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Theyre a tax vs gunlines, compared to more bikes, but even then theyre better than the majority of the codex at surviving long enough to get there.

Discard the opinion of anyone who rubbishes the need or effectiveness of a 3++, its a clear upgrade over the spear and each sqaud should have 1 or more.

 mrhappyface wrote:
I don't get this rubbish about Guard being a tax, in every game I've taken them in they've done great (in some cases more than the bikes).

Let's not be THAT absurd. Bikers are always the better choice, but yes Guard are pretty great for troops.

Thanks for the input gentleman, I will and some explanation of my choices for full sword and board over some spears:

The 3++ save has proved more valuable than having a S6 close combat weapon. Due to the lack of transport and quality rather than quantity of shooting from guard squads, I've continuously found myself advancing to cut down the distance and so the vast majority of my shooting has been at 12" or less.
The swords offer continuous shooting as well, allowing me to clear blobs in both shooting and combat meaning I'm continuously fighting rather than missing out on the shooting phase while locked in CQB. Squads of 4 give me grater area of effect for vexilla usage = I stagger my units, so as long as one model from a group is within range, they all get the -1 to hit. Also, 4 models still give you more or less complete immunity to morale tests, as the whole 4 man squad would have to be killed before morale casualties would be in effect, unless some -1 Ld effects are in play, which is rare outside of certain armies.

So for pure custodies im looking at running this:

Bat one-

2x biker captain/w miser

3x custodian guard squad. 1 shield, 3 spears

Vexilla magnifica/w axe

Bat two-

biker captain warlord/w miser, auric and SC
Allarus Captain/w axe, praetorian

2x custodian guard squad 1 shield 3 spear
1x custodian guard 1shield 2 spear






Feels very solid, enough chaff clearance to get where I want, enough wounds on the table considering everything has a 4++ or better. 12CP to use after buying the extra relic. I can pay 2 more to get another 3++ on a bike if I feel the need.

Its not the fastest army, but if you keep your biker captains together and utilize the allarus captain's praetorian plate you can cover a lot of ground.

No ranged AT is the only real issue. If againgst a vehicle heavy turtle army you either hide out of LOS (since mortar weapons wont really bug you with the 1+ armor from cover) or you use "from golden light" to deep strike one of the 4man custodian guard squads to back up your biker captains charge.

I'd personally swap the Allarus Captain for a regular Captain and switch the Guard units to 2 Shields - 2 Axes, it really helps them to keep them alive longer. Plus, I don't think any of your Characters needs an Allarus Captain to come and save them.

 mrhappyface wrote:
I'd personally swap the Allarus Captain for a regular Captain and switch the Guard units to 2 Shields - 2 Axes, it really helps them to keep them alive longer. Plus, I don't think any of your Characters needs an Allarus Captain to come and save them.

AFB, but check if regular Guard can take axes.

 JNAProductions wrote:

 mrhappyface wrote:
I'd personally swap the Allarus Captain for a regular Captain and switch the Guard units to 2 Shields - 2 Axes, it really helps them to keep them alive longer. Plus, I don't think any of your Characters needs an Allarus Captain to come and save them.

AFB, but check if regular Guard can take axes.

Meant Spears, sorry.

Had a great game versus Knights this past weekend... Wardens. A cleared out lots of chaff and followed up into a Gallant.

Its not that they need saving; its that he can come in and hit something high toughness one turn, and then with proper placement of biker captains move on somewhere else, forcing your opponent to possibly make bad moves to try and deal with him.


I knew from day one that the praetorian plate was a top teir relic. It's definitely one that takes more thought and skill to use properly, but he's like a ninja assassin that can just disappear and reappear somewhere else, making him really hard to deal with while at the same time causing stress to your opponent and making him misplay.

Is the following list too cheesy for friendly games:

Custodes Battalion:
Bike Captain
- Auric Aquilla
- VotBG
- Miscordia

Shield Captain
- Axe
- Mixcordia

3x Guard
- Sword + Shield
- 2x Spears + Miscordia

Vexilla Praetor
- Magnifica
- Axe
- Miscordia

Tellemon heavy Dreadnought
- 2x Culverin

2x Bikes
- 3x Miscordia

IG Battalion
2x CC

3x Guardsmen


I've got addicted to the Guard CP battery but I could swap it out for a second shield on all the Guard squads.

 mrhappyface wrote:
Is the following list too cheesy for friendly games:

Custodes Battalion:
Bike Captain
- Auric Aquilla
- VotBG
- Miscordia

Shield Captain
- Axe
- Mixcordia

3x Guard
- Sword + Shield
- 2x Spears + Miscordia

Vexilla Praetor
- Magnifica
- Axe
- Miscordia

Tellemon heavy Dreadnought
- 2x Culverin

2x Bikes
- 3x Miscordia

IG Battalion
2x CC

3x Guardsmen


I've got addicted to the Guard CP battery but I could swap it out for a second shield on all the Guard squads.

Every group has its own standard, but I don't see anything cheesy about that list in the slightest.

