Goonhammer Reviews: Horus Heresy Third Edition Liber Custodes

Accompanying the new plastic Custodes is the Liber Custodes. This replaces the Legacy PDF with printed rules for the Custodians, Sisters of Silence and Assassins, meaning it probably shouldn’t be called just the Liber “Custodes”, as it also covers various other people.

The big news is the arrival of loads of plastic kits for the Custodes. The Liber provides rules for all of the ones we’ve seen and provides us with some hints of future releases, where we see new equipment. On the other hand the resin upgrades for the older Custodes models are now gone, unless there’s a new Legacies document or something to bring them back.

Custodian Guard. Credit - Soggy

The Custodians have been updated with a full army list with all the bells and whistles of new Detachments and different weapons, whereas the Sisters and Assassins are pretty much unchanged. There’s the odd FAQ change incorporated here and there but nothing truly new. For the sake of the completeness of this review I've copied in our original thoughts of these units from the PDF version, updated with the minor changes that we've seen. I won't mind at all if you skip that part of this article.

Thanks Games Workshop for sending us a copy of Liber Custodes to review.

Background

We get a few pages of fluff here but, as with the other sourcebooks for 2.0, it’s nothing to compare with the old black books. This is a rulebook with only a very brief and deliberately vague description of the various organisations within the Imperial Household.

Legio Custodes Sentinel Guard Sodality. Credit: realSnice

This vagueness allows for some potential expansion in future. One nugget here is the mention of “Questoris Sinister” serving the Ordo Sinister. Could we get a Psychic Knight in future to represent these at 30k scale?

Special Rules

There are special rules for Custodes and their equipment scattered throughout the Liber Custodes. I’ll try and cover the most important ones here.

The rules which will define the Custodes on the tabletop are Eternal Warrior 1 (or occasionally even 2), and Vanguard 2 or 3. So Custodes will be very resilient against multi-damage weapons but not much good at controlling objectives. There’s nothing with Line in the Custodes list, or indeed the whole Liber, meaning it isn’t even available via allies. We don’t think Vanguard really works at the moment as it’s too easy to react off objectives, but when a whole army has it, you’ll probably score it a few times.

The other notable thing is that pretty much everyone here has an AP2 melee weapon and an exceptional profile behind it. The ability to deliver lots of AP2 attacks at S5 and I5 or better makes melee against Custodes units extremely risky. For good measure they tend to have at least AP4 with their shooting attacks, so auxilia will be slaughtered in two phases.

The Only in Death Tactica means that Custodes get Stunned instead of Routed if they fail a morale test in melee. This probably won’t come up all that often as Custodes are very good at close combat and not very likely to lose. If your Custodes were to meet something that could beat them then you’d probably prefer if they did run away - but they refuse to. They can’t even choose to Disengage or Fall Back from melee unless they have the Antigrav Sub-Type.

Three Reactions, one on page 52 and two on page 111. The new one is The Blade Splits, which lets you split a unit of 6+ Custodes into two units of 3+ when an enemy unit moves within 12” of them. You can’t use this on a unit of 5 or fewer and all the models in the unit must have the Custodes and The Sodality traits. The Tribune and Shield Captain do have The Sodality so it’s fine if they’re attached, but Aquilon Terminators and Gyrfalcon Jetbikes don’t - even though their units are both called “Sodalities”. Those are both really expensive units that you probably don’t want six of in the first place.

We also get the Shieldwall and Smokescreen reactions, available to infantry with shields and Dreadnoughts, which have the Smokescreen trait. The Vehicles don't. You can give a Dreadnought a 5+ shroud save for a shooting phase and that’s quite nice, though a Galatus may sometimes prefer to Shieldwall instead and a Telemon will often prefer to shoot back.

We get four Gambits to choose from, meaning Custodes have probably more options than anyone else. Luckily, while some of these are quite good, a couple are rubbish and easily discounted.

The little Misericordia knives that Custodians carry around can be used to do their own unique Aftermath option: The Blade of Mercy. One model in the unit gets to make a single attack with their base Strength and AP3, plus Precision 2+ and Breaching 5+. It has a Damage characteristic equal to the number of models in the unit with a Misericordia. So now and then you’ll get to cut down an enemy character if they’ve lived long enough to make it to the aftermath.

