STARTING AN ADEPTUS CUSTODES ARMY IN 11TH EDITION: TEN THOUSAND YEARS, TWENTY MODELS
The Adeptus Custodes are the Emperor's own bodyguard, and a complete force is often twenty or thirty models where other armies need a hundred. This page covers the Custodian Guard box to start with, the Wardens, Allarus and Praetors that follow, and Trajann Valoris.
A bodyguard rather than a horde
Start with the current Custodes Combat Patrol; starter boxes rotate each edition, so buy whatever is on the shelf. The units to own first are the ones that define the faction: Custodian Guard with their guardian spears, the image of the Ten Thousand, and a Shield-Captain to lead them. That is most of an army already. Spend the money you saved on models on a good metallic gold and a wash you trust, because with the Custodes your paint recipe is the army list. Every model is a centrepiece in miniature and deserves your best gold, and none will ever sit in a shame pile two hundred deep, which makes this the kindest faction to a new hobbyist's time and budget.
Wardens, Allarus, Praetors
With one squad gleaming, broaden the honour guard. Custodian Wardens add a second flavour of elite infantry; Allarus Custodians bring Terminator-armoured weight and teleporting menace. For speed, Vertus Praetors on their Dawneagle jetbikes change the army's silhouette completely, and a Shield-Captain on jetbike is one of the best character models in gold. For contrast on the shelf, a squad of Sisters of Silence, the Custodes' black-armoured counterparts, breaks up the gold. On the edition: points and datasheets moved for 11th, so use the current points when you build a list and treat any older numbers as history.
Recommended: Allarus Custodians
Trajann Valoris
Custodes centrepieces are characters rather than tanks, and the summit is Trajann Valoris, Captain-General of the Ten Thousand, a model that radiates authority and rewards every hour you give it. A Blade Champion is a superb second character, all motion and murder. Because the army is small, one exceptional character anchors the whole force. Paint Trajann as if he were the last model you will ever paint; with this army you have the time to.
Five gold recipes is four too many
- A second Combat Patrol "for the value" before the first is painted. The Emperor's bodyguard has standards.
- Every jetbike in the armoury at once. One squad of Praetors makes the point at considerably less cost.
- Gold experiments across five different recipes. Pick one, master it, and let consistency be your heraldry.
The tower's ledger
The Ten Thousand record every duty in their towers, every oath kept and every post stood. Enter each kit on the day it arrives, marked boxed, built or finished, because with a couple of dozen models every one you finish visibly changes the army. No faction fills its finished column faster, and no cure for hobby fatigue works better than watching it happen. The complete roll of everything the Custodes field, from Guard to Captain-General, is on the Adeptus Custodes faction page under Data.