With the latest set of codices now on the shelves, it’s time to start breaking down what units and options are going to be right for your list!
Guest Writer: Dan Meyer
While playing test games is the best way to understand your options, it’s hard to get in enough games to understand all the variables at play and arrive at a reasonable set of expectations. Have no fear though! I am here to help by giving you an in depth look at what you should really expect out of a unit or piece of wargear.
My Shtick
I will look at a unit and their wargear options and help you understand what is the best choice for a given situation or at least help you figure out what you can truly expect from your units. I achieve this by simulating 1,000,000 iterations of that unit attacking a set of common targets that are representative of things you will see in the meta and get a true sample population so we can not only understand the mean of the expected outcome, but also how the variance shapes the outcome distribution. This will give you a much better appreciation for the variability in your game. If you have any questions on my process, ask away!
How do I kill resilient vehicles with Codex Custodes…Apparently more easily than I realized!
Zoom Zoom
First off: Holy cow! Custodes did amazing at LVO! I feel bad for looking like a meta chaser, as I switch from DE to Custodes because I thought a couple months ago they weren’t going to be a top tier army and something different to try…I now get to become “That Guy”! Womp womp…
When I did my last article, I ignored a key piece of information about the Vertus Praetors with the new Ka’tah rules: Rendax’s +1 strength against vehicles and monsters (thank you to the reader response on Facebook!). This is a MASSIVE upgrade for a unit like this taking it from strength 7 to 8 which means on the charge it’s wounding on 2s or 3s (thanks to the Interceptor Lance +1 to wound on charge/HI ability). On top of that, if you are Emperor’s Chosen then you can benefit from both portions of Rendax. This means that 6s to hit auto wound against vehicles and monsters as well.
Let’s recall quickly the breakdown the weapon stats of the golden flying bananas:
| Weapon | Shots | Strength | AP | Dmg |
| Interceptor Lance | 4A (melee) | 7 | 3 | 2 |
The Simulation Begins…
Like our previous simulation, we will take a look at what we can expect against a Redemptor Dreadnought. This represents typical hard to kill vehicles/monsters, with the all too common -1 damage. Lesser vehicles will effectively see the damage double assuming no FNP ability. As I mentioned last article, Crusher Stampede immediately comes to mind and I think LVO shows off just how ridiculous this list can be. John Lennon found out the hard way apparently Round 1 with his own Custodes. I’d love to know the details of the match!
But I digress… Let’s take a look at the baseline no buffed case, a case with +1 strength only, and then a combined +1 strength and 6’s to hit are auto wounds case and compare how the buffs change the outcome.
Figure 1: 3x Vertus Praetors with Interceptor Lance on the Charge vs. Redemptor Dreadnought
The +1 strength buff is an enormous benefit to the damage output, shifting the entire distribution higher with a mean 1.71 damage points higher than the baseline case. That means this three man unit should solidly be able to dunk a Redemptor (or similar) using Salvo Launchers followed by a good ole beat down in close combat. The autowounding on 6’s to hit though…did very little ontop of the +1 strength raising it by an additional 0.24 damage points. Against units without the -1 damage, you are talking about a whopping 14.5 damage points on average (simply double the damage you see in the figure), meaning you will on average kill light and medium vehicles/monsters with ease just in melee.
I’m glad I revisited this buff because it’s simply huge for Custodes ability to deal with vehicles and monsters. It will be fascinating to see where the meta takes as starting next week we venture into the new Chapter Approved mission sets and my oh my those are pretty different. Things like Crusher Stampede might not have much a shot given the focused need for infantry and troops…but maybe they just switch to more warriors. I look forward to seeing how the scene shapes out!
Let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns with any of the results you have seen here! And of course, I welcome all suggestions for future simulations!
The Emperor Protects,
Dan
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