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Cadia

2019-01-11T18:43:26Z

2600:1006:B112:203E:787D:33D9:E0EE:12B3: /* New Cadia */

{{Awesome}}
[[File:Cadian Cmdr female.jpg|400px|thumbnail|right|And they say there are no female commanders among the Guard... especially among Cadians. ]]
{{Topquote|Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your sane — Strong for the red rage of battle; sane for I harry them sore; Send me men girt for the combat, men who are grit to the core.|The Law of the Yukon: by Robert W. Service }}
{{Topquote|The Guard dies and does not surrender!|Pierre Cambronne}}
{{Topquote|Cadia is the end and the beginning.|White Dwarf, January 2017}}

'''Cadia''' is, or rather ''was'' an Imperial Guard fortress world located right beside the [[Eye of Terror]]. Due to being proximate to the only safe warp-passage into and out of the Eye, as well as large Xenos mobilization throughout the sector, it had become a [[fortress world]] and a strategic gem for the [[Imperium of Man]].

==The Planet Itself==
Fortress. That's the one word that can sum up the planet of Cadia. Since it was close neighbors with [[Chaos Space Marines|those nice boys]] from [[Eye of Terror|across the street]], Cadia always needed to be on active defense. All the time one had their [[Lasgun]] shouldered and was twitching from a combination of going 47 hours without sleep and being raised to be paranoid as fuck. Of course, living basically inside the Eye of Terror, it isn't truly paranoia at all, just common sense.

As far as geography goes, Cadia held a temperate climate not unlike the Holy [[Hiveworld]] of [[Terra]]. 70 percent of its surface was covered in bodies of water, and its landmasses were [[Grimdark|covered with bodies of guardsmen]].

If it weren't for the anti-warp pylons holding back the expansions of the Eye of Terror, it would have been subjected to [[Exterminatus]] long before Abaddon crashed his wrecked Blackstone Fortress into it. The place was a hellhole even before its destruction. It ''might'' have been a good vacation spot if you '''LIKE''' trenches filled with bodies and tracer fire lighting up your hotel room... on second thought... fuck that shit!

==Cadia and you==
First, let me start with saying that it [[Khorne|sucked to live on Cadia]]. Oh, you think where you live sucks? Live in a crime infested ghetto or something similar? A couple drive by shootings and a stolen TV are ''nothing'' compared to how much it sucked to live on Cadia. Why does it suck you ask? Oh, not much of a reason at all. Just the fact that it's like, six feet away from the fucking [[Eye of Terror]] (It also sucks to live ''there'', but for many reasons other than Cadia).

==Cadia: A very, ''very'' shitty place to live==
It just sucks to live on Cadia, period. Yes, there are several manly, redeeming qualities (see below) about the planet, but if you live on Cadia you're too busy replacing the power pack in your [[Lasgun|flashlight]] after throwing back Monday's Chaos invasion to notice. A short list includes, but is not limited to:

*Being drafted before you can walk, learning to shoot before you can count, and getting thrown in the the meat-grinder (mostly figuratively, sometimes literally) by age 16.
*Learning how to shoot so young that when you're toilet-trained you're told to aim your dick like it's a lasgun.
*Marauding bands of [[Chaos Space Marines]] and assorted [[Heresy|heretics]] trying to kill you.
*Random WAAAGH!!!s of [[Orks|greenskins]] trying to kill you.
*Stealthy platoons of [[Eldar|Space Elves]] trying to kill you.
*Your own [[Commissar|superior officers]] trying to ki-{{BLAM|'''*BLAM!*'''}}
*No privacy whatsoever for your entire life.
*Constant fear of death before you reach puberty.
*Constant fear of death during puberty.
*Constant fear of death after puberty, but chances are you'll die before this, have your soul sold to/claimed by a chaos deity and for their lolz spend your death in constant fear of puberty.
*Superior officers barking orders down your neck for the 10-16 years that you're alive.
*<s>No time to screw around,</s> you're always on duty. Sometimes said duty is to help train new recruits for their inevitable deaths.
*The top fashions in Cadia are camo patterns and body armor.
*[[Heresy|Heretical]] cults springing up by the dozen every week.
*[[Chaos|Voices]] keep telling you to ditch the duty and [[Slaanesh|relax]], [[Khorne|let loose]], call in [[Nurgle|sick]], or try something [[Tzeentch|different]].
*The fact that the planet's <s>main</s> '''only''' export is Soldiers should clue you in.
*[[Mutant]]s springing up everywhere wanting to try out the new pincer claw they just got on your neck.
*[[Grimdark|Even after you die, Cadia doesn't stop being shitty to you, because once the engraving on your tombstone is illegible, it means you've been dead for so long nobody alive cares about you anymore, so your corpse is dug up and thrown into an incinerator while a fresh corpse is thrown into your hole. And then ''they'' will be dug up and thrown away as well.]]
*Cadia is now destroyed and consumed by the Eye of Terror. If you're still living there, you're either a heretic, a warp entity, fighting a heroic last stand, or really ''really'' unlucky.

Seriously, it just sucks to live there, just take my word for it. Avoid prolonged stays on Cadia at all costs.

==Redeeming Qualities==
[[File:Cadian 8th Regiment-small.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Fuckers so hardcore, they take on fieldtrips on other hellhole planets when their own hellhole planet gets too stale.]]
Yes it sucked to live on Cadia, sucks beyond all Hell, but there are several reasons why it was one of the most [[awesome]] places in the Imperium.

===Cadian Shock Troopers===
First and foremost, the finest (and perhaps most numerous) breed of the [[Imperial Guard]] were born, trained, and lived on Cadia. You see the Cadian as the common model for your generic, garden variety guardsmen figurine, and as such they are the most easily recognized. They fight tenaciously for the [[Empra]] and die with the same degree of vigor. Manliness is never in short order here on Cadia, making it one of the most awesome planets around.

Their [[Stormtrooper|elite troops]] are the '''Kasrkin''', basically the elite of the elite of the Guard. That are separate from the [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Militarum Tempestus(7E)|Scions]] as they aren't trained in cozy little Scholas watched over by Commissars, but are trained right there on Cadia, combining all the battle conditioning and tactics learned by the Cadia Shock Troopers over the course of KILLING EVERYTHING IN THE GALAXY for the last several thousand years. Only [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] are better. But the Kasrkin are probably scarier than the Spess Mehreens anyway, because they do about the same on the battlefield, without wearing a concrete wall on every inch of their body and not having [[Bolter|mini-rocket launcher guns]], no, they're just humans with balls of adamantium, both of which have their own pair of balls of adamantium (and that's the women). They don't wear carapace armor, either. Full-bodied flack-armor for these motherfuckers. To be fair though, they get shit done while wearing cardboard instead of the Guardsman's t-shirts, and they still use the older but far more advanced [[Hellgun|Hellguns]] over the Scion's Hot-shot lasguns, they shoot a lot more light than the Guardsman's flashlight. For example, [[Awesome|a Kasrkin Sergeant literally jumps on the back of a rampaging Daemonhost (which has already incapacitated the majority of an Inquisitorial retinue) and stabs it with a regular ol' combat knife to save the life of an Inquisitor.]] Balls. Of. Adamantium. Before the battle even began that [[Eisenhorn|Inquisitor]] admitted to being scared of them, and this is an Inquisitor who has fought alongside Deathwatch Marines against traitor Legionaries of The [[Emperor's Children]] in a warp corrupted landscape, 100 years ago, and has seen and battled Emperor knows what since then. Let that sink in. Now, ''the Kasrkin scared him'', [[Awesome|bad-fucking-ass]].

In conclusion, Cadians are the best troopers, and Kasrkin are the best of the best, well at least when it comes to conventional warfare, other regiments have them beat in specialized roles (Siege and attrition warfare? Send forth the [[Death Korps of Krieg|Death Korps]]. Guerrilla warfare and sabotage? Sneak some [[Catachan Jungle Fighters|Catachans]] in. Rapid insertion and maneuvering? Drop the [[Elysian Drop Troops|Elysians]] on 'em). But when you aren't sure what you'll be up against or are expecting a prolonged encounter with rapidly changing tactical situations then you can't go wrong with the Cadian Shock Troopers. When you need a certain [[Abbadon|failure]] to run away for awhile, catapult a Kasrkin at him.

Perhaps some day the Imperium will realize that careful selection of soldiers could result in the entire Imperial Guard being nothing but Kasrkin (and their equivalents in armored regiments). But again, that would mean the Imperium would win easily and no models would be sold. Without selling models, the Imperium cannot continue fighting the Eternal War and that would be [[HERESY]]. Alternatively massed flashlight are simply far more cost effective then elite shock troupers, especially when needing to garrison millions of worlds. Likewise even a space marine cannot survive being outnumbered 1000 or even a 100 to 1 by cannon fodder standing in front of artillery. Except Kasrkin’s only real equipment difference is the hellgun, but their skill is what makes them dangerous. It is not more expensive, simply being selective of recruits. Even if it was more expensive, there is this miraculous thing called “cost effectiveness”. A soldier capable of doing the job of a squad or even platoon of normal soldiers but cost only maybe three to five times more than a normal soldier but you can field about one for every ten or so normal soldiers, then you enjoy a massive gain. Also, quantity and quality are not interchangeable. A thousand soldiers fighting a thousand soldiers are about evenly matched, but a thousand soldiers fighting a hundred who are each worth ten is going to lose because that power will be concentrated. That hundred men can break through any assault, destroy any target when they attack, and it is much more difficult to force them to face an open battle of mere numbers. You simply aren’t going to be fighting that hundred with your thousand because they just won’t sit around and let you. This is a large part of why Space Marines are so effective. They simply win and don’t get bogged down into a game of attrition unless it is in their besr interest. And you won’t need as many troops in garrisions if the troops are higher quality and won’t need as many garrisons if your enemies are too dead to attack.

Also confirmed to be so fucking hardcore that their planet broke before they did. In spite of their homeworld's destruction, they've managed to keep going as strong as ever and now fight even harder to avenge its loss.

'''CADIA STANDS!'''

===Defended===
Despite what is said about how much of a hellhole Cadia was due to the constant warfare, because of that selfsame constant warfare Cadia was one of the most well-defended planets in the Imperium. In fact, it was the 2nd most heavily defended world in the Imperium of Man, only Sol System is better defended than Cadia (And maaaaaybe [[Fenris]]). All cities are arranged in interlocking blocks that require roads to snake around buildings with blind corners and are defended by rockcrete and adamantium walls, all to favor the defenders in urban combat. Massive shield generators keep the cities safe from all but the heaviest bombardment, forcing enemies to pay for them meter by bloody meter. All "civilians" are technically Cadian military reservists, and have been through the same life-long military training that all Cadians are subject to. As dangerous as Cadia is, the locals have learned to handle that danger and weather it as well as possible. Given its strategic importance, the Imperium is more than willing to commit substantial other resources to the planet's defense, which means lots of ships patrolling the system and lots of depots stationed in nearby systems to quickly reinforce Cadia at a moment's notice.

===Creed===
[[Creed|CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!!!!]]
This article has infiltrated your computer. You just got tactical geniused.

===Reproduction===
Birth rate and recruitment rate are synonymous. And if you see [[Grimdark|how many men and women die on the battlefield every day]]... better start doing your part for the Imperium. On Cadia, you were encouraged to fuck around wildly and have your partner push out the kid in a barracks to increase efficiency in recruiting.

===Colonizers===
Cadia's, as you noticed, only real export was soldiers. The thing is, Cadia pumps out so many that they usually form the core cadre of amalgamated units that get clumped into entirely new Imperial Guard armies, and sent to wage campaigns against taken or occupied planets. These armies are never getting sent back home, and are intended, when they win, to form a new government and society, and settle down (as seen in Dawn of War WA and Dark Crusade). As the core is usually Cadian, a lot of the army doctrines and style end up being Cadian, at least for a millennia or so. Hell, they colonize empty planets this way even, especially if it's a dangerous sector of space. Even now, who knows how many planets that are distinct and vital started this way? [[neckbeard|Your DNA could be spread far and wide across the galaxy and you wouldn't even know]].

This is of course to justify why everyone looks like Cadians, aka GW doesn't want to make a dozen different types of guards.

===Violet Eyes===
Ever fancied having more eye color than is standard for man? Move to Cadia and your kids will likely get glowing purple/violet eyes, may explain how purple-eyed animu characters tend to be awesome, they must be Cadians. Have fun explaining (with a bayonet...and a few thousand friends) to mobs of angry locals on other planets that you're not a mutant before they crucify you and burn you alive. Most likely the locals automatically assume their eyes are glowing with the Emperor’s divine light or something.

===The Place of Lorgar's Enlightenment===
While the Imperium would consider this quality the highest order of [[heresy]], perhaps the greatest reason for Cadia's importance is that it is, in many ways, the birthplace of the [[Horus Heresy]]. It was on Cadia the forces of the [[Word Bearers]] met with Ingethel the Chosen and were inducted into the service of the Ruinous Powers. As such, Cadia holds tremendous ideological importance and sentimental value for the Champions of Chaos.

==The Fall of Cadia==
{{Template:Spoilers}}

===Business As Usual===

When Abaddon finally launched his [[13th Black Crusade]], Cadia stood ready. Millions perished in the initial attack, but there were still enough Imperial forces to first blunt, then repulse the Chaos incursion. In its wake however was a system on the edge of collapse, its surviving defenders too weary to even try to celebrate. What was worse, Cadia was effectively isolated, with most of its Astropathic choirs either dead or driven insane.

Ursarkar Creed, now Lord Castellan, was worried. Through-out the fighting on-world, there was not even a single report of Abaddon being spotted. As a result he was sure that another assault was on the way, and what was worse it was likely that the Despoiler's own fleet would pass through the system. Unfortunately there was little left of the Imperial Navy present to put up more than a token defense, barring the [[Space Wolves]] battle barge ''Firemane's Fang'', and none of the ships there would be able to chase down Abaddon's ships once they made for deep space.

Preparing for the inevitable, Creed dug in, and set his forces to fortifying Kasr Kraf, which included Marshall Amalrich's [[Black Templars]]. Similar scenes repeated themselves throughout Cadia, with surviving Shock Troops and Astartes companies setting up defenses where they can. The Space Wolves set themselves up in Kasr Jark, while further north the [[Dark Angels]] 4th Company reinforced their own grounded Strike Cruiser ''Sword of Defiance''. In the days that followed the defenders drilled and trained, waiting for the inevitable to come.

===Eye of Terror 2: Electric Boogaloo===

And come it did, because Abaddon was not done with Cadia. Not by a long shot. His Black Fleet was inbound, an angry swarm of Traitor Legion warships, Daemon vessels, and space hulks, with the Blackstone Fortress ''Will of Eternity'' at its core. The remnants of Battlefleets Corona and Scarus, bloodied by the first wave of the Black Crusade, sought to stall the Black Fleet's advance, and paid for their defiance with their lives. Still the Chaos fleet swept on.

News that a Blackstone Fortress was incoming sent Creed's forces' already fevered preparations into a frenzy. Every Tech-adept that could be spared set about restoring Cadia's damaged null-array, which was damaged at the start of the Black Crusade. Even then it would not be enough, because time had finally run out for Cadia.

The Space Wolves however, disagreed. Sven Bloodhowl volunteered to lead his Great Company in boarding the ''Will of Eternity'', and do what they can to slow its advance. Along with them came two hundred other battle-brothers from the various Chapter forces devastated at the start of the Black Crusade, survivors of the Cadian 13th, and a full maniple of [[Skitarii]]. It was the last throw of the dice, but Creed had very few options left.

They failed. Abaddon's vanguard arrived on schedule a day later, soon followed by the Blackstone Fortress. Cheers erupted among the defenders however when its devastation beam dispersed harmlessly across the upper atmosphere. The null array worked! Eeeeeeeexcept it seems that the projection grid now featured xenos tech that wasn't there a day ago...

The cheers were a little short-lived however, as the skies of Cadia Secundus blacked with Traitor drop-ships. Round two had begun, and Abaddon had all the advantages.

The defenders put up a withering amount of fire, but it was not enough. Traitor Legionnaires made landfall, and daemonic reinforcements were summoned. Defense positions were soon overrun, and Creed made the decision to recall defenders back to the curtain walls of Kasr Kraf. The defenders made their fighting retreats, barring Marshall Amalrich's Black Templars, who stubbornly decided to stand their ground, and the Sisters of Battle that had made their defense at the Shrine of Saint Morrican.

Hours passed, then days. Orven Highfell's Ironwolves had counter-attacked the Iron Warriors force threatening Kasr Jark, while the Dark Angels defending the ''Sword of Defiance'' threw off three separate World Eater attacks. Slowly though the defenders were losing ground, and Creed once again ordered a withdrawal to the second curtain wall. The Novamarines 2nd Company sold their lives to stop Possessed from breaching one gate, but the West gate was lost, and with it so too was the 2nd curtain wall lost. Redoubt after redoubt fell, overwhelmed, with even the Dark Angels forced to abandon their grounded strike cruiser and join up with the surviving Space Wolves in their own withdrawal.

Kasr Kraf could not hold forever. An assault by the traitor Legio Vulcanum nearly made its defenses buckle, but the final straw was the assault of the Hounds of Abaddon. Led by newly-ascended Daemon Prince Urkanthos, the Hounds broke through the Kriegan Gates, slaughtering the Kasrkin regiments Creed had sent there to stem the tide. It took Creed himself, leading the Cadian 8th, that finally became the wall that the tide of traitors broke against. The remaining Astartes did what they could, but it was the intervention of the remnants of Marshall Amalrich's Cruxis Crusade ([[Fail|who had finally admitted that he was an idiot in trying to defend AWAY from Kasr Kraf]]) that seemed to give the remaining defenders a chance at more than a final show of defiance.

Urkanthos would not be denied however. His mission from Abaddon was clear: destroy the null array, and Cadia would fall. This was done with contemptuous ease. With its defenders dead and its ancient machinery reduced to cinders, nothing would stop the Blackstone Fortress from scouring the world clean.

===The Living Saint Cometh===

It was then [[Saint Celestine]] arrived, wreathed in the Emperor's own holy fire. Flagging faith was renewed, and strength was once brought to wearied limbs. Aside from this she brought with her reinforcements: five companies of the Order of Our Martyred Lady, long lost in the Warp, and the Imperial Fists that had been on-board the Phalanx during its emergency warp transition.

While Celestine lent aid to those on the ground, the Phalanx thundered into the heart of the Black Fleet, straight at the Black Fortress. Dorn's fist was to be its executioner. With a little help from what remained of Bloodhowl's force ([[Awesome|who had somehow survived to board the fortress, and had been fighting a running battle within for days]]), the Phalanx's planet-busting forward guns fired into a suddenly un-shielded flank (unprotected thanks to Bloodhowl's force sacrificing itself to take out the generators there). The ''Will of Eternity'' broke apart from the bombardment, its death throes throwing a third of gathered Traitor fleet there back into the Immaterium, and scattered the rest, while its broken husk hung in orbit.

