Horus Heresy 3e Review: Legio Custodes Rules

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. 

Callidus and Terrain Model Assembley

The Callidus assassin is one of those models that I have wanted to buy for a long while. The real problem is the price in literal hard currency. The model is so lacking in plastic and looks so thin that it is (was) hard to justify the expenditure in comparison to something more chunky. And if I am being very honest: something that is nowhere near as delicate. 

Not wanting to undertake lots of pinning in order to reinforce the very thin arms, legs, hair, weapons, and the rest, I came up with a bit of a different solution: add some terrain on to the base! Originally I was thinking of using Kayvann Shrike's concrete pillars that he is descending on from Warhammer 40,000. It fits thematically and would provide a nice jumping point, or something implying that she jumped off from it. In the end I came up with a different approach. I obtained some old pipework and a ladder from the now quite dated Imperial Sector terrain set. The base is, candidly, very small to fit both the assassin and the terrain on to. This is made even more problematic by the tilt of the assassin model which is angled slightly backward to the direction of travel. A bit of dry fitting and slightly forcing the issue and I came up with what can be seen in the image in the end. 

The angled leg is touching the pipework and I glued it on there. The very thin piping from both of her army is now very much protected by the pipe and the ladder. There's very little that will be breaking them. Although the arms still just outward, the pipe will also help with any wobbly model situation. The hair is a slightly different matter since if this one goes off a table top edge it may still snap. But given the work that I've put in here I think it will suffice quite well and protect the model from most problematic topples. Moreover, the miniature now looks like it was worth the money that I paid for it in terms of raw plastic used!

I intend to paint this one up in a similar approach to my Vindicare with some glitch camo effects going on. I'll see how that goes and post about it another time!

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Vindicare Assassin

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. Useful, if a bit points cost expensive.

Background. 

These are the marksmen (and women) supreme. They position themselves with a good vantage point and then pick out their chosen target to be taken out at range. And that range is incredibly large. 

Strengths.

BS=7 is incredibly strong here given that it offers a 2+ to hit at range, and a 5+ critical hit chance. And it is better than some Primarchs too. 

The main weapon is the Exitus Rifle. This has a superlative range of 100 with S=7, ordnance on AP (which means AP=2 if you stay still, which you should be doing anyway) and 2 damage. It comes with precision at 2+ for your sniping needs too. My only complaint here is that it is only 1 shot which is a bit sad. But. It does interact with the Deadshot special rule nicely. As well as never making snap shots, the controlling player also ignores shrouded if they stay still, and gains access to a further rule of their choice: murderous (5+ and ignore Eternal Warrior), Shred at 5+, or Shock to provide pinning, suppressed. You're already getting pinning natively on the rifle, so I'd imagine shred and murderous are where you are at here. 

The pistol side arm is 3 shots at S=6 with precision and a very tiny range. But this also interacts with Deadshot as well. So stay still and let them come to you. If needed, the assassin's blade is your melee weapon for breaching on a 6+. Let's hope it is not needed. I think the goal here has to be to set up on as tall of a terrain piece as you possibly can without wobbly model syndrome to command a view all around. Or hog a particular firing lane if all else fails. 

The Vindicare can take out key elements of the opposition's armour if needed, ranging from sergeants, to other members of a squad who may hold valuable equipment. Hopefully this is a one-shot and done proposition. Of course, the temptation is to go for bigger game. But with 2 damage being caused, you need to think hard about your targets. Praetors can survive this. You might gamble on Deadshot's shred on 5+ to up the damage to 3, in which case you get critical hits as well. Hence you have the potential to cause 4 wounds if you're feeling good about rolling a 5+ per turn. That is certainly enough for most models short of Primarchs or lacking Eternal Warrior. But hey, no doubt the target has an invulnerable save to worry about too. 

Weaknesses. 

Their shots don't do anything about Invulnerable Saves. Hence you will probably eliminate targets on only every other turn more or less when combined with the 2+ to hit roll. The question then becomes if you can set up properly (with Infiltrate of 9) and make back your points cost during the game. I think you can, but you have to play aggressively and go for the big game short of Primarchs, or get rid of valuable asset or equipment holders. Three of them during the game, and you might make your points cost back. 

Hence my overall view is that the points cost of the model versus abilities is good, but still a gamble - as are most things involving dice! But it is a powerful assassin and the ability to inflict pinning from superlative range can be game changing if used well. You just have to avoid getting charged or being in close combat. So set up in the highest place possible, or screened in the middle of a friendly and possibly mostly static bunch of squads to ablate anything incoming. All of this is an art form. 

