Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Metawatch – We’ve Got a Custodes & T’au Problem
40K’s meta is in a rough space right now. Here’s what’s going down our Custodes & T’au overlords.
You have two rough contenders for brutality with the T’au Empire army that will shoot you till your dead mixed with the Adeptus Custodes that don’t care what you do. In a lot of ways the Custodes are the rougher one just due to the nature of the army being cheap to build, quick to paint, and easier to play. The T’au on the other hand are not harder to play. But, they have many more moving pieces to get into place to do the lord’s work of murdering your plastic dudesmen.
Fixing the Custodes
My question today is what should GW do? Look I play Custodes as they are one of those easy armies to build, paint, and get on the tabletop. Plus with my old daddy brain it is a simple army to play. I think they are a bit busted right now as they hit all the things that make an army rough in 40k. They can punch, take a punch, and touch you quickly. These are all the things that make an army good.
As much as they are good I think the real way to fix them is to fix some of their point costs. Trajann should have never gone down in price. You need to make taking him an issue instead of an auto-take for armies. The next thing they should look at is that the bikes cost too little. I think a simple fix of making each unit of 3 with Salvo Launchers at minimum 300 points would be a nice starting block. You make them have to take Sisters of Silence to fit a Battalion because right now it isn’t too hard to get one together and still be relevant on the tabletop. Fixing their points will help make them work better in the current environment where their ability to do massive damage to most of the armies a factor.
Fixing the T’au
Next up we have to look at the T’au and what issues they cause. I think they are along the lines of Custodes in that they are both fast, tough, and pack a punch – just with a ton of shooting. The biggest issue is the mistake of giving the army a ton of no Line of Sight shooting mixed with a slew of stacking powers on top of it. Mont’ka is too good to not take in the army. The first 3 turns the current builds can cripple you so bad that there is almost no point in trying to punch back turns 4 and 5. I watched a few games played by excellent players and you could just see the sheer power of the book.
I think Custodes will be easier to fix due to really just needing true point adjustments and maybe tweaking Emperor’s Chosen. The Tau I feel are going to be another Dark Eldar where unforeseen consequences create powerful little pockets of damage. In fact, let’s just say most armies really shouldn’t see things get cheaper most of the time. I would almost think an overall rule of getting less on the table is probably better for a game with a ton of interactions, layers, and scoring potential. I know the game was supposed to be heading in that direction but sometimes the push to let players play with more toys is not always the best option.
Aeldari – A Rising Force?
Finally we have to see how Eldar end up on the tabletop. I already think the Harlies are the next rough thing as they can quickly engage the board when they want to. This will be especially important on the Tau matchups as they want to try and shoot you off the table. It makes me think if Harlies start to wreck shop, the Tau players will have to tweak some things like massed Flamer suit squads or other options. Of course, this could all change if GW hammer fists the Crisis suits into a crater and the army has to fully shift to either some kind of Broadside nonsense or true Fish of Fury Devilfish murder traffic jam.
Is this going to be a bad seasons as we await updates? If you want to get to the finals then you need to have a plan versus these armies. If you want to just have fun then know you might get a bad match up into one of these but then just try to look forward to some fun games as your rise to the top of the mountain ends up having you kicked down the side.
May you always roll 6’s!
