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So I started Guard as I loved the Leman russ but after playing with my firends for a time went to a local store to find other armies to play. Well Leman russ lists werent great. Then 6th came out and gw killed LRBT's with hull lascannons and any sponsons so majority of my russes are useless. I then started trying to build competitive lists I found on this site and I believe I have foot guard down, and I am finishing up a mech guard list to give a spin for a bit.

But I do love the Cadian theme as you can check out my Leman russ under my name. I think for fun games I would like to try and build some 1850-2kpt lists with a cadian theme. The most I know about the Cadians is just what Ive got from the codex.

So if you were to build a list based off a Cadian regiment what would you include? I know cadia has a lot of veterans according to the codex, iirc. and I read somewhere else they prefer LRBT's and demolishers for their russes? I also know based by regiments you could build an all infantry list or go all armor.

If anyone wants to share more background fluff of the cadians and or of their armor feel free!

So lets have at it!

Cadians are designed to be the most generic possible army. Literally any IG list you write can be a perfectly fluffy Cadian list.

 Peregrine wrote:
Cadians are designed to be the most generic possible army. Literally any IG list you write can be a perfectly fluffy Cadian list.

This..... also as cadia is in the midst of one of the biggest battles in the history of the imperium they have NO restrictions to the toys they can field..... rough riders, ogryn and ratlings are perfectly fine (if you use them) because they would likely be deployed in such a warzone. (Creed + warhound titan FTW)

Are there any specific weapons they prefer to use is probably what Im also asking.

I do like the Creed and titan idea lol!

they probably dont go much in the way of fancy stuff for much of their army ( in order to pump out troops) so basically make it bland as possible. barebones everything ( except mabye flamers or GL). In regards to troops i hear they have more "stormtroopers" than normal (kaskarin) so perhaps use lots of those and vets

 Somedude593 wrote:
they probably dont go much in the way of fancy stuff for much of their army ( in order to pump out troops) so basically make it bland as possible.

Actually it's the exact opposite. Cadians are well supplied because of their important role as a fortress world, so they should be able to take anything you want.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Somedude593 wrote:
they probably dont go much in the way of fancy stuff for much of their army ( in order to pump out troops) so basically make it bland as possible.

Actually it's the exact opposite. Cadians are well supplied because of their important role as a fortress world, so they should be able to take anything you want.

You CAN take what you want but as he wants a fluffy list he has to tone it down, spamming plasma and melta makes a good list but its not very fluffy for the vast majority of cadian armies if it could be so for any army AT ALL. I would consider taking any option other than lasguns to be well supplied.........its the guard

 Somedude593 wrote:
I would consider taking any option other than lasguns to be well supplied.........its the guard

And, again, it's the Cadians, who define "professional soldiers" in the setting. They're trained almost as well as space marines and issued whatever equipment they need thanks to their role as "best of the IG" and vital location as a fortress world. The whole "be glad you have more than a lasgun" thing does not apply to Cadians.

In GW fluff, the army list in the IG Codex actually represents a "watered down" semi-Cadian regiment which has been reinforced by elements from other worlds. "Pure" Cadian regiments do not include any abhumans such as Ogrnys, for example.

Source: Codex Eye of Terror - which contains rules for said "pure" Cadian regiment. Obviously, these rules are by now outdated, but it would be possible to approximate them by using the current Guard Codex in a fashion that is reminiscent of the units featured in C:EoT.

To provide a short recap/suggestion: Cadia's close vicinity means lots of psykers, which feature prominently in their regiments. You have the option of fielding "Kasrkin" Storm Troopers and "Youth Army" Conscript platoons in addition to your normal Infantry and Veterans. Available tanks are Sentinels (all variants including a "Cadian pattern" variant that trades the multi-laser for an autocannon) and Hellhounds, as well as the Leman Russ Battle Tank, Leman Russ Demolisher, and Basilisk artillery. Infantry platoons may be fielded with Chimaera APCs to create "Armoured Fist" squads.
Additionally, as per the 3E Codex: IG, the Cadian Shock Troops' preferred special weapon is the grenade launcher, whereas the preferred heavy weapon is the autocannon.

As with all things 40k, however, "fluff" changes depending on which source you looks at, so it is entirely possible that outsourced products such as various novels or FFG's Only War RPG would contain information contradictory to the above. Pick and choose, OP - it's your army, and your interpretation of the setting.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Somedude593 wrote:
I would consider taking any option other than lasguns to be well supplied.........its the guard

And, again, it's the Cadians, who define "professional soldiers" in the setting. They're trained almost as well as space marines and issued whatever equipment they need thanks to their role as "best of the IG" and vital location as a fortress world. The whole "be glad you have more than a lasgun" thing does not apply to Cadians.

