Review: Krieg

Krieg by Steve Lyons
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You know how I love reading stories featuring our favorite shovel boys, right? But the problem with reading a full-length novel named Krieg, despite the solid lore and action, is just how morose it seems to get.

Who knew, reading about an irradiated planet full of religion fueled child soldiers who venerate a cult of suicide can be so depressing; go figure.

For context, the infamous Death Korps of Krieg are a regimental army hailing from the death world of, you guessed it, Krieg. Hailing from a world where horrendous nuclear fallout had turned the surface into a frozen, dark, irradiated wasteland where nothing can survive, the Kriegsman carried a great burden. Of treason and betrayal against the emperor, by their ancestor some millennia ago.

Even after the loyalist factions won, and rejoined the imperium, their subsequent generations were forever scarred and changed due to what they see as this ultimate treachery. For context, if asked who the greater traitor is, the Arch vile Horus himself, or the counsel of Autocrats who seceded their planet from the Imperium, your average Kriegsman would reply without missing a beat, their own traitorous leaders. Such deeply ingrained is the collective generational hatred against those they saw as responsible for leading them away from the light of the Emperor.

Unfortunately for Krieg, everything from their day-to-day life, survival, conduct and battlefield tactics were shaped, in part due to their hostile planet, and in part their hatred.

You would often see online in meme circles, how the Krieg armies are renowned for two things: their unparalleled siege tactics, and their suicidal charges with utter disregards to their own life. The latter is partially true.



Yes, the Krieg regiments on average have a disturbingly high number of casualties and turnover. And yes, they see their lives as ultimately expendable in service to the emperor. But that doesn’t exactly make them suicidal.

The soldiers of Krieg are pragmatic, disciplined and with an unhealthy amount of fatalism. They view themselves as tools, no different from the guns they carry or the bullets within them. Resources to be spent for the glory of the Emperor. So, in the battlefield, their commanders always formulate how most efficiently their human resources can be expended to defeat the enemy.

If a particularly tough enemy can be defeated by sacrificing 1000 of their rank, they would do so, no question, no fear, no doubt. For each of them know, by expanding those 1000 lives, they might be saving many more. On the other hand, if the same enemy can be defeated using just 500 soldiers, by incorporating a different, more efficient tactic, they would prefer that. For the lives of a Krieg soldier is a resource to be consumed, not to be merely wasted. But if the objectives require that tens of thousands of them need to be sacrificed in what is ultimately a failed suicide charges, that too would be acceptable for them.

Whatever humanity and empathy they have, is either wiped out, or suppressed deep within their psyche, after generations of indoctrination. And what you’re left with, are an army full of unfeeling, uncaring, unerring machines like soldiers, who tank losses like nobody's business, and whose ferocity in attack is enough to give pause to even the conflict loving Orks.

This story, Krieg, by Steve Lyons, explores in essence this dehumanization of arguably normal people, shaped through collective trauma, suffering and war, into entities whose only purpose is war and glorious death. And Lyons, with this and his previous short story, ‘ Down Amongst the Dead Men’ has showcased he has a deft handle in exploring this particular form of fatalism endemic to Krieg.

The narrative is split into two time periods. One set during the golden period of Krieg, where treachery and sedition laid the ground for what would be the ultimate fate of the planet. And another set after the fall of Cadia, with the now ubiquitous Krieg regiments engaged in pitched battle across the deadliest battlefields across the galaxy. There are also appearances by the Cadian Shock troops and a couple of Inquisitors from the Ordo Hereticus. But their presence is largely as a proof for the audience into the functioning of your standard Krieg regimen.

Alternating each chapter, between the past and present narratives, we get a neat parallel to the decisions that shaped the people of the planet for the near future, as well as how they act and are perceived in the current era.

Or particular note, is the dramatization of Colonel Jurgen, the hero of Krieg, arguably the man who through his actions is single handedly responsible for how the people turned out; for better or worse. Even when you know the final outcome, seeing the story unfold through his eyes puts into perspective the weight and enormity of the decisions in face of insurmountable circumstances. Just from his narrative standpoint, the story might as well have been titled as ‘The Tragedy of Krieg’.

While largely sticking to the action format that the genre is famous for, the whole plot revolves around the Imperium trying to retake an Ork infested hive world, the setting serves as a backdrop almost, for a character study of Krieg as a whole.

It enlightens you in regard to the essence of their war doctrine, in fact their entire doctrine to life and death, while removing several misconceptions one might have about the group. For example, despite how they come across, with their gas masks, WWI era Prussian aesthetic, complete with pointy helmets, your average Krieg soldier is perfectly polite when it comes to dealing with their non-Krieg colleagues. They follow the rules, obey all orders, regardless of how dangerous, and even reply to your queries with courtesy. Just don’t ask them to remove their gas masks, which at this point have become like a second skin to them.

Little needs to be said in regard to their valor in battle. They don't fear, don’t falter, never buckle under pressure, never dip in morale. And even at the cost of their collective lives, will complete the mission objective.



One fun tidbit, originating from anecdotes and lore, is in regard to their relationship with Imperial Commissars. You know, those Soviet inspired battlefield slave drivers, who give your average soldier a choice, death by enemy, or death by commissar. Well, in normal guard regiments, the attached Commissars job is to whip up morale, and to make sure your average rank and file charge with reckless abandon, against tyranids, chaos, orks, whatnot. But in Soviet Russia, I mean the Death Korps of Krieg, the Commissar gets shot for being not ruthless enough. Truly, they are there just to make sure that the morale of the Kriegsman is not too high, and also to reign them in, not to engage in suicidal charges.



The story shares this whole fatalistic ambience as if nothing that you do would amount to anything significant. But while to your average person, this can soon devolve into nihilism, for the soldiers of Kreig they just accept this as reality and do their duty. Sadly, this is not because of some stoic sense of peace, rather because they lack a particular sense of self, and to them, death, in line of duty is a forgone conclusion.

They represent a corrupted tragic iteration of what Lord Krishna told Arjuna. To perform your duty selflessly and righteously, without attachment to the results, and to trust in the divine will.


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