The ground war fared better as the defenders threw off Urkanthos' Hounds from the walls, with the Daemon Prince's own corpse being added to the pile. Despite this, the Despoiler's forces still held air superiority, and scattered warbands gathered for yet another assault. This was no victory, but Cadia held off its doom for another day.

Even more surprises, as some last-minute reinforcements were still streaming in: the 5th Company of the [[Crimson Fists]] led by Ruis Tracinto, elements of the Cadian 14th, tanks of the Armoured 51st, Knights of House Taranis. The last but most significant of these latecomers was a Mechanicus Explorator fleet led by one [[Belisarius Cawl]]. It is Cawl that revealed to the gathered defenders the importance of ''not'' abandoning Cadia, and just how deep the Destroyer's plans were.

The last defenders withdrew to the Elysion Pylon fields, where the [[Legion of the Damned]] had manifested to keep watch over, to make their stand. Beyond the atmosphere the Phalanx moved to cover the field with its bombardment cannons, while far below the fields, Cawl and his adepts worked tirelessly to try and get the pylons to ''work'', but nothing he tried made the pylons react even a little. Close to throwing the towel in frustration, it was then that [[Trazyn the Infinite]] decide to make his presence known. The [[Necron]] proposed a truce, and promised to aid Cawl for its own inscrutable reasons.

===The Battle of Elysion Fields===

By this time the Battle of the Elysion Fields began to heat up, as Abaddon's forces slowly strangled the Imperial defenders. Days passed in desperate combat, with the Imperials hanging on just by the slimmest of margins, but that all changed once Abaddon himself teleported in to crush Cadia's last resistance himself. Accompanied by the Bringers of Despair, they assaulted Creed's command directly, and it was only due to the sacrifice of Creed's friend Kell that the Lord Castellan was able to live and fight another day. He, alongside the remnants of the Cadian 8th, made a fighting retreat into the catacombs beneath the Elysion pylons, before being finally pushed back into the deeper chambers that Cawl was still doing his work.

Curious at seeing the end result of Cawl's labors, Trazyn deigned to release some of his "collection" to delay the Despoiler: Heresy-era Ultramarines, Vostroyans, Tanith, Salamanders, an odd Custodian... All joined the battle against Abaddon's forces. All except [[Ordo Hereticus]] Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax and her bodyguard, that is. Wulfren bearing the sigil of the Ironwolves soon joined the fray, followed by Highfell himself fighting with a near-feral wildness.

It was then that Cawl coaxed the pylons to life. For those battling in the catacombs the effects were immediate, as Daemons were banished back to the Warp, and Possessed roared as their warp-spawned halves returned to the Immaterium. UNFORTUNATELY this also affected the [[Legion of the Damned]], and reduced Celestine's power to a mere Battle-Sister with a power weapon. Whoops.

This proved to be a BIG problem for Celestine, as she had been dueling Abaddon at that point. Creed had to personally intervene, as he saw immediately that if the Living Saint fell, so would the remaining morale of the defenders there. Even Greyfax, for all her distate for the "false idol", acted, and turned her psychic might at keeping the Despoiler at bay. In a moment of arrogance, Abaddon held off the deathblow to Celestine long enough to gloat over his impending success only to take a hit himself. Even depowered, Celestine had inflicted a wound upon the Despoiler which he had not felt the likes of since the Horus Heresy.

High above the effects of the pylons intensified. Against all expectation whatever was being transmitted from Cadia was actually ''causing the Eye of Terror to shrink'', and soon anything remotely warp-based began to waver or outright fail, including the void shields of the warships still glaring at each other beyond the atmosphere. Even teleporting out would eventually be impossible. It was at this point the Despoiler ordered his forces to withdraw, much to the shock and confusion of his ravaged foes. Even the forces on the surface were withdrawing en-masse, falling back to their Thunderhawks and drop-ships, and speeding back to the safety of the Black Fleet.

Something was up, and there was only one thing for sure: the compost was about to hit the rotary impeller, and SOON.

===Ragequit, Despoiler-style===

Once safely back upon the bridge of the ''Vengeful Spirit'', Abaddon set his "Plan B" in motion: if he couldn't have Cadia, '''nobody would'''. As soon as the last of the Traitor forces were retrieved, the Black Fleet pulled away from the planet, post-haste. At that point hidden plasma drives flared into life on the ruins of the ''Will of Eternity'', and slowly the moon-sized mass started to fall in the direction of Cadia. The batteries of the wounded ''Phalanx'' opened up in desperation, but nothing could stop its fall once the Blackstone Fortress was captured by Cadia's gravity well. Like the fist of an angry god, the fortress struck the planet hard, and the world burned.

From his command throne, Abaddon opened up a bottle of vintage wine, raised a cup (made from the skull of the [[Horus]] clone he had killed in the [[Battle of Harmony]]) in toast of an old foe, and laughed.

===Death of a World===

Millions died in the aftermath of the impact, but the worst was yet to come. As mountains crumbled and seas vanished into steam, the ancient Pylons scattered on the planet toppled as well. The ancient network sputtered and died, at which the Eye of Terror roared back into being, stronger and MUCH larger now that its ancient prison was sundered. With the echoing laughter of gods long-denied their prize, the maelstrom finally engulfed Cadia.

Daemons previously banished by the awakening of the pylons once more fell upon the ravaged world. Those who survived the initial inferno now found themselves fighting for their lives. But in that darkest hour, hope also returned. With the destruction of the pylons, Saint Celestine's strength returned, and burning bright with the light of the Emperor, the Living Saint led the survivors out of the catacombs, to witness a world much changed.

===The Exodus of Cadia===

At the sight of all the ruin and destruction, Creed finally despaired. Before his despondence could spread to his men, Greyfax took the initiative, and ordered the planetary evacuation of all surviving Imperial forces. Countless troop transports and landing craft roared upwards to the relative safety of the ''Phalanx'', though many more were lost amidst the burning atmosphere and the winged daemonspawn now infesting the skies.

Back at the Elysion Fields, the evacuation was turning desperate, as the waves of daemons pushed back the defensive lines. Soon there wouldn't be anywhere safe to land, and the evacuation zone would become a death trap.

Something had to be done. The Lord Castellan roused himself from his grief, and announced that the Cadian 8th would buy everyone the time they needed to escape. To their credit, none of the Castellan's Own blanched at the order, despite knowing full well what it meant. They owed Creed their lives anyway, and now was as good a time as any to pay the Castellan back the debt.

The last transports boosted away to safety, with the final one taking within the Knights of House Taranis, Marshall Amalrich's Black Templars, Saint Celestine's Sisters, and Grayfax. As they left that blighted battlefield behind, a clear and proud cry could be heard, over the howling winds and the cannon roar. It was a shout of defiance, bowed but unbroken: '''"CADIA STANDS!"'''

===The Fate of Creed===

Creed, wounded, weary, and about to bleed out, is confronted not by a Daemon, but by [[Trazyn|a metal giant wearing a scaled cloak]]. After that, a promise of eternity before darkness engulfs him, the giant's laughter ringing in his ears.

[[File:Cadiain8th.png|300px|thumbnail|center|...wait, how the fuck did she take off her trousers whilst still wearing her boots? Did she take off her boots, take off her trousers, then put her boots back on? Or was she just wearing shorts?]]

==We're Not Through Yet, Motherfuckers!==

According to the 7e Astra Militarum codex, every single Cadian regiment was recalled back to Cadia by Creed to defend it. Given that there were only 4 million Imperial survivors out of the original 850 million Imperials initially present, the vast majority of Cadian regiments were likely annihilated. Of course, it's unknown just how many Cadian regiments actually managed to get to Cadia in time before the shit hit the fan, but it's safe to say that certain [https://regimental-standard.com/2017/01/18/cadia-another-imperial-victory/ Imperium reports] that 90% of Cadia's Guard forces were off-world at the time and thus have survived the Fall of Cadia are either complete grox manure, or there were just THAT many Cadia guard regiments exported over the centuries. Given how long the Imperium has been around and the staggering size of the Guard, the latter may actually be more likely.

You thought the Fall of Cadia was the end? Well guess what, 8th Edition says otherwise! Curiously the closure of the Cadian Gate hadn't affected Chaos fleets in the slightest, as they've poured out the Eye everywhere across its borders with seemingly no effort while it expanded, no longer contained by the pylon network. This has actually worked out sort of okayish for the Imperium as well. With Cadia dealt with, a lot of warbands have decided to stop listening to the [[Abbadon|armless failure]] and go do their own thing to find things that are easier to kill than Cadia. This presents a bit of a problem for Chaos as Geedubs themselves have said there's still a fucking ton of defenders in the Cadian system and that the Chaos forces are starting to wear thin on the now-worthless planet.

On top of that, Cadia took so fucking long to go down that the Imperium is entrenched deep into neighboring planets waiting for a second coordinated wave of Chaos attackers that is increasingly unlikely to show up. Needless to say, there are more than a few commanders that think having all these forces sitting around essentially doing nothing was a massive waste, when they could instead be bringing the fight to the Great Enemy...

More worryingly, a detachment of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] has been sent there by order of the Captain-General. Specifically, the Custodes in charge of ensuring the Age of Strife-era horrors contained in the Imperial Palace's prisons (the mere knowledge of which could wreck the Imperium should they ever be known about) stay there. Seeing that several of said horrors were scattered across the galaxy by Chaos after the Great Rift opened, odds are that whatever the golden bananas were sent there for is ''very bad news''.

Moral of the Story: Humans are incredibly good at creating superweapons.

==New Cadia==

In the wake of the Exodus from Cadia, several surviving regiments found themselves in the Agripinaa System. Those lucky enough not to be "volunteered" by into servitor-dom by the neighboring forge-world of Agripinaa (which was unlikely to mess with a ton of the best army around and one so famous and beloved by the Imperium and important that screwing with them could get Agripinaa blown up) still had to fight off pursuing Chaos forces, which included renegade Astartes warbands from the [[Sons of Malice]] and the [[Crimson Slaughter]]. One of these forces, led by General Gruber, made it's last stand on ice moon of Faith's Anchorage. Although they were eventually overwhelmed, the Cadians went down fighting, with General Gruber himself -- an old man noted in-universe to neither be particularly brave ''or'' inspirational -- spitting defiance at his slayers, and doing one final banzai charge with his power sword.

So focused were the Chaos forces on annihilating Gruber's forces that they didn't notice the ''other'' parts of the Cadian Exodus that had translated into the outer system -- which included elements of the battered but unbowed Battlefleet Cadia. Eager for vengeance, the Cadians fell upon the Chaos Fleet, but even with their numbers it was a close thing, due to the damage the Imperial Fleet had already received prior. Then out of nowhere, the Space Wolf [[Strike Cruiser]] ''Stiklestad'' entered the fray, and soon the odds were tipped in the Imperials' favor.

Very quickly, the forces that had destroyed General Gruber's forces found themselves stranded on Faith's Anchorage. With nowhere to go, the Heretics soon found themselves facing regiment upon regiment of very VERY angry Cadian Shock Troopers. It took two weeks to comprehensively clear Hope's Anchorage of Heretic filth.

The Cadians were ''very'' thorough.

In the wake of this, the highest commanding officer of the Cadian military, General Benedikt of the 101st, consolidated his weary and battered forces on Chaeros, the 7th world of the Agripinaa system. It was soon renamed '''New Cadia''', a place to lick wounds and mourn lost comrades, a new place to call home, and a place to strike back from when the time finally came.

As for the other Cadian regiments, it says something that even after the destruction of their homeworld, Cadian regiments are still making up the bulk of the Guard forces in the Vigilus campaign. Even the Cadian 8th is active in the campaign, though they've renamed themselves '''Creed's Legacy'''.

{{40k-Imperial-Regiments}}

{{40k-Planets}}

[[Category:Imperial]]

Cadia

2019-01-11T18:06:59Z

2600:1006:B112:203E:787D:33D9:E0EE:12B3: /* Violet Eyes */

{{Awesome}}
[[File:Cadian Cmdr female.jpg|400px|thumbnail|right|And they say there are no female commanders among the Guard... especially among Cadians. ]]
{{Topquote|Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your sane — Strong for the red rage of battle; sane for I harry them sore; Send me men girt for the combat, men who are grit to the core.|The Law of the Yukon: by Robert W. Service }}
{{Topquote|The Guard dies and does not surrender!|Pierre Cambronne}}
{{Topquote|Cadia is the end and the beginning.|White Dwarf, January 2017}}

'''Cadia''' is, or rather ''was'' an Imperial Guard fortress world located right beside the [[Eye of Terror]]. Due to being proximate to the only safe warp-passage into and out of the Eye, as well as large Xenos mobilization throughout the sector, it had become a [[fortress world]] and a strategic gem for the [[Imperium of Man]].

==The Planet Itself==
Fortress. That's the one word that can sum up the planet of Cadia. Since it was close neighbors with [[Chaos Space Marines|those nice boys]] from [[Eye of Terror|across the street]], Cadia always needed to be on active defense. All the time one had their [[Lasgun]] shouldered and was twitching from a combination of going 47 hours without sleep and being raised to be paranoid as fuck. Of course, living basically inside the Eye of Terror, it isn't truly paranoia at all, just common sense.

As far as geography goes, Cadia held a temperate climate not unlike the Holy [[Hiveworld]] of [[Terra]]. 70 percent of its surface was covered in bodies of water, and its landmasses were [[Grimdark|covered with bodies of guardsmen]].

If it weren't for the anti-warp pylons holding back the expansions of the Eye of Terror, it would have been subjected to [[Exterminatus]] long before Abaddon crashed his wrecked Blackstone Fortress into it. The place was a hellhole even before its destruction. It ''might'' have been a good vacation spot if you '''LIKE''' trenches filled with bodies and tracer fire lighting up your hotel room... on second thought... fuck that shit!

==Cadia and you==
First, let me start with saying that it [[Khorne|sucked to live on Cadia]]. Oh, you think where you live sucks? Live in a crime infested ghetto or something similar? A couple drive by shootings and a stolen TV are ''nothing'' compared to how much it sucked to live on Cadia. Why does it suck you ask? Oh, not much of a reason at all. Just the fact that it's like, six feet away from the fucking [[Eye of Terror]] (It also sucks to live ''there'', but for many reasons other than Cadia).

==Cadia: A very, ''very'' shitty place to live==
It just sucks to live on Cadia, period. Yes, there are several manly, redeeming qualities (see below) about the planet, but if you live on Cadia you're too busy replacing the power pack in your [[Lasgun|flashlight]] after throwing back Monday's Chaos invasion to notice. A short list includes, but is not limited to:

*Being drafted before you can walk, learning to shoot before you can count, and getting thrown in the the meat-grinder (mostly figuratively, sometimes literally) by age 16.
*Learning how to shoot so young that when you're toilet-trained you're told to aim your dick like it's a lasgun.
*Marauding bands of [[Chaos Space Marines]] and assorted [[Heresy|heretics]] trying to kill you.
*Random WAAAGH!!!s of [[Orks|greenskins]] trying to kill you.
*Stealthy platoons of [[Eldar|Space Elves]] trying to kill you.
*Your own [[Commissar|superior officers]] trying to ki-{{BLAM|'''*BLAM!*'''}}
*No privacy whatsoever for your entire life.
*Constant fear of death before you reach puberty.
*Constant fear of death during puberty.
*Constant fear of death after puberty, but chances are you'll die before this, have your soul sold to/claimed by a chaos deity and for their lolz spend your death in constant fear of puberty.
*Superior officers barking orders down your neck for the 10-16 years that you're alive.
*<s>No time to screw around,</s> you're always on duty. Sometimes said duty is to help train new recruits for their inevitable deaths.
*The top fashions in Cadia are camo patterns and body armor.
*[[Heresy|Heretical]] cults springing up by the dozen every week.
*[[Chaos|Voices]] keep telling you to ditch the duty and [[Slaanesh|relax]], [[Khorne|let loose]], call in [[Nurgle|sick]], or try something [[Tzeentch|different]].
*The fact that the planet's <s>main</s> '''only''' export is Soldiers should clue you in.
*[[Mutant]]s springing up everywhere wanting to try out the new pincer claw they just got on your neck.
*[[Grimdark|Even after you die, Cadia doesn't stop being shitty to you, because once the engraving on your tombstone is illegible, it means you've been dead for so long nobody alive cares about you anymore, so your corpse is dug up and thrown into an incinerator while a fresh corpse is thrown into your hole. And then ''they'' will be dug up and thrown away as well.]]
*Cadia is now destroyed and consumed by the Eye of Terror. If you're still living there, you're either a heretic, a warp entity, fighting a heroic last stand, or really ''really'' unlucky.

Seriously, it just sucks to live there, just take my word for it. Avoid prolonged stays on Cadia at all costs.

==Redeeming Qualities==
[[File:Cadian 8th Regiment-small.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Fuckers so hardcore, they take on fieldtrips on other hellhole planets when their own hellhole planet gets too stale.]]
Yes it sucked to live on Cadia, sucks beyond all Hell, but there are several reasons why it was one of the most [[awesome]] places in the Imperium.

===Cadian Shock Troopers===
First and foremost, the finest (and perhaps most numerous) breed of the [[Imperial Guard]] were born, trained, and lived on Cadia. You see the Cadian as the common model for your generic, garden variety guardsmen figurine, and as such they are the most easily recognized. They fight tenaciously for the [[Empra]] and die with the same degree of vigor. Manliness is never in short order here on Cadia, making it one of the most awesome planets around.

Their [[Stormtrooper|elite troops]] are the '''Kasrkin''', basically the elite of the elite of the Guard. That are separate from the [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Militarum Tempestus(7E)|Scions]] as they aren't trained in cozy little Scholas watched over by Commissars, but are trained right there on Cadia, combining all the battle conditioning and tactics learned by the Cadia Shock Troopers over the course of KILLING EVERYTHING IN THE GALAXY for the last several thousand years. Only [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] are better. But the Kasrkin are probably scarier than the Spess Mehreens anyway, because they do about the same on the battlefield, without wearing a concrete wall on every inch of their body and not having [[Bolter|mini-rocket launcher guns]], no, they're just humans with balls of adamantium, both of which have their own pair of balls of adamantium (and that's the women). They don't wear carapace armor, either. Full-bodied flack-armor for these motherfuckers. To be fair though, they get shit done while wearing cardboard instead of the Guardsman's t-shirts, and they still use the older but far more advanced [[Hellgun|Hellguns]] over the Scion's Hot-shot lasguns, they shoot a lot more light than the Guardsman's flashlight. For example, [[Awesome|a Kasrkin Sergeant literally jumps on the back of a rampaging Daemonhost (which has already incapacitated the majority of an Inquisitorial retinue) and stabs it with a regular ol' combat knife to save the life of an Inquisitor.]] Balls. Of. Adamantium. Before the battle even began that [[Eisenhorn|Inquisitor]] admitted to being scared of them, and this is an Inquisitor who has fought alongside Deathwatch Marines against traitor Legionaries of The [[Emperor's Children]] in a warp corrupted landscape, 100 years ago, and has seen and battled Emperor knows what since then. Let that sink in. Now, ''the Kasrkin scared him'', [[Awesome|bad-fucking-ass]].

