2500pts vs. Custodes overview

[Archaeinox]

Hey guys. Kept my shop open late to play a game with a buddy and his new Custodes. He put his bikes together this morning in preparation for the game. We just wanted to mess around and try some lists out using a Maelstrom mission. We didn't care to keep scoring points after turn 2, but for what it's worth I was able to achieve objectives thanks to the extra 6" to psychic powers... Sorry for the bad pics. Here we go.

 

Here's the stuff laid out. It's a battalion. You can probably see what's in it. Terminator Sorcerer has Dark Matter Crystal. Exalted on disc has Helm of the Third Eye. I'd like to mention that this is my second time ever using Magnus the Red.

 

The powers:

Magnus- Gaze of Fate, Death Hex, Doombolt, Temporal Manipulation

Ahriman- Glamour of Tzeentch, Boon of Mutation (because: irony), Weaver of Fates (because: Ahriman)

Exalted on Disc- Gift of Chaos, Infernal Gaze

Terminator Sorcerer- Warptime, Prescience

3x Aspiring Sorcerers and Scarab Occult Sorcerer- Tzeentch's Firestorm

 

My plan: First off, I wanted the nice cheap 20 Tzaangor unit in the Webway, no matter what. For simplicity sake (I highly recommend it after playing some other games), I gave all 'little' psykers Tzeentch's Firestorm. Magnus casts Gaze of Fate first every psychic phase in hopes to modify stuff without needing the CPs. I risked putting the warpflamers in the Rhinos instead of Webway, hoping to play them defensively. My intention in this game with the big boss was to get Magnus in combat midgame and not just rush towards the nearest unit ASAP in order to maximize his re-roll aura of To Hit and Psychic Tests results of 1s. My goal is to keep Magnus within range of at least one of Ahriman's abilities like Glamour or Weaver of Fates. Ahriman will sit there and farm Boon of Mutation and see what he can stack up (this will be used immediately after Gaze of Fate so that I can see if I need to use a re-roll to avoid Spawnhood or Daemonhood. Read on and let's see how my "plan" worked out and whether or not the +6" to psychic powers worked out......

 

Deployment: 

 

I have been watching batreps and know what the Jetbikes can do. If you are wise, you would avoid them as well.. He makes a critical error and puts Jetbikes on the flank so I make an effort to deploy heavy on my right side and just leave the predator as bait. He fell for it, but it only works once and most opponents won't take the bait.

 

 

 

 

So this Exalted Sorcerer on the Disc just sits up in a building all game. The Helm of the Third Eye stole 3 CPs for me by the end of turn 3 when he ran out of CPs. Yes, it is worth it. Take it.

 

 

Hey look, no one saw that coming. Terminator Sorcerer drops in behind Scarabs and Tzaangors. Warptime the Tzaangors, Prescience on Scarabs. Popped Cycle of Slaughter for 2 CPs and the Tzaangors melted some Custodian Guard by themselves. The Scarab Occult shot other stuff. Prescience helped strip a couple wounds. They were -1 to hit because of some sort of banner he chose so watch out for that.

 

 

Well we knew the party wouldn't last long. Allarus terminators show up within 3" of the Scarabs (Vexillor has a thing that allows it if they drop within range of him). They hit them with a Concussion grenade stratagem (almost forgot to roll to steal a CP, dont forget folks. This is the first one of three that I added to my CP pool over the course of the game. So Allarus charge in and the Scarabs don't overwatch. They proceed to just get removed from play and 8 go to sleep. The BIG sleep. So 2 guys survive only to run away from a bad morale test.. Let's just say the animus magic dissipated and they fell apart.. yeah...

 

 

Hey so you know what's wild? Magnus rolling a 1 & 6 for Smite, then rerolling the 1 and turning it into a 6. So it's big Smite. I roll a 5 for Perils and he takes 3 wounds, then ignores all 3 on 2+ because of the Crown of the Crimson King. Magnus Melts a few Allarus terminators. 

