The Faction Focus series continues, and today we enter the hallowed halls of the Ten Thousand – the Adeptus Custodes – to see how they’ll enforce the Emperor’s will on the new edition.
Might of the Moritoi
Their first new detachment pays reverence to those Custodians who suffered grievous injuries in the line of duty – enough to overcome even their enhanced physiques – and were interred in a Dreadnought chassis. With such a powerful armoured shell at their command, they barrel across the battlefield to engage the enemy at close range.
MARCH OF THE HONOURED DEAD
The fallen warriors interred in ancient Dreadnought sarcophagi are ever eager for battle, and their hulking forms propel them towards the foe at a deadly pace.
Friendly ADEPTUS CUSTODES WALKER units:
Have +2" M.
Have +1 to advance rolls and charge rolls.
This detachment has the ARMOURY tag and cannot be taken with another ARMOURY detachment.
Dreadnoughts outfitted for close combat will love the March of the Honoured Dead rule, which helps them get into close combat range easier – just where they want to be!
With all that speed, you’ll be thundering into enemy lines like a bolt from the heavens, so it stands to reason that Dreadnoughts in the Might of the Moritoi detachment can throw around the Crushing Impact stratagem – the new name for Tank Shock – with ease.
AURAMITE SARCOPHAGUS (Upgrade)
These ancient sarcophagi are hardened with age and threaded with Dark Age mechanisms. When the warrior within slams their metallic form into the foe, they can crack armour, pulverise bone and wreck enemy war machines.
ADEPTUS CUSTODES WALKER unit only. When you target this unit with the Crushing Impact stratagem, that use is -1 CP.
You will want to show a measure of caution, however – this updated stratagem might now be available to Monsters too, but it comes with a chance of recoil damage should you flub your rolls. It’s a good thing Vehicles and Monsters are tough cookies, so the reward is totally worth the risk.
CRUSHING IMPACT (1CP)
CORE STRATAGEM
In extremis, armoured vehicles and rampaging monsters can use their sheer size as a weapon, ramming and crushing enemies beneath their colossal bulk, though doing so risks sustaining damage in return.
WHEN: Your Charge phase, just after a friendly MONSTER/VEHICLE unit ends a charge move.
TARGET: That MONSTER/VEHICLE unit.
EFFECT: Resolve the following sequence:
Select one enemy unit engaged with your unit.
Select one model in your unit engaged with that enemy unit.
Roll a number of D6 equal to the T characteristic of that model: for each 1, your unit suffers 1 mortal wound; for each 5+, that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound (to a maximum of 6 mortal wounds per unit).
As the most honoured of the Custodians’ interred heroes, the mighty Telemon Heavy Dreadnoughts are extremely powerful and can unleash a storm of heavy firepower on their foes. This is only cranked up to 11 with the new Prioritised Eradication stratagem, which can give a Telemon packing two Arachnus storm cannons a whopping 36 shots at close range.
PRIORITISED ERADICATION (1CP)
MIGHT OF THE MORITOI STRATAGEM
When lauded Telemon pilots turn their pitiless optics upon a proximal threat, the storm of accelerated firepower that ensues leaves naught but smoking ruin.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase, when a friendly TELEMON HEAVY DREADNOUGHT unit is selected to shoot.
TARGET: That TELEMON HEAVY DREADNOUGHT unit.
EFFECT: Your unit’s:
Arachnus Storm Cannon weapons have [RAPID FIRE 6].
Iliastus Accelerator Culverin weapons have [RAPID FIRE 2].
Silent Hunters
The Adeptus Custodes work closely with the Sisters of Silence to tackle psychic or daemonic threats, and these specialist null maidens are an invaluable aid in matters of the empyrean. The genetic quirk that renders them psychic blanks causes nearby souls to recoil at their presence, inducing sickening distractions that harm a foe’s ability to hide effectively.
SKIN-CRAWLING DISORIENTATION
The mere presence of the Silent Sisterhood’s Blanks triggers a sense of agitated revulsion in their enemies. The foe’s discipline breaks down, and watchful focus becomes elusive, allowing positions to be given away and granting the Sisters opportunities to conduct vital strategic operations.
When a friendly ANATHEMA PSYKANA unit is selected to make an advance move, that advance move does not prevent that unit from being eligible to start an action.
Friendly ANATHEMA PSYKANA units have the following ability:
Ceaseless Vigilance: In your Shooting phase, this unit can select one visible enemy unit within 12". That enemy unit is nulled:
While a unit is nulled, that unit has +3" detection range.
