Mono, All foot Custodes tips or tricks?

[Ania Redfang]

Hey all,

 

I'm taking an all foot list to an event next week. It's mono-faction, no soup allowed, and I wanted to bring some stuff I haven't played with in  while.

List submissions are done, so I can't change anything, but I'm basically taking 5 units of Custodian guard, 4x3 and a 5. 3 wardens, 3 Allarus, Trajann, Shield Cap, Vexilla.

 

Are there any tricks or sneaky tactics we can use? My plan is to utilise the vexilla teleport whereever I can, and maximise both cover and my -1 to hit bubble, but are there any other tactics I can use?

 

Mix of Maelstrom and eternal war missions from CA 2018.

 

Ta ;) 

[rcoon]

I tried the all foot list vs a very well rounded AdMech+Knight list, as well as an extremely tough DG list and beat both without too much tomfoolery. Both players underestimated the Wardens, and discovered how very difficult they are to remove from the table. I prefer dropping Trajaan alongside my termies (I use Aquilons) to guarantee whatever they drop and charge dies. The Allarus then split off to find new targets while Trajaan goes and finds a separate target - I've found I always use his Moment Shackle ability to fight twice as I always throw him against some heavy armour. That said, one opponent failed a bloodletter bomb charge, so I charged Trajaan into them, fought twice and nearly wiped the entire squad out.

 

Generally I'd advance the Vexilla every turn to ensure a Vexilla Teleport Homer drop by Turn 2, and I always advance my basic Guardian troops up the board to get them in melee as quick as possible. I very very rarely place objective markers in my back field and prefer placing them in centrefield, since that's where I'm going to be anyway. I personally don't take Trajaan as my WL either since his trait has very rarely paid off for me (once, in the last few months I've tried it out). My general tactics are to DS Trajaan, Wardens and Allarus, start my troops behind the closest cover nearest the enemy in the event we don't get first turn, and then just spend the entire first turn advancing everything as far as possible. Your important units can't be shot or smited because of DS, and your Guardians are there to absorb most of the shooting within Vexilla range. If you managed to get your Vexilla up the board I spend the Teleport Homer CP on the Wardens (I run 9 so it makes more sense), but in your case it may be pertinent to drop the Allarus instead if the target Armour. ALWAYS use the Concussion Grenade strat on the drop, as it prevent overwatching as long as the shots simply hit. Spread your shots and charge multiple close together units so you're opponent can do absolutely nothing in defense - the damage loss from using the normal Ballistus Grenade profile is pathetic anyway.

 

Remember Spears can become Axes with a strat and vice versa, so there's really no reason not to engage any kind of enemy with any kind of weapon, but if you're out of CP axes are preferable. Also don't forget about your attacks with the daggers - I've taken wounds off a Knight with one.

 

Our weakest area is MWs in the Psychic phase, but we have Spark of Divinity and it does work a fair amount for me. If you're running against lists with flamers, prioritise those units with your Allarus since the Concussion strat negates their effectiveness against you completely in overwatch. I'm a big fan of the footstodes list, I find it far more versatile and competitive over masses of bikes, and it's very satisfying cleaving people in GLORIOUS MELEE COMBAT.

 

The only thing I really hate is Avenger Gatling Cannons. Those are painful.

[Ania Redfang]

Thank you for the great tips! 

 

I was wondering about taking larger units to maximise on strats, but ended up keeping them pretty small... Hopefully that works out ok.

 

:) 

[swordofmandulis]

Rcoon has it all there, I'm running foot with 1 bike captain, its 1750 so I've gone for 2 deepstrike bombs, 5 Aquilon and 6 Wardens, vexilla of course and I'm trying 1x3 sword and shield and 2 x 3 saggitarum, I'm really hoping the Sagg can help clear away some chaff and net me first strike some of the time, something these lists can't normally do. I used a similar list to this a couple of weekends ago and wnet 2-1 in the local eternal war. Write up in the 'how are your Custodes doing' thread. As Rcoon said I find this type of list very satisfying to play, you have to think, now in eternal war missions you will run up against some very hard counters, Tau castle and Eldar flyers I think are the worst, but people will 100% underestimate what you put on the table. Good luck and let us know. Also do not forget to use tanglefoot, start of the movement phase, if something wants to fall back from you and it has low movement its well worth trying a tanglefoot on them to try and stop them, this works on knights really well especially if you have models all around it and you've got it in its bottom bracket, with the base size and your 40mm bases you almost guarantee stopping it from falling back protecting all of the models in combat with it fro. Shooting.

