Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Adeptus Custodes (section)

==Why play Adeptus Custodes==
Because you want to have the smallest amount of miniatures, but pay the same price as everyone else for their armies.  Maybe you really like gold, or maybe you like the idea that the Custodes' entire army comes from 3 boxes grand total.  Maybe you want a profile that makes marine envious, or maybe you just like the idea that all of your dudes are extremely fucking hard to kill.  In any case, the Adeptus Custodes function as ''the'' high-profile-multi-wound elite army, and provided you play your cards right are capable of pulling off some crazy shit (such as blocking Strength D weapons with pointy sticks).

The 40k Custodes are nowhere near as overpowered as their 30k counterparts, and while they lack all of their former toys like antigrav vehicles, super-Dreadnoughts, Terminators and Jetbikes, they still roll with some of the best tech the 40k Imperium has to offer and they get the Aegis of the Emperor rule, something the 30k army is dying to have.

===Special Rules===
*'''Aegis of the Emperor:''' Lorewise it's the blessing of the Emperor.  Gameplay wise it gives all units with this rule a 5+ invulnerable save and '''Eternal Warrior'''. ''Now your Custodes are REALLY Terminators on steroids.''
*'''Adamantium Will:''' Hope you like it, because the Custodes have fucking nothing else to help them against Psykers (not even their own Psykers).  Granted they're supposed to work alongside the Sisters of Silence (who you should probably ally in) and they can also benefit from an attached psychic Inquisitor/Primaris Psyker, but they're still very vulnerable to Psychic Powers.
*'''Bulky:''' The price of being bigger than a Space Marine.  Probably the unfortunate reason that Custodes don't get Rhino's, or really any transport of any kind besides the basic Land Raider, but thankfully the next rule mitigates this a lot.
*'''Deep Strike:''' The Custodes do very well in melee and not nearly so well at range (mostly thanks to bolter-grade ranged weaponry) but when your cheapest transport's close to 300 points it becomes hard to get them there.  Thankfully this mitigates that by a lot (and their formation helps them to survive the landing), just make sure to take enough hard-as-nails ground forces (such as a squad in a Land Raider or a Venerable Contemptor) to make sure that you won't get tabled before they arrive.  An allied Astropath from Imperial Agents can also greatly help you out here, as can a Mystic that's in the right spot at the right time.
*'''Fearless:''' Because if there's one thing the golden banana's have learned in the 10,000 years since the Horus Heresy, it's to stay and fight!
**Note that as awesome as having your whole army be fearless is, this can really fuck you over badly.  The Custodes do not have access to any sort of Armourbane weapon, or any Power/Chain fists of any kind, meaning that if you get charged by something they cannot hurt like a Contemptor Dreadnought (or something worse like a Knight), the squad will fight and fight until they're all turned into golden pulp without any chance of escape.  To this end you should make sure to keep them away from AV13/AV14 walkers until your own Contemptor's/Land Raider have dealt with them (or ally in somebody else to take care of those problems for you).
*'''Character:''' Not necessarily a special rule, but it is extremely important.  All Custodes are Characters, which means that you can play ''pass the hit'' with a unit, allowing you to dictate who actually takes the hit half the time.  This means that you can spread Wounds throughout the unit, rather than being forced to delegate them to one model until it dies, and it means that it'll take significantly longer for your squads to get weaker and when you cost as much as Custodes do, that's a gift from heaven.
**Do note too that this means that bad positioning will still allow you to use your storm shields to take at least half the hits that affect the unit, even if they're not the closest models.  Never forget it!

===Warlord Traits===
Custodes now have their own Warlord Traits, most of them making your Warlord even scarier in close-combat.
# '''Saviour of the Imperium''': Friendly units from the Armies of the Imperium within 6" of your Warlord have a 6+ invulnerable save.
# '''Peerless Warrior''': Your Warlord [[Rape|re-rolls failed To Hit and To Wound rolls in challenge]]. ''AKA "I really want to slaughter your HQ.''
# '''Champion of the Blood Games''': Your Warlord has the Preferred Enemy (Everything) special rule. ''...and so does his unit. Now your ten-man squad with Vexilla is really an unstoppable, hideously expensive bulldozer.''
# '''Impregnable Mind''': Your Warlord and his unit pass Deny the Witch tests on a 2+ roll that cannot be modified by any means. ''Fuck you psykers. Totally useless [[Necrons|against]] [[Tau|some]] [[Dark Eldar|armies]], but helpful against the [[Tzeentch|more]] [[Eldar|psychic-oriented]] [[Tyranids|ones]].''
# '''Light of the Emperor''': Your Warlord has the Shrouded special rule.  Can be decent if you dodge around cover as even though there's a lot of Ignores Cover weaponry, most of those weapons aren't AP2 so you'll usually be getting an Armour save, or a boosted Cover save.
# '''Emperor's Companion''': Your Warlord gets +1WS and BS. ''Great if you face something with WS7, WS6 and WS3 and under, pretty useless otherwise.''