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Title says it all, really, I've been trying to decide on the best way to use Custodes.

Taking 3x minimal squads gets you uber-terminators with actual invulns on every model, making Storm Shields less necessary. Problem is, that's 780 points, and it has no real recourse for AV13 or T8+.

A deathstar-type unit could be better, but then you run into another problem; Any characters you may add will force you to footslog, unless they also have Deep Strike. I was thinking a Grey Knights Librarian and 3x Priests attached to 10x Custodes would be pretty great, though it'll cost some-odd 800 points and has more than a couple big weaknesses. On the plus side, you're likely to get 2++ Stormshields and S8 guardian spears, (Almost garunteed to get one or the other,) reducing your number of weaknesses, and the priests give rerolls on pretty much everything in melee, but you're still just walking, and don't have any recourse if you're outmanuevered.
(You could buy a Spartan and pile into it on turn 1, but that brings your total cost up to 1000+ points for this one unit.)


So are Custodes just too cost prohibitive to be viable, or what?

Absolutely Nothing!

Ps I have no idea how good they are, I just wanted to complete the reference.

Magic deathstar with libconclave. Soulswap them with a unit of droppodded naked marines for 1-st turn assault. Can be a deadly yet relatively cheap deathstar.

Fearless bubble makes them interesting for non-marines as allies. But they are mostly for that huge game.

You could Infiltrate them with Lias to get them close ASAP as well.

To make terminators look even more useless then they already are.

t.A Sad Deathwing Fan

 Backspacehacker wrote:
To make terminators look even more useless then they already are.

t.A Sad Deathwing Fan

And they themselves are good at sucking points in and being torn to pieces by GSC First Curse formation.

They'd be decent for a guard line that's sick of getting assaulted all the time, but that's really about it. Not only would they provide some punch, but every squad becomes a tarpit, probably long enough for the custodes to footslog over and deal with the problem. But then, look at how many priest & conscript blobs you can get for the same price that will do much the same job as well as providing bubblewrap and locking down large sections of the board.

They are basically Grey Knight Paladins in gold armor instead of silver. No one uses Paladins anymore for all the reasons that have been pointed out.

A tough escort for St celestine. A living saint needs her boy toys.

Maybe sticking them with Stern and/or Draigo? With the Vexilia, you have so many attacks that you don't really care about sweeping, and Stern makes the Storm Shields 2+, while Draigo could get you around more.

My 2000 30 Custodes list is going to have Stern, at least. Maybe I will think about dropping enough dudes to get Draigo, but we will see.

Gave them a test run with Coteaz and two Priests. Thems some durable guys. I did run into a problem where, once Coteaz died, I no longer had access to his powers - I'd rolled Hammerhand, which was pretty important since I got charged by a Maulerfiend and was stuck uselessly slapping it with sticks for the rest of the game.
I think a Cataphractii Captain with a Chainfist would not go amiss in this squad. Anyone else have a better idea for good anti-walker use?

If you want anti-walker then you definitely want spears, though that means you'll need to run 3 squads to get a decent invulnerable save.

A good pairing for them is Draigo. He comes stock with Hammerhand and Gate of Infinity. Hammerhand gets the spears up to S8 (glancing even AV14 on 6's) and Gate lets them travel around the board much more freely. This does mean you will need to ally in a Nemesis Strike Force to get Draigo.

In general though, these guys seem great with a Librarius Conclave. If you slap shields on them, they are 2+/3++. Biomancy can give them a 4++ Feel No Pain behind that. If you're willing to risk Perils or just ally in Grey Knights, it's trivial to snag Sanctuary and Hammerhand too. A big enough Conclave (or lucky enough) can also get Veil of Time for re-rolls.

Really, they seem like amazing Grey Knight allies and I keep running into that when I brain storm. Grey Knights are basically always going to take a ML3 Librarian with Liber and Draigo anyway, so it's not even much of a tax.

Even changing a Librarian to Stern, who is considered a bit more meh but does have guaranteed Sanctuary, we can make a mini-star of:

Stern
Draigo
5 Custodes with shields

This 7 model unit has 2+/2++, gets 16 S7 AP3 attacks (plus Stern and Draigo), a bit over a dozen wounds with Eternal Warrior (and Stern's without) and Deep Strike and Gate of Infinity for mobility. Most of their guns even snap fire at BS2.

All of that is 740 Points and 2 Detachments. In a standard tournament, you'd still have 1,110 Points to build your army and 1 spare Detachment. Barebones requirements for a Nemesis Strike Force (so you can have Stern and Draigo) is only 110 more points and thus still leaves 1,000 Points.

Basically, Custodes are everything a Paladin was supposed to be and are very easily slotted in to a Grey Knight army to handle that role.

That said, they have other uses to. I like to run 1 5-man squad with shields as body guards to intercept assault units going after my Riptides (which I'm modeling to look kind of like mini-Imperial Knights).