Venatari

The Emperor tried and failed to make a giant golden cybernetic eagle. So this is the closest he could get, through the power of Role-Play.

The Space Marines have their Assault Squad, the Primaris Marines got their Inceptors, the Sisters of Battle fly around with their Seraphim Squad, whilst the Adeptus Mechanicus have their Ursarax toys; even the Imperial Guard have an entire regiment called the Elysian Drop Troops. Meanwhile, the forces of Chaos gets to choose between Chaos Raptors and Warp Talons, whilst Orks charge in crashing with their Stormboyz against the Necron's Triarch Praetorians as the Eldar and their Edgy counterparts shoot from afar with their Swooping Hawks and Scourges. The Tyranids on the other hand, blanket the sky with swarms of Gargoyles as the Tau counteract this with their various assortments of Crisis Battlesuits. With almost every single faction on the tabletop having a Jump Unit, the watchers of the Emprah have long felt left out in the void; forced to whip their dicks out, or if that was too embarrassing, slog through the battlefield on their feet, or huddle in awkward and cramped spaces in either a Land Raider or a Coronus Grav Carrier.

Fortunately for these Custodes players, the group who still cares about the old rules have answered the call and gave these players an answer to their woes.

Overview

Elegan/tg/entlemen and Ca/tg/irls, we welcome you to the Venatari. Custodes Jump Units are vulnerable to being gunned down like the Assault Squad but not vulnerable to being crushed into paste like the Swooping Hawks; while hitting back quite well in both CQC and ranged combat (unlike the assault squads), making them both flexible and versatile in comparison to the other faction's Jump Units. Why is this important? Because they are Custodes and fuck you and fuck your Jump Units, 'cause we are the best at everything.

More seriously though, the Venatari are a pretty sick looking unit that is surprisingly more restrained with their gold obsession, whilst ditching the helmet and equipping themselves with Emprah approved Aquilon wings. Similar to the Sanguinary Guard in appearance but surprisingly less gaudy. They are often referred to as the Emperor’s ‘Hunting Eagles’, the Custodian Venatari are specialists in neutralizing threats to the Emprah amidst the sprawling towers and spire-tops of the Imperial Palace. Veterans of the Blood Games, their ranks contain those with the proven skill to master the rare and sophisticated flight system and archaeotech weapons they use.

As already mentioned, the Venatari are pretty damned squishy, By Custodes standards mind you, as they only have a 3+ armor save (presumably because they wanted to wear comfy pants instead of real armour) and thus, they are designed as a cheaper alternative to the Dawneagle Jetbike and the Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbike. They also come automatically equipped with blazing with Kinetic Destroyers and an awesome shield that doubles as a motherfucking Power Axe. If you want your Venatari to be extra choppy, you can equip any of them with the multipurpose Venatari Lance to slice and dice MEQs like Swiss cheese.