Astra Militarum - Hammer of the Emperor: The Imperium is vast on a scale incomprehensible to mortals. Communication and travel between the glinting motes of this far-flung stellar empire are laden with risk. The inimical realm of the Warp provides the only conduit for interstellar movement or messages yet it also taints or temporally displaces much of that which plunges into its depths, confounding the Imperium's attempts at centralised control or unified strategy. On every border and every battlefront, Humanity's worst nightmares press ever inwards, and are held at bay only through vast and constant sacrifice. In these dark times, warfare on a galactic scale is a matter of soulless, grinding logistics. Only the Astra Militarum can marshal the manpower to fight such a war.The Imperial Guard fights punishing battles of attrition in which incalculable lives may be expended for each objective achieved. An Imperial Guard army must utilise the twin advantages of vast numbers and overwhelming firepower to annihilate its foes. Where xenos aircraft dance and weave with impossible grace, the Imperial Guard simply fills the sky with a thunderstorm of munitions from which no amount of aerobatic skill can save the foe. Where heretical bastions stand defiant, Imperial Guard commanders call down artillery bombardments that reduce all to rubble with their apocalyptic fury.The greatest enemy threats are torn apart in the crossfire of thousands of heavy weapons, or smashed aside by the gallant charge of hundreds of Imperial tanks. The enemies of Mankind may employ dark sciences or alien weapons beyond Humanity's ken, but such deviance comes to naught in the face of honest Human intolerance backed by a sufficient number of guns.For all the might of its armour and artillery, the true backbone of the Astra Militarum is the countless waves of infantry who take to the field. The sheer scale of the battles fought by the Imperial Guard is dehumanising in the extreme. Entire regiments of brave Human warriors are reduced to statistics upon the scrolling screens of Imperial strategoes, grains of sand sliding through the fingers of greater and more privileged individuals. Yet every single company, every single squad, every single Imperial Guardsman who lifts their lasgun and takes a stand in defence of their species, is crucial. Without a constant deluge of new recruits, the Imperial Guard would cease to function.A battle may see the deployment of millions, yet time and again it is a single heroic company who carry their charge to secure a crucial gatehouse or pivotal objective. Squads of desperate men and women battle impossible odds, with nothing but their courage and faith driving them to hold the line while their valuable betters are evacuated to safety. Every day that the Imperium endures, guardsmen stand in the face of beasts more hellish than their worst nightmares.Men and women charge screaming alongside their comrades into the mouth of hell, lasguns spitting death at the foe even as xenos munitions tear bloodied holes in the Human ranks. In a galaxy of never-ending warfare, what makes the perpetually outmatched men and women of the Imperial Guard so admirable is that they know near-constant fear, yet they lift their weapons, plant their feet, and fight on regardless. Their lives may be short and brutal, their sacrifices insultingly thankless, but it is because of the Astra Militarum that the Imperium continues to weather the storm of these dark times.