Today it’s the turn of the guardians of the Golden Throne to receive their updated rules for use in Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition. Games Workshop let us have an early peek at the new Index Adeptus Custodes and you’ll find our thoughts below.

Over the next week Games Workshop will be releasing the free 10th Edition rules for every faction in Warhammer 40k over on Warhammer Community! Every army will be getting a set of Index cards (That will also be available to buy later) covering the rules for each datasheet, along with the Army Rules, Detachment rules for a single detachment plus all the enhancements and stratagems!

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Army Rules

As with all other factions in 10th edition, the Adeptus Custodes now have a much more streamlined set of army rules. The Martial Ka’tah rule returns as the primary Army Rule for the Adeptus Custodes and is now much simpler to understand and make effective use of in your games. At the start of each Fight phase you simply pick from one of the three stances listed and your entire army benefits from its effects for the duration of that phase. No more pre-planning your stances or mixing up your rotations – simple. Kaptaris Stance gives your units a defensive bonus, making them harder to hit in melee. Dacatarai Stance gives your units a more offensive boost, bestowing Sustained Hits 1 ability on all units and finnaly Rendax Stance grants the Lethal Hits ability to allow you to more easily land wounds on those toughest of opponents.

Shield Host Detachment

Detachment rules have also changed quite a bit in 10th edition with each faction gaining access to a single faction-specific Detachment (although I suspect we’ll see more options as Codexes are published). In addition there are now no longer any ‘army-build’ restrictions imposed upon the player when using a Detachment allowing for a much simpler and more flexible list building process. The Shield Host is the Adeptus Custodes Detachment rule and grants all models in the army (including vehicles and such) the Feel No Pain 4+ ability against mortal wounds via its Aegis of the Emperor ability. Mortal Wounds are one of the primary weaknesses of the Adeptus Custodes, bypassing their natural toughness and quality armour saves so this ability is super useful.

Shield Host Enhancements

Enhancements are a new concept in Warhammer 40,000 10th edition and essentially bring together a number of Warlord Traits, Relics and other ‘unit upgrades’ from across the different 9th edition books. The Enhancements themselves are associated with the aforementioned Shield Host Detachment and are only availble to make use of if you have selected this specifc Detachment. Only Characters (not including Epic Heroes) can be upgraded with Enhancements and they are limited to just a single choice (although you can take up to three across your entire army).

Unstoppable Destroyer is restricted to Adeptus Custodes characters only and allows the bearer to inflict mortal wounds on enemy unit that it has charged in addition to inflicting a Battle-shock test on all nearby enemy units! Veiled Blade is again restricted to a Custodian character and in addition to improving the attacks characteristic of the bearer’s melee weapons can also be activated to triple the Objective Control characteristic of the model too!

Inspirational Exemplar improves the Leadership characteristic of the bearer and can also be triggered once be battle to remove the Battle-shock effect from a nearby friendly unit, very handy in such a small and elite army where you’ll need every unit to be working at as close to maximum efficiency as possible. Finally Ceaseless Hunter grants the bearer and his unit the flexibility to shoot and charge on a turn in which it fell back aswell as giving it a once per battle ability to ‘reposition’ in response to an opposing unit’s own movement.

Shield Host Stratagems

The selection of Stratagems have also been trimmed for all factions in 10th edition with just six (in addition to those in the Core Rulebook) available to the Adeptus Custodes – these being locked behind the Shield Host Detachment.

Slayers of Nightmares can be activated to give one of your units a boost when engaged with a Monster or Vehicle unit should the need arise. Avenge the Fallen is a great option for allowing an under-strength unit to punch above its weight – very useful when you will most likely have a much smaller army than your opponent in most battles. Unwavering Sentinels is also very nice allowing your Custodes to fight first, most likely allowing them to dispatch most foes completely before they even get a chance to fight themselves!

Arcane Genetic Alchemy gives a selected unit a bit of a defensive boost, reducing incoming damage and blunting an opponent’s attack. Vigil Unending is fantastic! Should your opponent actually succeed in bringing down one of the Emperor’s Custodians you can just use this Stratagem to bring them right back into the fight with a full compliment of wounds! Finally Sworn Guardians is another great pick which can help a small Custodes army maintain control of objectives whilst maneuvering about the battlefield.

I would have like to see some options here to manipulate the Martial Ka’tah abilities but alas that is not the case (although keep in mind one of the Shield Captain options does possess such an ability!). It’s also worth noting that none of these Stratagems can be used on Sisters of Silence units – perhaps we’ll see a future Detachment for the Anathema Psykana in the future.

Key Units

Index Adeptus Custodes contains all the Custodes and Sisters of Silence Datasheets which are now all available over on the Warhammer Community website for you to download and digest at your leisure. Every Datasheet has been updated in some way and there are plenty of synergies and devastating combinations to discover.

The standard Shield-Captain looks like a solid choice with impressive offensive and defensive capabilities. I really like their Master of Stances ability which allows an attached unit to benefit from two stances per fight phase or, once per battle, all three!

The Blade Champion can be attached to a unit to allow that unit to re-roll Advance and Charge rolls and even declare charges if the unit fell back! A really useful ability for ensuring your Custodians get into combat as soon quickly!

Vertus Praetors have a nice ability called Quicksilver Execution which can, with a full unit of six, inflict 12 mortal wounds on an enemy unit just by flying over them. They also get plenty of strength 7, AP -2 D2 attacks in melee too with their lances (which also have the Lance ability for +1 to wound on the charge).

The Adeptus Custodes seem like a much simpler and more forgiving army to handle on the battlefield now that their Martial Ka’tah rules have been streamlined. They seem to be on the face of it a very tough and powerful force for an opponent to face, especially in melee and, whilst few in number, have enough tools on their belt to project their power across the battlefield.