 

Magnus charges in and slaps the Wardens around who tried to steal some Allarus glory by charging in with them. After killing a few of them, next Magnus takes on the remaining Allarus (he split his attacks 4 to Wardens and 3 to Allarus). Death Hex is on the Allarus terminator and he needs to make 3 armor saves of 6+. Makes all 3. Well ok then! That's gonna happen

 

 

The Warpflamer Rubric Marines disembark, walk towards the terminator sorcerer with the Dark Matter Crystal until they are 12" away and he flings them over to that annoying Vexillor whatever the heck he is.. He also takes "the big sleep" and goes to meet his maker after the terminator sorcerer casts warptime so that the warpflamer guys can take a step forward and pewpew. If we didn't have the additional 6" to the range of our psychic powers, this would not have been possible. 

 

 

Cleaning up

 

More clean up

 

Pretty much end game... here are TWO pictures that show what the last turn looks like right before I kill all the custodes compared to deployment( and that was still with a lot of movement shenanigans on half of the table)

 

 

An incredible big game using a lot of things from the new codex. 

 

And now, for the whole point of this entire thing: Talking about what I learned so that you guys can benefit as well.

 

-Boon of Mutation + Gaze of Fate: So, unless I did it wrong, Ahriman had these things add up each turn: Choose a boon (+1 to cast), +1 Wound, +1 to a weapon's damage. When the jetbikes finally made it to me at the end, Ahriman charged in and just murdered 2 Jetbikes AND a captain over the course of two turns (the Captain charged Ahriman and that was the last hurrah for the Custodes army). 4 dmg black staff is hilarious. TL;DR: Boon of Mutation is worth it. Remember, I had Gaze of Fate up from Magnus as a buffer in case I rolled Spawnhood. This was so fun I will even spend a CP to swap a power for it next time if Magnus is not in the list. That free re-roll is a damage on a smite or whatever later in the psychic phase, or a re-roll for a charge distance if you are out of CPs.

 

-Deployment: If he had put those Jetbikes in the center of his deployment zone, it would have been curtains for me. They have too many shots and do too much damage when they charge. It would have forced me to move on the bikes, which would open me up for some bad deepstrikes. Sure, I got turn 1, but there's not much he could have done to my deployment zone if I had gone 2nd. Seriously, watch out for those Jetbikes. I attribute this win to him putting them on the flank like some old-fashioned cavalry tactic and it just serves no benefit here.

 

-Tzaangors and Cycle of Slaughter- Lol, use it. It's wild, man.

 

-Tzeentch's Firestorm on the "littles": It's nice to have any old guy sling Firestorm instead of mini smite. Always imagine that you will be down 1 or 2 Rubric Squads midgame anyway, so they might as well all have the same power for simplicity. That way, when you are trying to remember which big psyker has what power, its easier and that means less cards shuffling around on the table and getting mixed up. An aspiring sorcerer did 1 wound from Firestorm to a Shield Captain and the other did 3 mortal wounds to a Custodian Guard squad. In both cases these units were at max range.

 

Magnus re-rolls: Good god man the amount of 1s I rolled for psychic tests was crazy. Without a doubt, I would have failed multiple powers each turn without this. Sure it won't always come into effect but THIS time it did and it's all thanks to me not throwing Magnus out there and Warp Timing him up ASAP.

 

Speaking of Warptime........: Don't forget that powers are chosen before the battle begins. I knew that Magnus wouldn't be taking a lot of long range fire, so I wasn't too worried about giving him Warptime since I thought I would be mostly reacting to the enemy on turn 2 after my Webway and teleporters arrive. I wanted to use Warptime on other units, which worked out. Also, Ahriman casting powers ONTO Magnus (Weaver) worked out great because it forces me to keep him close for those auras when applicable.. it also freed up other powers for Magnus to take besides Weaver and Warptime.... Take your time in deciding who needs what power. 

 

Spawn: I ran a unit of 5 and used the spawn stratagem once. Vs. custodes, you don't need the AP -4 so don't take that one. Just take the +2 attacks per spawn and swing away. They could stand being in aura range for re-rolling ones but to be honest I would make other units priority (Scarabs for example). For the price they were fine and I am very happy to have a stratagem specific to them.

 

Dark Matter Crystal: What can I say, it's good. I would ALWAYS drop 1 CP to take the additional relic. You won't regret it, especially if you start with Battalion CPs. 

 

Magnus took a lot of wounds from guardian spears and axes. Temporal Manipulation kept him from getting too low. I can only imagine how important of a power it is if your opponent is super shooty and you can't avoid it all the pewpew... TAKE THIS POWER.

