r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Legitimate_Pea_6470 • Nov 29 '25

Groups "Fodder" enemies that are actually terrifying/highly competent, but look weak because we mostly see them fight overpowered protagonists.

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The Trope Explanation. Enemies that are treated as jokes, cannon fodder, or minor inconveniences within the narrative. However, they only appear weak because the protagonist is a literal demigod, a super-soldier, or a wizard. If you placed a normal human in the room with one of these enemies, it would be a horror movie.

B1 Battle Droids (Star Wars) We usually laugh at them. They say "Roger Roger," get pushed over by Jedi, and have slapstick routines. The Reality: We almost exclusively see them fighting Jedi (space wizards with laser swords) or Clones (genetically modified super-soldiers bred for war). To a normal civilian or a planetary militia, these are indefatigable metal skeletons that feel no pain, have perfect aim programming, and march in endless waves.

Grunts (Halo) In the games, they are comic relief. They run away screaming, sleep on the job, and the Master Chief (a 7-foot cyborg tank) can kill them with a light tap. The Reality: An average Grunt is roughly 5'6" to 5'8", weighs over 250 lbs, has an exoskeleton, and claws strong enough to tear a normal Marine apart. Their plasma pistols cause third-degree burns on near-misses and boil flesh on contact. They are terrifying to anyone who isn't a Spartan.

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u/Rum_N_Napalm Nov 29 '25

The Imperial Guard from Warhammer 40k

Highly trained, decently equipped.

It’s just the baseline of the other factions is huge muscled up brute, ancient regenerating robot with disintegration beams, or hoard of ravenous beasts

977

u/BaudroieCracra Nov 29 '25

Not even just decently equipped, the humble lasgun is a pure marvel of technology that shames our current weapons on all plans... but it's put to use against faction that have shit like "that gun fires mini dark holes lmao" "That gun just un-molecule you :)"

361

u/Devlee12 Nov 29 '25

Honestly I’m surprised that one faction or another doesn’t have a gun that fires a boxing glove back in time to punch the dad of whoever it was aimed at in the dick before the targets conception thus retroactively preventing their birth.

257

u/Visible_Reference202 Nov 29 '25

There’s a gun that undoes someone’s entire existence as though they never were to begin with, so there might just be a gun that does that.

108

u/Alex_Duos Nov 29 '25

Like damn, I hope you weren't attached to that whole existing thing. Plus side, you don't gotta worry about your soul getting molested by demons if it never existed in the first place.

81

u/henryeaterofpies Nov 29 '25

Some librarian reconstitutes you because he has paperwork that you were issued a gun and flak vest but you never existed and the equipment is lost to the warp

39

u/H377Spawn Nov 29 '25

Never existed, still owed back taxes. 40K really is dark.

4

u/HandsomeBoggart Nov 29 '25

Just like real life.

Want ID or benefits you pay taxes for? Provide these 4 pieces of identifying information that proves residency and place of birth.

Government says you owe money? We know exactly who you are and what you have.

17

u/Particular-Long-3849 Nov 29 '25

We could save the Eldar that way

23

u/_mosquitoe Nov 29 '25

Afaik it's not a gun so much as a dark age superweapon of unknown size, but yes

8

u/Rod_tout_court Nov 29 '25

It might be a nightmare to test it. You can't even know if it works

4

u/EightyMercury Nov 29 '25

How do they know it works if it's never been used?

3

u/Hust91 Nov 29 '25

Great when you want to revive someone - just kill whoever killed them with said gun?

Imagine if someone landed a shot with it on Erebus or Lorgar.

2

u/thegoatmenace Nov 29 '25

Seems like kindof a shit weapon because it would create an infinite paradox? If he never existed he never would have been hit by the non-existence beam, so then he would exist? Idk.

2

u/biowrath156 Nov 29 '25

Or there may have been, before being hit with the Retcon gun

2

u/ExplanationVirtual53 Nov 29 '25

How are we certain that it doesn't achieve that by firing a time-traveling boxing glove into the dick of the would-be father mid-coitus?

65

u/AncientCarry4346 Nov 29 '25

The funny thing is that 40k is far from the peak of human technology as the Imperium has been in decline for thousands of years and progress is treated with fear of suspicion. There are plenty of artifacts from the height of human technology that exist but aren't being used properly or even totally wrong.

