From golden light they come – glorious new rules for the Emperor’s shiniest soldiers.
It’s been a tough wait for Custodes players as Psychic Awakening books have come out – they’re one of the factions that needed a boost the most, and were tragically banished to near the back of the queue, but the devoted vigil of their player base has finally paid off and the upgrades are here – and they’re pretty great. Up until now successful Custodes armies have been forced to lean on Forge World vehicles instead of the golden boys themselves, but while effective that’s not what drew most players to the army. Luckily, War of the Spider gives forces fielding the core Custodes units a big shot in the arm via powerful new generic stratagems, and adds additional depth to their fairly shallow list of options by introducing Shield Hosts.
What we’re sure our Custodes-playing readers will want to know is how best to use these to start dispensing the Emperor’s wrath unto heretics, Xenos and Space-Marines who look at them funny. Luckily, Shane Watts (an experienced Custodes Player) is joining me to help identify which of these new tools are worth your time, and which are just fools gold to distract elf enthusiasts.
Shane: The Golden Host has seen some hard times in the competitive meta in the recent past. So any extra boost will help for certain. I for one welcome our new overlords, known as the Shield Hosts. Rejoice brethren, for the Emperor’s Light shines on us once more.
What They Get
Credit: Pendulin
Adeptus Custodes pick up four new things in this book:
- Stratagems: A mighty fourteen new stratagems to help bring the Golden Host in line with other elite armies.
- Captain Commanders: Special upgrade choices you can apply to one of your Shield Captains
- Shield Hosts: Five subfactions, each offering you a relic, stratagem and warlord trait to choose from.
- Sisters of Silence: Sisters of Silence units can now join Custodes detachments without breaking detachment rules.
Let’s get into it.
Stratagems
The big thing that stands out from the new stratagems is that there are some great defensive options. Some of these are imported from Space Marines (no bad thing) and Sisters, with Custodes picking up equivalents of:
- Ancient Artifice, which is an equivalent of Duty Eternal, halving incoming damage to a dreadnought for 1CP. Custodes have some great dreads, and even if this gets nerfed to -1 damage this is still an easy A.
- Arcane Genetic Alchemy, which is an equivalent Transhuman Physiology. This is outrageously great for anyone wanting to run large units, can gets a rare A+.
- Indomitable Engine, which is Armour of Contempt, granting a 5+++ against mortals to a vehicle for a phase for 1CP. Not as useful as the dreads natively have a 6+++, but still nice and a B.
Shane: I like using a Pallas as a screen for smites, so getting access to a 5+++ for that purpose is certainly a win in my eyes. - Vengeance of the Machine Spirit, letting a Caladius, Pallas, Land Raider or (sigh) one of the super heavy flyers shoot one weapon, fight or auto-explode on death for 2CP. Shooting a magna-blaze cannon or twin Iliastus an additional time is pretty good, according to our notes. B+
Not satisfied with lifting and improving tricks from their lesser Imperial cousins, however, the Custodes get three powerful defensive tools of their own:
- Fortress of Willpower, a twist on the standard “4+ deny” strat, which lets a Custodes unit targeted by a psychic power resist it on a 4+ (or 3+ if they’re Wardens) for 1CP. Slightly less good than the normal flavour to my mind, but not weaker enough to knock this out of an A.
Shane: Only being able to be used on powers that target Custodes limits this some, but being able to say Nope to a Death Hex or Jinx seems Super Good. - Auramite and Adamantium, which allows Terminators to ignore up to AP-2 for a phase for a paltry 1CP. Big Aquilion Terminator units are a strategy that has seen moderate success, and this feels like it pushes that even further. Bonus win for Allarus. B+
- The Emperor’s Auspice, which is absolutely wild. For 2CP, your opponent cannot re-roll any dice when resolving attacks against one of your units. Oh. Oh no. They…they know Bikes come in squads of ten right? Oh lawd. This is an A+ and is making me (the Eldar player) throw up in my mouth enough that it’s time to tag in Shane to talk about the defensive options.