In conclusion, Cadians are the best troopers, and Kasrkin are the best of the best, well at least when it comes to conventional warfare, other regiments have them beat in specialized roles (Siege and attrition warfare? Send forth the [[Death Korps of Krieg|Death Korps]]. Guerrilla warfare and sabotage? Sneak some [[Catachan Jungle Fighters|Catachans]] in. Rapid insertion and maneuvering? Drop the [[Elysian Drop Troops|Elysians]] on 'em). But when you aren't sure what you'll be up against or are expecting a prolonged encounter with rapidly changing tactical situations then you can't go wrong with the Cadian Shock Troopers. When you need a certain [[Abbadon|failure]] to run away for awhile, catapult a Kasrkin at him.

Perhaps some day the Imperium will realize that careful selection of soldiers could result in the entire Imperial Guard being nothing but Kasrkin (and their equivalents in armored regiments). But again, that would mean the Imperium would win easily and no models would be sold. Without selling models, the Imperium cannot continue fighting the Eternal War and that would be [[HERESY]]. Alternatively massed flashlight are simply far more cost effective then elite shock troupers, especially when needing to garrison millions of worlds. Likewise even a space marine cannot survive being outnumbered 1000 or even a 100 to 1 by cannon fodder standing in front of artillery. Except Kasrkin’s only real equipment difference is the hellgun, but their skill is what makes them dangerous. It is not more expensive, simply being selective of recruits. Even if it was more expensive, there is this miraculous thing called “cost effectiveness”. A soldier capable of doing the job of a squad or even platoon of normal soldiers but cost only maybe three to five times more than a normal soldier but you can field about one for every ten or so normal soldiers, then you enjoy a massive gain. Also, quantity and quality are not interchangeable. A thousand soldiers fighting a thousand soldiers are about evenly matched, but a thousand soldiers fighting a hundred who are each worth ten is going to lose because that power will be concentrated. That hundred men can break through any assault, destroy any target when they attack, and it is much more difficult to force them to face an open battle of mere numbers. You simply aren’t going to be fighting that hundred with your thousand because they just won’t sit around and let you. This is a large part of why Space Marines are so effective. They simply win and don’t get bogged down into a game of attrition unless it is in their besr interest. And you won’t need as many troops in garrisions if the troops are higher quality and won’t need as many garrisons if your enemies are too dead to attack.

Also confirmed to be so fucking hardcore that their planet broke before they did. In spite of their homeworld's destruction, they've managed to keep going as strong as ever and now fight even harder to avenge its loss.

'''CADIA STANDS!'''

===Defended===
Despite what is said about how much of a hellhole Cadia was due to the constant warfare, because of that selfsame constant warfare Cadia was one of the most well-defended planets in the Imperium. In fact, it was the 2nd most heavily defended world in the Imperium of Man, only Sol System is better defended than Cadia (And maaaaaybe [[Fenris]]). All cities are arranged in interlocking blocks that require roads to snake around buildings with blind corners and are defended by rockcrete and adamantium walls, all to favor the defenders in urban combat. Massive shield generators keep the cities safe from all but the heaviest bombardment, forcing enemies to pay for them meter by bloody meter. All "civilians" are technically Cadian military reservists, and have been through the same life-long military training that all Cadians are subject to. As dangerous as Cadia is, the locals have learned to handle that danger and weather it as well as possible. Given its strategic importance, the Imperium is more than willing to commit substantial other resources to the planet's defense, which means lots of ships patrolling the system and lots of depots stationed in nearby systems to quickly reinforce Cadia at a moment's notice.

===Creed===
[[Creed|CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!!!!]]
This article has infiltrated your computer. You just got tactical geniused.

===Reproduction===
Birth rate and recruitment rate are synonymous. And if you see [[Grimdark|how many men and women die on the battlefield every day]]... better start doing your part for the Imperium. On Cadia, you were encouraged to fuck around wildly and have your partner push out the kid in a barracks to increase efficiency in recruiting.

===Colonizers===
Cadia's, as you noticed, only real export was soldiers. The thing is, Cadia pumps out so many that they usually form the core cadre of amalgamated units that get clumped into entirely new Imperial Guard armies, and sent to wage campaigns against taken or occupied planets. These armies are never getting sent back home, and are intended, when they win, to form a new government and society, and settle down (as seen in Dawn of War WA and Dark Crusade). As the core is usually Cadian, a lot of the army doctrines and style end up being Cadian, at least for a millennia or so. Hell, they colonize empty planets this way even, especially if it's a dangerous sector of space. Even now, who knows how many planets that are distinct and vital started this way? [[neckbeard|Your DNA could be spread far and wide across the galaxy and you wouldn't even know]].

This is of course to justify why everyone looks like Cadians, aka GW doesn't want to make a dozen different types of guards.

===Violet Eyes===
Ever fancied having more eye color than is standard for man? Move to Cadia and your kids will likely get glowing purple/violet eyes, may explain how purple-eyed animu characters tend to be awesome, they must be Cadians. Have fun explaining (with a bayonet...and a few thousand friends) to mobs of angry locals on other planets that you're not a mutant before they crucify you and burn you alive. Most likely the locals automatically assume their eyes are glowing with the Emperor’s divine light or something.

===The Place of Lorgar's Enlightenment===
While the Imperium would consider this quality the highest order of [[heresy]], perhaps the greatest reason for Cadia's importance is that it is, in many ways, the birthplace of the [[Horus Heresy]]. It was on Cadia the forces of the [[Word Bearers]] met with Ingethel the Chosen and were inducted into the service of the Ruinous Powers. As such, Cadia holds tremendous ideological importance and sentimental value for the Champions of Chaos.

==The Fall of Cadia==
{{Template:Spoilers}}

===Business As Usual===

When Abaddon finally launched his [[13th Black Crusade]], Cadia stood ready. Millions perished in the initial attack, but there were still enough Imperial forces to first blunt, then repulse the Chaos incursion. In its wake however was a system on the edge of collapse, its surviving defenders too weary to even try to celebrate. What was worse, Cadia was effectively isolated, with most of its Astropathic choirs either dead or driven insane.

Ursarkar Creed, now Lord Castellan, was worried. Through-out the fighting on-world, there was not even a single report of Abaddon being spotted. As a result he was sure that another assault was on the way, and what was worse it was likely that the Despoiler's own fleet would pass through the system. Unfortunately there was little left of the Imperial Navy present to put up more than a token defense, barring the [[Space Wolves]] battle barge ''Firemane's Fang'', and none of the ships there would be able to chase down Abaddon's ships once they made for deep space.

Preparing for the inevitable, Creed dug in, and set his forces to fortifying Kasr Kraf, which included Marshall Amalrich's [[Black Templars]]. Similar scenes repeated themselves throughout Cadia, with surviving Shock Troops and Astartes companies setting up defenses where they can. The Space Wolves set themselves up in Kasr Jark, while further north the [[Dark Angels]] 4th Company reinforced their own grounded Strike Cruiser ''Sword of Defiance''. In the days that followed the defenders drilled and trained, waiting for the inevitable to come.

===Eye of Terror 2: Electric Boogaloo===

And come it did, because Abaddon was not done with Cadia. Not by a long shot. His Black Fleet was inbound, an angry swarm of Traitor Legion warships, Daemon vessels, and space hulks, with the Blackstone Fortress ''Will of Eternity'' at its core. The remnants of Battlefleets Corona and Scarus, bloodied by the first wave of the Black Crusade, sought to stall the Black Fleet's advance, and paid for their defiance with their lives. Still the Chaos fleet swept on.

News that a Blackstone Fortress was incoming sent Creed's forces' already fevered preparations into a frenzy. Every Tech-adept that could be spared set about restoring Cadia's damaged null-array, which was damaged at the start of the Black Crusade. Even then it would not be enough, because time had finally run out for Cadia.

The Space Wolves however, disagreed. Sven Bloodhowl volunteered to lead his Great Company in boarding the ''Will of Eternity'', and do what they can to slow its advance. Along with them came two hundred other battle-brothers from the various Chapter forces devastated at the start of the Black Crusade, survivors of the Cadian 13th, and a full maniple of [[Skitarii]]. It was the last throw of the dice, but Creed had very few options left.

They failed. Abaddon's vanguard arrived on schedule a day later, soon followed by the Blackstone Fortress. Cheers erupted among the defenders however when its devastation beam dispersed harmlessly across the upper atmosphere. The null array worked! Eeeeeeeexcept it seems that the projection grid now featured xenos tech that wasn't there a day ago...

The cheers were a little short-lived however, as the skies of Cadia Secundus blacked with Traitor drop-ships. Round two had begun, and Abaddon had all the advantages.

The defenders put up a withering amount of fire, but it was not enough. Traitor Legionnaires made landfall, and daemonic reinforcements were summoned. Defense positions were soon overrun, and Creed made the decision to recall defenders back to the curtain walls of Kasr Kraf. The defenders made their fighting retreats, barring Marshall Amalrich's Black Templars, who stubbornly decided to stand their ground, and the Sisters of Battle that had made their defense at the Shrine of Saint Morrican.

Hours passed, then days. Orven Highfell's Ironwolves had counter-attacked the Iron Warriors force threatening Kasr Jark, while the Dark Angels defending the ''Sword of Defiance'' threw off three separate World Eater attacks. Slowly though the defenders were losing ground, and Creed once again ordered a withdrawal to the second curtain wall. The Novamarines 2nd Company sold their lives to stop Possessed from breaching one gate, but the West gate was lost, and with it so too was the 2nd curtain wall lost. Redoubt after redoubt fell, overwhelmed, with even the Dark Angels forced to abandon their grounded strike cruiser and join up with the surviving Space Wolves in their own withdrawal.

Kasr Kraf could not hold forever. An assault by the traitor Legio Vulcanum nearly made its defenses buckle, but the final straw was the assault of the Hounds of Abaddon. Led by newly-ascended Daemon Prince Urkanthos, the Hounds broke through the Kriegan Gates, slaughtering the Kasrkin regiments Creed had sent there to stem the tide. It took Creed himself, leading the Cadian 8th, that finally became the wall that the tide of traitors broke against. The remaining Astartes did what they could, but it was the intervention of the remnants of Marshall Amalrich's Cruxis Crusade ([[Fail|who had finally admitted that he was an idiot in trying to defend AWAY from Kasr Kraf]]) that seemed to give the remaining defenders a chance at more than a final show of defiance.

Urkanthos would not be denied however. His mission from Abaddon was clear: destroy the null array, and Cadia would fall. This was done with contemptuous ease. With its defenders dead and its ancient machinery reduced to cinders, nothing would stop the Blackstone Fortress from scouring the world clean.

===The Living Saint Cometh===

It was then [[Saint Celestine]] arrived, wreathed in the Emperor's own holy fire. Flagging faith was renewed, and strength was once brought to wearied limbs. Aside from this she brought with her reinforcements: five companies of the Order of Our Martyred Lady, long lost in the Warp, and the Imperial Fists that had been on-board the Phalanx during its emergency warp transition.

While Celestine lent aid to those on the ground, the Phalanx thundered into the heart of the Black Fleet, straight at the Black Fortress. Dorn's fist was to be its executioner. With a little help from what remained of Bloodhowl's force ([[Awesome|who had somehow survived to board the fortress, and had been fighting a running battle within for days]]), the Phalanx's planet-busting forward guns fired into a suddenly un-shielded flank (unprotected thanks to Bloodhowl's force sacrificing itself to take out the generators there). The ''Will of Eternity'' broke apart from the bombardment, its death throes throwing a third of gathered Traitor fleet there back into the Immaterium, and scattered the rest, while its broken husk hung in orbit.

The ground war fared better as the defenders threw off Urkanthos' Hounds from the walls, with the Daemon Prince's own corpse being added to the pile. Despite this, the Despoiler's forces still held air superiority, and scattered warbands gathered for yet another assault. This was no victory, but Cadia held off its doom for another day.

Even more surprises, as some last-minute reinforcements were still streaming in: the 5th Company of the [[Crimson Fists]] led by Ruis Tracinto, elements of the Cadian 14th, tanks of the Armoured 51st, Knights of House Taranis. The last but most significant of these latecomers was a Mechanicus Explorator fleet led by one [[Belisarius Cawl]]. It is Cawl that revealed to the gathered defenders the importance of ''not'' abandoning Cadia, and just how deep the Destroyer's plans were.

The last defenders withdrew to the Elysion Pylon fields, where the [[Legion of the Damned]] had manifested to keep watch over, to make their stand. Beyond the atmosphere the Phalanx moved to cover the field with its bombardment cannons, while far below the fields, Cawl and his adepts worked tirelessly to try and get the pylons to ''work'', but nothing he tried made the pylons react even a little. Close to throwing the towel in frustration, it was then that [[Trazyn the Infinite]] decide to make his presence known. The [[Necron]] proposed a truce, and promised to aid Cawl for its own inscrutable reasons.

===The Battle of Elysion Fields===

By this time the Battle of the Elysion Fields began to heat up, as Abaddon's forces slowly strangled the Imperial defenders. Days passed in desperate combat, with the Imperials hanging on just by the slimmest of margins, but that all changed once Abaddon himself teleported in to crush Cadia's last resistance himself. Accompanied by the Bringers of Despair, they assaulted Creed's command directly, and it was only due to the sacrifice of Creed's friend Kell that the Lord Castellan was able to live and fight another day. He, alongside the remnants of the Cadian 8th, made a fighting retreat into the catacombs beneath the Elysion pylons, before being finally pushed back into the deeper chambers that Cawl was still doing his work.

Curious at seeing the end result of Cawl's labors, Trazyn deigned to release some of his "collection" to delay the Despoiler: Heresy-era Ultramarines, Vostroyans, Tanith, Salamanders, an odd Custodian... All joined the battle against Abaddon's forces. All except [[Ordo Hereticus]] Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax and her bodyguard, that is. Wulfren bearing the sigil of the Ironwolves soon joined the fray, followed by Highfell himself fighting with a near-feral wildness.

It was then that Cawl coaxed the pylons to life. For those battling in the catacombs the effects were immediate, as Daemons were banished back to the Warp, and Possessed roared as their warp-spawned halves returned to the Immaterium. UNFORTUNATELY this also affected the [[Legion of the Damned]], and reduced Celestine's power to a mere Battle-Sister with a power weapon. Whoops.

This proved to be a BIG problem for Celestine, as she had been dueling Abaddon at that point. Creed had to personally intervene, as he saw immediately that if the Living Saint fell, so would the remaining morale of the defenders there. Even Greyfax, for all her distate for the "false idol", acted, and turned her psychic might at keeping the Despoiler at bay. In a moment of arrogance, Abaddon held off the deathblow to Celestine long enough to gloat over his impending success only to take a hit himself. Even depowered, Celestine had inflicted a wound upon the Despoiler which he had not felt the likes of since the Horus Heresy.

High above the effects of the pylons intensified. Against all expectation whatever was being transmitted from Cadia was actually ''causing the Eye of Terror to shrink'', and soon anything remotely warp-based began to waver or outright fail, including the void shields of the warships still glaring at each other beyond the atmosphere. Even teleporting out would eventually be impossible. It was at this point the Despoiler ordered his forces to withdraw, much to the shock and confusion of his ravaged foes. Even the forces on the surface were withdrawing en-masse, falling back to their Thunderhawks and drop-ships, and speeding back to the safety of the Black Fleet.

Something was up, and there was only one thing for sure: the compost was about to hit the rotary impeller, and SOON.

===Ragequit, Despoiler-style===

Once safely back upon the bridge of the ''Vengeful Spirit'', Abaddon set his "Plan B" in motion: if he couldn't have Cadia, '''nobody would'''. As soon as the last of the Traitor forces were retrieved, the Black Fleet pulled away from the planet, post-haste. At that point hidden plasma drives flared into life on the ruins of the ''Will of Eternity'', and slowly the moon-sized mass started to fall in the direction of Cadia. The batteries of the wounded ''Phalanx'' opened up in desperation, but nothing could stop its fall once the Blackstone Fortress was captured by Cadia's gravity well. Like the fist of an angry god, the fortress struck the planet hard, and the world burned.

From his command throne, Abaddon opened up a bottle of vintage wine, raised a cup (made from the skull of the [[Horus]] clone he had killed in the [[Battle of Harmony]]) in toast of an old foe, and laughed.

===Death of a World===

Millions died in the aftermath of the impact, but the worst was yet to come. As mountains crumbled and seas vanished into steam, the ancient Pylons scattered on the planet toppled as well. The ancient network sputtered and died, at which the Eye of Terror roared back into being, stronger and MUCH larger now that its ancient prison was sundered. With the echoing laughter of gods long-denied their prize, the maelstrom finally engulfed Cadia.

Daemons previously banished by the awakening of the pylons once more fell upon the ravaged world. Those who survived the initial inferno now found themselves fighting for their lives. But in that darkest hour, hope also returned. With the destruction of the pylons, Saint Celestine's strength returned, and burning bright with the light of the Emperor, the Living Saint led the survivors out of the catacombs, to witness a world much changed.

===The Exodus of Cadia===

At the sight of all the ruin and destruction, Creed finally despaired. Before his despondence could spread to his men, Greyfax took the initiative, and ordered the planetary evacuation of all surviving Imperial forces. Countless troop transports and landing craft roared upwards to the relative safety of the ''Phalanx'', though many more were lost amidst the burning atmosphere and the winged daemonspawn now infesting the skies.

Back at the Elysion Fields, the evacuation was turning desperate, as the waves of daemons pushed back the defensive lines. Soon there wouldn't be anywhere safe to land, and the evacuation zone would become a death trap.

Something had to be done. The Lord Castellan roused himself from his grief, and announced that the Cadian 8th would buy everyone the time they needed to escape. To their credit, none of the Castellan's Own blanched at the order, despite knowing full well what it meant. They owed Creed their lives anyway, and now was as good a time as any to pay the Castellan back the debt.

The last transports boosted away to safety, with the final one taking within the Knights of House Taranis, Marshall Amalrich's Black Templars, Saint Celestine's Sisters, and Grayfax. As they left that blighted battlefield behind, a clear and proud cry could be heard, over the howling winds and the cannon roar. It was a shout of defiance, bowed but unbroken: '''"CADIA STANDS!"'''

