Damn You CREEEEED!!

[dark messenger]

So over 10,000yrs and 13 crusades later and Abbadon has gotten pretty much nowhere.
I'd understand if it was the combined forces of a strong united Imperium he was up against, but it's not.

No matter how far the forces of darkness encroach there seems to be one bulwark they shall not pass.

Cadia.

As far as I know, Creed and his weak, chewy guardsmen have been leading the invaders a merry dance for a long time and despite crushing losses on both sides, always emerges victorious with his smug grimace intact.

Creed is 'only' human correct? He's not being affected or influenced in any way by outside forces?
Coz if I was in Abby's shoes, I'd stomp Cadia flat after calling Creed out to settle things "like men" once and for all!

How does Creed do it? How does he defy such stupidly long odds?
I can see no reason for it.

[Nabterayl]

That's not strictly true. A number of Black Crusades have gotten past Cadia (the 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 12th for sure) in force. It's true that the 13th stymied on Cadia proper, but then, the 13th Black Crusade was aimed at Cadia proper.

What isn't really clear is why. To my knowledge, no GW source has ever attempted to lay out a coherent explanation of why a planet's location (as opposed to its resources) matter in interstellar warfare. We can only infer that they do, largely from the history of the Black Crusades themselves. Somehow, the presence of Cadia affects the ability of a large force to pass through the Cadian Gate unmolested. How, we can only speculate.

[DWest]

The "Cadian Gate" is a very narrow (like, single-planetary-system narrow) passageway through the edges of the seriously nasty warpstorms surrounding the Eye of Terror. While some raiding parties try driving through the storms in order to get to open space, any major incursion which relies on material assets, ships, guns, and Space Marines has to fly out the "hard way". By fortifying the Cadian system, the Imperium can force the heretics to give battle.

[Nabterayl]

... somehow. Despite the fact that, as far as I know, combat in warpspace is essentially impossible. And despite the fact that, as far as I know, GW has never given a reason why a fleet would have to drop out of warp within the Gate.

EDIT: The funny thing about Cadia is that, as some Black Crusades (like the 12th) demonstrate, you can get an enormous force through the Cadian Gate without engaging any of its void fortifications or fleets, let alone land on any of the inhabited planets. And yet, as other Black Crusades (like the 2nd and 13th) demonstrate, there is apparently some advantage to engaging those fortifications and fleets and landing on the planets. But what advantage that is has never been explained.

[Cursed13]

Either there's some strategic advantage to capturing Cadia that we either don't know, or are not meant to know, or that Abaddon has decided that there's an advantage to it, and we're simply not meant to know what he's thinking. Perhaps Cadia and the alignment of the system is disrupting warp travel. We barely have a working understanding of warp travel and how planets effect it as is.
Also, the Phoenix Lord Maugan Ra and his entire craftworld of Altansar that just escaped the Eye of Terror with whatever fleet remains within it have been harassing and systematically destroying isolated elements of the Black Crusade fleet, which may also be contributing to any strategic delays of Abaddon's reinforcements. There may even be room for speculation that Altansar Craftworld Eldar are present on Cadia interfering with specific pieces of Abaddon's force that give Creed the most advantageous position for Creed to defeat whatever Abaddon throws at him. For the moment, there's just not enough information, but really, the 13th Black Crusade is only just beginning, we may or may not have more revealed about it.

[Wildcard]

No one can actually understand eye of terror, nor warp itself ever - since its a fiction of multiple minds (Thus i cannot give any solid answer related to physics or anything equivalent ). However, based of information i've gathered from its creators through the years here are some points to note;

- Its really dangerous for anyone to go through the boundaries of eye of terror where the warp meets the realspace. This is why people need safe way to cross the boundaries: this is the cadian gate.
- One cannot simply see through the 'walls' of eye of terror, meaning no-one can see in from the outside, or out from the inside. This is why it is imperative that the chaos could gain the foothold of cadia. Cadia is also important because of its one of the most formidable production capabilities of all things military related. Plus the population is so high that there could be potential for 'heretic guardsmen' for years to come if they could be subdued over time. Cadia could act also as a stageing ground, since no matter how easy, stuff is still blowing up on every jump from the EoT to realspace. Having your forces all set up and ready to go, not to mention supplies running would be the thing.

Example: Think of D-Day in normandy somewhat 70 years ago. The *****iest part of the campaing was to get a solid beach head, after that it was a 'walk in a park', because of all the men, armor and material that could be poured into that 'sector' without delay and resistance.

- And one of the most important thing about Cadia are the Pylons on cadia that is thought to be holding back the warp intrusion from the eye of terror through cadian gate. If these would fall / be destroyed, all the imperium would be sucked into the warp. Or actually i believe all the warp would expand and consume the galaxy.. But you get the point..


And Creed:

- One of the most brilliant masterminds in the command of the most formidable imperial guard units, superior in training, discipline, wargear, supplies and armor. Backed up by pretty much everything they demand for, because holding Cadia is the key of defending imperium.

- Creed is also a master inspirer. Every imperial model on the table, and on the few tables near him should be ld10, fearless, stubborn and re-roll any failed tests even remotely tied to leadership (according to the fluff)

- Cadia is his homefield, he know exactly how and when and where and so on his forces are and can be deployed. How much to bend before he is forced to launch a counter strike before he loses critical ground.

Cadian society is heavily militarized, with 71.75% of its total population under arms, and a birth rate equal to the recruitment rate. Cadian children are taught how to strip, reassemble and shoot a lasgun before they are taught how to read.

Population of 850,000,000, meaning there are 610million armed men and woman on Planet Cadia alone. And its a System Cadia that is dedicated in the defence of cadian gate. That is a strenght you are hard pressed not to ignore when launching attacks

Also it just crossed my mind as a basic tactic: You never wanna leave your flanks nor rear unguarded when you press forwards. And no matter what size of fleet you are coming with and with how many men, Cadia will have more - of both! Thats something you dont wanna leave ready to strike on your flanks.

[Earl Harbinger]

The reason for the importance of Cadia are the Cadian Pylons which are what keeps the Cadian Gate stable. The pylons are what makes it so easy to enter and exit the Eye of Terror throught the Cadian Gate so control of the planet has a high strategic value. This was explained in Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn trilogy in book 2 Malleus.

[url]http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cadia[/url]

[Gotthammer]

Controlling the Cadian Gate has teh big tactical advantage that you can see who's coming and going - if Chaos take it they can send out Black Crusades and the Imperium won't see them coming until it's too late.

And some sources on warp travel state you can't easily fly too close to solar bodies as their gravity messes up the warpspace around them, so with the narrowness of the gate you have to go the slow way or risk a serious case of explosion.

[Neuro]

In Word Bearer's Compendium [Dark Creed to be specific] it was mention that Cadia Gate is something like 'wormhole main station' with Warp tunnels leading to furthest sides of galaxy and most important a wormhole leading straight to Terra. Wormhole's are understand as a highways through Warp that provide fairly safe, fast and predictable journey. It's so hard to make ground on Cadia Gate because as soon as telepaths sense incoming Chaos treat from Eye of Terror, Space Marine Chapters from whole over galaxy can send reinforcements in mater of hours or days including huge force residing around Terra.