How are your Custodes doing?

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Really great Work rcoon you should be proud.

[necroscope]

Well 3 bikes just aren't cutting it.  I'm adding 3 more and slightly breaking my pure army rule depending on what army I fight.  This is my new plan, again this isn't for tournaments I'm trying for casual competitive with some variety in the list and trying to resist adding guard as I'm not big on the models.  

Captain General

Guard Spears x3

Guard Spears x3

Guard Shields x3

Vexilus Praetor, Magnifica

Terminators x3

Terminator Shield Captain, Warlord Superior Creation, Eagle Eye

Bike squad x3 bolters

Bike squad x3 2 bolters, 1 salvo

Achilles Dread

Fighting an army with psykers drop one bike and add Culexus assassin.  Super psyker army drop two bikes and add Culexus assassin and one shield captain on foot as warlord with Implacable mind.  

So I have to buy 3 more bikes (no no no!  I hate making these models), Achilles dread and a Terminator, not so bad.  Bummed that I have to drop the wardens as I love their models but they just aren't even close to worth it even with points drops.  Like Reivers they should have been a troop choice and not elite imho.  

Also I know I didn't take one of our best units, a bike captain.  I wanted to but I couldn't find a way to make him fit and have the variety in units I wanted.  

 

Edited December 16, 2018 by necroscope

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Had a game last versus Astra Militarium... he had a Shadowsword, Straken, Yarrick, Cullexus, melee sentinel squads (FW?), three Hellhounds, and lots of guardsmen plus some ratling snipers. I deployed a good chunk of my army in reserve and everything else hidden in ruins. Moment of the match was Allarus, Wardens and a Praetor charged the super heavy - it couldn’t overwatch because of the concussion grenade trick - they blew it sky high that turn. Mephiston shredded the sentinels - wow he’s such a beast !!!

[swordofmandulis]

Concussion grenades only work on infantry units unfortunately

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Batrep incoming !!!

 

https://greenblowfly.blogspot.com/2018/12/battle-on-red-planet-9.html

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Basically tabled Ynnari this evening. The second and third turns were epic.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Won my city league tonite in a grueling championship game versus Knights and IG. Board control won it this time.

 

[rcoon]

Tidied up the cabinet and my army. Got most of the custodes units done, just power swords and faces left to do. Then an ever growing IG army to deal with...

 

 

[swordofmandulis]

Quick run down of the doubles tourney I did yesterday.

 

Teamed up with Space wolves

Wolf lord on Twolf

2x4 TWC

1x cyber wolf

5x Long fangs

 

Shield captain on bike

5 x custodian guard (1 sword and shield)

Telemon arachnus and illiastus

 

First mission was Four Pillars from CA, nightmare mission as we had 1 troop unit and only troops can score the objectives, we faced Drukhari and Astra Militarum

 

2x archon, 3x cabalite, 4 x venom and a ravager

Cadian batallion with 4 infantry squads

Catachan spearhead 2 x basilisk, manticore.

 

We opted to go second and weathered the first round of shooting not losing a unit, they held the 2 objectives on their side, I split fired the telemon and got greedy and when all was said and done I left one poxy guardsman on the objective so they scored 1 at the end of the round for holding more objectives when we should have been 2 - 0 for first strike and killing more, this is going to be almost impossible to win we thought.

 

The TWC had lots of problems on this board with bits of terrain they couldnt fit through but we got them up there in turn 2, my bike captain had gone really far up so tanked a hell of a lot of the fire, this turn we made an ungodly amount of saves and lost almost nothing, we did lose the last long fang, in our turn my bike captain left 1 cabalite on one of their objectives and then died to his blaster in overwatch, damn it. But the wolves got in, killed the Ravager, and piled into the manticore shutting it down. Big Tel began reaping a toll taking down a venom and badly damaging another. We scored 1 for killing more units and they scored 1 for warlord and nothing for the obj as we each held 1.

 

3-1 to them

 

Round 3 we scored 1 for killing more and they scored none, I made nearly all of my saves from blasters and lascannons on the telemon and they killed off one of the TWC units, we killed the manticore and another squad of guard that had a couple left, the telemon still cutting down venoms and cabalite warriors. End of round 3 it's 3-2.

 

Round 4 was to be the last round due to time. They killed off the wolf lord which put them up to 4 points after their turn, Telemon still in his top bracket and we have 2 thunder wolves with hammer and shield left. In our turn telemon does what he has to, clears 3 cabalite warriors from one objective and 5 from another, the TWC charge both of his archons, both attack the warlord, he has a 2++, 4 saves to make, rolls a 1, and that's the game, we score 1 for killing more, 1 for warlord and 1 for line breaker, incredible 5-4 win in the worst possible mission and a really bad match up. Telemon is the star man by a mile.

