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Yesterday I played my first game against an all Custodes list and lost by turn 4. I played a TS list with Ahriman, 2 sniper vet squads, 2 cata sekhmet squads, a sicaran battle tank and a contemptor mortis. My opponent brought 2 squads of Custodes with Spears, a Tribune with a paragon spear and a rerollable 3++, a contemptor achilus, a caladius tank, 2 units of jetbikes and 1 sigitarum squad. From this game I learned some lessons and next time I will try some cheese:
1) Praetor with ML3 in Cata armour, taking a paragon blade, the Raptor cult, but generating powers from Biomancy. 2+/3++ under Iron arm, warp apeed or endurance will really hurt the banana guys. Don't t know if it's been faqed, so might be illegal.
2)Sekhmet. Lots of them.
3)A Leviathan with grav flux and a siege claw.
4)A sicaran arcus. I don't have one jet, but my opponent won't mind a small proxy.
5)Sky slayers with plasma canons.
6) A tactical support squad with plama guns. They sound melt Custodes pretty easily.
Would that be worth taking and what is generally effective against Custodes? My opponent doesn't t have any sisters o silence, so no worry about them.

Hi!

I think you get what you need against custodes, but first, the mistake:

You took an elite army (veterans, sekhmet), is hard to bring things more elite than them: their cheapest troop is 55 points.

Anyways, you have 2 options:

1) Throw a lot of bodies to them, they will die in some point. But, you are a TS, so that wasnt their style, so go for option 2.

2) Suffocate them in 2+, bring guards of magnus and fill the list with terminators, they will strugle killing them: they AP2 is only in the fisrt round of combat if the charge.

More ideas:
-Bring a lot of plasma, for the bananas and the bikes. The bikes are kinda useless in melee, try to lock them with a cheap unit.
-Forget the Sagitarum squad, is mostly useless.
-Be careful with their Dreadnoughts, the one with spear is fearsome, but I prefer the other onw, is really hard and in clse combat is a meatgrinder.
-Their vehicles are versatile and fast, but no so hard, try to pop them with a leviathan in droppod.

The same way you kill terminators, quantity of fire. A 2+ save is all well and good, but there's a 1 in 6 chance of rolling a 1 on a D6. Just force them to roll lots of armour saves.

HH lists had moved towards ever more elite or vehicle heavy lists in my meta. The 20 man legionary squad has made a comeback, in recent months to combat things like custodies.

Rate of fire is king against the Custodes. They're my primary army and generally I have found it relatively easy to win when my opponent takes small elite units and high strength but low number of shots. In contrast, against quad launcers etc and inducti squads I have found it a much greater challenge.

Rapid fire like any unit with a strong invulnerable and good Armour saves. Force them to roll as many dice as possible. That's what tough units fear.

I did more damage to a nurgle lord with lightening claws than thunder hammers for example.

Volume of attacks is far more effective long as you can force saves, eventually one will fail.

Leviathans ruin their day.

Yup weight of fire is the best way to beat custodes. They laugh at high str low AP weapons and elite combat units so its best to drown them in fire or tarpit them. They also really struggle against flyers and well armoured vehicles (ie spartans) Saying that, custodes are defintely OP currently so it will always be a bit difficult going against them.

What about mechanicum? Their MCs have always looked really strong to me.

Mechanicum has a fair chance, mostly because of our massive toolkits. You can drown the Custodes in fire from Tech Thralls (40 shots from a 20 man unit, for 140 points ish), hitting on 5s though.

I also imagine Destructors with Graviton Imploders destroying them. A 5 man unit spits out 20 shots, that hit och 2s (rerolling) and wounds on 2s (rerolling). Sure, they can their invul saves, but you will get 18-20 wounds to save each time they shoot. I always put them in a Macrocarid, which is basically a Land Raider, so they are safe on their way to their targets.

The MCs won't do very well, with an exception for the Arlatax maybe. Castellax will have a hard time hitting them, and with the Custodes' abundance of instant death.. I shudder to think about it.

I would go Reductor against them, drown them in Phosphex and Graviton Imploders, and if they get close; tarpit them with fearless Tech Thralls. They will die, oh yes, but then the Custodes will be open to shooting.

I have never played them myself, but we have a player in our group that has an army, and we decided that my undefeated Mechanicum and his Custodes would battle it out soon.

My handful of games against them I played my Thousand Sons (No Magnus) and while they ended up being close games, I found there were a few little tricks that did help deal with them.

1. Focus Fire. I targeted the units that could hurt me the most, (SoS, Aqullion Terminators) And took them out.
2. Avoid CQC. They are made for that and the only time I would engagne them is with a buffed up Sekhmet unit AND Praetor, and even then that was done to tarpit.
3. They are a small unit army, I went around them and sat on the objectives.

Ok, so this is what will come into play after I get my purchasses:
RoW: Guard of the Crimson King
HQ: Praetor in Cata Termie Armour with Paragon Blade, Arcane Litanies, ML3 with Raptora, but generating powers from Biomancy.
Troops: 2 units of Sekhmet (2 Chainfists and Force axes) in Cata Termie Armour with Raptora cult
Elites: 2 units of Sniper vets with Aspix Shells and ML1 with Divination in Rhinos
HS:Leviathan Dread with Grav-flux and Siege Claw, Deredeo with Plasma Coronades, Sicaran Arcus

Things I consider, but am not sure of: Seekers with Combi-Plasmas (expensive, but deadly. Plus all the special ammunition like S5 Ap 2 shots), Dickbikes with a PF Sergeant (expensive, but will be a grest tarpit for their cheasy gravbikes).