by Alex Helm and Rich Wood

You have pledged your life to the cause.

You swore an oath to fight to the death.

You knew the dangers of war. You knew you would probably return home in a casket.

But it was worth it.

For if you do not fight, then who will?

Dispatched to the front lines with basic training and basic gear, you have done your best. You have killed the enemy – the strange blue-skinned aliens who seek to bring down the order you know so well. You have resisted the whisperings of the dark gods who seek to tempt you away from your faith.

You have done –everything– asked of you, and more. You have survived.

There has been a cost, of course. A huge cost. Most of your comrades lie dead. Your regiment is in tatters; just a few war heroes left, like yourself. You find others – other decimated regiments like your own, and you band together for safety. Extraction must be coming soon, right?

And then comes the news. There is to be no extraction. The orders are clear. You are to fight to the death, taking down as many of the enemy as you can in a futile battle before you succumb to the endless sleep.

Do you remain loyal and do as you have been ordered? Or do you listen to the enemies beseeching you to join them, and make the choice to survive whatever the cost?

This is the Last Stand of the Imperial Guard.

This game uses the Warhammer 40,000 setting by Games Workshop, but no knowledge of that is needed to play. In this particularl case, not knowing about it could even be a paticular fascinating game experience, as your character won't know what's coming either. :)

The tropes and themes used here (of a military force who have been abandoned by their own side and left to die fighting) are universal, and will be familiar to everyone, whether you know WH40k or not!

In this game, players are members of the Imperial Guard – the Imperium’s vast army. Dispatched to a besieged planet, the troopers have been fighting blue-skinned aliens called the Tau, who have an insidious and deceptively pleasant-sounding propaganda called ‘The Greater Good’.

The enemy has fought back well, and the regiments are in tatters. The survivors band together, but then they get the news that they have been abandoned and left here to die. What do they do? How do they cope?