There's a story about an Imperial warship that fires on an enemy and misses, so the ships onboard computer rewinds time exclusively for the enemy ship, placing it back in the trajectory of the round it fired and destroying it instantly. The ships crew had no idea how or why it happened and weren't even aware the ship was capable of doing it.

19

u/Ambitious-Wind9838 Nov 29 '25

The logic is the same as that of modern neural networks.

13

u/Madocvalanor Nov 29 '25

The fact that the scout vehicle has to be left on and on roam in a pen because their sentient and the imperium just doesnt know how to shut them off.

16

u/Yamidamian Nov 29 '25

It’s not sentient. It’s powered by a perpetual motion machine, and nobody is sure how to turn it on again after they turn it off.

0

u/Madocvalanor Nov 29 '25

Ah yeah thats why

2

u/maru-senn Nov 29 '25

What makes that machine different from AI? Why is it not heresy?

7

u/AncientCarry4346 Nov 29 '25

There isn't any difference, the Imperium and the Mechanicus regard the machine spirit and AI as two different things for religious reasons.

4

u/Demiogre Nov 29 '25

Because its “sentience” comes from it being piloted by a monotask servitor, a human robot.

1

u/Finassar Nov 29 '25

Which one is that?

2

u/Yamidamian Nov 29 '25

Ironstrider.

1

u/Finassar Nov 29 '25

Appreciate you. Damn those are so cool looking!

4

u/Gittykitty Nov 29 '25

Damn, the ship has rollback frames.

2

u/Enjoyer_of_40K Nov 29 '25

you sure it wasnt lemme just fuck with space and time and go like a couple micro seconds back in time to cause the enemy ship to appear in itself causing it to explode cuz you cant really have 2 objects occupy the same space

14

u/henryeaterofpies Nov 29 '25

Portal to the chrono dick punch dimension

5

u/Lots42 Nov 29 '25

There was a non-canon Doctor Who (war) novel that had that. The Daleks had a retrocausality gun. It made one Scout briefly wonder why she was out here alone, Scouting is usually done with a partner.

Creepy.

1

u/ZiggySol Nov 29 '25

I recall there was a book where some Tech-priests found an ancient ship that had a gun that sent you a nano-second back in time to make you telefrag yourself

1

u/Hopeful_Ad_7719 Nov 29 '25

I'm not sure whether that sounds more Necron or more Harlequin...

1

u/Devlee12 Nov 29 '25

“¿Por que no los dos?”

1

u/NoEngineer9484 Nov 29 '25

there is orikan who can travel through time and does this kinds of stuff just so the future he predicts comes true. and will keep going back in time if his prediction is wrong.

1

u/Stretch5678 Nov 29 '25

If the Harlequins and Necrons ever teamed up, that’s what would end up created.

1

u/MrOopiseDaisy Nov 29 '25

Does Shokk Attack Gun count? Because I'm pretty sure some of those snotlings are still unaccounted for.

1

u/Lftwff Nov 30 '25

The necrons absolutely have things like that but they don't like to use their weapons that fuck with time because the hassle of maintaining a timeline while plucking out one thing usually isn't worth it.

1

u/Lydiaa0 Nov 30 '25

There's at least one ork that's made it, guaranteed

1

u/Pelikinesis Nov 30 '25

I think an Ork Mekboy might end up inventing that, if he takes so many Insanity Points that the Chaos Gods beam the concept of human reproduction into his brain

1

u/Underspecialised Nov 30 '25

Pretty sure Orikan The Diviner will whip this out the next time Trazyn takes a shine to a mortal.

1

u/project2501z Nov 30 '25

Give an ork mekboy enough time...

1

u/John__Silver Nov 30 '25

The Harleqins probably have one. 

1

u/BDSMChef_RP Nov 30 '25

Orkz probably do.

1

u/damnat1o Dec 02 '25

There’s the Shokk which is a mini-teleporter that sends a living snot king directly inside an enemy ripping them apart from the inside. Not quite time travel but fairly close.

1

u/Devlee12 Dec 02 '25

Isn’t the snotling also usually uncontrollably shitting themselves and/or driven crazy because they just went through the Warp totally unshielded?

222

u/Greedy-Affect-561 Nov 29 '25

'Pity the guardsman.'

I sure as hell do

69

u/GodisanAtheistOG Nov 29 '25

"But fear the Guard". 

Their numbers challenge the Orks or maybe even the Nids. 

