Custodes Rumours

[Mogger351]

20 minutes ago, Indy Techwisp said:

Those numbers look absurd frankly.

 

"Basic" Custodes probably shouldn't be more than Toughness 6 or 7 ish, otherwise they kinda just stonewall harder than anything else.

 

Only fielded in 3s is an interesting idea but since the new range and the old range both have kits in 5s I think that'd be limited to some termie types at best.

New range is sold in 6's

[nodnol88]

Well Guilliman being T10 now certainly doesn’t rule out these rumours. 

[irlLordy]

Given theres a big banana on the upcoming  preview image, we'll likely get more Custodes details on Friday.

[Indy Techwisp]

25 minutes ago, Mogger351 said:

New range is sold in 6's

 

I thought the jump custodes were in 5s.

Guess not.

 

In that case 3s and 6s is definitely possible, but the absurd toughness definitely not.

[Northern Walker]

14 hours ago, Dark Shepherd said:

IIRC it was the 8th ed Wolves codex they did that with; did more playtesting after English version was printed and issued a Day 1 pdf download for the warlord traits or detachment rules

Oh god yes I remember this.

[Indy Techwisp]

19 minutes ago, nodnol88 said:

Well Guilliman being T10 now certainly doesn’t rule out these rumours. 

 

I think if 11th starts off with Orks getting tougher, all Marines getting tougher and stronger and then follows that up with Custodes turning into a T10 swarm of tiny Guillimans I think half the player base is just gonna quit.

[Mogger351]

13 minutes ago, Indy Techwisp said:

 

I think if 11th starts off with Orks getting tougher, all Marines getting tougher and stronger and then follows that up with Custodes turning into a T10 swarm of tiny Guillimans I think half the player base is just gonna quit.

Custodes stonks must go up, the line must increase. Whether it's to the point of the rumours or not, they're still going to be units equivalent to what were once carnifex running about the place individually slam dunking anything that's not a veteran of an elite army and shrugging off every common weapon under the sun. This was obvious the second the marine stats were shown and it wasn't an issue then for most people, so I doubt all those people who welcomes stat inflation for "narrative" purposes will be fine with Custodes dunking marines like it's nobodys business.

[DemonGSides]

18 minutes ago, Indy Techwisp said:

 

I think if 11th starts off with Orks getting tougher, all Marines getting tougher and stronger and then follows that up with Custodes turning into a T10 swarm of tiny Guillimans I think half the player base is just gonna quit.

 

Well they aren't, they're going to be t9, with t10 terminators.  They'll be less strong in offense than Gulliman and have far fewer wounds.

 

"Super tanky, ultra elite infantry" is what they should be.  Expect to see like 10 models on the board; they're just the next mid-step between the awful Imperial Knights faction and Space Marines, which is probably where they should be.  I've been admonished here no less than a dozen times about how great the game is for having Imperial Knights, so what's the worry?

Edited Monday at 02:49 PM by DemonGSides

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

There have always been T10 Custodes...

[Mana]

GW still sells the OG custodian guard kit. I don't think minimum size custodes is because of the new HH kit. During 8th and 9th edition minimum size was also 3, and  a custodian with a vexila was a character, in 11th the vexila custodian can be a character again, support I imagine.

The toughness thing....dunno honestly, this Friday they will reveal custodes as the next codex and we will start to know a bit more.

 

EDIT> Well, the combat patrol and the old custodian guard kit are gone from the store, RIP. It seems the new HH kit will be the kit to use now, so actually 3 max size it's not that crazy.

Edited Monday at 10:20 PM by Mana

[StrangerOrders]

5 hours ago, Mana said:

GW still sells the OG custodian guard kit. I don't think minimum size custodes is because of the new HH kit. During 8th and 9th edition minimum size was also 3, and  a custodian with a vexila was a character, in 11th the vexila custodian can be a character again, support I imagine.

The toughness thing....dunno honestly, this Friday they will reveal custodes as the next codex and we will start to know a bit more.

 

EDIT> Well, the combat patrol and the old custodian guard kit are gone from the store, RIP. It seems the new HH kit will be the kit to use now, so actually 3 max size it's not that crazy.

If its 6 max... ugh, that would be annoying with my 'currently not divisible by 6' Guard/Sentinel amount...

 

GW is trying to force those of us with OCD to buy more kits just to get the total number right.

[Mana]

In my edit I Said 3 max, I meant 3 min haha.

 

17 hours ago, StrangerOrders said:

If its 6 max... ugh, that would be annoying with my 'currently not divisible by 6' Guard/Sentinel amount...

I don't think it will be 6 max, GW tends to accommodate older unit configurations more often than not.

[Laurence]

34 minutes ago, Mana said:

In my edit I Said 3 max, I meant 3 min haha.

 

I don't think it will be 6 max, GW tends to accommodate older unit configurations more often than not.

