron discipline and suicidal tolerance for casualties. In fact they will take any objective/vanquish any enemy as long they have enough men to throw in the meat grinder. Hell, Krieg means WAR in German (as you have gathered, the Imperium does not do 'subtle'). That's how badass they are. What's the difference between them and other Guard units, you ask? These motherfuckers don't even give a shit. They're some sort of badass human lemmings, and they are so grimdark that that they alone are responsible for about 20% of the grimdarkness in Warhammer 40k.
As the most popular (Fluffwise) regiment, Forge World has models for them that cost (approximately) the souls of three firstborn children (each), but you knew that already. Thankfully, Anvil Industry comes to the rescue with their Regiments range, allowing anyone to build very authentic-looking Kriegers, complete with their signature death masks, unique lasguns and wheeled heavy weapons.
They have not got a will to live. This is said to be from the tragedies of the civil war on Krieg. Long story short, the original hive world of Krieg was a den of traders, corruption and life. Rebels rose. A lot of blood was shed, and I mean A LOT (More blood than the battles won by the petty Ultramarines ). Planet got nuked, survivors became the Death Korps. Yep. They FUCKING WANT TO DIE NOW. OK?
Background
The Civil War
Some time ago Krieg was a pretty sweet planet to live on, until the heretical dickwad of a Planetary Governor (and most of the ruling elite) decided to detach from the Imperium. Needless to say the loyal citizens wouldn't let the rebel scum get away with that and a bloody civil war broke out. The loyalists were severely outnumbered, and only managed to seize control of a single hive called Ferrograd (ferro is Latin for iron - GW being subtle), due to the fact that a loyal Krieg Imperial Guard regiment under the command of a Colonel Jurten was there, waiting to depart. While getting some turnips out of the basement Jurten tripped over some nukes and decided to even the odds by blowing the world back to the Stone Age. Afterwards, after just 500 years of continual terrible war, the loyalists managed to lay Krieg back into the paralysed lap of the Emperor. Today the citizens of Krieg celebrate the day their hero Colonel Jurten destroyed their planet's ecosystem on "Jurten Day", when everybody digs out entrenchments and practices NBC weapons drills, just like every other day.
The Death Korps
The inhabitants of Krieg are mad sorry for their disgraceful past and try to make up for it by being the baddest motherfuckers since the Empra himself. In fact they've been so successful in producing hardass guardsmen that the Adeptus Mechanicus Biologis gave them some pills that make their women hornier and more fertile, so that they can produce even more top notch cannon fodder, which is important, because Krieg is a radioactive shithole, and most of them are sterile. So sterile that most Kriegers are born of complex gene-cloning. Their society is absolutely militarized. Children are being born only to be filled with the guilt of their ancestors (just like real Germans), trained and sent to die for their Emperor. Contrary to other less brainwashed units they're truly happy to do so and would die with a smile on their lips for the glory of the Emperor, if they'd ever smile. Seriously, those guys are stone cold. You'd rather chat with a necron than a Krieg trooper. They don't even have names. They're just called Trooper #1337 or Major Alpha and such (although some of the higher-ranked survivors get names, like Colonel Tyborc, hero of Vraks) both to underscore what expendable clones they are and because they don't give a flying fuck about anything other than marching, dying gloriously and shooting heretics in the head (fluff dependent; McNeill and Mitchell portray them as stoic to the point of being cold but still personal whereas Steve Lyons depicted them as described as near drone-like automata). As such gung-ho individuals they technically don't even have the need for commissars, since their deserting rate is practically zero and the officers (and probably even the regular troopers) will happily execute their soldiers themselves if need occurs. Commissars that are sent their way are usually sent in to say "Captain, I know you want to charge in and stab those Orks in the face with bayonets, but if you do that maybe one in ten is getting out of there alive. The Emperor needs you alive and we are going to goddamn wait until a situation comes where we can have enough survivors for the next battle and if you order a charge, it's blamming time for you." If a Commissar is the voice of reason in your ear, you know your priorities are interesting.
If one thing is even more serious business for Kriegers than dying, it's killing heretics, with extreme prejudice even by Imperial standards. As mentioned in the Codex: Stronghold Assault: Once there was a Hive City that hadn't payed its tithe, and got a visit from the Death Korps for it. After five years of constant bombardment, the city surrendered unconditionally, but the Kriegers wouldn't just stop bombarding over such a small thing. After three more years, there was nobody left alive in the ruins anymore. The Death Korps still wouldn't leave until two years later - when they had eventually shot the entire mountain-sized Hive to rubble! (That seems unusually wasteful for Krieger's, Aren't hives supposed to be sacred archeotech in and of themselves?)
A surprising degree of bio and cybernetic enhancements also appear to be common among Kriegers (Namely their Gas Mask has an emotion limiter), which while taking away from their raw awesomeness, should give you idea of how high of esteem the Imperium holds the Death Korps.
The Munitorium has a hard on for these guys because unlike guardsmen from other places they always obey orders to the letter, even especially when it means dying in droves. The Macharius super-heavy mostly exists because the Munitorium wanted to give them more super-heavies but ran out of baneblade variants to give them. (Most Kriegers never retreat, they fight to the death every time. Once when a commissar ordered a retreat, a unknown Krieger shot the commissar for cowadice. Seriously, these guys don't fuck around.)
Now these suicidal, violent siege specialists are ordered to fight in the most dangerous battles. The Death Korps Of Krieg may want to die, but death is a bitch to them. When they do die though, they are easily replaced. Join Death Korps of Krieg now! (Rebreather, las-gun and no will to live included)
Vitae Womb
It is stated that the Kriegers make use of "Vitae Womb" technology to keep up the annual crop of 50 million suicidally fanatical gas mask mooks specifically given to them by the Adeptus Mechanicus. What that means is a matter of debate, ranging from uterine replicators to drugs which accelerate pregnancy. What is not disputed is that it keeps population production up well beyond what can usually be achieved by human uteri. At least take comfort in the fact that it, in all likelihood, can't be as bad as a certain Warsmith's pet project.
Facts/Notes
- Death Korps of Krieg kill.
- They seriously do not fuck around
- They have units that ride horses with fucking rebreathers. Yep...
- The lasgun model they use is called the "Lucius" Pattern
- Death Korps of Krieg resemble the old WW1 German soldiers.
- I bet they allow the use of hardcore cocaine
- They have cool looking "Grenadiers" for, well, Grenadiring?
Trivia
The Death Korps are very clearly based off of German and French WWI soldiers, all the way down to their trenchcoats, gasmasks, helmets, their riders, love of big guns and of course, affinity for trench warfare. Just like the good ol' Somme Ypres Marne Verdun, eh?
See Also
- Love and Krieg, and its various spin-offs.
- Their tactica:
- Writefaggotry about the mind of a Deathkorps Medicae
- A rare female Krieger