Neutronium Cascade weapons are a new thing with this Liber. They can mostly be found on the front of their tanks and in the Telemon Dreadnought’s fists but there’s also a really big one on the Ares Gunship. These extremely dangerous template weapons are horrible for infantry but this rule makes them bad news for vehicles too, doing additional D1 hits if they get penetrating hits. The Venatari get a Neutronium mine, with more or less the same effect as a melta bomb but with fancier rules.

What we have lost

There are a few options that were previously built using the old plastic models with resin additions. Sagittarum Guard are gone entirely and so are the options for Spears with meltas and other fancy stuff built in. This latter change reduces your Custodian Guards’ ability to handle vehicles quite a bit, probably forcing you to take more of a combined arms force.

Army Selection

Custodes obviously have to be Loyalist, as does everything in this book. If your Primary Detachment is from the Custodes list then all your allies have to be Talons of the Emperor, which is just Sisters of Silence and Assassins, for now. You can freely take Custodes as allies for other Loyalist forces, however.

Shield Captain - Credit: keewa

This makes sense for game balance, to stop you bringing along four Tactical Squads to hold objectives, but not so much in terms of the fluff. Custodes famously don’t let anyone boss them about except the Emperor himself, and can tell pretty much anyone who isn’t a Primarch what to do. How come they can show up under the command of some random Auxilia Legate but can’t get hold of so much as a militia squad to hold an objective for them?

New Detachments

There is a new Apex Detachment for Custodes and four new Auxiliaries. Each of these has a Prime slot, meaning that you can potentially have a lot of Prime units. It’s actually difficult or impossible to use some of the Prime Benefits, however. There are no Sergeants in this list, meaning no Master Sergeants, and vehicles taken in Prime slots can only take Logistical Benefit. You’re usually going to be choosing between Combat Veterans and Logistical Benefit, probably with a Hetaeron Guard unit or two.

The detachments are:

Moritoi Convocation (Apex): Two War-Engines, one of which is Prime.
Hykanatoi Convocation: Two Troops, one of which is Prime, plus a Heavy Transport.
Tharanatoi Convocation: Two Heavy Assault, one of which is Prime
Ephoroi Convocation: Two Recon, one of which is Prime.
Kataphractoi Convocation: A Prime Fast Attack, a Heavy Transport and an Armour.

The overall effect of these new Detachments is to make it much easier to assemble a Custodes army. Instead of needing a whole Commander choice to unlock a detachment of four Caladius, which is more than you’re ever likely to need, you can pick a Kataphractoi Convocation with a Pallas or some Jetbikes, a Coronus and a Caladius - plus any other unit you like, unlocked by the Logistical Benefit.

Prime Benefits

We get two new Prime Advantage options for the Custodes, both of which are likely to see a lot of use.

You can make a Shield Captain into a Prefect. This gives them +1 Wound and Officer of the Line (2). You may recall that Shield Captains used to come with Officer of the Line (2) as standard but they have lost that and need to take this Prime Advantage to get it back.

The other new option is to make a unit of Infantry or Cavalry into Hetaeron Guard, giving them Eternal Warrior (2). You can only take this once per army, plus one more time for everyone in your list with the Golden Exemplar rule, which Valdor and Tribunes have.

The Custodes Army List

There aren’t all that many units available to the Custodes and not too many options for those that do exist. A big change is that Troop unit sizes have grown, making for more powerful but less flexible options.

Constantin Valdor is a Warlord costing 400 points, with a profile close to that of the Primarchs. However, since your normal Custodians are already so great, having Valdor in your list won’t feel quite as different as you might think. He's very dangerous indeed, but probably not as scary as about 13 Custodians, which you could buy instead for his price.

As Supreme Commander you get the Tribune, who is an incredible beatstick, only slightly less scary than Valdor. You can choose between an Eternity Spear or Eternity Blade and Praesidium Shield. These are pretty similar, so it’s possibly more of an aesthetic choice which you go for.

Both the sword and spear options have Aflame 2. This applies an additional -2 modifier to the LD of any enemy unit that has to take a morale test after fighting in melee, so long as this weapon inflicts a wound - even if it is saved. The Shield Captain gets the same weapon, meaning that your characters now make their units extra-scary.

