The Mission – Abandoned Sanctuaries

Score 4VP for each other the following;

• Control 1 or more Objectives
• Control 2 or more Objectives
• Control more Objectives than the enemy

Then score 2VP if one of the following is true at the end of your turn;

• You control the centre Objective
• You destroyed an enemy unit which was on top of the centre Objective

Then score 5VP if you control the centre Objective at the end of the battle.

The Battlefield

Custodes Threats

Custodian Guard

While these are the regular Troops of the Custodes, they do not die and kill my Troops with ease – avoid or kill. One unit of 3 of these can easily melt a squad of Guardsmen.

Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought

A Dreadnought, easy… I must remember that these are not easy to kill. They have a 4+ Invulnerable Save, a 4+ Feel No Pain and reduce incoming Damage by 1. They also hit hard in combat, thanks to their 6 to 8 attacks at S7, AP3 and 3 Damage. These things will kill vehicles and Bullgryns in melee. I should avoid them with my Bullgryns as they are also -1 to hit in combat!

I have to hit them from a decent range with my Gatekeeper Battle Cannon and Demolisher Tank Commander.

Vertus Praetors

These things are the worst for Guard. They come at you fast and hit hard. Once they are in your ranks, killing things, they are very hard to remove. Because they have usually killed the things you need to remove them or you are running away by Falling Back from them – so forgo shooting.

I think these will be my first priority, followed by the Dreadnoughts as they lumber across the battlefield. I say lumber. They still move 9″ at a turn.

Cadians Vs Custodes – The Battle Plan

This is my deployment plan… for better or worse…

The Stormlord with my Warlord and 3x Infantry Squads goes to the right flank. My Warlord with the Laurels of Command and those squads should be able to force a lot of 2+ Saves onto any unsuspecting Custodes at close range.

The Demolisher Tank Commander and a single squad can go in the centre – I hope that this will force the Custodes to split up and either go left or right. The centre is not as juicy. This Tank Commander has the Relic of Lost Cadia on it – which has a one-use 12″ aura for re-rolling ones to Hit and Wound. But he will re-deploy off the table using Gifted Commander…

The left flank will house my Bullgryns and long-range big hitters – the Full Payload Manticore and Gatekeeper Tank Commander. This is a juicy target, and I hope that it draws some attention.

Cadians Vs Custodes – Turn 1 Plan

They will come to me, so my movement phase will be minimal, I think – Bullgryns can grab some cover, and the Stormlord can inch forward.

The Demolisher is shown below, moving left or right. But I think it will be placed into Reserve from the Gifted Commander Warlord Trait. If it is not, then I will move it left, or right to then use the Relic of Lost Cadia where ever feels best at the time.

Cadians Vs Custodes – Turn 2 Plan

I will move forward more on this turn; hopefully, I have cleared out some enemy units, and it is safer to do so than on turn 1.

The Stormlord can offload its occupants to take Objects, and the Bullgryns can surge to the middle for that 2VP.

If the Demolisher Tank Commander goes into Reserve, he can come in and pop the Relic of Lost Cadia on himself and any surrounding units.

The Execution

Everything before this point was written pre-game… here goes.

Deployment went as planned. But the amount of stuff the enemy had was a surprise. More units for scoring than you’d expect from such an elite force. They were spread over their entire deployment zone.

The Demolisher Tank Commander was deployed in the photos below but then removed via Gifted Commander.

Deployment

Turn 1

Custodes

Most units pushed up, with a couple of Custodian Guard units staying back. The two units of bikes that were deployed moved to the centre and right of the centre, in front of the Stormlord – the other was in reserve. 

Incredibly their shooting completely whiffed. The Stormlord got away with taking no damage at all. 

The only charge was from the Warlord into my Bullgryns. I lost three in the charge, and I got him down to three wounds in my counterattack. 

Astra Militarum

I fell my Bullgryns back from the enemy Warlord so that I could shoot it. I did this with 56 Lasgun shots, 2 Lascannon shots and 2 Rapid Firing Plasma Guns. The bigger weapons all failed, and the last three Wounds on the enemy Warlord were removed from massed Lasgun fire!

I did something similar on the right flank after disembarking and then Consolidated two Infantry Squads. Laurels of Command failed – and while I am here, it did so every single turn throughout the whole game! This is why it does not get another mention throughout this battle report. This went less well, and very little damage was done to a group of bikes right in front of the Guardsmen.

Another unit of bikes was removed, though, via the heavy firepower of the Gatekeeper Tank Command and the Full Payload Manticore.

Turn 2

Custodes

The charges would be this turn. Killing all my infantry that just disembarked from the Stormlord. The unit of Bikes from Reserve and a Dreadnought did this act of extreme violence.

The Stormlord lost ten Wounds in the shooting phase too.

The other unit of Bikes, which had taken all the Lasgun fire and last turn and came out OK, charged my Bullgryns, killing two more. On the counterattack, though, they felled two Bikes – leaving one left. Not a bad trade really!

Astra Militarum

I was really pinned in now after not moving up on turn 1. I think doing so would have just made me lose even more Guardsmen and given the enemy something to charge and get closer to me more quickly.

An Infantry Squad Move, Move, Moved on the left flank onto an Objective. The Demolisher Tank Commander came in, too, in my Deployment Zone close to the enemy Bikes that had charged my Bullgryns.

I finished off that Bike in the shooting phase, but sadly not a lot else – oh, two other Bikes went down that had gone after my Consolidated Infantry Squads in the last turn. My shooting was really poor against the Dreadnoughts this turn. They are just horrible to play again, about the same points as a Leman Russ with;

• 2+ Armour Save
• 4++ Invulnerable Save
• 6+++ FNP
• -1 Damage

The 3 damage Manticore and Gatekeeper were struggling to do anything against them. Same for the Demolisher. I think they both lost 2 Wounds or something this turn.

Turn 3

Custodes

More charging this turn.

The Stormlord was knocked down into its lowest bracket from the Dreadnought charge. All but one of the Infantry Squad that had moved forward were killed. Luckily I had placed Mental Fortitude on them, so they auto passed Morale.

Astra Militarum

The last of the Bikes died this turn. And I again failed to remove a Dreadnought or even do significant damage to them. They were losing a couple of Wounds per turn. THey start on 9 Wounds – so they were being very tough indeed.

Turn 4 & 5

Going through the motions of scoring now as I tried to kill as many models as possible for No Prisoners, and the Custodes were moping up for Assassination.

Cadians Vs Custodes – Summary

I felt like my army never really got started in this game. The Custodes units kill things with ease, Guardsmen die to their guns, and they can kill things with charges. Moving forward felt like it would accelerate this eventuality.

I am not sure how else I could have played this. I did not even have a model advantage – the Bikes are so quick they can move half of the board per turn to take Objectives. So moving up and trying to flood the enemy was not an option either.

Final Score

Astra Militarum – 37
Custodes – 79

Custodes Victory