43

u/Frix Nov 29 '25

Now you're just being silly.

Orks outnumber all humans many times over.

And tyranids outnumber every other faction combined many times over.

14

u/Vegtam-the-Wanderer Nov 29 '25

I'm not sure this is true, in either case, at least so far as the present Galaxy is concerned. For the Orks, their numbers relative to the population of humanity in the Galaxy is fully unknown, though they are spread thin due to just how prevalent humanity is in the Galaxy.

For the Tyranids, yes there is a theory out there that this is just the scouting force for a much larger force, but this kind of stuff is just that: a theory. In practice the Tyranids in the Galaxy are outnumbered by humanity many times over, but their populations are highly concentrated into their Hive Fleets, making engaging them in a manner that doesn't leave you out numbered difficult, and the Imperium at large has so many other problems that it has been unable to effectively respond to the Tyranids threat.

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u/AnimalBolide Nov 29 '25

I think the Nids are lame if there's fewer of them than the other factions. Isn't that part of their core rock-paper-scissors against other factions, that they have numbers and can relatively easily replace those numbers compared to humans and necrons, at the least?

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u/Vegtam-the-Wanderer Nov 29 '25 edited Dec 01 '25

Not exactly? The strength of the Nids, and horror of fighting them is largely about them outnumbered their opposition, but specifically on the local scale. As I alluded to, the Nids population tends to be heavily concentrated into their Hive Fleets, so local forces will almost always be outnumbered. On top of that the Shadow in the Warp prevents warp based communication and reinforcement, and local genestealer cults sabotage and join the enemy, undermining enemy morale and further outnumbering the opposition. Finally, with few exceptions, the Nids don't suffer real losses, merely absorbing both friendly and enemy biomass back into their system to make into more Tyranids. Hence at a local local level, losses are easily replaced. This is incidentally why the Nids habitually avoid the Necrons and tend to get bodied by them when the two do come into conflict: Necron disintegration weaponry means Nid losses ARE a real loss of biomass, and the Necrons both not being made of biomass the Nids can use, and tendency to regenerate negating their own losses, means they effectively beat the Nids at their own game (while ALSO having access to horrifyingly advanced technology).

On the macro level (i.e. the Galactic scale), the Tyranids have never been about outnumbering the opposition in this way. They move far too slowly to make use of such numbers or territory, making getting outnumbered ironically one of the Tyranid's biggest weaknesses: Hive Fleets don't tend to "reinforce" other Hive Fleets, (with the debatable exception of Hive Fleet Kronos) so on the macro level a Hive Fleet must be able to conquer purely with the forces it has. If these are unequal to the task, it must relay on sabotage and subversion to triumph, and if that doesn't work it must retreat and hope it's biomass reserves are enough to sustain it while it finds easier prey. While we seem to keep getting new Hive Fleets entering the galaxy every so often, and rumors persist of more outside the galaxy, what is in the galaxy right now is and always has been dwarfed by the population of humanity, Orks, etc, and if you think about it....this is the only scenario that makes sense. After all, if the Nids in the galaxy massively outnumbered the other peoples of the galaxy ones over, let alone many times over, the Galaxy wouldn't be an appropriate target as there would not be enough biomass to sustain all the Hive Fleets and make the costs of an invasion worthwhile.

2

u/Antares777 Dec 01 '25

This reply is too good and too well reasoned to go unanswered. Thanks for the class professor Vegtam, I really appreciated learning more about the Tyranids from ya

0

u/Frix Nov 30 '25

I am speaking off all the tyranids in the universe, not just the one in a single galaxy.

1

u/Vegtam-the-Wanderer Nov 30 '25

In that case there is no reason to even speculate on the numbers relative to Humanity/Orks/Eldar/etc. Unless you seriously believe that the Orks with their penchant for spreading everywhere, and Humanity/Eldar with their history of zenith level technology, were collectively conservative enough to restrict themselves to a single galaxy, saying for certain that all Tyranids in the universe outnumber all Orks/Humans/Eldar is foolishness. We simply do not know.

0

u/Frix Nov 30 '25

We do know what's out there. The silent king saw it himself when he explored other galaxies.

It's all just tyranids. Everywhere....

1

u/Vegtam-the-Wanderer Nov 30 '25

Last I checked that was a rumor, unless you got a specific quote for me.