Shane: I can’t even begin to explain how Huge this is. With this stratagem alone, you can invalidate: Doom, Kauyon, Command and Control Node, Chapter Master, etc. In theory this includes the roll for number of shots as well, Sorry Catachan Tanks. (It’s ok, they might get a little back with barrage, if you have a squad of 6+ models.) So from a straight strategy aspect, Custodes generally has low unit count, so if you only have one unit that you know is going to get hit hard and they have beaucoup rerolls, this stratagem increases tenfold in use. Think about it this way, if your opponent succeeds with a hit/wound on a 4+, and can reroll the result, they are rerolling 50% of rolls on average. With this they aren’t.
Credit: Pendulin
Wings: OK – not dying is definitely very helpful, and with the increased crop of CP that Custodes are likely to have in 9th things are looking good for staying on the board. What if you want to kill stuff though? Well, luckily there’s options for that as well!
- Eternal Penitent lets you upgrade a DREADNOUGHT for 1CP, giving it an additional attack and charge re-rolls. Both the melee Forge World dreads are nearly OK on rate, so lifting them up is nice, but they’re still contending for your limit number of deep strike slots. As it is, if you want to run some Galatus Dreads up the board it’s probably worth adding, and needs revisiting once we know more about Reserves in 9th. B
Shane: Double Punchy Telemon anyone? 6 attacks of fun. - Slayer of Nightmares gives a unit +1 to wound in melee against targets with higher toughness than their own for 2CP. It’s good, but the price tag is real, keeping this narrowly in the B+ range for me. It is nice that it substantially improves the chance of a 3-model bike squad punking a T7+ tank in a single round.
Shane: Great for those moments when your opponent shoves T7+ models into an ongoing combat to try and keep you engaged in combat going into your turn. - Superior Fire Patterns, as previewed on Warhammer Community, lets an INFANTRY unit double the shots of its rapid fire or pistol weapons if it didn’t advance for 1CP. This is very good on Venetari Custodians with kinetic destroyers (especially thanks to their built-in deep strike), and at least fine on Aquilions and basic Custodians. I tentatively think the interaction with Venetari will be good enough to make this an A, and we’ll see what Shane thinks in a second.
Shane: This is money with Venatari pistols, and Aquilon for straight horde clearing. In addition there is some Extra cheeky interaction with Allarus for this. Drop in Allarus, pop Inescapable Vengence for 2CP to snipe characters, and then Superior Fire Patterns to delete a character(s). Keep in mind it is still only S4, so pick your targets wisely. - Blood Games Veterans is another boost for ranged firepower, this time letting a unit automatically hit and wound on an unmodified 6 to hit, and costing 1CP for 5 or fewer models and 2CP for 6+. I think this is deceptively good, especially as it bizarrely doesn’t stop you using it with VEHICLES or BIKERS despite the unit size rider. It’s ideal when you’re trying to strip some wounds off a T8 target with S4 firepower, where it more than doubles your average damage output. It’s also good stacked up with Superior Fire Patterns on a Venetari unit just trying to murder something. I don’t think it’s quite as unit-defining as that, and there are a lot of things you want CP for, but still a B+.
Shane: All my S4 bolters can auto wound T8 with an unmod 6 to hit? Yes please. - Archeotech Munitions lets you roll 2d6 and drop the lowest for damage from a unit’s d6 damage ranged weapons for 1CP. Look, there has to be one token dud – if you bring a Land Raider you might pop this, but you still should not be doing that. D+
Shane: The only play I can really see on this, is Custodian Guard with Pyrithite dropping within 12″ from reserve, which basically lets you use the melta rule at 12″.
