Post by danny1995 on Oct 31, 2016 13:12:23 GMT -5
So I have started playing with the Custodian Guard unit in their formation, and they are amazing. If they make combat. That is their biggest problem, they are abysmally slow. Running them you have no opportunity to transport them, a Land Raider would be awesome but that isn’t going to happen right now. I have a few ideas on how you can still run them and make the most of them despite this weakness.
1. Deep Strike them
• They have deep strike, and if you’re going up against a slow opponent then it can easily make for a good delivery system. Drop them into a guard gun line and you can shred through one unit at a time. This is fine for a couple turns until your opponent manages to get out of there by slowing you down and running away at top speed.
• Downside: You don’t have them until at least turn 2, you can’t charge until at least turn 3, which only leaves you between 3 and 5 turns to do damage, with a 280+ point unit that is a literal worrisome. Trying to make up their points in kills you’d either need to hit something expensive or kill something every turn, not an easy feat necessarily. Additionally, this strategy won’t work if your opponent has any decent level of speed, Tau will just JSJ away, same with Eldar.
2. Numbers
• You could bring the max three units of them in a formation and spread them across the board. They can’t hide from all of them this way, eventually some of them will hit combat.
• Downside: Cost, 780 points minimum for this, SEVEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY! That’s almost half your army, that WON’T do anything until Turn 2 at the earliest.
3. Backline Protection
• This is kind of a counter tactic to my first one. At 280 points these guys will take a lot of punishment and dish a lot out. They are battle brothers to every imperial army so taking them as a defensive unit to protect a gun line from being shredded by a scary deep strike or very fast assault force could go well for you. Even if your opponent assaults and kills part of your gun line before you can engage them, this can be your answer to that. Also you could pay the extra 30 points to also hand out a 12” Fearless bubble, something rather useful to a gun line.
• Downside: You have 280 points less guns in your gun line. It’s up to you to decide if having this defensive force is worth that. Will this unit protect 280 points worth of guns?
4. Draigo
• So this is kind of a very specific option but worth considering. Toss Draigo into the unit and Gate of Infinity your way around the table, Draigo will help to tank wounds also, and add more AP2 to the squad.
• Downside: Exactly the same as deep striking. If your opponent is fast they can jump away and avoid that assault. Any turn you use the power is a turn you are not killing. So if you gate turn 1, you can’t kill until turn 2, then you gate on 3, kill on 4, gate 5, kill 6. Since you only have 7 turns max that peaks you with 3 turns of killing, with Draigo this unit costs you well over 500 points. Worth considering still.
So those are my ideas so far on how to mitigate their speed problem. You also can just accept their speed problem and move on with your life keeping them around as a big rock in the middle of your army. I think my preferred option with my current army builds is going to be using that deep strike option when necessary. I don’t have numbers to run, and deep striking them is the cheapest (points and money wise) way of doing it. I am thinking that I may try and proxy a few of them onto the table and try using the numbers approach for this. I hope this little write up helped some people think about their Custodian Guard and how they might choose to play them.
1. Deep Strike them
• They have deep strike, and if you’re going up against a slow opponent then it can easily make for a good delivery system. Drop them into a guard gun line and you can shred through one unit at a time. This is fine for a couple turns until your opponent manages to get out of there by slowing you down and running away at top speed.
• Downside: You don’t have them until at least turn 2, you can’t charge until at least turn 3, which only leaves you between 3 and 5 turns to do damage, with a 280+ point unit that is a literal worrisome. Trying to make up their points in kills you’d either need to hit something expensive or kill something every turn, not an easy feat necessarily. Additionally, this strategy won’t work if your opponent has any decent level of speed, Tau will just JSJ away, same with Eldar.
2. Numbers
• You could bring the max three units of them in a formation and spread them across the board. They can’t hide from all of them this way, eventually some of them will hit combat.
• Downside: Cost, 780 points minimum for this, SEVEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY! That’s almost half your army, that WON’T do anything until Turn 2 at the earliest.
3. Backline Protection
• This is kind of a counter tactic to my first one. At 280 points these guys will take a lot of punishment and dish a lot out. They are battle brothers to every imperial army so taking them as a defensive unit to protect a gun line from being shredded by a scary deep strike or very fast assault force could go well for you. Even if your opponent assaults and kills part of your gun line before you can engage them, this can be your answer to that. Also you could pay the extra 30 points to also hand out a 12” Fearless bubble, something rather useful to a gun line.
• Downside: You have 280 points less guns in your gun line. It’s up to you to decide if having this defensive force is worth that. Will this unit protect 280 points worth of guns?
4. Draigo
• So this is kind of a very specific option but worth considering. Toss Draigo into the unit and Gate of Infinity your way around the table, Draigo will help to tank wounds also, and add more AP2 to the squad.
• Downside: Exactly the same as deep striking. If your opponent is fast they can jump away and avoid that assault. Any turn you use the power is a turn you are not killing. So if you gate turn 1, you can’t kill until turn 2, then you gate on 3, kill on 4, gate 5, kill 6. Since you only have 7 turns max that peaks you with 3 turns of killing, with Draigo this unit costs you well over 500 points. Worth considering still.
So those are my ideas so far on how to mitigate their speed problem. You also can just accept their speed problem and move on with your life keeping them around as a big rock in the middle of your army. I think my preferred option with my current army builds is going to be using that deep strike option when necessary. I don’t have numbers to run, and deep striking them is the cheapest (points and money wise) way of doing it. I am thinking that I may try and proxy a few of them onto the table and try using the numbers approach for this. I hope this little write up helped some people think about their Custodian Guard and how they might choose to play them.