===The Fate of Creed===

Creed, wounded, weary, and about to bleed out, is confronted not by a Daemon, but by [[Trazyn|a metal giant wearing a scaled cloak]]. After that, a promise of eternity before darkness engulfs him, the giant's laughter ringing in his ears.

[[File:Cadiain8th.png|300px|thumbnail|center|...wait, how the fuck did she take off her trousers whilst still wearing her boots? Did she take off her boots, take off her trousers, then put her boots back on? Or was she just wearing shorts?]]

==We're Not Through Yet, Motherfuckers!==

According to the 7e Astra Militarum codex, every single Cadian regiment was recalled back to Cadia by Creed to defend it. Given that there were only 4 million Imperial survivors out of the original 850 million Imperials initially present, the vast majority of Cadian regiments were likely annihilated. Of course, it's unknown just how many Cadian regiments actually managed to get to Cadia in time before the shit hit the fan, but it's safe to say that certain [https://regimental-standard.com/2017/01/18/cadia-another-imperial-victory/ Imperium reports] that 90% of Cadia's Guard forces were off-world at the time and thus have survived the Fall of Cadia are either complete grox manure, or there were just THAT many Cadia guard regiments exported over the centuries. Given how long the Imperium has been around and the staggering size of the Guard, the latter may actually be more likely.

You thought the Fall of Cadia was the end? Well guess what, 8th Edition says otherwise! Curiously the closure of the Cadian Gate hadn't affected Chaos fleets in the slightest, as they've poured out the Eye everywhere across its borders with seemingly no effort while it expanded, no longer contained by the pylon network. This has actually worked out sort of okayish for the Imperium as well. With Cadia dealt with, a lot of warbands have decided to stop listening to the [[Abbadon|armless failure]] and go do their own thing to find things that are easier to kill than Cadia. This presents a bit of a problem for Chaos as Geedubs themselves have said there's still a fucking ton of defenders in the Cadian system and that the Chaos forces are starting to wear thin on the now-worthless planet.

On top of that, Cadia took so fucking long to go down that the Imperium is entrenched deep into neighboring planets waiting for a second coordinated wave of Chaos attackers that is increasingly unlikely to show up. Needless to say, there are more than a few commanders that think having all these forces sitting around essentially doing nothing was a massive waste, when they could instead be bringing the fight to the Great Enemy...

More worryingly, a detachment of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] has been sent there by order of the Captain-General. Specifically, the Custodes in charge of ensuring the Age of Strife-era horrors contained in the Imperial Palace's prisons (the mere knowledge of which could wreck the Imperium should they ever be known about) stay there. Seeing that several of said horrors were scattered across the galaxy by Chaos after the Great Rift opened, odds are that whatever the golden bananas were sent there for is ''very bad news''.

==New Cadia==

In the wake of the Exodus from Cadia, several surviving regiments found themselves in the Agripinaa System. Those lucky enough not to be "volunteered" by into servitor-dom by the neighboring forge-world of Agripinaa still had to fight off pursuing Chaos forces, which included renegade Astartes warbands from the [[Sons of Malice]] and the [[Crimson Slaughter]]. One of these forces, led by General Gruber, made it's last stand on ice moon of Faith's Anchorage. Although they were eventually overwhelmed, the Cadians went down fighting, with General Gruber himself -- an old man noted in-universe to neither be particularly brave ''or'' inspirational -- spitting defiance at his slayers, and doing one final banzai charge with his power sword.

So focused were the Chaos forces on annihilating Gruber's forces that they didn't notice the ''other'' parts of the Cadian Exodus that had translated into the outer system -- which included elements of the battered but unbowed Battlefleet Cadia. Eager for vengeance, the Cadians fell upon the Chaos Fleet, but even with their numbers it was a close thing, due to the damage the Imperial Fleet had already received prior. Then out of nowhere, the Space Wolf [[Strike Cruiser]] ''Stiklestad'' entered the fray, and soon the odds were tipped in the Imperials' favor.

Very quickly, the forces that had destroyed General Gruber's forces found themselves stranded on Faith's Anchorage. With nowhere to go, the Heretics soon found themselves facing regiment upon regiment of very VERY angry Cadian Shock Troopers. It took two weeks to comprehensively clear Hope's Anchorage of Heretic filth.

The Cadians were ''very'' thorough.

In the wake of this, the highest commanding officer of the Cadian military, General Benedikt of the 101st, consolidated his weary and battered forces on Chaeros, the 7th world of the Agripinaa system. It was soon renamed '''New Cadia''', a place to lick wounds and mourn lost comrades, a new place to call home, and a place to strike back from when the time finally came.

As for the other Cadian regiments, it says something that even after the destruction of their homeworld, Cadian regiments are still making up the bulk of the Guard forces in the Vigilus campaign. Even the Cadian 8th is active in the campaign, though they've renamed themselves '''Creed's Legacy'''.

{{40k-Imperial-Regiments}}

{{40k-Planets}}

[[Category:Imperial]]

Cadia

2019-01-11T18:05:45Z

2600:1006:B112:203E:787D:33D9:E0EE:12B3: /* Redeeming Qualities */

{{Awesome}}
[[File:Cadian Cmdr female.jpg|400px|thumbnail|right|And they say there are no female commanders among the Guard... especially among Cadians. ]]
{{Topquote|Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your sane — Strong for the red rage of battle; sane for I harry them sore; Send me men girt for the combat, men who are grit to the core.|The Law of the Yukon: by Robert W. Service }}
{{Topquote|The Guard dies and does not surrender!|Pierre Cambronne}}
{{Topquote|Cadia is the end and the beginning.|White Dwarf, January 2017}}

'''Cadia''' is, or rather ''was'' an Imperial Guard fortress world located right beside the [[Eye of Terror]]. Due to being proximate to the only safe warp-passage into and out of the Eye, as well as large Xenos mobilization throughout the sector, it had become a [[fortress world]] and a strategic gem for the [[Imperium of Man]].

==The Planet Itself==
Fortress. That's the one word that can sum up the planet of Cadia. Since it was close neighbors with [[Chaos Space Marines|those nice boys]] from [[Eye of Terror|across the street]], Cadia always needed to be on active defense. All the time one had their [[Lasgun]] shouldered and was twitching from a combination of going 47 hours without sleep and being raised to be paranoid as fuck. Of course, living basically inside the Eye of Terror, it isn't truly paranoia at all, just common sense.

As far as geography goes, Cadia held a temperate climate not unlike the Holy [[Hiveworld]] of [[Terra]]. 70 percent of its surface was covered in bodies of water, and its landmasses were [[Grimdark|covered with bodies of guardsmen]].

If it weren't for the anti-warp pylons holding back the expansions of the Eye of Terror, it would have been subjected to [[Exterminatus]] long before Abaddon crashed his wrecked Blackstone Fortress into it. The place was a hellhole even before its destruction. It ''might'' have been a good vacation spot if you '''LIKE''' trenches filled with bodies and tracer fire lighting up your hotel room... on second thought... fuck that shit!

==Cadia and you==
First, let me start with saying that it [[Khorne|sucked to live on Cadia]]. Oh, you think where you live sucks? Live in a crime infested ghetto or something similar? A couple drive by shootings and a stolen TV are ''nothing'' compared to how much it sucked to live on Cadia. Why does it suck you ask? Oh, not much of a reason at all. Just the fact that it's like, six feet away from the fucking [[Eye of Terror]] (It also sucks to live ''there'', but for many reasons other than Cadia).

==Cadia: A very, ''very'' shitty place to live==
It just sucks to live on Cadia, period. Yes, there are several manly, redeeming qualities (see below) about the planet, but if you live on Cadia you're too busy replacing the power pack in your [[Lasgun|flashlight]] after throwing back Monday's Chaos invasion to notice. A short list includes, but is not limited to:

*Being drafted before you can walk, learning to shoot before you can count, and getting thrown in the the meat-grinder (mostly figuratively, sometimes literally) by age 16.
*Learning how to shoot so young that when you're toilet-trained you're told to aim your dick like it's a lasgun.
*Marauding bands of [[Chaos Space Marines]] and assorted [[Heresy|heretics]] trying to kill you.
*Random WAAAGH!!!s of [[Orks|greenskins]] trying to kill you.
*Stealthy platoons of [[Eldar|Space Elves]] trying to kill you.
*Your own [[Commissar|superior officers]] trying to ki-{{BLAM|'''*BLAM!*'''}}
*No privacy whatsoever for your entire life.
*Constant fear of death before you reach puberty.
*Constant fear of death during puberty.
*Constant fear of death after puberty, but chances are you'll die before this, have your soul sold to/claimed by a chaos deity and for their lolz spend your death in constant fear of puberty.
*Superior officers barking orders down your neck for the 10-16 years that you're alive.
*<s>No time to screw around,</s> you're always on duty. Sometimes said duty is to help train new recruits for their inevitable deaths.
*The top fashions in Cadia are camo patterns and body armor.
*[[Heresy|Heretical]] cults springing up by the dozen every week.
*[[Chaos|Voices]] keep telling you to ditch the duty and [[Slaanesh|relax]], [[Khorne|let loose]], call in [[Nurgle|sick]], or try something [[Tzeentch|different]].
*The fact that the planet's <s>main</s> '''only''' export is Soldiers should clue you in.
*[[Mutant]]s springing up everywhere wanting to try out the new pincer claw they just got on your neck.
*[[Grimdark|Even after you die, Cadia doesn't stop being shitty to you, because once the engraving on your tombstone is illegible, it means you've been dead for so long nobody alive cares about you anymore, so your corpse is dug up and thrown into an incinerator while a fresh corpse is thrown into your hole. And then ''they'' will be dug up and thrown away as well.]]
*Cadia is now destroyed and consumed by the Eye of Terror. If you're still living there, you're either a heretic, a warp entity, fighting a heroic last stand, or really ''really'' unlucky.

Seriously, it just sucks to live there, just take my word for it. Avoid prolonged stays on Cadia at all costs.

==Redeeming Qualities==
[[File:Cadian 8th Regiment-small.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Fuckers so hardcore, they take on fieldtrips on other hellhole planets when their own hellhole planet gets too stale.]]
Yes it sucked to live on Cadia, sucks beyond all Hell, but there are several reasons why it was one of the most [[awesome]] places in the Imperium.

===Cadian Shock Troopers===
First and foremost, the finest (and perhaps most numerous) breed of the [[Imperial Guard]] were born, trained, and lived on Cadia. You see the Cadian as the common model for your generic, garden variety guardsmen figurine, and as such they are the most easily recognized. They fight tenaciously for the [[Empra]] and die with the same degree of vigor. Manliness is never in short order here on Cadia, making it one of the most awesome planets around.

Their [[Stormtrooper|elite troops]] are the '''Kasrkin''', basically the elite of the elite of the Guard. That are separate from the [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Militarum Tempestus(7E)|Scions]] as they aren't trained in cozy little Scholas watched over by Commissars, but are trained right there on Cadia, combining all the battle conditioning and tactics learned by the Cadia Shock Troopers over the course of KILLING EVERYTHING IN THE GALAXY for the last several thousand years. Only [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] are better. But the Kasrkin are probably scarier than the Spess Mehreens anyway, because they do about the same on the battlefield, without wearing a concrete wall on every inch of their body and not having [[Bolter|mini-rocket launcher guns]], no, they're just humans with balls of adamantium, both of which have their own pair of balls of adamantium (and that's the women). They don't wear carapace armor, either. Full-bodied flack-armor for these motherfuckers. To be fair though, they get shit done while wearing cardboard instead of the Guardsman's t-shirts, and they still use the older but far more advanced [[Hellgun|Hellguns]] over the Scion's Hot-shot lasguns, they shoot a lot more light than the Guardsman's flashlight. For example, [[Awesome|a Kasrkin Sergeant literally jumps on the back of a rampaging Daemonhost (which has already incapacitated the majority of an Inquisitorial retinue) and stabs it with a regular ol' combat knife to save the life of an Inquisitor.]] Balls. Of. Adamantium. Before the battle even began that [[Eisenhorn|Inquisitor]] admitted to being scared of them, and this is an Inquisitor who has fought alongside Deathwatch Marines against traitor Legionaries of The [[Emperor's Children]] in a warp corrupted landscape, 100 years ago, and has seen and battled Emperor knows what since then. Let that sink in. Now, ''the Kasrkin scared him'', [[Awesome|bad-fucking-ass]].

In conclusion, Cadians are the best troopers, and Kasrkin are the best of the best, well at least when it comes to conventional warfare, other regiments have them beat in specialized roles (Siege and attrition warfare? Send forth the [[Death Korps of Krieg|Death Korps]]. Guerrilla warfare and sabotage? Sneak some [[Catachan Jungle Fighters|Catachans]] in. Rapid insertion and maneuvering? Drop the [[Elysian Drop Troops|Elysians]] on 'em). But when you aren't sure what you'll be up against or are expecting a prolonged encounter with rapidly changing tactical situations then you can't go wrong with the Cadian Shock Troopers. When you need a certain [[Abbadon|failure]] to run away for awhile, catapult a Kasrkin at him.

Perhaps some day the Imperium will realize that careful selection of soldiers could result in the entire Imperial Guard being nothing but Kasrkin (and their equivalents in armored regiments). But again, that would mean the Imperium would win easily and no models would be sold. Without selling models, the Imperium cannot continue fighting the Eternal War and that would be [[HERESY]]. Alternatively massed flashlight are simply far more cost effective then elite shock troupers, especially when needing to garrison millions of worlds. Likewise even a space marine cannot survive being outnumbered 1000 or even a 100 to 1 by cannon fodder standing in front of artillery. Except Kasrkin’s only real equipment difference is the hellgun, but their skill is what makes them dangerous. It is not more expensive, simply being selective of recruits. Even if it was more expensive, there is this miraculous thing called “cost effectiveness”. A soldier capable of doing the job of a squad or even platoon of normal soldiers but cost only maybe three to five times more than a normal soldier but you can field about one for every ten or so normal soldiers, then you enjoy a massive gain. Also, quantity and quality are not interchangeable. A thousand soldiers fighting a thousand soldiers are about evenly matched, but a thousand soldiers fighting a hundred who are each worth ten is going to lose because that power will be concentrated. That hundred men can break through any assault, destroy any target when they attack, and it is much more difficult to force them to face an open battle of mere numbers. You simply aren’t going to be fighting that hundred with your thousand because they just won’t sit around and let you. This is a large part of why Space Marines are so effective. They simply win and don’t get bogged down into a game of attrition unless it is in their besr interest. And you won’t need as many troops in garrisions if the troops are higher quality and won’t need as many garrisons if your enemies are too dead to attack.

Also confirmed to be so fucking hardcore that their planet broke before they did. In spite of their homeworld's destruction, they've managed to keep going as strong as ever and now fight even harder to avenge its loss.

'''CADIA STANDS!'''

===Defended===
Despite what is said about how much of a hellhole Cadia was due to the constant warfare, because of that selfsame constant warfare Cadia was one of the most well-defended planets in the Imperium. In fact, it was the 2nd most heavily defended world in the Imperium of Man, only Sol System is better defended than Cadia (And maaaaaybe [[Fenris]]). All cities are arranged in interlocking blocks that require roads to snake around buildings with blind corners and are defended by rockcrete and adamantium walls, all to favor the defenders in urban combat. Massive shield generators keep the cities safe from all but the heaviest bombardment, forcing enemies to pay for them meter by bloody meter. All "civilians" are technically Cadian military reservists, and have been through the same life-long military training that all Cadians are subject to. As dangerous as Cadia is, the locals have learned to handle that danger and weather it as well as possible. Given its strategic importance, the Imperium is more than willing to commit substantial other resources to the planet's defense, which means lots of ships patrolling the system and lots of depots stationed in nearby systems to quickly reinforce Cadia at a moment's notice.

===Creed===
[[Creed|CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!!!!]]
This article has infiltrated your computer. You just got tactical geniused.

===Reproduction===
Birth rate and recruitment rate are synonymous. And if you see [[Grimdark|how many men and women die on the battlefield every day]]... better start doing your part for the Imperium. On Cadia, you were encouraged to fuck around wildly and have your partner push out the kid in a barracks to increase efficiency in recruiting.

===Colonizers===
Cadia's, as you noticed, only real export was soldiers. The thing is, Cadia pumps out so many that they usually form the core cadre of amalgamated units that get clumped into entirely new Imperial Guard armies, and sent to wage campaigns against taken or occupied planets. These armies are never getting sent back home, and are intended, when they win, to form a new government and society, and settle down (as seen in Dawn of War WA and Dark Crusade). As the core is usually Cadian, a lot of the army doctrines and style end up being Cadian, at least for a millennia or so. Hell, they colonize empty planets this way even, especially if it's a dangerous sector of space. Even now, who knows how many planets that are distinct and vital started this way? [[neckbeard|Your DNA could be spread far and wide across the galaxy and you wouldn't even know]].

This is of course to justify why everyone looks like Cadians, aka GW doesn't want to make a dozen different types of guards.

===Violet Eyes===
Ever fancied having more eye color than is standard for man? Move to Cadia and your kids will likely get glowing purple/violet eyes, may explain how purple-eyed animu characters tend to be awesome, they must be Cadians. Have fun explaining (with a bayonet...and a few thousand friends) to mobs of angry locals on other planets that you're not a mutant before they crucify you and burn you alive.

===The Place of Lorgar's Enlightenment===
While the Imperium would consider this quality the highest order of [[heresy]], perhaps the greatest reason for Cadia's importance is that it is, in many ways, the birthplace of the [[Horus Heresy]]. It was on Cadia the forces of the [[Word Bearers]] met with Ingethel the Chosen and were inducted into the service of the Ruinous Powers. As such, Cadia holds tremendous ideological importance and sentimental value for the Champions of Chaos.

==The Fall of Cadia==
{{Template:Spoilers}}

===Business As Usual===

When Abaddon finally launched his [[13th Black Crusade]], Cadia stood ready. Millions perished in the initial attack, but there were still enough Imperial forces to first blunt, then repulse the Chaos incursion. In its wake however was a system on the edge of collapse, its surviving defenders too weary to even try to celebrate. What was worse, Cadia was effectively isolated, with most of its Astropathic choirs either dead or driven insane.

Ursarkar Creed, now Lord Castellan, was worried. Through-out the fighting on-world, there was not even a single report of Abaddon being spotted. As a result he was sure that another assault was on the way, and what was worse it was likely that the Despoiler's own fleet would pass through the system. Unfortunately there was little left of the Imperial Navy present to put up more than a token defense, barring the [[Space Wolves]] battle barge ''Firemane's Fang'', and none of the ships there would be able to chase down Abaddon's ships once they made for deep space.