Wings: Hah, I knew there would be something I was missiing. - Fraternity of Heroes lets a unit heroic for 1CP. This has been nice on every melee army that gets it, though they don’t get a 6″ version like some factions do. B+
Last but not least, Custodes pick up your standard issue extra warlord stratagem for 1CP, which especially given all the cool toys we’re about to look at, is an easy A as ever.
Shane: One more character with a Warlord Trait is definitely a welcome addition.
Captain Commanders
The next option is also accessed via a stratagem but is basically its own thing. If you have any Custodes detachments (so this includes anyone bringing some Bike Captains for a party elsewhere) you can spend 1CP pre battle (once per game) to make a Shield Captain a Captain Commander (they can’t be a named character). They gain one of the following abilities:
- Slayer of the Unclean: Double damage on an unmodified 6 to wound. This is definitely decent, especially on a Bike Captain with wound re-rolls on the charge, but not exciting. B
- Swift as the Eagle: +1″ to move, advance and charge. Can potentially be stacked with options from the Solar Watch to make a very nippy foot captain, if that’s something you want. B
- Strategic Mastermind: 5+ CP regen. Not exciting but also extremely good. A
- Bane of Abominations: Wound re-rolls against VEHICLES and MONSTERS. Suffers a bit from being frequently pointless on a Bike Captain, who are really where you want this, and you have other options to punch up. C+
- Indomitable Constitution: +2 wounds. Normally I’m a bit wary of abilities that just up the wounds of characters as if they end up exposed opponent’s can just punch through them, but a bike captain with this, the Auric Aquilas and Superior Creation really does start to reach frankly stupid levels of resilience, and may actually be worth looking at as a wrecking ball (especially when souped into other armies). B+
Shane: 2 extra wounds combined with Superior Creation looks spicy to me A- - Master of Melee: +2A when within 1″ of an enemy unit with 6+ models. Nah. Like, getting tarpitted is a legitimate concern for Custodes characters, but this isn’t enough extra attacks to push through that situation when it arises. C
- Unstoppable Destroyer: The model piles in and consolidates an extra d3″, and when piling in can move towards any enemy model within range of the distance once that dice has been added, and when consolidating can move in any direction. This right here, this is the serious spice. This lets you do all sorts of nifty things in the fight phase, and when all else fails stroll gently backwards to escape combat after swinging. A
- Defiant to the Last: The model gets +1A for each wound it loses (up to 3). Eh. I like this slightly more than Master of Melee but it still isn’t what I want to spend my one pick on. C+
Shane: I have a dream of a Sword and Board Shield Captain rocking this and the Veiled Blade, valiantly fighting on an objective in your opponents backfield with 10 attacks at 3 or less wounds remaining. Probably still not great, but it makes me happy thinking about it. I know it isn’t Ragnar….. B- - Inspirational Exemplar: +3″ to auras. There are some decent ones among the Shield Hosts we’ll look at in a second, and I can imagine that in an army trying to play a mobile game this could have some play – this sort of thing often outperforms expectations. B
Shane: A bunch of these abilities all have play. I think your overall army composition and match ups could change which you end up using, but there are certainly a few stand outs like Unstoppable Destroyer, Indomitable Constitution, and Strategic Mastermind.
Shield Hosts
One of the things Custodes players are most excited for are the addition of their very own subfactions in the form of Shield Hosts. When you create an Adeptus Custodes detachment, you can choose one of the five Shield Host keywords for all Adeptus Custodes models (other than Trajann Valoris) to gain. Those models get access to a new stratagem and warlord trait option, and if your warlord is from the detachment you also gain an extra relic option that can be used by a character with the relevant keyword.
Now, up front there is some disappointment here in that these don’t come with a “static” trait – the benefits are exclusively those listed above. I imagine that the design space for Custodes traits that manage to tick the boxes of being “interesting” but also “not completely broken” is relatively slim, and that this close to a new edition unleashing them on the world would be a bad plan. Maybe we’ll see them appear whenever a 9th edition codex arrives for them.
