Who Whomps the Whompsmen: Custodes vs Genestealer Cult

The top two performing armies in the current meta, and I bought them both before they were famous! Kraken and Kas here with a Leviathan throw-down, featuring two titans of the tournament scene. The other two, anyway, nobody's doing Eldar here. We're not monsters.

don't forget the knights that we are not taking either. 

The Usual Cultprits

My first stab at a GSC army looks like this; a sea of green-clad minions stretching as far as the eye can see!

60 Neophytes in three blocks, each featuring one of each of their special weapons. No specials this time, though, I'd feel dirty. 

There's a good mix of characters to lead and support these packs - the Ironward for an FNP, the Magus for enemy Mind Control, the Nexos for free strats and blip switching and a Primus, who can shift half my army into deep strike pre-turn-1. If I remember his rules, of course (spoiler: I do not). 

A squad of Jackals, a Ridgerunner and a Rockgrinder, then just enough left over for a Patriarch and some Genestealers. No enhancements - they're not bad, but not quite worth my points here. 

Cult Uprising Detachment, 1500 points

• Ironward Acolyte
• Magus
• Primus
• Jackal Alphus
• Nexos
• Reductus Saboteur
• Sanctus with both weapon sets by mistake (Battlescribe led me down the garden path here)
• Patriarch
• 5 Purestrain Genestealers
• 10 Hybrid Acolytes with hand flamers, icon, cult weapons for the leader, 3 mining tools and demo charges
• 20 Neophyte Hybrids with icon, heavy stubber, seismic cannon and mining laser
• 20 Same again
• 20 And again
• Achilles Ridgerunner with missile launcher and flares, twin-linked heavy stubbers
• Goliath Rockgrinder with heavy seismic cannon and demo charge stash, heavy stubber
• 5 Jackals including a Wolf Quad with mining laser, power weapons 

It Custodeen Love

Kas is taking my silver and black Custodes. By really stretching his points out, he can take a whole 23 models, just slightly more than one of my squads. They'd better be good!

On paper, they really are - almost unkillable even with my massed fire thanks to their high toughness and heavy armour. Plus we all know that I can throw minions into this wood chipper all day and it's not going to get tired. 

Maybe, but just like in 9th, every loss will cut deeply, and every loss really hurt.

A Blade Champion and a Shield Captain on Dawneagle lead a squad of Wardens and Vertus Praetors respectively. Sagitarii and an Achillus Dreadnought for the backline, then a Knight Centura with a squad of Witchseekers. These gals have borrowed a Mantis Warrior Rhino today (I keep meaning to get them their own one), and will be sat inside it at the start. 

I am still surprised the Achillus is, even after errata, only 6" speed (and they seem to double down by making other dreads that speed too); and their shooting is not as good as in 9th, but still they are a gorgeous model, and so wanted to make sure made an appearance.

For my own home Custodes army, I don't own any sisters and so like putting at least one unit in when borrowing Kraken's and as these were the only ones with Scout, they were my chosen choice,

Finally, a Callidus Assassin, who can very rudely make one of my strats cost extra after the first time I use it. Once a game, but still highly impolite. 

Knowing Kraken had a full range of assassins to borrow, this seemed a good addition; especially knowing that GSC had some nasty strats that I might want to vect; or have option to hit a standard one if they weren't seeming to rely on.

Shield Host Detachment, 1500 Points

• Shield Captain with spear
• Blade Champion
• Knight Centura
• 3 Custodian Wardens, spears and Vexilla
• 3 Vertus Praetors, salvo launchers
• Achillus Dreadnought, big spear and adrathic destructors
• Rhino with storm bolter
• 5 Sagitarii Custodians
• 6 Witchseekers 
• Callidus Assassin

Mission and Terrain

It's off to Frosty the Noman's Land today, for the aforementioned Leviathan game. Here's the draw:

So we get to shape the battlefield as we play, taking an action to stick out an extra objective as long as its within 9" of the central one (or other existing one). Interesting!

