The new Legio Custodes Battle Group box is coming up for pre-order this Saturday, and you don’t need to be one of the Emperor’s glorious bodyguards to use their brand new miniatures in Warhammer: The Horus Heresy.
If you’re anything like us, it only took one look to know you needed some on your side of the field, but you don’t have to be the Talons of the Emperor to use the new miniatures. So how exactly is it done, and why would you want them in your army?
How?
The first and biggest question: who do you fight for? Because if it’s Horus, we’ve got bad news – the Legio Custodes were unflappably loyal and wouldn’t even think about the possibility of joining the Traitor cause.
For the Loyalists, it’s as simple as adding an Allied Detachment to your army, which gives you a Command slot for your Shield Captain and plenty of Troops slots for your Custodian and Sentinel Guard Sodalities. Normally you’d only be able to take one Auxiliary Detachment to contain either the Dreadnought or the grav-tank and need Logistical Benefit to fit the other in, but the Legio Custodes have access to a new Prime Advantage – Prefect – which gives the Shield Captain the Officer of the Line (2) ability (and an extra Wound as a bonus) so you have more room to expand your force later.
PREFECT
The title of Prefect denotes a senior Shield Captain, being a mark of both veterancy and authority. Whenever the overwhelming might of an entire Shield Host of the Legio Custodes is called to arms, a single Prefect is always appointed as second in command to its Tribune, or even – on rarer occasions – the Shield Host’s sole commander.
This Prime Advantage may only be selected for a Prime Slot used to select a Shield Captain Unit. All Models in the Unit selected to fill a Prime Slot with this Prime Advantage modify their Base Wounds Characteristic by +1 and gain the Officer of the Line (2) Special Rule.
The only other thing you need to remember is that up to half of your army’s points can be in Allied Detachments, so don’t go over-spending – the might of the Legio Custodes doesn't come cheap, with a six-strong Sodality of Custodian Guard costing nearly as much as three Tactical Squads.
Why?
Which brings us onto the next question: why would you want these paragons in your army to begin with? Well, besides the unassailable fact that they look amazing, the raw power of the average Custodian is hard to match elsewhere in the Imperium’s roster. They can split Terminators in two with a single sweep and resist an ungodly amount of return fire, with even the most basic Custodian* possessing the rare Eternal Warrior (1) rule that cuts down on the damage they suffer.
Though perfectly capable at ranged combat, it’s in the melee that the Legio Custodes truly shine, and there are few better duellists for dunking on your opponent’s Praetor in Challenges than a Shield Captain. Their gleaming eternity blades are as nimble as they are deadly – with an Initiative modifier and the Duellist’s Edge (1) rule on their stacked profile – and Custodians get access to four special Gambits for ultimate fighting flexibility.
Want to play it safe and ward off the opponent’s blows? Adopt the Stone’s Aegis stance and bump your Toughness even higher. Time to hack the enemy down in a single lethal chop? The World Serpent’s Bane will do nicely.
STONE’S AEGIS
In concert with their peerless auramite armour and incredibly resilient physiology, the praesidium shields borne by many Custodians rendered them nigh unstoppable, and a flurry of attacks from even the most terrible weapons could not forestall the lethal reprisal when their guard finally dropped.
This Gambit modifies a Model’s Toughness by +1 but causes Wound Tests made for it to fail on a 1 or 2.
This Gambit may only be selected for a Model with the ‘Shield’ Trait. If this Gambit is selected, then the Model for which it was selected gains a +1 modifier to its Toughness Characteristic for the duration of the Strike Step, but any Wound Tests made for that Model in the same Strike Step automatically fail on a natural result of 1 or 2.
WORLD SERPENT’S BANE
Standing vigilant at the Emperor’s side since the earliest wars of Unification, the Custodians had cast down the most unspeakable horrors of Old Night, slaying towering monstrosities with a single pinpoint strike in defiance of their seeming invulnerability.
This Gambit limits a Model to one attack but sets that attack’s Damage Characteristic to the Model’s remaining wounds.
If this Gambit is selected, the Model for which it was selected may only make a single attack in the following Strike Step regardless of its Attacks Characteristic, but the Damage Characteristic of the Weapon used to make that attack is modified to be equal to the Model’s current Wounds Characteristic while that attack is resolved.
We also can’t ignore that their presence is a big narrative win for your army, who must be on a pretty special mission for the Legio Custodes to show up. That’s the kind of prestige Traitor armies just can’t replicate.
If you need any further reasons to bring the Legio Custodes into your army, then you clearly haven’t been looking at them enough. Check out our initial reveal again, then come back on Saturday to get your pre-orders in.
* If anything about them could ever be described as ‘basic’.
