Death Korps of Krieg - Engine of War: Though Krieg was returned to Imperial rule with little fanfare or regard, the Departmento Munitorum took note. Krieg was in arrears, so a new tithe of troops for the Astra Militarum was placed upon it. The Munitorum adepts were surprised when the Krieg authorities offered them not one but twenty regiments for immediate deployment, all formed, trained and equipped, and each commander requested the most hazardous Imperial war zones available.During five standard centuries of warfare, the people of Krieg had not sat idle, as beneath the blasted exterior of their world entire subterranean cities had been founded, tens of thousands of kilometres of bunkers and passageways dug, and a vast underworld of industry and manufacture geared specifically to the production of arms and equipment, but most of all to the production of soldiers, soldiers who proved to be as implacable as the factory lines that armed them and as pitiless as their blasted radioactive world.Acting quickly, the Departmento Munitorum's need for soldiers was immediate. These new "Death Korps" regiments were inducted into the Astra Militarum, re-organised and issued with commissars before being sent straight into combat. The deployment of the regiments from the Death Korps of Krieg was immediately successful, despite the misgivings of some of the regiments they served alongside. In war zones that mirrored the horrific state of their homeworld, the Death Korps regiments proved superior in performance to other Imperial Guard Militarum Regimentos.On worlds that were radioactive wastes, chemical or biological toxin zones and polluted ash-worlds, Astra Militarum generals quickly capitalised on deploying the Death Korps. Stalemates were broken and advances achieved that otherwise would have required the massive expenditure of Penal Legion troops or the use of valuable elite forces such as the Adeptus Astartes.When Krieg's independence was eliminated and the world was taken directly under the authority of the Departmento Munitorum, the maximum tithe levels were enforced. Krieg's sole purpose was to turn out Death Korps soldiers as another world might mine ore or sow wheat. By the direct order of the High Lords of Terra nothing was to be allowed to interfere with this purpose.This has resulted in suspect practises being tolerated -- some, such as the eugenic policies designed to weed out mutations caused by Krieg's damaged, radioactive biosphere and universal conscription are continuations of policies once required during Krieg's centuries of civil war. It should be noted that Krieg raises an unusually large number of Astra Militarum regiments for such a devastated planet. This is attributed to the enforced use of the "Vitae Womb" birthing technique, which Krieg has been granted special dispensation to use as the result of their famous steel, determination and unswerving loyalty to the Emperor. Use of this technique is largely unknown outside of the Officio Medicae and is seen as dangerous and abhorrent by many Adeptus Mechanicus Magi Biologis.As it stands today, Krieg is a true War World: it has no industry or agriculture to offer to the Emperor, only its people -- giving up its descendants to fight in the Astra Militarum. Krieg's tithes are the maximum for the planet's population, raising tens of regiments every standard year where a comparably-sized world might be expected to tithe one regiment every solar decade.The rate of attrition and destruction among these regiments is likewise disproportionately high, as they are assigned to some of the most hazardous battlefields and dangerous worlds known to Mankind. Proving themselves extremely effective troops, the Death Korps has proved capable of achieving victories against the odds by dint of bloody sacrifice, endurance, aggression and unbreakable loyalty.But despite their glorious service record, Krieg units are not well-liked by Astra Militarum commanders who find these troops to be morose, taciturn, all too willing to accept high casualties (even amongst their commanders) and difficult to deal with by non-Krieg natives.But in the strife and unending state of war that exists in the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium, the Imperium of Man has dire need of such troops. The use and number of Death Korps regiments is on the rise, as are the resources being devoted to their creation by the Departmento Munitorum.