About this deal
Once you have selected an eligible unit to declare a charge, you must select one or more enemy units within 12" of it as the targets of that charge. The targets of a charge do not need to be visible to the charging unit. Use a fine brush to paint the ornate red trim on the armor. Start with a basecoat of a deep red paint, such as Mephiston Red, and then highlight the edges with a lighter red shade, like Evil Sunz Scarlet.
Sally Forth (Solar Watch): Add +1″ to the Move characteristic of all Solar Watch units within 6″ of your Warlord at the start of the Movement phase. Additionally, units within 6″ can shoot with Rapid Fire weapons even if they advanced, but they are -1 to hit. The -1 isn’t too oppressive in a faction with native BS2+, and its a nice little mobility buff. B Wardens I think need to be very aggressive, you’re paying a premium in points for killing power that cannot stay exposed for too long. You’ll need to use the Stratagem to Deep Strike them, but you’ll have to be smart about how to get them to the appropriate target. With the big expensive price tag, the Wardens have to be carving into the most durable and powerful units in your opponent’s army. So to get the most out of them, I’d run a unit of 5 with axes that is Deep Striking which will at least cost you 1 Command Point. Quite frankly, that high cost gives me serious pause. If I didn’t dislike the other elite unit of the Codex so much, I’d probably not take these guys as seriously for consideration. If I didn’t think that their role was so much for targeting the big nasty things, then I’d think that maybe you could get away with minimum unit sizes with Wardens. That’s not an option though here, so we need to think about bigger units and making sure that they Deep Strike into the heart of the enemy if they’ll be worthwhile.The only two other guns on the Ares are a pair of heavy blaze cannons, the same as the ones on the Caladius. Interestingly while the heavy blaze cannon beam profile rerolls wounds against VEHICLE units the magna-blaze cannon doesn’t. This has gone through a couple of printings now so it doesn’t seem like it’s an oversight. Weird. Inspire Fear – 1CP: Use at the beginning of the Morale phase. Choose a non-VEHICLE ADEPTUS CUSTODES unit. Your opponent adds 1 to Morale tests taken for enemy units within 3″ of that unit until the end of the phase. Whatever. D This might not seem like a huge deal at first, but it’s the most expensive points upgrade – and for good reason. Each martial ka’tah forces you to choose between two fantastic stances, often with similar but differing bonuses. Take Salvus, for example. Using Master of the Stances, you can get both of these effects at once. Castellan Strike – 1CP: Use in the Fight phase. Select an ADEPTUS CUSTODES unit. As long as all castellan axes in that unit target the same enemy unit, improve them to AP-3. This is fine for what it is, and sometimes AP-3 is going to be a difference-maker. B I’m always wary of elite units in elite armies. When you don’t have points to spare, it’s hard to justify adding such a big points increase on models that can relatively do the same job fairly well. I don’t think that I’ll probably be bringing Wardens anytime soon, they just don’t bring enough to the table to wow me.
With these new units on hand, the Adeptus Custodes army is about to get a lot more diverse, whether you’re fielding them as an army in their own right or as allies for your Imperium army.
The List
Desperation’s Price: When a psyker suffers perils within 18″ of a Sisters squad, they take an additional d3 MWs for 1CP. This adds even further to the psychic defence angle, and makes them especially effective against armies that throw out high volumes of powers like Grey Knights and Thousand Sons, where sheer volume of dice rolled makes an eventual perils near unavoidable. Few psykers are entirely safe when suffering 2d3 MWs, and the chance of this totally ruining your opponent’s plans is real, for all that it’s necessarily situational. B Sisters get four datasheets, representing three differently armed flavours of the Sisters themselves and then the Null Maiden Rhino as a transport to round them out. The poor Rhino does not get any of these special rules, differing only from a regular one in being able to carry the Sisters and having a chance to heal a wound each turn. It tries real hard though. Vexilus Praetor [6 PL, 105pts, -2CP]: (Solar Watch): Sally Forth, Castellan's Mark, Guardian Spear, Misericordia, Stratagem: Relic, Stratagem: The Emperor's Heroes, Vexilla Magnifica Adeptus Custodes Wardens seemed to really have gotten a glow up with the latest update. Take a look at the next unit that has people rushing out to find a few boxes.
Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike: 4. Impregnable Mind, Castellan's Mark, Salvo Launcher, Tip of the Spear [180 pts, 10 PL, -2 CP] If every unit from your army has the ADEPTUS CUSTODES keyword (excluding ANATHEMA PSYKANA, AGENT OF THE IMPERIUM and UNALIGNED units), and every unit that is assigned to a shield host is assigned to the same shield host, this unit can use this ability and the following rules apply. It speaks volumes about the dire condition of the galaxy that Thursk left Terra but twice before the breaking of the storm, yet he has barely set foot there since the Great Rift yawned wide. The Witch Hunters special rule, letting them re-roll wounds against PSYKERS. This is a buff from the White Dwarf version, where they only re-rolled melee wounds. They really don’t like psykers. Voice of the Emperor (Emissaries Imperatus): Friendly Imperium units within 9″ can use the Warlord’s Leadership. Add 3″ to the range of the Warlord’s aura abilities (already included here). Fine, doesn’t do a ton for you, probably not better than the range of other choices. BTiny numbers – you’ll have the fewest models on the table against anything but a Knight army, so every death matters Additionally, the kit provides the option to construct a Shield-Captain, distinguished by a variety of exclusive components. With a choice of two bare heads, a distinct chest plate, unique shoulder pads, and ceremonial robes, the Shield-Captain epitomizes leadership. Armed with either a castellan axe or guardian spear and carrying a misericordia, their presence commands respect. Furthermore, one model can be assembled as a Vexilus Praetor, boasting an ornate Vexilla alongside the standard weapon choices. What’s in the Custodian Wardens box Their weapons, too, are formidable. They heft Guardian Spears twice the height of a man, or swing massive Castellan Axes that can bisect a Chaos Lord or lop the head from an Ork psyker with a single blow. To supplement these weapons, Allarus Custodians also wield Balistus Grenade Launchers upon their left forearms. These drum-fed weapons can be triggered with a thought, spitting salvoes of sanctified projectiles in saturation patterns through the enemy ranks. They are also capable of launching Concussion Grenades that explode amidst bursts of electroexorcist chaff and overwhelming light and sound. Enemies subjected to these barrages are sent reeling, their senses rebelling against the onslaught even as their weapons and equipment falter and they spasm in pain. Such armaments allow Allarus Custodians to suppress and then swiftly slaughter their target's elite bodyguards, leaving their true quarry exposed in the face of their wrath. Shoulder the Mantle – 1CP: When your Warlord is slain, choose a SHIELD-CAPTAIN from your army. They become your Warlord and generate a Warlord trait. Your Warlord is not considered to have been slain. Cut Off the Head is one of the lowest-scoring objectives in the game, so for pure points denial this is nearly irrelevant in 9th. Being able to get another Warlord trait on something that didn’t have one before is a reasonable use of a CP, though. B New Faces: Quite a few units even outside the Sisters of Silence were pretty much unusable in 9th. All of these have had major tuneups, so should actually see play.