Chaos Space Marines vs Adeptus Custodes, 29.05.2024

For the second outing with the new chaos marines, I faced the much maligned Custodes. 

2000 points of Veterans of the Long War facing off against a Shield Host. 

Hammer and Anvil, the Ritual (this time we actually played the proper scenario), Chilling rain. 

Battle round 1

The Custodes went first. I thought I hid pretty well, but the golden Land Raider could still draw a bead on my Venomcrawler, bringing it down to 4 wounds. The Galatus Dreadnought took up central board position. Everything else moved a bit forward, and put down an extra objective.

I initially thought to wait a bit for my reinforcements, but I definitely did not want to get locked in my zone - a mistake I had made previously. So, full send, no brakes. All the flamers brought the Galatus down to 4.

More fire pored into the focus of my hatred. It's a great buff, but I hesitated and split fire and managed to not kill the Raider. Smoke also helped.

Battle round 2

With my units within striking distance, everything crawled up.

And the unit of Allarus terminators showing up to shoot my Raider. A well placed -1 AP mitigated a lot of damage, and they failed their charge.

My Helbrute did die to shooting.

The Rubric Marines flamed and killed the Galatus on overwatch, then died to a charging unit of Wardens.

Then, it was my turn. Drop in the reinforcements!

Also move out the Chosen.

And the rest of the reinforcements target the golden Raider. Attempting to do Bring it down, I once again split my fire, as I wanted to ensure the death of the Rhino. This meant that neither vehicle actually died to shooting. Sigh.

I moved on to this part of the battlefield as well, and shot everything into the Wardens. I had the Heldrake fall back and do Behind enemy lines.

The Chosen shot and charged the Allarus, but failed to kill them. I did 0 devastating wounds on 5+ with my Lord.

The Helbrute tank shocked the Rhino in a moment of accidental genius. Thus, the sisters inside disembarked in the ruins, off the objective, to avoid being piled into and killed.

The second squad of Obliterators, originally meant to score more Behind enemy lines points, made their charge into the Land Raider and punched it to death. Win-win, I think.

Battle round 3

The center Wardens cleaned up the objective, but the Allarus died to a well placed fights first stratagem. My Lord went above and beyond with all the devastating wounds possible.

The backfield Obliterators were also destroyed.

Time to clap back! Again, the Obliterator squad made a 10" charge. With everything in and no CP's to interrupt, the Wardens died.

With Let the galaxy burn! the Heldrake torched a line of backfield sisters. The combined shooting of bikes and Rhino killed the center squad.

Battle round 4

Suddenly reduced to 2 squads, the Custodes rallied in the middle. I sent in the Chosen, but they got heroically intervened into. I managed to shoot and kill one squad, but the Chosen went down as well.

Highlight of the game: run over by an angry Rhino.

Battle round 5

Exceptional secondaries for the Custodes, including Bring it down.

I did my secondaries, including Teleport homer and taking the center for 15 primaries last turn. I didn't have to, but I did send everything into the last squad. Tabling successful!

Conclusion

Proud to win 70-60 before painted army bonus!

Regarding the Custodes, maybe they've dropped out of competitive play, but honestly, they're still great for casual games. Even basic squads are monsters in close combat and very resilient. I sweat through the game and the close win felt very rewarding. There were cool moments, including the first fail of the Chaos Lord to do anything, then his second try destroying the remainder of the squad; a single Blade Champion blending a squad of Cultists; failed and successful charges; saves and fails. And of course the highlight was the triple ones.

As for the chaos marines, the game went mostly as expected, based on what I learned last game. 

• A more shooty list is definitely better for the Veterans detachment, so as to be able to focus on a single target. 
• Chosen are solid, but not a silver bullet. With a lack of invulnerables, they die easily to any determined attack.
• Flaming Rubrics are still solid, and are probably monsters in a Raiders detachment.
• The Heldrake was surprisingly not useless. High movement makes for easier secondaries, and Let the Galaxy Burn! gives a much needed burst of damage, somewhat compensating for the 0OC.
• Helbrutes are a great addition, but die easily. In a shooty list, I am thinking a ranged Helbrute would be great backline support for the Land Raider and stuff.
• Bikes are a lot less useful with their reserve move removed, but they can still do things thanks to their high movement. I'll probably put them in strategic reserves moving forward.