Why do people like the Krieg?

Fun fact about the Steel Legion Death Korp comparison, the Death Korp started out as an alternative paint scheme for the old Metal Steel Legion models

"Sir, we're surrounded!" Cadian: "then we fight to the last man!" Catachan: "then we can't miss!" Kreig: "good."

I like krieg because they don't have faces, cause faces are hard to paint 😂

I always saw Krieg as more willing to die than wanting to die. Theyre analytical in the same way the Iron Warriors are. They can look at a battlefield scenario, calculate the number of men needed and number of men they are likely to lose, and then draft plans accordingly and execute them. So will they always charge trench lines full of machine guns and autocannons? No, not really. Will they charge a trench line full of machine guns and autocannons if it means their grenadier units can slip in to said trenches while the enemy is occupied with the charge and cause absolute havoc? Most certainly. Kriegers know what it means to spend lives to the utmost efficacy as soldiers. Every soldier who dies died doing their purpose towards the greater objective 100% of the time kind of deal. Hope that makes sense I am dealing with some MAJOR sleep deprivation right now xD

It's all doom and gloom as usual, until Kriegsman asks you "Are you my mummy?"

My guy, you forgot the badass WWI anesthetics.

The book Dead Men Walking is a great look at an outsiders view of the Krieg, the ending just makes you go wow.

Steve Lyons did a great job depicting the Death Korps in his book Dead Men Walking. I've always seen the Death Korps as fanatic but not as cartoonishly over the top as people joke about in memes. I don't believe that the average Kriegsman WANTS to die, but that they are prepared to if their death contributes to the Imperium's overall victory. Like they wouldn't be looking for the faintest excuse to throw their life away but at the same time, they wouldn't hesitate for a moment to throw themselves onto a grenade if it meant saving the rest of their unit so that they could continue the fight for the Emperor. They embody the fatalistic ideas of 40k only dialed up to 11. They come from an extreme planet, travel across an extreme galaxy and fight extreme threats but they're just regular humans, and they have come to terms with that.

Because dudes in gas masks and old looking gear are cool asf next question

You completely skipped over the most important aspect of the Death Korps of Kreig: The name. Truly, no military force has ever been named more faithfully to an edgy high school death metal band from the 2000s.

my answer: they're just lilttle guys, little fellas having a blast, little silly guys doing what they love

I was annoyed at them until they showed up in Warriors of Ultramar, but expecting 40K fans who screech about Krieg to actually read 40K novels is too much to change the memes

Having worn a gasmask blessedly few times I know I do not like them but in the most practical of senses. Happy gasmask noises, on the other hand...

I think the Krieg shovel meme came from actual history. I’ve seen apocryphal stories about stormtroopers and red army soldiers of both world wars using their entrenching tools as emergency melee weapons during charges and raids, and since the Death Corps is based on mid-century attrition warfare, people just made that connection.

3 words: gas mask horses

Hot take: Krieg is one of the rare instances where the fan base probably did more damage to the image of the setting than GW, though probably more incidentally than deliberately. Krieg certainly fits snuggly into the overall grim dark aesthetic of 40k, sometimes almost too well. It’s that uncanny valley between parody and pastiche, where something is treated so seriously in the setting it ends up being ironically memed. Probably the reason that Steel Legion is still pretty well regarded without any excessive gags, they have that grim dark element but they have that little extra wiggle room in their persona that gives them that depth that Krieg often lacks beyond their aesthetics. Hell even Catachan, a concept seen as little more than an army of Rambo/Commando/Predator parodies, doesn’t feel nearly as lampooned as Krieg does.

From my point,steve Lyons Version of krieg, especially in Dead men walking, is the „correct“ version of their portrayal. They are grim and fatalistic, humans but without true „humanity“, all they have is the war. They’re not grimderp zealots that run into minefields to clear a path for tanks and who die in droves for no reason like lemmings. They act like an army that knows only war and hasn’t been changed for ages. Kinda like WW1 veterans on the front. They treat lives as currency but unlike the iron warriors, they spend them wisely and usually don’t throw them away. The quartermasters also represent this, grantig the emperors peace and all.

I’ve always interpreted Kriegsmen not as wanting to die but simply not caring if they do, they’ve always been shown to be efficient in the stories I’ve read so it would make sense that they don’t much care if they die so long as the task was done to the best of their abilities, thus worth in the eyes of the Emperor.

When the Guard is Krieg. Idk haven't read the book :)

These guys are perfect soldiers, they do their jobs and they do them well. They may be cold and cynical heroes, but heroes none the less. They also got that oldschool WW1 aesthetic down hard. And their trench warfare, mass artillery doctrine is amazing.