Legio Custodes Shield Captain. Credit: NotThatHenryC

The only Command choice you have so far, the Shield Captain is another traditional beatstick character, roughly equal to a Legion Praetor in power but a substantial downgrade from a Tribune.

A Shield Captain comes in at 175 points, armed with either an Eternity Sword and Praesidium Shield or Eternity Spear. You can add an Arae-Shrike for 50 points, letting them Deep Strike, but if you want that you may as well pay the extra 25 points to get a Tribune.

You get three Aquilon Terminators as Heavy Assault for the pretty eye-watering price of 255 points. You’re allowed up to six, paying 85 points for every addition. At that price you won’t be surprised to learn that these are extremely dangerous, with some of the nastiest available to any infantry model in the game. They start out with infernus firepikes which can be replaced for free with Lastrum Storm Bolters (24”, FP4, S5, AP4, D1, Shred 5+). For 5 points you can upgrade these to Adrathic Combi-destructors (12” FP2 S5 AP2 D2 Rending 6+). I might recommend the storm bolters for their range if on foot. If they’re in a transport or Deep Striking then the other weapons will do a lot more.

For melee you have a Solarite Power Talons, which can be upgraded for 5 points to Solarite Power Gauntlets. Personally I’d go for the gauntlets as these are one of the few ways to get really high strength infantry. The talons are great but they’re a bit too similar to what your “normal” Custodes can do with their spears and swords, in my opinion.

For Troops, the classic Custodian Guard Sodality, with their spears with guns in, now comes as a unit of 6-12 starting at costing 270 points and paying 45 each for extras.

Custodian Guard. Credit: Keewa

The “basic” Custodian has M8, WS, BS, S and T5, W2, I5, A3, LD10, CL10, WP8 and In 8 with a 2+/6++ save. They’ve got Bulky (2), Eternal Warrior (1), Lightning Blows (giving Critical Hit 6+ when they charge) and Vanguard (2).

Guardian Spears are great. They get a bit of shooting and in melee they get +1S (so S6), AP2, D1 and Impact (AM). On the charge each Custodian therefore gets four S6 AP2 attacks, with Critical Hits 6+.

You can have one Custodian swap their Spear for a Magisterium Vexilla for free. This makes enemy units have to pass a LD check to score objectives if they’re within 8” and Line of Sight of the Vexilla. If they fail they only get 1vp, regardless of Line and so on. This leaves your Custodian unarmed, though Lightning Blows still works so occasionally they will bop somebody on the head for 2 damage.

Sentinel Guard have same exact stats but bring swords and a shield that gives them a 5++ save and the Shieldwall Reaction. They’re 240 for 6 and then 40 each for extras. As you’d expect, Sentinel Guard are a bit less dangerous than spear Custodes and a little bit tougher, but not by all that much.

Custodian Sentinels- @badusernametag

For Sentinel Guard the Vexilla is a 30 point upgrade because they ditch their shield to hold the Vexilla, meaning they’ve still got a Warblade in their other hand and remain extremely dangerous. We actually get a different profile for a Sentinel Vexillarius with only a 6++ invulnerable due to having no shield.

Adeptus Custodes Contemptor Achillus. Credit: Jack Hunter

The Contemptor Achillus seems not to have noticed that Dreadnoughts are meant to be rubbish in this and remains an absolute wrecking ball of a unit. At 250 points it’s a lot more expensive than a Legion Contemptor but has WS/BS5, Eternal Warrior 1, Lightning Blows to get Critical hits on a charge and Vanguard (2).

It will use its Achillus Dreadspear to kill enemy Dreadnoughts, robots and basically everything it can reach, very easily. Even Knights are going to be in a spot of bother against one of these in melee. High-strength melee attacks are relatively rare elsewhere in the Custodes list so the Contemptor-Achillus performs a vital role by removing the few threats that your Custodian infantry can’t handle up close. Oh and it’s got a couple of the guns that Aquilon Terminators carry on its wrists.

Contemptor Gallatus. Credit: Keewa

The Gallatus is a bit cheaper at 225 points and with different weapons. The Gravis Praesidium Shield gives the Gallatus a 4++ invulnerable and lets it do the Shieldwall Reaction. The Gallatus Warblade gets a flamer template at range and in melee it hits at S8 with AP2, D2, Aflame (2) and Reaping Blow (3), which will kick in if it meets either large squads or bulky elite infantry.