Skill and competitiveness is not cut up in blocks. Its a giant scale and where people are on it changes from person to person and group to group.
Only you can decide if its friendly enough for your local environment.

 Eihnlazer wrote:
Its not that they need saving; its that he can come in and hit something high toughness one turn, and then with proper placement of biker captains move on somewhere else, forcing your opponent to possibly make bad moves to try and deal with him.


I knew from day one that the praetorian plate was a top teir relic. It's definitely one that takes more thought and skill to use properly, but he's like a ninja assassin that can just disappear and reappear somewhere else, making him really hard to deal with while at the same time causing stress to your opponent and making him misplay.

It's an OK relic. The only problem is that you have to choose the specific character that the praetorian plate can teleport to when you set up the character. If it could teleport to any Custodes Character, it would be good. If it could be used at any time, it would be good. But because it has to go to only one specific character and only if that character is in combat at the end of an opponent's charge phase, it's only OK. And since it has to compete with Auric Aquilas, Eagle Eye, and even Faith Absolute, it'll only ever be extremely situational.

I played with using the praetorian plate on a vexilla in allarus armour. Teleport him into combat next to a bike captain, then use his teleport homer to bring in another huge squad. But that's like 3 turns.

Is it a thing to put few models with shield in front row when charging the enemy, just to neglect his anti-Custodes heavy weapons with high S and multiple D?

When shooting the unit, the models closest to the enemy get shoot first - shield holders?

Filq wrote:
Is it a thing to put few models with shield in front row when charging the enemy, just to neglect his anti-Custodes heavy weapons with high S and multiple D?

When shooting the unit, the models closest to the enemy get shoot first - shield holders?

No that's from last editions rules. Now you can allocate wounds to whatever model you like first, so as long as there is a shield somewhere in the unit, you're fine.

Filq wrote:
Is it a thing to put few models with shield in front row when charging the enemy, just to neglect his anti-Custodes heavy weapons with high S and multiple D?

When shooting the unit, the models closest to the enemy get shoot first - shield holders?

Sorry, but you what?

Thanks Spartacus, that makes life even easier for me. And yeah - habit from old ed to look at shooting phase this way.

Have you found guys deeps striking with "FROM GOLDEN LIGHT THEY COME" big units of guards effective? It looks like safest way to deploy them into the CC action.

Filq wrote:
Thanks Spartacus, that makes life even easier for me. And yeah - habit from old ed to look at shooting phase this way.

Have you found guys deeps striking with "FROM GOLDEN LIGHT THEY COME" big units of guards effective? It looks like safest way to deploy them into the CC action.

Guard don't have to worry about safety, if you have two shields in a unit then it becomes almost impossible to shift.

After the DS nerf in the FAQ, FGLTC is only really useful for keeping a unit off the board during your opponents first turn of shooting.

 mrhappyface wrote:

After the DS nerf in the FAQ, FGLTC is only really useful for keeping a unit off the board during your opponents first turn of shooting.

It makes a huge difference if you're taking an actual custodes battalion and not just an astra militarum cp battery.

Skhmt wrote:

 mrhappyface wrote:

After the DS nerf in the FAQ, FGLTC is only really useful for keeping a unit off the board during your opponents first turn of shooting.

It makes a huge difference if you're taking an actual custodes battalion and not just an astra militarum cp battery.

In what way?

I think its rather hard to create a "soft" custodes list. A casual player who has never played custodes before would have lots of issues with any typical list because he or she would just have never encountered such a hard hitting army with army wide invulnerable saves (and where 3++ is actually quite common) before.

 mrhappyface wrote:

Skhmt wrote:

It makes a huge difference if you're taking an actual custodes battalion and not just an astra militarum cp battery.

In what way?

Walking a couple 150+ pt squads up the table with little more than master crafted bolters just doesn't seem to work for me. Sure, you can leave one or two in or near your deployment zone to grab objectives, but all three?

If you're going to take a custodes battalion, its really worth having one or two of the guard squads in reserve to avoid as much firepower as possible and maybe get off a charge without taking long ranged anti-tank shooting. It's not like you'll miss their firepower on turn 1.

Now, if the enemy is coming to you, then it doesn't really matter. I mostly play against shooty armies, so I'm usually the one that has to venture out and break down castles.

Skhmt wrote:

 mrhappyface wrote:

Skhmt wrote:

It makes a huge difference if you're taking an actual custodes battalion and not just an astra militarum cp battery.

In what way?

Walking a couple 150+ pt squads up the table with little more than master crafted bolters just doesn't seem to work for me. Sure, you can leave one or two in or near your deployment zone to grab objectives, but all three?

If you're going to take a custodes battalion, its really worth having one or two of the guard squads in reserve to avoid as much firepower as possible and maybe get off a charge without taking long ranged anti-tank shooting. It's not like you'll miss their firepower on turn 1.

Now, if the enemy is coming to you, then it doesn't really matter. I mostly play against shooty armies, so I'm usually the one that has to venture out and break down castles.

