For 2023, I’ve decided to join the ranks of the Ten Thousand. Since I can’t help but write about games as a way to learn, get ready for a bunch of Custodes focused articles to supplement my Knight content in the near future.
My first list is going to be a nearly perfect clone of a list I sparred against at the Las Vegas Open. Instead of the ever popular Emperor’s Chosen or the soul-crushing Shadowkeepers, I’ll be piloting a shooting focused list in Emissaries Imperatus.
++ Arks of Omen Detachment (Imperium – Adeptus Custodes) [99 PL, 2,000pts, 2CP] ++
Arks of Omen Compulsory Type: Elites
Detachment Type / Shield Host: Adeptus Custodes, Emissaries Imperatus
Game Type: 5. Chapter Approved: Arks of Omen
+ HQ +
Shield-Captain in Allarus Terminator Armor [Relic -1 CP]:
– Balistus Grenade Launcher: Range 18, Assault D3, S5, AP -3 D1 Blast
– Castellan Axe (Shooting): Rapid Fire 1, S4, AP -1, D2
– Castellan Axe (Melee) : S+3, AP -2, D2
– Misericordia: Extra Attack, AP -2 D1
— Bane of Abominations: +1 to wound Characters, Monsters, and Vehicles in melee
— Praetorian Plate: +1 Toughness, Once per game Heroically Intervene anywhere on the map within 3″ of a friendly unit.Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike [Emperor’s Heroes -1 CP]:
– Interceptor Lance (Melee): S+2, AP -3, D2, +1 to Wound on Charge or Heroic Intervention
– Misericordia: Extra Attack, AP -2, D1
– Salvo Launcher (Ranged): Range 24, Heavy 1, S8, AP -4, D3+3
— Tip of the Spear: Re-roll wound rolls of 1 on charges or heroic interventions.
— Superior Creation: 5+ Feel No PainTrajann Valoris: Warlord Trait -1 CP
Watcher’s Axe (Shooting) Range 24, Rapid Fire 1, S5, AP -1, D2
Watcher’s Axe (Melee) Sx2, AP -3 D3
Misericordia: Extra Attack, AP-2, D1
— Master of Martial Strategy: Each time you spend a CP, get one back on a 5+ Additionally, once per battle you can re-arrange your Ka’tah order.
— Champion of the Imperium: 6″ Heroic Interventions, re-roll all hit rolls.
— Adamantine General: 5+ Feel No Pain
— Legendary Commander: Core models within 6″ can re-roll hit and wound rolls of 1
— Moment Shackle: Once per game, fight again, interrupt, or ignore a failed save.+ Troops +
Prosecutors [3 PL, 55pts]
4x Prosecutor [44pts]: 4x Boltgun
Prosecutor Sister Superior [11pts]: Boltgun
– Daughters of the Abyss: Cannot be targeted or affected by Psychic Powers, Subtract 1 from psychic tests taken within 18″, +1 to wound Daemons or Psykers.Sagittarum Custodians [13 PL, 250pts]
. 5x Sagittarum [250pts]:
— Adrastus Bolt Caliver (Bolt Volley) Range 36, Assault 3, S5, AP -2, D2
— Adrastus Bolt Caliver: (Disintegration Beam) Range 15, Assault 1, S5, AP -3, D3
When you choose to shoot with this weapon, choose either profile or both. If you select both, subtract 1 from the hit roll for all attacks.Sagittarum Custodians [13 PL, 250pts]
. 5x Sagittarum [250pts]:
— Adrastus Bolt Caliver (Bolt Volley) Range 36, Assault 3, S5, AP -2, D2
— Adrastus Bolt Caliver: (Disintegration Beam) Range 15, Assault 1, S5, AP -3, D3
When you choose to shoot with this weapon, choose either profile or both. If you select both, subtract 1 from the hit roll for all attacks.+ Elites +
Allarus Custodian
– Balistus Grenade Launcher: Range 18, Assault D3, S5, AP -3 D1 Blast
– Castellan Axe (Shooting): Rapid Fire 1, S4, AP -1, D2
– Castellan Axe (Melee) : S+3, AP -2, D2
– Misericordia: Extra Attack, AP -2 D1Allarus Custodian
– Balistus Grenade Launcher: Range 18, Assault D3, S5, AP -3 D1 Blast
– Castellan Axe (Shooting): Rapid Fire 1, S4, AP -1, D2
– Castellan Axe (Melee) : S+3, AP -2, D2
– Misericordia: Extra Attack, AP -2 D1Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought:
Achillus Dreadspear (Melee) Sx2, AP -3, D3+3
Achillus Dreadspear (Shooting) Range 24, Heavy 2, S8, AP -2, D3
2x Twin Adrathic Destructor Range 18, Assault 2, S5, AP -3, D3
Stratagem: Eternal Penitent [-1CP]: +1 Attack, re-roll charge rolls or +1 to charges if you already can.Vexilus Praetor in Allarus Terminator Armor [Stratagem, The Emperor’s Heroes -1 CP]:
– Balistus Grenade Launcher: Range 18, Assault D3, S5, AP -3 D1 Blast
