Saturday, January 2, 2021

Most Powerful Non-Named Character in 30k: Custodes Shield Captain

The Horus Heresy game is replete with a range of super-powerful beings and constructs. Not only are Primarchs available to play, but also heroes and anti-heroes of renown such as Sigismund and Abaddon, through to titans as well. 

However, there are plenty of powerful non-named characters available to construct. Legion Praetors come with a range of possible play styles and builds augmented with rites of war, and legion specific rules. Even the Mechanicum and Solar Auxilia have a range of unnamed characters that can be built to taste and made rather powerful in their own right.

Of all of these, there is one complete stand out to my mind. The Legio Custodes Shield Captain. When built with a Praesidium Shield and Solarite Gauntlet, this creation of the Emperor is beyond rude, he's almost game-balance wrecking. Add in a teleport transponder and the Tribune rule, and he is well and truly probably the best non-named character in the Horus Heresy game. Of course, more things could be added such as digital lasers, and so forth, but 6 lots of S=10 attacks with AP1 and master-crafted is truly awesome, even if it swings at I=1. Add on eternal warrior and fearless, and this unnamed close-combat killing machine really is up there with the heroes with names in the Horus Heresy (even if he utterly lacks in the ranged shooting department).

It would have been rude not to sculpt one (thanks Santa!). 


Most power fists in the game are left handed. I find this awkward, as most storm shields (and Custodes) shields are similarly left handed. One had to be converted. I didn't fancy repositioning individual fingers, so decided it would be the shield to be converted.

The power fist is a shaved down Dark Angels terminator power fist with the iconography removed, and the shoulder joined cut down to size to ensure that the pauldron fits over the top. The shield uses a fist from one of the sentinel war blades to attach to the arm, and some green stuff sculpting to build in around the upper and lower edges of the hand to create the handle for the shield once the original left hand was removed. Otherwise, this conversion is a simple one to execute and I'm pleased with the outcome here. It will await painting on another day. 

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