Except when last edition made every unit be a max squad size of two boxes.  Units of 3 Talos or Sentinels reduced to 2.  And over the editions, Acolyte Genestealer Hybrids have gone from max. 20 in 7th edition, to 15 in 8th, to 10 in 10th...

[Blindhamster]

On 9/14/2026 at 3:47 PM, Mogger351 said:

Custodes stonks must go up, the line must increase. Whether it's to the point of the rumours or not, they're still going to be units equivalent to what were once carnifex running about the place individually slam dunking anything that's not a veteran of an elite army and shrugging off every common weapon under the sun. This was obvious the second the marine stats were shown and it wasn't an issue then for most people, so I doubt all those people who welcomes stat inflation for "narrative" purposes will be fine with Custodes dunking marines like it's nobodys business.

line custodians probably shouldn’t be toughness 9, we literally see more than one instance of veteran marines during the HH going toe to toe with them and wrecking them. 

 

BUT, they absolutely should be another scale up from marines. I’d expect t7 base with terminators as t8 tbh. equally, if they’re t9 *shrug* means marines wound them on 5s, which is still what it would be if they’re t 6,7 or 8. And even if they are 9, they aren’t going to have a primarch wound count.

 

ultimately, the point seems to be about reframing the base numbers to try and scale a bit better to what the lore suggest. So yes, custodian should be a similar glow up to a marine as a marine is to a guardsman.

 

so long as guardsman and stuff like eldar and tau remain strength and toughness 3 it works well (I could see stuff like certain aspect warriors having higher strength or toughness)
 

[HeadlessCross]

On 9/14/2026 at 7:09 AM, nodnol88 said:

Well Guilliman being T10 now certainly doesn’t rule out these rumours. 

Yes it does LMAO

He went from T9 to T10. 

[01RTB01]

1 hour ago, HeadlessCross said:

Yes it does LMAO

He went from T9 to T10. 

Ghazghkull went from 6 to 10.

[Zebukkuk]

On 9/13/2026 at 6:53 PM, HeadlessCross said:

To be fair we don't know that, as no Primarch has been in a Codex yet. We only just got Orks.

 

I’m counting six Primarchs in 10th edition Codexes, and Warhammer Community just revealed the 11th edition stats for Roboute Gulliman and Lion El’Jonson.

 

I agree, there is no logical way a Custodes Allarus Terminator is tougher than, or as tough as a Primarch. If this is true then the GW design team has gone mad.

 

What I can believe is that T9 / T10 was play tested at one point just to rule out any extreme model profiles, and maybe to sort out a new baseline for Custodes.

Edited Wednesday at 02:26 AM by Zebukkuk

[01RTB01]

Whatever they do with custodes, I hope they make them more fun to play against. The games I've played against them have largely been miserable. It feels like they hit and wound everything on 2s and just kill anything they get anywhere near. I find Knights far more fun to play against which is odd I guess. I wish they'd not done custodes in 40k as it (to me) doesn't make sense why they'd be there. Heresy I get, but not 40k. 

[HeadlessCross]

3 hours ago, 01RTB01 said:

Ghazghkull went from 6 to 10.

And most would've argued Ghaz wasn't as tough as he should've been anyway

[01RTB01]

28 minutes ago, HeadlessCross said:

And most would've argued Ghaz wasn't as tough as he should've been anyway

Whether they would or not, you scoffed at gulliman only going up one point of toughness. Ghaz has gone up 4 which is quite a leap. 

 

You're presented with a point that counters what you said and now you're trying to understate it. 

 

What's the point?

[HeadlessCross]

57 minutes ago, 01RTB01 said:

Whether they would or not, you scoffed at gulliman only going up one point of toughness. Ghaz has gone up 4 which is quite a leap. 

 

You're presented with a point that counters what you said and now you're trying to understate it. 

 

What's the point?

Because he's an outlier. Marines and the Primarchs going up a point on toughness grants no precedent for Custodes Terminators to be T10. 

[Mogger351]

8 minutes ago, HeadlessCross said:

Because he's an outlier. Marines and the Primarchs going up a point on toughness grants no precedent for Custodes Terminators to be T10. 

Where was the precedent for T6 marine terminators? They were T4 for what, 8 editions of their life at least.

[HeadlessCross]

21 minutes ago, Mogger351 said:

Where was the precedent for T6 marine terminators? They were T4 for what, 8 editions of their life at least.

That came from T5 in the last codex with the same bump everyone else got? Like, not sure what you're trying to prove here. 

[Orange Knight]

Custodes should be T6 and T7.

 

It would be silly for a bolter to wound them only on a 6 and for plasma and melta to wound their basic infantry on a 5...

Edited Wednesday at 06:31 AM by Orange Knight

[Mogger351]

1 hour ago, HeadlessCross said:

That came from T5 in the last codex with the same bump everyone else got? Like, not sure what you're trying to prove here. 

That GW arbitrarily push numbers up because they can. There is no precedent for a t6 marine terminator just as there isnt for a t9 custode.

 

GW want both factions to live out their narrative power fantasies, hence here we are.