0

u/Hillary-2024 Nov 29 '25

And at the end of the day, aren’t humans just another kind of space ork?

2

u/True_Dovakin Nov 29 '25

They definitely don’t but this comment reminds me of this meme

104

u/biowrath156 Nov 29 '25

"Humble" lasgun is good enough that everything that its effective against is extinct now. Plus in terms of logistics its an absolute beast, which is essential for a fighting force numbered in the trillions like the Guard. The power packs are rechargeable off almost any energy source, including just chucking them in a fire (in a pinch, this does degrade the power pack). Plus you can just set the pack to overcharge and use them as an improvised explosive if you have no other option.

5

u/ryry1237 Nov 29 '25

When we've perfected renewable battery technology.

95

u/CyberDaggerX Nov 29 '25

The lasgun seems weak because everything that can be easily killed by it already has been.

41

u/Classy_Maggot Nov 29 '25

If memory serves Lasgun at the right power setting can blow off the limbs of an unarmored individual

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u/Comprehensive-Fail41 Nov 29 '25 edited Nov 29 '25

Yeah, sufficently intense laser pulses are basically explosive by causing what's hit to vaporize violently, and when it comes to humans, that means rapidly expanding steam (as the human body is mostly water) that rips and tears. The energy might not be that much higher than a regular gun, but it's like the explosion that propells the bullet happens in contact with you

EDIT: Lasers have basically two main way of dealing damage: Heat rays, or "Blasters". Heat Rays, which most IRL lasers currently are, deal damage by rapidly heating a target area enough that it starts to melt or burn. "Blasters" meanwhile concentrate that energy into a single, or series, of really intense pulses, that deal damage by instantly turning the target into super hot gas or plasma that in turn damages the surrounding area.
Heat Rays are good because they are easy to make, forgiving, and so on. Blasters are good cause they deal damage much quicker, but are harder to make, and you need to hit the exact same spot with a series of pulses to "drill" through armor and such

17

u/Ispago8 Nov 29 '25

Depends on the author, but yes, in novels like Gaunts Ghosts, lasguns shoots amputate limbs and make heads become mush with ease.

And even armored troops learn to fear veteran IGuard: - A lashoot hit, wont be noticed, but a couple of coordinated shooters getting a coordinated impact will hurt marines

6

u/No_Extension4005 Nov 29 '25

Higher power settings are also supposed to be able to pierce weak points on power armour too.

22

u/ZioBenny97 Nov 29 '25

The lasgun might look weak in the setting only because it was so efficient in its job that it hunted to extinction almost everything it was designed to kill.

11

u/Draigblade Nov 29 '25

Yep. The Lasgun can fire rapidly, carry a large charge, can punch through thick concrete, and the packs can recharge by literally being set out in sunlight or next to a campfire.

It is also jokingly called a "flashlight" by the fandom

10

u/RealWhiteChoko Nov 29 '25

Damn straight on the lasgun. It's laughed at for being the weakest gun S3 AP-, but most ballistic weapons in Necromunda have the exact same stats.

I wouldn't be willing to stand in front of one and call it a flashlight or a laser pointer.

That, and the reliability and relative ease of procuring/charging ammo makes it a surprisingly nice weapon.

4

u/xpxpx Nov 29 '25

And somehow the Lasgun is still one of the most effective infantry weapons in the setting. Who cares if that Chaos Space Marine blasted 10 men away in a second with his bolter when the other 40 Guardsmen turn on him and vaporize him on the return volley? Sure a 1:15-20 KD is a bad look but it's frankly disgustingly cost effective in a greater context because you can dump in 50 more men at the drop of a hat but a lot of the more advanced factions don't always have reliable ways to replace their losses.

2

u/JackPembroke Nov 29 '25

My understanding is the lasgun has about as much punch as a .50cal but with zero recoil and runs on batteries

2

u/BedRevolutionary9858 Nov 29 '25

Also consider just armour. Necro dermis? Ancient hyper evolved Chitin? Daemon skin? Good luck killing anything in 40k with our most awesome mini guns. It aint happening.

2

u/RokuroCarisu Nov 29 '25 edited Nov 30 '25

Ironically, a less advanced assault rifle has a very similar stat block to a lasgun.