Preparing for the inevitable, Creed dug in, and set his forces to fortifying Kasr Kraf, which included Marshall Amalrich's [[Black Templars]]. Similar scenes repeated themselves throughout Cadia, with surviving Shock Troops and Astartes companies setting up defenses where they can. The Space Wolves set themselves up in Kasr Jark, while further north the [[Dark Angels]] 4th Company reinforced their own grounded Strike Cruiser ''Sword of Defiance''. In the days that followed the defenders drilled and trained, waiting for the inevitable to come.

===Eye of Terror 2: Electric Boogaloo===

And come it did, because Abaddon was not done with Cadia. Not by a long shot. His Black Fleet was inbound, an angry swarm of Traitor Legion warships, Daemon vessels, and space hulks, with the Blackstone Fortress ''Will of Eternity'' at its core. The remnants of Battlefleets Corona and Scarus, bloodied by the first wave of the Black Crusade, sought to stall the Black Fleet's advance, and paid for their defiance with their lives. Still the Chaos fleet swept on.

News that a Blackstone Fortress was incoming sent Creed's forces' already fevered preparations into a frenzy. Every Tech-adept that could be spared set about restoring Cadia's damaged null-array, which was damaged at the start of the Black Crusade. Even then it would not be enough, because time had finally run out for Cadia.

The Space Wolves however, disagreed. Sven Bloodhowl volunteered to lead his Great Company in boarding the ''Will of Eternity'', and do what they can to slow its advance. Along with them came two hundred other battle-brothers from the various Chapter forces devastated at the start of the Black Crusade, survivors of the Cadian 13th, and a full maniple of [[Skitarii]]. It was the last throw of the dice, but Creed had very few options left.

They failed. Abaddon's vanguard arrived on schedule a day later, soon followed by the Blackstone Fortress. Cheers erupted among the defenders however when its devastation beam dispersed harmlessly across the upper atmosphere. The null array worked! Eeeeeeeexcept it seems that the projection grid now featured xenos tech that wasn't there a day ago...

The cheers were a little short-lived however, as the skies of Cadia Secundus blacked with Traitor drop-ships. Round two had begun, and Abaddon had all the advantages.

The defenders put up a withering amount of fire, but it was not enough. Traitor Legionnaires made landfall, and daemonic reinforcements were summoned. Defense positions were soon overrun, and Creed made the decision to recall defenders back to the curtain walls of Kasr Kraf. The defenders made their fighting retreats, barring Marshall Amalrich's Black Templars, who stubbornly decided to stand their ground, and the Sisters of Battle that had made their defense at the Shrine of Saint Morrican.

Hours passed, then days. Orven Highfell's Ironwolves had counter-attacked the Iron Warriors force threatening Kasr Jark, while the Dark Angels defending the ''Sword of Defiance'' threw off three separate World Eater attacks. Slowly though the defenders were losing ground, and Creed once again ordered a withdrawal to the second curtain wall. The Novamarines 2nd Company sold their lives to stop Possessed from breaching one gate, but the West gate was lost, and with it so too was the 2nd curtain wall lost. Redoubt after redoubt fell, overwhelmed, with even the Dark Angels forced to abandon their grounded strike cruiser and join up with the surviving Space Wolves in their own withdrawal.

Kasr Kraf could not hold forever. An assault by the traitor Legio Vulcanum nearly made its defenses buckle, but the final straw was the assault of the Hounds of Abaddon. Led by newly-ascended Daemon Prince Urkanthos, the Hounds broke through the Kriegan Gates, slaughtering the Kasrkin regiments Creed had sent there to stem the tide. It took Creed himself, leading the Cadian 8th, that finally became the wall that the tide of traitors broke against. The remaining Astartes did what they could, but it was the intervention of the remnants of Marshall Amalrich's Cruxis Crusade ([[Fail|who had finally admitted that he was an idiot in trying to defend AWAY from Kasr Kraf]]) that seemed to give the remaining defenders a chance at more than a final show of defiance.

Urkanthos would not be denied however. His mission from Abaddon was clear: destroy the null array, and Cadia would fall. This was done with contemptuous ease. With its defenders dead and its ancient machinery reduced to cinders, nothing would stop the Blackstone Fortress from scouring the world clean.

===The Living Saint Cometh===

It was then [[Saint Celestine]] arrived, wreathed in the Emperor's own holy fire. Flagging faith was renewed, and strength was once brought to wearied limbs. Aside from this she brought with her reinforcements: five companies of the Order of Our Martyred Lady, long lost in the Warp, and the Imperial Fists that had been on-board the Phalanx during its emergency warp transition.

While Celestine lent aid to those on the ground, the Phalanx thundered into the heart of the Black Fleet, straight at the Black Fortress. Dorn's fist was to be its executioner. With a little help from what remained of Bloodhowl's force ([[Awesome|who had somehow survived to board the fortress, and had been fighting a running battle within for days]]), the Phalanx's planet-busting forward guns fired into a suddenly un-shielded flank (unprotected thanks to Bloodhowl's force sacrificing itself to take out the generators there). The ''Will of Eternity'' broke apart from the bombardment, its death throes throwing a third of gathered Traitor fleet there back into the Immaterium, and scattered the rest, while its broken husk hung in orbit.

The ground war fared better as the defenders threw off Urkanthos' Hounds from the walls, with the Daemon Prince's own corpse being added to the pile. Despite this, the Despoiler's forces still held air superiority, and scattered warbands gathered for yet another assault. This was no victory, but Cadia held off its doom for another day.

Even more surprises, as some last-minute reinforcements were still streaming in: the 5th Company of the [[Crimson Fists]] led by Ruis Tracinto, elements of the Cadian 14th, tanks of the Armoured 51st, Knights of House Taranis. The last but most significant of these latecomers was a Mechanicus Explorator fleet led by one [[Belisarius Cawl]]. It is Cawl that revealed to the gathered defenders the importance of ''not'' abandoning Cadia, and just how deep the Destroyer's plans were.

The last defenders withdrew to the Elysion Pylon fields, where the [[Legion of the Damned]] had manifested to keep watch over, to make their stand. Beyond the atmosphere the Phalanx moved to cover the field with its bombardment cannons, while far below the fields, Cawl and his adepts worked tirelessly to try and get the pylons to ''work'', but nothing he tried made the pylons react even a little. Close to throwing the towel in frustration, it was then that [[Trazyn the Infinite]] decide to make his presence known. The [[Necron]] proposed a truce, and promised to aid Cawl for its own inscrutable reasons.

===The Battle of Elysion Fields===

By this time the Battle of the Elysion Fields began to heat up, as Abaddon's forces slowly strangled the Imperial defenders. Days passed in desperate combat, with the Imperials hanging on just by the slimmest of margins, but that all changed once Abaddon himself teleported in to crush Cadia's last resistance himself. Accompanied by the Bringers of Despair, they assaulted Creed's command directly, and it was only due to the sacrifice of Creed's friend Kell that the Lord Castellan was able to live and fight another day. He, alongside the remnants of the Cadian 8th, made a fighting retreat into the catacombs beneath the Elysion pylons, before being finally pushed back into the deeper chambers that Cawl was still doing his work.

Curious at seeing the end result of Cawl's labors, Trazyn deigned to release some of his "collection" to delay the Despoiler: Heresy-era Ultramarines, Vostroyans, Tanith, Salamanders, an odd Custodian... All joined the battle against Abaddon's forces. All except [[Ordo Hereticus]] Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax and her bodyguard, that is. Wulfren bearing the sigil of the Ironwolves soon joined the fray, followed by Highfell himself fighting with a near-feral wildness.

It was then that Cawl coaxed the pylons to life. For those battling in the catacombs the effects were immediate, as Daemons were banished back to the Warp, and Possessed roared as their warp-spawned halves returned to the Immaterium. UNFORTUNATELY this also affected the [[Legion of the Damned]], and reduced Celestine's power to a mere Battle-Sister with a power weapon. Whoops.

This proved to be a BIG problem for Celestine, as she had been dueling Abaddon at that point. Creed had to personally intervene, as he saw immediately that if the Living Saint fell, so would the remaining morale of the defenders there. Even Greyfax, for all her distate for the "false idol", acted, and turned her psychic might at keeping the Despoiler at bay. In a moment of arrogance, Abaddon held off the deathblow to Celestine long enough to gloat over his impending success only to take a hit himself. Even depowered, Celestine had inflicted a wound upon the Despoiler which he had not felt the likes of since the Horus Heresy.

High above the effects of the pylons intensified. Against all expectation whatever was being transmitted from Cadia was actually ''causing the Eye of Terror to shrink'', and soon anything remotely warp-based began to waver or outright fail, including the void shields of the warships still glaring at each other beyond the atmosphere. Even teleporting out would eventually be impossible. It was at this point the Despoiler ordered his forces to withdraw, much to the shock and confusion of his ravaged foes. Even the forces on the surface were withdrawing en-masse, falling back to their Thunderhawks and drop-ships, and speeding back to the safety of the Black Fleet.

Something was up, and there was only one thing for sure: the compost was about to hit the rotary impeller, and SOON.

===Ragequit, Despoiler-style===

Once safely back upon the bridge of the ''Vengeful Spirit'', Abaddon set his "Plan B" in motion: if he couldn't have Cadia, '''nobody would'''. As soon as the last of the Traitor forces were retrieved, the Black Fleet pulled away from the planet, post-haste. At that point hidden plasma drives flared into life on the ruins of the ''Will of Eternity'', and slowly the moon-sized mass started to fall in the direction of Cadia. The batteries of the wounded ''Phalanx'' opened up in desperation, but nothing could stop its fall once the Blackstone Fortress was captured by Cadia's gravity well. Like the fist of an angry god, the fortress struck the planet hard, and the world burned.

From his command throne, Abaddon opened up a bottle of vintage wine, raised a cup (made from the skull of the [[Horus]] clone he had killed in the [[Battle of Harmony]]) in toast of an old foe, and laughed.

===Death of a World===

Millions died in the aftermath of the impact, but the worst was yet to come. As mountains crumbled and seas vanished into steam, the ancient Pylons scattered on the planet toppled as well. The ancient network sputtered and died, at which the Eye of Terror roared back into being, stronger and MUCH larger now that its ancient prison was sundered. With the echoing laughter of gods long-denied their prize, the maelstrom finally engulfed Cadia.

Daemons previously banished by the awakening of the pylons once more fell upon the ravaged world. Those who survived the initial inferno now found themselves fighting for their lives. But in that darkest hour, hope also returned. With the destruction of the pylons, Saint Celestine's strength returned, and burning bright with the light of the Emperor, the Living Saint led the survivors out of the catacombs, to witness a world much changed.

===The Exodus of Cadia===

At the sight of all the ruin and destruction, Creed finally despaired. Before his despondence could spread to his men, Greyfax took the initiative, and ordered the planetary evacuation of all surviving Imperial forces. Countless troop transports and landing craft roared upwards to the relative safety of the ''Phalanx'', though many more were lost amidst the burning atmosphere and the winged daemonspawn now infesting the skies.

Back at the Elysion Fields, the evacuation was turning desperate, as the waves of daemons pushed back the defensive lines. Soon there wouldn't be anywhere safe to land, and the evacuation zone would become a death trap.

Something had to be done. The Lord Castellan roused himself from his grief, and announced that the Cadian 8th would buy everyone the time they needed to escape. To their credit, none of the Castellan's Own blanched at the order, despite knowing full well what it meant. They owed Creed their lives anyway, and now was as good a time as any to pay the Castellan back the debt.

The last transports boosted away to safety, with the final one taking within the Knights of House Taranis, Marshall Amalrich's Black Templars, Saint Celestine's Sisters, and Grayfax. As they left that blighted battlefield behind, a clear and proud cry could be heard, over the howling winds and the cannon roar. It was a shout of defiance, bowed but unbroken: '''"CADIA STANDS!"'''

===The Fate of Creed===

Creed, wounded, weary, and about to bleed out, is confronted not by a Daemon, but by [[Trazyn|a metal giant wearing a scaled cloak]]. After that, a promise of eternity before darkness engulfs him, the giant's laughter ringing in his ears.

[[File:Cadiain8th.png|300px|thumbnail|center|...wait, how the fuck did she take off her trousers whilst still wearing her boots? Did she take off her boots, take off her trousers, then put her boots back on? Or was she just wearing shorts?]]

==We're Not Through Yet, Motherfuckers!==

According to the 7e Astra Militarum codex, every single Cadian regiment was recalled back to Cadia by Creed to defend it. Given that there were only 4 million Imperial survivors out of the original 850 million Imperials initially present, the vast majority of Cadian regiments were likely annihilated. Of course, it's unknown just how many Cadian regiments actually managed to get to Cadia in time before the shit hit the fan, but it's safe to say that certain [https://regimental-standard.com/2017/01/18/cadia-another-imperial-victory/ Imperium reports] that 90% of Cadia's Guard forces were off-world at the time and thus have survived the Fall of Cadia are either complete grox manure, or there were just THAT many Cadia guard regiments exported over the centuries. Given how long the Imperium has been around and the staggering size of the Guard, the latter may actually be more likely.

You thought the Fall of Cadia was the end? Well guess what, 8th Edition says otherwise! Curiously the closure of the Cadian Gate hadn't affected Chaos fleets in the slightest, as they've poured out the Eye everywhere across its borders with seemingly no effort while it expanded, no longer contained by the pylon network. This has actually worked out sort of okayish for the Imperium as well. With Cadia dealt with, a lot of warbands have decided to stop listening to the [[Abbadon|armless failure]] and go do their own thing to find things that are easier to kill than Cadia. This presents a bit of a problem for Chaos as Geedubs themselves have said there's still a fucking ton of defenders in the Cadian system and that the Chaos forces are starting to wear thin on the now-worthless planet.

On top of that, Cadia took so fucking long to go down that the Imperium is entrenched deep into neighboring planets waiting for a second coordinated wave of Chaos attackers that is increasingly unlikely to show up. Needless to say, there are more than a few commanders that think having all these forces sitting around essentially doing nothing was a massive waste, when they could instead be bringing the fight to the Great Enemy...

More worryingly, a detachment of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] has been sent there by order of the Captain-General. Specifically, the Custodes in charge of ensuring the Age of Strife-era horrors contained in the Imperial Palace's prisons (the mere knowledge of which could wreck the Imperium should they ever be known about) stay there. Seeing that several of said horrors were scattered across the galaxy by Chaos after the Great Rift opened, odds are that whatever the golden bananas were sent there for is ''very bad news''.

==New Cadia==

In the wake of the Exodus from Cadia, several surviving regiments found themselves in the Agripinaa System. Those lucky enough not to be "volunteered" by into servitor-dom by the neighboring forge-world of Agripinaa still had to fight off pursuing Chaos forces, which included renegade Astartes warbands from the [[Sons of Malice]] and the [[Crimson Slaughter]]. One of these forces, led by General Gruber, made it's last stand on ice moon of Faith's Anchorage. Although they were eventually overwhelmed, the Cadians went down fighting, with General Gruber himself -- an old man noted in-universe to neither be particularly brave ''or'' inspirational -- spitting defiance at his slayers, and doing one final banzai charge with his power sword.

So focused were the Chaos forces on annihilating Gruber's forces that they didn't notice the ''other'' parts of the Cadian Exodus that had translated into the outer system -- which included elements of the battered but unbowed Battlefleet Cadia. Eager for vengeance, the Cadians fell upon the Chaos Fleet, but even with their numbers it was a close thing, due to the damage the Imperial Fleet had already received prior. Then out of nowhere, the Space Wolf [[Strike Cruiser]] ''Stiklestad'' entered the fray, and soon the odds were tipped in the Imperials' favor.

Very quickly, the forces that had destroyed General Gruber's forces found themselves stranded on Faith's Anchorage. With nowhere to go, the Heretics soon found themselves facing regiment upon regiment of very VERY angry Cadian Shock Troopers. It took two weeks to comprehensively clear Hope's Anchorage of Heretic filth.

The Cadians were ''very'' thorough.

In the wake of this, the highest commanding officer of the Cadian military, General Benedikt of the 101st, consolidated his weary and battered forces on Chaeros, the 7th world of the Agripinaa system. It was soon renamed '''New Cadia''', a place to lick wounds and mourn lost comrades, a new place to call home, and a place to strike back from when the time finally came.

As for the other Cadian regiments, it says something that even after the destruction of their homeworld, Cadian regiments are still making up the bulk of the Guard forces in the Vigilus campaign. Even the Cadian 8th is active in the campaign, though they've renamed themselves '''Creed's Legacy'''.

{{40k-Imperial-Regiments}}

{{40k-Planets}}

[[Category:Imperial]]

Vostroyan Firstborn

2019-01-11T17:37:43Z

2600:1006:B112:203E:787D:33D9:E0EE:12B3:

{{Cleanup}}{{Topquote|Soldier, let's go, let's go, let's go! And for you my dear, I have sent you mail from here. Farewell, the trumpet calls, Soldiers - on the march.|V Put (Lets go), Soviet/Russian Drill Song}}
[[File:Vostroyan Firstborn.jpeg|300px|thumb|left|FEEL THE GLORY OF SPACE MOTHER-RUSSIA, BITCHES!]]
[[File:Vostroyan-trooper.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Bow before the might of the Vostroyan Las-bardiche!]]

The '''Vostroyan Firstborn''' are Russian [[Wikipedia:Streltsy|Streltsy]]/Cossacks IN SPESS. They use old weaponry they consider valuable - this being 40k, older is better anyway. They wear richly colored coats and large fur hats.

Vostroyans are experts at urban warfare and firing drills. So they are like the [[Mordian Iron Guard]] with less dress up bullshit. <s>IT'S NOT BULLSHIT, IT'S TRADITION YOU DICKNOGGIN.</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|No infighting between Guardsmen!}} If you remove the coat and look at some art for them, they actually look extremely similar to the pre-Heresy Imperial Army's soldiers, which sort of make sense considering their origins in the Heresy.

The Vostroyan Firstborn are renown for their marksmanship. Given they are using weapons that are quite devastating when used with precision, this results in the predictable outcome of the enemy being butchered (see Cities of Death cover art). Their name comes from the tradition of the first-born child of every family (from the commoners to the nobles) serving in one of these regiments, and they bear the name with pride.

The reason for this tradition dates back to the [[Horus Heresy]]. As the [[Traitor Legions]] made their beeline for [[Terra]], the Loyalists sent out a call for anyone who could bear arms in defence of the [[Imperium]]. The Vostroyan officials declined, explaining that as an Industrial World, Vostroya would be more useful making weaponry for the Imperium than firing them. True or not, after the Traitors were routed, Vostroya was called to account for its actions. The planet was ultimately spared, and as a sign of repentance the Vostroyans swore to pledge their firstborn children to the Imperial Guard from then on.

[[File:B7fbea5adf2d9de019860a8a4ba826f4.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Fuck your [[Sisters of Battle|boob-plate]], this gal's a warrior and won't succumb to your... [[Promotions|Needs]].]]

