So if you get conscripted into the IG, do you literally never go back home? Like...

The vast majority of them will never again see their homeworld. I imagine many are glad for this seeing as the likeliest way they could ever return home is to defend or retake it as it is being swarmed by xenos, heretics, daemons or a combination of all of these. Better to never return home than have to watch it burn all around you.

Imperium sends IG to get wiped to a man by the regiment and a vast majority of guardsmen are lifetime soldiers who will never see home again. that is also compounded with most primary IG military cultures like the Cadians, Death Korp of Krieg, Steel Legion, Catachans, etc are so thoroughly focused on fighting the Imperiums enemies they don't care about seeing home again, or shun the thought.

also yes the Imperium keeps soldier around until death. Wouldn't be grimdark enough if they had a retirement plan. they also don't stop at 50~60 guardsmen who manage to survive THAT long typically are badasses of such calibur that they are allowed access or are encouraged to undertake vitae treatments to prolong their lives for centuries. it's probably not unheard of for Stormtroopers or more notably Kasrkins to have veterans over 200. IG officers and commissars definitely undergo those treatments.

as for the dumping on a planet option the IG have two ways that happens. either A) your regiment met the business end of the grimdark meat grinder and what was left got rolled into a PDF regiment, or the PDF regiment got the business end of the grimdark meat grinder and the IG left behind several regiments to cover the planet while it replenishes it's forces.

I heard after about 20 years you get given land on whatever developing world is nearby and get to retire and start a family, but retiring is rare as hell anyway since yo either get killed or worse, promoted.

There have been stories of retired guardsmen, even some that have returned to their homeworlds. Its not that uncommon. Lots of characters in the lore that have been in the guard and after that ended up in inquisitorial retinues, working as pit-fighters, bounty hunters, arbites etc.

That being said, the guard is an absolutely massive organisation with many many different units and ways to do things. For example, I'd imagine Kriegers don't exactly have a retirement plan, they just move the lottery winners who live to be older to rear-line duties.

Kriegers don't have retirement plans, they have use-by dates.

They have laser pills for that

They just have use labels you mong. Kreigers are "expires once".

I would imagine that it's a lot like the roman legions. 25 years of service and you're entitled to a plot of land on the next habitable world you visit. Depending on your luck this real estate could be awesomely valuable (paradise world) or incredibly shitty (catachan).

Don't make stuff up, they have settlement rights after a certain length of service

When you read the prequel of Yarrick you see that his grandfather mustered out from active duty as a sargeant but was called back to active duty when orks invaded their planet.

In one of the Gaunt books he talks about them being given right of settlement to the Tanith First and Only as a decree from the Warmaster himself.

>got lucky and survived for 35+ years

That sort of 'luck' is not natural. Better burn them all for heresy.

And in eisenhorn/ravenor there are lots of examples of ex guardsmen, retirees and settler rights

If you survive in the guard long enough to become too old to fight, there are a few possibilities:
- You're somehow still a low enough rank to see combat. Age catches up with you, then you die to something that wouldn't have killed you if you were slightly faster/stronger/etc
- Cybernetic replacements to keep your aging body functioning.
- You've been promoted far enough that you're not on the front lines.

Yes. Commissars are trained in light therapy.

BLAM therapy.

One of the Cain books has him running into an old man who used to be in the Guard when he's on Perlia. And I don't think the guy was in a Perlian regiment either, but I don't remember offhand.

It depends on the regiment. Some will offer retirement after X number of years of service, others will expect you to serve until the day you die.

It's not uncommon for ex-guardsmen to do other things after service such as work for local governments as advisers, bodyguards, arbiters, private eyes etc etc

Or look at Cain. After decades serving as a Commissar, he finally retired from the guard and started training new commissars.

This is correct, there are several guardsmen that have retired, there`s also a lottery that if you win you are out.

>The IG does offer retirement after only a few years of service, but according to Imperial law they have the right to postpone your retirement in times of war.
>tfw you recruited some cannonfodder to the Guard with a promised reward "after the war is over"
>tfw it's called "the long war" for a reason

So long as you don't bite the big one and depending on how your homeworld prefers to raise it's regiments and what the department munitorium deems you useful for potentially you can end up serving till you drop, retire to train the next generation of troops, get assigned to a specialist unit or force or if your in a crusade possibly get a roman style plot of land retirement + some mid tier social standing from a world you helped take. Just think of it some Argi world full of retired vets turned farmers

>Argi world full of retired vets turned farmers
Somehow I'm just imagining a bunch of farmers getting bouts of PTSD every time they pass the fungicultures

>yeah but what happens if you literally become too old to fight
First off: Literally stop talking like you're in middle school.
Secondly: Rejuvenat treatments. You will be fighting still once you're in your 200's, although you're probably a commander and not a rank and file by then.

That wasn't a retirement, that was a change in duties.

What said. It depends on the regiment, but some regiments (like the Tanith) have a "mustering out" age. It's probably cheaper to let them retire and keep their equipment for your average guardsman than to start paying for rejuv treatments.

Plus, there's nothing really stopping you from never going back home. If you can read and have the money, you could buy a room on a freighter and go home. Space travel isn't completely out of reach for the
middle class, since middle class person's life savings are enough to get you across a sector, since that's what the pilgrims in Sabbat Martyr did.

Pretty much this. The Guard does muster out aged veterans, vanishingly rare that they are, because the loss in combat capability versus cost of training another guardsman at fighting age does not exceed the cost of repeated juvenat treatments for said soldiers.

In most regiments a guardsman can be expected to hit this boundary at the age of sixty. Given this requires in excess of four decades of service, it pretty much never happens; either the soldier dies, or is promoted to an officer, who IS worth juvenat treatment, and serves until they drop.

Most of them are okay with it; this is likely because Guard regiments are usually tithed from a planet's Planetary Defence Force, who are already trained and inured to the idea of paying for their home's safety with their lives.

It's not a far leap from there to pay for the safety of the entire Imperium. In a way, it's the exchange every soldier makes.

The game's existed for 30 years, with a ridiculous amount of contradictory and/or 'retconned' lore, as the tastes and preferences of those in charge of the fluff have changed.
Sometimes, guardsmen serve to the death, which is usually 30 seconds into their first combat.
Sometimes, they serve several campaigns over a career's worth of time, and are mustered out to become pdf on some backwater.
It all depends on which particular version you're reading.
Now, yes, you can insist that *only* the most current version of the fluff matters, but this makes you a terrible person that will never know love.

ONLY IN DEATH DOES DUTY END!

this gif is cool but the artist doesn't understand how rotating barreled weapons work

Over 90% of the time yes. Once you are conscripted into the IG, you never go back home. You either die on the battlefield, get wiped out or executed, or you become a PDF for a world that is in the process of being colonized after you and your lads liberated it.

Of course there is the part where you can go and retire, but considering how lethal 40K is for the average person, then you'll need to be either a total badass or be like Ciaphas Cain (yet in the former's situation, there may be a chance that your service will be extended if you perform too well).

Some regiments however, due to their situation on their planets, send their soldiers back and rotate them with fresher recruits because there is so little of them (like the Catachans).