Deployment

I end up in defence, and stick the Patriarch with its Genestealers in deep strike, along with the Acolyte Hybrid  unit (led by the Ironward). Everything else camps in ruins along the length of my deployment zone, with the Jackals out on a flank and the two vehicles in the corner. 

Kas goes for a long line too - the Sagitarii guarding the home objective, the Wardens and Dreadnought hiding behind the skeletal hill by the Rhino and the Jetbikes parked on the thin edge of the wedge. The Assassin is lurking in the ruins. 

The plan is to be able to get units either on objectives, or 9" from them to make early drops in this mission.

Then I'm up first!

Cult Turn 1

My missions are to Deploy Homers and take a Tempting Target. That second one is usually a bad draw, but today there's only one objective Kas can choose - the middle! 

Nice luck there; and if I had gone first that same draw would have meant I chose the newly created objective planned to create - so, it was the best time to draw!

Cultists swarm forward, led by the Primus, but even with a full advance I'm just short. The Jackals move to support them with the Sanctus lurking behind, and the vehicles pull out to put fire on the Rhino, but everything else hangs back for now, waiting as though for some unseen signal. 

No shooting from the central squad, I'm too busy sticking teleport homers to everything. The Goliath and Achillus manage a rather meagre scattering of wounds on the Rhino, which has scout moved up a bit, then that's turn. 

Custodes Turn 1

Kas hits back immediately. The Witchseekers pile out of the Rhino and flame almost the entire central squad of Cultists as the Rhino drives on to the middle. This carnage is boosted by the Dreadnought and Sagitarii, and (when he repeats the flaming in overwatch on the next turn) the squad's a wipe. 

It heads straight back into deep strike as a blip, though - the Cult reinforcements appear in my back line, behind the Jackals. 

It's always a tough choice, and sometimes I feel that leaving a GSC unit with 1 model only is the best play: constant battleshock checks and not a huge OC or threat... but equally have to go through that first kill sometimes; and also only way to strip those characters sans-precision.

There's not much else to do - the Praetors bounce a few missiles off the Rockgrinder for three wounds, The Callidus sneaks through the ruins and the Wardens deploy a new objective just in front of skull mountain. Turn!

Nice saves; and they are not as devastating as I remember! 

Cult Turn 2

Unseen signal time - the Rockgrinder powers into the middle with the Jackals, then Purestrains and Acolyte Hybrids pop up in both Kas's corners. I'm going extra close with the flamer-armed Hybrids, which means no charges, but with sustained hits on their demo charges, they may not need one!

The Jackals fling their charges as they close with the Rhino, battering off a few more wounds. That tank's my core objective right now - I need to take the centre as a secondary, plus Take No Prisoners. Tall order against Custodians, I suspect!

Sure enough - bombs, flamers and a variety of small arms batter the Praetors but to very limited avail. I wound one of them and no more, plus some extremely small change on the Rhino. The Sanctus manages to plink a wound off the Blade Champion. 

Then the Rockgrinder barrels into the Rhino, using the Tank Shock strat as well as its own native wounds-on-charge ability. Kas could take up to nine mortal wounds from all this, but he manages to  just stay alive long enough for the killdozer blade to grind him down. 

There was no way he was surviving that impact. No explosion and centre taken back.

At the same time, the Genestealers make their charge. This is good news! Until I get interrupted, anyway - because I've done the Rockgrinder first, I lose three of the gangly jerks before they can strike. The remainder pull down a Sagitar, but that's not the result I was hoping for. Ouch.  

Nor me. But they number of attacks coupled with the defensive Ka'tah and decent save helped here.

Worse, I've been countercharged! The Praetors swoop into the Goliath and wipe it out pretty handily. I still just about steal the middle thanks to the Jackals, so I'm still scoring a bit, but I'm finding the Custodes tough nuts to crack so far. 

The new heroic strat and logic has caught me out a couple of times, and so was nice to use properly. Even better using for free thanks to the captain. I almost didn't bring a bike captain, but glad that I did.

Custodes Turn 2

Kas is pretty determined to get rid of my reinforcements, so sweeps the Jetbikes forwards to try and catch the blip. Nope - I've already moved it further away, using the Nexos. 

