Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Adeptus Custodes (section)

====Imperium====
*'''Space Marines:''' They'll know you hit like a sock with a brick inside in close combat and will do whatever it takes to screen you out. Here are some select Chapter Tactics: Ultramarines can fall back and shoot with a -1 to hit penalty, so you have to either surround surviving models (not an easy feat given you're playing Custodes) or just go for the squad wipe (much easier). Raven Guard's -1 to hit outside of 12" is fairly easy to counter with FGLTC, Terminators, and your Vertus Praetors. Imperial Fists ignore cover and gain bonuses against fortifications, neither of which hard counter you unless you like to hide in cover from Bolt Rifles and other AP-1 weapons. Black Templars re-roll failed charges, and since it's combat-oriented and doesn't give them true bonuses in the combat phase (hint: you excel at that) it's to their detriment and your benefit. Iron Hands have nice overwatch and 6++, but overall that's not the main issue. Your main problem with them will be their vehicles, which are hard to bracket.
*'''Blood Angels:''' Red-colored Marines that specialize in Blitz attacks. While they shoot as good as basic Marines above, their main draw is essentially a plus 1 to wound rolls modifier in the first round of combat. That is huge against Custodes, as even basic scouts will go from wounding on 5+ to 4+, and their power fists and Thunder Hammers will wound you on 2+. Custodes rely on their toughness to survive, and the Blood Angels hard-counter that toughness and can throw down in the Combat phase better than other marines. Also, Death Company and any characters with the Black Rage stratagem gain a 5+ shrug and add 1 to attacks when they charge. This won't be like basic marines where close combat will be a one-sided walk in the park, pick and choose your combats. Bring Storm Shields to counter said power fists and thunder hammers.
*'''Dark Angels:''' The Mean Green Marines. Their chapter tactic lets them re-roll 1s to hit in shooting and overwatch if they stand still, and they are almost immune to morale (and Deathwing units are Fearless). If they're using standard Power Armor or Primaris units, they're likely going for a gun line. Their specialty is in Plasma weaponry, and their infamous Weapons of the Dark Age stratagem adds 1 to the damage characteristic of a given unit's plasma weapons. That's right, a Dark Angel marine overcharging a plasma gun with that stratagem can 1-shot a Custodian guard or Warden. To this end, beware the hell out of Dark Angel Hellblasters.
*'''Space Wolves:''' The furries are roughly the same as blood angels, and you deal with them in the same way. Termies (and allied in snipers, like the Vindicare or the Primaris Eliminators) to assassinate the psykers. These guys also need to get into melee to function effectively, so bring a caladius grav tank to soften up the big ones like Bjorn and Murderfang, then use Telemons with a pair of Caestuses (Caestusi? Caestusae?) to take them down. Use jetbikes to outmaneuver them, and adrasite weapons to bring down primaris units thanks to their lovely S: 5 (= wounding on 3s) AP-3 (= 6+ save) D3 (so a straight kill.) 
*'''Grey Knights:''' Hey look it's budget Custodes with psychic powers. With the number of mortal wounds they can put out, plus the odd Vortex of Doom power, your 6+ shrug in the psychic phase won't save you and neither will the relic Vexilla or Warlord trait. Allies, especially sisters of silence, are beyond crucial here; you WILL lose if you don't take them. Their smite has reduced range, so take a good deal of shooty units, and use terminators (having W4 is invaluable as they can tank a d3 wound smite at full blast) to assassinate the characters, who can manifest more than once (especially Voldus). Draigo, true to being the mother of all mary sues, is an absolute beast in melee with a 2+/3++ and The Titansword hitting at S8 (+1 to wound with the Hammerhand psychic power), so wounds on 2s. your best bet against him is sending storm shield-wielding guard at him, along with a vexilla imperius, to drown him in attacks and force wounds. If you take Valoris, ensure he has a bodyguard of sisters at all times.
*'''Deathwatch:''' They're Marines that have special issue ammo. Watch out for hellfire rounds at range since those rounds don't give a shit about your T5/6 and wound you on 2+. Frag Cannons are also a bitch by handing out 2d6 S6 AP-1 auto-hitting shots or can fire two slug rounds (S7 AP-1 above half range, S9 AP-3 up close), and a single Veteran squad can have four of those brokenly good things.