This idea follows further, being explained that the different regiments are kept with a steady flow of recruits due to the nature of the regiment's recruiting methods. Thus, their regiments have a tendency not to be completely destroyed and have enough veterans kicking around to show newbies the ropes before they are used as a toothpick by a [[Carnifex]] or something. Also it's something of a tradition to serve in your family's particular regiment, i.e. you're likely to wind up in the same squad with your uncle, cousin, great-uncle or whoever. This serves multiple goals: first, you'll become part of the team faster; second - one is more likely to fight bravely and/or hold the line knowing not only his honor, but his family's would be screwed forever otherwise; third - most Vostroyan weapons are relics passed from one Guardsman to another, some of them since the time of Great Crusade, and being able to simply [[Grimdark|pick it up from your relative's cold hands]] simplifies the inheritance procedure greatly. This begs the question - if this method works so well, why is nobody else doing it (or something similar)? The answer is because it's a logistical nightmare.

GLORY TO THE FIRST MAN TO DIE.

Fantasy Flight Games changed it a bit by adding that the first-born daughters often join as well, to cease the angry outburst from women who wish to don bearskin hats and speak like they're in Red October. To be fair to the whiners who don’t understand women have far less endurance and strength than men, the Imperium is unlikely to care that female Guards cannot keep up with the men for more than a short while or that exhaustion will quickly get those women killed. As far as the Imperium is concerned, a soldier is meant to die anyway. So long as their deaths get their replacements a little closer to winning, no one gives a damn about their sex or chances of survival.

== Culture ==
They like their moustaches. Their coming of age is sprouting a four foot long moustache and goatee combo, if male; if female, on your 16th birthday you take a deep breath and pop out breasts like a squeeze toy. Such is their affinity for the mustache that anyone with an aversion to body hair is treated as [[Extra heresy|the most traitorous of scum.]] Presumably Vostroyans drink a lot and dance like this: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiakVUKYCSQ]

Typically they all look like so: [http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/011/392/manlyman.PNG]

== Vostroya ==
Their home world, Vostroya, lies in the [[Segmentum#Segmentum_Obscurus|Segmentum Obscurus]] and is quite cold. Vostroya isn't a [[Forge World]] nor is it an Imperial [[Hive World]], so it falls in between and gets the award of being an Industrial world. The Mechanicum still gets a fair bit of sway there though, being represented in their government and all, as they were found by Martians during their early exploration efforts, before the [[Great Crusade]], and as such produce almost all wargear for their regiments, including Baneblade variants and some unique patterns, on-planet.

Vostroya isn't exactly a friendly place to live in, as its landscape is bleak and overpopulated, with plant and animal life almost extinct outside of human control. Because of this, the population of 9.3 billion is in a state of constant change over. This also means there is a plethora of firstborn sons to fuel the Vostroyan Firstborns' ranks.

They should be on the look out for the birth of Space Peter the Great/Taras Bulba, whom the Imperium is in desperate need of.

{{40k-Imperial-Regiments}}

Phantine Air Corps

2019-01-11T17:15:25Z

2600:1006:B112:203E:787D:33D9:E0EE:12B3: /* Why They Should Be Common */

[[File:Phantine_Flyer.jpg|300px|thumb|right|A rare example of the Phantine Air Corp.]]
{{Topquote|We're going to bomb them back into the stone Age.|General Curtis E. LeMay}}

In case you haven't picked up on it by now, the Imperium is full of such heaping amounts of stupid rules that you could write for millenia and still only record a fraction of these fucked up restrictions. Probably because GW wrote 40k and then realized there was no possible way in their setting for the Imperium to have not wiped everyone else out already, so GW had to compensate somehow. One that ''does'' make some relative sense is that the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy should be kept separate. After the Horus Heresy you can't risk another self-sufficient force <s>(justifiably)</s> rebelling against the Imperium.

Enter the planet of Phantine, which had an issue; all their population is forced to live at the peaks of their homeworld. This meant there was a problem for the Imperial tithe, since Phantine PDF forces were primarily pilots. Deciding they were already worse hypocrites than most popes, the Imperium decided to disobey the rule that the Imperial Guard shouldn't have an air wing. While deploying them with a dedicated force of drop-troops, the Departmento Munitorum soon revealed their newest regiment. The Phantine Air Corps had been formed.

Of course, not simply having a dedicated Air Force for the Imperium was proving to be a bad decision. Given the Admirals tend to remove any air support from their ships (particularly ships dedicated and specifically built for the sole purpose of providing air support for the Imperial Guard) and replace them with attack craft because the Navy always needs more of them (while refusing to just build more dedicated attack craft carriers claiming attack craft are useless). Almost as useless as the ship commissars who for some reason don’t get trigger-happy at this gross [[Heresy|deviance]] from the air support ship’s specific purpose. In fact, why isn’t the Mechanicus pissed at this virtual (pun) raping of these ships’ sacred purpose?

== Why This Was Hated ==

It's already bad when neckbeards find out their favorite armies are getting changed. Imagine how the Phantine were received by the Guard ''and'' the Imperial Navy. For millennia, the Navy had been the go-to force for atmospheric transport and air superiority. Now there was a Guard regiment to take on that role? Never mind that the common guardsman is probably pissed at the Phantines in their nice personal aircraft as they're forced to slog through the mud, blood, and crud that is a 40k battlefield.

== Why They Aren't Common ==

Have you fucking seen the prices to buy Imperial fighter models?

== Why They Should Be Common ==

The great part about the Guard is that it's about the common soldier (and his Baneblade) in the face of overwhelming odds, and even in the darkness of 40k this definitely extends to the Phantine. They're the same bog-standard humans as the Guard on the ground, facing down Tyranid flying hives, Eldar super-fighters, titan-sized Tau bombers, Necron anti-aircraft laser spam, Chaos planes that eat other planes, and Orks guzzling jet fuel because they can. The Phantines are the pilots up against the most overwhelming odds, facing death in the skies knowing that their efforts protect the ground forces to do their jobs without being bombed to hell. To attack the enemy behind the lines with precision strikes on vital points and fortifications. To face the same horrors in the sky as their brothers on the ground with little more than their wits and reflexes and a jet strapped to their ass. So that when they land and see that their efforts allowed others to succeed, they may know they are just as much Imperial Guard as any other in the service of the God-Emperor.

It's also worth pointing out that since they just fly air craft as compared to to the 'proper' navy's space craft they don't break the original function of splitting the navy and imperial army, making it harder for rebellions to have both a ground force and a Navy force. So while yes, there is now a risk of rebellions having air support, it won't be able to leave the planet and cause chaos. You additionally gain closer corporation between air and ground forces, useful for naval ships space to surface weapons, vital for weapons which are going to be operating in close support to ground force, and yes that closer ties mean higher chance of a joint air/land rebellion but it may be worth it in this case, (not to mention since there guard you can have Commissars around to BLAM the pilots if need be, though given the cost of training a skilled pilot this may not be as common as it is for the ground-pounding cannon fodder but it is still an option.) So even by Imperial logic it make sense to have more "Imperial Air Corps" like the Phantine's. Cept for that whole "irrationality" which marks the setting. Besides, it isn’t unknown for air groups on ships to turn renegade, anyway.

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Regiments}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]]

Phantine Air Corps

2019-01-11T17:12:09Z

2600:1006:B112:203E:787D:33D9:E0EE:12B3:

[[File:Phantine_Flyer.jpg|300px|thumb|right|A rare example of the Phantine Air Corp.]]
{{Topquote|We're going to bomb them back into the stone Age.|General Curtis E. LeMay}}

In case you haven't picked up on it by now, the Imperium is full of such heaping amounts of stupid rules that you could write for millenia and still only record a fraction of these fucked up restrictions. Probably because GW wrote 40k and then realized there was no possible way in their setting for the Imperium to have not wiped everyone else out already, so GW had to compensate somehow. One that ''does'' make some relative sense is that the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy should be kept separate. After the Horus Heresy you can't risk another self-sufficient force <s>(justifiably)</s> rebelling against the Imperium.

Enter the planet of Phantine, which had an issue; all their population is forced to live at the peaks of their homeworld. This meant there was a problem for the Imperial tithe, since Phantine PDF forces were primarily pilots. Deciding they were already worse hypocrites than most popes, the Imperium decided to disobey the rule that the Imperial Guard shouldn't have an air wing. While deploying them with a dedicated force of drop-troops, the Departmento Munitorum soon revealed their newest regiment. The Phantine Air Corps had been formed.

Of course, not simply having a dedicated Air Force for the Imperium was proving to be a bad decision. Given the Admirals tend to remove any air support from their ships (particularly ships dedicated and specifically built for the sole purpose of providing air support for the Imperial Guard) and replace them with attack craft because the Navy always needs more of them (while refusing to just build more dedicated attack craft carriers claiming attack craft are useless). Almost as useless as the ship commissars who for some reason don’t get trigger-happy at this gross [[Heresy|deviance]] from the air support ship’s specific purpose. In fact, why isn’t the Mechanicus pissed at this virtual (pun) raping of these ships’ sacred purpose?

== Why This Was Hated ==

It's already bad when neckbeards find out their favorite armies are getting changed. Imagine how the Phantine were received by the Guard ''and'' the Imperial Navy. For millennia, the Navy had been the go-to force for atmospheric transport and air superiority. Now there was a Guard regiment to take on that role? Never mind that the common guardsman is probably pissed at the Phantines in their nice personal aircraft as they're forced to slog through the mud, blood, and crud that is a 40k battlefield.

== Why They Aren't Common ==

Have you fucking seen the prices to buy Imperial fighter models?

== Why They Should Be Common ==

The great part about the Guard is that it's about the common soldier (and his Baneblade) in the face of overwhelming odds, and even in the darkness of 40k this definitely extends to the Phantine. They're the same bog-standard humans as the Guard on the ground, facing down Tyranid flying hives, Eldar super-fighters, titan-sized Tau bombers, Necron anti-aircraft laser spam, Chaos planes that eat other planes, and Orks guzzling jet fuel because they can. The Phantines are the pilots up against the most overwhelming odds, facing death in the skies knowing that their efforts protect the ground forces to do their jobs without being bombed to hell. To attack the enemy behind the lines with precision strikes on vital points and fortifications. To face the same horrors in the sky as their brothers on the ground with little more than their wits and reflexes and a jet strapped to their ass. So that when they land and see that their efforts allowed others to succeed, they may know they are just as much Imperial Guard as any other in the service of the God-Emperor.

It's also worth pointing out that since they just fly air craft as compared to to the 'proper' navy's space craft they don't break the original function of splitting the navy and imperial army, making it harder for rebellions to have both a ground force and a Navy force. So while yes, there is now a risk of rebellions having air support, it won't be able to leave the planet and cause chaos. You additionally gain closer corporation between air and ground forces, useful for naval ships space to surface weapons, vital for weapons which are going to be operating in close support to ground force, and yes that closer ties mean higher chance of a joint air/land rebellion but it may be worth it in this case, (not to mention since there guard you can have Commissars around to BLAM the pilots if need be, though given the cost of training a skilled pilot this may not be as common as it is for the ground-pounding cannon fodder but it is still an option.) So even by Imperial logic it make sense to have more "Imperial Air Corps" like the Phantine's. Cept for that whole "irrationality" which marks the setting.

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Regiments}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]]

Phantine Air Corps

2019-01-11T17:08:26Z

2600:1006:B112:203E:787D:33D9:E0EE:12B3:

[[File:Phantine_Flyer.jpg|300px|thumb|right|A rare example of the Phantine Air Corp.]]
{{Topquote|We're going to bomb them back into the stone Age.|General Curtis E. LeMay}}

In case you haven't picked up on it by now, the Imperium is full of such heaping amounts of stupid rules that you could write for millenia and still only record a fraction of these fucked up restrictions. Probably because GW wrote 40k and then realized there was no possible way in their setting for the Imperium to have not wiped everyone else out already, so GW had to compensate somehow. One that ''does'' make some relative sense is that the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy should be kept separate. After the Horus Heresy you can't risk another self-sufficient force <s>(justifiably)</s> rebelling against the Imperium.

Enter the planet of Phantine, which had an issue; all their population is forced to live at the peaks of their homeworld. This meant there was a problem for the Imperial tithe, since Phantine PDF forces were primarily pilots. Deciding they were already worse hypocrites than most popes, the Imperium decided to disobey the rule that the Imperial Guard shouldn't have an air wing. While deploying them with a dedicated force of drop-troops, the Departmento Munitorum soon revealed their newest regiment. The Phantine Air Corps had been formed.

Of course, not simply having a dedicated Air Force for the Imperium was proving to be a bad decision. Given the Admirals tend to remove any air support from their ships (particularly ships dedicated and specifically built for the sole purpose of providing air support for the Imperial Guard) and replace them with attack craft because the Navy always needs more of them (while refusing to just build more dedicated attack craft carriers claiming attack craft are useless).

== Why This Was Hated ==

It's already bad when neckbeards find out their favorite armies are getting changed. Imagine how the Phantine were received by the Guard ''and'' the Imperial Navy. For millennia, the Navy had been the go-to force for atmospheric transport and air superiority. Now there was a Guard regiment to take on that role? Never mind that the common guardsman is probably pissed at the Phantines in their nice personal aircraft as they're forced to slog through the mud, blood, and crud that is a 40k battlefield.

== Why They Aren't Common ==

Have you fucking seen the prices to buy Imperial fighter models?

== Why They Should Be Common ==

The great part about the Guard is that it's about the common soldier (and his Baneblade) in the face of overwhelming odds, and even in the darkness of 40k this definitely extends to the Phantine. They're the same bog-standard humans as the Guard on the ground, facing down Tyranid flying hives, Eldar super-fighters, titan-sized Tau bombers, Necron anti-aircraft laser spam, Chaos planes that eat other planes, and Orks guzzling jet fuel because they can. The Phantines are the pilots up against the most overwhelming odds, facing death in the skies knowing that their efforts protect the ground forces to do their jobs without being bombed to hell. To attack the enemy behind the lines with precision strikes on vital points and fortifications. To face the same horrors in the sky as their brothers on the ground with little more than their wits and reflexes and a jet strapped to their ass. So that when they land and see that their efforts allowed others to succeed, they may know they are just as much Imperial Guard as any other in the service of the God-Emperor.

It's also worth pointing out that since they just fly air craft as compared to to the 'proper' navy's space craft they don't break the original function of splitting the navy and imperial army, making it harder for rebellions to have both a ground force and a Navy force. So while yes, there is now a risk of rebellions having air support, it won't be able to leave the planet and cause chaos. You additionally gain closer corporation between air and ground forces, useful for naval ships space to surface weapons, vital for weapons which are going to be operating in close support to ground force, and yes that closer ties mean higher chance of a joint air/land rebellion but it may be worth it in this case, (not to mention since there guard you can have Commissars around to BLAM the pilots if need be, though given the cost of training a skilled pilot this may not be as common as it is for the ground-pounding cannon fodder but it is still an option.) So even by Imperial logic it make sense to have more "Imperial Air Corps" like the Phantine's. Cept for that whole "irrationality" which marks the setting.

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Regiments}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]]

Imperial Guard Regiment

2019-01-11T16:04:38Z

2600:1006:B112:203E:787D:33D9:E0EE:12B3: /* Organization */

The '''Regiment''' is the largest semi-permanent unit of organization of the [[Imperial Guard]], consisting of a few hundred to a few hundred thousand Guardsmen and their associated equipment and vehicles.

== Origin ==

[[Space Marine]]s are all well and good, but the implantation of [[gene-seed]] is a risky, prolonged, and expensive process. Even at the peak of the [[Great Crusade]], there were never more than a few million Marines in the entire galaxy. The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]] and his growing Imperium needed more soldiers to take and hold planets, and so the Imperial Army was founded to act as an auxiliary force -- while the Space Marines would smash fortresses and other hard targets, the Army would follow behind to hold the line.

To improve force cohesion, they were under the direct authority of the Space Marines with whom they served, but the [[Horus Heresy]] proved how dangerous such an arrangement could be. When [[Horus]] fell, not only did he take his fellow traitor Primarchs and their Legions with him, but also his associated ships and soldiers. Therefore, after the Heresy was put down, the surviving leaders of the Imperium divided the three military branches so that no traitor could strike such a blow at the Imperium ever again.

The forces themselves were separated into smaller pieces, also to reduce the ability of heretics to cause trouble. The [[Legiones Astartes]] were split up into [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapters]], the [[Imperial Navy]] was divided into [[Battlefleet]]s, and the newly-named Imperial Guard was divided into '''regiments'''. Each regiment in theory could only contain a few hundred to a few thousand Guardsmen (but often times there can be regiments of several million Guardsmen although they are very rare and expensive), and was limited to a single specialty (Infantry, Artillery, Armor), so that if even an entire regiment turned traitor, they would not last long -- without the Navy, they could not travel to other planets (or bomb the shit out of them since the navy also got the aircraft), and without the support of other regiments, they would lack most tactical options. The [[Commissar|Commissariat]] was also founded to be an independent watchdog to root out heresy wherever it grew.

Regiments with a bit of a mix, such as armored regiments with some mobile artillery and mechanized infantry elements, do exist but still would not survive long as those elements would be too few to do anything more than support; they would be quickly crushed by a combined arms task force ordered to kill the traitor regiment. Support elements are very helpful but nowhere near as effective as a dedicated unit. Strangely, even the ground-attack craft belong to the Navy. Which is stupid since if a ship goes rogue any surface-to-space defense wouldn’t last long against a surprise air attack from guys they didn’t know they needed to pay attention to. If the Guard had control, the ground pounders wouldn’t need to worry about their own ship blowing them up if their defenses go down due to a rogue regiment (and the regiments would have too few aircraft in this case to matter anyway) or worry about their defenses going down in the first place (a handful of ground support craft die pretty dang quickly when everyone is shooting at them). Then there is the fact the transports don’t carry bombers, support, and fighters dedicated to assisting the Guard, so the Navy usually has only a handful of ground support craft like Valkyries and Vultures but tons of fighters that they proceed to suicidally throw at other ships instead of the atmospheric combat they were given to the Navy for in the first place. Needless to say, the Imperium’s enemies do not share this insane problem. Even worse is the transports’ escorts downright treacherous habit of sallying forth to attack enemy ships instead of following their orders to stay and defend the transports. It goes about as badly for the Guard as your imagining. Then the Guardsmen hit the dirt and learn the hard way that they have limited air defense, maybe a couple Valkyries for carting Colonels around, and few or no other friendly aircraft while the enemy has fleets of bombers and fighters swarming the skies. The Imperial Guard manages to win anyway through sheer guts and a mountain of mangled corpses. Then, they get picked up, shipped off to a new planet a few days maybe weeks maybe mere hours away and do it all over again.

