40k BETA Pass or Fail: Custodes Transport & Lord of War

Coronus Grav-Carrier

For starters, it’s better than the Land Raider for what it does (Deliver infantry to the enemy lines), though not as tough. But, you don’t need it to be as tough. (Besides it has that 2” buffer from Gravitic Backwash.) You need it to live into turn two or three and deliver its cargo. This transport can and will do that.

What makes it better? Simply the fact that it’s cheaper and faster. Sure, the Land Raider is by far deadlier, but the point of these vehicles is to transport something even deadlier inside. Seeing how the Coronus can transport that unit faster and isn’t as large of a points sink, it strikes me as being the better of the two options for this job.

The obvious choices to transport are Pythirite Spears or Wardens. Allarus Terminators are also an option if you couldn’t (or didn’t want to) deepstrike them… seeing as Aquilon with Firepikes are deepstriking gods of gold now.

The weapon is the same lackluster and non-sensical Twin Arachnus Blaze Cannon found on the Pallas. It really, really falls short of the dual Twin-Las of the Godhammer and as I said in Part II, the Burst mode really should be Heavy 12 or more. The lack of firepower does make me hesitate to take one.

However, what really stops me from taking one is I just don’t think it’s needed. Custodes work very much like a Hammer and Anvil In my opinion. Jetbikes, Grav Tanks, Jump Infantry, and deepstriking are all HAMMERS. The rest of the list is an Anvil. All a Coronus does is make your Anvil mobile. And if you really need to do that, you could do it with deep striking and spend your precious points on something far more lethal.

Orion Assault Dropship

Probably one of the Toughest Flyers in the game. Really a solid choice, but something you very carefully have to consider taking and have a plan on how to use it. And even more importantly, how to use your army when it dies.

Must better than the Land Raider for what it does. For one, it has some okay firepower (though two Caladius would still be more for a little fewer points). The Blaze cannon is strong, but capping at 3 damage really limits it. It really should be 2d3 or d6 In my opinion.

This is also amazingly fast. The problem there being you will quickly outrun all your support characters. So just be ready to deal with rolling snake eyes on the To Hit of the blaze cannons, as well sacrificing transport space for a few characters to join your embarked assault force.

The ability to transport a Dreadnought is really nice and makes the standard Contemptor much more viable. Other candidates for transport are the same as I mentioned above for the Coronus, plus a shield captain or Trajann and/or Vexilla of some sort. If you aren’t bringing a Dreadnought inside the Orion, I would highly recommend filling three of the spots with a basic troop squad. This allows you to deliver an assault force that can continue to be mobile while leaving behind a tough-as-nails troop squad to hold whatever objective you storm.

But just like the Coronus, I’m not convinced on this big boy. I mean, it is super fluffy and you should take it if you want to. Not a bad move. BUT It is 448 points. That is nearly ¼ of a 2k army. And in a small model count army, that really REALLY eats into your body count and ability to have board control. It is the reason why the Land Raider was balked at when the codex dropped. It is just wicked expensive. On top of that, you are likely putting another 300-500 points inside of it. You easily end up with over half your army in one drop.

So sure, that can help you go first but… if you get seized on, there are armies that can take this down in a turn. And even if you don’t get seized on, don’t be surprised if this big scary monster that cannot hide and everything will have LOS to get shot by literally every unit in your opponent’s army until it is dead. And that is another downside to its cost. If you lose it early on in your game, that is ¼ of your army gone in one blow. And with its low damage weaponry, it is likely it will not ever earn its points back in lethality. You have to just hope the act of being a taxi was worth it.

Furthermore, just like the Coronus, it is really for transporting around Anvils when you already have plenty of hammers you can swing. It just isn’t NEEDED in the army. There are many more optimal choices, both in and out of the codex.

Closing Thoughts on the Beta

Overall I am quite happy with the second Custodes beta. Only disappointment not mentioned is that there was one close combat Dread in the previous beta that did not make this one. Would have been nice to see another new model drop. But such is life.

Pretty much everything else is decent (still Custodes after all) but just not optimal. If you are playing Garagehammer or wanting to bring the boys in gold but no jetbikes, this new Beta really does a great job providing new options and some depth to an otherwise limited codex army. The biggest winners of this Beta are the Caladius w/ Accelerator Cannon, Aquilon Terminators w/ Firepikes and Solerite Gauntlets, Achillus Dreadnought and finally Agamatus Custodes w/ Las-Pulsers. Solid choices all of them and they all have their place in the Army and do their prescribed job well.