So after having played the new book for 9 games vs a variety of opponents (1 WE, 3 Tau, 2 Space Marines, 1 Imperial Knights, 1 Nid, and 1 csm) testing a bunch of different detachments (Emperors Chosen, Solar Watch, Dreadhost, Might of the Moritoi, Honored Companions, Grav Assault, and Lions) running a myriad of different units (Trajann, Shield Captain w/shield, Guard, Sentinels, Telemon, Galatus, Achillus, Allarus, Aquilon w/fists, Caladius Annihilator, Venatari w/lances, Vertus, Gyrefalcon, Prosecutors, and Witchseekers) while mostly doing Take and Hold, but I did play 1 Purge game and 1 Priority game I have many thoughts I wish to share with everyone from a mostly competitive standpoint.
[PROS]
So to start I do want to address the pros of the book itself outside the rules, the things I think genuinely deserve praise in the book and highlight the things I’m excited for and think are big improvements. Firstly, and in no particular order, we have our FW stuff in our book now. My goodness, I’ve been playing Custodes since they got their 1st official plastic kit back in 7th and even had a Grey Knight army I converted (badly) I had painted gold before that. I’ve been playing them for awhile and to finally have like 95% of our units in the book now is great. This feels like a complete book with options for pretty much everything under the sun you could want with the exception of some more sister units from a design standpoint. It’s great to have a lot of the units updated to plastic and with lower model count it’s much more easily accessible for newer players to get into it now more than ever. We’re as elite as elite gets so you won’t have a massive hobby project on your hands if time is one of the bigger concerns for you. Plus you won’t have as many units to control or worry about keeping track of if you’re someone that can get overwhelmed. The new kits are also gorgeous and while at 1st I was hesitant of the design change they’ve really grown on me. These are the best looking models out there (fight me).
Another big win for the army is the radical step to really push these guys into their own niche and quite far away from marines. This is a great design space they’ve chosen to progress the army’s identity towards. These guys feel like Custodes. It’s kinda exactly what I imagine Custodes to play like on the tabletop. Few, thick, decent damage, with great stats to boot. The extra wounds, toughness, movement, oc, ld, and attacks all really lean into the feel of the more iconic Custodes were all wanting the army to play like. We’re never gonna get true movie Custodes (and I don’t really want to play with only 1-2 models in my list anyways), but this is a great step for the army.
It is so very nice to not be much more expensive space marines and the new profiles, stat improvements, and army mechanics really show that that’s the case.
Ka’tahs are a massively overhauled mechanic that is much more dynamic and interesting now. Gone are the days of Sus and Lethal being a boring 1 dimensional rule that, while decent, left much to be desired on the board. These new Ka’tahs are much more fun and dynamic over their previous iteration and such a neatly designed and thematic rule to have backing out units up. The extra CP from Aquilon Commander is a very good rule and quality of life change for our army and is a great change for the edition going forward.
Additionally I love the speed we’ve gotten. Move 8” (or more) with access to bonus movement, advance and charge, re-rolls, or some combination has been genuinely nice. It feels incredible feeling like I have to speed to be able to operate on the board.
[CONS]
We are expensive…..like very expensive. We’re literally competing with knights with who has the least amount of units on the board. Besides SoS I’m usually getting 5-8 Custodes units on the board at a time. And usually 2-4 of those units are single models. This has multiple compounding issues. A) we have physically less presence on the board for screening, move blocking, being able to threaten different areas effectively. B) it means our fewer units need to achieve more individually and that loosing models and units hurts significantly more. We need our stuff to go well. Obviously everyone wants that, but having a unit slightly underperform means some pretty big ramifications. It can be in damage or saving throws. We need our few units to be doing more on the tabletop.
That’s not necessarily bad if our damage, durability, and speed increased to be able to keep up with the board presence we’ve lost, right? Yes, it would if we got those things. Now we did pick up a bunch of speed so that’s a pillar that genuinely massively improved and while individually our models have gotten harder to kill and they individually do more damage we’ve lost bodies. I’ve played hundreds of game with Custodes over the past 4 editions. We are easier to kill now than I think we’ve been for awhile. At least more than 10th. With fewer units we’re more susceptible to being effective targets for more than 1 enemy activation. Where you used to have to deal with 6 Allarus in 1 unit and 3 units if those. Now it’s 2 Allarus and a Dreadnought which is also more points on top of less models. I was consistently able to bring 25+ Custodes models on the board plus around 8-12 SoS. Now it’s around 10 Custodes models and about 20 SoS.
Same issue with damage. I love that our bolters doubled in shots and we got bonus attacks on most things. But there’s less of us. 3 Vertus previously were around the same point cost as 2 Vertus now….with less attacks. 5 old Custodian Guard are around the same point cost as 3 new ones, but for 2 less attacks, no full re-roll wounds, no +1 to hit and wound, and there Sustained is only vs non/vehicle and monster units. Axes weren’t great before and they lost an attack lol.
