The Adeptus Custodes are now tough – very tough – with a typical Toughness of 7 or higher*. This means that many weapons designed to tackle infantry aren't going to make the same impact but, as always, there are exceptions to the rule. Here’s what budding Shield-Captains need to keep an eye on.
There are a number of weapon abilities to watch for: Anti-X, Devastating Wounds, Lance, Lethal Hits, and Melta. Each of these are threatening for different reasons, and many armies have numerous ways of accessing them.
Anti-X, commonly Anti-Infantry, cheats the Toughness of your Custodian Guard by just ignoring it. Armies such as the Adeptus Mechanicus and Drukhari have a selection of units with this weapon ability by default, and with a key stratagem at the right time, the correct leader attached to that unit, or a particular aura, the efficiency of units such as Hastarii Exterminators, Kataphron Breachers, Scourges with Heavy Weapons or Wracks** can become problematic for your proud defenders of the Golden Throne.
Lance is another weapon ability that, to a lesser extent, upsets your incredible Toughness. Armies like Blood Angels have many ways to challenge for the number one gold armour spot, turning an otherwise meagre chance to wound into a more significant probability. Pay particular attention to Sanguinary Guard, their encarmine spears having Lance by default, especially when combined with The Angelic Host detachment rule which increases their efficiency to hit and wound, may punish you for trying to prove your superiority.
Similarly, an honourable mention should be given to the forces of the Black Templars, their Templar Vows offering them the fitting Accept any Challenge, no Matter the Odds ability, which provides an equally impactful improvement to the wound roll that Lance offers just without the need to even charge.
Lethal Hits ignores the wound process in its entirety, which affects all armies equally, but when you’ve got the most elite fighting force in the galaxy, this can prove worrisome. Both Death Guard and Chaos Space Marines should be approached with caution – almost every Death Guard unit has a weapon with Lethal Hits, none more potent than Deathshroud Terminators (who also sport Anti-Infantry 4+ plaguespurt gauntlets). Additionally, most Chaos Space Marines units can get Lethal Hits through Dark Pacts, and Chosen (especially being led by Huron Blackheart and the Masters of the Maelstrom) have a huge number of attacks with sufficient AP to ensure your Custodians will need to rely on their invulnerable save.
CHAOS SPACE MARINES ARMY RULE
DARK PACTS
If your Army Faction is HERETIC ASTARTES, each time a unit with this ability is selected to shoot or fight, it can make a Dark Pact. If it does, it must first take a Leadership test before any effects of that Dark Pact are resolved; if that test is failed, that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. Then, select one of the following abilities for that unit's weapons to gain until the end of the phase:
[LETHAL HITS]
[SUSTAINED HITS 1]
Melta is dangerous in an entirely different way. It won’t make your Toughness count for less, but it will make those high Wounds models suffer for every failed invulnerable saving throw, due to the bonus damage at half range. Space Marine Eradicators and Aeldari Fire Dragons are examples that carry potent weapons with the Melta weapon ability. Adepta Sororitas Retributors can also bring the pain by using Miracle dice from their Acts of Faith army rule to maximise the damage they push through.
Lastly, Devastating Wounds is an unreliable, but perhaps the most threatening, option against an army composed of few models. Every critical wound rolled is one you can’t take a save against, relying instead on your Feel No Pain 5+ versus mortal wounds, meaning that your statuesque demi-gods may rapidly find themselves in trouble. Some potent deliverers of this are World Eaters and Chaos Daemons.
World Eaters require a bit of luck to be blessed with Decapitating Strikes, from the Blessings of Khorne, but it is possible for their entire army to have Devastating Wounds on their melee attacks against Infantry units, making units like Eightbound or large units of Khorne Berzerkers capable of pulling down unfortunate Custodians should they manage to roll a few lucky 6s.
Chaos Daemons are also one to be wary of, such as Skulltaker leading a band of merry Bloodletters. He provides Devastating Wounds to their melee attacks, which can be supplemented by other units, such as a Rendmaster’s Blood Throne ability, to improve their S, AP and D characteristics by 1 for each assisting Rendmaster, before he himself strikes.
WORLD EATERS ARMY RULE
BLESSINGS OF KHORNE
If your Army Faction is WORLD EATERS, at the start of the battle round, you can make a Blessings of Khorne roll. To do so, roll eight D6. You can then use those dice to activate up to two Blessings of Khorne (see right). Each Blessing of Khorne specifies the dice results it requires (where a number is specified, a double or triple of that value or higher is required). You can only activate each Blessing of Khorne once per battle round. Any unused dice from the Blessings of Khorne roll are then discarded. Once activated, each Blessing of Khorne applies to all units from your army with this ability until the end of the battle round.
DECAPITATING STRIKES
Each time a model in this unit makes a melee attack that targets an INFANTRY unit, that attack has the [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] ability.
Of course, there should also be attention given to units with large numbers of attacks at high damage. Imperial and Chaos Knights have many units that can destroy a model in a single strike, Chaos Daemons have Skarbrand offering skulls at an alarming rate, and Orks have the Prophet of the Waaagh! himself – Ghazghkull Thraka – to name just a few who will punish an Adeptus Custodes force should you fail to make an adequate number of save rolls. So just don’t fail your save rolls. Easy, right?***
With key preparation and awareness your Adeptus Custodes will be a force to be reckoned with and many of these challenges will be overcome by destroying your foe before they become a problem or utilising your defensive options to limit the punishment they attempt to inflict.
The new Codex: Adeptus Custodes is available to pre-order from Saturday. Make sure you come back later in the week when we’ll be taking a look at some of our favourite ways to mix-and-match the detachments from the book.
* Excluding the forces of the Anathema Psykana.
** Especially if combined with the Distillers of Fear stratagem in the Covenite Coterie detachment, due to how Devastating Wounds combines with Anti-Infantry.
*** We can’t guarantee that the dice coming out alongside the Codex are blessed by the Emperor, but they can’t hurt.
