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The most common answer is WW2 allies with modern ascetics, but mostly Canadian solders ( probably because Canada and Cadia are not far in names... also the fact that Creed is based on Canadian general ).

But I do not think that this is true, to me at least they look like US army ( with all the regulations, professionalism, even their speech inside military is similar to US army corps ). I watched "We were solders" yesterday, and when I saw how Americans took the hill, form the line and defended themselves with concentrated fire the first thing that came to my mind while watching that was: Cadians!

And I think that they are actually not based on real but rather on fictional military: United States Colonial Marines from Aliens.

What are your thought on this, and is there any official note on who are they based of?

Well, Canada did have what was referred to as shock troops/storm troopers in WW1, which was one of the most successful forces in the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Expeditionary_Force

iirc Cadia also has a similar climate to Canada as well.

 FinalAnswer wrote:

iirc Cadia also has a similar climate to Canada as well.

Uh.... Cadia is Earth-like planet, unless it is 1/3'rd under constant snow and if entire planet is not engulfed in snow during the winter months it doesn't have that kind of climate.
And judging from orbital pictures it is not the case here.

Reading Eisenhorn a while ago, I believe that it was described as mostly temperate and cool, with freezing, brutal winters.

Don't know if there's any fluff that says otherwise.

This is from GW official gallery site, the planet of Cadia:


It doesn't look like Ice World to me, Furthermore I found this quote in Malleus novel: "The planet's surface plays host to a variety of terrain types, from frozen tundras and wind-swept moorlands to axel-tree forests."

So planet is mostly like our Earth when it comes to climate, meaning that Cadia is moderate temperature world.

Cadian regiments are based upon Canadian forces in WW1 & WW2

Where does it say that?

 Brother Captain Alexander wrote:
Where does it say that?

The exact source eludes me at the moment, but this is more or less the agreed upon source of the inspiration behind the Cadian regiments, their shock troopers in particular.

I thought Cadians were kind of the "generic" more plausible sci-fi style future army guys. As opposed to the Vostroyans, which are specifically Blanche-styled bizarro, and all the other factions (Mordians, Tallarn, Pretorians, Catachans) which are specifically modeled after various real world/fictionalized (Catachans in their t-shirts) militaries.

 Brother Captain Alexander wrote:
This is from GW official gallery site, the planet of Cadia:


It doesn't look like Ice World to me, Furthermore I found this quote in Malleus novel: "The planet's surface plays host to a variety of terrain types, from frozen tundras and wind-swept moorlands to axel-tree forests."

So planet is mostly like our Earth when it comes to climate, meaning that Cadia is moderate temperature world.

Yeah, believe it or not, Canada isn't covered with snow everywhere every day of the year.

I call shenanigans.

Looks more like an generic amalgam of various modern/near future militaries of the west.

Canadians were originally dubbed stormtroopers by the Germans, comparing them to their already existing stormtrooper units.

Cadians are actually the one regiment I can't see being based off of anything. Every regiment has a base unit, but part of me thinks GW left Cadians "inspiration independent" so that we don't feel shoehorned into a army style for our home made regiments. On the other hand, all the other GW models for Guardsmen have a very specific feel to them while Cadians can fit most any bill.

Fluff wise, Cadians also fight with a very generic warfare style that has no real distinguishing traits. I feel like they are just a mix of European and American military units and traits to form a fairly generic sci-fi trooper that didn't scream "Americans in space". Although, they do share most of their combat tactics with Canadian troops in WW1 and WW2 and most of their soldier culture with Americans.

 washout77 wrote:
Although, they do share most of their combat tactics with Canadian troops in WW1 and WW2 and most of their soldier culture with Americans.

This is an interesting comment, care to explain in greater detail?

Canada and the USA have a pretty small military tradition when compared to Europe, which is where my confusion originates.

Cadians are vanilla/generic guard in appearance. Their appearance is really just based on a futuristic but still steam punk-ish sci-fi human soldier concept, meant to look stylized but expendable.

In terms of culture, exaggerated versions of Sparta and Israel probably.

MarsNZ wrote:

 washout77 wrote:
Although, they do share most of their combat tactics with Canadian troops in WW1 and WW2 and most of their soldier culture with Americans.

This is an interesting comment, care to explain in greater detail?

Canada and the USA have a pretty small military tradition when compared to Europe, which is where my confusion originates.

