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Looking to start a new army, Custodes?


dbecer01

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Hi, I'm looking tonstart a different army, so I'm asking players who play different armies.

 

I come from playing IG and I'm looking for another army, one that is much more elite so I don't have to leave my opponent waiting while I set ip and break down, and also have less to carry.

 

My doubts with Custodes are:

1) Will I get the full army experience (IE, will I be missing certain tactical options that I can make woth other armies -- One thing I can see is that you skip the necesity of cover)?

 

2)Am I just smacking people with a blunt hammer, or will I get to make a lot of meaningful decisions (like when you put a Castellan on the table)

 

3) With so few options in the codex and so few models in the army, it seems like small changes in the game could swing the power level of the army, or if another army counters this one, there wouldn't be options to really change the list up much (like what happened to Grey Knights)

 

Other than that, it seems like a practical, quick to play and set up travel army, and possibly add on for Imperial soup. Also, they are a differebt color than the other armies.

Before I answer your questions, I want to lead with my Custodes are my favorite army right now.

 

1. I think you will have less tactical options in that you have less units to use in order to do so, however by the same token it makes those decisions far more important. (Also why wouldn't you want a cover bonus? 1+ armor is crazy good vs -1/-2AP.)

 

2. Depending on how you build your army will drastically change how it plays, aka a footstodes list plays very differently from a bike/mobile list. A lot more of your decision making is critical with less models as I said in #1.

 

3. There is already a couple of armies that counter Custodes, but that is true with most every army in the game. Much like any changes in the game you have to adapt to them. Thankfully there is new Beta rules for the FW Custodes units, that potentially shore up some of the armies weakness (like long range shooting.)

I think the two main lists to watch are the pure bikes list (Shane's old list) with a battalion of Loyal 32 for CP battery/farming, or the pure foot list, which involves a heck of a lot of Wardens.

Custodes are not a shooting army, so unless you invest in a FW Tank or the Telemon, don't expect to do much during your shooting phase. And if you're as unfortunate as me and have a meta that enjoys wide open battlefields with very little in the way of LoS blocking buildings, Custodes cannot and will not win.

 

The biggest trap when thinking about Custodes is how cool all their units look, so you buy them, and then when you play them you're like "Oh all of their units except like four are total crap". So don't fall into the shiny model syndrome and buy a wide variety of cool things. The reality is all you'll need is a lot of bikes or a lot of basic custodian troops, which can be made into vexillas etc. Also Trajaan, cause he's a god damn beast.

 

Land Raider? Trash. Contemptor Dread? Trash. Most of the FW stuff is trash as well save for half a dozen units. We have very little in the way of unit choice, and that's further reduced by how good those units actually are.

If you want to run some transports for your Custodes, the FW Coronus is superior to the Land Raider in virtually every way. Its faster, has more wounds, has a 5+ invuln, has fly so it cant be locked in combat, and it has -2 to enemies charging it making charges out of deepstrike next to impossible. And all of this, for almost 100 points cheaper. The only downsides are the 3+ armor instead of 2+ and the loss of the 6+ FNP. But those are acceptable when you cant be tied up in combat by a single guardsmen.
 

As for main question, I agree with most of the other posters here in saying I adore my custodes and they are my favorite army to play right now, especially since the Beta sisters codex was such a flop.

I like quite a bit about them. Primarily it's the aesthetic and theme. I love elite armies. I love each model being at least 3 wounds. I love their design. All of that is why I started playing them.

 

I enjoy playing them so much for different reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that they are fast to play with. I never have to worry about finishing my games in a reasonable time. I also enjoy close combat armies armies more than I enjoy shooting armies, and Custodes are one of the only combat armies tough enough to make it in to combat right now without a bunch of shenanigans.

Honestly I think with the addition of the forgeworld units the Custodes Codex went from a niche codex similar to Grey Knights, Deathwatch, or Imperial Knights, to a full-fledged army capable of multiple playstyles and strategies.  The original Codex has 12 datasheets if you include the dreadnought and landraider which were basically ignored.  Listbuilding with this always felt pretty mundane, with most armies turning into a battalion plus a mix of bikes and terminators to flavour, depending on your preference.  

 

The addition of the full suite of forgeworld models doubled the number of available datasheets and filled in a lot of holes in the codex.  Venatari brought a fast-moving harrassment unit a lot cheaper than bikes, long-range infantry shooting from Saggitarum, and most importantly proper heavy support slots with amazing Dreadnoughts and grav-tanks.  Now when I'm theorycrafting I consistently come up with totally different types of lists.  It turned a one-dimensional codex into a very adaptable codex. 

 

To that end I would also say this - if you aren't interested in forgeworld or resin this army isn't for you.  The GW Codex is a good bit of fun, works great as allies, and still looks amazing.  But at 2000 points a lot of the lists are going to start looking the same, and by all accounts that's not what you're looking for.  

 

As for why I play Custodes, it was intially the aesthetic, paired with their incredible durability and close combat prowess.  None of those things have changed a bit, and I especially enjoy having troops that are point effective and threatening in their own right.  

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