For those who immerse themselves in Warhammer 40k’s Crusade system, playing the Adeptus Custodes is a journey into the heart of the Emperor’s will. These genetically engineered warriors embody perfection, loyalty, and unmatched martial prowess. The Crusade rules for Custodes, including Battle Traits, Artificer Relics, and Legendary Relics, allow players to shape their units’ progress and weave a deep narrative of glory, failure, and redemption.
In this final review, we’ll delve into the details of these rules, how they enhance the narrative, and how they can transform your Adeptus Custodes force into a legendary army through battle experience.
Battle Traits: Refining Perfection
The Battle Traits available to Custodes units are carefully tailored to reinforce their image as the Emperor’s elite. Each trait enhances either the defensive resilience, strategic flexibility, or lethal precision that defines the Custodes.
Adeptus Custodes Infantry Units
- Celeritous Sentries: Once per battle, this unit can be targeted with the Counter-Offensive Stratagem for 0CP. This ability perfectly aligns with the Custodes’ role as the ultimate protectors, always vigilant and prepared to react instantly to threats. In gameplay, this translates into key moments where your Custodes can turn the tide of a melee by ensuring they strike at the right time, reflecting their supernatural readiness.
- Not a Shell Wasted: When targeting units of 10 or more models, the unit’s ranged attacks gain Sustained Hits 1. This is a powerful reflection of the Custodes’ elite marksmanship, ensuring that every shot counts. In the context of the narrative, it embodies their cold efficiency—an entire enemy squad can be felled with precision rather than overwhelming firepower.
- Companion’s Watch: Grants Feel No Pain 6+ when the unit is near an objective. This trait encapsulates the Custodes’ long-standing tradition of guarding the Emperor’s throne itself, making them immovable bastions when tasked with key defensive positions. Mechanically, it provides a layer of durability that becomes invaluable in objective-based missions.
- Flawless Bladework: The unit re-rolls Hit rolls of 1 in melee combat. This reinforces the Custodes’ exceptional martial skill, where even under the most intense combat conditions, their technique remains flawless. This makes their already formidable close-combat prowess even more reliable, especially in situations requiring them to strike down foes in brutal melees.
- Will of Auramite: Even while Battle-shocked, this unit can still be targeted by Stratagems. The Custodes are legendary for their mental fortitude, and this trait represents their unbreakable will. Mechanically, it ensures that even when the Custodes are in dire situations, they can still receive tactical support, maintaining their effectiveness.
- Genalchemic Warding: Reduces Psychic Attack hit rolls by 1. Custodes are not only warriors but also defenders against the warp’s corruption. This trait represents their bio-alchemical enhancements, reflecting their ability to resist even the most insidious psychic assaults.
Each of these traits fits seamlessly into the Custodes’ lore. Whether it’s their battlefield vigilance, peerless marksmanship, or ability to withstand even psychic onslaughts, these traits not only enhance their narrative as elite warriors but also provide potent, tactical advantages in Crusade play.
Adeptus Custodes Mounted Units
- On Gilded Wings: Grants Stealth, though the unit loses this ability if it moves. This trait symbolizes the Custodes’ ability to strike from the skies, moving with blinding speed and grace. In gameplay, it gives your jetbike units added survivability as they close in on their targets, capturing the lightning-fast assaults that Custodes are famous for.
- Tip of the Talon: Adds 1 Strength to ranged attacks within 6″. Custodes jetbikes are vanguard units, and this trait reflects their ability to soften up enemies before charging in. It gives them an edge in those critical moments right before engaging in close combat.
- Heralds of the Host: Adds 2″ to movement when advancing, stacking with the Turbo-Boost ability. This reinforces the idea of the Custodes outpacing their enemies, rapidly moving across the battlefield to strike key targets or seize objectives.
Anathema Psykana Infantry Units
- Hunters’ Strike: Grants +1 to Attacks on a charge. The Sisters of Silence are relentless witch hunters, and this trait enhances their ferocity in melee, particularly when they engage their enemies before they can retaliate.
- Relentless Pursuit: Allows re-rolls for Advance and Charge rolls. This underscores the Sisters’ unstoppable drive to chase down their quarry, never relenting once they’ve locked onto a target.
- Rapid Prosecution: Lets the unit shoot or charge after advancing. This trait captures the ruthless efficiency with which the Sisters of Silence carry out their grim duties, ensuring they can quickly close in on their foes or fire off key shots while in pursuit.
Relics: Tools of Legendary Heroes
The Relics available to the Custodes in Crusade play elevate the narrative of these warriors even further. Each relic tells a story, and each offers a potent advantage that reflects the Custodes’ history and unique role within the Imperium.
