Custodes and GSC (mini-Batrep w/Picture)

[Prot]

99% of the time I play I do not know who my opponent is going to be. I prefer it so I can't list tailor. But in this case I had a win against a pretty nasty Genestealer Cult Army but it was with my Ultramarines oddly enough.

 

I will be having a rematch (his list may change) but I've really had the itch to pull out my re-do Custodes army . (Do you have any idea how crappy it is to be repainting and selling armies? I think I'm done after this one.)

 

Anyway this scenario brings on some questions, especially since I'm going to be rusty with my Custodes, so here's the facts/questions I am curious about:

 

1. We are playing an ITC random mission.

 

2. I prefer not to play Soup. I am using the Assassin pregame Strat.

 

3. I own 2 Telemon's. ! is assembled, and partially painted, the other is not, but I could field 2. Do you guys think you need 2 to make it worth while? The difference is if I put in the second telemon, I very likely lose a squad of Allarus.  This might be because of my past experiences, but I love the strats surrounding the Allarus... the grenade strat and deep strike strat have just done wonders for me, but perhaps this isn't worth it in exchange for a second Telemon?

 

3. Typically my Telemon has always had: 2 x Arachnus Storm Cannons. Would you bother with a fist on a second one for CC protection? 

 

4. Aside from saving points, is there any value in mixing up Illastrus Accelerator Culverins on the Telemon's?

 

5. Just as an FYI I don't own anything Forgeworld wise aside from the old Telemons. 

 

The list is super basic... super duper basic and essentially constitutes a Battalion of a typical small model count:

 

Assassin

Trajann (He's a must take for me. He took forever to paint, and I love the fig!)

SC on Dawneagle (Right now I'm using a Salvo launcher on him. )

3 squads of Custodians, one is 4 man big, and the rest are 3, but each has one Storm Shield.

Vexillus Praetor with Magnifica

 

4 x Vertus Praetors (Hurricanes)

 

2 x Telemon (currently all Arachnus Storm Cannons)

 

In the list with only one Telemon, I swap out one Telemon and one bike to make a 3 man Allarus unit.

 

What do you guys think? Again I don't want to tailor for GSC, I'm thinking of trying to make this work for an ITC event, even if I get my golden buttocks handed to me I'd like to try to be competitive about it.

 

 

Edited May 23, 2019 by Prot

[swordofmandulis]

I'm a massive fan of the telemon, with 2 I think you can afford to run a fist on one, and if you have had to spread out with the rest of your force it will help you incase they get tied up. I would run the 2 telemon, the amount of fire power you will have when they all come close to you. Which they will I belive will really hurt them, and short of combat they are gonna have a hard time taking the T8 monsters down.

[Prot]

I'm a massive fan of the telemon, with 2 I think you can afford to run a fist on one, and if you have had to spread out with the rest of your force it will help you incase they get tied up. I would run the 2 telemon, the amount of fire power you will have when they all come close to you. Which they will I belive will really hurt them, and short of combat they are gonna have a hard time taking the T8 monsters down.

 

My alternate list has one less biker, one less Telemon, and uses 3 Allarus, and a Multimelta Contemptor instead. Would that nudge you towards playing only one Telemon?

 

If I take two, I will try for the Fist because as we are both noticing... if I end up stuck in with close combat because of having to separate, then I have a chance of fighting my way out of it. Even knowing it's GSC (which is getting a lot of competitive play lately) makes it maybe even more valuable?

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I’d definitely take the Caetus it can save your bacon versus GSC. Might be a good idea to take the Culexus. Edited May 22, 2019 by Black Blow Fly

[duz_]

 

I will be having a rematch (his list may change) but I've really had the itch to pull out my re-do Custodes army . (Do you have any idea how crappy it is to be repainting and selling armies? I think I'm done after this one.)

 

 

Nice joke Prot

 

 

As much as I like the Telemon, I'm not sure 2 will give you much benefit especially if it means losing the Allarus which are awesome IMHO

The dual fist I played with a while back was some what lacklustre with the beta rules being finalised still fun, but not competitive 

 

I missed it what would you be souping in? Guard, Assassins, SM's? Definitely not SM's! The other two yes :yes:

Edited May 22, 2019 by duz_

[Prot]

I’m actually playing the game right now. I decided on 2 Telemons. One has a single fist. I’m taking Black Blow Flys advice on secondaries..... I didn’t notice the difference in Reaper til right now.

 

By soup... I just meant as a general question for ITC play.

 

He’s still in his first turn deploying a junk load of mortars and Genestealers.... this will be rough....

[Prot]

Super quick question.... does Stooping Dive allow the bikes to use fly?

 

Actually I also got hit with Mass Hypnosis and then using Stooping Dive. In my best Ricky Bobby voice... am I first or last??

Edited May 23, 2019 by Prot

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Yes it does.

[Prot]

Thanks. I did not want to assume I could use Fly so at one point I used the 12" intervention via Stooping Dive on a Genestealer squad which did not have intervening models... just to be safe. But I'll note, for the future, that I can use Fly with Stooping Dive/ Heroic Interventions.

Like I said I got hit with Mass Hypnosis in the same turn I used Stooping Dive and we had no idea how to play it so we rolled off and I lost... the -1 to hit from Hypnosis turned out to be worse than going last.

So here's a picture from said game:

Yes, it was as ugly as this looks. ITC Mission 1. I was trapped in a corner, so I did something fairly stupid with such a small army.... I started to create a gap behind me by moving outward.

Do you know how hard it is to move/block Telemons with essentially 10 Troop models? BTW: I had to proxy my second shooty telemon with my Admech Helverin which worked out fine.

