# Death Korps of Krieg fluff



## Romanov77 (Jan 27, 2013)

All I know about these guys is that they are the most badass IG regiment to ever live... plus all I could read on wikis and Dead Men Walking. 

Any more novels/books featuring these grimdark dudes?


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Imperial Armour volumes 5-7 feature the Death Korps heavily.

I can't recall anything off the top of my head where the men of Krieg are the main force in a story.


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## Romanov77 (Jan 27, 2013)

About their fluff, do they really never ever remove their gas masks? 

Also, I wonder if a commissar ever had to discipline one of them. Seems really unlikely. 


Anyway I really like their attitude. 
That's how proper guard should be, no nobles, honor, duels, petty politics, just getting stuff done. 
Also, their attire is very functional, unlike Mordians, Vostroyans and similar protocol obsessed bluebloods pretty boys. 

Perfect soldiers. 
Humanity would be much safer if other regiments were more like them. 

Also, meritocracy. 
That's really something in the wh4k setting.


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Romanov77 said:


> Perfect soldiers.
> Humanity would be much safer if other regiments were more like them.


I think they're a bit wasteful. Hurling men into a grinder can sometimes be necessary...but as the first and only plan?

It's wasteful to discipline and train a person from birth to have them die 30 seconds into a fight.

Take your well-trained troops and fight with them again and again. Get your money and time's worth from them.

Life is cheap in the Imperium, but trained troops aren't.


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## Protoss119 (Aug 8, 2010)

In answer to your question about Commissars, their role in a Krieg regiment is basically the opposite of what you'd expect them to do in your average Guard regiment. Rather than trying to motivate them to acts of valor and zeal by liberally applying the *BLAM*, Commissars in a Krieg regiment are there to maintain good relations with non-Krieg regiments and keep the Kriegsmen from sacrificing themselves so readily.

What's interesting about the Krieg Death Korps is that, in contrast to other regiments, individual identity seems to be suppressed; their faces are hidden behind gas masks and their names stripped from them. It keeps them from thinking in terms of self and is at least partially why they are so willing to give their lives in service of the Emprah.


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## Taggerung (Jun 5, 2008)

hailene said:


> I think they're a bit wasteful. Hurling men into a grinder can sometimes be necessary...but as the first and only plan?
> 
> It's wasteful to discipline and train a person from birth to have them die 30 seconds into a fight.
> 
> ...


Not quite. It's not that they waste their men in useless ways, they are not Chenkov. It's that they are not concerned over casualties to take an objective. They are ok with 80% casualties if it means the war/battle is won as the individual trooper does not matter. They do incorporate other strategies, but given the nature of siege warfare (Which is where 95% of the DKOK regiments end up), it is usually a meat grinder and the reason they are chosen is because only they can deal with those kind of casualty rates and not have their will broken. 

They are not given names, only serial numbers and they do remove their gas masks, but rarely in war zones.

Commissars in the DKOK are as Protoss said usually as liaisons to other regiments and provide tactical support to the regiments, not really to keep them doing suicide charges as they don't just charge without an over all campaign objective. Rarely they are forced to execute a DKOK officer, though in the Vraks books IA5-7, there is a reference of the DKOK infantry falling back and shooting their commissars so they can get back to the trenches.


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## Romanov77 (Jan 27, 2013)

Interesting comments, all of you.

I don't think that the DKoK are wasteful with men....if I recall correctly I even remember them withdrawing from a doomed planet were victory was impossible.
They just consider themselves as tools. Expendable if worth it.

They could just use some "public relation" training, dealing with lesser soldiers and civilians. They simply cannot really expect other regiments/ordinary people to fight and behave like they do.


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Taggerung said:


> Not quite. It's not that they waste their men in useless ways, they are not Chenkov. It's that they are not concerned over casualties to take an objective.


That's fine and dandy, but as we saw on Vraks their main plan was to send men and armored vehicles across the open to wear down the enemy.

