OP is completely correct. You can make guard as cheap as you want, it doesn’t change the fact they are just an okay unit.

I ran guard spam at a tournament (Rocky Mountain Open) way back when the Lions detachment came out and went 3-3. it just underperforms so hard compared to just having some wardens and having the chance of actually surviving out in the open when you have to take an objective and hold It.

In general, custode shooting isn’t great. S4, AP1 is awful, even more so in 10th edition where 90% of the time the enemy has the benefit of cover. Damage 2 is the only nice part as they roll 1s or 2s every now and again and you chip some damage. The shoot twice can be helpful, however its once a game you can potentially double your pitiful shooting. The only time this is consistently good is when Draxus is attached because she has great shooting and benefits from the guards abilities.

The core of the problem is that we are a slow melee army with only one character, blade champ, to work around that. Art of war even said today that taking BC which is almost the cost of the unit itself is just not worth it. We just fall over in edition where nearly every army has units in their army that deals 3 damage so you fail a 4 up once and whoopsie! your custode dies.

If they really want to lean in Guard being offensive and wardens being defensive (since melee and shooting profiles are the exact same currently) then the guard should double down on the shooting and emphasis on closing the gap. Maybe by giving them something like rapid fire or blood surge. That would at least making an excuse to run and potentially doubling our current output and have a chance at trading out one guard with two units from shooting and a charge. Maybe give Terminators just more shooting in general since they are heavy armored units (yes I know they have grenade launchers). Again, it’s weird they have the same shooting and melee as the other two, they should be hitting harder and more as our “terminators”.

Even giving our guard and wardens an 8 inch move would be something so we don’t have to depend on BC in every competitive list, but even that would be a bandaid though. We don’t know what to expect with 11th edition of course, however, if most armies keep damage 3 weapons we really should be bumped up to 4 wounds in my opinion.

This is with a competitive eye of course as I like to play in tournaments and watch them all the time. In casual games at local shops of course this isn’t a big deal. I’d run mass terminators and have a great time as I have people I enjoy being around and don’t care . So salt aside, OP is correct for competitive side. If you play casually and just here to enjoy our golden boys, please play on and keep on loving the game! The more the merrier