To the teeming trillions of the Imperium’s citizens, the near-mythical Space Marines are the finest of Humanity’s warriors – transhuman Angels of Death that most people will go their entire lives without witnessing. A precious few know of another, even greater, martial order which stands above them all. Golden demigods individually crafted by the most skilled gene-artificers in the Imperium, these exemplars are sculpted to guard the Emperor himself from the worst threats his enemies can muster.
They are the Adeptus Custodes, and together with the sinister Sisters of Silence they are the final bulwark between a vicious, uncaring galaxy and the heart of Holy Terra. They are indomitable skill and strength incarnate, and they will go to any lengths to protect their charge. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these indefatigable bastions of martial might.
New to the world of Warhammer 40,000? This quick-fire primer will get you up to speed on the golden heroes of the Adeptus Custodes – what they are, how they look, and the way they play on the tabletop.
The Custodian Guard have been a part of the Imperium for as long as records exist. They were the Emperor’s companions throughout the Great Crusade and before – advising, standing by his side and protecting him through some of the greatest conflicts in all of Human history. The story of their origins is known to few but themselves, and for outsiders it is all but impossible to learn anything about them.
The Emperor, with his unimaginable intellect, was able to make use of accumulated troves of genetomantic lore. It is this, the learned few believe, that allowed the Emperor to make the Adeptus Custodes. The truth is hidden within crude cave etchings, hieroglyphics, stasis-locked scraps of parchment and gene-sealed tomes no living person can open. These fragments speak of trusted bodyguards and advisors, and great victories won against monstrous beings. There is a similar lack of detail about the Custodians’ role in the Horus Heresy, that goes even beyond the usual sparsity of apocryphal sources from that dark time. It is thought that the first Custodes leader was a warrior named Constantin Valdor, who disappeared from records after the Horus Heresy. It is impossible to separate myth from fact. Now, if folk know of the Custodians at all it is as towering golden giants who bestrode the stars at the Emperor’s command, living embodiments of his holy light given physical form or gilded dragons of Terran myth, whose talons tore the dark daemons of scripture asunder.
If the Space Marines are the scions of the Primarchs, then the Custodians are the progeny of the Emperor – at least in every way that matters. His might permeates them, burns in their eyes and flows through their veins as surely as their blood. His hand shows clearly in every aspect of their creation, their abilities, and even their outlook upon the galaxy and the Imperium.
Potential Custodians are taken in at a very young age to better survive the rigours of their transformation – no older than late infancy – for the fundamental changes that will be wrought upon their flesh, minds and souls are tantamount to apotheosis. It is considered a great honour for those of Terran noble houses to submit a child.
The Adeptus Custodes also seek out suitable candidates by other means, or encounter them by chance on their missions to protect the Throneworld. None besides the Custodians themselves truly know what criteria they require. How a Custodian is made is an arcane and ancient process born out of the mind of the Emperor himself, made up of decades of alchemical augmentation, psychological and cognitive conditioning and memetic training
Amongst all the strange mutations of the Human genome, one of the rarest is that of blanks – those who bear the mark of the Pariah. Such individuals have no contact with the warp and are thus both immune – and anathema – to warpcraft and those who wield it. This potent ability is powerfully harnessed in the warriors known as the Sisters of Silence.
Skilled warriors every bit as dedicated and loyal as the Custodians, they answered directly to the Emperor before his ascension to the Golden Throne and fought many battles in his name. After the tragic conclusion of the Horus Heresy, many of the Sisters of Silence lay slain and even more were left purposeless. The wider order of the Silent Sisterhood fragmented into countless groups and was lost amidst the immensity of the Imperium.
This all changed with Primarch Roboute Guilliman’s return. After the Battle of Luna, where he fought alongside them, Guilliman declared the Dispensatus Anathema. Those Sisters who had stood beside him were to be dispatched to find others of their kind, and the disparate Sisters of Silence scattered all over the Imperium were made a crucial element of its armed forces.
On the tabletop, the Adeptus Custodes are every bit the martial elite they are pronounced to be, packing incredible ranged and close combat skills into compact, elite armies. They are always outnumbered, but never outmatched.
Squads of Custodian Guard make up the bulk of their forces, pairing thick auramite armour with large praesidium shields to create immovable walls of gleaming death around critical objectives, while remaining fully capable of butchering hopeful opponents in melee combat. They are frequently joined by Custodian elites known as Wardens and Allarus Terminators, whose skills are augmented by the most exceptional wargear ever produced by Imperial hands.
