Gaurdsmen Going Home

[Lady_Mournival]

Hey all, I've been reading Iron Guard by Mark Clapham, and it mentions that the Mordians do tours of duty, and go home semi-regularly; are there any other guard regiments that do this? I remember in Rebel WInter by Steve Parker it's mentioned that Vostroyans serve tours as well. Brimlock regiments have a Colour Guard for each regiment that goes back to the homeworld on special occasions (Imperial Glory by Richard Williams).

Just curious, honestly seems like a logistical nightmare. If you can think of any, let me know please.

 

-Lady

[shandwen]

Guard books tend to be authors first forays into 40k... if that tidbit is held to be real it would be rare.

[Hatarus]

it's pretty uncommon but they do sometimes if they need to be recalled,however there is no better way to motivate a Guardsmen to fight then to send them back home and say "your homeworld is under attack time to go home and defend your birthplace" 

Edited January 16, 2018 by Hatarus

[Ranulf]

It has been mentioned, usually by authors in short stories in Inferno magazine that have a very loose grip on the 40K canon. 

 

One such story had a retiring Attilan Rough Rider commander returning to his home world only to find the nomadic tribes undergoing a forced industrial revolution at the hands of a evil warlord. With a handful of plucky survivors he leads a brave charge and liberates the world.

 

Aside from spurious examples like that, I would say no. 

 

No leave passes for homesick Guardsmen.

[N1SB]

What a great question. Aside from how in Dark Imperium wounded Guardsmen are taken to a nice agri-world for recuperation before being shipped back into battle...which isn't even home leave...I can't think of an example.

I did model a Guardsmen on this concept, though:

Like a soldier just grabbing his duffel bag and going AWOL. That Guardsmen whom you took off the table because of a failed Morale check? That's HIM.

[Lady_Mournival]

Like a soldier just grabbing his duffel bag and going AWOL. That Guardsmen whom you took off the table because of a failed Morale check? That's HIM.

Brother, that's a great model!

Thanks for all the replies guys.

It could just be (new) writers, but some I'm inclined to believe. Brimlock, because that's how they form new regiments, or reform old ones rather. Vostroya as well seems plausible to me for some reason, just the culture, the whole firstborn thing, you always hear about so and so's antique lasgun that his great great grandfather used in the same Vostroyan 299th that little Timmy is now joining.

All that being said, for the few regiments that do tours of duty, I imagine it could be a huge morale problem, go home, but you spent 200years in the warp because warp, muchless the campaign, and now everyone you knew is dead. THis is something that's also covered, the lifers typically become lifers because everyone at home they loved is probably dead.

-Lady

Edited January 16, 2018 by Lady_Mournival

[Frater Cornelius]

The thing about 40k is that literally everything is a thing. I am quite sure there are regiments that force you to fight until you die, even when wounded, and I am sure there are regiments that grant Guardmen leave. One can call it loose grip on fluff, but personally, I call it creative freedom. We don’t even have set ways of doing these things on our one planet. What are the odds that a million planets will do the same? As long as it is executed well, I can imagine a lot of things in 40k that many would disagree on. That’s the beauty of the setting ;) Edited January 16, 2018 by Frater Cornelius

[spafe]

To those saying it's authors with a loose grip on the 40k verse... Abnett has some going home/talking about it. While the Tanith cannot go home, the Urdesh regiments they fight alongside in one of the missions, are wishing they were fighting for their homeworld... then many many books later they are. I think alot of it depends on where the rigments ship to. If there is major fighting i nthe next ... system (sector? honestly galaxy scale loses me a bit), they can easily be dumped back as veterans given honorable discharge/mustered-out. Those guard war vets signing up newbies have to come from somewhere! 

 

Another example is the Gundarin Rifles in (again one of Abnetts) Eisenhorn books, there is a short of him having to deal with war damaged vets who have returned to their homeworld and got on with their lives (as best they could, really sad story actually).