So lessons learned? What happened?

Well I won't completely break it down however here are the finer highlights/lowlights:

- The Caestus in Close combat is good against tough things, but the lack of a 'stomp' type power really hurt me against so many bloody attacks. The shooty Telemon lasted the game. The fist/shooty Telemon died a horrible death.

- The single Storm Shield in only two of my squads was incredibly significant. I clearly would have lost by a lot if I did not have that 3++ vs so many rends.

- I did take the secondaries that require: 2 unit kills per turn, a point per 20 model kills total (I killed well over 80 by endgame.) and the character killer. (I only killed 3 characters)

- Overall the game was incredibly close. The 'bomb' squad came in and somehow my Telemon took a pile of satchels/explosdives to the face and ended up with 7 wounds remaining! Just enough to downgrade him. The continues waves of GSC from behind and front were exhausting. I felt pinned the whole game.

- Since we were playing ITC, we played ground floor, line of sight blocking/no shooting in or out. Brutal. It's hard to get used to because it gives a huge boost to GSC. He kept coming in from 3 ruins... there's no way I could block it, so I had to pick my position, stick to it, and accept I would have next to zero overwatch.

- I went with the Culexus but it was something I have to reconsider my use of. GSC took first turn, he didn't think I could put the Culexus out in my T1, but I explained it was not reserves, but rather a 'reveal' from hiding. So what I did realize in T1 was I was going to be trapped, or spread out and killed. So I went ahead and pulled the Culexus in my T1 in the lower right section of the table. The good news is this let me get Hold More for Turn 1, and then we had a push on Turn 2 for Hold More, and then in Turns 3 and 4, the GSC had Hold More. BUT the bad news is the Culesus could only affect the psychic powers of one Broodlord in center ruins.

What this also meant was the stinky Xenos were getting away with bloody murder on me. The GSC did roll incredibly hot on Psyhics. All smites went through, including their 'mindwar' type power, and I maybe rolled one 6 in total on these.

The mind control, mass hypnosis, catalysts...(FnP) were really hurting me, but I had made my bed by putting the Culexus on a point, and I slept in it. Oddly enough that risky move may have won me the game.

- Big moment... I have one Custodian left alive from 2 squads. That's it for my 'troops'. My Telemon goes down.... explodes! I'm out of CP. The Explosion kills my solo dude's alive from the two squads (giving GSC two squad kills right there, plus the Telemon for 3). It takes out a few Beach Bro's...Abberrants. It takes a wound out of the Patriarch, 1 wound out of Trajann and kills the remaining 5 Geneastealers from a 20 man squad!!!! That explosion happened at the end of GSC assault phase freeing up Trajann and the Vexilus Praetor. Whom would assault the Abberants, and win me the game in the final turn.

- I had a slightly easier time with GSC with my Ultra's which surprises me. I can't figure out if I screwed up that bad from being rusty? Or maybe my Ultra's are just a bit better?

Regardless the game was something like 24-27 for Custodes. I'd like to take them to the tournie but it's 10 days away and I have to paint / assemble a Telemon, 2 shield Custodians, and paint 2 bikers.... plus I don't seem to be very confident with the army. lol

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Very exciting game !!!

[duz_]

Nice work

 

Tbh I find the Culexus the most niche and least helpful

 

I would have thought any of the others would have been better for a GSC match up

 

As for the T1 arrival yeh I've been playing it as usual reserves rule that they can't appear til turn 2 which significantly hampers their effectiveness they don't like walking up the board

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Culexus I think is a great choice versus GSC... she can snipe enemy psykers in the shooting phase plus d6 shots versus d3. Nulling down Psychic Powers is a big deal too plus she’s no slouche in melee either. The Eversor is also a great choice for shredding T3 enemy units but still I think the Culexus is clutch.

 

Prot’s army doesn’t have the luxury of screening which showed... brutal game and well played FTW Prot. :)

Edited May 23, 2019 by Black Blow Fly

[noigrim]

Assassins deploy in turn 2

eversor would have been better vs hordes

[Danarc]

I love your models, they really shine. Do you have more pics, or did you post it on another thread?

Edited May 24, 2019 by Danarc

[Prot]

Nice work

 

Tbh I find the Culexus the most niche and least helpful

 

I would have thought any of the others would have been better for a GSC match up

 

As for the T1 arrival yeh I've been playing it as usual reserves rule that they can't appear til turn 2 which significantly hampers their effectiveness they don't like walking up the board

 

 

On the Assassin... there were a few factors at play. #1 was I have to realistically see what I can paint in a week. But yea, I don't know which is best overall, but the Culexus seemed 'safe' because I've been on the receiving end of GSC powers a lot and they are easily some of the strongest Psychic powers in the game imo. 

 

I probably should have just set him on the table since I completely miss played him in this game.

 

Culexus I think is a great choice versus GSC... she can snipe enemy psykers in the shooting phase plus d6 shots versus d3. Nulling down Psychic Powers is a big deal too plus she’s no slouche in melee either. The Eversor is also a great choice for shredding T3 enemy units but still I think the Culexus is clutch.

 

Prot’s army doesn’t have the luxury of screening which showed... brutal game and well played FTW Prot.

 

 

I screen with gold! But yea I could have made a mistake there on the choice. I usually default to the Culexus because he's back field, and able to earn me CP's with the new Strategem. It seems like those are two good assets for a Custodes army. In any event I screwed up.

 

 

 

I love your models, they really shine. Do you have more pics, or did you post it on another thread?

 

Thanks. Here is a bunch of my articles/ pics with keyword "custodes" over here: I LOVE GOLD.

Edited May 24, 2019 by Prot