Warhammer 40K Datacards: Cadia - analysis

Sorry for the long overdue article on the new Cadian Datacards. Actually, I didn't even know nobody wrote anything on it, until I tried searching for them on the Internet yesterday and found absolutely nothing. Only 1d4chan has anything on Cadian Tactical Objectives. Huh. Strange.

As such, this is a belated article on the new Cadian Datacards! First, let's look at the six Warlord Traits that they feature, which I didn't talk so much in my Mont'ka analysis and review the last time.

Basically, I can choose to randomly draw one of these Cadian Warlord Trait cards instead of rolling on the Warlord Trait Tables in the Imperial Guard codex or Mont'ka: The Rules. Let's see what we've got.

1. Master Orator: Warlord ges Zealot. Uh...why? There's no way in hell I'm going to let my Company Commander get into melee unless I want to give my opponent a free victory point in Slay the Warlord. And it's useless for a Tank Commander. On the other hand, it grants Fearless to my Company Command Squad, or so I think.

2. Dead-eye Shot: Warlord gets +2 to his BS, and the rest of his unit gets +1 to their BS. Sweet! Awesome! Then again, my Company Command Squad is equipped with heavy flamer and flamers, so I can't maximize any use of it. On the other hand, if my Warlord is my Tank Commander in my Emperor's Fist Armored Company...awesome!

3. Artillery Veteran: Once per game, my Warlord transforms into a Master of Ordnance. Uh...only once? Pass. I might as well spend the points for a real Master of Ordnance.

4. Unflappable Stoicism: Cadian version of Draconian Disciplinarian - the latter suits my Draconian Battle Group more, actually, but whatever. Friendly units don't take Morale tests for suffering 25% or more casualties as long as they're within 12" of my Warlord. Useful for my particular choice of Imperial Guard units (Storm Troopers!)

5. Above the Thundering Guns: Warlord has Voice of Command, or if he already is an officer, then he can issue one additional order each turn. I dunno if this stacks with Tank Orders because Tank Commanders don't have the Voice of Command rule, and even if they do, are they supposed to issue orders to infantry units? I suppose so. It doesn't stack with the command benefits of Battle Group Command, though, so if I'm using it, this is pretty pointless unless I make my Tank Commander the Warlord instead.

6. Staunch Traditionalist: Friendly Cadian Characters (or Draconian) must issue and accept challenges wherever possible. I can choose which model issues or accepts the challenge, if I've got more than 1 of them. Argh, hell, no. Imperial Guardsmen aren't supposed to run into melee combat, they'll get torn apart. I'm not a big fan of this one. On the other hand, these friendly characters get to re-roll failed To Hit and To Wound rolls. That's pretty nice, but with their WS3 and Initiative 3, I dunno if it's going to help much. They'll get ripped apart by virtually anything in melee (except Tau). Oh well.

Tactical Objectives

We have the same as everyone else, like Assassinate, which scores you 1 VP for a character killed, and D3 VPs for 3 or more enemy characters killed, Demolitions...which, uh, isn't much use if your opponent doesn't have a Fortification. I don't think I need to talk much about Domination, Ascendency, Supremacy, Hold the Line, Recon, Behind Enemy Lines, Secure Objective *input number here*, Scour the Skies, Witch Hunter, King Slayer, Harness the Warp (wait, but I don't have Psykers in my Imperial Guard army?!), Psychological Warfare, Hungry for Glory (synergizes with the Staunch Traditionalist Warlord Trait), No Prisoners, Blood and Guts, Overwhelming Firepower, and Big Game Hunter. Everyone knows what those are, and if you don't, go watch Winters SEO's channel. Now. That's an order...no, don't roll a Leadership test...sigh, Guardsmen.

Anyway, the new Cadian Tactical Objectives that everyone is interested in are these:

11. Armored Assault: Score 1 Victory Point if I destroyed at least 1 Tank type. Nice. Doable, especially since I have a Leman Russ Vanquisher with lascannon, plus 2 more BS4 lascannons from my Leman Russ Battle Tank and Leman Russ Executioner. If need be, I probably have a Stormtrooper command squad with 4 meltaguns, so yes. Definitely a good Tactical Objective for me, unless my opponent has no tanks.

12. Fix Bayonets!: Score 1 Victory Point if 1 or more Guardsmen squads charged successfully. Stop forcing my Guardsmen into combat! I don't want them to die! Jeez, my Imperial Guard army is a shooty army, not a melee-orientated army. Every time I see them charge into a wall of Space Marines or Tyranid monsters with nothing but bayonets, I want to weep tears of blood.

13: Strength in Unity: Score 1 Victory Point if I successfully issued at least 3 orders and D3 Victory Points if I successfully issued six or more orders. Hell no, I'm never going to get that D3 Victory Points. I don't have enough infantry units to issue orders to. Huh, I guess Tank Orders count here, but even then, I don't have enough, and the Tank Commander's Leadership of 8 means it's more than likely not going to succeed. Well, it's fine. I'll settle for just 1 Victory Point, that's doable. I have 4 infantry units, mostly with Leadership 9 (my stormtrooper command squad grants his Leadership value to nearby stormtrooper squads with clarion vox), plus I get to roll an extra dice for Leadership rolls and discard the highest, so yeah, this is good. I'll take 1 VP over 0. Getting D3 VPs will be near impossible.

14. Hold your ground: Score 1 Victory Point if at least half of my army are within my deployment zone. Hell yeah, very doable, especially with my Leman Russ tanks. An armored gunline (well, not really a gunline since my Leman Russ Punishers have very short range) can score this easily. I hope. I can imagine General Horace Warfield shouting "Hold your ground!" as Zerglings and Hydralisks charge on our position...except that this is Warhammer 40K, not Starcraft 2.

15: Overwhelming Numbers: Score 1 Victory Point if I control more Objective Markers than my opponent, and D3 Victory Points if I control at least 3 more Objective Markers than him. Uh...I don't know if I can get that. Like Strength in Unity, I'll settle for 1 VP. Oh well. Getting D3 VPs is tough. One way is to hold 3 objective markers and wipe my opponent's units off theirs. Now I see why Objective Secured is so important.

16: Storm of Fire: Score 1 VP if I completely destroy an enemy unit, D3 Victory Points if I destroy at least 3, and D3+3 VPs if I destroy 6 or more. Huh. Probably can get 1 VP, that's doable. D3 is still possible, but a bit difficult - then again I have a freaking Super-heavy in the form of my Stormsword, and a bunch of Leman Russ Tanks AND Stormtroopers, so never say never. On the other hand 6 is impossible. I don't think I have enough units and firepower to take out that many. Good thing I'm going with a tank company, or it'll be difficult. The Emperor's Shield Infantry Company can probably destroy only one with their awesome Punishing Fusillade. Hmm...

So that's the new Tactical Objectives for Cadians, looks like I finally explored them! Along with the Warlord Traits as well! I hope it's useful...I doubt it is, but at least people looking for what these new Tactical Objectives are can finally find a place to read about them (well, just refer to 1d4chan if all else fails).