Anyway, pushing past that there are quite a few cool things in here. The options are as follows:
Shadowkeepers
Wings: Fittingly enough for the jailors of the Custodes, the Shadowkeepers bring a warlord trait and relic designed for character hunting. The Lockwarden warlord trait gives enemy characters -1 to hit your warlord, and subtracts 1 from all saves (including invulns) made by enemy characters your warlord attacks. This is yet another horrific way to make a bike captain into a vicious killer, and definitely worth a look. The Stasis Oubliette relic is a little less exciting in most situations, letting you pick a character within 3″ at the start of each fight phase and halve their attacks, while also giving your units within 6″ re-roll 1s to wound against them. Against anything smaller than a Knight this kind of feels like overkill – but if you’re up against a Character Knight this is well worth a pick.
Grim Responibility goes in a different direction but it’s a good one – for 1CP you give incoming attacks against a unit -1S for a phase. Yet another very powerful defensive buff is still extremely welcome, and while it’s often redundant with Arcane Genetic Alchemy on a single unit, being able to buff two at once is actively great. Note: as some readers have pointed out, this is especially great on T7 vehicles as it changes the maths on several very common weapon strengths.
I’d broadly put the Shadowkeepers at a B+ overall – the strat and the Warlord trait are broadly good, and the relic has its uses.
Shane: I am not super fond of the Shadowkeepers Host extras. Lockwarden is a very situation trait, Custodes already have access to a -1 to hit WL trait that is universal (Radiant Mantle), so effectively the only added bonus is the -1 to save for enemy characters.
The Stasis Oubliette isn’t that exciting either, I guess you could make an Iconoclast Despoiler/Rampager very unhappy for the laughs.
In regards to Grim Responibility most times attacks that were extra worrying were already 2+ strength higher than our non vehicle units, so not a lot of added value. Could be useful on vehicles though, Telemon?
Overall I would say C+.
The Solar Watch
Wings: The Solar Watch’s warlord trait of Sally Forth is a clear buildaround, giving units within 6″ of the warlord at the start of your movement phase +1″ to their move, and letting units within 6″ of the warlord shoot rapid fire weapons after advancing at -1 to hit. Note that unlike similar effects this doesn’t turn them into assault weapons, so you can still double shoot if you make it within 12″. I know from our discussions that I’m a bit higher on this than Shane at the moment – I think this is very potent, especially on bikes, as it makes it almost impossible for your opponent to backline out of rapid fire range. Just the general mobility boost is nice as well if you want to run footslogging models – especially as the shrinking board size will help that plan.
The relic continues the theme of going fast. The Swiftsilver Talon replaces a guardian spear, lets the wielder advance/fall back and still shoot/charge, and ups the gun on the spear to assault 4. I think this is cute but probably doesn’t make the cut for your limite relic slots.
The Eagle’s Strike I love though. For zero CP, when you kill a character your opponent has to spend an additional CP to use their next stratagem. You can only use this once per battle round. Bike captains excel at character hunting, and this is a horrific additional tool to torment your opponent with while they’re doing their job.
I like these guys a lot, and feel like building around Sally Forth is enough of a draw that it’ll be tried in earnest, so another B+ (and I must admit I want to give them an A)
Shane: The Solar Watch has WL trait and Relic that focus on mobility, and movement is argueably the most important part of the game. Sally Forth is a great force multiplier, simply from the extra +1″ move. The advance and shoot portion seems a little situational and by advancing those units can no longer use Superior Fire Patterns, but could have applications. (In regards to bikes this changes Hurricane Bolter rapid fire threat range from 26″ to 33″, a 7″ gain, not sure it is gonna break the bank, but I could be wrong.)
Ideally I see The Swiftsilver Talon as a relic taken on a Vexilla if at all, generally he is advancing, so being able to advance/fallback and charge afterwards seems like a good benefit.
The Eagle’s Strike is situational, but Free so pretty hilarious. A very cheeky way to cost your opponent CP. Combo with Allarus sniping at characters?