Your extra-big Dreadnought, the Telemon is much tougher than the Contemptors but is Heavy, so it’s a bit slower. It still punches very hard it does so less often than an Achillus, probably doing less damage in melee overall. Once equipped it'll cost close to 400 points.

Custodes Telemon Dreadnought. Credit: CrabStuffedMushrooms

There are quite a few weapon options for the Telemon, most of which are unique. On top, you’ll always find a Spiculus Missile launcher, while there are three options for guns. As well as the current options there's now the Adrathic Desolator, which is a bit of a weird one: 24”, FP2, S7, AP2, D4 with Rending 4+. I think it’s a bit too limited in its targets as it’s not much use against either vehicles but doesn’t have great rate of fire for infantry. The interesting thing is there’s currently no model of this gun, which strongly indicates that we’re getting a plastic Telemon before too long.

I prefer the Arachnus Storm Cannon and the Iliastus Accelerator Culverin. The Storm Cannon has Dual modes, one for killing infantry and one for tanks, while the Iliastus is just a really great autocannon that you can fire at pretty much any target and achieve something which isn't penalised for moving.

Telemon Heavy Dreadnought. Credit: Pendulin

For melee you get a Telemon Caestus, now with a Twin Neutronium Cascade Projector inside. It lets a Telemon punch stuff really hard and the Twin Neutronium Cascade Projector can delete a squad of Legionaries under a S7 AP3 D2 Template, if the Telemon can get to them.

Custodians will usually either be walking or riding in a Coronus Grav-Carrier . This is a 180 point Antigrav Assault Transport with M12. It has a capacity of 14, which is enough for a unit of six normal Custodians or maybe four Terminators, plus a character if you like. It can from a hidden position and unleash a bunch of shiny angry people in the midfield.

The Coronus isn’t especially tough, with has 13/13/11 armour and 8hp. There are no smoke launchers on it so you can’t shroud itself. It’s a particular problem if a Coronus gets Pinned, as there’s no Battlesmith in the Custodes list to fix it. It’ll usually sort this out with its Auto-repair 3+ but not always, and anyway having a squad sitting in a box for even one turn of a four turn game would be disastrous.

The Coronus has excellent weaponry, probably better than a Land Raider’s. The Turret has a Twin Arachnus Blaze Cannon, with two modes. Concentrated for taking out tanks and Burst fire to gun down tactical squads. On the front it comes as standard with a Twin Lastrum Bolt Cannon, which can be replaced with a Twin Neutronium Cascade Projector like the Telemon's.

Venatari are Custodians with jump packs and 14” moves but only 3+ saves at 165 points for 3. They come equipped with Kinetic Destroyers and Tarsus Bucklers, which they should probably swap for a Verutum Lance, for free. That way, instead of doing some mildly annoying chip damage, your Venatari can chop up whole units of legionaries in melee.

Adeptus Custodes Venatari Custodians. Credit: Jack Hunter

For 10 points per model you can buy Venatari Neutronium Cascade Mines. They allow Venatari to blow up big tanks and things, so you probably want them. You could arguably give your Venatari pistols and shields if they had these, then shoot up infantry before charging tanks.

The Gyrfalcon Jetbike is a cruise missile with a Custodian sat on it instead of a warhead for no reason. 140 points buys two of them and you can get up to eight (!) more for 70 points each. Fielding a 700 point unit of 10 of these things would be hilariously insane and I kind of love it.

They have 16" move and I5, getting the very rare 6" Set-up move. Their Solarite Power Lanceshave two modes, one for charging and one for not, which you’ll probably want to avoid. Charging Gyrfalcons are pretty good at making holes in tanks with their lances but relatively bad against anything else. To me, this all seems like a lot of hard work when you could just have a tank or dreadnought fire a gun that hits just as hard as they do.

They have pretty good guns too but probably not enough to justify their cost. Let's hope a plastic version appears.