The new Hidden rules are one of the big roadblocks to the Telemon-based ranged combat supremacy mentioned above, so the Silent Sisterhood have a valuable niche spotting targets that would otherwise remain safely sequestered in their ruins. They’re also great for performing mission actions while your more valuable Custodians get stuck into the fight, so having them move faster up the field without sacrificing their utility is a major plus.
They are, however, still the anti-psyker powerhouses you know and love, and they’re bringing some new tools to the new edition. Psyk-out Grenades are a great way of pushing past the Invulnerable Saves that many psykers have, and a re-roll on mortal wounds makes them extraordinarily efficient for a single Command Point.
PSYK-OUT GRENADES (Upgrade)
These small, artificer-wrought explosives are deadly enough to lesser foes. Yet the favoured prey of the Sisters of Silence are excruciated or stunned by the grenades’ psi-refractive particles,
convulsing in a vortex of despair.
ANATHEMA PSYKANA unit only.
This unit has EXPLOSIVES.
When you target this unit with the Explosives stratagem, if you select an enemy PSYKER unit, you can re-roll rolls to determine whether that enemy unit suffers a mortal wound.
When faced with large swarms of enemies that overwhelm their limited numbers, the Sisters of Silence can turn to their flamer-wielding Witchseekers to even the odds. By unleashing a Synchronised Inferno, they can spread their flames even wider and engulf massive units in a heartbeat.
SYNCHRONISED INFERNO (1CP)
SILENT HUNTERS STRATAGEM
Coordinating through a rapid exchange of Thoughtmark, Witchseekers unleash a flesh-melting inferno of all-consuming promethium from their flamers.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase, when a friendly WITCHSEEKERS unit is selected to shoot.
TARGET: That WITCHSEEKERS unit.
EFFECT: Your unit’s [TORRENT] ranged attacks have [BLAST 1].
Tharanatoi Hammerblow
The last of the three new detachments revolves around the indomitable Allarus Terminators, specifically their ability to teleport into the middle of battle and smash the deadliest threat on the board in one swift stroke.
THE HAMMER FALLS
Whether striking from amidst roiling teleport flares or advancing from outflanking positions, the most heavily armoured of the Adeptus Custodes hit their foes in terrifyingly sudden incursions.
If a friendly ADEPTUS CUSTODES TERMINATOR unit made an ingress move this turn, that unit can re-roll charge rolls.
This detachment has the LIONS tag and cannot be taken with another LIONS detachment.
Anyone who’s attempted a charge right out of Deep Strike knows that a re-roll is often the difference between glorious victory and tragic failure. Even though you can now drop in 8” away from enemy units, the need to have your target within the charge roll’s distance means you still need to roll a 9 on two D6 – a tricky proposition indeed.
Speaking of Deep Strikes, you can normally only make an ingress move from the second turn onwards, and that gives your opponent plenty of time to screen* their most valuable units. Luckily, a Shield Captain in Allarus Terminator armour can break those rules and arrive in Turn 1 with a simple enhancement, bringing a whole unit of Terminators with him.
MNEMO-LOCKED SHRINE CIPHER
This encrypted activation code dates back to before the Emperor’s compact with Mars. Committed to the enhanced memory of the bearer, it can be uttered to cut through a teleportarium shrine’s layers of ageing protocols to deliver armoured death in the blink of an eye.
ADEPTUS CUSTODES TERMINATOR model only. In your first Movement phase, this unit can make an ingress move.
Even with a re-roll, though, your 9” charge is going to fail more than it succeeds, and that’s when you’ll need to weather a real firestorm until you get your chance again. Allarus Terminators are more than up to the task, and with their Hardened Resolve, they can boost their already impressive durability to monstrous levels.
HARDENED RESOLVE (1CP)
THARANATOI HAMMERBLOW STRATAGEM
Steeling their souls and bracing their indomitable armour, heavily girded Custodians will cleave to their duty and reject attempts to cut them down.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase, when an enemy unit targets a friendly ADEPTUS CUSTODES TERMINATOR unit.
TARGET: That ADEPTUS CUSTODES TERMINATOR unit.
EFFECT: Your unit has +1 T.
Taking all three of these one-point detachments together gives you a strong backbone for a hyper-elite army of Terminators and Dreadnoughts, backed up by much more numerous Sisters of Silence who can run around completing objectives while your golden speartip plunges into the enemy army. They also combine well with many of the existing detachments** – most of which will cost 2 DP – by enhancing a core part of the army that the rest can support.
We’ll be back tomorrow with another company of immensely durable warriors, though this time of a far more Chaotic and pestilent nature – the plague-ridden Death Guard.
* Screening is the process of putting less valuable units around an important element of your army to prevent charges and ingress moves behind your lines.
** You get 3 DP to spend in a 2,000 point game, so you can take all three 1 DP detachments or combine one of them with a 2 DP detachment.