Overall the Solar Watch gets an A. (I did it Wings, it’s ok.)
Wings: Huzzah. I’ve largely only seen Allarus Vexillus Praetors so I didn’t know the basic ones could take the spear – it’s definitely a lot better there. With the advance and shoot I think forcing your oponent to stay an extra 7″ back to avoid rapid is huge, and it’s also nice to combo with Blood Games Veterans.
Emissaries Imperiatus
Wings: The Emissaries gets Voice of the Emperor, a warlord trait that leans hard into Imperial Soup – friendly IMPERIUM units can use the warlord’s leadership while within 9″ of them, and all their other aura abilities get +3″ range. Where this is plausibly interesting is on a Vexillus Praetor with the Vexilla Defensor, which would give them a mighty 12″ bubble to try and get stuff wholly within, much more practical than the normal 9″ one. There aren’t really any competitive builds I can immediately think of that massively want that right now, but it’s worth knowing about the possibility. Just whacking an extra 3″ on a Vexilla Magnifica is perfectly good too.
The Vexilla Dominatus relic is a bit of a miss in my opinion, replacing a Vexilla with one that keeps the Imperium morale re-rolls and makes Emissaries units count as 3 models for holding objectives. Not bad, but not enough for a valuable Custodes relic.
These guys save the best for last in my opinion – their stratagem (The Emperor’s Hand) lets a unit ignore all penalties to hit, wound and AP plus any effects of cover for that attack. This working on anything is great, and it means if you’re running any sort of big shooting platform or unit (e.g. an Orion) it’s worth thinking about.
That pulls these guys up a bit for me, but I’m still not certain it’s where I’d put my faith. C+
Shane: The Emissaries Imperiatus is an interesting host. The Voice of the Emperor really only has play for a Vexilla in my opinion, but being able to extend the aura up to 9″ of the Vexilla Magnifica seems like a pretty good idea (especially when he is chasing after friendly bikers.)
Custodes vehicles don’t get the “Obsec” bonus so counting as 3 models for objectives via the Vexilla Dominatus seems pretty funny, but not great, and certainly not good when competing with other relics (3++ anyone?).
I will say though The Emperor’s Hand seems really good. Are your Aquilon about to shoot a bunch of Adepta Sororitas that ignore AP-1/-2 that are hiding in cover? Thats fine, with this strat they no longer ignore your AP and lose their bonus to save cover, Byeeee. Note this also works in melee (something about heavy cover giving a bonus to saves in combat…..)
While the relic is trash and the warlord trait is ok, the strat is super good, so I have to rate them at B.
Aquilion Shield
Wings: First up, we have yet another way of making a character a complete nightmare, with the Revered Companion trait halving incoming damage. I generally think I’d prefer Supreme Creation to this because it does more against mortals or volume fire, but there would be arguments for both in various matchups.
Praesidius is a bit meh – a relic Storm Shield that gives -1 to wound against the character. Especially since this is only applicable to a basic shield captain, you can do way better with your relic spend.
The strat here, Shield of Honour, is an interesting one, and another with soup implications – for 1CP, you can pick an IMPERIUM CHARACTER within 3″ of an INFANTRY or DREADNOUGHT unit from this Shield Host, and for the rest of the phase when your opponent attacks that CHARACTER the attacks are resolved against the Custodes unit. The extremely silly soup implication of this is that you can have Custodes jump in the way of bullets intended for a Tank Commander or Character Knight, which is going to drive your opponent absolutely up the wall if you do it with some storm shield Custodians, especially as you can add on their other defensive strats. I wouldn’t be wildly surprised if this caught the nerf bat at some point – I doubt being able to bodyguard Knights was the intention.
I’d suspect that the opportunity costs involved in setting that up leave it as mostly a pipe dream, and beyond that unique trick there isn’t a massive amount to draw you here. C unless someone snaps it in half.