 

Game 2 to follow

Edited January 13, 2019 by swordofmandulis

[swordofmandulis]

Game 2

 

Open war, add up the power level of every unit you destroy, characters, vehicles and monsters are worth double, acid rain twist - 1 to hit, advance and charge. Deployment is right up to the centre line

 

Tyranids and necrons

Swarmlord

Broodlord

10 GS

10 Gargoyles

Trygon prime

 

Overlord

Cryptek

20 warriors

10 tesla immortals

Triarch stalker

 

They deployed aggressively so we deployed more defensively, aware that the Swarmlord and genestealers can hit us turn 1 easily, as it happens we get to go first.

 

We kill some gargoyles and take the stalker down to 2 wounds, some lucky rolls on quantum saving that, TWC charge the gargoyles and kill them piling into the stalker to shut it down, bike captain charges the immortals to shut them down. In their turn we get counter charged by Swarmlord into the wolves and GS and overlord into my captain, the GS whiff hard and only do a couple of wounds to my captain, we interrupt and the wolves hit swarmy, only 1 gets through the save though, and when he hits back the one stormshield in that squad fails his first save and they end up getting wiped.

 

Turn 2 I fall me bike captain back and between him and the telemon we kill the genestealers, Telemon finishes off the stalker and the long fangs get the brood Lord down to 3 wounds although he is going to get right up in my captains face, wolf lord and the other TWC move up to go for the necron warriors but its an 11 inch charge with the acid rain still coming down which they fail, custodian guard charge the Swarmlord, surely they can put him down, he has 5 wounds to get through and I use +1 to wound strat, alas the dice fail me, 6 1's to hit and no re rolls, I end up doing 2 wounds, he hits back and kills 2 of mine. Brood Lord casts smite on my bike, double 6, he decides to keep it, rolls a 5, command points it, into a 6, the broodlord goes bang, brains all over the place, my captain takes 2 from the explosion so has 1 left. Necron warriors put 40 shots into the TWC and kill one, Trygon came in and shot my captain but no damage and failed his charge.

 

I fall back from swarmy and gun him down with the telemon, take a big chunk out of the Trygon with the long fangs, TWC and Lord charge the warriors and begin cutting them down. Trygon fails to get into my captain again with a bad roll on the charge, warriors fall back but with no other guns the TWC only have to face the over watch again next turn.

 

Final game turn, the wolves and the 3 remaining Custodes take down the cryptek and remaining warriors, Trygon gets massacred by the telemon and all they have left is the immortals and overlord. We win 113 points to 16. Telemon was the hero of the battle again.

Edited January 13, 2019 by swordofmandulis

[swordofmandulis]

So we head to the final game

 

Maelstrom of War, tactical cascade I think it's called, you choose your first 2 objectives, and then you generate 2 for each one you achieve the previous turn up to max 6. Front line assault deployment.

 

Necrons

Overlord

3x scarabs

2 x tesla barges

4 x destroyers

10 x tesla immortals

 

Space wolves

Wolf lord on TWolf

4 x TWC TH/SS

5 x wulfen

6 x intercessors

 

We deploy first and let them go first, they have chose 2 defends in their deployment zone, both units hidden behind terrain, the do almost nothing in their turn and hand over to us, we chose a defend and a secure, cyber wolf is holding the defend out of sight and we secure the one in front of the Custodes in the middle also behind a decent bit of terrain. I'm able to draw Los to the scrarbs holding one of their defends and murder them with with the telemon, we dont do much else. They score 1 defend and draw 2 new objectives. We score 1 and first strike, end of round 1 its 2-2.

 

Turn 2 he brings the destroyers in from reserve as he paid a CP to do that, they line up on the telemon, he veil of darkness the immortals to an objective and range of the long fangs, the TWC come round the centre ready for a 4" charge in my custodian guard. The annihilation barges fly up and don't do much this turn. Long fangs don't stand much of a chance vs the tesla as he solar flares to ignore cover, the destroyers barely scratch big tel and he only drops 2 wounds. TWC go for the charge, he hadn't accounted for the crater one of his guys was in, and I pop tanglefoot and roll a 5, needs an 11 on the dice, even with the reroll for the wulfen they fail. The annihilation barges actually did knock 2 TWC off this turn.