– Misericordia: Extra Attack, AP -2 D1
– Vexilla Magnifica (Aura): Friendly units within 6″ of this model gain the benefits of dense cover
(Emissaries Imperatus): Voice of the Emperor: Increase the range of Auras for this model by 3″ , add 1 to the leadership of units within 9″ of this model.+ Fast Attack +
Vertus Praetors
3x Praetor w/ Salvo Launcher & Misericordia
– Interceptor Lance (Melee): S+2, AP -3, D2, +1 to Wound on Charge or Heroic Intervention
– Misericordia: Extra Attack, AP -2, D1
– Salvo Launcher (Ranged): Range 24, Heavy 1, S8, AP -4, D3+3Vertus Praetors
3x Praetor w/ Salvo Launcher & Misericordia
– Interceptor Lance (Melee): S+2, AP -3, D2, +1 to Wound on Charge or Heroic Intervention
– Misericordia: Extra Attack, AP -2, D1
– Salvo Launcher (Ranged): Range 24, Heavy 1, S8, AP -4, D3+3++ Total: [99 PL, 2CP, 2,000pts] ++
I find Emissaries extremely interesting, as their two Shield Host benefits are very strong and almost anti-synergistic.
The first makes everything in the army fight first, which is extremely potent army wide. Fight first is a very odd ability that scales exponentially when you bring more and more models with the rule. A single model with fight first is pretty medium, a few units with the trait is good, and an entire army with the rule is bananas.
The second trait lets the army ignore hit and wound modifiers. This is extremely strong against things like Bel’akor or other armies that benefit from dense cover in some way, but it also allows models with Assault weapons to advance every turn and shoot at full potential. Combining this with some of the Ka’tahs lets the army move very quickly, shoot, and perform actions all in one go, which is extremely efficient and sets up the army to play an attrition and primary game after the first round.
The Game Plan:
This list is designed around secondaries. The two single-model Allarus Terminators will start the game off the board and then find nice places to land on turn 2 in order to start aggressively scoring Behind Enemy Lines. By the time they are killed (if they even are), the Praetors will be tying up enemy models in the backline to continue scoring it. It’s very difficult to screen out two 50 mm landing pads for more than a turn or two, and I expect to score 12 points minimum on this most games.
The other part of the secondary plan is going to be Raise Banners more often than not. Conservai is the Ka’tah specially designated for the Emissaries, and its two stances work together very nicely to let Sagitarrum move up, raise a banner, and still shoot things if they need to that turn. Alternatively, if things are going very well, the game can start in Conservai Stance 1, and then move to both Stances in round 2 to enable models to move and shoot when more enemy units are exposed.
| CONSERVAI |
| Stance 1 |
| This unit can perform an action in a turn in which it Advanced or Fell Back |
| Stance 2 |
| While this unit is performing an action, it can shoot without that action failing. |
This is even more true when combined with the Emissaries bespoke Stratagem that lets a unit take a pre-game move. Models should be able to get to objectives on basically every scenario and put Banners down very early in the game.
The final secondary option is a bit of a flex, often a killing objective like Bring it Down, Assassinate, or Abhor the Witch, but equally likely to be Grind Them Down as most armies struggle to kill more Custodes units than the Custodes kill of their own models. In my dozen or so games against the Ten Thousand with Chaos Knights, I have scored Grind Them Down as Knights less than 10 rounds out of 60.
The Primary game plan is also pretty strong with this army, utilizing reasonably good ranged output to incentivize opponents to close quickly, and then outweighing them on objectives with lots of multi-model Objective Secured bodies. I imagine this list will often pick a flank objective to dominate with ranged output and Vertus Praetor presence and then scrap over the center as the opponent’s resources run dry.