Smart.

Unfortunately for me, the Callidus can advance on it through the ruins, and gets close enough to banish it. 

But does meant the assassin is not charging or shooting.

Or does she? Because the Ironward Acolyte can rescue a banished blip once a game, so I put it over in the opposite corner instead. 

Curses!

Grinding his teeth, Kas wreaks revenge on the Jackals instead, wiping them out with missiles so that only the Alphus is left. The Alphus proves just too far to charge, though. 

I don't want to leave the centre. 

The Sagitarii fall back from the Genestealers, letting the Wardens charge in and eviscerate the survivors. Neither the 'Stealers nor the Jackals make it back to reinforcements, sadly. 

Unlucky to lose both.

The good news is that the Witchseekers try to take out the Hybrids. Good news because they take flamer overwatch, then get interrupted in combat and mauled pretty heavily by mining tools! However, the Sisters have flamers too, and cook half the squad before killing the last ones (just) in combat. The squad gets recycled, reappearing in my back corner. 

Hmm, hadn't quite spotted the big circular saws; shame on me. Here was I thinking the captain sister with her big sword would do some work. 

Kas is pulling ahead, though! He's racking up primaries and scoring on secondaries too (engage on all fronts, purge the centre). At least it's my turn next. 

Cult Turn 3

It really is go time - I need Assassinate and Take No Prisoners this turn, plus a bit more table presence. If only I had an endless sea of goons...

The Sanctus decides to try and prove her assassin skills against the Callidus. It goes rather well, mostly because I've convinced myself she's got both her weapon sets rather than just one. The Callidus takes two wounds and I manage to duck all her return hits. Ha!

We accidentally ignore the calligus fight first rule, but it's totally fine as she completely whiffs and the Sanctus bosses every save.  

In the middle, the Reductus foregoes shooting to lay out a new objective, then everything else pours fire into the bikes. Mistakes are made - I could have used a free strat from the Nexos to improve this a bit, but as it is, I'm hoping sheer volume of fire will work out for me. 

It doesn't quite, sadly, those bikes are made of sterner stuff. But they do feel the pain a bit, with the wounded one and one other collapsing under shotgun hits. What I'd like to do next is charge in and drown them, but nobody proves willing. Especially the lone Alphus, who was left until last to try his charge and then wisely chickens out. 

I still had enough on the centre to take the casualties there, and leave bikers in range of the Reductus's new flag.

The Knight Censura, the only survivor of her squad, is mobbed and clubbed by the Neophyte tide in her corner, which nets me Assassinate. That's pretty much it, though - the limitations on placing that new objective means I've had to play it too close to the Praetors, and they immediately claim it off me!

She was one wound remaining after last round's mauling, and so once completely surrounded fell very quickly.

Custodes Turn 3

More Acolytes appear in my backline as Kas pulls his lines forwards, consolidating the backline towards the middle. 

The bikes do all the heavy lifting this turn (although the Callidus finishes off the Santus rather contemptuously before returning to deep strike actually jumping into the sky in your turn). They shoot up the Reductus and then charge the Ridgerunner, which goes pretty well for them. 

But it's not all to the Custodes' favour - I've been saving command points, and countercharge with the Magus's unit into their side. This is a good enough charge that I steal my new objective back again,  (Nice counter!) although the Jetbikers split their attacks and take out half of the squad plus the Ridgerunner. 

Then I promptly fail the battleshock test, so don't quite steal the objective back after all. Blast! unlucky!

Now, at this point, I decide to switch to a Gambit. I'm fairly behind on points, but I do have an awful lot of troopers about (or that can come back!). Orbital Bombardment Coordinates are the new mission. All I need to do is sneak my survivors into the corners (simple enough) before rolling really high on two d6. What could possibly go wrong?

Cult Turn 4

Plenty, that's what! My secondary draw is to get into the enemy deployment zone and also hold my own back line. I don't quite have the troops in place to do the former, and I can manage the latter but only just. 

The battleshocked cultists fall back from the Praetors as the new reinforcements pile in. Bombs fly, mining lasers blaze, the Nexos remembers to give me +1 to wound for free this time. The Jetbikes must die!

