Grimdark Future/Tactics/Custodian Brothers

Why Play Custodian Brothers?

The Custodians are the most elite of the battle brothers. While they are very few in number, These guys are even more slabs of meat than any equivalent army. Opposite them are the sisters, all capable of blocking psychic spells and more mobile but at the cost of being as fragile as HDF veterans.

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Pros

• Incredibly tanky, with both good defense and Tough
• Sisters give you a means of anti-psychic shenanigans
• Universal Fearless

Cons

• Absurdly expensive
• Sisters are fragile by comparison
• Low model count

Rules

• Anti-Psychic: Your sisters can all buy the option to block psychic powers despite not casting. It's a very advisable buy if you want to take down a psychic-heavy army. In most cases, even one might be advisable.

Units

Heroes

• Custodian Captain: A very durable hero on with a legit Tough 6. You can also grab a shield for extra defense or a jetbike for mobility and another source of Impact. On top of these is the option of Warden for a pricey means of Regeneration. Be wary that this all comes at the cost of being able to actually synergize with your other forces, so you need to make sure they won't be relying on anything while in the thick of battle.
  • Weapons: The captain is equipped with a dual-purpose spear-rifle that's more effective than a mere CCW and pistol. If that's not your style you can instead grab a sword-rifle for shorter-range shooting but Rending melee, an axe-rifle for poisoned melee attacks or an energy lance for pure melee with Impact 1.
• Destroyer Captain: Over 70 points over the base captain, but Tough 9 is absolutely not something to mess with, though the lack of Ambush stings. Other than this, your captain is otherwise identical, but you can only buy a shield with bikes and Warden being unavailable.
• Great Sister: A flimsier hero, but more than capable of synergizing where the Custodian Captain cannot. However, she also has to dedicate between melee with her energy sword (which makes Furious a desirable buy) or shooting with either flamethrower of prosecution rifle with a CCW (thus making Relentless a good pick). In either case, you can instead grab Scout for advance movement instead of Relentless or Furious. On top of that, you can also buy for a unit bonus of +1 to either melee attacks or shooting attacks...or buy both at the appropriate price.

Infantry

• Custodian Team: Incredibly expensive, but very durable as each custodian has Tough 3. The unit also has the option of spear-rifles, sword-rifles or axe-rifles like the Captain, and can grab shields for protection and a battle standard for Fear on top of your really strong weapons. You can also grab Wardens to make Regeneration a thing, making them even tougher - and you'll need it because these guys do not come cheap.
  • Weapons: Alongside the Captain's spear-rifles, sword-rifles and axe-rifles, they also have access to some new weapons. The spear-bolt gives the custodians some potent AP with the same versatility provided to the other weapons. The spear-fuse improves this by upgrading the gun part into effectively a fusion rifle. The heavy assault rifle gives some good range and comes with a ritual dagger, but it lacks any extra rules and fires as much as a spear does.
• Custodian Squad: The bigger unit of base custodians, providing 5 models instead of 3. If you're going into a bigger game and intend on focusing on a single line of base custodians, then you're better off picking these over the smaller team.
• Jetpack Team: While not as tanky, these guys have jetpacks so they can have mobility that most can't compare with. While they start with some short-ranged destroyer pistols with rending and ritual daggers, they can pick up all the same weapons the base custodians can.
• Destroyers: Custodians in destroyer armor make them obscenely expensive, but Tough 6 is not something you often come by. While your options are similar to your stock custodians, do beware that buying Wardens or shields is even more costly than before. You absolutely want to make use of Ambush so you can get right into the mix with your fabulous weapons.
• Destructors: These more closely resemble the destroyers seen in other armies. The heavy storm rifles lose a shot over the spears, but they get AP 1 and energy claw has rending. The gun can be swapped off for either a heavy flamethrower or a twin destructor if you want your rifle to smash armor, neither compromising the claw. The claw can alternatively be swapped out for an energy fist for guaranteed AP 3.
• Custodian Jetbikers: These bikes have strider, and are therefore better than most bikes available. However, you're trapped with only energy lances unless you pony up for assault rifle arrays, which open up options for more guns. You'll be wanting to make use of the combined impact values if you decide to spring for bone stock.
  • Shooting: If you do buy the assault rifle arrays, you can trade any of those off for other guns. The heavy machinegun is for better range and blasting light armor, the devastator rips through armor, fusion missiles give you a single shot that can kill near any infantry model, and the twin laser pulsar gives you a small blast that will shred any hordes you aim at.
• Vigilant Sisters: All come armed with energy swords, and therefore are Furious. Don't let them get hit, toss them into an APC.
• Prosecution Sisters: Sisters with Prosecution rifles and Relentless. Don't keep on the front lines, especially without cover.
• Hunter Sisters: These sisters have flamethrowers and Scouts, so you want them to make sure their flamethrowers hit the enemy at the worst possible time.