You don't need one of the finely disciplined Imperial Guardsmen in all of the Imperium to do this. This is why there are penal legions. Shuffle them across the field and let the better trained Krieg exploit the weaknesses.

In _Straight Silver_, from the Gaunt's Ghost series, Commissar Gaunt castigates a local planetary force for observing similar WW1 tactics the Krieg practice as out of date and wasteful. While the men of Krieg are a much finer force than the men of Aexe Cardinal, that only magnifies their sins rather than mitigate.

To quote the _Tactica Imperium_, "A good general does not lead an army to destruction just because he knows it will follow."

Also Krieg isn't some Hiveworld with teeming billions waiting to be recruited. It's been designated a Death World after its self-cleansing nuclear war. I can't imagine they'd be able to sustain those loses in the long term (over the millennia) without some sort of cloning/breeding program.


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## Protoss119 (Aug 8, 2010)

hailene said:


> Also Krieg isn't some Hiveworld with teeming billions waiting to be recruited. It's been designated a Death World after its self-cleansing nuclear war. I can't imagine they'd be able to sustain those loses in the long term (over the millennia) without some sort of cloning/breeding program.


Does this count?


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Can't believe that skipped my mind. Then again I sat down and read through all three volumes of Vraks a couple years ago. Good catch.

Still seems wasteful. On the same page it goes over the testing of selection before training, the brutal training regime, and the casualties they sustain during training. Sorta sad most of them end up stopping a bullet not far from their own positions.

I'd take a band of Penal Legionaries hyped up on frenzon first.


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## Romanov77 (Jan 27, 2013)

I think krieg would make a damn fine astartes recruiting site.


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## Protoss119 (Aug 8, 2010)

Doubt it. Krieg's sole purpose is to churn out Death Korps regiments, and that order comes from the High Lords of Terra themselves, who decreed that "nothing was to be allowed to interfere with this purpose" (IA 5, pg. 87). Universal conscription is the rule as well, so not only is there the concern of retribution if the Astartes decide to interfere with the Death Korps' recruiting process by picking out neophytes from its population, but also that there is the very real possibility that there is no population base from which to recruit; they've all been drafted already.

As well, population growth on Krieg is being artificially stabilized by use of the Vitae Womb technique. Without, there's no way Krieg's population would be able to survive, let alone churn out the maximum tithes possible for the Death Korps. At least Baal, the Blood Angels' homeworld and the closest analogue to Krieg (so far), maintains a stable, if small and nomadic population.


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## Reaper45 (Jun 21, 2011)

Romanov77 said:


> I think krieg would make a damn fine astartes recruiting site.


Not really astartes don't want broken sacks of meat that exist only follow orders.

They want the ones who can run faster than everyone else can jump an inch higher lift more and so forth.


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Reaper45 said:


> They want the ones who can run faster than everyone else can jump an inch higher lift more and so forth.


I don't think so. The Blood Angels recruit physically inferior men. They're weak from improper nutrition and radiation poisoning. After the Astartes process, they're as strong and powerful as any other Astartes. The physical base Astartes recruiters look for is more of a result of the characteristics they're looking for: survivors and the will to overcome.


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## Romanov77 (Jan 27, 2013)

I suppose Kriegsmen have the right attitude to be perfect astartes. 

Just add powerarmor, superior genetics and weapons, some specified training and you would get some iron warriors equivalent. Only better and much less prone to heresy.


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## Ddraig Cymry (Dec 30, 2012)

To my knowledge I know that what most IG generals are concerned about most is finding enough equipment. The Death Korps is, or at least was, worried about this too, which caused the Quartermaster position to be created, which involves stripping the dead or dying of equipment. 

As for their readiness to be killed in battle, I like to refer to what Lord General Castor said about the subject, 'A Guardsman's life is to die, my job is to send them to places they can die. But I don't waste men.'


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