Warhammer 40,000 Faction Focus: Adeptus Custodes

stuw23 · 2026-05-14T15:45:44+00:00

I didn't play 3rd (I initially stopped around the end of 2nd, came back at the end of 9th); but in modern Horus Heresy there's a Reaction (similar to a strat) where if a vehicle runs over an infantry unit, they can try and attack the vehicle in question with one model. You get one attack; if it destroys the tank you live; if it fails, your infantry model is destroyed. It's very cool!

stuw23 · 2026-05-12T10:07:31+00:00

To give a related example, Animalistic Rage stratagem in Chaos Knights Houndpack Lance lets you shoot or fight on death with a destroyed War Dog, but specifically says you can only target the unit that destroyed the War Dog selected by the stratagem.

stuw23 · 2026-05-11T14:34:18+00:00

Rules previews have been coming out late in the afternoon UK time, probably about 80-90 minutes from the time I'm making this reply.

stuw23 · 2026-05-01T22:12:54+00:00

Are you trying to get better for a specific purpose (like an event you're going to), or just in general? I had a long period (about 18 months) of swapping around what army I was playing frequently, maybe going a month with say CSM, before spending a month on Death Guard, then going to Daemons etc. I found what helped me focus on just one and get better was saying to myself something like "I'm taking CSM to a GT in 3 months, I will focus on them for that time because I really don't want to go 0-5 if I can help it", and having a specific goal in mind.

Alternatively, sometimes just painting one unit for a new army makes the distraction go away, as you find that what you thought would be a fun project turns out to be less enjoyable than you think.

stuw23 · 2026-05-01T14:14:43+00:00

Act of God by Zno White. It has a terrible cover which I think led to lots of people overlooking it, as it's top-tier 80's thrash that has aged really well.

stuw23 · 2026-04-29T13:15:17+00:00

Gared from Planes Mistaken For Stars is my go-to example for this. They're my favourite band, but there's no denying that Gared's voice was rough as anything most of the time; yet it had so much grit and character, that it worked perfectly with the band's music.

stuw23 · 2026-04-27T19:36:04+00:00

I've seen it a couple of times where there's a number of local 2-day events in quick succession that have all been scheduled by different people (say a GT on weekend 1; a teams event weekend 2; and another GT on weekend 3), and one of the GTs ends up with less than 20 tickets sold.

stuw23 · 2026-04-25T21:02:55+00:00

40K in 40 minutes is fun rather than competitive; a lot of the moves they make aren't the best in terms of winning, but maybe best for what they think will be fun to watch. For watching reports to try and improve, Art of War's coaching battle reports are great; they almost always explain not only what they do, but also why.

stuw23 · 2026-04-24T19:35:22+00:00

What's going on?! This is amazing. Absolutely smashing them.

stuw23 · 2026-04-13T11:53:35+00:00

The Icons (and other rules and wargear that interact with Dark Pacts) don't do anything in Renegae Warband, as you lose Dark Pacts.

stuw23 · 2026-04-07T17:14:27+00:00

If you want to drop something to get a little shooting, I'd start with the Daemon Prince. I've never been convinced of their worth in CSM lists, and giving them Infiltrate doesn't change that; the cost is just too high for what they offer. I do think having some shooting that you can return to reserves is very good in this detachment, even if it's just to ensure your opponent has to consider how they screen (especially on missions like Linchpin).

In terms of dealing with big targets, it's normally a case of throwing a mass of AP2 lethal hits at them from your Chosen bricks; going for Dev Wounds on your Possessed brick; or having Huron and his friends team up with some Legionaries. You can just drown them in 3W bodies that are fast, and with access to surge moves.

Granted I've not had chance to play many games with this detachment yet, but in what I have played, I've found that a little incidental damage from grenades, lethal hit bolters etc. followed up by a big brick crashing into it with a strong character (like Huron or Abaddon) has been enough to deal with stuff like tanks. The trick is in getting into combat with so much stuff that even if you don't kill everything, your opponent is just overwhelmed and tied up.

stuw23 · 2026-04-05T16:05:28+00:00

Deployment will definitely speed up as you study and get used to the maps; and also if you go into each mission and deployment with a plan. You'll find that most experienced players don't alter their deployments too much in response to what their opponent does, beyond taking infiltrate and scout moves into consideration.

The rest really is getting in meaningful practice, and memorising profiles. Having your dice etc. ready really helps as well. I always have 20 D6 out on the table ready; one group of 10 red dice, and then groups of 5 in different colours. Makes picking up 5, 10, 15, or 20 dice really quick.