Regardless, the Vindicare, along with the Callidus, and the Adamus are my strong assassin recommendations for third edition. Largely thanks to the native AP=2.  

Builds.

There are no builds to discuss.  

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Venenum Assassin

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️ 1.5/5 stars, rounded up due to the template weapon. Occasionally useful. 

Background. 

Masters of toxic alchemy and recruited by the Clades to become assassins by means of poisoning their enemies. They are supposedly the most successful clade of them all. Narratively speaking that makes a lot of sense. On the battlefield, this is a gross miscalculation. 

Strengths.

The toxin ejector weapon is a template with breaching and poisoned (with armour bane as well, which I found odd). At least is it S=5 which gives a nice shooting attack that could be useful. 

The poison globes are Alpha Legion inspired with a one use small blast with 3+ poisoned, and panic. The AP is 3, and the damage is 2, so it will hurt regular space marine squads at least.

In close combat the Hookfang gives rending and precision, but also the The Venum special rule. And this one is interesting. Every subsequent round, make a T test or take further wounds. The could, in the right circumstances, result in a board removal even after the assassin has been dealt with. But to make the most of it, I suspect players would have to reduce their opponent to one or so wounds remaining, which might not happen to be honest. 

Beyond this, they never suffer phage on toughness which is niche and have infiltrate and shrouded. 

Weaknesses. 

Another assassin that doesn't quite make the mark for me to be honest with readers. The template weapon is nice enough and should hurt, but I just can't see how this assassin will make their points value back. 

Builds.

There are no builds to discuss.  

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Vanus Infocyte Assassin

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️ 1.5/5 stars, rounded down. It still doesn't do it for me. 

Background. 

Combine the Alpha Legion with the Raven Guard and throw in a bit Mechanicum and you have an Infocyte. These assassins are the masters of manipulating things from behind the scenes whether it be direct control, or coercion based on secrets they've found out about the target and urge them onward. After all, the best assassin is the one that gets others to do the dirty work for them. 

Strengths.

The Vanus is a battlefield manipulator (manipulatrix?). The core idea here is they they are intercepting enemy signals and modifying them. And to some extent, the rules back them up. They get access to two advanced reactions. The first (Auspectre) allows them to reposition a flyer coming in from reserves anywhere along the edge. The second (Signus Shunt) can suppress or pin a unit coming in from reserves. The first is very situational, the second is much stronger, but also needs the enemy to be using reserves. 

The laspistols are meh. The synaptic dataspikes are at least useful in close combat with rending, precision, shock, I+1 (i.e., I=6) and 2 extra attacks. This is almost better than some other clades (but not truly - whilst the Adamus is jealous, they do have helpful rules in close combat which the Vanus does not). They can also disengage at will and has infiltrate, as well as shrouded to help keep them alive. 

Weaknesses. 

I want to like them more than I do. I would really like them to be able to somehow interact with voxes across the battlefield somehow (not sure how - just to be clear). Or to sow some kind of deception more broadly (swap around two units at the point of deployment?). Then the Vanus would be well worth it. As it stands, the points cost is simply not worthwhile taking in my view, but feel free to disagree. 

I do like the model though - just to be clear!

Builds.

There are no builds to discuss.  

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Eversor Assassin

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️ 2/5 stars. The frenzon rage will ultimately kill them if an enemy doesn't. 

Background. 

Implanted with sensors. Beefed up on training. Administered with frenzy in chemical form. Held in a state of uncaring wrath. Drop inserted from orbit. If Khorne had an assassin it would be an Eversor. In fact, the loyalists of the Imperium are lucky to have them. I guess its just an expression of the grim dark nature of the Imperium of man. 

Strengths.

The executioner pistol has both a regular bolt pistol, combined with a needle pistol secondary which gives poisoned on a 3+ and also pinning. Combined, they can give a status and probably a wound before contact in close combat which is where the other strengths lie. 

The neuro-gauntlet gives rending and poisoned both of which are excellent along with 2 damage at I=6 and S=5 with AP=3. Good enough to take out marine sergeants and similar as well as posing issues to the rest of the squad. The Frenzon rage gives a gambit that must be used for +3 focus but takes a wound for rolling 1's to hit. 

Infiltrate and reaping blow are good to have and shrouded and move through cover will help along with eternal warrior. 

Weaknesses. 

I think that they should have deep strike to be honest!

The self inflicted wounds from the frenzon rage will soon see the assassin leave the board to be very honest, and this makes the assassin a problem. But, at least they explode when they die and might take some with them! Its just not enough to let me give them more than 2 stars though. Sorry!

Builds.

There are no builds to discuss.