How are your Custodes doing?

[shanewatts]

Rcoon, whats the typical terrain like in your area?

[rcoon]

Rcoon, whats the typical terrain like in your area?

It's crap, my meta are apprehensive about filling the board with buildings, so we get about 6-8 decent buildings on the field and a few walls with holes large enough that they're irrelevant for custodes and their immense size, plus a few bits of random debris. If they went to a proper tournament table they'd probably cry at the amount of terrain. Put it this way, there is absolutely nowhere to hide jetbikes, let alone a baneblade. At best I can hide my basic Custodes troops here and there where objectives are, but as soon as you leave an objective you're essentially in view of a gun somewhere.

Edited October 17, 2018 by rcoon

[shanewatts]

That sounds like your biggest problem.

 

Can you toss up a typical opponent's list? (Don't need points etc, just overview and big guns.)

[rcoon]

That sounds like your biggest problem.

 

Can you toss up a typical opponent's list? (Don't need points etc, just overview and big guns.)

Knights:

Knight with fist and sword as warlord

Knight with volcano lance, shoulder turrets and missile launcher

Knight with gatling gun, shoulder turrets and missile launcher

2 helverins with sun lances

2 war glaives

Battalion of skitarri chaff including two squads of snipers

 

DG:

Typhus plus drop termies with bubotic axes

2 bloat drones

3 mephitic blight haulers

1 leviathan dreadnought

2 bloat drones

1 plagueburst crawler

A few squads of generic DG marines with bolters and a few plasma guns

 

AdMech: everything that can have neutron lasers has them

3 dunecrawlers

3 Kastellan bots

3 walkers

Knight with fist and sword

2 war glaives

A few techpriests and that mech warlord chap

Assorted skitarii battalion chaff with snipers

 

Spez Marinz:

Azrael

Lieutenant

More hellblasters than you can imagine

3 predators

techpriest

Battalion of assorted marines and scouts

2 squads of inceptors with plasma plus a guy to drop with them for rerolling 1s

 

I don't have an issue with the Space Marines if I run a shed load of bikes tbh. I just wreck his face with bikes and then clean up with Custodian Guard. The only time he beat me was when i played a Shadowsword and a battalion of Custodes instead because I felt bad for playing so many bikes the previous game.

 

EDIT: It wasn't until recently I managed to convince them to play matches properly. They used to just play 1v1 deathmatch where it played out american civil war style - get your gun lines and take pot shots at one another scoring points for FB, WL, and each squad removed from the table.

Edited October 17, 2018 by rcoon

[shanewatts]

Is the Knight list supposed to be 2k?

[rcoon]

Is the Knight list supposed to be 2k?

Yup. There was definitely 3 big knights on the field with masses of guns and melee, and definitely 2 of each smaller knight variant (glaive and helverin). He had 14CP total.

EDIT: He had 3 big knights and 3 little knights spread across two super heavy detachments. Plus a Battalion of Skitari.

Edited October 17, 2018 by rcoon

[Ishagu]

Lack of LOS blocking terrain is your main enemy.

[rcoon]

Just spoke to the guy and he just realised he added two War Glaives to his army by accident. And 3CP.

Edited October 17, 2018 by rcoon

[shanewatts]

Ya that is more than 2k by quite a bit haha.

 

When I get a minute I'll break down some numbers for you regarding my experiences.

[shanewatts]

In most of the games I have played with Custodes it was very rare to lose more than 4-5 models in a turn.

 

Looking at the lists you posted, assuming a vexilla is in use your mileage should be the same.

 

Like Dunecrawlers are a trap vs us. Only 1 will be hitting on better than 4+, which means generally you will only be facing 1 hit/wound per crawler. Which gives you a 50/50 to save, and assuming you fail, its only a 50/50 that a bike would die (I know a guardian would eat it with 3 wounds, but you have a storm shield as well to save you somewhat.) Most of the anti tank weapons in the game are not that good vs Custodes simply because they don't have many shots, which means less saves to make, and those d6 damage weapons only kill a model 50% of the time.