The Pallas Grav-attack is a small and weakly-armoured skimmer. 105 points buys you armour 12/11/10, BS5, HP4. It’s Antigrav, Rapid and can Deep Strike. It also has Explodes 6+ and Auto-repair 3+. The default weapon is a centreline-mounted Twin Iliastus Accelerator Fusil, which is a good general-purpose weapon, and can be upgraded to a Twin Arachnus Blaze Cannon, the same as on a Coronus.

I’m not sure about these things. AV12 and HP4 makes for a very soft vehicle, especially with no smoke launchers. Great shooting though, so maybe it would make more sense to take a few of these and have your firepower distributed across several cheap-ish hulls rather than taking just one or two Caladius Annihilators. As a Fast Attack slot, it isn’t very easy to take lots of Pallas though.

The Caladius is the battle tank of the Custodes. It’s expensive at 225 points for an armour 13 vehicle though it also has a 14” move, BS5, 7hp and Antigrav, Autorepair 3+.

Adeptus Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank. Credit: Jack Hunter

The standard version has a Twin Iliastus Accelerator Cannon in its turret. With 60” range, FP6, S8, AP3 and D2, with Breaching 6+ and Rapid Tracking. This will be useful against any target from a Legionary up to medium vehicles. It isn’t penalised for moving and being on a turret potentially lets it shred a unit arriving from reserve before they do anything.

For 10 points you can upgrade to an Annihilator with a twin Arachnus Blaze Carronade, which is a better version of the cannon on the Coronus and Pallas. Concentrated fire gets 72” range, FP2, S10, AP2 D2 with Ordnance D and Armourbane, so a stationary Caladius could potentially kill a Land Raider. Burst fire has 48” range, FP6, S7, AP3, D2 and Heavy FP, making it very effective against heavy infantry and maybe some robots but not a defensive weapon, unlike the blaze cannon.

Like the Coronus, the Caladius comes with a Twin Lastrum Bolt Cannon and can swap that for a Twin Neutronium Cascade Projector. I think this is worth doing for a Caladius with Iliastus cannons but probably not for a static Annihilator.

For 600 points, loads of money and a Lord of War slot you can an Orion Assault Dropship, which is an absolute beast of an aircraft. The main thing is that it’s an assault vehicle with transport capacity 26, so you can send 13 Custodians across the board to wreak havoc, arriving on turn 1 quite a lot of the time.

If it turns up, the Orion will be pretty much unstoppable. It has 13 armour all round and 12hp, which should resist most attempts to intercept it. It’s also got an Eclipse shield, which grants it 5+ shrouding till it returns to reserves if it suffers a penetrating hit.

It’s armed with a Centreline-mounted Twin Arachnus Blaze Carronade and can also throwout a total of 20 S6, AP4, D2 shots, with Breaching 5+ and Suppressive 1 on 8 of those.

Is it a good idea to put around 750 points worth of your models in a 600 point plane and hope you roll a 3+ to win the game? Not really, no, but there’s something kind of awesome about it. Your games will certainly be fast and your deployment won’t take long at all.

Instead of filling up an Orion with Custodes, you may prefer an Ares Gunship, which is covered in spectacularly powerful guns. It has the same defensive profile as the Orion, including the Eclipse shield. It’s a bit pricier at 650 points.

Adeptus Custodes Ares Gunship by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The main gun, the Neutronium Magna-cascade Cannon, is kind of a lot. This lets you put down a Hellstorm template doing S10, AP3, D3 hits with Breaching 4+, Phage T and Annihilation Cascade 10. So yeah, a really big S10 flamer that flies and roasts tanks.

The Ares also has a slightly worse Twin Arachnus gun than the Orion and a couple of fire bombs, which let it drop 7” blasts that will hurt quite a bit (though only AP4) and Panic 2.

How Will They Play?

The Custodes are a weird army to add to the game as Custodians are simply so much better than Legionaries. If you’re taking a Traitor army to an event you have to be ready to potentially meet an army that will wipe out your melee troops with trivial ease. Striking at AP2 and I5 is just devastating.

Statuses are a weakness across the list as there’s no real way to remove them. It’s true that they have good LD and CL but failing a Panic test against something like Phosphex could really hurt you. Maybe the army will be fleshed out in future with some version of nuncio voxes and mechanics but this is a gap for now.