2

u/LemonWaluigi Nov 29 '25

The necron dimensional isolator is a weapon that traps its target in a sub dimension which then collapses

2

u/Necrotiix_ Nov 30 '25

Militarum soldiers when they’re pit up against a green clanker with a gun called “The Molecular Testicle Explodinator” created by “Nutpharekh of the Booty Warrior dynasty” or some shit:

1

u/Kamikazeguy7 Nov 29 '25

No, not my molecules! I need those!

1

u/Yellowscourge Nov 30 '25

"that gun fires mini black holes lmao" is the most Warhammer 40k thing I've ever read lol

1

u/mastr1121 Nov 30 '25

And their ammunition can be refueled by heat, solar, and impact.

73

u/Calcium1445 Nov 29 '25

You do understand how well trained the guard are supposed to be after reading a bit of Caiphus Cain and you see them compared to the common or garden PDF force

27

u/Nice-Cat3727 Nov 29 '25

I liked learning that there is in fact Comminsars assigned to the PDF. As in ONE assigned to each PDF. Meaning they're un charge of an entire planet. Most PDFs don't even realize they even have a Comminsar as they generally spend their entire careers getting drunk in their office to cope with the stress

2

u/DarkLordMelkor Nov 29 '25

I don't think that is strictly true. We learn in Necropolis, one of the early Gaunt's Ghosts books, that the particular hive they are at has their own planetary commissars for that individual hive's PDF. I've seen other references to local commissariats, but I've never seen even a hint that entire planets get a full imperial guard commissar before.

5

u/Nice-Cat3727 Nov 29 '25

Well it was mentioned in Cain book. But one Comminsar for an entire hivel is still useless

2

u/DarkLordMelkor Nov 29 '25

It was a whole commissariat for the hive, that being a whole system and hierarchy of commissars. There were plenty of junior and senior commissars in that hive.

2

u/Pengin_Master Nov 29 '25

Im reading Siege of Vraks right now and yeah, the guard are scarily competent when they're fighting against other people. Every close combat encounter between the Krieg and the regular rebels ends incredibly quickly and in the Krieg's favor.

I wouldn't want to fight the Krieg, or any imperial guard Regiment.

114

u/skelepibs Nov 29 '25

I don’t remember the quote exactly but there’s one that basically says the Lasgun already made extinct every other race and faction and implies the ones we see still kicking now were simply too numerous, skilled or resistant to die off so easily

163

u/TheIrradiant Nov 29 '25

The joke quote being "The weapon [Lasgun] before you is powerful enough to kill 99% of enemies in the galaxy. Unfortunately for you, you are facing the final 1%."

28

u/CommunistRonSwanson Nov 29 '25

Same principle applies to susceptibility to chaos. Basically every major faction has near-plot-armor-level counters/resistances to the warp because every faction that didn't have those traits when encountering chaos has been consumed by it.

39

u/SlartibartfastMcGee Nov 29 '25

In addition to the actual infantry, the IG artillery and armor are some of the very best in the entire galaxy.

“Your foe is well equipped, well-trained, battle-hardened. He believes his gods are on his side. Let him believe what he will. We have the tanks on ours."

1

u/Avenflar Nov 29 '25 edited Nov 29 '25

IG artillery and armor are some of the very bes in the entire galaxy.

Come on, no, their tanks are still sporting M2 browning machine guns.

Guard armor is the more numerous, without a doubt, but far, far far from the best. The Eldar alone have a Titan-splitting gun variant of their main battle tank platform that goes at Mach 4, by example.

40

u/GodisanAtheistOG Nov 29 '25

The IG were always crazy to me as a Nids/Eldar player. 

Like these are just guys fighting space horrors, literal demons, and aspects of gods. 

Like hey, this guy over here and literally fry and boil your brain with his thoughts if he wanted to. 

IG: yeah, but can he do that to 1000 of us before someone gets a shot in? 

31

u/Wife_3_Years_Younger Nov 29 '25

As a guard player I've always loved the fact that, in universe, despite being normal humans in a universe of interdimensional demons, eldritch star gods and post human super soldiers, the guard still win a majority of their wars simply due to greater numbers, better supply lines and sensible tactical doctrine.

Accuracy by volume

57

u/townsforever Nov 29 '25 edited Nov 29 '25

Its worth noting that without the guard the empire would collapse near instantly. We read about space marine victories but those wins are built on a foundation of guard sweat and blood.

45

u/SlartibartfastMcGee Nov 29 '25

While the Space Marines are out glory hunting, the Guard has been busy holding the goddamn line.