The Pariah gene makes the Sisters of Silence the ideal counter to foul warpspawn and deadly psykers, but even without their ideal foes on the field their numbers can help plug vulnerable gaps in a Custodian line. They work best fighting alongside their Custodian allies, where their own unique strengths and skills effortlessly combine to tackle any threat Chaos and xenos forces could conjure.
Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced and balanced games. The Adeptus Custodes take the small scale of Combat Patrol to its furthest extreme, and can deploy as few as six miniatures on the battlefield – but make no mistake, each one is a powerhouse the equal of other faction leaders, and they make up for their limited quantity with overwhelming quality.
Unlike many other Combat Patrols, Tristraen’s Gilded Blades have a choice to make before they plunge into battle, as they would be simply too powerful if every miniature in the box joined the fight at once. You can choose between a squad of three Custodian Wardens, whose massive guardian spears and castellan axes are particularly effective against elite troops and monsters, or two Allarus Terminators, who trade numbers for resilient armour that make them some of the most durable fighters in the game.
Leading the charge is Tristraen himself, a Blade Champion who can choose between three different combat styles, and a unit of three Custodian Guard shore up your defences with heavy praesidium shields that make them ideal objective holders while your other troops mop up the resistance.
All you need to deploy Tristraen’s Gilded Blades is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol Datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol Missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over!
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Those lucky enough to witness the Adeptus Custodes in action never forget their gleaming auramite armour, and although some groups within the Ten Thousand daub themselves in other colours to distinguish their specialist roles, the shining gold worn by the Custodian Guard and the Sisters of Silence is the enduring image of the Emperor’s bodyguards.
Luckily, their armour is also straightforward to paint, and the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have sorted out a list of their recommended paints so you know exactly where to start with your own Talons of the Emperor.
All kinds of metallic paints can be used to give your army the shine that sets them apart from the rabble, whether it’s a bright silver using Runefang Steel or dark metal with Iron Warriors as a base. Their fine details and ornamented plates also look great in bright, clean whites, with a smooth Corax White colour scheme giving their armour the look of polished ceramic or alabaster.
For those who want to get their miniatures onto the tabletop as quickly as possible, the Painting Team have also concocted a quick how-to guide using a minimum of paints and simple techniques to get yours Battle Ready.
Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to go from a hand-picked bodyguard to a gleaming golden shield host, you might be wondering where you want to go next.
Your first stop is Codex: Adeptus Custodes – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 50 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all of the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.
The incredible power of the Adeptus Custodes is a double-edged sword, as they will almost always be outnumbered. Custodian Guard are your immovable bread and butter, and are a great choice for taking objectives deep in enemy territory as their thick shields render them extremely resistant to damage.
The Sisters of Silence are a great way to complement your army, with each box containing five miniatures that can be built as three different units – whether you want to scorch daemons up close with flamers, blow them apart at range with boltguns, or chop them to bits with giant powered greatblades. Shield-Captains are strategic maestros who use their abilities to support your other squads, and they’re also murderously effective in close combat.
For the cream of the crop to lead your army, look no further than Trajann Valoris – he’s the Supreme Commander of the Adeptus Custodes, and fights with all the power you’d expect from the leader of the Ten Thousand. He can fight toe-to-toe with legendary leaders like the Primarch Roboute Guilliman and Abaddon the Despoiler, and can eradicate entire squads of the most elite warriors in a single round of bloody combat.
When speed is of the essence, Custodians mount up on ancient Dawneagle jetbikes and form units of Vertus Praetors, who carry massive power lances and entire batteries of artificer boltguns into battle while soaring gracefully over the field.
If enemy firepower proves too great and the Adeptus Custodes need to break through a defensive line before disgorging Custodians at close range, they pack entire squads of elite warriors into heavily armoured Venerable Land Raiders. These mighty transports also serve as mobile anti-tank weapons platforms, and can duke it out with enemy vehicles thanks to their accurate godhammer lascannon sponsons.
While the Adeptus Custodes prefer to work in the background of the 41st Millennium, they do star in a few of their own novels, and the best place to learn all about their goings-on in the age of the Indomitus Crusade is the Watchers of the Throne series by Chris Wraight. The story begins with The Emperor’s Legion, which finds the Custodian Guard tackling a threat to the Emperor on Terra itself – a rare occurrence that demands an immediate and overwhelming response.
Cult activity runs rampant in The Regent’s Shadow as Roboute Guilliman’s crusade strips Terra of its defenders, leaving the Talons of the Emperor to tackle ever greater threats that emerge in the Throneworld metropolis. Even the arrival of the Phalanx – the mobile base of the Imperial Fists Space Marines – can’t stem the tide, and the crucible of Humanity gets dangerously close to destruction should the unthinkable happen and the Emperor’s bodyguards fail.
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