This will be compounded by the fantastic aura increase given by the Emissaries’ unique Warlord Trait going on the Vexilus Praetor for a 9″ bubble of Dense Cover, helping us win the ranged game against a lot of lists that are not dedicated gunlines.
The Guns:
Sagitarrum are obviously the main draw here, with an excellent ranged presence that does not compromise accuracy for power in this list.
Nearly every other model also has a ranged weapon, but the other stand outs are the Vertus Praetors with their battery of S8 D3+3 damage weapons. Making these effectively immune to missing between re-rolls on 1s and hitting on 2s against nearly the entire game is critical as they only get seven shots between the seven bikes.
The Dreadnought also brings a couple of spicy damage profiles on the ranged side of things, and then everything else shoots regular Custodes pot shots or rapid fire Bolters for the sisters.
The Spears (and Axes):
Custodes are drowning in reasonably high AP Damage 2 weapons, but this list is a bit of an exception. The trade-off of the main troops being ranged focus monsters means that the melee heavy lifting has to be done by the Shield Captain on Bike, the other six Vertus Praetors, the Dreadnought, and the ever present Trajann.
That said, against most armies this will be more than enough to handle things that come to try and fight on our “safe” objectives and good enough to finish off damaged things on the central objective(s) after the Sagitarrum are through blasting it for the round.
I mostly play on pretty sizable player placed terrain when at events in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, and I’ve largely seen Custodes players being able to place terrain in such a way as to protect their models on the way into the fight before dominating with a combination of durability and accuracy. The always fight first on the Emissaries should just double down on this strategy.
Initial Thoughts on Ka’tah:
Ka’tah are the flexible options that Custodes get to pick before each game. I’ve only ever been on the receiving end of these before, so thinking about them for my own army has been a delight.
Calistus: I think Calistus fights with Conservai a little too much to bring it most games. Being able to advance and shoot with any weapon is great, but the Bikes are the only things that would really benefit from this, and it feels like too much of a trade off compared to the other stances.
Conservai: I’ll be bringing this every game I imagine, and it should be the first stance I use in most of those. Being able to advance, action, and potentially shoot makes the secondary game incredibly strong.
Dacatari: I think this is a Ka’tah that is extremely easy to underestimate, and a slam dunk against other factions that want to use the fight phase a lot to move around and get into places we don’t want them. Specifically, I think that Harlequins are brutalized by the reduced pile-in and consolidate ranges, and many single wound hordes factions will not like each model getting an extra attack at the cost of -1 damage.
Kaptaris: Another interesting, semi-niche stance, Kaptaris can be absolutely brutal against certain factions (like Word Bearers!) who rely on re-rolls to get consistent damage output. The Second stance which can prevent falling back seems harder to utilize against most things as it requires Infantry to be engaging the target, but could still be quite useful against armies with chaff units that can be engaged to prevent our models from being shot at.
Rendax: “Oh you brought Vehicles or Monsters en masse, guess I get good at killing them now!” Rendax is very straightforward, and will be used against Knights, many Daemon lists, Iron Hands, and more.
Salvus: This is another potentially interesting Ka’tah for this particular list as the first stance increases the range of everything in the army by 4″. Making the big guns from the Sagitarrum Range 19 can be quite a game changer. The second part of this allowing double shots with Auric Weapons is almost completely useless, so I suspect as much as I’d like that extra range, I won’t be bringing this Ka’tah very often.
Overall, I expect to be bringing Conservai every game, and then flexing into two non-Calistus stances most games.
Wrap-Up:
I’m incredibly excited to start playing with my Custodes, with a game against Daemons arranged for sometime this week. The faction looks dynamic, flexible, and extremely interesting to play and to paint and I can’t wait to get started.
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Have you considered going 3/3/4 with the Sagittarums instead of 5/5? Same shots and points but more flexible when it comes to performing multiple actions and allocating shots, as well as being harder to tag/charge by enemies.
Or do you feel it makes Grind them down harder? Though if 2 single Allarus Terminators don’t, fewer Sagittarums per unit might not either.
TBH I hadn’t considered it, I’m pretty much straight cribbing this list from a list I played against at LVO. After an actual game with it last night though, I think I want at least one unit of five so that I can spend 2 CP and throw five of them into Rendax or the +4 Range Ka’tah, I think that’s very powerful to be able to do. That said, I could see running 5/3/3….