Yeah it doesn't take many games against them to figure out how one dimensional Custodes are, in terms of engagement distance. Even my friends melee oriented armies keep their distance for a turn or 2 vs pure Custodes now. You have to abuse deepstrike and jetbikes wherever you can.

Skhmt wrote:

 mrhappyface wrote:

Skhmt wrote:

It makes a huge difference if you're taking an actual custodes battalion and not just an astra militarum cp battery.

In what way?

Walking a couple 150+ pt squads up the table with little more than master crafted bolters just doesn't seem to work for me. Sure, you can leave one or two in or near your deployment zone to grab objectives, but all three?

If you're going to take a custodes battalion, its really worth having one or two of the guard squads in reserve to avoid as much firepower as possible and maybe get off a charge without taking long ranged anti-tank shooting. It's not like you'll miss their firepower on turn 1.

Now, if the enemy is coming to you, then it doesn't really matter. I mostly play against shooty armies, so I'm usually the one that has to venture out and break down castles.

In my experience, the Guard never take any fire until at least turn 3 due to things like bikes/Dreadnoughts being on the board.

I use the Guard as area denial most if the time because no one wants to go anywhere near 9 Custards and a Character or two.

So I know allarus custards aren’t very competitive. But what all exactly do you suggest to use them? I use a 4 man squad, a captain, and a -1 banner to deepstrike. But it’s been really hit or miss. Mostly becuse only part of that neat little Death Star will make it and then they get picked off. Plus IMO they need a 3++ to really be worth their points. Their 4++ can be amazing. But one or two failed and then their pretty much done. I have thought about using the unleash the lions strat to make them harder to target. But I havnt tried it to much yet. What do you guys think? Are they worth using at all? And if so how do you guys use them?

A large squad 5+ with unleash the lions is pretty amazing.

Turn 2 they dropped in and managed to get a charge off, they won the combat but were in the middle of the enemy gunline. They took a couple casualties, I used unleash the lions, and tied up everything else in combat for the rest of the game.

Skhmt wrote:
A large squad 5+ with unleash the lions is pretty amazing.

Turn 2 they dropped in and managed to get a charge off, they won the combat but were in the middle of the enemy gunline. They took a couple casualties, I used unleash the lions, and tied up everything else in combat for the rest of the game.

Which is amazing if you don't happen to be fighting an enemy that has pretty much all fliers. So, not tau, or eldar.

Or the person you playing knows how to screen properly. A hocking amount of people don't to be fair.

It's really disheartening when you compare any Custodes unit to dawn eagle bikers. Outside of niche scenarios most commentary boils down to "just use bikes" Battalions and command points can be grabbed via other sources and you can still bring a solid amount of bikes.

For example you could just run the following

-Battalion-
195 point IG cp farm

-Battalion-
2 slam captains (one doesn't take a shield) 3x5 scouts
You can take the vitae if you want, it does work with the IG relics as well.

-Patrol-
Shield Captain on bike
3 Custodes guard
6 Jet Bikes
6 Jet Bikes

You have 13 command points out the gate which can grow exponentially throughout the game.

I'm trying to find a reason to play a battalion, but the custodian guard honestly feel like a tax.

From wrote:
It's really disheartening when you compare any Custodes unit to dawn eagle bikers. Outside of niche scenarios most commentary boils down to "just use bikes" Battalions and command points can be grabbed via other sources and you can still bring a solid amount of bikes.

For example you could just run the following

-Battalion-
195 point IG cp farm

-Battalion-
2 slam captains (one doesn't take a shield) 3x5 scouts
You can take the vitae if you want, it does work with the IG relics as well.

-Patrol-
Shield Captain on bike
3 Custodes guard
6 Jet Bikes
6 Jet Bikes

You have 13 command points out the gate which can grow exponentially throughout the game.

I'm trying to find a reason to play a battalion, but the custodian guard honestly feel like a tax.

I tend to find bikes get focused down pretty quickly, however, a couple of Custard Guard with a Vexilla will most likely survive the whole game; I've only had one game where my opponent was able to kill all of my Custodes Guard, and that was after they murdered a Slam Captain and capped several objectives.

@ From in that list I’d reccomend breaking the bikes down into 3-man squads. A squad of 3 bikes is still potent enough to deal with most stuff and gives you more threats and board coverage (especially since you’re running the BA captains as well). And then you can do an outrider for another command point


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@mrhappyface I think it’s worth noting that Spear guard are 17.3 pts/T5 wound, and bikes are 22.5 pts/T6 wound. Basically, bikes pay 5 more points for +1 toughness (disregarding the hurricane bolters+melee). You pay 19.7 pts/T5 wound with a 3++ if you go with the shields.

Anecdotally, I played a game awhile back where I had 295 points of GK allied with bikes (testing out some lists for psychic defense) against tau. I won because my GK HQ hid until the game ended cause I had more objective points...but if I had another squad of bikes I probably would have tabled my opponent; I was just a few short of being able to finish it once I made it through the tau castle firestorm.