== Founding ==

The [[Administratum]] evaluates every planet in the Imperium, analyzing what its resources are and what portion of those resources it owes to the Imperium. For many planets (especially [[Hive World]]s), one such resource is manpower. Worlds are literally [[Imperial Tithe|tithed]] to supply a certain number of a particular kind of regiment. After a regiment is founded, it is shipped off from one battlefield to another according to the designs of the [[Departmento Munitorum]], and may periodically be resupplied with new recruits and equipment by the same, or just left hanging until they are almost totally routed, and then folded into another regiment. Because the information used by the Administratum is often out-of-date (by up to millennia, theoretically), a planet's requirements may be unreasonable, whole regiments can be entirely forgotten or called to battle long after their destruction, and regiments may be deployed to "battlefields" whose wars have long been ended. The fact that designation numbers and equipment often get recycled after the regiment that owns them is destroyed does not help matters. On occasion, a regiment can get a lucky break from bureaucratic inertia (e.g. the Valhallan 597th, of [[Ciaphas Cain]] fame, was formed by the merger of the half-strength 296th and 301st regiments, but is still listed in official records as the 296th and 301st working together, so they get double supplies), but that's not very [[grimdark]] so it only happens very rarely.

== Organization ==

Each planet's regiments are different with a variety of names for commanders and subordinates, but we'll use the modern day system. In general, a commanding officer sits at the top, with a rank of '''colonel''' ''(or the equivalent)'', who is assisted by a command staff. The second-in-command may be titled the "executive officer" and often is a '''major'''.

The Regiment is divided into several companies, the exact number of which depends on the nature of the regiment:
*Each company is led by a '''captain''' and a command squad and contains two to six Platoons (because a standard 40K army -- which is about the right size for a company -- has between two and six units of Troops)
**Each platoon is led by a '''lieutenant''' and a command squad and has around five, ''(but sometimes more)'' squads of infantry.
***A squad is led by a '''sergeant''' who is sometimes assisted by a '''corporal''' ''(if this is the case, the squad can then be divided into two fireteams)''. Infantry squads nominally contain ten Guardsmen each, though heavy and special weapon squads only have six, and of course numbers can fluctuate as Guardsmen are recruited and killed.

Of course, different types of regiment do things differently but are generally consistent with the levels of authority delegated to their commanders: For example, Armoured Companies still have vehicle squadrons led by sergeants, but with each individual vehicle within the squadron is commanded by a corporal, and thus Armoured Companies have a higher proportion on NCOs compared to standard Infantry Regiments. Meanwhile, Artillery Companies are less likely to have corporals at all.

The ''Uplifting Primer'' does include provisions for other ranks not usually found on the tabletop or encountered in the fluff, which might actually be consistent with their in-universe function: '''lieutenant colonel''' in real-world militaries command battalions of multiple companies which are usually homogeneous in structure, ''(A RL regiment is usually multiple battalions of various compositions, or a single battalion with added support units)'' <s>but in 40k there is actually little need to deploy separate battalions, as it would be inefficient for the Navy to transport such small units individually and without external support, so the rank might only find use in specialist or headquarters units, rather than in a typical regimental system.</s> battalions do not ship to separate areas from their regiment in real life either. The regiment or brigade is kept together and battalions or even companies can be assigned to support other brigades near them as needed. If necessary, that support could actually be far away. However, in 40k all this would be happening on a world’s surface, so the regiment would still be transported as a whole, not battalions being broken of and sent to other worlds. That just isn’t how battalions function nor how they are used at all.

Further, while the [[Imperial Navy]] uses the rank of '''warrant officer''', the Imperial Guard does not appear to have a standard use for it. This is most likely because a naval starship has a much larger number of men under its command than a regiments does (''tens of thousands as opposed to thousands)'' and also the fact that regiments do not often have a fixed headquarters and have a higher turnover of manpower due to casualties, therefore field commissions directly from sergeant to lieutenant would be more practical than awaiting a newly commissioned officer to arrive from an academy.

That's not to say that senior sergeants cannot be found in staff roles outside of squads, [[Colour Sergeant Jarran Kell|colour sergeants]], [[Gunnery Sergeant "Stonetooth" Harker|gunnery sergeants]] and [[Sergeant Lukas Bastonne|staff sergeants]] are known to exist in-universe but are not mentioned in the ''Primer'', but the factional division of the military into [[Mechanicus|Engineering]], [[Administratum|Adminstration]] or [[Sister Hospitaler|Medical]] branches probably makes such staff appointments less common.

Although the purpose of a RL regimental system is to ensure an unbroken chain-of-command where each trooper has one sergeant who himself has one lieutenant who in turn has one captain and so on, the 40k universe as with most things tends to be almost medieval in its execution: the ''Uplifting Primer'' as well as most fluff on the matter is quite emphatic about when you get issued an order from anyone above you, you comply without question. That attitude may be helpful if you anticipate a high turnover of unit commanders mid-battle ''(this is the Guard, so of course)'' where it becomes impractical to double-check orders with your direct ''(or even intermediate)'' superior, but it would cause nightmares for intelligence and logistics officers trying to keep track of a battlefield when officers subvert the units of their allied commanders, and would probably cause confusion and mixed messages to filter down the chain of command and contribute to even more casualties. ''(this is the Guard, so again, of course)'' The reliability and effectiveness of this system depends on the pre-campaign planning and inter unit training, regiments and their soldiers are told who are their allies, who is in command of their allies, and such stuff, of course this is not always possible, sometimes regiments are newly drawn up and then immediately thrown into a nearby war with only basic training, sometimes they're diverted from one campaign to another, and other times the Munitorum and their allies are just being assholes. Of course, experienced field commanders and strategic officers would encourage policies to make sure they don't end up killing their own allies.

=== Regiment Types ===

To inhibit the spread of [[Chaos]], regiments are usually confined to a single specialization each -- that way, even if an entire regiment falls to Chaos, it will be severely restricted in its tactical options, making it easier for loyalist regiments (who have enough different specializations to complement each other) to put it down. The specializations are:
* '''Armoured'''. Armoured regiments supply the tanks to a war effort. They may operate as a single force if there is a single, massive target to be destroyed, or if the war is being fought on multiple fronts (e.g. urban warfare), they may be split up to support infantry units or crack vital enemy defense lines.
* '''Artillery'''. Artillery regiments have ALL the big guns. They are deployed whole for massive sieges or defensive actions, often with siege infantry regiments to create defenses and trenches; for a more mobile siege, they may be parceled out into batteries that accompany infantry regiments.
* '''Drop infantry'''. Drop infantry are space paratroopers -- they drop onto enemy weak points for surprise attacks. Unfortunately, this limits the heavy firepower available to them, as artillery pieces and tanks can't be carried by [[Valkyrie]]s. The [[Elysian Drop Troops]] are an example of drop infantry regiments.
* '''Light infantry'''. Light infantry regiments are frequently used for reconnaissance and stealth work, as they aren't as tied to a supply chain as more mechanized regiments, and are less noisy (again, because of the reduced mechanization and supply chain needs), though they lack the heavy firepower required to do much else. However, when played to their strengths by smart commanders light infantry can kick ''all'' the ass, as demonstrated by the [[Tanith First (And Only)|Tanith First]].
* '''Line infantry'''. Line infantry regiments supply the raw manpower that is emblematic of the Imperial Guard.
* '''Mechanized infantry'''. Mechanized infantry regiments are probably the closest thing to an all-rounder combined-arms force that the Imperium has. Mechanized regiments generally give each squad their own [[Chimera]], and often receive detachments of tanks from armored regiments working in the same theater for some extra punch -- or, if there aren't enough Chimeras available to justify keeping them all in one place, they may be split up into "Armoured Fist" squads and given to armored regiments to hold objectives, or infantry regiments who need an armored spearhead. The Valhallan 597th is an example of mechanized infantry regiment.
* '''Siege infantry'''. Siege infantry regiments are similar to line infantry, in that they have lots of men, but they receive extra training in construction of fortifications, trenches, and defense lines, and are usually disciplined and trained to fight and die over the course of months or years for even a few yards of advance. The [[Death Korps of Krieg]] are an example of siege infantry regiments.

The aforementioned restrictions on regiments means that they are not very useful on their own, so there is also a super-regimental command structure used for campaigns.
*Regiments that complement each other in a useful way can be combined into a ''battlegroup'' commanded by a '''General''',
**Several battlegroups on the same front will be overseen by a '''Lord General'''
***...who will in turn answer to the '''Lord General Militant''' of the sector or campaign in question.
****Above these are the '''Lord Commanders''' for each of the five Segmenta of the galaxy,
*****At the very top is the '''Lord Commander Militant''' the leader of the entire [[Imperial Guard]] and one of the [[High Lords of Terra]].

== Tabletop ==

Back in the third edition of [[Warhammer 40,000]], the [[Imperial Guard]] [[Codex]] included a "doctrine" system to represent different types of regiments in the Imperium. Some options would allow certain units to be taken in larger numbers, while others would allow some units to purchase special abilities. The [[Catachan Jungle Fighters]] also received their own mini-dex in Third and Fourth Edition.

The doctrine system was removed in the fifth-edition codex, though some characters can modify the army's abilities a little, and [[Forge World]] has published army lists for the [[Death Korps of Krieg]], [[Elysian Drop Troops]], and a generic "Armoured Battle Group" (tanks to the max) in their [[Imperial Armour]] books.

We have tacticae on the various Imperial Guard army lists that have been published:
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard|Imperial Guard]], for light infantry or combined-arms regiments (especially [[Cadian Shock Troops]] and [[Catachan Jungle Fighters]]).
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard/Elysian Drop Troops|Elysian Drop Troops]], for drop regiments
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard/Death Korps of Krieg|Death Korps of Krieg]], for siege regiments
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard/Armoured Battlegroup|Armoured Battlegroup]], for armored regiments or mechanized infantry
* [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Solar_Auxilia_(30k)|Solar Auxilia]], for the elite of the Imperial Army during the Heresy era
* [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Imperial_Militia_and_Cults_(30k)|Imperial Militia and Cults]], for the miscellaneous military units that formed the bulk of the Imperial Army during the Heresy era
== See Also ==

* [[Imperial Guard Regiment Creation Tables]], a set of rolltables for generating a regiment.
* [[Only War]], a roleplaying game made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]], which contains rules for generating and role-playing an IG regiment.

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Regiments}}

Imperial Guard Regiment

2019-01-11T16:04:04Z

2600:1006:B112:203E:787D:33D9:E0EE:12B3: /* Organization */

The '''Regiment''' is the largest semi-permanent unit of organization of the [[Imperial Guard]], consisting of a few hundred to a few hundred thousand Guardsmen and their associated equipment and vehicles.

== Origin ==

[[Space Marine]]s are all well and good, but the implantation of [[gene-seed]] is a risky, prolonged, and expensive process. Even at the peak of the [[Great Crusade]], there were never more than a few million Marines in the entire galaxy. The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]] and his growing Imperium needed more soldiers to take and hold planets, and so the Imperial Army was founded to act as an auxiliary force -- while the Space Marines would smash fortresses and other hard targets, the Army would follow behind to hold the line.

To improve force cohesion, they were under the direct authority of the Space Marines with whom they served, but the [[Horus Heresy]] proved how dangerous such an arrangement could be. When [[Horus]] fell, not only did he take his fellow traitor Primarchs and their Legions with him, but also his associated ships and soldiers. Therefore, after the Heresy was put down, the surviving leaders of the Imperium divided the three military branches so that no traitor could strike such a blow at the Imperium ever again.

The forces themselves were separated into smaller pieces, also to reduce the ability of heretics to cause trouble. The [[Legiones Astartes]] were split up into [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapters]], the [[Imperial Navy]] was divided into [[Battlefleet]]s, and the newly-named Imperial Guard was divided into '''regiments'''. Each regiment in theory could only contain a few hundred to a few thousand Guardsmen (but often times there can be regiments of several million Guardsmen although they are very rare and expensive), and was limited to a single specialty (Infantry, Artillery, Armor), so that if even an entire regiment turned traitor, they would not last long -- without the Navy, they could not travel to other planets (or bomb the shit out of them since the navy also got the aircraft), and without the support of other regiments, they would lack most tactical options. The [[Commissar|Commissariat]] was also founded to be an independent watchdog to root out heresy wherever it grew.

Regiments with a bit of a mix, such as armored regiments with some mobile artillery and mechanized infantry elements, do exist but still would not survive long as those elements would be too few to do anything more than support; they would be quickly crushed by a combined arms task force ordered to kill the traitor regiment. Support elements are very helpful but nowhere near as effective as a dedicated unit. Strangely, even the ground-attack craft belong to the Navy. Which is stupid since if a ship goes rogue any surface-to-space defense wouldn’t last long against a surprise air attack from guys they didn’t know they needed to pay attention to. If the Guard had control, the ground pounders wouldn’t need to worry about their own ship blowing them up if their defenses go down due to a rogue regiment (and the regiments would have too few aircraft in this case to matter anyway) or worry about their defenses going down in the first place (a handful of ground support craft die pretty dang quickly when everyone is shooting at them). Then there is the fact the transports don’t carry bombers, support, and fighters dedicated to assisting the Guard, so the Navy usually has only a handful of ground support craft like Valkyries and Vultures but tons of fighters that they proceed to suicidally throw at other ships instead of the atmospheric combat they were given to the Navy for in the first place. Needless to say, the Imperium’s enemies do not share this insane problem. Even worse is the transports’ escorts downright treacherous habit of sallying forth to attack enemy ships instead of following their orders to stay and defend the transports. It goes about as badly for the Guard as your imagining. Then the Guardsmen hit the dirt and learn the hard way that they have limited air defense, maybe a couple Valkyries for carting Colonels around, and few or no other friendly aircraft while the enemy has fleets of bombers and fighters swarming the skies. The Imperial Guard manages to win anyway through sheer guts and a mountain of mangled corpses. Then, they get picked up, shipped off to a new planet a few days maybe weeks maybe mere hours away and do it all over again.

== Founding ==

The [[Administratum]] evaluates every planet in the Imperium, analyzing what its resources are and what portion of those resources it owes to the Imperium. For many planets (especially [[Hive World]]s), one such resource is manpower. Worlds are literally [[Imperial Tithe|tithed]] to supply a certain number of a particular kind of regiment. After a regiment is founded, it is shipped off from one battlefield to another according to the designs of the [[Departmento Munitorum]], and may periodically be resupplied with new recruits and equipment by the same, or just left hanging until they are almost totally routed, and then folded into another regiment. Because the information used by the Administratum is often out-of-date (by up to millennia, theoretically), a planet's requirements may be unreasonable, whole regiments can be entirely forgotten or called to battle long after their destruction, and regiments may be deployed to "battlefields" whose wars have long been ended. The fact that designation numbers and equipment often get recycled after the regiment that owns them is destroyed does not help matters. On occasion, a regiment can get a lucky break from bureaucratic inertia (e.g. the Valhallan 597th, of [[Ciaphas Cain]] fame, was formed by the merger of the half-strength 296th and 301st regiments, but is still listed in official records as the 296th and 301st working together, so they get double supplies), but that's not very [[grimdark]] so it only happens very rarely.

== Organization ==

Each planet's regiments are different with a variety of names for commanders and subordinates, but we'll use the modern day system. In general, a commanding officer sits at the top, with a rank of '''colonel''' ''(or the equivalent)'', who is assisted by a command staff. The second-in-command may be titled the "executive officer" and often is a '''major'''.

The Regiment is divided into several companies, the exact number of which depends on the nature of the regiment:
*Each company is led by a '''captain''' and a command squad and contains two to six Platoons (because a standard 40K army -- which is about the right size for a company -- has between two and six units of Troops)
**Each platoon is led by a '''lieutenant''' and a command squad and has around five, ''(but sometimes more)'' squads of infantry.
***A squad is led by a '''sergeant''' who is sometimes assisted by a '''corporal''' ''(if this is the case, the squad can then be divided into two fireteams)''. Infantry squads nominally contain ten Guardsmen each, though heavy and special weapon squads only have six, and of course numbers can fluctuate as Guardsmen are recruited and killed.

Of course, different types of regiment do things differently but are generally consistent with the levels of authority delegated to their commanders: For example, Armoured Companies still have vehicle squadrons led by sergeants, but with each individual vehicle within the squadron is commanded by a corporal, and thus Armoured Companies have a higher proportion on NCOs compared to standard Infantry Regiments. Meanwhile, Artillery Companies are less likely to have corporals at all.

The ''Uplifting Primer'' does include provisions for other ranks not usually found on the tabletop or encountered in the fluff, which might actually be consistent with their in-universe function: '''lieutenant colonel''' in real-world militaries command battalions of multiple companies which are usually homogeneous in structure, ''(A RL regiment is usually multiple battalions of various compositions, or a single battalion with added support units)'' <s>but in 40k there is actually little need to deploy separate battalions, as it would be inefficient for the Navy to transport such small units individually and without external support, so the rank might only find use in specialist or headquarters units, rather than in a typical regimental system.</> battalions do not ship to separate areas from their regiment in real life either. The regiment or brigade is kept together and battalions or even companies can be assigned to support other brigades near them as needed. If necessary, that support could actually be far away. However, in 40k all this would be happening on a world’s surface, so the regiment would still be transported as a whole, not battalions being broken of and sent to other worlds. That just isn’t how battalions function nor how they are used at all.

Further, while the [[Imperial Navy]] uses the rank of '''warrant officer''', the Imperial Guard does not appear to have a standard use for it. This is most likely because a naval starship has a much larger number of men under its command than a regiments does (''tens of thousands as opposed to thousands)'' and also the fact that regiments do not often have a fixed headquarters and have a higher turnover of manpower due to casualties, therefore field commissions directly from sergeant to lieutenant would be more practical than awaiting a newly commissioned officer to arrive from an academy.

That's not to say that senior sergeants cannot be found in staff roles outside of squads, [[Colour Sergeant Jarran Kell|colour sergeants]], [[Gunnery Sergeant "Stonetooth" Harker|gunnery sergeants]] and [[Sergeant Lukas Bastonne|staff sergeants]] are known to exist in-universe but are not mentioned in the ''Primer'', but the factional division of the military into [[Mechanicus|Engineering]], [[Administratum|Adminstration]] or [[Sister Hospitaler|Medical]] branches probably makes such staff appointments less common.

Although the purpose of a RL regimental system is to ensure an unbroken chain-of-command where each trooper has one sergeant who himself has one lieutenant who in turn has one captain and so on, the 40k universe as with most things tends to be almost medieval in its execution: the ''Uplifting Primer'' as well as most fluff on the matter is quite emphatic about when you get issued an order from anyone above you, you comply without question. That attitude may be helpful if you anticipate a high turnover of unit commanders mid-battle ''(this is the Guard, so of course)'' where it becomes impractical to double-check orders with your direct ''(or even intermediate)'' superior, but it would cause nightmares for intelligence and logistics officers trying to keep track of a battlefield when officers subvert the units of their allied commanders, and would probably cause confusion and mixed messages to filter down the chain of command and contribute to even more casualties. ''(this is the Guard, so again, of course)'' The reliability and effectiveness of this system depends on the pre-campaign planning and inter unit training, regiments and their soldiers are told who are their allies, who is in command of their allies, and such stuff, of course this is not always possible, sometimes regiments are newly drawn up and then immediately thrown into a nearby war with only basic training, sometimes they're diverted from one campaign to another, and other times the Munitorum and their allies are just being assholes. Of course, experienced field commanders and strategic officers would encourage policies to make sure they don't end up killing their own allies.

