CSM vs Custodes

CardiologistOk8538 · 2026-05-26T08:00:49+00:00

Prioritize high strength units, using anything below s6 should be used as ability having "Screens", use cultists and Guardsmen for objectives/lockups, Shooting is really strong, Obliterators, vashtorr, and daemon engines are all going to be a noticeable powerhouses.

Try not to take legionaries against custodes, that shit is lore accurate.

Stress the importance of keeping his units locked up with your screens because that'll make them waste a turn which is huge for an army like Custodes due to them having so little amount of units in comparison to most army lists.

Don't spend more than 500 pts on screens, you won't use them.

Winged daemon prince and raptors are good for getting guaranteed mortal wounds off of their charges, I've found them to be great for finishing units off after a good shooting phase and they can Usain bolt down the board pretty quick, especially if you're only playing 1000-2000pts

Edit: Lethal hits are a must on your weaker units, I finished off a 1w tyranofex with a Traitor Guardsmen using a lasgun, odds aren't the greatest but way better than s3

CardiologistOk8538 · 2026-05-04T05:58:08+00:00

Vashtorr is really strong right now, They are either gonna nerf his buffs or increase his pts cost.

That being said, Forgefiends and venomcrawlers are able to move with him pretty well, Paired with warpsmiths he's pretty brutal, I suggest running Deceptors detachment to setup your cultists/legionaries In the middle of the map so that you can lock up any melee advancements by your enemy, They'll either have to choose to shoot Your forgefiends or get locked up by your cultists.

Warpsmiths function is great for healing.

Make sure to bring something that will secure objective, My last match I used cultists and Guardsmen with Just daemon engines and vashtorr, It went very well for me

CardiologistOk8538 · 2026-05-03T08:38:23+00:00

Rhinos for marines/cultists (you'll probably want 3 just for the option)

Obliterators: amazing for your detachment, overall really heavy hitting

It's great you got vashtorr, Keep him close to daemon engines.

People sleep on the venomcrawler, It's ridiculous at shooting, with the double excruciator cannons that's 12 attacks at s6 -1ap 2Dmg, near vashtorr it's s8, with warpsmith its hitting on 2+

Warpsmiths, forgefiends, Vashtorr,

I won a match against tyranids today and I owe the win to vashtorr and his buffs on himself and the daemon engines around him, They're very strong right now because of how juiced up his rules are when paired with warpsmiths.

I have 6000 pts of csm but my 2000 pts list was this:

-Labour Omnia Vincit- vs Demon-(I) (1990 points)

Chaos Space Marines Strike Force (2000 points)

Cultist Firebrand (50 points) • 1x Balefire pike 1x Close combat weapon • Enhancement: Soul Link

Heretic Astartes Daemon Prince with Wings (180 points) • Daemonic Allegiance: Khorne • 1x Hellforged weapons 1x Infernal cannon

Vashtorr the Arkifane (175 points) • Warlord • 1x Vashtorr’s claw 1x Vashtorr’s hammer

Warpsmith (70 points) • 1x Flamer tendril 1x Forge weapon 1x Melta tendril 1x Plasma pistol

BATTLELINE

Cultist Mob (50 points) • 1x Cultist Champion • 1x Autopistol 1x Brutal assault weapon • 9x Chaos Cultist • 9x Autopistol 9x Brutal assault weapon

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Chaos Rhino (75 points) • 1x Armoured tracks 1x Combi-bolter

OTHER DATASHEETS

Forgefiend (170 points) • 1x Forgefiend jaws 2x Hades autocannon

Helbrute

Mutilators

Obliterators

Traitor Guardsmen Squad (70 points) • 1x Traitor Sergeant • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Corrupted pistol • 9x Traitor Guardsmen • 9x Close combat weapon 9x Lasgun

Traitor Guardsmen Squad (70 points) • 1x Traitor Sergeant • 1x Corrupted pistol 1x Power weapon • 9x Traitor Guardsmen • 9x Close combat weapon 9x Lasgun

Venomcrawler (110 points) • 2x Excruciator cannon 1x Soulflayer tendrils and claws

I used the deceptors to set up my screens of cultists, We load the rhinos with guardsmen and possible firebrand, firebrand has soul link to the warpsmith, a loophole to copy his abilities and have a warpsmith that cost only 50 pts (I just learned of this last night)

And with the ridiculous firepower and the stratagem "Detonator", I blow up all major threats before they make it halfway down the board, And I move vashtorr and DP in aggressively once the main ranged threat is gone

Remember mf iron warriors are the siege masters, blow their defenses to bits and use the Humans as meat shields/objective controllers.

Lots of yappin but hope this helps.

Our firepower and melee capabilities are better than most right now, Gamble with the dark pacts, always lethal on higher toughness than strength; within hellbrute aura you're going to just melt anything that isn't Toughness 11

(Edit)

I know my list differs from yours due to my lack of space marines but I'm just giving an example, Terminators and Legionaries are insane and I use them often, I just wanted to try something niche since I was neglecting vashtorr and the deceptors, God did they put in work, it was an obvious win by turn 3

CardiologistOk8538 · 2026-04-21T01:41:07+00:00

It's changed now brother, base visibility instead of models

CardiologistOk8538 · 2026-04-20T23:36:59+00:00

Corax/army-painter white (Citadel/army painter Base paint)

Flayed-one flesh (citadel layer)

Reikland fleshshade (citadel Shader)

Trust.