(Custodes of the sodality known as The Star, Reversed drive back an explorator force from the Dark Mechanicum. Credit: “Theseus Protocol”)

In theory, it’s really cool to have an army based entirely around Vanguard, rather than Line. In practice, Vanguard turns out to be pretty useless when all your opponent has to do is react away - which is a good idea anyway if Custodians are trying to get into melee with you. I think we will see a lot of games where the Custodes player kills loads of the enemy army but loses on VPs.

Custodians are extremely resilient against most weapons but pretty vulnerable to a few. Basically anything that’s AP2 and D3 can one-shot a Custodian unless they make their invulnerable save. Traitor players might want to invest in a Conversion beamber Predator or two. Pinning Custodians or getting them to run away also has the potential to take a very expensive unit out of the game, though that isn’t reliable with their very good LD.

The Anathema Psykana

The second edition list for the Sisters of Silence had loads of different units, very few of which were represented by models. When we got our third edition PDF we found that everything not represented by models was gone. Now we only have four units now for the Sisters of Silence, though they’re all pretty useful.

Sisters of Silence - Credit: Keewa

In theory you can run Sisters of Silence as your Primary Detachment but there's not really enough to make an army out here. You can make a nice allied force out of them. They all have S and T3, Fear 1 and Hatred of Psykers and Malefic units. They’re also all Light, so they can snap fire after dashing, though not all of them actually have guns of any kind. Frag and Krak grenades don’t appear here either.

Jenetia Krole is the Knight-Commander of the Silent Sisterhood and a very good melee fighter. She’s got WS6, I5 and 5 attacks with The Sword of Oblivion, hitting at S5 AP2 D2 with Critical Hit 6+ and Duellist’s Edge 2. She’s also got Eternal Warrior 1, a 2+/4++ save and 4 wounds, so she isn’t at all easy to kill. Her Gambit is to add the difference between her Willpower stat (of 12!) and her opponent’s to her Focus roll – which she’s already adding 2 to from Duelist’s edge. She’s also got an Archeotech Pistol. She’s pretty reasonably-priced at 125 points.

It’s a bit awkward that Krole’s a High Command choice. In an allied detachment she has to fill the Prime Command slot as a Special Assignment, but then she doesn’t unlock any other detachments. You almost certainly want a Kharon to move her around, and there are no transport slots in the Allied Detachment, so that means taking a Knight-Centura to unlock an Iron Fist detachment.

Knight-Centuras are your basic Command choice and they’re fine for their 75 point cost. That includes a Paragon blade, 2+5++, WS5, 3W and 3A. No gun of any kind and no Officer of the Line but that’s ok as there’s nothing much to unlock, except for transports.

The Anathema Cadre is your main (and kind of only) unit. Four Sisters for 65 points, plus up to 5 more for 10 each, armed only with bolters. They can swap the bolters for two bolt pistols for free, allowing volley fire costing range. For 5 points they can have Flamers, which are great for firing while rushing as they still get their templates, causing Panic tests with Fear 1 built in. For 10 they get Execution Blades, which give them +1S. Unfortunately they’ve only got WS4 but they have A2. They’re AP3 D1 but Rending 6+ and Breaching 6+. They’d do very well against basic Legionaries in assault but are vulnerable to the being shot by overwatch if they can’t make the charge with just a set up move.

Sisters Of Silence Kharon Pattern Acquisitor. Credit: NotThatHenryC

The Kharon Pattern Acquisitor might be the best thing about Sisters of Silence. It’s a M12 assault transport with 13/12/11 armour, 5 Hull Points and 12 capacity. It’s got Fear , Outflank and Shrouded 5+. Its Hellion Heavy Cannon Array has 6 shots at S6, AP4, D1, Suppressive 1, which is fine but not exciting. It also gets Vratine Heavy Missiles ,which give you a 3” blast with Panic 1, Psy-Shock and Limited 1. Psy-shock forces the enemy to make a Perils of the Warp test if they have any Psykers or Malefic models, either getting Stunned (which will usually do D3 wounds to malefic Legionaries instead ) or potentially taking a few hits from a Warp Rupture.

The Assassins

Similar to the Sisters of Silence, we have the Assassins' rules copied here from the PDF online. Unlike the Sisters of Silence, Games Workshop has made some changes to Assassins and these are reflected here.