=== Regiment Types ===

To inhibit the spread of [[Chaos]], regiments are usually confined to a single specialization each -- that way, even if an entire regiment falls to Chaos, it will be severely restricted in its tactical options, making it easier for loyalist regiments (who have enough different specializations to complement each other) to put it down. The specializations are:
* '''Armoured'''. Armoured regiments supply the tanks to a war effort. They may operate as a single force if there is a single, massive target to be destroyed, or if the war is being fought on multiple fronts (e.g. urban warfare), they may be split up to support infantry units or crack vital enemy defense lines.
* '''Artillery'''. Artillery regiments have ALL the big guns. They are deployed whole for massive sieges or defensive actions, often with siege infantry regiments to create defenses and trenches; for a more mobile siege, they may be parceled out into batteries that accompany infantry regiments.
* '''Drop infantry'''. Drop infantry are space paratroopers -- they drop onto enemy weak points for surprise attacks. Unfortunately, this limits the heavy firepower available to them, as artillery pieces and tanks can't be carried by [[Valkyrie]]s. The [[Elysian Drop Troops]] are an example of drop infantry regiments.
* '''Light infantry'''. Light infantry regiments are frequently used for reconnaissance and stealth work, as they aren't as tied to a supply chain as more mechanized regiments, and are less noisy (again, because of the reduced mechanization and supply chain needs), though they lack the heavy firepower required to do much else. However, when played to their strengths by smart commanders light infantry can kick ''all'' the ass, as demonstrated by the [[Tanith First (And Only)|Tanith First]].
* '''Line infantry'''. Line infantry regiments supply the raw manpower that is emblematic of the Imperial Guard.
* '''Mechanized infantry'''. Mechanized infantry regiments are probably the closest thing to an all-rounder combined-arms force that the Imperium has. Mechanized regiments generally give each squad their own [[Chimera]], and often receive detachments of tanks from armored regiments working in the same theater for some extra punch -- or, if there aren't enough Chimeras available to justify keeping them all in one place, they may be split up into "Armoured Fist" squads and given to armored regiments to hold objectives, or infantry regiments who need an armored spearhead. The Valhallan 597th is an example of mechanized infantry regiment.
* '''Siege infantry'''. Siege infantry regiments are similar to line infantry, in that they have lots of men, but they receive extra training in construction of fortifications, trenches, and defense lines, and are usually disciplined and trained to fight and die over the course of months or years for even a few yards of advance. The [[Death Korps of Krieg]] are an example of siege infantry regiments.

The aforementioned restrictions on regiments means that they are not very useful on their own, so there is also a super-regimental command structure used for campaigns.
*Regiments that complement each other in a useful way can be combined into a ''battlegroup'' commanded by a '''General''',
**Several battlegroups on the same front will be overseen by a '''Lord General'''
***...who will in turn answer to the '''Lord General Militant''' of the sector or campaign in question.
****Above these are the '''Lord Commanders''' for each of the five Segmenta of the galaxy,
*****At the very top is the '''Lord Commander Militant''' the leader of the entire [[Imperial Guard]] and one of the [[High Lords of Terra]].

== Tabletop ==

Back in the third edition of [[Warhammer 40,000]], the [[Imperial Guard]] [[Codex]] included a "doctrine" system to represent different types of regiments in the Imperium. Some options would allow certain units to be taken in larger numbers, while others would allow some units to purchase special abilities. The [[Catachan Jungle Fighters]] also received their own mini-dex in Third and Fourth Edition.

The doctrine system was removed in the fifth-edition codex, though some characters can modify the army's abilities a little, and [[Forge World]] has published army lists for the [[Death Korps of Krieg]], [[Elysian Drop Troops]], and a generic "Armoured Battle Group" (tanks to the max) in their [[Imperial Armour]] books.

We have tacticae on the various Imperial Guard army lists that have been published:
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard|Imperial Guard]], for light infantry or combined-arms regiments (especially [[Cadian Shock Troops]] and [[Catachan Jungle Fighters]]).
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard/Elysian Drop Troops|Elysian Drop Troops]], for drop regiments
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard/Death Korps of Krieg|Death Korps of Krieg]], for siege regiments
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard/Armoured Battlegroup|Armoured Battlegroup]], for armored regiments or mechanized infantry
* [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Solar_Auxilia_(30k)|Solar Auxilia]], for the elite of the Imperial Army during the Heresy era
* [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Imperial_Militia_and_Cults_(30k)|Imperial Militia and Cults]], for the miscellaneous military units that formed the bulk of the Imperial Army during the Heresy era
== See Also ==

* [[Imperial Guard Regiment Creation Tables]], a set of rolltables for generating a regiment.
* [[Only War]], a roleplaying game made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]], which contains rules for generating and role-playing an IG regiment.

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Regiments}}

Imperial Guard Regiment

2019-01-11T15:55:57Z

2600:1006:B112:203E:787D:33D9:E0EE:12B3: /* Origin */

The '''Regiment''' is the largest semi-permanent unit of organization of the [[Imperial Guard]], consisting of a few hundred to a few hundred thousand Guardsmen and their associated equipment and vehicles.

== Origin ==

[[Space Marine]]s are all well and good, but the implantation of [[gene-seed]] is a risky, prolonged, and expensive process. Even at the peak of the [[Great Crusade]], there were never more than a few million Marines in the entire galaxy. The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]] and his growing Imperium needed more soldiers to take and hold planets, and so the Imperial Army was founded to act as an auxiliary force -- while the Space Marines would smash fortresses and other hard targets, the Army would follow behind to hold the line.

To improve force cohesion, they were under the direct authority of the Space Marines with whom they served, but the [[Horus Heresy]] proved how dangerous such an arrangement could be. When [[Horus]] fell, not only did he take his fellow traitor Primarchs and their Legions with him, but also his associated ships and soldiers. Therefore, after the Heresy was put down, the surviving leaders of the Imperium divided the three military branches so that no traitor could strike such a blow at the Imperium ever again.

The forces themselves were separated into smaller pieces, also to reduce the ability of heretics to cause trouble. The [[Legiones Astartes]] were split up into [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapters]], the [[Imperial Navy]] was divided into [[Battlefleet]]s, and the newly-named Imperial Guard was divided into '''regiments'''. Each regiment in theory could only contain a few hundred to a few thousand Guardsmen (but often times there can be regiments of several million Guardsmen although they are very rare and expensive), and was limited to a single specialty (Infantry, Artillery, Armor), so that if even an entire regiment turned traitor, they would not last long -- without the Navy, they could not travel to other planets (or bomb the shit out of them since the navy also got the aircraft), and without the support of other regiments, they would lack most tactical options. The [[Commissar|Commissariat]] was also founded to be an independent watchdog to root out heresy wherever it grew.

Regiments with a bit of a mix, such as armored regiments with some mobile artillery and mechanized infantry elements, do exist but still would not survive long as those elements would be too few to do anything more than support; they would be quickly crushed by a combined arms task force ordered to kill the traitor regiment. Support elements are very helpful but nowhere near as effective as a dedicated unit. Strangely, even the ground-attack craft belong to the Navy. Which is stupid since if a ship goes rogue any surface-to-space defense wouldn’t last long against a surprise air attack from guys they didn’t know they needed to pay attention to. If the Guard had control, the ground pounders wouldn’t need to worry about their own ship blowing them up if their defenses go down due to a rogue regiment (and the regiments would have too few aircraft in this case to matter anyway) or worry about their defenses going down in the first place (a handful of ground support craft die pretty dang quickly when everyone is shooting at them). Then there is the fact the transports don’t carry bombers, support, and fighters dedicated to assisting the Guard, so the Navy usually has only a handful of ground support craft like Valkyries and Vultures but tons of fighters that they proceed to suicidally throw at other ships instead of the atmospheric combat they were given to the Navy for in the first place. Needless to say, the Imperium’s enemies do not share this insane problem. Even worse is the transports’ escorts downright treacherous habit of sallying forth to attack enemy ships instead of following their orders to stay and defend the transports. It goes about as badly for the Guard as your imagining. Then the Guardsmen hit the dirt and learn the hard way that they have limited air defense, maybe a couple Valkyries for carting Colonels around, and few or no other friendly aircraft while the enemy has fleets of bombers and fighters swarming the skies. The Imperial Guard manages to win anyway through sheer guts and a mountain of mangled corpses. Then, they get picked up, shipped off to a new planet a few days maybe weeks maybe mere hours away and do it all over again.

== Founding ==

The [[Administratum]] evaluates every planet in the Imperium, analyzing what its resources are and what portion of those resources it owes to the Imperium. For many planets (especially [[Hive World]]s), one such resource is manpower. Worlds are literally [[Imperial Tithe|tithed]] to supply a certain number of a particular kind of regiment. After a regiment is founded, it is shipped off from one battlefield to another according to the designs of the [[Departmento Munitorum]], and may periodically be resupplied with new recruits and equipment by the same, or just left hanging until they are almost totally routed, and then folded into another regiment. Because the information used by the Administratum is often out-of-date (by up to millennia, theoretically), a planet's requirements may be unreasonable, whole regiments can be entirely forgotten or called to battle long after their destruction, and regiments may be deployed to "battlefields" whose wars have long been ended. The fact that designation numbers and equipment often get recycled after the regiment that owns them is destroyed does not help matters. On occasion, a regiment can get a lucky break from bureaucratic inertia (e.g. the Valhallan 597th, of [[Ciaphas Cain]] fame, was formed by the merger of the half-strength 296th and 301st regiments, but is still listed in official records as the 296th and 301st working together, so they get double supplies), but that's not very [[grimdark]] so it only happens very rarely.

== Organization ==

Each planet's regiments are different with a variety of names for commanders and subordinates, but we'll use the modern day system. In general, a commanding officer sits at the top, with a rank of '''colonel''' ''(or the equivalent)'', who is assisted by a command staff. The second-in-command may be titled the "executive officer" and often is a '''major'''.

The Regiment is divided into several companies, the exact number of which depends on the nature of the regiment:
*Each company is led by a '''captain''' and a command squad and contains two to six Platoons (because a standard 40K army -- which is about the right size for a company -- has between two and six units of Troops)
**Each platoon is led by a '''lieutenant''' and a command squad and has around five, ''(but sometimes more)'' squads of infantry.
***A squad is led by a '''sergeant''' who is sometimes assisted by a '''corporal''' ''(if this is the case, the squad can then be divided into two fireteams)''. Infantry squads nominally contain ten Guardsmen each, though heavy and special weapon squads only have six, and of course numbers can fluctuate as Guardsmen are recruited and killed.

Of course, different types of regiment do things differently but are generally consistent with the levels of authority delegated to their commanders: For example, Armoured Companies still have vehicle squadrons led by sergeants, but with each individual vehicle within the squadron is commanded by a corporal, and thus Armoured Companies have a higher proportion on NCOs compared to standard Infantry Regiments. Meanwhile, Artillery Companies are less likely to have corporals at all.

The ''Uplifting Primer'' does include provisions for other ranks not usually found on the tabletop or encountered in the fluff, which might actually be consistent with their in-universe function: '''lieutenant colonel''' in real-world militaries command battalions of multiple companies which are usually homogeneous in structure, ''(A RL regiment is usually multiple battalions of various compositions, or a single battalion with added support units)'' but in 40k there is actually little need to deploy separate battalions, as it would be inefficient for the Navy to transport such small units individually and without external support, so the rank might only find use in specialist or headquarters units, rather than in a typical regimental system.

Further, while the [[Imperial Navy]] uses the rank of '''warrant officer''', the Imperial Guard does not appear to have a standard use for it. This is most likely because a naval starship has a much larger number of men under its command than a regiments does (''tens of thousands as opposed to thousands)'' and also the fact that regiments do not often have a fixed headquarters and have a higher turnover of manpower due to casualties, therefore field commissions directly from sergeant to lieutenant would be more practical than awaiting a newly commissioned officer to arrive from an academy.

That's not to say that senior sergeants cannot be found in staff roles outside of squads, [[Colour Sergeant Jarran Kell|colour sergeants]], [[Gunnery Sergeant "Stonetooth" Harker|gunnery sergeants]] and [[Sergeant Lukas Bastonne|staff sergeants]] are known to exist in-universe but are not mentioned in the ''Primer'', but the factional division of the military into [[Mechanicus|Engineering]], [[Administratum|Adminstration]] or [[Sister Hospitaler|Medical]] branches probably makes such staff appointments less common.

Although the purpose of a RL regimental system is to ensure an unbroken chain-of-command where each trooper has one sergeant who himself has one lieutenant who in turn has one captain and so on, the 40k universe as with most things tends to be almost medieval in its execution: the ''Uplifting Primer'' as well as most fluff on the matter is quite emphatic about when you get issued an order from anyone above you, you comply without question. That attitude may be helpful if you anticipate a high turnover of unit commanders mid-battle ''(this is the Guard, so of course)'' where it becomes impractical to double-check orders with your direct ''(or even intermediate)'' superior, but it would cause nightmares for intelligence and logistics officers trying to keep track of a battlefield when officers subvert the units of their allied commanders, and would probably cause confusion and mixed messages to filter down the chain of command and contribute to even more casualties. ''(this is the Guard, so again, of course)'' The reliability and effectiveness of this system depends on the pre-campaign planning and inter unit training, regiments and their soldiers are told who are their allies, who is in command of their allies, and such stuff, of course this is not always possible, sometimes regiments are newly drawn up and then immediately thrown into a nearby war with only basic training, sometimes they're diverted from one campaign to another, and other times the Munitorum and their allies are just being assholes. Of course, experienced field commanders and strategic officers would encourage policies to make sure they don't end up killing their own allies.

=== Regiment Types ===

To inhibit the spread of [[Chaos]], regiments are usually confined to a single specialization each -- that way, even if an entire regiment falls to Chaos, it will be severely restricted in its tactical options, making it easier for loyalist regiments (who have enough different specializations to complement each other) to put it down. The specializations are:
* '''Armoured'''. Armoured regiments supply the tanks to a war effort. They may operate as a single force if there is a single, massive target to be destroyed, or if the war is being fought on multiple fronts (e.g. urban warfare), they may be split up to support infantry units or crack vital enemy defense lines.
* '''Artillery'''. Artillery regiments have ALL the big guns. They are deployed whole for massive sieges or defensive actions, often with siege infantry regiments to create defenses and trenches; for a more mobile siege, they may be parceled out into batteries that accompany infantry regiments.
* '''Drop infantry'''. Drop infantry are space paratroopers -- they drop onto enemy weak points for surprise attacks. Unfortunately, this limits the heavy firepower available to them, as artillery pieces and tanks can't be carried by [[Valkyrie]]s. The [[Elysian Drop Troops]] are an example of drop infantry regiments.
* '''Light infantry'''. Light infantry regiments are frequently used for reconnaissance and stealth work, as they aren't as tied to a supply chain as more mechanized regiments, and are less noisy (again, because of the reduced mechanization and supply chain needs), though they lack the heavy firepower required to do much else. However, when played to their strengths by smart commanders light infantry can kick ''all'' the ass, as demonstrated by the [[Tanith First (And Only)|Tanith First]].
* '''Line infantry'''. Line infantry regiments supply the raw manpower that is emblematic of the Imperial Guard.
* '''Mechanized infantry'''. Mechanized infantry regiments are probably the closest thing to an all-rounder combined-arms force that the Imperium has. Mechanized regiments generally give each squad their own [[Chimera]], and often receive detachments of tanks from armored regiments working in the same theater for some extra punch -- or, if there aren't enough Chimeras available to justify keeping them all in one place, they may be split up into "Armoured Fist" squads and given to armored regiments to hold objectives, or infantry regiments who need an armored spearhead. The Valhallan 597th is an example of mechanized infantry regiment.
* '''Siege infantry'''. Siege infantry regiments are similar to line infantry, in that they have lots of men, but they receive extra training in construction of fortifications, trenches, and defense lines, and are usually disciplined and trained to fight and die over the course of months or years for even a few yards of advance. The [[Death Korps of Krieg]] are an example of siege infantry regiments.

The aforementioned restrictions on regiments means that they are not very useful on their own, so there is also a super-regimental command structure used for campaigns.
*Regiments that complement each other in a useful way can be combined into a ''battlegroup'' commanded by a '''General''',
**Several battlegroups on the same front will be overseen by a '''Lord General'''
***...who will in turn answer to the '''Lord General Militant''' of the sector or campaign in question.
****Above these are the '''Lord Commanders''' for each of the five Segmenta of the galaxy,
*****At the very top is the '''Lord Commander Militant''' the leader of the entire [[Imperial Guard]] and one of the [[High Lords of Terra]].

== Tabletop ==

Back in the third edition of [[Warhammer 40,000]], the [[Imperial Guard]] [[Codex]] included a "doctrine" system to represent different types of regiments in the Imperium. Some options would allow certain units to be taken in larger numbers, while others would allow some units to purchase special abilities. The [[Catachan Jungle Fighters]] also received their own mini-dex in Third and Fourth Edition.

The doctrine system was removed in the fifth-edition codex, though some characters can modify the army's abilities a little, and [[Forge World]] has published army lists for the [[Death Korps of Krieg]], [[Elysian Drop Troops]], and a generic "Armoured Battle Group" (tanks to the max) in their [[Imperial Armour]] books.

We have tacticae on the various Imperial Guard army lists that have been published:
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard|Imperial Guard]], for light infantry or combined-arms regiments (especially [[Cadian Shock Troops]] and [[Catachan Jungle Fighters]]).
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard/Elysian Drop Troops|Elysian Drop Troops]], for drop regiments
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard/Death Korps of Krieg|Death Korps of Krieg]], for siege regiments
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard/Armoured Battlegroup|Armoured Battlegroup]], for armored regiments or mechanized infantry
* [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Solar_Auxilia_(30k)|Solar Auxilia]], for the elite of the Imperial Army during the Heresy era
* [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Imperial_Militia_and_Cults_(30k)|Imperial Militia and Cults]], for the miscellaneous military units that formed the bulk of the Imperial Army during the Heresy era
== See Also ==

* [[Imperial Guard Regiment Creation Tables]], a set of rolltables for generating a regiment.
* [[Only War]], a roleplaying game made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]], which contains rules for generating and role-playing an IG regiment.

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