In our turn I charge the TWC with my custodian guard, tried for the wolf lord too as we had kingslayer but I rolled really low, Telemon took out the 4 destroyers, even with cover they couldn't stand up to the firepower, bike captain flew up ready to charge in if need be but he was able to switch to the intercessor squad and left 2 alive after shooting and combat. So the main fight was my custodian guard and our 2 TWC vs his 4 TWC, our wolves stuck first and removed 1 after he CP a save and managed to keep a second one alive, then he interrupted and put a lot of attacks into my 5 Custodes as they were buffed by wulfen stone, I lost 2, the flat 3 damage being brutal. But my hit back was strong, I killed 2 and one guy was left on 2 wounds. Scoring was pretty even at around 5 each.

 

So they fall the intercessors back and get ready to charge the wulfen into my captain, their wolf lord comes round to challenge the 2 remaining wolves on that side and my custodian guard, no major shooting, I think the annihilation barges took down another TWC from our other squad. The 4 of the wulfen hit my captain and I save everything, when I hit back I kill 2 and they hit me again and I take 4 damage. Between the wolf lord and the remaining TWC they kill one of our wolves and I think 2 of my custodes, brutal, but we hit back and kill the wolf lord, kingslayer lovely, and I roll 3 points so we are now up to 9-5.

 

In our turn the last TWC move round to the back of the barges and the Lord and the other 2 go round the front but it's a disaster, the lone guy gets killed on overwatch from a digesting roll that resulted in 18 hits or something silly, then the other squad lost one too and failed, so the Lord decided not charge. I fell back with my bike captain and moved big tel over to target the wulfen, which came to nothing as he basically made every save or FNP, my lone custodian squaring off with the TWC is a stalemate

 

Final round and they don't achieve anything other than charging the last 2 intercessors into our wolf lord and they kill my bike captain with the wulfen, one of the intercessors survives the fight though. They score points and its really close.

 

Final turn for us, we have blood and guts and no prisoners, the wolf lord kills the intercessor, big tel kills the wulfen and the custodian kills the TWC, D3 for no prisoners, I roll a 1, 1 for blood and guts, but it's just enough, we win 11-10

 

We really had no right to win the day with the army we brought I don't think, but we had loads of fun and the telemon was murderous and never got taken out of his top bracket.

[Matt_149]

Nice! Glad to see the telemon was good!

[rcoon]

Played another game against DG since obtaining my IG Battalion, and things went very strangely. Rolled for gametype and it turned up the Shadow type where you get -1 to hit beyond 18 inches. Deployment was opposite square corners with nothing within 9 inches of the center.

 

My army list was:

 

Company Commander: Plasma Pistol, Chainsword, Kurovs, Grand Strat

Company Commander: Boltgun, Chainsword

 

Troops: 3 x 10 guard

 

Trajaan Valoris
Shield Captain on Jetbike: Auric Aquilis, hurricane Bolter

 

Vexillus Praetor: Magnifica, Spear

 

Troops x 3 1 shield 2 spear

Troops x 3 1 shield 2 spear

Troops x 4 1 shield 3 spear

 

Jetbikes x 5 Hurricane Bolters

Jetbikes x 4 Hurricane Bolters

 

Total of 13 CP minus 1 for additional relic.

 

His army list was two Spearheads:

 

HQ: Demon prince (WL) with double talons, Chaos Lord with plasma gun and balesword

Heavy: 3 mephitic blight haulers, 3 plagueburst crawlers, 1 leviathan siege dreadnought with double cannons, 1 hellbrute with las cannon, Terminators with bubotic axes and bolters, 1 with a flail

Fast: 2 bloat drones

 

I drew terrible objectives: Deny the Witch once, Kill an enemy unit in the shooting phase, and kill the enemy warlord.

 

To begin with, I placed 1 guard blob with a HQ on my two closest VPs, and another blob of guard as close to the third as possible, but knew I'd need to advance to get within range of it. He basically did the identical thing. He rolled to go first, I stole the initiative and went 1st instead. He placed his terminators into deep strike.

 

Turn 1: Immediately flew all 10 bikes within shooting range of his plagueburst crawlers, hellbrute and demon prince warlord. Advanced guard into 3rd VP, advanced Trajaan and all of my troops and vexilla behind a building ready to move into shooting range by turn 2. Shooting phase I peppered his hellbrute with all my hurricane bolter fire, as well as one of the crawlers. His hellbrute went down to 4 wounds and I chipped off 3 wounds from the plagueburst crawler after rolling an ungodly amount of 5s and 6s. I charged into one of his crawlers, lost two wounds from the absolutely insane overwatch from crawlers and their plague flamers, but killed it outright.