[dice4thedicegod]

How do folks handle having both wardens and allarus in deep strike? Vexilla strike for one on turn 2, but what of the second unit? Just deep strike 9” away, or wait until T3?

 

(I haven’t run more than 1 deep strike Custodes unit yet)

[swordofmandulis]

Either hold one back until turn 3 and a second vexilla teleport but damn that's expensive, 7 of your 8 CP's lol. I usually bring them down turn 2 as well and go for a 9 inch charge.

[rcoon]

How do folks handle having both wardens and allarus in deep strike? Vexilla strike for one on turn 2, but what of the second unit? Just deep strike 9” away, or wait until T3?

 

(I haven’t run more than 1 deep strike Custodes unit yet)

I use the vexilla homer on the Warden blob (9) to get them close to a key piece of my opponents army - typically your 3-400 point units. I then DS the Allarus and Trajaan their normal 9" away and just blow a CP to try and guarantee the charge. The Allarus are a little more sturdy than the Wardens so they can take a turn of shooting if they don't get into melee. The Wardens are more important since their sole purpose is to kill what they drop against, and have a tendency to get focused a lot harder than Allarus. People usually ignore my terminators (I use the Aquilons as they shoot and fist tanks better) because there are fewer of them, and the enormous blob of Warden axes is far more terrifying to them. This is usually a fatal mistake because even just 4 Aquilons can very easily tear a tank in half without Trajaan's help.

 

I've also just ordered 10 Saggitarum guardians because I want to see how much more rounded they make our army.

 

Thank you for the great tips! 

 

I was wondering about taking larger units to maximise on strats, but ended up keeping them pretty small... Hopefully that works out ok.

 

Yeah the Avenge the Fallen strat is amazing if you have a squad of 10 guardians charging into something terrifying like a Knight or Mortarian, as if the opponent kills enough of your guys you end up getting more attacks than you ordinarily would have. Unfortunately it's just not efficient enough for us, as all those points can be better spent bringing more squads to the table. Very rarely do I run more than 3 basic guardians per squad.

[Dallas Drake]

Deffo use tanglefoot grenade when you can, it’s invaluable. I think the other posters have covered everything. I personally find Wardens more survivable than Terminators, most stuff shooting at d2 doesn’t care if you have 3 or 4 wounds. Use LOS blocking and cover to minimise the amount of shooting you take, especially in T1 & 2. Good luck and post back how you got on etc.

[Ania Redfang]

Quick write up of these games, I played 3 games and won one, lost two. 

Game one VS Nids

 

 

60 Termagants, 2 exocrine, 5 hive guard, Tyranofex, Zoanthropes, Neurothrope, And the big Venomthrope thingy.

 

 

I was very nervous looking at this army, but two things about the set up got me the win. One was the mission we were playing cut off the head, so my characters were key to holding the centre objective and getting the points for intel. My opponent's characters were just the neurothropes and I was able to kill one of these early on when she over extended, whilst keeping my guys safe.

 

 

The other thing that allowed me to get ahead was a large bit of LOS blocking terrain in the centre. I spent the game circling this with my units, hiding from the big guns and picking off all the termagants and hive guard where I could.

 

 

Game 2: Eldar 2 Crimson Hunters, 1 Hemlock, 3 fire prisms, 12 windriders, Farseer, Warlock, Dire Avengers

 

 

This was a hard matchup I think. I killed one flier with bolt spears, took out a fire prism but my army was just way too slow. We played Maelstrom and I did in fact keep up with the points for most of the match, but he ended up pretty much tabling me and then in the last turn got 5 points to secure the win for him. I was able to stay alive much longer than I thought though.

 

 

Game 3: Grey Knights: 2 GM Dreadknights, 20 Interceptors, Strikes, Dread, Razorback

 

 

In this game there were multiple objectives that we needed to hold at the same time and you only scored if you held more than your opponent. He was faster and though I wiped his strikes, dread, one of the Dreadknights I was never in a position to hold more of the objectives as I needed my units to push up, leading him to quite handily get ahead.

Overall, I think that I preferred my other custodes list with the bikes for Maelstrom and Eternal war missions, as that additional speed is just really handy. I can see where the All foot list is powerful though, a lot of the time more firepower was needed to wipe my guys than anticipated and in something like ITC I can see this being a real strength.

 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Almost impossible for footstodes to beat eldar flying circus.

[swordofmandulis]

Almost impossible for footstodes to beat eldar flying circus.

Yeah I'm dreading facing that at the warhammer GT at the weekend