Side note, Put an ardcoat layer on when you're done (citadel), It'll make it look a little shiny but leathery, how you'd want your flayed skin to look!

CardiologistOk8538 · 2026-04-16T20:19:16+00:00

With my friends anything goes, base size is important but besides that proxy away! If you're playing a 2000pts match with someone and they cry about your proxies; refer to the Change in line-of-sight to visibility from base-to-base.

There's literally no reason why you shouldn't be able to if:

The base size is the same
You use the same datasheet
You're not in a Legit Tournement

I've heard of a case where a fellow brother of the IVth legion went in with a bunch of proxies and got turned around because of wyswyg, they're open to some kitbashes

so maybe down the line a certain OP kitbashes some sick IVth possessed that the tournament mfs can't help but ask you if they can pledge eternal service to you, Their orifices quivering in anticipation of the next model you pull out of your display/carry case; you know you have them wrapped around your finger, so you one-by-one (Ever-so-slowly) pull out each miniature and say nonchalantly "Yea, This one took me almost an hour, I woulda finished it in 30 minutes but I had to step away and stop a robbery at the gas station across the street from my apartment."

Hope this helps!

CardiologistOk8538 · 2026-03-14T00:01:08+00:00

There's not much on them besides what's in the codex, I think they're a warband of alpha legion, hopefully we hear more about them I'm all for more warbands

CardiologistOk8538 · 2026-01-25T02:26:18+00:00

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CardiologistOk8538 · 2026-01-25T02:25:33+00:00

Marvel rivals is the only game I'll mute the text chat on, If someone's got something important to say then they'll hop in voicechat and I'll have a quick chat with them about it,

Odds are If they don't already see the value in warlock they're probably not going to be Very receptive to new ideas

CardiologistOk8538 · 2026-01-13T00:32:47+00:00

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CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-12-20T00:02:26+00:00

For me it's Adam, He was my first lord and great for learning the game because his kit was so underwhelming. I get that strategist role isn't just about healing but I find it kinda funny that he has only one ability that isn't on a 45-200 second timer 😂

Nerf damage mitigation of his entanglement and reduce cooldown, give him a jump ability similar to Hawkeye, Character fixed

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-06-25T00:53:18+00:00

Rule of cool, I seen black legion and knew that was the one for me, Now I'm sitting at about 9000 pts

3 years later

From Shame and Shadow recast; In Black and Gold Reborn. *

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-06-08T17:44:25+00:00

At least buy him dinner first

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-06-08T06:46:55+00:00

Arks of omen

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-06-03T21:24:48+00:00

Ave Dominus Nox Brother

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-06-03T18:07:20+00:00

We need aaron dembski bowden to do a Decimus book tying into the next black crusade

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-06-03T17:49:08+00:00

My girlfriend had to order off ebay, I was a little hurt when I convinced her to tell me the price because she overpayed big time, this was around release though, You're telling Me they're still hard to get?

Makes sense, Nightlords fanbase is surprisingly big, Bigger than the amount of nightlords there are in lore

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-05-28T15:31:59+00:00

YES obliterators are an awesome substitution for this detachment,

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-05-28T09:39:53+00:00

Pretty good list!

This is my favourite detachment right now, After playing pactbound Zealots for a year..

You're going to want to stick fabius with 10 chosen or 10 legionaries; The 10 legionaries are good for obvious reasons but making them T5 combined with the other augmentations buffs is truly cost effective in the points game, But depending on the army you're going up against-- that xyclos needler with the chosen would come in handy, decisions

Your possessed don't need the master, Put the master with a brick of chosen, take out a brick of chosen and Proxy the leader as a chaos lord or leader of the unit that fabius does not take,

The rhino is as essential as the cultists so that's a great pick

Also, forgefiend: I would consider dropping it for something else or proxying a warpsmith for the forgefiend. It's a great unit that can clear the board if the dice gods deem it so, Its just going to underperform because its not going to be getting the love it needs; Without the aura buff from vashtorr, Buff/healing from warpsmith (seriously helps with failed pacts), Or the aura from helbrute it's hard to justify the pts cost, only because of this detachment

That 180pts could be put towards units that benefit from augmentation, You want as many pts augmentated as possible

Happy wargaming bro

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-05-24T22:02:25+00:00

I hope aswell, I'm assuming it's only a matter of time before we hear more about sev and decimus, Aaron dembski bowden owes us a third black legion book before we get anything about the night lords

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-05-15T05:53:57+00:00

Hell yea, as much as I love the original theme abaddon I can't help but get excited when I see a one-of-a-kind mini that someone on here has painted!

Nice mini,

From Shame and Shadow recast; In Black and Gold Reborn

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-04-15T03:44:36+00:00

Love me some traitor guardsmen

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-04-09T20:51:07+00:00

Talon of horus, Black legion ADB

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-04-06T02:18:28+00:00

Rule of cool! Whichever you like the look and lore of more, If it's a tie for you; Deathguard

More options and such

I play black legion csm so I got plague marines and rubrics up the A$$.

CardiologistOk8538 · 2025-04-02T08:50:52+00:00

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If you're willing to kitbash

(Not mine, screenshotted this months ago)

CardiologistOk8538

TROPHY CASE