The Imperium of Man is the greatest power in a galaxy wracked by endless war, locked in a daily battle for survival against the most horrific and implacable enemies imaginable. Its destruction is held at bay only by the might and courage of its inexhaustible armies, the brave soldiers that make up the ranks of the Imperial Guard. This mighty force is Mankind’s primary and most numerous defence, numbering billions upon billions of soldiers raised as tens of thousands of Regiments from all the myriad types of world found in the Imperium. Regiments vary enormously across the galaxy and include all manner of warriors, from disciplined ranks of infantry, glorious cavalry, whole regiments of tanks and artillery to the leviathan-like super-heavy tanks and titanic Capitol Imperialis. They are the Imperial Guard – the Hammer of Emperor.

Each world of the Imperium is obliged to raise regiments of Imperial Guard, and these are shipped all across the galaxy to fight terrible wars in the Emperor’s name. The Imperial Guard fights at every level, from a platoon assigned to defend a small frontier colony, to massive army groups fighting wars that stretch across dozens of star systems. Though its armies manoeuvre ponderously, the Imperial Guard can bring to battle an unending tide of infantry, supported by countless armoured vehicles and guns. With thunderous artillery barrages, roaring tanks and volleys of lasgun fire, the Imperial Guard crushes its enemies utterly, attacking in an unstoppable tide that reduces a war zone to a cratered hell. It is warfare at its most brutal, where individual soldiers are irrelevant and the advance of hundreds of thousands of men decides the fate of worlds.