 

But then a guard regiment that musters off to join some far flung crusade... they'd be more likely to be motivated by the right to settle type thing than returning home. So overall... the galaxy is a large place

[Ranulf]

To those saying it's authors with a loose grip on the 40k verse... Abnett has some going home/talking about it. While the Tanith cannot go home, the Urdesh regiments they fight alongside in one of the missions, are wishing they were fighting for their homeworld... then many many books later they are. I think alot of it depends on where the rigments ship to. If there is major fighting i nthe next ... system (sector? honestly galaxy scale loses me a bit), they can easily be dumped back as veterans given honorable discharge/mustered-out. Those guard war vets signing up newbies have to come from somewhere!

 

Another example is the Gundarin Rifles in (again one of Abnetts) Eisenhorn books, there is a short of him having to deal with war damaged vets who have returned to their homeworld and got on with their lives (as best they could, really sad story actually).

 

But then a guard regiment that musters off to join some far flung crusade... they'd be more likely to be motivated by the right to settle type thing than returning home. So overall... the galaxy is a large place

The loose grip on the verse theory holds true if you look at a lot of the old Inferno stories - back when Abnett had yet to publish a novel, let alone a series.

 

It's been a long time since I read the Eisenhorn series, but I remember the Gudrunite Rifles fighting in their own sector and being allowed to participate in a Triumph on planet Thracian (nearby) rather than being able to return home from a distant conflict.

 

As for the Urdesh - IIRC they were a part of crusade army that turned back to liberate their planet from a counter attack from Chaos force - not the same as returning home on leave/retirement.

 

In the old fluff, regiments that had been whittled down through combat casualties were either combined with other regiments that were under-strength or distributed as Veteran squads. Eventually when Guardsman were too old, too small in number or didn't fit in other regiments, they were left to garrison new worlds or worlds recently brought back into compliance.

[TheUbikator]

They do go home, in Ciaphas Cain books Veil mentions that many IG regiments go back to their homeworld to replenish casualties. The series also features a young lt, who later retired as general. 

[Kontakt]

I would point out that a certain Sebastian Yarrick was about to retire when armageddon was invaded by orks. Not a regiment, but I suspect retirement or going home is more of an option for officers than most guardsmen

[Galron]

The vast vast majority , like 99.999% of IG never see their homeworld again once they go on campaign unless they happen to return as a regiment to fight for the home world, even if they last until old age. Usually a regiment fights until its understrength and gets combined typically with a similar style regiment(style, usually not the same world) and so on until only a few old guys are left. Regiments only very rarely get reinforcements from the homeworld, once they are gone they are gone and the next tithe is prepared who will join the next regiment raised. These after doing a heroic action or something great 'might' be given the option to retire and live out their lives on a newly liberated or colonized world and even then they will form the veteran force of the PDF. The colors of the old original regiment are returned if possible and the unit numbers are eventually reused by a new founding. This has been lore since the beginning of the IG. The reasons are many, for one, space travel is too bloody expensive and dangerous just to send a guy or a couple guys home, specially if they are any distance from the homeworld. You might see some hitching a ride to a very heavily travelled world but that is the exception, not the rule.

[The Ergonomic Enginseer]

I believe I had seen something about settlement rights after doing X amount of tours (whether that is going home or being dumped with surplus gear reclaimed planets?).

And I think I saw a throw away gag in warhammer community about enlisting for three or more generations, so making sure some little conscripts running around back home is probably needed.  

But that is just my two cents.

Edited January 22, 2018 by the ergonomic enginseer

[crimsondave]

They do go home, in Ciaphas Cain books Veil mentions that many IG regiments go back to their homeworld to replenish casualties. The series also features a young lt, who later retired as general. 

I was going to cite this as well.

 

Also, it is fiction after all.  The "fluff" on guard isn't set to hard and fast rules anyway.  Regiments are not the same and operate differently.  The cool thing about 40k to me is it's so huge anything can be somewhere in the galaxy.