Gladly.

Not only between the name thing, Canadian Troops in WW1 were feared by Germans because the Canadians did the whole storm-trooper thing significantly better than they did. Hence, the Cadian Shock Troops. Also, the Cadian and Canadian (along with plenty of other militaries in this era, which is why they are so generic and open to interpretation) strategies both rely on shook troops, weight of fire and discipline among the soldiers thus connecting another line back to inspiration by the World War 1/2 Canadian army.

Soldier culture may have been bad phrasing. What I meant was that if you look at the different sayings, slang, and general actions the Cadians do it seems to reflect things that the US Army has very similar sayings for. Excuse me, but I can't think of an example at the moment without looking through books. It's not so much the military tradition like Cadia has (which, is a connection to Europe. This helps leave it open for multiple possibilities of regiments and backgrounds), but the informal sayings and slang among the ground pounders.

Hope I could clear some of the stuff I said up a bit

EDIT: Harritcus makes a good point. I never thought about it, but some of the traits of groups like the Kasrkin seem Spartan like.

I personally think GW did a good job of making a fairly generic Sci-Fi soldier by combining so many different things. I mean, you can argue where Cadians come from. No one can argue about Valhallans or the Steel Legion.

I'll just go with the Canadians. They're called Shock Troops, the guard as a whole is based on world war 2 armed forces with a few exceptions (Catachans, Elysians), and the Cadians are at the frontline, just as Canadians lead the charge on multiple occasions.

See Canada's 100 Days campaign in world war 1. They held out against a force roughly ten times their size making up nearly a quarter of the German army.

 Arcsquad12 wrote:
I'll just go with the Canadians. They're called Shock Troops, the guard as a whole is based on world war 2 armed forces with a few exceptions (Catachans, Elysians), and the Cadians are at the frontline, just as Canadians lead the charge on multiple occasions.

See Canada's 100 Days campaign in world war 1. They held out against a force roughly ten times their size making up nearly a quarter of the German army.

And the Vostroyans, Death Korps, Praetorians, Mordians, Tallarns, Steel Legion.

Really it's rather difficult to say any of the GW produced regiments are based on WW2 armed forces except the Valhallans.

Like others have said i see the Cadians as generic soldiers allowing the player to make his own theme, as compared to the other, more obviously inspired and thematic ranges.

Doctrine wise, not aesthetic wise, they are based on WW2. It's WW2 in space every day for the Guard/

 washout77 wrote:
[

Not only between the name thing, Canadian Troops in WW1 were feared by Germans because the Canadians did the whole storm-trooper thing significantly better than they did.

hmm [citation needed]

Sorry but this really needs something to back it up. Sure, they got kudos from their enemy for putting up a better fight than many other Commonwealth forces, but to extrapolate that into meaning they pioneered and perfected the tactic is just flat out wrong.

Hell the English word for Stormtrooper comes from the German Sturmtruppen, ditto the English term 'Shock troops' has it's origins in the German Stosstruppen

I agree though, by making a very generic line of models they can appeal to the greatest amount of gamers, while leaving things like Vostroya/Krieg/Tallarn for people who want that extra level of specificity.

I am going to have to agree that they seem to be an amalgam of different sources. There may be some WW2 Canadian influence, but there are other influences as well.

Heck, you could make an argument that their culture is based on Sparta: A warrior-society, where all children are trained in the one true profession (soldiering) from an early age. They look down on soldiers from other worlds, since no matter how good they are, they still aren't Cadians. And they are best known for defending a critical chokepoint (Cadian Gate/Thermopylae) from a numerically superior force.

MarsNZ wrote:

 washout77 wrote:
[

Not only between the name thing, Canadian Troops in WW1 were feared by Germans because the Canadians did the whole storm-trooper thing significantly better than they did.

hmm [citation needed]

Sorry but this really needs something to back it up. Sure, they got kudos from their enemy for putting up a better fight than many other Commonwealth forces, but to extrapolate that into meaning they pioneered and perfected the tactic is just flat out wrong.

Hell the English word for Stormtrooper comes from the German Sturmtruppen, ditto the English term 'Shock troops' has it's origins in the German Stosstruppen

I agree though, by making a very generic line of models they can appeal to the greatest amount of gamers, while leaving things like Vostroya/Krieg/Tallarn for people who want that extra level of specificity.