Shane: The Aquilon Shield has mechanics that emphasis defense, Aquilon Shield, huh, ok. I have mixed feelings about Revered Companion, in general I would say this is worse than Supreme Creation/Radiant Mantle, unless you are repeatedly getting smashed with 4-6 damage attacks.
Praesidius can only be taken on a normal foot Captain or a Vexilla, but you can basically make a Shield Captain into an immovable mountain with it. Combo this relic with Supreme Creation, Indomitable Constitution, and Victor of the Blood Games, and you have an “Obsec” character that can just sit in your opponents line forever. The 5+++ combined with 8 wounds, effectively gives that Captain 11.5 wounds, you are able to reroll a failed save every player turn, and this is what you can do without the shield. Tack on the shield, S4 and lower now only wounds you on 6s, S5 on 5s, S6-9 on 4s, and S10+ on 3s. Basically the Praesidius gives your Shield Captian a superior version of Arcane Genetic Alchemy, for the low low cost of 1 relic.
I fully expect Shield of Honour to be FAQ’d to exclude vehicle characters much like the Iron Hands Cogitated Martyrdom, but the concept of Custodes body checking a Thunder Hammer swinging Blood Angels Smash Captain off of a House Krast Crusader is fairly amusing to picture. Using a Telemon to bodyguard a character from being drowned in quantity of attacks seems like a good use though.
Pre-FAQ Strat, I would say this overall is a B+. Assuming vehicles get FAQ’d out, outside of immovable Shield Captains I would say this drops down to a B-.
Dread Host
Wings: Last of all, we have the Dread Host, who start out with the epically named All Seeing Annihilator trait, giving a 6″ bubble of extra hits on unmodified 6s in melee. I suspect that if you’re ever hitting melee in sufficient numbers for this to really add up you’re in a good spot anyway, but come on, just look at that name.
Their relic, Admonimortis, is not massively exciting, but might be OK – it’s a relic castellan axe with an extra point of AP and flat damage 3. While uninspiring, the reason I think it’s plausible that it occasionally sees use is that it can pump up an Allarus Captain into a fairly hefty killer.
That matters because the real draw here is the stratagem, The Golden Light of the Moiraides. For 1CP for a single unit or 2CP for up to 3, you can roll 3d6 and drop the lowest for their charges if teleported in this turn.
Since you can only deep strike up to two units with the strat, this means you’re more likely to lean on Terminators than other Custodes armies, and being able to bundle a reliced up captain with that strike force is nice. I do worry that 3d6 drop lowest isn’t quite reliable enough to lean your plans on, but I think it needs to be tried out on the table before writing it off, especially as unlike a lot of deep strike bombs Custodes Terminators are still a complete nightmare to shift if they end up twiddling their thumbs for a turn.
I think this will see use and gets a B from me, but I’m not as confident in it as the Solar Watch or the Shadowkeepers.
Shane: The Dread Host is part of the original crusading force of the Custodes, and it shows. All Seeing Annihilator literally is a better form of the base Custodes WL trait Peerless Warrior, generating extra hits on unmod 6s vs extra attacks on 6+, in addition to the fact is it an aura.
Admonimortis effectively turns an axe into a Thunder Hammer+, really can only see putting this on a Shield Captain in Allarus armor, but you lose out on the 3++ relic, so I dunno.
Via The Golden Light of the Moiraides, the Dread Host is teleporting off an OG crusading warship into battle. Having access to another strat to make charges from teleport reserves (that isn’t tied to a Vexilla) is a pretty big deal. Aqulion fighting a knight in melee was one of the more reliable ways to deal with them, and having a more reliable charge from reserve looks really good. If you are playing a force based on Aquilon/Allarus bombs, I think this host becomes an auto take.
With the viability of Aquilon/Allarus bombs increasing (Auramite and Adamantium and Superior Fire Patterns), the strong strat and potentially good trait/relic, I think the Dread Host overall is looking strong. A.