Credit: Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

Loyalists can take the “Clade Operative” Prime Advantage for a unit in your Primary detachment. This adds three Support slots to the Detachment, which can only be filled by Assassins. You have seven to choose from. Some of their stats vary depending on their specialism but they all have M8 (or 7 for the Vanus), S4, T4, W3, I5, LD and CL10. They mostly have WP and In 7, though there’s some variety there. They all have saves of 4+/4++.

Assassins have various special rules but all get Heedless, meaning they can’t score objectives, Infiltrate (9), Move Through Cover and Shrouded (5+). They are Infantry (Light), meaning they can rush around 13” and still snap fire their guns, with great BS scores and sometimes Templates. Most Assassins are Champions so they can challenge in melee but the Vindicare and Vanus aren’t, so can’t.

The Divisio Tactica is Nemesis. Attacks against Assassins are always Snap Shots if they aren’t the closest target, except for Precision weapons. It also doesn’t affect Volley attacks, which are usually Snap Shots anyway – but think twice before charging big units of Sons of Horus.

Assassins aren’t really intended for mass battles and so they’re tricky to use. I think it’s fairly unlikely that they’ll succeed in assassinating many Traitors, though they can certainly be a nuisance and disrupt your opponent’s plans. That may be worth their price, and they’re also just kind of cool anyway.

The Vindicare has an Exitus rifle and Pistol and they’re both really nasty. The rifle has AP- but Ordnance AP, so it’s AP2 while stationary. It’s S7, D2 with Precision 2+ and Pinning 1. The pistol gets 3 shots and they’re S6 AP3 D1. The Vindicare is BS7 so will get critical hits on a 5+ to hit, doing 3 damage. They carry an AP3 D1 Breaching 6+ melee weapon too, though they only get 2 attacks.

Vindicare’s benefit a lot from Nemesis as they ought to be far away from the enemy. The Deadshot rule lets them ignore Shrouding and never have to fire Snap Shots if stationary. They can also choose between Shred 5+, Shock (Pinned, Suppressed) or Murderous 5+, which cancels out Eternal Warrior. These will all trigger on a 5+ to hit, as those will be Critical hits.

The Eversor is a melee monster with WS6 and A4, plus Reaping Blow 3 meaning they’ll very often get 7 or more attacks. They have a power sword and a Neuro Gauntlet that adds yet another attack, also +1 initiative and hits at AP3 D2, with Rending 4+ and Poisoned 4+. No breaching though, so an Eversor might bounce off 2+ saves. In a challenge they have to pick a gambit that makes them take an AP2 wound (which it has a 4++ save against) in exchange for +3 to its focus roll and +3 attacks. It’s got Eternal Warrior 1 and Explodes 2+.

Callidus Assassin. Credit: NotThatHenryC

The Callidus Assassin’s Polymorphine means the enemy can’t shoot or charge them until they give themselves away by shooting or charging or if the enemy gets within 3” and passes an Int check. The first time they charge, their target immediately gets stunned and won’t be able to overwatch. Their Neuro Shredder has been nerfed a bit from its really nasty initial PDF mode, now firing a S3 AP3 D1 Template that causes Pinning 3. Infiltrate 6 means the Callidus can easily get to a position to unleash the Shredder, though that’ll tend to leave them exposed to the rest of the army.

The Culexus is another Pariah like the Sisters of Silence, so they get Ex Oblivio, Anathema and Fear (1). Her price has also gone up by 25 points. The Animus speculum fires a S5 AP4 D1 Template with Breaching (5+), Panic (1) and Psy-shock to cause the Warp Rupture result of Perils of the Warp on any unit it hits that contains Psyker or Malefic models. They’ve lost Firestorm since the PDF but gained Hatred (Psykers). Weirdly, their Psyk-out bombs are a melee weapon, with A3, S5, AP3, D2, Aflame (2) and Limited (3) – making it the only melee weapon I’m aware of that can run out of ammo. Also weirdly, they reduce the AP stat of incoming fire but I’m not sure why that matters, as they have a 4+ invulnerable save.