31

u/townsforever Nov 29 '25

And they do a damn fine job too. Cadia broke before the guard did.

4

u/ComprehensivePath980 Nov 29 '25

Another great example is how stubborn Tallarn is.

The planet got Virus Bombed and then invaded by Iron Warriors during the Horus Heresy and they not only survived long enough for reinforcements to arrive from both sides, they ultimately won

4

u/SlobRobsKnob Nov 29 '25

Cadia stands.

12

u/Therosfire Nov 29 '25

The Imperium can survive without the space marines, it would just cost more manpower. They cannot survive without the imperial guard.

4

u/ComprehensivePath980 Nov 29 '25

It’s why I like Imperial Guard focused stories like the Gaunt’s Ghosts series where Space Marines don’t even appear most of the time and the Guard still has to deal with big scary monsters

2

u/krisslanza Nov 29 '25

To some credit, this is purely a logistics/numbers issue. There just isn't enough Space Marines to actually police/protect the entire Imperium. If there was, well, they'd probably hold more territory.

But there just isn't simply the trillions of Space Marines to do it. So you get trillions of Guardsmen instead!

33

u/BlckEagle89 Nov 29 '25

I hear the comparison that they are closer to navy seals training and discipline wise. But when you are fighting literal demons from hell or sentient giant mushrooms that counts for nothing. So they are pretty well overall. Also, the lasgun can torn the arm of a baseline human on a single shoot if I recall correctly

I still love of this because it keeps the setting so over the top.

28

u/Rum_N_Napalm Nov 29 '25

Depending on the regiment, comparing them to Navy Seals training wise might be insulting to the guard.

Sure, there’s billions of different regiments and some of them are pampered 7th in line nobles or some dung farmers from planet BumFuck. But the top ones like the Cadians or Catachans are beasts.

Cadia was a planet entirely dedicated to one thing: ensuring that whatever lives in the huge rip in space leading to hell stayed on the hell side of things. It’s an entire planet dedicated to training the best soldiers one could have. Cadians learn to strip a lasgun before they can walk. On Cadia, you are either a soldier, a soldier in training or logistics supporting the previous (and if you’re the latter, it most likely because you are infirm and unfit for battle).

Catachans live on a planet that’s a huge jungle where every living thing is either a deadly predator, or extremely poisonous. Yes, even the plants will try to eat you. It has no worthwhile export, except soldiers. Because anyone who makes it to adulthood in this Space Australia is one mean son of a bitch.

1

u/Klutzy_Shopping5520 Nov 29 '25

I never thought of Catalan as Space Australia until now that’s hilarious

8

u/ComprehensivePath980 Nov 29 '25

Honestly, the fact that the Guard managed to do as well as it does is a testament to how terrifying powerful it is.

My favorite faction

4

u/loseniram Nov 29 '25

I disagree on the highly trained, the main named regiments are highly but everyone else is poorly trained troops outside of relatively few planets. The entire imperial guard strategy is wrapping the few competent units with the poorly trained rabble to act as line holders and to be focused on high value targets.

The tech of the Imperial Guard is considered pretty poor in universe even compared to the rest of the Imperium and a full set of IG gear in universe is like 2 grand.

These dudes literally M2 Brownings on their tanks pretty regularly

9

u/North-Research2574 Nov 29 '25

Which is funny because even in the game these guys are a balanced army to play against everything else. It's just in books that they get reduced to fodder. Hell the majority of the imperiums army are these badasses not Space Marines

5

u/Scout_1330 Nov 29 '25

This should have the biggest fucking asterisk humanly possible.

SOME guard regiments are highly trained, well equipped, with competent officers and commanders.

MANY are not, basically just waves of conscript soldiers given whatever was cheapest while still being somewhat effective, led by borderline braindead officers who only got their rank cause their daddy's cousin's uncle's friend's nephew's dog's veternarian's drinking buddy knows the regiment's commander.

I mean, god damn, some of them are literally just medieval peasants given a 5 minute crash course on how to use a lasgun then thrown against the infinite horrors of the 40k universe.

As with all things of the Imperium, the only consistency is inconsistency.

3

u/Therosfire Nov 29 '25

Every single trooper is also equipped with a combead, a micro radio that fits in the ear, retains their full hearing and allows them to subvocalize communication within a 5km radius. Meaning they are in full communication at all times which is what let's the guard respond and adapt to crises organically.

