Goatboy here. 9th Edition deals a LOT of damage. Here’s how to help the Custodes match their reputation on the tabletop.
The mighty Adeptus Custodes are a weird elite army that isn’t bad. It just doesn’t feel as tough as it should be. There is something missing from the golden bad boys. A few rules and small tweaks could really push them into a direction that feels more like the books. These awesome warriors shrug off damage and bring the pain. Here are some of my ideas that might end up showing up as I try to base them on other armies’ “tough” rules.
-1 Damage
The first and most likely the most common idea I see all the time is to give them a blanket rule like the Death Guard have. Just a flat -1 to damage on anything that comes at them. I think this is the easiest rule and would allow the army to keep the same amount of wounds. I don’t always like adding more Wounds to a unit as it can cause some weird interactions. Yes, it helps versus small arms fire but the game isn’t just about that. The small damage weapons have so many shots that they just kind of wash over an opponent and you end up seeing quantity kill your quality unit. Yes, there are a lot of 2 damage things out there – but even if we upped all their wounds to 4 it would still be the same as two 2 damage hits killing one. If we move them to only taking 1 damage that hit now needs 3 which feels like a lot better “trade” to get a tough option.
Golden “Feel No Pain”
The next thing we could look at is giving them some kind of Feel No Pain option that could be powerful. The big issue with that type of save is it does slow the game down a bit but as the army isn’t casting any spells or engaging in long phases of firepower it isn’t too bad to add another layer of a save. I expect them to keep some kind of mortal wound protection so just moving it to a flat 6+ Feel No Pain to everything could be interesting to take off some of the damage bite from weapons. I could almost say a 5+ would be alright just due to the nature of the game and how much damage is being thrown around out there in 9th Edition.
The Ultimate Transhumans
The last one and the thing I don’t always like is looking at ways to “transhuman” them all the time. I never liked this rule as it can be amazing in some games but in a lot of the others, it just doesn’t work nearly as well. Mix this in with the army already having higher toughness and you start to see how it wouldn’t do enough or make them truly tough enough. Against the big weapon options, they would be a pain – but we all know the firepower we see is just hitting the sweet spot of wounding on a 4+ and trying to fish for Mortal wounds or other increased damage creators. I just never found it too exciting to deal with especially as a huge army-wide factor. I also think it ends up adding too much to their cost which I feel with added rules right now is just about right to work in the meta.
Will They Be Soon?
Beyond all the tough ideas I do wonder if the last Imperial book GW has shown off in the recent Roadmap ends up being Custodes. It feels like the easiest army to release as you throw in some updated FW rules, tweak all the weird different types of legions, and add in some sweet warlord traits and you got a winner of a book. Heck, the only character missing from the book is some kind of reroll wound option to help the army out. You create a new “Shield Brother” who goes around saying reroll that one bud and do damage for the Emperor. Or heck look at some kind of “Champion of the Blood Games” character too. These are just small things that could be fun to have in the book.
What do you guys think? A few tweaks and we got a nice cheap and easy army to paint for new players? Could this be the other “new army” to try and get new blood into the game? Do you think it is coming at the end of the year with some kind of Xenos monstrosity?
For the Emperor!
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