Sisters of Silence
Sisters of Silence, of course, get their own new rules in the form of a set of stratagems, which we’ll be looking at tomorrow.
Wings: For the Custodes I do think there’s some value here – something that most armies want is a cheap unit that can durably sit on a back-line objective. Custodes don’t really do cheap, and a basic unit of Prosecutors runs you half the price of your cheapest character, and costs about the same as a basic Inquisitor. Given what we learned about character targeting in 9th yesterday, trying to hold a home objective with a squishy character is no longer nearly as reliable, so I can plausibly see a single squad of Prosecutors taking that slot. In addition, in some matchups they can be deployed as a screen to heavily blunt a psychic alpha strike, providing some real value to your army.
Shane: I think there might be some merit in snagging a unit(s) of Vigilators to push into the center of the board while hidden, as a counter charge threat that also has it’s aura in play. In addition, being in the midfield also makes it easier for them to screen for smites.
Army List
Shane: With 9th ed looming, but still no idea on how points costs are going to shake out, I decided to make one list for 8th and one with 9th in mind. All these new stratagems need CP, so in the 8th ed, we had to grab some soup.
Shane’s “I love bikes too much” List (8th ed)
Aquilon Shield (I want to run the Mountain)
Custodes Outrider
Shield Cap “The Mountain” with Sword/Shield (Praesidius baby)
Shield Cap on bike
Vexilla w/magnifica, misercordia
9 Bikes w/hurricane
Pallas
Pallas
Telemon w/2x arachnus
Tempestus Battalion
Tempestor
Tempestor
5 Scions
5 Scions
5 Scions
Astra Mil Battalion
DKOK Field Officer
DKOK Field Officer
5 Scions
5 Scions
5 Scions
Double Battalion add in for all the CP. You can power up “The Mountain” with CP at the beginning, you can utilize Ancient Artifice to make the Telemon harder to kill, and a single large bike squad allows you to capitalize on the defensive stratagems. The mix of hurricane bolters and arachnus shots gives you a little bit of flex in your firepower, and the scions allow for some turn 2-3 objective grabbing from reserve.
Wings: the idea of trying to deal with a 9-model bike squad through all of the new stuff you can stack on them makes me feel moderately unwell.
Shane’s “I still love bikes too much” (9th ed look ahead)
Without knowing how prohibitive running just an Outrider detachment will be CP wise, I have opted for a Patrol detachment. Also since the points could very well change, I made a list here with just below 400pts unused, in order to flex.
Aquilon Shield
Custodes Patrol
Shield Cap “The Mountain” with Sword/Shield
Shield Cap on bike
3 Sagittarum w/misercordia
Vexilla w/magnifica, misercordia
8 Bikes w/hurricane
Pallas
Telemon w/2x arachnus
The list looks a lot smaller without all the extra Soup tacked on. More or less the same list from the 8th ed version.
Shane’s “Terminator Surprise” (9th ed look ahead)
Decided to risk running just a Vanguard Detachment here, also still low balling list by close to 400pts.
Dread Host
Vanguard Detachment
Shield Cap on bike or Trajann Valoris
Vexilla w/magnifica, misercordia
5 Aquilon w/bolt, fist
5 Allarus w/axes
5 Venatari w/pistols
Telemon w/2x arachnus
All the cool new toys for terminators, in one package. Might be a stretched a little thin CP wise with this, maybe trying to do a little too much at once, but damn it looks funny.
Wings: My only concern with this one is that you presumably have to start one of the terminator blobs on the board to reach half points, and that’s a bit rough?
Wrap Up
All in all, Custodes got a leg up with all these new stratagems for certain. May the Emperor’s Light shine upon you once again, as you bring his wrath upon the enemies of the Imperium. If you have comments or suggestions about how we could channel the Emperor’s wrath even more effectively, feel free to hit us up at contact@goonhammer.com.