 

In his turn, he moved his crawlers and bloat drones forward into the middle of the field and moved his demon prince towards my jetbike squad. All his units shot, causing me to lose 2 bikes from the bigger squad and 2 bikes from the smaller squad. He cast a psychic ability, I spent 1 CP to use Spark of Divinity to deny the witch (for my objetive) and failed. He charged his demon prince into melee with my bike squad, so I popped avenge the fallen to give my bikes +2 attacks each during my retaliation. In short, he dealt two wounds to a bike and I killed his warlord instantaneously, netting me 3 VP from my card.

 

Turn 2: I moved all my troops forward, shot his hellbrute to death with spear bolters, shot some wounds off of some bloat drones, and shot some wounds off of a blight hauler. Jetbikes continued to shoot at his blight haulers and his crawlers, knocking off one or two wounds. The largest troop squad, trajaan and a vexilla charged into a bloat drone, losing the shield to overwatch. One small squad of troops charged into the hellbrute, and the third squad charged into the bloat drone to avoid fire from the leviathan dread and blight haulers. Bikes charged into the next crawler and lost a few wounds. During combat I killed a second hauler, a hellbrute and a bloat drone, and moved my 3 inches towards any nearby enemy units.

 

In his turn, he dropped in his terminators 9 inches from my guard squad and also 9 inches away from my custodian troop squad that had just killed a hellbrute. All his units moved towards my VPs, and his Chaos lord shot a few wounds off of my bikes, killing one. He did a lot of shooting, killing a couple of custode troops, knocking my vexilla down to 4 and killed a bike. He attempts to charge his terminators into my custodian guard squad, I tanglefoot and remove 3 inches from his charge, so he fails and suffers 1 wound from overwatch.

 

Turn 3: I draw a card that says no enemies in the middle 9 inches, unfortunately the middle is full of everyone's units right now. I move my jetbikes towards his Chaos Lord, and all of my remaining custodes troops move towards his bight haulers. I knock off a few wounds from his Chaos Lord and Blight Haulers, they have far too many wounds so nothing dies. Charge into his HQ with bikes, and haulers with Trajaan, vexilla and guard squad now only 2 troops of spears. Murder two blight haulers and leave his HQ on 2 wounds, my vexilla goes down to 1 wound.

 

He retreats with everything, and moves his terminators towards my guard blob on a VP. Shoots trajaan and kills his with his Chaos Lord plasma gun overcharged and I roll total crap. Shoots my guard and kills 4 of them with termies. Shoots and kills all my remaining bikes except my HQ. Fails to kill the vexilla, and kills all but 1 custodian with a spear.

 

At this point I'm on 4 (warlord killed plues warlord card d3) VP and he's on 2 (first blood, warlord) VP.

 

Turn 4: I move my guardsmen off of the VP they've been holding all game and the HQ, move my HQ bike towards his dreadnought and my final custode troop towards his last blight hauler that's been running away for the last 2 turns. I shoot 2 wounds off of the leviathan, shoot and remove 1 wound from the hauler, and then order FRFSRF on the terminators and miraculously kill 1 with lasguns!  I charge into the dreadnought and lose 2 wounds off of my bike HQ, fail the charge into the hauler with my last guard. I take a further 3 wounds off of the dreadnought.

 

He moves his final plagueburst crawler and bloat drone within range of my Warlord Company Commander and guard blob on one of my backline VPs and begins blowing them to bits. Only my WL and a sergeant remain. He shoots the guard squad that killed one of his termies, using his termies, and kills 4 more of them. The termies end up sitting on the point I held most of the game. His dread retreats and his hauler kills my lasts custodian troop.

 

Turn 5: I run away with my guard squad behind cover with my last full guard squad, using Move Move Move in the shooting phase to keep them out of sight. My WL remains on a VP so I currently control 2 while my opponent has 4. I shot his termies and did nothing. My HQ bike charges back in with the dreadnought, takes it down to 3 wounds, and then dies from retaliation and terrible save rolls. I check and discover there are no enemies within 9 inches of the center and score 1 VP, bringing me up to 5.

 

Opponent does nothing because it turns out the 3 cards he's been holding all game require that he holds the two points he's just taken from me and defend the one his dreadnought is sat on. He scores 5 VP for a total of 7 and wins the game.

