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How do?

Marking my return to ‘fully painted’ 40k via the medium of Adeptus Custodes. And so far, it looks like my force will be primarily Allarus Terminators. Mostly because the models are ace, and a joy to build.

Secondly, the Stragagem in the title. Probably my favourite in terms of background and usefulness in all of 40k. Well, the ones I’m aware of.

To me, being able to scatter a given squad into individuals really does appeal, particularly for an army as compact as Custodes. But what I’m wondering is where does the limit of its usefulness lie?

On first impressions, being able to scatter into 10 independent maniacs seems like a right laff. Never mind the points, it just seems [i]funny[/i. Yet there’s part of my brain suggesting that scattering larger squads may not work out so well.

The general upside is that I suddenly present my opponent with more targets. This of course massively mitigates ‘botched roll’ syndrome, and forces my opponent to engage me piecemeal. Even with the free splitting of firepower, there’s a chance that when split between two Custodes, firepower that would slay one in a squad will leave both alive.

I think my main concern comes from ongoing combats. Rock hard as they are, fighting as individuals against an single enemy squad means I may not get all my attacks in before one is cut down. For instance, let’s say it’s turn two of a combat. One my Allarus goes first, gives the foe a slight panelling. Enemy squad then gets to fight back. Anyone half way paying attention will of course seek to beat up the other Allarus, in The sure and certain hope that he might fall casualty before he can fight.

Maybe I’m overthinking it here, and the dangers aren’t as pronounced. It is of course just as possible that I’m overlooking other flaws!

Your input please folks


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh yeah - and let’s not forget that engaging multiple squads at once can be a serious distraction for your foe, possibly sparing the rest of my army their firepower?

Haven’t played much 8th Ed, so whilst I’m semi-rules aware, my knowledge of them in application is pretty much non-existent.

The main problem would be in Maelstrom if your opponent draws a kill objective, or in Eternal War if you are playing kill points.

However, it does mean that potentially a lot of fire power is wasted, though you can now split up plasma guns in a unit to fire at different targets, so it isnt quite as devastating or annoying as it would have been in 7th!

Where it will really shine is grabbing objectives - five terminators climbing onto objectives late in the game could win it for you, especially if you have exterminated their troops.

Hadn’t considered that...

Certainly a double edged sword - possibly worth the trade off for the sheer difficulty of jobbing a single Custard, let alone 10 of them having a wee rampage!

Though....would likely need to deploy fairly central. No point going on one flank of it’s gonna keep lot of units out of arms reach?

It seems that GWs custodes release has been met with huge sales figures. If this continues there will be a world shortage of gold-paint.

You could paint them silver, just make sure that they don't look grey - someone might see that as an insult and exterminate all witnesses of such a heresy.