Vexilus Praetors?

[TorvaldTheMild]

Just looking to see how many people field them.  I find them far too expensive for what they do, two extra guards are far more beneficial to me.

[dice4thedicegod]

I think the vexilla (with -1 to hit) is good value. Consider the benefits compared to buying 2 extra guard:

 

- you still get 5w and 4 attacks, so almost as good as the 6w and 6a from two guard

- you reduce shooting damage to your guys by 25 to 33%, normally equivalent to the difference of at least a custodian guard every turn

- you have the option of using the stratagem to deep strike 3” from the enemy

[TorvaldTheMild]

Though with such low model counts, you're guys are so spread out that you rarely get to use it more than a unit (which is 3 strong most of the time).  You rarely castle your units or make a gun-line (which is the only reason I'd use one for).  Two extra guards with stormshields will give far more protection to your units than a -1 to hit.  Even if you take Valoris, and want to make a deathstar you are sinking so much points with him its still not worth taking.  The deep strike thing also is very situational, unless you use the terminator one but then you aren't going to deepstrike him in on his own, so he deepstrike with a unit of terminators already and you aren't going to send another unit in on top of that unit of terminators.  If you send him in on his own, you might miss a reserve roll and he gets pummeled and you lose him and can't deep strike them in where you wanted.  If its just the regular one you need to get him in a vehicle to get up-field to deepstrike units in and by that time its at least two turns in to disembark him you might miss a turn with reserve rolls, so if you get them to deepstrike they are coming in very late, you might pick up a CP for an objective or KTW but that's a lot of points to waste for a few command points and you are wasting a strat to get them in, which is very expensive for an army with so few CP's.

[.Torch.]

Staple for me. I play my Custodes pretty defensively in the first turn usually. The Vexilla is pretty good between two Caladius tanks, provides a good buff as I normally castle first turn. It depends on your meta, but I find that I struggle if my Guard squad gets divided, so they are normally in reserve first turn or out of sight.

I don't agree that you have to move the Vexilla up the board all the time. The Vexilla stratagem is pretty good against armies that come to you, especially Nids and Orks. It allows you to drop in a unit and get a counter charge off pretty easily. I've found myself using it this way more and more with all the deep strike denial the the new Space Marines are bringing at the moment.

I don't think you should write it off, it's been a proven unit in many top lists since the codex dropped. But I will agree it's effectiveness drops with the few units surrounding it. I always give my guy an axe so he can hold his own in the later turns (presuming he survives). At the end of the day, it's a force multiplier, I've found it super useful, but if you are playing more aggressively the stratagem and buff might not be for you.

Also, you don't need to roll for deepstriking reserves.

[BaconCouch]

The Vexilla is usually an MVP for me with the Vexilla Magnifica.

I don't run grav tanks. But usually turn 1, my whole army is toe-in to that bubble. Since I rarely play ITC, I can during game setup try and skew the objectives to allow for a degree of force concentration.

I do however sometimes run 2 Telemon Drednaughts. Let me tell you, those things with a -1 to hit are darn near impossible to shift turn 1. 

Turn 1 the vexilla usually advances up the board to try and ensure my bikes still have the -1 if they fail their charge.

I've yet to use the teleport homer however, that CP price tag is hard to swallow.

[rcoon]

I play one in every list with a spear. They have more wounds than a guardian and the -1 to hit really screws over IG, Orks, and any other low volume average-to-hit tank. They're ideal to prevent turn 1 alpha strikes, not to mention they add value via their teleport strat. They're also hilariously hard to kill.

[Mainely Wargamming]

Given how valuable every Custodian in my army is, and how detrimental it is to the entire force to lose a single model, I will gladly pay 120ish points for the things this flag does.  -1 to shooting, with a 3" teleport homer, and an axe/spear?  Yes please.

 

That being said, I have given some small consideration to giving a flag to a terminator and trying to FGLTC it into the back field on turn 2 with my Aquilons and the Extra attack flag...

[MARK0SIAN]

In every game I’ve played the -1 to hit vexilla has been worth every single point. It really discourages overcharged plasma shots against your valuable units and the teleport Strat is just the icing on the cake.

[Prot]

The rare games it doesn't work is stuff like Orks. But to be honest it's huge against stuff like Tau (markerlights) and even Astra. A lot of super shooty stuff that doesn't have BS3 to begin with. 

[swordofmandulis]

As everyone said, -1 to hit is invaluable, you will easily get 1 or 2 turns out of it covering everyone and then you can protect your core with it, and if you play well you get a teleport homer off with your death bomb. It is quite diminished in effectiveness vs full marine rerolls now, but hey, if you think you're beating a good marine list and player you're already in for a bad day