 

The best weapons against us generally are multi shot 2d weapons. Knight gatling/plasma/flamer, Riptide burst, Guard battle cannons (d3d I know, but close enough), etc

 

 

 

Is there a reason you run an Allarus Vexilla instead of a normal one?

Edited October 17, 2018 by shanewatts

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Bikes are not always easy to hide since they are so tall. Terrain even good terrain can only do so much for you.

[rcoon]

In most of the games I have played with Custodes it was very rare to lose more than 4-5 models in a turn.

 

Looking at the lists you posted, assuming a vexilla is in use your mileage should be the same.

 

Like Dunecrawlers are a trap vs us. Only 1 will be hitting on better than 4+, which means generally you will only be facing 1 hit/wound per crawler. Which gives you a 50/50 to save, and assuming you fail, its only a 50/50 that a bike would die (I know a guardian would eat it with 3 wounds, but you have a storm shield as well to save you somewhat.) Most of the anti tank weapons in the game are not that good vs Custodes simply because they don't have many shots, which means less saves to make, and those d6 damage weapons only kill a model 50% of the time.

 

The best weapons against us generally are multi shot 2d weapons. Knight gatling/plasma/flamer, Riptide burst, Guard battle cannons (d3d I know, but close enough), etc

 

 

 

Is there a reason you run an Allarus Vexilla instead of a normal one?

I have points to spare in my list so I tend to use them on giving him an extra wound. If I swapped the captain and vexilla to basic instead of allarus and removed all misericordias, I'd be left with 46 pts. In Custodes, what can you do with those points except add some wounds and misericordias?

Edited October 18, 2018 by rcoon

[shanewatts]

I'd drop the foot captain entirely if I were you.

 

This is what I run as pure custodes:

 

Battalion

cap on bike

cap on bike

vexilla

3 guardian w/spears

6 bikes

6 bikes

[rcoon]

I'd drop the foot captain entirely if I were you.

 

This is what I run as pure custodes:

 

Battalion

cap on bike

cap on bike

vexilla

3 guardian w/spears

6 bikes

6 bikes

I only have 12 bikes :D

[shanewatts]

Gotcha, well your list isn't that far off from mine. I would just say play more games vs these tough lists for you. They can be beaten, you just need to figure out the method. (And make sure your knight opponent doesn't bring 2300+ pts to a 2000 pts game.)

[shanewatts]

Took 5th place at SoCal open, 5-1. Pretty stoked.

[Silverson]

Took 5th place at SoCal open, 5-1. Pretty stoked.

Would love to read a breakdown of your games, shame you wasn’t on the screen

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Congrats on the top 5 spot - very impressive indeed ! /thumbsup

 

 

I heard there was a fist fight at one of the tables in a latter round - what was going on and how was it resolved ?

[Prot]

Good job. It also shows the bikes are still exceptionally solid.

 

To everyone wanting a Valoris point decrease (I am one of them), this is why I don't think it will matter (unless you don't take bikes): Valoris could go down 30 points. The bikes will probably go up 10 each. That puts us back at ground zero.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I don't use bikes except for one shield-captain so it would be a net gain for me... plus I would like to see a reduction for Allarus .

[treadhead]

Got a game Saturday vs my regular ork opponent and shock horror I'm not taking any bikes or an imperial guard cp battery.

 

Here's my list

HQ

Warlord (not sure which trait to pick but toying with either radiant mantle, superior creation or impregnable mind, any thoughts?)

allarus captain with axe and eagle's eye

shield captain with axe

ELITES

8 x allarus terminators

contemptor achillus dreadnought

TROOPS

5 x custodian guard with spears

5 x custodian guard with spears

5 x custodian guard with swords and shields

 

Basic plan is to hold a line with the guards and shield captain while moving up table with them, while teleporting the allarus termies, captain and the dread into the back or mid field to disrupt and hopefully decapitate his command and support structure.

