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As title suggests, I'm looking for a good army list that has 10 custodes and Deathwatch marines. Any ideas? I have 2 drop pods, a land raider and a vindicator, 1 dread, 10 terminators and about 30 Veterans I can kit for whatever and a Watch Master, Chaplain and Librarian to play with.

Custodes in a land raider are absolutely devastating and terrifying. Combat wise they Chew up MEQ for breakfast and even give Terminators a run for their money. My friend usually fields them in a group of 5 with a Watch captain, Give one of them the banner (Can't remember the name) and laugh as your opponent devolves into a panicked state as they sweep across the board. These guys will take hits if you footslog them, so the land raider is the ideal piece of kit to prevent their loss which is damn expensive but so worth the payoff even if the land raider only gets to move them forward once before it is destroyed. Force your opponent to spend his heavy weapons cracking their shell instead of peeling off your guys.

So custodes in a land raider = infinite pownage.

What about the rest of the army? I was thinking of having the Custodes footslog and having drop pods deliver frag cannons and shotguns to disrupt.

Shotguns are reasonable against assault heavy armies but against others they are at best passable. frag cannons are always a good take.

If I remember correctly a Land raider can transport 10 models in terminator armour so you could have 2 squads of custodies in there without the Watch captain for double the fun instead of footslogging them as that's where you will lose them, but it makes the land raider a higher priority target.

it also depends if you want to field any detachments or if you are using CAD.

custodies in land raider =\= infinite power

custodies in land raider w/ libby conclave = near infinite power (imagine invisible, 4+ FNP, RE-ROLL armor save, gate of infinity lulz)

land raider will get shot to bits turn 1, and if you don't get top of turn 1 then your custodies will just sit there in the broken husk of land raider and get shot by everything with a caliber larger than .22LR

but yeah, with what you have available its totally fine. You can't run vindicator though with deathwatch, its a sphess mahrin only heavy support.

Frag cannon in pods is way to go, I also enjoy rolling them in rhinos making pseudo predators, I mean it is assault 2 shots @ str 7 ap 3 @ 24". (and 4 shots with 2 frag cannon per rhino!)

Or just put libby in with those custodies for some magick, roll for Liberius (or whatever you call it) and try to get the one with re-roll armor save. or biomancy for 4+ FNP.

Hmmm, so what we're getting at is...

To be at their full potential, Custodes have to be supported by a Librarius Conclave and a land raider.

Frag Cannons in Drop Pods or Rhinos are great support.

Everything else is negligeable.

Land Raider with Custodes is priority target, so a DISTRACTION:CARNIFEX is needed. Maybe a night? Or 2 Land Raiders with a 5 man custodes in each?

Honestly, you don't really need (or want) the Land Raider.
A regular Raider can only hold 5 Custodes and no Librarians. A Land Raider Crusader can hold 8 custodes, or 6 custodes and 4 models in Power Armor - Better, but still not great.
A Spartan Assault Tank will do you better, if you have one, since it can hold 10 Custodes and 5 other models, though it costs around 50 points more. (It's totally worth it, regardless.)

Either choice, though, you're spending a ton of points on a transport that you cannot begin the game deployed in. Turn one you have to get inside, which isn't the worst handicap in the world, but it does mean that you're definitely looking at a turn 2 assault, even if you get the second turn. Save yourself the 250-300 points, and just Deep Strike. Custodes are pretty terrifying to a lot of enemies, so by Deep Striking 5-10 of them, you've created a bubble of terror that they will either sink a ton of shots into, or will run scared from.

Use them as a potent Distraction Carnifex.

Tristanleo wrote:
If I remember correctly a Land raider can transport 10 models in terminator armour so you could have 2 squads of custodies in there

Read the transport rules: only one unit can be in a vehicle (with some explicitly stated exceptions).

 Elric Greywolf wrote:

Tristanleo wrote:
If I remember correctly a Land raider can transport 10 models in terminator armour so you could have 2 squads of custodies in there

Read the transport rules: only one unit can be in a vehicle (with some explicitly stated exceptions).

And custodes are bulky

Waaaghpower wrote:
Honestly, you don't really need (or want) the Land Raider.
A regular Raider can only hold 5 Custodes and no Librarians. A Land Raider Crusader can hold 8 custodes, or 6 custodes and 4 models in Power Armor - Better, but still not great.
A Spartan Assault Tank will do you better, if you have one, since it can hold 10 Custodes and 5 other models, though it costs around 50 points more. (It's totally worth it, regardless.)

Either choice, though, you're spending a ton of points on a transport that you cannot begin the game deployed in. Turn one you have to get inside, which isn't the worst handicap in the world, but it does mean that you're definitely looking at a turn 2 assault, even if you get the second turn. Save yourself the 250-300 points, and just Deep Strike. Custodes are pretty terrifying to a lot of enemies, so by Deep Striking 5-10 of them, you've created a bubble of terror that they will either sink a ton of shots into, or will run scared from.

Use them as a potent Distraction Carnifex.

You can Deep Strike Custodes? Like Terminators? That's very handy!

So saving 250 points on the land raider, it's ending up as....

10 Deep Striking Custodes
Librarius Conclave
2 Squads of Drop Pod Frag Cannons with a Lightning Claw and Heavy Flamer Terminator in each.
???????
?????
???
??
Watch Master

I still have....2 Squads of Veterans, Kill Team Cassius, Dreadnought/Venerable/Nihilus about 30 bikes and 6 more Terminators, 2 with assault cannons, 2 with power weapons, 2 with melta fists. I don't mind buying extra stuff to get a competant army, and using more allies.

Wot?

did you not read the rules? If you just read the unit rule for custodies you will "DEEP STRIKE" rule written on the it.

anyhow, just so you know, if you deep strike custodies in they cannot assault out of deep strike like BA termies formation.

They will get shot at by everything the moment they land.

 fr3ddy wrote:
Wot?

did you not read the rules? If you just read the unit rule for custodies you will "DEEP STRIKE" rule written on the it.

anyhow, just so you know, if you deep strike custodies in they cannot assault out of deep strike like BA termies formation.

They will get shot at by everything the moment they land.

That's kind of the point. Custodes are *incredibly* tanky, even for 50/60 point models - T5, 2W, 2+3++ is not going to go down quickly, and 5 of those guys is going to tank incredibly massive amounts of fire before going down. (Take 3 shields, and against hits that don't have AP2, Look Out, Sir! onto the models who don't have shields - Every model is a character, so everyone can Look Out, Sir!)

I think that using 300 points of models to soak up an entire turn of firepower while still remaining potent is absolutely worth it.

Also, if you do have an attached Librarius Conclave, even better! Give them re-rolls on saves, or 4+ FNP, or make that invuln a 2+, or give them T6, or several of the above. Then they go from 'Hard to kill' to 'Indestructible'.

Just a note- Deep strike isn't conferred to the unit, so the libbies need to be in termie armour to DS with them.

So having a Librarius Conclave in Terminator Armour can Deep Strike along with a squad of 10 Custodes?

That's awesome. I'm really liking that option over the land raider, although I'm thinking of having 2 squads of 5 with 1 attached Librarian Deep Striking in 2 different places.