While i do agree that Cadians are the elite of the Guard, i cannot believe that rank and file Cadians get their pick of special weapons.... Storm Troopers/Kaskarin, and officers are likely i agree ( the elite of the elite) but Shock troops will not ( they can only have 1 anyway) and Vets most likely would prefer lasguns due to their familiarity and proficiency with the weapon.... by the way here is how i gauge the commonality of weapons as a basis for further discussion.
Lasgun: Universal
GL and Flamer: less Common but still widely used, go-to "special" weapons for fluff guard
Melta: Semi-Common, for tank buster units mainly ( and jurgen) but still have a visible prescence within the guard
Plasma: You have to be part of some special organization to THINK of one of these

@Lynata: thanks for the info

Cadians have no fluff. They are net resting as toast.

 Lynata wrote:
In GW fluff, the army list in the IG Codex actually represents a "watered down" semi-Cadian regiment which has been reinforced by elements from other worlds. "Pure" Cadian regiments do not include any abhumans such as Ogrnys, for example.

Source: Codex Eye of Terror - which contains rules for said "pure" Cadian regiment. Obviously, these rules are by now outdated, but it would be possible to approximate them by using the current Guard Codex in a fashion that is reminiscent of the units featured in C:EoT.

To provide a short recap/suggestion: Cadia's close vicinity means lots of psykers, which feature prominently in their regiments. You have the option of fielding "Kasrkin" Storm Troopers and "Youth Army" Conscript platoons in addition to your normal Infantry and Veterans. Available tanks are Sentinels (all variants including a "Cadian pattern" variant that trades the multi-laser for an autocannon) and Hellhounds, as well as the Leman Russ Battle Tank, Leman Russ Demolisher, and Basilisk artillery. Infantry platoons may be fielded with Chimaera APCs to create "Armoured Fist" squads.
Additionally, as per the 3E Codex: IG, the Cadian Shock Troops' preferred special weapon is the grenade launcher, whereas the preferred heavy weapon is the autocannon.

As with all things 40k, however, "fluff" changes depending on which source you looks at, so it is entirely possible that outsourced products such as various novels or FFG's Only War RPG would contain information contradictory to the above. Pick and choose, OP - it's your army, and your interpretation of the setting.

This is some info I was searching for! I will have to read through some of the old codex's because I know from the 4th edition one they explained some fluff more and I feel the 3rd edition one would as well, Thanks for the info!

 Somedude593 wrote:
i cannot believe that rank and file Cadians get their pick of special weapons....

I'm not saying they get to pick, I'm saying they're well-equipped. If a basic infantry squad has a flamer it's because they have been ordered to go fight hordes at close range, not because flamers are all you get unless you're lucky enough to be a storm trooper.

and Vets most likely would prefer lasguns due to their familiarity and proficiency with the weapon....

Yeah, vets, the unit specifically stated to eagerly scavenge as many weapons as possible, will just take basic lasguns instead of a much more powerful weapon...

Lasgun: Universal
GL and Flamer: less Common but still widely used, go-to "special" weapons for fluff guard
Melta: Semi-Common, for tank buster units mainly ( and jurgen) but still have a visible prescence within the guard
Plasma: You have to be part of some special organization to THINK of one of these

This would be true of an army of Valhallan conscripts, but not Cadians.

Well, looking at the old codex, it says that cadians prefer autocannons and grenade launchers.

They also like themselves their grenadiers (which were pretty similar to vet squads with grenadiers now), and stormtroopers, and conscripts. And the occasional psyker.

They also had Iron Discipline (which everybody gets now for free), that could be represented by just having minimum-sized infantry platoons so you can cram the most officers in there as you could, or just taking a bunch of commissars. They also had sharpshooters. There's no real way of doing this nowadays, other than BiD and just taking stuff with BS4.

All that in mind, I'd say that the fluffiest cadian list you could bring would look sort of like the one I played in this game, which was basically stormtroopers and carapace vets led by a senior officer and a psyker.

I suppose any army that focused on using elite infantry units would feel pretty cadian, though.

Thats a pretty awesome list lol, never seen so many vets and storm troopers before. I think with a list like that I would tone some of the storm trooper squads down a bit, drop the priest and hydras and throw in some LRBT's or a vendetta or two.

One of the reasons I am also plannning on making some fluffy lists is because a friend of mine come back into town who plays tyranids is interested in a campaign. Not all the games will be competitive but there will be quite a bitt fluffy fun games, I will try to make some recon scouting lists with sentinels and vets with snipers and hellhounds/chimeras, some armored lists with chimeras and Leman russ and then there wil be some fluffy cadian themed lists. But there will quite a bit of lists where I will try to hold the line against a tyranid horde lol.

Actually, if I were to do that list again, I'd keep the stormtroopers, but I'd prune down the vets. Three giant stormie squads, two mechvets, and a pile of russes. No longer the fluffiest cadian list, but you can more or less just wave your hands at the stormtroopers and call it cadian.

The pretty much are, I know the cadians use kasrkins(their own storm troopers) and they use them in companies, I read through a previous codex where you could take 3 squads of them as troop choices. Wish this guard codex had as much options and different twists as it had in the previous ones lol.