(IE weird boys, mek boys, banner nobs, pain boys and heavy guns)

 

Planned command point usage pre game from golden light and victor of the blood games on the allarus captain

 

Will post up his list and how i did when i get a chance

[shanewatts]

Blackorange, there wasn't a fist fight. Just a yelling match more or less. I didn't even notice during my game, had people talk to me about it as well haha.

 

I'll break down my games in a bit.

[treadhead]

Ok his list was massive but the highlights include 6 tractor cannons, the new trike and far too many boys of all descriptions to recount, literally, think i was outnumbered by at least 5 to 1.

 

game was a narrow loss due to me failing something like six charges over three turns with my allarus captain, dread (which died the turn after) and the allarus termies (three in a row for these a 9, 10 and a seven) but i had fun and think with some refinement this list could do well against those foul xenos greenskins

[rcoon]

Ok his list was massive but the highlights include 6 tractor cannons, the new trike and far too many boys of all descriptions to recount, literally, think i was outnumbered by at least 5 to 1.

 

game was a narrow loss due to me failing something like six charges over three turns with my allarus captain, dread (which died the turn after) and the allarus termies (three in a row for these a 9, 10 and a seven) but i had fun and think with some refinement this list could do well against those foul xenos greenskins

I thought orks were terrible in 8th? Or has their new codex dropped?

[shanewatts]

SoCal breakdown round 1

 

My opponent was playing a tyranid kraken list which was something along these lines:

 

3 flyrant

swarmlord

old one eye

malanthrope

2 large genestealer squads

30 hormagaunts

2/3 ripper squads

10 termagaunts

-----------------------------------------

Mission was champ mission 1, search and destroy deployment. (My secondaries were big game, reaper, and marked for death I believe.)

 

I deployed slightly defensively, simply to limit the number of turn 1 charging units. I won the roll off and elected to go second.

 

His turn one he zerg rushed forward, got 1 stealer blob and old one eye close to my bikes. Other genestealers went around to get and some guardsmen. His psychic phase got some buffs, and 1 smite I think. His charge phase saw both old one eye and a stealer blob get in on my front squad of bikes (overwatch did 1-2 wounds to old one eye), the other stealer blob got into a squad of guardsmen. I stooped my back squad through and into the stealers, one bike couldn't get close enough to swing. The stoop killed all the genestealers but 3. Old one eye failed to kill any bikes. The other stealers ate the guardsmen, overran into another guard squad, ate them with a fight again and wrapped an officer. My charged bike squad swung back on old one eye and killed him.

 

My turn 1 I fell back with one squad (other was out of combat) from the remaining stealers, and pulled a little farther back (one squad moved on top of a building near an objective that hormagaunts were holding.) My shooting phase dakka removed the remaining 3 genestealers as well as the hormagaunts, termagaunts, and dished out some wounds to a flyrant. Charged the stealers in the backfield to remove them. (Kill more)

 

His turn 2 saw rippers drop down, one on an objective, one in the backfield (he had behind enemy lines) and the 3rd flyrant dropped into the backfield as well. The flyrants, malathrope, and swarmlord all moved up. His psychic phase has some poor rolls, he killed a bike with mortals. The flyrants killed the last guard squad with shooting. I threw a tanglefoot from the vexilla at the swarmlord and rolled a 6. This made it so only 2 flyrants would make the charge, which I was able to stoop still. One flyrant died to the stoop, the other flyrant killed 2 bikes, and then died to the return swings (with avenge the fallen.) At this point he has 1 flyrant, swarmy, a malanthrope and rippers remaining. I have lost around 5 bikes total, and all my guard.

 

My turn 2 and on basically becomes clean up, steal objectives, kill big bugs. I come out of this game with a solid win and 38 points scored.

 

Stoop was by far one of the biggest components of this swift victory. You can still stoop with layered bike squads without fly, you just have to leave 2" gaps for your back squad to fly through (assuming you use the oval bases and not the venom size bases.) My front squad setup in this match as 3 bikes base to base in the center, then 2" on either side, and 2 bikes base to base on each end. This allowed the back squad to points of entry in the middle to stoop and still be close enough to the sides as well.

Edited November 5, 2018 by shanewatts