Vehicles

• Anti-Grav Light Tank: Your cheapest vehicle, but it comes with some visible drawbacks. The tank only has Tough 6 and its lone gun is the twin blazer, a potent weapon that can pop heroes and damage tanks. Do not expect this to last very long if you take it, you need to keep it away from any high AP so you can get a chance to fire its gun.
• Anti-Grav Battle Tank: Your tougher tank, with double the Tough wounds and a stronger twin heavy blazer(which you can swap for a twin accelerator for long-ranged full dakka if you don't need to shoot tanks) that's accompanied by a twin bolt cannon for some dakka.
• Anti-Grav Heavy Battle Tank: Despite being even tankier than the battle tank, it's back to a base twin blazer and bolt cannon, neither of which can be exchanged for anything. In exchange, this can become a small Transport with a capacity of 6 models. While this might falter a bit against tanks and monsters, it's more than capable of blowing up infantry of any size.
• Custodian Heavy Battle Tank: Your most expensive model by far. With Tough 18, it absolutely won't be going anywhere fast unless up against a titan, but at that point you should be fielding plenty of other measures (including a few Titan Lords of your own). It already equipped with the most dangerous things it can handle, a twin machinegun for the hordes and two twin laser cannons to blow up tanks. If you feel like you need more options, all you can take are the shorter-ranged storm rifle and the potent hunter missiles. If you're stuck between either picking this or the anti-grav version, you should consider both what you are taking (reminder that the only way to fill all 11 slots without wasting space is to fill it with either sisters or base custodians and a hero) and what you're expecting to face.
• Custodian Attack Walker: A Tough 12 walker with heavy minigun and fist+storm rifle, putting it on par with your light walker. Sadly, the only thing you can do is make that minigun into a heavy fusion rifle, which makes buying this suspect when you can just take a light walker for cheaper or slap your anti-armor on tanks.
• Custodian Assault Walker: For 15 points over the attack walker, this one carries a monstrous spear-rifle made to rip through armor and two destroyer pistols. Either pistol can be swapped off for either a storm rifle for range or a heavy flamethrower to scare off any hordes. You could also trade off every weapon for a giant tank-ripping sword that comes with what's essentially two heavy flamethrowers and a shield. This loadout makes the walker a genuine terror in close combat and makes hordes literally melt, but comes at quite a steep cost.
• Custodian Heavy Walker: Much beefier, but sacrifices melee potential, relying on three stomps by default. This walker comes with a bolt launcher and two storm cannons to blow up elites. Either storm cannon can be swapped for either an accelerator culverin for long-range infantry sniping or a fist with twin plasma if you want to stand a chance in combat.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

• Incredibly tanky, with both good defense and Tough
• Sisters give you a means of anti-psychic shenanigans
• Universal Fearless

Cons

• Absurdly expensive
• Sisters are fragile by comparison
• Very low model count. Any losses here will be a major setback.

Rules

• Anti-Psychic: Your sisters can all buy the option to block psychic powers despite not casting. It's a very advisable buy if you want to take down a psychic-heavy army.