*'''Adeptus Mechanicus''' BEWARE DRAGOONS, they are no slouch in melee and can put some real punishment into your units, either shoot them down or make sure you're charging and fighting first. Like facing other shooting armies the vexilla magnifica is your best friend, use it to reduce the effectiveness of the robots, blind their sensors with golden light. Do watch out for armies spamming Skitarii Vanguard, their Radium Carbines put out a surprising amount of shots and with wound rolls of 6 dealing 2 damage flat, a few unlucky failed saves can chunk your banana boys with shocking efficiency.
*'''Imperial Guard:''' '''FOR EVERY ONE OF US THAT FALLS, TEN MORE WILL TAKE HIS PLACE!''' is the rule here. These guys have bodies, and with that, a large volume of dice. Your Banana Boys will die under massed Lasgun fire, so don’t underestimate a Guardsmen squad. Pask/Tank Commanders can spell trouble with their varied load-outs, and Baneblade variants can kick your shit in. Your objective is to turn Infantry into mulch with your Jetbikes (you did bring Jetbikes, right?) and cripple or eliminate any armor. The biggest weakness of mechanized Guard lists is a lack of Invuln saves; use this to your advantage. Beware their Psykers; nothing says FUN like a Baneblade with Psychic Barrier and Nightshroud on it. 
**Special mention to Tempestus Scions: they are an entirely different beast. These little shits will be bringing their Specialist Detachment and safely dropping out of Valkyries, loaded for bear with regular Scions and Command squads carrying cheap Guard Plasma. If you can get the first turn on them, shoot those sitting ducks out of the sky before they can drop on you.
*'''Imperial Knights:''' A super-elite army versus another super-elite army. The dirty secret about knights is that they aren’t very good - they put out surprisingly little damage, and die surprisingly quickly, especially to high strength weapons that force their 5++). Expect a lot of shots to be missed and a lot of saves to be failed; of course, this isn’t an excuse to be cocky - Knights hurt when they hit and are difficult to wound thanks to army-wide T8. They are also pretty quick so try to not get flanked.
**If you don't have Forge World, use your Jetbikes and deep-striking Allarus termies with Castellan Axes to get up close as quickly as possible. You can try and win off of objectives, but Custodes are such a low model count army that the Knight player will have a bit easier of a time trying to up and table you to win the game than they usually would. In melee you have the particular problem that a knights proper melee weapon ie chainsword, will kill one of your guys in one hit, wiping out 50+ points at a time, and even with a storm shield a knight can reliably kill one custodian each round of combat.
**If you have the money, consider making your whole army from spearhead detachments, bringing bare-bones SCs, Valoris as your warlord, and a shit ton of Telemons with the storm cannons (at least one should have twin Caestii) and Grav-tanks with the Arachnus cannon. An expensive list (in both points and dollars,) and one with very few CPs, but is insanely tough (Telemons are actually TOUGHER than knights to put down and come at half the price) and will curb stomp a knights army reliably often, and pretty quickly as well (watch out for the Dominus Castellan though, that thing shits anti-armour like nothing else in the game).
*'''Sisters of Silence:''' The Talons are doing wargame practice. These guys won’t cause you any trouble as their special anti-psyker rules don’t mean shit against you (this may be the only matchup in 8e where your not having Psykers is an actual ADVANTAGE. They are quite hard-hitting in melee but have nothing on you. Charge them or shoot them, doesn’t matter.
*'''Sisters of Battle:''' If you face sisters TAKE JETBIKES. They’re fast enough to escape you being outmaneuvered (which will probably happen), their hurricane Bolters blenderize sister squads (12 S4 shots vs T3) and the salvo launchers will evaporate penitent engines and the like. Shield captains on said Jetbikes will annihilate all their characters in cc (A5, WS2+ reroll 1s, S6 vs T3, AP-3, Dd3). Again, however, the biggest threat in this matchup is not likely to come from the units on the board, more the person wielding them.
*'''Adeptus Titanicus:''' Just give up. You have no chance. Sorry.
**(In all fairness though, this is the same with every single faction in the game so don’t feel alone in this).
*'''Other Imperium Factions:''' This is for the Inquisition and Assassinorum and other factions that are index only or have mini-dexes.