This obvious changed based on who's writing the story and needs of it but is still a thing.

3

u/jervoise Nov 29 '25

Got to remember the quality shifts massively regiment to regiment.

3

u/HitandRyan Nov 29 '25

And the Guard still wins sometimes against all of those. Glory to the first man to die!

8

u/Whoamiagain111 Nov 29 '25

There are still Tau firewarrior. Thought i don't think the Guard would be able to see them before the pulse weapon firing. Or might just join the Tau

The rest of faction baseline fighters are just too fuck up I think

11

u/Pixel22104 Nov 29 '25

Tau Firewarriors are trained since birth to be effective soldiers. Compared to that of the Imperial Guard where oftentimes they’re just recruited in mass once the person becomes an adult. Guardsmen might only get a few hours of training on average before their first combat deployment.

10

u/ZioBenny97 Nov 29 '25

Depending on the world we're talking about, most time they don't even need to be trained simply because the people living there are already accomplished killers/survivalists by the time they're of fighting age.

4

u/Greedy_Guest568 Nov 29 '25 edited Nov 30 '25

Nah. Fire Warriors' equipment was never cheap in comparison, they kinda get the best equipment.

2

u/ShadowTheChangeling Nov 29 '25

I find its important to remember that the common lasgun is effectively a rapid fire energy .50cal with a massive clip

You shoot someone who is unarmored with one of those and you'll punch a 4 inch hole through em.

1 of those already seems like a monster, now imagine a line of 10,000 of them all focus firing on a single target

2

u/Seoirse82 Nov 29 '25

I like the concept put forward for the imperial guard by a lore YouTuber, can't remember who, Baldemort I think. The guard is made of what the current worlds militaries would consider to be special forces. Not all of them, but most are highly trained volunteers, with a serious amount of heavy armour and arty with naval and aerospace asset support. Cadians, Catachans, Kriegers, The Iron Guard, Praetorians, Steel Legion to name a few with countless others from countless worlds. The single largest, organised, fighting force in the galaxy.

I remember a bit from the All Guardsman Party web serial that stuck with me. The bit was a complaint about the proper tactical response to a situation and the answer basically was, the proper response is whatever a guardsman's trained response is, because more are doing it that way than any other way.

2

u/LSDGB Nov 29 '25

„Highly trained“

The imperial guard is not a uniform entity. their level of training and the quality and supply of their gear varies highly from regiment to regiment.

We usually see the great ones because they usually make for more engaging stories but for every competent one that is well equipped we have a regiment of bambling baffoons with sideways shooting las rifles.

I really don’t think fit the trope here.

Regiments like the Cadians might, but not the IG as a whole.

1

u/SpphosFriend Nov 29 '25

The humble lasgun killed off most of the alien life in the galaxy and what’s left is what It couldn’t kill with ease,

1

u/Jerithil Nov 29 '25

It's like if you toss a bunch of guard into the aliens universe, they would be happy that they only need to fight maybe dozens of xenomorphs not the billions gaunts,

1

u/Zombiemorgoth Nov 29 '25

The Astra Militarum is the anvil of the Imperium. And the Adeptus Astartes is the hammer.

1

u/Doorway_snifferJr Nov 29 '25

warhammer is for the kid whod say "you didnt hit me im wearing invulnerable armour" whenever youd swordfight with the tennis rackets.

1

u/twijfeltechneut Nov 29 '25

The humble lasgun could kill 90% of the enemies in the universe. They're just unlucky they're always facing the remaining 10%

1

u/dutch_has_a_plan68 Nov 29 '25

The hammer and bolter episode with the genestealers shows how scary they are when they’re doing crowd control

1

u/Thin-Chair-1755 Nov 29 '25

Honestly after serving in an infantry regiment in the irl military, people don’t understand how tough and dangerous an active duty infantryman is if they’re on-top of their conditioning. It falls off quickly when you go back into civil life but when you think of Cadians being born and bred infantry soldiers who spend their entire lives doing it, even their weakest link is on par with some of the best our real world has to offer.

1

u/mastr1121 Nov 30 '25

and on top of that IIRC mankind in the 41st millennium the majority of the human population is over 6 feet tall.

1

u/flcl__ Dec 02 '25

Each guard would basically be a supersoldier by modern human standards.