Units

• Custodian Captain: A very durable hero on with a legit Tough 6. You can also grab a shield for extra defense or a jetbike for mobility and another source of Impact. On top of these is the option of Warden for a pricey means of Regeneration. Be wary that this all comes at the cost of being able to actually synergize with your other forces, so you need to make sure they won't be relying on anything while in the thick of battle.
  • Weapons: The captain is equipped with a dual-purpose spear-rifle that's more effective than a mere CCW and pistol. If that's not your style you can instead grab a sword-rifle for shorter-range shooting but Rending melee, an axe-rifle for poisoned melee attacks or an energy lance for pure melee with Impact 1.
• Destroyer Captain: Over 70 points over the base captain, but Tough 9 is absolutely not something to mess with, though the lack of Ambush stings. Other than this, your captain is otherwise identical, but you can only buy a shield with bikes and Warden being unavailable.
• Great Sister: A flimsier hero, but more than capable of synergizing where the Custodian Captain cannot. However, she also has to dedicate between melee with her energy sword (which makes Furious a desirable buy) or shooting with either flamethrower of prosecution rifle with a CCW (thus making Relentless a good pick). In either case, you can instead grab Scout for advance movement instead of Relentless or Furious. On top of that, you can also buy for a unit bonus of +1 to either melee attacks or shooting attacks...or buy both at the appropriate price.

• Custodian Brother: Incredibly expensive, but very durable. Each one can grab shields for protection and a battle standard for Fear on top of your really strong weapons. Wardens is also a viable option, providing Regeneration.
  • Weapons: Alongside the Captain's spear-rifles, sword-rifles and axe-rifles, they also have access to some new weapons. The spear-bolt gives the custodians some potent AP with the same versatility provided to the other weapons. The spear-fuse improves this by upgrading the gun part into effectively a fusion rifle. The heavy assault rifle gives some good range and comes with a ritual dagger, but it lacks any extra rules and fires as much as a spear does.
• Jetpack Brother: Less protected than the base custodian, but the jetpack gives more than enough protection. By default, he comes with a destroyer pistol for some short-range rending but you can easily give them any of the combined weapons the base custodians can use.
• Destroyer: Custodians in destroyer armor make them obscenely expensive, but Tough 6 is a not easy to refuse. Your loadout's otherwise quite similar to the base custodian, but beware how much more expensive shields and Wardens becomes for you. You absolutely want to make use of Ambush so you can get right into the mix with your fabulous weapons.
• Destructor: This more closely resembles the destroyer seen in other armies. The heavy storm rifle loses a shot over the spears, but get AP 1 and the energy claw has rending. The gun can be swapped off for either a heavy flamethrower or a twin destructor if you want your rifle to smash armor, neither compromising the claw. The claw can alternatively be swapped out for an energy fist for guaranteed AP 3.
• Custodian Jetbiker: These bikes have strider, and are therefore better with movement. However, you're trapped with only energy lances unless you pony up for assault rifle arrays, which opens other options. You'll be wanting to make use of the combined impact values if you decide to spring for bone stock.
  • Shooting: If you do buy the assault rifle array, you can trade it off for other guns. The heavy machinegun is for better range and blasting light armor, the devastator rips through armor, fusion missiles give you a single shot that can kill near any infantry model, and the twin laser pulsar gives you a small blast that will shred any hordes you aim at.
• Vigilant Sister: All this sister has to her name is an energy sword and Furious. You absolutely do not want her on the front lines, but to support your tougher guys.
• Prosecution Sister: Sisters with Prosecution rifles and Relentless. Don't keep on the front lines, especially without cover.
• Hunter Sister: A sister with flamethrower and Scout, so you want her to make sure that flamethrower hits the enemy at the worst possible time.

Army Building

Tactics

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Grimdark Future Tactics Articles
General:	General Tactics
Alien Hives:	Alien Hives - Soul-Snatcher Cults
Aliens:	Dwarf Guilds - Eternal Dynasty - Jackals - Orc Marauders Robot Legions - Saurian Starhost - TAO Coalition
Battle Brothers:	Battle Brothers - Custodian Brothers - Prime Brothers
Elves:	Dark Elf Raiders - Elven Jesters - High Elf Fleets
Havoc:	Havoc Brothers - Machine Cult Defilers - Wormhole Daemons
Humans:	Battle Sisters - Feudal Guard - Gangs of Hive City Human Defense Force - Human Inquisition - Infected Colonies Machine Cult - Titan Lords - Rebel Guerillas
Ratmen:	Ratmen Clans - Vile Rattus Cult