Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5/5 stars, narrowly rounded down. Mixed rules here with some being very good, and others less usable.
We commence our reviews of the Legio Custodes by looking at their overall rules before progressing to individual units.
Their Legio Tactica is "Only in Death" which means they they can never withdraw (disengage or fall back) from combat unless they are anti-grav which makes sense. Further, if they are routed, they instead gain stunned. I suspect this will not happen too often in all honesty so this Tactica is only going to activate occasionally.
They have 5 special detachments. The war-engine one (Moritoi) gives 2 war engines but is an Apex detachment. The rest are Auxiliary and therefore much easier to take and come with a range of troops plus transport, heavy support, scouts, and assorted armour.
For prime advantages they can select between Prefect (W+1 and Officer of the Line 2) which is great for the Shield Captain, and Hetaeron Guard can modify Eternal Warrior to a value of 2 once per army.
Their Advanced Reaction is The Blade Splits. This is a movement based reaction that allows the player to split a unit (the split off has to have a minimum of 3 members each - hence you need to have 6 in a squad minimum to do this). Considering the small model count that this army usually has, this is really a tactical bait par excellence. Played well, it can stifle charges, change shooting arrangements, and provide a hammer or anvil where required. It also subtly encourages big units which don't make much sense given that the Custodes don't cost less points when you add more to a unit versus buy a new unit like Astartes and other units generally do. Hence I'm a bit on the fence overall about this one.
There are no less than FOUR gambits to choose between. Raptor's Surge gives bonus attacks (up to A+3) if the enemy claims a greater outside support - not bad. World Serpent's Bane sets A=1 but D equal to the remaining wounds - probably not worth it unless you are Valdor taking on a Primarch. Heaven's Strike gives 5+ on critical hits at the expense of A/2. Might be okay occasionally. Stone's Aegis gives T+1 in exchange for wounds failing on 1s and 2s - Don't do it.
In terms of weapons, it is easy to overlook the knives that these gold giants carry around, but the AP=3 attacks at the end of a combat are going to be valuable against standard marines and mechanicum. They're worth remembering (but easy to forget).
Guardian Spears themselves remain of quality. They are bolt guns with shred at 5+ essentially with an 18 inch range (the sentinel war blade is similar, but 3 shots but at 6+ shred and shorter range). In close combat, they give S+1 (i.e., base of S=6 for regular Custodes) and AP=2 with impact on AM (the war blades remain at S, but retain AP=2). Hence everything here is at AP=2 and I=5 in close combat. This makes short work of regular space marine legions. Fundamentally therefore, it is best to think of this army as a close combat one. You want to be as deadly as possible in melee and get there fast.
I see their main weaknesses as statuses (which you won't get to remove in a rush) and lack of Line (they are a Vanguard army fundamentally). You should be able to cope due to high levels of advanced characteristics and just surging for a wipe out game. But beware the opponent who is faster than you with appropriate weapons to damage you (especially things like phospex, phage, and high S long range weapons). As an elite army, the loss of even one unit can and will hurt you.
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