The Adeptus Custodes are the handful that out-fights the horde — a gang of three to six demigod duellists where every fighter is worth a squad. The Talons of the Emperor field no crowd: each Custodian carries Strength and Toughness 5 or better, four Wounds beneath a 2+ Auramite plate, three or four Attacks, and the Aegis, a master's guard that turns aside the first blow of every round. They fight as a brotherhood, no Custodian left to fall alone, and beside them walk the Sisters of Silence — soulless Pariahs whose null-zone, the Silence, strangles a psyker's power in its throat. This is elite, low-model war: the gang grows from three demigods toward a ceiling of six only on hard-won Reputation, and every warrior lost is a wound felt for the rest of the campaign. When the Inquisition requires a living bulwark or an anti-psyker escort, it is from the Talons and their Silent Sisters that those warriors are seconded. The Custodes win the fights no squad could, and lose the footraces — out-numbered and out-activated, few because they have never, in ten thousand years, needed to be many.
Composition3
Identity2
The Adeptus Custodes are the handful that out-fights the horde. Where every other war-host on the field musters a crowd, the Talons of the Emperor field a handful of kings — three to six golden demigods, each worth a squad. Every Custodian is a duellist bred and drilled across a lifetime: a Toughness and a depth of wounds that shrug off what fells lesser warriors, a 2+ Auramite plate worn as a second skin, and the Aegis, a master's guard that turns aside the first blow of every round.
They fight as a brotherhood. No Custodian stands alone — two within reach of one another interpose for the wounded and blunt the enemy's aim, a wall of gold that never leaves a shield-brother to fall. Beside them walk the Sisters of Silence, soulless null-maidens whose very presence strangles a psyker's power in the throat, a walking dead-zone carried against the witch.
Their weakness is the mirror of their strength. They are few because they are enough, and they have never, in ten thousand years, been enough by being many. Out-activated and out-numbered, they win every fight and lose every footrace — a phalanx that must hold the ground it stands on, because it cannot be in two places at once.
Gang Composition1
- exactly 1 Leader (Shield-Captain)
- 0-2 Champions (Custodian Warden and/or Knight-Centura)
- Custodian Guard / Allarus / Vertus Praetor the demigod bulk
- Sisters of Silence 0-4 (the cheaper sub-roster bodies + the null-zone)
- NO Juve tier (the Ten Thousand take no recruits - written absence)
- 0-1 Brute (Contemptor-Galatus or Telemon)
- backbone rule: at least one Custodian beyond the Leader must be fielded - a gang may never be all Sisters
- slot growth: Warden / Allarus / Vertus / Knight-Centura / Brute unlock with Reputation (3 demigods toward a 6-model ceiling)
- Aegis, No-Custodian-Fights-Alone, and the Silence are inherent to their fighters and cost nothing to field
A Custodes gang begins with 1500 credits, and because each demigod costs the price of a small squad, that budget fields only three to six fighters. The controlling player must take exactly one Leader, a Shield-Captain, and may add up to two Champions drawn from the Custodian Warden and the Knight-Centura. The demigod bulk is the Custodian Guard, the Allarus, and the Vertus Praetor; up to four Sisters of Silence may be folded in as the cheaper sub-roster bodies that carry the null-zone, and up to one Brute may anchor the line. There is no Juve tier — the Ten Thousand take no recruits. At least one Custodian beyond the Leader must always be fielded; a gang may never be all Sisters. The gang grows from three demigods toward its six-model ceiling as Reputation unlocks the Warden, Allarus, Vertus, Knight-Centura, and Brute slots across a campaign. The Aegis, the brotherhood of No Custodian Fights Alone, and the Sisters' Silence are inherent to the fighters that carry them and cost nothing to field.