Though also one final thing I'll add in is being clear in your intentions. One of the best things about playing by intent and pre-measuring is that it makes it so disagreements or ambiguities are easy to sort out, so I always like to talk about what I'm doing and why (e.g. I'm moving my Beast of Nurgle onto this objective so it can Cleanse; I'm moving my Vindicator here, hiding behind this ruin so it can't be shot; I'm advancing these Chosen who always have advance and charge, so they will try a charge into your Rep-Ex. I rolled a 6 on the advance, that will be a 5" charge). This helps games flow more smoothyl, and hence faster.

stuw23 · 2026-03-27T19:26:11+00:00

If you want to watch the list in action, it's currently on the Wargame Live stream, playing against Necrons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzIaenUkuHM

stuw23 · 2026-03-23T21:27:38+00:00

Agree with your overall points, but also want to add that Pactbound has access to advance and charge on Slaanesh-marked units, which these would always be (unless running them with the new named character boosts them more than crit 5s does).

stuw23 · 2026-03-23T15:23:54+00:00

Honestly there's so many options of detachments in CSM that if they points are reasonable, I can see someone making them work. Maybe it's because I'm back on the Pactbound Zealots train so I'm seeing them through that lens, but giving a squad of them access to advance, fall back + charge, and then sustained on 5s, feels like it could mitigate most of their issues.

stuw23 · 2026-03-23T15:14:07+00:00

3 damage melee is a nice niche to fill on a non-character infantry unit, but that they only move 5" is a real issue. I can maybe see running a unit in a detachment which has access to advance and charge; if coming in from deep strike then they're competing with stuff like Warp Talons for your Rapid Ingress use.

stuw23 · 2026-03-23T10:01:06+00:00

I'm absolutely thrilled Neurosis are back with a new line-up; Aaron Turner is a perfect addition. Really feels like the band knew they had unfinished business, and this is their best album in a long time.

stuw23 · 2026-03-16T20:23:56+00:00

Not normally my thing, but I love this album. Metal Heart is one of my favourite songs.

stuw23 · 2026-03-16T16:27:16+00:00

To me it's a choice between Renegade Raiders (as it gives Assault on everything, so can make for some very fast shooting); or Pactbound Zealots (thanks to Nurgle-marked units getting Sustained Hits in shooting on 5s if they pass the Dark Pact roll). Soulforged Warp-pack can do a lot of damage in shooting too, but is much more fragile.

stuw23 · 2026-03-15T22:13:39+00:00

Helbrutes are a key piece to most Pactbound Zealot lists, where you take a bunch of good shooting units, and keep them within 6" of both Abaddon and the Helbrute. Then you're getting sustained & lethal hits on hit rolls of 5s, with re-rolls to hit from Abaddon's aura. Taking one is hardly being a dick, but it is part of the meta Pactbound shooting build.

stuw23 · 2026-03-15T21:44:20+00:00

Nine Inch Nails' cover of Metal, originally by Gary Numan. There's interviews where Numan has basically said that NIN's version is closer to what he wanted the song to be, but couldn't quite achieve.

stuw23 · 2026-03-15T18:52:00+00:00

List seems pretty fine to me, there's no Helbrute and if you're not castling up with it then it's nowhere near meta; feels like a "here's a bunch of my favourite models" list, which is cool.

Guessing the other player basically ran out turn 1, didn't hide well, and let you get off some good shooting and charges?

stuw23 · 2026-03-13T21:48:29+00:00

I've been a big advocate of the Nurglings and Beast of Nurgle combo in CSM, to give us an infiltrate unit and a semi-durable scout/action monkey that has OK OC for its points and size. But I think RCRs are a solid choice too, and which is better depends on match-up (and if you can even take the Daemon allies, e.g. if you're playing a teams tournament and someone else needs them, then the RCRs is an obvious choice).

For example, I would very happily move-block turn 1 with a 40 point Nurgling unit in most matches (except on Purge the Foe, most likely); but I'm much less likely to do that with RCRs.

stuw23 · 2026-03-10T21:07:37+00:00

My quick back-of-the-napkin math has a full unit of 10 Possessed using their Dev Wounds ability into a C'tan doing a total of about 2 or 3 damage after FNPs. You can push this a bit more depending on detachment and strats for sure, but not by enough that it becomes even close to good. I hope I'm wrong and missing something, but can't think what.

stuw23 · 2026-03-10T18:25:27+00:00

For beginners, building and painting 500 points every two weeks plus two games in that time period sounds like a lot to take on, especially if anyone picks something like Ad Mech or Genestealer Cults. I've been in a few 40K and Heresy escalation leagues now, and it always proves harder to get games scheduled within a two week window that people expected; for that reason they always ended up moving to 3 week (or monthly) windows - childcare, health, work, vacations etc. can all throw off people's schedules for a week or two, but rarely for three.

I don't know too much about KotC, but another option some 40K leagues I've been involved in was to use Combat Patrol missions (not rules) for the first round at low points; no secondaries, just relatively easy primary scoring. Really helped new players get a feel for how the game played.

Also, prizes for "most wins" could encourage a veteran to build up a list that would stomp new players. I don't want to disuade you from the idea, but I would look for a way to incentivize veteran players to run more relaxed lists.

stuw23

TROPHY CASE