40k Lore, The Death Korps of Krieg!

The Goal of Every Citizen of Krieg is Sacrifice, for Only in Death Can The God Emperor Forgive the People of Krieg Their Sins.

99.8% casualty rate...
... And the 0.2% are apologizing for not dying just as they ran out of enemies to fight. They're currently driving around in three of the few remaining functional Chimeras and looking for anyone they may have missed.

What's a pyrrhic victory then, 99.9% casualty rate?
 Actually less than 99% casualty rate would be more considered lazy, pyrrhic victory implies that the victory is as bitter as defeat, where the resources made any gains not seem worth it. With the Death Korps of Krieg, that would either have a narrow error margin (as narrow as Rogal Dorn's tolerance towards deviations of his standards, which the cedar tree up his a***  represents in regards towards his distain towards that) or just not be in their vocabulary.

"Commissar, sir!"
"Speak Kriegsman..."
"We are ready to charge the enemy titans at once!"
"There's a titan out there?"
"Fifty of them actually... We'll charge immediately!"

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. 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 (ie they still have family blood lines) 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.

"You would laugh monster. But let me remind you. Within this weak sack of meat and bone, uncared for by his god and wept for by none, beats a heart. A human heart, that carries with it the strength and courage of all mankind. Within that sack of meat is the hope, the will, and the fury of every man women and child from every corner of the Imperium. Within that weak sack of meat, festooned in thin armour and weapons only powerful in numbers , beats the heart of a man. And for ten thousand years, the hearts of men have beaten, strongly, in defiance of your so called "powers". For ten thousand years, your black crusades have been pushed back, beaten down, and made a mockery of, by weak sacks of flesh with cheap weapons and disposable equipment. For that weak sack of flesh that you so gleefully mock is no supersoldier, no immortal warrior, no creature cursed by chaos like you. He is a man, an Imperial Gaurdsman drawn from some forgotten corner of the Imperium to fight for his species and for the safety of the people he loves. He is a factory worker. a farmer, a storekeeper, a father, a brother, a son, a mere man. And against creatures like you teeming and numberless, powered by the wills of thirsting gods...He holds the line. He has held the line for ten thousand years. So what is your excuse, monster?"

The Death Korps of Kreig Siege Regiment Review Part 1: Overview

Hey everyone, Reecius here from Frontline Gaming to go over the basics of the new Death Korps of Kreig army list in the revised Siege of Vraks Imperial Armor book! As always, check out the Tactics Corner for more great reviews!


So the new book combines the previous versions of the Siege of Vraks into a single volume and gives us updated rules. Cool! We at FLG love us some Forge World.

The Death Korps of Krieg are arguably the most popular Forge World army to date. The gorgeous models, and unique retro-future, WW1 German feel of the army is just cool. However, does the army play well on the table topo? Let’s dive in and give it a gander, shall we?

In this first installment of the review, we will cover the faction wide special rules to get a feel for what the Death Korp are about. In the next installments, we’ll dig into the meat of the list, itself.

Overview
So first of all, the Death Korps are their own Faction. They are based off of the Astra Militarum, but sport some unique rules and have their own allies chart. They can only be used in the following ways: Unbound, CAD, Allied Detachment, or their two list specific detachments: the Krieg Death Rider Squadron or the Krieg Gorgon Assault Squadron.

Unlike most armies of the Imperium, they are not battle brothers with all other Imperial Factions. Notably they are only Allies of Convenience with Grey Knights, Blood Angels and Dark Angels. They are Battle Brothers with the Elysian and Detachment D-99 FW Factions who would actually work quite well with them.

Unique Rules
This is one of the sections that really separates the Death Korps from normal Astra Militarum. The Death Krops soldiers are tough, stoic troopers and this is represented by their rules: Death Korps and Iron Discipline. Death Korps makes them WS4, immune to Fear, and allows them to ignore morale checks when they suffer 25% casualties from shooting or during the movement phase. That is fantastic! Not running away due to shooting casualties is so powerful for Guard, this is really great. Iron Discipline means that any Death Korps units that are within 6” of a Death Korps officer may attempt to rally on normal Ld even if below 25%. This is not as fantastic as it won’t come into play that often, but, it is still really cool when it works. What these collectively mean, is that your more expensive Death Korps troopers will be a lot more reliable.

Death Korps Orders
This is one of the cool, but also not so cool parts of the Death Korps. The bad: the do not have the Ignores Cover order…womp, womp! That is pretty crappy, especially considering how many artillery units they have that could benefit from this order. This along with their very weak AA, is pretty much the only thing holding this back from being a top tier army. However, the orders they do have are solid and allies can help to overcome some of their weaknesses! They have the standard AM orders in addition to: Duty unto Death: reroll Ld tests for a game turn, if double 1’s are rolled, the unit becomes Fearless. They also get: Dig In, which gives a flat +1 cover save which rocks. Lastly, they get Clear the Trenches, which makes Las Guns become assault 2, 12” and the unit gets Move Through Cover. Not bad!

Death Korps Warlord Traits

1. Unflinching Resolve: Warlord and Death Korps within 12” add +1 to combat res.
2. Shattering Bombardment: Makes a weapon in a unit within 6” of the Warlord count as Ordnance, Twin-linked. Cool! This can be pretty awesome for a Las Cannon, or something similar. Be careful of putting it on a vehicle though, as it would cause every other weapon to snap fire.
3. Victory or Death: Warlord and unit gain Fearless and FnP6+ while in a Fortification or behind a defence line. Yawn. Being in a fort this edition is a death trap. Behind a defence line can be cool if you do this for a big unit, so it isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great, either.
4. Smoke Barrage: Choose to have Night Fight.
5. Martyr’s Defiance: Warlord and Death Korps within 6” gains the Preferred Enemy (Infantry) rule while in a friendly deployment zone. Not bad, pretty situational, but not bad.
6. Siege Master: -1 cover save to a piece of terrain in the enemy deployment zone. Solid!

These are characterful, but not amazing. Will you take them over book traits? Not typically, but they can be good fun.

In the next article, we’ll dive into the list, itself!

• Review: Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Review Part 4 4-22-15
• Review: Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Review Part 3 4-15-15
• Review: Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Review Part 2 4-1-15
• Review: Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Review Part 1 3-25-15

Posted on March 25, 2015

 

Death Korps of Krieg - Lexicanum

Death Korps of Krieg - Lexicanum

The Death Korps of Krieg are Imperial Guard Regiments raised from the world of Krieg. Notoriously grim and fatalistic warriors, they seek to atone for their planet's past rebellion by dying glorious deaths in service to the Imperium.

The Death Korps of Krieg, the most Grimdark of Grimdark

Death Korps of Krieg - 1d4chan

The Death Korps of Krieg is an Imperial Guard unit which hails from the planet of Krieg. They like entrenchments and gasmasks 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 meatgrinder.