Setting Shiny New Goals for 2019
2018 is wrapping up and I’ve decided to challenge myself to try a build and play a totally new army for every event for 2019.
I’ve decided that I’d like to expand upon a small unit that I’d already used before at First Blood 2016 and WA Masters 2018…Adeptus Custodes.
That’s right, Adeptus Custodes, the big shiny warriors genetically engineered from the Emperor’s blood himself. Protectors of the Golden Throne and the Emperor who sits upon it.
New Year New Army
Where to start. Well I’ve run a unit of Custodian Guard way back at First Blood 2016 during 7th Edition when that’s all they had. At this years WA Masters I ran three Shield-Captains on Dawneagle Jetbikes alongside a Guard battalion and some Imperial Knights (Yeah, I was one of “THOSE” guys!). But that did wet my appetite for more…
I’ve been primarily an Astra Militarum player since entering my first tournament back in 2012. Over the years I’ve also played a few more armies including Imperial Knights, Tau and Ravenwing to name a few. But none were as elite an army as what the Custodes offer, so this new army is quite a challenge for me from a playing stand point as well as collecting. I’m used to moving a lot of models around the gaming table!
With the Adeptus Custodes Codex released earlier this year, we got a fleshed out Codex with A LOT of Elites and some truly amazing Stratagems. Something very different to anything I’ve really run before in 8th Edition. Apart from Knights, but they’re a whole other type of army.
I think that’s what has drawn me towards trying something new with this army. An elite army with a low model count, something to really test my natural playing style.
The challenge I’m going to set for myself is this; If I go to an event in 2019, I’m going to be taking Adeptus Custodes in some way. What the army looks like and what’s taken may differ from event to event, but there will be a Custodian flavour in there.
Shiny New Units
With the release of Chapter Approved 2018 the Custodes actually caught a break. Most of the good stuff in the Codex dodged any point increases and nerfs. And a few items and units dropped in points too.
The Custodes units that I want to base my army around is the Vertus Praetors. The only Fast Attack option in the new Codex. I loved the models when they were first released and running the Shield-Captains at Masters really got me wanting more.
They’re incredibly fast, durable and pack a fair amount of punch too. A 14″ move along with a flat 6″ Advance means they’re fast and can move around the table with ease. As with every other Custodes unit, they hit both WS & BS on a 2+. Naturally come with 2+ armour along with a 5++ Invulnerable Save (boosted to a 4++ in a pure Custodes detachment) and 4 wounds each. Another selling point is they have the Sworn Guardians special rule that basically gives them Objective Secured within 3″ of an objective.
For shooting they have two very good options now, as CA18 dropped the points costs for the Salvo Launcher making it a lot more tempting. They are famed for their Hurricane Bolters for clearing chaff and even chipping away wounds on bigger stuff through sheer weight of dice. So I think the majority of the bikes will be kitted out with HB with a few SL scattered through the army for good measure and some additional high strength weapons.
They are on the more expensive side with a three man unit coming in at a minimum of 270pts. How well the Custodes army scales down in points is going to be interesting. Astra Militarum scale down really well at 1000pts, something that traditionally elite armies struggle with.
The codex doesn’t exactly have that many cheap options in any of the slots so in smaller games theirs going to have to be some compromises.
Fleshing out the list, I’d like to have a play around with the Allarus Custodians at some point or even the Contemptor Dreadnought too. The Allarus Custodians are clad in terminator armour allowing them to deepstrike and come with a few sneaky little tricks too. Contemptors got a hefty points decrease in CA18 too, and they look like they could be pretty handy with their S14 close combat arm adding some decent punch to the army.
I also like the look of Captain-General Trajann Valoris seeing as he got a significant points reduction in CA18. He’s S10 in combat and would sit alongside the Allarus Custodians quite well, however he doesn’t have terminator armour so there goes a CP to give him deepstrike if needed.
Looking at Forgeworld, they’ve released some beta rules in the past year. The Telemon Heavy Dreadnought adds some serious fire and staying power to the list, but is a little pricey points wise and not every TO will allow beta rules. They also have some options for the grav-tanks, but again they’re points heavy.
A Brave and Shiny New World
So what’s up first, well the handsome lads from the Toy Soldier Cartel have graciously invited me to their mixed doubles event in January. I’m aiming to take my Custodes along for their first run out. A pure generalship event with no soft scores using some ETC/ATC style missions it should give me an idea of what the army is capable of.
The event is only 1000pts with players being restricted to a single Patrol with Highlander restrictions in place.
This is what I’m looking at for the first event of the year. Pretty simple, but it’s a start. Teammates are matched randomly at the start of the day so hopefully the list I’m planning won’t let me and my teammate down!
Right now everything in the list is built, and it should be painted to a decent standard by the event too.
Planning out a Shiny Paint Scheme
Now that everything’s built, it’s time to get it all painted.
For the Shield-Captains that I painted up for WA Masters the bikes were silver and the Captains gold just for something different to the fully gold bikes that you normally see. I think I’ll continue down that path, but I may have to add in some unit markings somewhere. Having 12 or more bikes with matching paint schemes will be a nightmare to tell apart on the table.
I’ll have to revisit the bases though, for Masters I had to just get something on them for the event. I think I’d like to add a little more detail and possibly something else….
Call Me Crazy
Some people may think I’m crazy to commit to something like this now, but I’m genuinely interested to see if this is at all possible for a few reasons.
1, Is it actually possible to change my playing style over the course of a year?
2, If I play a list enough, is it possible to turn an average list into a good list by just playing it repeatedly to learn it’s strengths and weaknesses?
Now, is anyone else keen to join me? No? Fair enough I’ll forge ahead….