Over the next few days I will be breaking down the Adeptus Custodes Beta Rules for Warhammer 40k that were released last month. You can download them here (for free) if you haven't had the chance to check them out yet.
Part Four below goes into the Lord of War and Dedicated Transport, as well as closing thoughts on the Beta rules.
Part One covered the Elites Choices. Part Two covered Fast Attacks. Part Three discussed the Heavy Support Choices.
Coronus Grav-Carrier
Well for starters, it is better than the Land Raider for what it does (Deliver infantry to the enemy lines), though not as tough. But you don’t need it to be as tough (besides it has that 2” buffer from Gravitic Backwash). You need it to live into turn 2 or 3 and deliver its cargo. And this transport can and will do that.
What makes it better? Simple the fact it is cheaper and faster. Sure the Land Raider is still by far deadlier. But the point of these vehicles is to transport something even deadlier inside. And seeing how the Coronus can transport that unit faster, and isn’t as large of a points sink, it just strikes me as being the better of the two options for this job.
To me the obvious choices to transport are Pythirite Spears or Wardens. Terminators as well if you couldn’t (or didn’t want to) deep strike the. IMO Allarus actually, seeing as Aquilon with Firepikes are Deep Striking gods of gold now.
The weapon is the same lackluster and non-sensical Twin Arachnus Blaze Cannon found on the Pallas. Really really falling short of the dual Twin-Las of the Godhammer, and as I said in Part 2, the Burst mode really should be Heavy 12 or more. The lack of firepower causes some hesitation for me to taking one.
However, what really stops me from taking one is I just don’t think it is needed. Custodes work very much like a Hammer and Anvil IMO. Jetbikes, Grav Tanks, Jump Infantry and Deep Striking are all HAMMERS. The rest of the list is an Anvil. All a Coronus does is make your Anvil mobile. And if you really need to do that, you could with deep striking and spend your precious points on something far more lethal.
Orion Assault Dropship
Probably one of the Toughest Flyers in the game. Really a solid choice, but something you very carefully have to consider taking and have a plan how to use it, and importantly, how to use your army when it dies.
Must better than the Land Raider for what it does. For one, it has some okay firepower (though 2 Caladius would still be more for a little less points). The Blaze cannon is strong, but capping at 3 damage really limits it. It really should be 2d3 or d6 IMO.
This is also amazingly fast. The problem there being you will quickly outrun all your support characters, so just be ready to deal with rolling snake eyes on the To Hit of the blaze cannons, as well sacrificing transport space for a few characters to join your embarked assault force.
The ability to transport a Dreadnought is really nice, and makes the standard contemptor much more viable IMO. Other candidates for transport are the same as I mentioned above for the Coronus, plus a shield captain or Trajann and/or Vexilla of some sort. If you aren’t bringing a Dreadnought inside the Orion, I would highly recommend filling three of the spots with a basic troop squad. This allows you to deliver an assault force that can continue to me mobile, while leaving behind a tough as nails troop squad to hold what ever objective you storm.
But just like the Coronus, I’m not convinced on this big boy. I mean, it is super fluff and you should take it if you want to. Not a bad move. BUT It is 448 points. That is nearly ¼ of a 2k army. And in a small model count army, that really REALLY eats into your body count and ability to have board control. It is the reason why the land raider was balked at when the codex dropped. It is just wicked expensive. And on top of that, you are likely putting another 300-500 points inside of it. You are easily end up with over half your army in one drop. So sure, that can help you go first but… if you get seized on, there are armies that can take this down in a turn. And even if you don’t get seized on, don’t be surprised if this big scary monster that cannot hide and everything will have LOS too gets shot by literally every unit in your opponent’s army until it is dead. And that is another downside to its cost. If you lose it early on in your game, that is ¼ of your army gone in one blow. And with its low damage weaponry, it is likely it will not ever earn its points back in lethality. You have to just hope the act of being a taxi was worth it.
Furthermore, just like the Coronus, it is really for transporting around Anvils when you already have plenty of hammers you can swing. It just isn’t NEEDED in the army. There are many more optimal choices, both in and out of the codex.
Closing Thoughts on the Beta
Overall I am quite happy with the second Custodes beta. Only disappointment not mentioned is that there was one close combat dread in the previous beta that did not make this one. Would have been nice to see another new model drop. But such is life.