Adamus Assassins are unchanged. They get a one-shot Needlespine launcher attached to a bolt pistol. It’s kind of fun with Precision (2+), Breaching (5+), Phage (T) on it’s 3 S6 AP4 D1 shots. The main news for these guys is their Nemesii Blades though, which strike at AP2 D1 but with Critical Hit (5+) and Shred (5+), meaning they do 3 damage on a 5+ to hit or 2 on a 5+ to wound. Their Nemesii Grenades mean any charges against them are Disordered, and count as moving through Dangerous Terrain. They also have a Gambit, which they always have to use, making them strike on an unmodified 4+ and still get their attacks if they go second in a round of the challenge and die.

The Venenum Assassin likes to poison things, which sadly isn’t hugely effective against Astartes, though as a result of their Unnatural Conditioning they aren’t affected by Phage or Poison themselves. Toxin Ejectors fire yet another Template, this time with S5, AP4, D1, Breaching 5+, Poisoned 3+ and Armourbane – which is bizarre on a S5 D1 weapon but ok. Alternatively they’ve got a single Poison Globe to throw, With 8” range, AP3, D2, 3” Blast, Poisoned (3+), Panic (1) and Assault. In Melee their Hookfangs give +1I, AP3, D1, Rending 6+, Precision 2+ and The Venum. This makes a target that it wounds take a Toughness Test at the end of each of their turns or take a wound… which probably won’t do anything to be honest.

Last, and most complicated, is the Vanus Infocyte Assassin. They have two harmless laspistols for decoration and Sympatic Dataspikes if they get caught in melee, which give them 5 attacks in melee at I6, S4, AP3, D1 with Rending 6+, Precision 6+ and Shock (Stunned). It can use its Autonomic Servo-limbs to disengage regardless of who wins a combat. But instead of using that stuff you’ll probably have a Vanus hide behind a rock somewhere out of danger, ready to use its reactions. It has two of these, though each can only be done once per turn.

Clade Vanus Infocyte Assassin. Credit: Corrode

The first of these, Auspectre, lets you place an enemy flyer when it arrives from reserves, though its owner gets to rotate the thing when they move it, making this far less egregious. It would still be devastating to do this to a transport as you can simply put it at the back, where reinforcements aren't needed. The second reaction, Signum Shunt, lets you instead give a unit arriving from Reserves the Suppressed or Pinned Status, which is devastating. These reactions are free by the way, though the Vanus has to pass an Intelligence check, with IN 10, to make them happen. People with Deep Strike have suffered enough already and this is not ok.

Final Thoughts

This is a book of two halves. The first half is a fully realised Legio Custodes army, making them a fully-realised faction ready to use in heresy games. The second half is basically a reprint of the Sisters of Silence and Assassins from the PDF, giving rules for the models that exist.

For the Custodes, the main impact will be from having an incredible new range of plastic models. Everyone I've talked to about the new box wants it and I'm going to try and get hold of one too, to use as an allied detachment at first I think. I expect to see a lot more Custodes armies on the board as a result.

I think the actual Custodes list has reasonably good internal balance so there aren't really any units that don't work. I'm a bit worried that games could risk being a bit rock/paper/scissors, especially if a Traitor has taken something like a thematic melee-focused World Eaters army. There's always an element of this in wargames though. I hope that Traitor players are able to adjust to the big golden people they will now often have to fight.

Legio Custodes Sentinel Guard Sodality. Credit: realSnice

Personally I find the rules for the Sisters disappointing but I can see why the writers wouldn't want to provide rules for basically a whole faction they don't make models for. It's too much of an invitation to other manufacturers and that's not Games Workshop's business. I suppose we might get more official GW models in future but there's no suggestion of that any time soon.

I'm not sure it really works to have Assassins on battlefields in 3000 point games. To me, that just doesn't seem like their role and as a consequence it doesn't quite work. You have these operatives who are incredibly lethal 1v1 but who can't really be expected to take on squads of Legionaries - because that's not usually their job. They have to have rules because they're present in the setting and they kind of work, but it feels like a bit of a waste to use them like this.

But then the Heresy is all about wasting the potential of humanity's very best in a futile and self-destructive cataclysm. None of the people in this book were supposed to spend their lives fighting traitor Legionaries or Dark Mechanicum. It's lots of fun for us to play out though.

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Tags: Horus Heresy | heresy 3rd edition | liber custodes