Source: Source Records of the Great War, Vol. V, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923

"It need hardly be a matter of surprise that the Canadians by this time had the reputation of being the best shock troops in the Allied Armies. They had been pitted against the select guards and shock troops of Germany and the Canadian superiority was proven beyond question. They had the physique, the stamina, the initiative, the confidence between officers and men (so frequently of equal standing in civilian life) and happened to have the opportunity.

As Philip Gibbs said of the battle of Passchendaele:

The Canadians have had more luck than the English, New Zealand and Australian troops who fought the way up with most heroic endeavour, and not a man in the army will begrudge them the honour which they have gained, not easily, nor without the usual price of victory, which is some men's death and many men's pain.

After an heroic attack by the Canadians, they fought their way over the ruins of Passchendaele and into the ground beyond it.

Their gains held, the seal is set upon the most terrific achievement of war ever attempted and carried through by British arms."

Sir Douglas Haig's official report said:

"Night operations were undertaken this morning (November 6th, 1917) by Canadian troops with complete success against the enemy's defences in and around Passchendaele and on the spur north and north-west of the village. The assembly of our troops for the attack was carried out successfully, and at 6 a.m., the assault was launched as arranged.

The enemy had been ordered to hold this important position on the main ridge at all costs. Hard fighting took place at a number of points on the Goudberg Spur. None the less our troops made steady progress, and at an early hour the village of Passchendaele was captured with the hamlet of Mosselmarkt and Goudberg.

Before mid-day all our objectives had been gained, and a number of prisoners had been taken."

It is shown that multiple times throughout the war that Canadian troops fought better than their German counter-parts.

NOTE: I did NOT say they perfected the art! Nor did I say they pioneered it! That was def. the Germans! However, the Canadians ended up being slightly better at it compared to the Germans in World War 1. Also, the concept of the Shocktrooper really originated with Austrian and French Grenadiers and then formally made "Shock Troops" by the Germans in WW1 as said

 Brother Captain Alexander wrote:
This is from GW official gallery site, the planet of Cadia:


It doesn't look like Ice World to me, Furthermore I found this quote in Malleus novel: "The planet's surface plays host to a variety of terrain types, from frozen tundras and wind-swept moorlands to axel-tree forests."

So planet is mostly like our Earth when it comes to climate, meaning that Cadia is moderate temperature world.

That, uh... That's Canada's climate. Canada, being on Earth, shares some of that with other places, but note Cadia's pointed lack of hot deserts, rainforests, savanah, ect. So yeah.

I don't think its got anything to do with Canada at all.

Cadians are the successor of the RT era plastic Imperial Guard.
Regiment on the front of the box? Necromundan 9th.
Regiment on the uniform guide on the side of the box? Arcadian 5th.

GW likely started with Arcadian, decided to drop the first syllable then come up with a good name to stick on the end.

I believe they're based on German military forces during ww2 seeing that they both had shock troopers. In addition, the Cadians have German names as well.

Like a few others have said they are most likely just a generic future sci fi soldier. They are similar to marines from aliens.

I don't know if I buy the Canadian thing, when you have to go into such detail about why they are based on Canadians I don't buy it. I can look at catachans and see right away what they are based on, same as other troops.

The most notable Cadians are Ursakar Creed and Jarran Kell. Those are made up first names and English surnames not German. Cadians live in fortified cities named Kasr's, which is a made up word, not German.

This wasn't always the case, but pretty much ever since the Starship Troopers movie, they've looked like...Marines from the Starship Troopers movie. The aesthetic inspiration is fairly obvious there.
That's just looks, though... I can't help in terms of doctrine etc.

Mordians - US Marines in dress blues.
Voystrians - Russian Cossacks
Tallarn - Taliban (pre-dates)
DKOK - WW I german
Vallhallans - WW II Soviet
Praetorians - British Colonial
Steel Legion - WW II German
Cadian - ??? British / US Modern

I think it is the look of the weapon the webbing pattern and the helmet that define it. The helmet suggests a modern US/British Kevlar helmet. The weapon looks more like an M16 than a britsh bullpup. The webbing though is not US and not sure of what else it could be.

DAaddict wrote:

Tallarn - Taliban (pre-dates)

Pretty sure the Tallarn Desert Raiders are based on T.E. Lawrence and his Arab Guerrilla fighters more then the Taliban.