The biggest winners of this Beta are the Caladius w/ Accelerator Cannon, Aquilon Terminators w/ Firepikes and Solerite Guantlets, Achillus Dreadnought and finally Agamatus Custodes w/ Las-Pulsers. Solid choices all of them, and they all have their place in the Army and do their prescribed job well.
Pretty much everything else is decent (still Custodes afterall) but just not optimal. If you are playing garagehammer or wanting to bring the boys in gold but no jetbikes, this new Beta really does a great job providing new options and some depth to an otherwise limited codex army.
That is it for part four! Tell us what you think in the comments below and make sure to check out all our Custodes content.
Coronus Grav-Carrier
Well for starters, it is better than the Land Raider for what it does (Deliver infantry to the enemy lines), though not as tough. But you don’t need it to be as tough (besides it has that 2” buffer from Gravitic Backwash). You need it to live into turn 2 or 3 and deliver its cargo. And this transport can and will do that.
To me the obvious choices to transport are Pythirite Spears or Wardens. Terminators as well if you couldn’t (or didn’t want to) deep strike the. IMO Allarus actually, seeing as Aquilon with Firepikes are Deep Striking gods of gold now.
The weapon is the same lackluster and non-sensical Twin Arachnus Blaze Cannon found on the Pallas. Really really falling short of the dual Twin-Las of the Godhammer, and as I said in Part 2, the Burst mode really should be Heavy 12 or more. The lack of firepower causes some hesitation for me to taking one.
However, what really stops me from taking one is I just don’t think it is needed. Custodes work very much like a Hammer and Anvil IMO. Jetbikes, Grav Tanks, Jump Infantry and Deep Striking are all HAMMERS. The rest of the list is an Anvil. All a Coronus does is make your Anvil mobile. And if you really need to do that, you could with deep striking and spend your precious points on something far more lethal.
Orion Assault Dropship
Probably one of the Toughest Flyers in the game. Really a solid choice, but something you very carefully have to consider taking and have a plan how to use it, and importantly, how to use your army when it dies.
This is also amazingly fast. The problem there being you will quickly outrun all your support characters, so just be ready to deal with rolling snake eyes on the To Hit of the blaze cannons, as well sacrificing transport space for a few characters to join your embarked assault force.
The ability to transport a Dreadnought is really nice, and makes the standard contemptor much more viable IMO. Other candidates for transport are the same as I mentioned above for the Coronus, plus a shield captain or Trajann and/or Vexilla of some sort. If you aren’t bringing a Dreadnought inside the Orion, I would highly recommend filling three of the spots with a basic troop squad. This allows you to deliver an assault force that can continue to me mobile, while leaving behind a tough as nails troop squad to hold what ever objective you storm.
But just like the Coronus, I’m not convinced on this big boy. I mean, it is super fluff and you should take it if you want to. Not a bad move. BUT It is 448 points. That is nearly ¼ of a 2k army. And in a small model count army, that really REALLY eats into your body count and ability to have board control. It is the reason why the land raider was balked at when the codex dropped. It is just wicked expensive. And on top of that, you are likely putting another 300-500 points inside of it. You are easily end up with over half your army in one drop. So sure, that can help you go first but… if you get seized on, there are armies that can take this down in a turn. And even if you don’t get seized on, don’t be surprised if this big scary monster that cannot hide and everything will have LOS too gets shot by literally every unit in your opponent’s army until it is dead. And that is another downside to its cost. If you lose it early on in your game, that is ¼ of your army gone in one blow. And with its low damage weaponry, it is likely it will not ever earn its points back in lethality. You have to just hope the act of being a taxi was worth it.
Furthermore, just like the Coronus, it is really for transporting around Anvils when you already have plenty of hammers you can swing. It just isn’t NEEDED in the army. There are many more optimal choices, both in and out of the codex.
Closing Thoughts on the Beta
Overall I am quite happy with the second Custodes beta. Only disappointment not mentioned is that there was one close combat dread in the previous beta that did not make this one. Would have been nice to see another new model drop. But such is life.
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| "Don't listed to her, she gives bad advice." |
Pretty much everything else is decent (still Custodes afterall) but just not optimal. If you are playing garagehammer or wanting to bring the boys in gold but no jetbikes, this new Beta really does a great job providing new options and some depth to an otherwise limited codex army.
That is it for part four! Tell us what you think in the comments below and make sure to check out all our Custodes content.