 

In summary, this particular game type didn't allow you to score VP each turn by simply sitting on objectives, so the 4 turns where my guard sat on them was just a massive waste. Also drawing absolutely ass-tier cards for VPs was fairly brutal. The Kurovs+Grand Strat was absolutely bonkers however, and I used 20 CP over the entire game on Avenge the Fallen, Spark of Divinity, Command Re-Rolls, Tanglefoot, Generic Better Overwatch, and Bringers of the Emperor's Justice. I thought I played fairly well, but DG just have too much in terms of flamers, and all his units had 10+ wounds as well as disgustingly resilient so it was nearly impossible to kill anything at all.

Edited January 13, 2019 by rcoon

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Had a game this weekend fielding some Custodes and Blood Angels versus Orks -

 

https://greenblowfly.blogspot.com/2019/01/imperium-vs-orks-2000-pt-batrep.html

Edited January 13, 2019 by Black Orange

[necroscope]

Had my 1st game with Custodes since Chapter approved.  Fighting my friend's Death Guard tourny list.  I lost on points but I didn't get tabled and it felt competitive for most of the game so I feel they did pretty well.  The MVPs were the 4 Allarus Terminators, Terminator Shield Captain and Vexillus Praetor Terminator.  They killed Typhus, a Demon Prince and a lot of other random things.  Trajann also killed a Demon Prince and did a lot of work.   Unleash the lions is an awesome stratagem.  

Edited January 18, 2019 by necroscope

[swordofmandulis]

Racked up a other win for the Custodes tonight, played 2k vs Drukhari. Narrow the Search on hammer and anvil. I decided to second and weathered his shooting for the loss of 1 bike. I hit back reasonably well, damaged both his ravagers and killed one of his fighter Jets. 2-0 at the end of turn 1, he wiped 4 out of my 5 man bike squad in his turn 2 but nothing else, I moved my guys up a bit but stayed outside the invuln bubble. I destroyed both ravagers with the telemon and killed enough of his troops to hold the objective again and took down a talos, 3-0. Turn 3 he killed remaining bike and 2 of my terminators, but it took everything he had, I just failed to kill enough of his troops this time by 1 model so he scored 1pt, but his other talos was gone and I had 8 custodian guard, a terminator, a bike captain, the vexilla and the telemon making their way the centre and he had nothing much left that could hurt me, he called it there as I'd have wiped his troops turn easy.

[KJB]

Quick one, do any of you take Salvo Launchers on your bikes? Or do you go all Hurricane Bolter?

 

If you do, what ratio? 1 for every 3 bikes?

[necroscope]

Quick one, do any of you take Salvo Launchers on your bikes? Or do you go all Hurricane Bolter?

 

If you do, what ratio? 1 for every 3 bikes?

I take one in 3 but my list isn't really min maxed out.  I think most people will tell you to stay with hurricane bolters.  I do like to take a potshot at an already wounded vehicle or a flier with the Salvo now and then.   It's not that it's a bad weapon it's just hurricane bolters hit so damn hard.  

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Had a really brutal game versus kSons today with Magnus will post a batrep.

[rcoon]

Quick one, do any of you take Salvo Launchers on your bikes? Or do you go all Hurricane Bolter?

 

If you do, what ratio? 1 for every 3 bikes?

Never ever used Salvo launchers until last night, put one on a HQ bike during a 1K game vs a pure vehicle AM list. It did nothing all game.

[Arkaniss]

I like my Salvo Launchers but I admit I've had extraordinary luck with them. I have 2 on my 3 bikes and they've deleted big bads like Hellbrutes, Carnifex & Hive Tyrants in short order.

[balordazul]

Had a game this weekend fielding some Custodes and Blood Angels versus Orks -

 

https://greenblowfly.blogspot.com/2019/01/imperium-vs-orks-2000-pt-batrep.html

Correct me if I'm wrong but are you still in the Orlando area if so where are you getting games in?

Edited January 21, 2019 by balordazul

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I’m in CoCal now.

[balordazul]

Well maybe with the bolter update the GW dev team might take a look at the AC basic infantry shooting.  I do not want them to be amazing I just would like the shooting to be ok enough to rely less on bikes or allies to deal with simple light arms fire.

[swordofmandulis]

Well maybe with the bolter update the GW dev team might take a look at the AC basic infantry shooting. I do not want them to be amazing I just would like the shooting to be ok enough to rely less on bikes or allies to deal with simple light arms fire.

I'd love to see spears become assault 2, Custodes are the best of the best, they should be able to run and shoot their guns