 

Warpflamers in a Rhino: So I tried not to fall into the Webway trap with the warpflamers. I put them in a rhino and used it cautiously. When I needed the warpflamers, they hopped out and did work. Then they Dark Crystal'd somewhere and did work with Warptime. Then, they advanced and executed the Shield-captain at point-blank range with the warpflamers. My god they are good against custodes.

 

Not much else to say besides all that. Like I said, I believe that he screwed himself on deployment and it gave me an advantage because I didn't fight the jetbikes for 3 turns, which led to me tabling him mid-game. The opposite could have happened very easily. Rematch soon. 

 

I am very happy with this book and enjoyed the game very much. I had to work for the win by carefully applying each spell where it was needed most and was glad to see it pay off for once. Love the book. I can't stress the importance of using your additional range for psychic powers. IT WORKS. Infernal Gaze at 24" you say? Weaver of Fates at 24" onto Magnus from Ahriman? Yes please.

 

 

Edited February 3, 2018 by Archaeinox

[Skerr]

Great report and insights sir!

[FirstSonofHorus]

Great stuff and great pics. How do you get that blue, it looks slightly different but brilliant?

[Zodd1888]

Good game! I feel like Webway with Flamers will be okay if you're fighting low toughness, but Rhinos, even maybe a LR, would be helpful in keeping them mobile/defended.

 

Did you use VotLW a lot?

 

Edit: Curious about Custodes as an opponent with high toughness.

Edited February 3, 2018 by Zodd1888

[Archaeinox]

Great stuff and great pics. How do you get that blue, it looks slightly different but brilliant?

Hi bud, well... I went a little thinner with my Thousand Sons blue and pretty thick on the Nuln Oil Glossy shade. So I guess the thin coat of blue over gold makes it look a dark sea color which I love.

 

Good game! I feel like Webway with Flamers will be okay if you're fighting low toughness, but Rhinos, even maybe a LR, would be helpful in keeping them mobile/defended.

 

Did you use VotLW a lot?

 

Edit: Curious about Custodes as an opponent with high toughness.

Hey man, I agree. I think the 9man unit with flamers is nice because you can stuff a character in a vehicle with them and their damage output is nice obviously. 

 

I used VotLW once and it was on the Scarabs turn 1. After that, the only time anything really shot was the warpflamers. The big damage when the Scarabs were dead was from mortal wounds and Magnus.

 

Have to focus your fire on the custodes. It is worth it. You start spreading shots around, and you won't wound.. So you'd be popping like 2 wounds on each Custodes unit instead of killing 3/4 of a custodes unit for example.

[Zodd1888]

Treat them like Necrons then. Blast the model until it's dead because it's as powerful as a unit that can regen back to full strength. Good way to look at it.

[BoomWolf]

Actually, I think you are wrong on the "so they might as well all have the same power for simplicity" concept.

 

You are the TS player. you will get used to it if you have a lot of different powers to keep track of, and while having to keep so many things in mind will hinder you at first-once you get accustomed to it, you will manage just fine.

The opponent however, if not facing TS every day-so he's just not used to having to keep track of so many bits of relevant information-he won't manage to keep track, and you can get an edge in the information war that is usually equal in this game, by the sheer fact you confuse the enemy by simply having too much to keep track, in an army who is supposedly identical.

[Archaeinox]

Then I would confuse myself, I have a very difficult time keeping track of just 3 HQs and Magnus's powers. 4 more different ones would have slowed me down

 

but I see what youre saying ^_^

[Zodd1888]

I would actually recommend having photos, or unit indicator cards, and place a note with which powers the unit has to help with keeping track.

[Archaeinox]

def plan to!

[Skerr]

Then I would confuse myself, I have a very difficult time keeping track of just 3 HQs and Magnus's powers. 4 more different ones would have slowed me down

 

but I see what youre saying ^_^

I can see the appeal for less book keeping and more simplicity, especially in new codex pick up games. Edited February 3, 2018 by Skerr

[Archaeinox]

thats my thinking.

just to learn stuff.

[Thousand Eyes]

Good stuff and thanks for the insights, I didn't think of using things that way. Especially I had forgotten about spending a CP for an extra relic.

[GreaterChickenofTzeentch]

I actually have a "mantra" written up every turn that I follow when casting until my opponent forces me to break it. Everything is written down in order and I just cast following that algorithm until something demands otherwise.