Artificer Relics
- Aurulent Warding: This relic allows the bearer to re-roll one saving throw per turn. It symbolizes the sacred protection afforded to those who defend the Emperor, offering mechanical resilience while also embodying the Custodes’ ability to turn aside even the deadliest of blows.
- Emperor’s Light: A misericordia that offers Devastating Wounds and Extra Attacks. This weapon embodies the searing power of the Emperor’s glory, literally burning the soul of its victim. Thematically, it reflects the Custodes’ role as executors of the Emperor’s divine justice.
Antiquity Relics
- Veracity, the Sword of Oblivion: This relic, available to a Knight-Centura, adds Lance and Sustained Hits 1 to their weapon, making them a true executioner. The narrative fit here is perfect, as it represents an ancient sword that strikes with such precision and power that no armor or material can resist it.
Legendary Relics
- Lucent Aureole: Provides a 3+ invulnerable save. This ancient conversion field is a symbol of Custodes’ unmatched protection, a relic of a bygone age that allows them to stride into the deadliest fire with confidence.
- Apollonian Spear: This once belonged to Constantin Valdor himself. The bearer can use this relic to gain +3 Strength and Attacks in a crucial moment. This represents the legendary strength of Valdor, and its narrative weight is immense—wielding this spear ties the character directly to the Custodes’ most revered history.
Artefacts of the Vaults
The Artefacts of the Vaults represent some of the rarest and most potent wargear available to the Custodes. These relics are not easily obtained—they are only unlocked during specific Endeavours in the Crusade. Each relic is steeped in the lore of the Custodes and offers powerful abilities that can change the course of a battle.
- Arae-Shrike: Enemy reinforcements cannot be set up within 12” of this unit. This counter-intelligence device fits perfectly into the Custodes’ role as strategic masters, controlling the battlefield and denying enemies opportunities to flank or surprise them. This is invaluable when facing armies that rely on deep striking or reinforcements, further solidifying the Custodes’ iron grip on the battle.
- Mortis Gyre: Once per battle, melee attacks against an infantry unit gain Devastating Wounds. This relic captures the grim finality of the Custodes’ executions. Mechanically, it allows your Custodes to deliver a fatal blow, particularly against elite infantry units, ensuring that each strike lands with crippling lethality.
- Twilight Pallium: Once per battle, the bearer can teleport across the battlefield, repositioning anywhere more than 3” away from enemies. This relic exemplifies the Custodes’ mastery over both the battlefield and the technology of the Imperium. It allows for dramatic tactical plays, where a Custodian can suddenly appear at a crucial point, ready to turn the tide of battle.
- Anathematic Diadem: Subtracts 1 from Wound rolls for psychic attacks within 12” of the bearer. This aura-based relic is a perfect fit for the Custodes’ role as the Emperor’s defenders against the warp, making them harder to wound with psychic powers. It reinforces the narrative of Custodes as bulwarks against corruption.
- Pareldor’s Caducatrix: Once per battle, the bearer regains D6 lost wounds. This ancient auto-medicae device symbolizes the near-invincible endurance of the Custodes, capable of restoring them to fighting condition when the situation is most dire. Mechanically, it provides a valuable recovery option, especially for characters leading the charge.
- Auriferous Orb: Each time an enemy is hit by this weapon, they are blinded, subtracting 1 from their hit rolls. The orb’s blinding light fits the Custodes’ theme of using the Emperor’s radiance as a weapon, turning a simple attack into a debilitating effect that disrupts enemy forces.
- Epoch Auspice: Once per battle, the bearer can create a temporal bubble that subtracts 1 from Wound rolls targeting their unit. This relic demonstrates the Custodes’ access to advanced, near-mystical technologies. Its use on the battlefield can keep a key unit alive during crucial moments, reflecting the Custodes’ ability to manipulate time and fate in the Emperor’s favor.
Conclusion: Custodes, Perfected by Crusade
The Adeptus Custodes Crusade rules elevate the experience of playing these peerless warriors by allowing players to craft a detailed and evolving narrative. Every battle scar, battle trait, and relic acquired shapes the story of your Custodes force, from the immortal warriors fighting at the Emperor’s side to the mythical weapons they wield.
Through their relentless pursuit of perfection, Custodes rise from their successes and learn from their failures, always striving to embody the Emperor’s will. These rules make it possible to tell those epic tales on the battlefield, ensuring that every campaign is as much about the characters you develop as it is about the victories you win.
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