They do not die. They aren't even scratched - not a single wound manages to get through, even when both squads then pile in (paying for the coordinated strike strat this time) and hack away. 

I lose about half of each squad for this fight, which seems costly. Still got my backline for now, though! And I've grabbed my first corner as well, which is nice.

Casualties are occurring, I think I have now lost two bikes now.

Custodes Turn 4

The Custodians close in, spears twirling. The Magus and his squad have been wiped (returning in the bottom corner), then the Wardens close into the Hybrids after the Callidus reappears and mind-wipes the Nexos with her Men In Black gun.

Funny - Kas does some number crunching, then realises he doesn't actually want to kill me! Nope, better the bring the 10 man unit facing the bikes to less that OC3 and keep the objective and stop the respawn. 

His shooting has already been quite brutal, and he's got easy charges to finish off the two squads. If he does, they'll recycle and pop into the corners, helping my gambit, and he doesn't want that. 

I have to talk him into it, in the end. If he doesn't charge me, I can use Return to the Shadows to move both squads instantly to the corners. If they're wiped, they won't reappear until his turn, and that's too late for my desperate last ditch virus bomb attempt - I've got to do that next go. 

One squad had a character, it was very likely to respawn, but the character wouldn't and the other squad had ten models, and had twelve attacks. I charge both in the knowledge I will wipe the smaller unit and kill the character, and tie up the larger squad.

So in pile the Wardens and the Jetbikes, and entirely mulch everything I've got left. Now that's what I call hostage negotiation!

Oh... Command will be having words with the bike captain later.. that wasn't the plan.

Cult Turn 5

So it all comes down to this last chance - can I call in a massive strike at the last minute?

Actually it turned out not to be as bad as thought, given the timing of gambit vs the reveal of blips, the soon to be arriving regrown units were going to impact the gambit or final turn.

I need a 12, I can add one for the extra corner I've seized. Dice in the cup, lots of rattling...

It's a seven. Nope! 

And as it happens, it wouldn't have helped. Unburdened by the tide of cultists, who've gone rather Red Sea by this point, Kas scores a perfect game, which I certainly haven't!

My final turn was secure no man's land and claim enemy outpost, which given the cult had run off to the corners was an easy land grab.

Go, Dreadnought! 

Result: Custodes Victory, 100:37

Locker Room

Who said the Cult was overpowered?

In fairness, I fell off the steep learning curve here. Between being rather over-tired and trying to parse the rules from Battlescribe, and not re-reading the army rules or strats before the game, I fluffed a whole bunch of stuff. 

Lots of GSC strats only work when you've just arrived from deep strike, so you really want to try and do that as much as possible. Their shooting is pretty tame otherwise, especially against the mighty plates of the Custodes. I just couldn't shift them at all!

Lots of stuff I missed would have helped, from the reroll 1s that the Jackal Alphus can give to the Ridgerunner's extra AP. And losing out on the Primus's ability to put three units into deep strike before turn one was a shocker! That would have given me all three big blobs ready to pop in and light stuff up later on, probably swarming the middle far more effectively than I managed. 

I know for next time, though, and I was actually pleasantly surprised that the recycling units thing isn't quite as nasty as it looked on paper. It's pretty hard to put the blips out where they are both safe and useful at the same time, especially as Kas was really looking to stamp on them after coming up against a better-wielded GSC army recently. 

I was expecting more arrivals at 3", more demo charges, and still having nightmares from bouncing and losing multiple units to a buffed ten man aberrant squad. 

The Custodes look in good shape too! I knew I was in trouble when the Patriarch bounced off them, I'll have to support it better next time. That poor Dreadnought barely got to do anything, his mates were so effective, just stamp about the back line in a huff. 

Yeah I was disappointed by, and for, the dreadnought; but he did stomp around very gracefully and keep hold of a couple of key objectives; with so few units I needed something else holding, but not sure he was the best choice if building another list. 

Much learned! I'll be back for another go another day.

We will indeed. Bring it on!