In my 9 games I’ve noticed massively how not many attacks we get and also how not particularly high quality they are. And modifiers of any kind hurt us massively. Hit, wound, AP, damage. We sure don’t like those and for each one our already not great efficiency drops exponentially. Our damage is not great. Even in melee I’ve had many units just not kill what they’ve shot and charged for being dozens or even hundreds of points more expensive. Trajann+3 Allarus only do like 25ish damage to a Stormsurge in melee for being 200 more points. We have 2 ranged weapon profiles in our entire codex that has a strength of more than 10. Caladius Blaze Cannons and Hunter Killer missiles. For melee we only have Trajann, the Telemon, the Achillus, and the Galatus if it takes an enhancement. Our army is worse at killing hoards as we’ve lost overall volume and we’re worse at killing bigger units as without the +1 to wound and re-roll wound access we have to rely on our pure datasheet profiles to pull through which imo lack in both volumes and sheer raw damage.
I’m quite disappointed to see a complete lack of Hunter profiles period in the book. I thought that was a great way to break the binary of being good vs everything or being middling by introducing profiles that were usable into specific targets. Gyrefalcon Lances would be perfect for some kind of Hunter: Vehicle/Monster A3 WS2+ S12 AP-2 Damage D3+2 Lance profile. I’m also a bit baffled by the complete lack of any Anti anything keywords. Adrathics should 100% be Anti Vehicle/Monster 4+ (3+ on the Telemon). Especially since our anti tank capabilities have drastically decreased. And I’m also once again disappointed in Arachnus Blaze weapons not regaining their dual anti-tank/anti-light infantry killing profile. Why did we loose that? We have that in the Heresy still.
Also a minor pet peeve, flamer weapons should have an alternative mode of shooting that drops blast and gains an attack so I can slot into melee.
Unfortunately hard relying on 4 datasheets for the most part to pop big targets feels bad. Really limits the design space as I feel I have to include certain units or I just cannot deal with many threats. And the only “reliably” consistent way to do it at range now is the 250pts Caladius that needs a detachment that eats up your important Shield Host detachment in order to facilitate that.
The price our units is so high we have no flexibility at all and our units are all so hard set at dealing with only 1-2 types of enemy units you will play games that you will just be overwhelmed. I can’t bring a unit of Gyrefalcons because they don’t fit into the list. I can’t bring an Aquilon unit because they’re 15 more points than Allarus and I can’t drop an entire unit of SoS to accommodate.
We definitely needed our volumes on our infantry killing weapons upped and we definitely needed the strength/damage on the tank/monster killing weapons upped as well. So easy changes would be adding Cleave onto a variety of weapons. Guardian Spears, Sentinel Blades, Dread Spear. Adding Hunter profiles onto stuff like Axes like Hunter Vehicle/Monster A4 WS2+ S12 AP-2 Damage 4 (and make them cost points, this was the obvious way to go), Gyrefalcon lances, Aquilon talons (give them more attacks into infantry) and put some on some of the guns. Increase volumes of shots on some weapons like the Pallas Illiastus to 3 shots with RF3 and Sus 1 vs non Vehicle/Monster. Increase Blaze Cannons, Dread Spear shooting, Las Pulsars all to Strength 12.
Ka’tahs are also a bit of a missed opportunity for me. I saw the rules and thought wow, we have a really interesting army rule. Which I think is true, but as far as power level on abilities I’d say it’s a 5/10. Perfectly ok. Now where they really shine is in their Shieldhosts. These turn then from 5/10 to 7/10 or even 9/10. Unfortunately I’m not a fan of the use for 1 phase in a battle-round for the semi low bonuses most give you inherently. Re-rolling hits of 1 vs infantry is fine, lethal vs monsters and vehicles is fine, the shoot/be engaged and do actions should definitely also let you charge and do actions. The biggest one is the -1 to be hit which is great, but you only get 1 per unit per round (outside of a handful of abilities. If you use your offensive one in your turn you have no defensive one in your opponents turn. And vice versa. I do feel these should be once per turn as there’s many you’ll want to be doing and not all them will be used hardly ever anyways. An additional quality of life change should be your units start Readied at the beginning of the game as going second doesn’t even let you have the -1 to hit active should your opponent charge you with 3 scout moving eightbound bricks top of 1.
Overall I think we’re a much smaller army that throws less effective attacks out, are easier to overwhelm, are more susceptible to having a couple bad dice rolls or great dice rolls making or breaking our games.
And I don’t want this to sound like it’s unsalvageable. We do have a genuinely quite interesting army with some fun and flavorful profiles, datasheets, and rules, but we are (currently) severely restricted in model count, durability, and damage into many different army builds and unit types.
[OVERALL THOUGHTS]
My overall 1st impressions are we’re much faster, but will struggle and killing skew units more, and while we’re still fine at killing more standard stats out there we’re very prone to having one or 2 bad damage or saving throws costing the game. Now more than ever. And while the most obvious change is point decreases I don’t want that. I’d much rather have our unit efficacy be increased instead. Give us more attacks on certain profiles, better strength and damage on some stuff, Hunter profiles, and some keywords and the army would really feel like it’s in a great spot. But I assume we’ll get point decreases and have it be fairly binary of “stuff too cheap too good, stuff too pricey too bad” for a long while. And points do change so maybe in a few months we’ll be the op army, which isn’t good for the game for anyone. Would much rather see stat/weapon/profile changes, but guess we’ll see.
If anyone wants a more in-depth breakdown of games or units let me know and I can try and give my more detailed thoughts on those.