The Astra Militarum, colloquially known as the Imperial Guard, is the collective military of normal humans and the military backbone of the Imperium in Warhammer 40,000. Consisting of countless individuals, the Imperial Guard are involved in an equally countless number of stories of heroism, sacrifice and horror.
The Astra Militarum series (originally the Imperial Guard series before the faction was renamed) is a loose collection of, mostly stand-alone, novels and short stories that feature members of the Imperium's largest military organisation as their protagonists. While unconnected, many of these books have since been collected into omnibus editions.
The series consist of:
- Shield of the Emperor Omnibus (originally published as Imperial Guard Omnibus One):
- Fifteen Hours
- Death World
- Rebel Winter
- Hammer of the Emperor Omnibus:
- Desert Raiders
- Ice Guard
- Gunheads
- Honour Imperialis Omnibus:
- Cadian Blood
- Redemption Corps
- Dead Men Walking
- Glory Imperialis Omnibus:
- Imperial Glory
- Iron Guard
- Commissar
- The Baneblade Series:
- Baneblade
- Shadowsword
- Straken
Many other Warhammer 40,000 novels primarily feature the Astra Militarum/Imperial Guard, but aren't a part of series including: Gaunt's Ghosts; Ciaphas Cainnote ; The Last Chancers; the Bastion Wars series; the Cadia series.
Tropes from Imperial Guard novels that don't have their own page:
- The Bait: In Baneblade, the taskforce led by Mars Triumphant is this, distracting Ork forces from one side while other Imperial forces attack elsewhere.
- Empathic Weapon: In Gunheads, Wulfe is disgruntled with his new tank, Last Rites II, because it was not its predecessor. When it breaks down near the end, he grumbles that she could not have picked a worse time, and the rest of the crew point out that she could have easily have picked a far worse time — she had carried them farther than any of the other tanks and broken down near safety. Wulfe realizes that he owes her more respect and when his commander makes the same comment he had, Wulfe repeats his men's objections.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: In Ice Guard by Steve Lyons, the planet Cressida is plunged into an ice age-like state by the Chaos powers that are taking it over.
- Flashback B-Plot: Baneblade alternates between "present-day" chapters and flashback ones, the latter also going backwards in time.
- Glory Hound: In Steve Parker's Gunheads, General deViers starts out as a competent and respected commanding officer but after his previous campaign turns from a major victory into a massive disaster, he becomes obsessed with preserving his legacy. He sends his Army Group to attack an Ork world in the hopes of retrieving a legendary battle tank. If he can accomplish his goal he will be proclaimed a hero of the Empire and will earn a spot in the history books. The fact that his entire Army Group is getting destroyed in the campaign does not seem to matter to him at all.
- Hopeless War: The war in Death World isn't just hopeless, it's also pointless. The planet the Guard and the Orks are fighting over is a Death World that adapts to threats that turn up in real time - the abilities and behavior of plants and animals, and sometimes even the environment can change in response to outside actions in a matter of days. Because of this, it's useless to the Imperium and nearly as useless to the Orks. But the Guard refuses to leave because there are Orks to fight and the Orks refuse to leave because there are humans to fight. The Catachan troopers who form the focus characters figure it will take a few years for high command to realize that fighting there is a complete waste of time and ship everyone to a more important war somewhere else.
- Hope Spot: Desert Raiders has one after the regiment has managed to destroy the Tyranid swarm in a series of Heroic Sacrifices and Last Stands. There are only a few survivors and they are without supplies in the middle of the desert. Still they are hopeful that they can last till the fleet returns. Then they found out that the defeated swarm was just a scout force and the main swarm is arriving.
- Last Stand:
- In Cadian Blood, the Cadian forces are unimpressed by the Last Stand of some New Meat: they can tell by where the bodies fell. Later, Seth makes a more impressive Last Stand in the Battle in the Center of the Mind, and though the daemon kills him, he dies laughing and saying the look at the daemon's face made the fight worth it.
- In Gunheads, the 98th is staging a Last Stand — the colonel refused to try to escape and went to hold up their regimental banner to encourage them — when the Gunheads arrive. (The colonel is perfectly willing to escape if the tanks can open up a corridor where his men can escape.)
- The Medic: In Gunheads, Wulfe's Back Story includes an incident where a medic jumped to save him from a wound that would have killed him. A few days later, the medic was captured by Orks and tortured to death. Wulfe thinks that he's still trying to avenge him.
- The Men First: In Gunheads, the colonel of the 98th refused to try to escape a Last Stand when the Gunheads arrive. He immediately asks if the tanks can open up a corridor where he and his men can escape.
- Remember That You Trust Me: In Gunheads, Siegler blurts out that they know Wulfe was helped by a ghost (in the Back Story), and with that out, his squad tell him that they were hurt that he didn't tell them.
- Superpowered Mooks: The Death Guard in Cadian Blood.
- Tarot Motifs: In Cadian Blood, the regiment's sanctioned psyker, having read the cards, boldly asks to speak with the Space Marine librarian about "the Emperor's Tarot". This conversation leads to a general warning.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The Tallarn regiment in Desert Raiders is composed of recruits from two different tribal groupings that hate each other. If the Tyranids hadn't shown up to kill them (forcing an Enemy Mine and in some cases Fire-Forged Friends), they likely would have killed each other over various old grievances and perceived affronts.
