So I thought I'd do a little writing about my newest army the Talons of the Emperor, or more specifically the Custodes part of that list. I have just shy of 1500pts at the time of writing (although I have some upgrade packs coming in the post which'll bring it to 1750pts). So Below are my thoughts on how they work and why I'll run them they way I'm planning on running them.
My army so far
First things first, what do I actually own. In their current split I have 3 units of Guardian spear armed squads (2 with 3 and one with 4) one of these have a vexillia, a squad of 4 with swords and shields, a contemptor Achillus dreadnought (Alice) and the forge world Ixion Hale model that I currently use as a Shield Captain. At this point in time they are all painted to table top quality with extra highlighting needed on the silvers, plus finishing off all of the power weapons.
To finish off what I own I need to build the last five guys that I have on sprue (4 of them will make a squad of sagittrum gaurd) and finish painting the second vexillia model I have built. This will hopefully give me 3 4 man squads with spears (2 have vexillias), 1 4 man squad with shields, 1 4 man sagittrum squad, my shield captain and the dread.
This gives me a nice rounded force with a variety of units to pick and choose from depending on what I am using them for.
What I have learnt so far
Two Fridays ago (at the time of writing) I went over to the Emperors Path to film a battle report (report here: https://youtu.be/kvkU12sQeZw) using the custodes for the first time. It was a great game, and although the final score didn't suggest it was actually a very close game, so go give it a watch to see how they faired against a legion list. From the game I learned a couple of lessons. which hopefully I can explain below and how I plan on correcting them:
1. Anti-tank: Alice died early on in the game leaving me with no anti-tank what so ever meaning I had nothing to deal with Sam's own contemptor dreads. Although I managed to avoid them for most of the game in the end they proved fatal to my game plan. So what would I do next time? Bring melta bombs, I know that you can only use one a turn but I spent at least 6 turns locked in combat with a dread I couldn't do anything too, so melta bombs would have massively helped. I small games I am also considering getting hold of a pallus grav attack craft (the little one) to give me some fast moving fire power with some anti-tank capability. All in all, bring enough anti-tank for the army, if they bring contemptors and you haven't got a way to kill them in combat you are screwed.
2. Long ranged fire power: My army lacks any sort of long range supporting fire. All the spears are 18" maximum range, and even though the dread has two storm bolters and a 36" range heavy d3 lascannon none of it gives you the chance to whittle some units down before you get to them. To counter this I am going to add a unit of Sagittrum guard. They carry 30" heavy bolters with under slung nasty beam weapons (if anything gets to close to them). Now they can't move and shoot at full BS but give 12 shots a turn towards an enemy that either the rest of the army can't see or get to (see Sam's Iron Havocs in the battle report). As well as the Sagittrum guard I am also (further in the future) add a squad of 3 pallus' to give me more roving heavy fire power that I can reposition as needed.
3. Magistirum Vexillias: Make sure you have enough in your army to cover every unit in your army with the 12" plus 1 combat res bubble. It's a free upgrade in regular squads or 10pts for a sentinal blade and is so worth it. The number of combats that I won (although damm chaplains....) due to just getting plus 1 was scary. Doesn't really cost you much, gives so much benefit. If you are playing on a 4'x4' then 2 will cover the whole board (see you don't need many and they just look damm cool).
4. Guardian Spears: they suffer from the same problem as power swords. On the charge they give you ap2 but after that terminators are artificer wearing sergeants will still just shrug off your damage. Also as there are no characters in the squad there is no way to challenge that sergeant and take him out first (as you are swinging first you're likely to get him). I completely forgot that they generate extra attacks on the hit roll of a 6 so I think I probably did myself out of some kills but oh well.
5. The Sodality: finally the sodality, having a 3" unit coherency is amazing. You can cover so much of the table and make so much use of terrain to hide in without needing to squish up. It's a fairly minor thing but something to make sure you make the most off, especially when it comes to placing models like the banner where you can have him slightly further out and yet still be in coherency.
So that's about it on my thoughts of these guys. They are a powerful army but you can't just throw them at the enemy. Make sure you are picking your targets and getting those charges off as it'll make a massive difference plus making the most of the cover on the table as you will have to foot slog most of your army to the enemy. That aside they are a lot of fun to play and a very durable army with a low model count, so if you are looking to start heresy on more of a budget they are definitely a good contender.
Let me know your thoughts on the custodes below
Philip
Also make sure you go follow Sam over at the Emperors Path:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU1jAqaoprzYdgwkhCpxtFw
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emperorspath/
Instgram: @emperors_path
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