Warhammer 40K: Detachment Breakdown – Mastering the Adeptus Custodes “Solar Spearhead”
Goatboy here to breakdown the 40K Advent Calendar Detachment – the Adeptus Custodes ‘Solar Spearhead’ with tips, tricks, and a sample army!
With this 2024 Advent Calendar of fun stuff for Warhammer 40K coming out, it’s time to review the detachments as they come out. We’ll do as usual a Good, Bad, and Ugly little break down for each one then a look at the type of list I would play for this army. I will begin with one of the detachments and as the weeks go on break down a few in batches as they come out. I am very excited to see some new rules and maybe some new ways to play an army and create something new and unique. Right now the game is sorta of locking into “best” of style armies and while we do have some innovation from time to time it feels like the same tricks are what is going to carry “best of” armies to the top.
‘Solar Spearhead’ – The Good
Overall this is one of the detachments I like a lot as it “fixes” a lot of the sadness we have when looking at the Adeptus Custodes Dreadnoughts. There are a ton of these models available for the army and thankfully this set of rules really amplifies them up. Heck it might even make them good enough to play with an event and win some games. There are three sets of rules that help make Adeptus Custodes Walkers good in this army and let’s go through them.
First one is Auric Armour and it is a basic set of rules that activates Vehicles to let them work better. The first is adding 2 to the Objective Secured value of vehicles that are at their Starting strength. The second is if they are below their starting strength (aka lost any wounds) the can reroll a hit roll of 1. The third is if the unit is below Half-Strength they can now reroll a hit roll of 1 and a wound roll of 1. All of these are set up to just make vehicles do a little more and need less support to help them out.
The Second Rule is called Moritoi Ancients and it adds a flat 2” to Walkers movement rate. It also adds a +1 to Advance and charge rolls to Walkers as well. You can guess they have some Advance and charge combos with Strats with all of these things so you can get a very fast and angry robo dude coming at you.
The Final rule they have is a simple one that allows you to pick up to 2 Adeptus Custodes Walker units and give them the Character rule. This allows you to put some enhancements onto models and gives you some sweet little “hero” action for your giant golden armored robots. The Enhancements are really where this shines.
We have 4 Enhancements to choose from and 3 of them seem pretty good to use in your Golden Dreadnought army. Admantine Talisman gives any Adeptus Custodes Model a +1 to their Attack, Strength, and Damage profile which all sounds pretty good for 25 points. The Augury Uplink is a simple upgrade that gives any Adeptus Custodes character a 5+ Feel No Pain for a sweet 25 points. The final one that seems good and destined to be picked all the time is a simple Honoured the Fallen which is a 15 point item that grants the vehicle a reroll hit roll of 1’s within 6” for all Infantry or Mounted Custodes. All three of these will be taken in this army as they are all good.
The Stratagems are all pretty decent too with a lot of utility with a ton of 1 CP options. Flawless Construction lets you give a vehicle a -1 to be wounded if the Attack coming at it has greater strength than the vehicles toughness. The Advance and Charge option for vehicles is called Relentless Persecution and it cost 1 CP. That combos well with Unstoppable a 1 CP stratagem that lets a vehicle or mounted unit move thru models and terrain features. All of these will be used pretty heavily in games where you are running the Golden Dreadnoughts of the Emperor.
‘Solar Spearhead’ – The Bad
I almost wish we had a way to make the basic Contemptor a Battleline choice for this army to just really cement that game play style. I know why we don’t but it could have been interesting. I also wish we had some kind of tool or option to allow for some kind of repair work as we play this army on the table top. It really sounds fun to push these models around and being able to “move” quickly through terrain will be neat.
‘Solar Spearhead’ – The Ugly
There isn’t a ton of ugly in this list as it does what you need it to do. It gives you a way to play your Dreadnoughts, makes them better, and seems fun. I don’t know how good it will end up being but having so many options to be tough is a good thing. It also does activate some of the Vehicle options too which could let it be helpful.
Sample Detachment Armylist – Solar Spearhead
Adeptus Custodes
Solar Spearhead
Strike Force
CHARACTERS
Blade Champion (135 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Vaultswords
• Admantine Talisman
Blade Champion (110 Points)
• 1x Vaultswords
BATTLELINE
Custodian Guard (225 Points)
• 5x Custodian Guard
◦ 2x Guardian spear
◦ 1x Misericordia
◦ 3x Praesidium Shield
◦ 2x Sentinel blade
◦ 1x Vexilla
OTHER DATASHEETS
Caladius Grav-tank (215 Points)
• 1x Armoured hull
• 1x Twin arachnus heavy blaze cannon
• 1x Twin lastrum bolt cannon
Custodian Wardens (250 Points)
• 5x Custodian Warden
◦ 5x Guardian spear
◦ 1x Vexilla
Custodian Wardens (250 Points)
• 5x Custodian Warden
◦ 5x Guardian spear
◦ 1x Vexilla
Telemon Heavy Dreadnought (240 Points)
• 1x Armoured feet
• 1x Spiculus bolt launcher
• 2x Telemon caestus
• 2x Twin plasma projector
• Character
• Augury Uplink
Telemon Heavy Dreadnought (230 Points)
• 1x Armoured feet
• 1x Spiculus bolt launcher
• 2x Telemon caestus
• 2x Twin plasma projector
• Honoured Fallen
Telemon Heavy Dreadnought (215 Points)
• 1x Armoured feet
• 1x Spiculus bolt launcher
• 2x Telemon caestus
• 2x Twin plasma projector
ALLIED UNITS
Inquisitor Draxus (95 Points)
• 1x Dirgesinger
• 1x Power fist
• 1x Psychic Tempest
‘Solar Spearhead’ Tactics
This is a pretty simple list to use. You have a nice backfield holder in the Inquisitor and Custodian Guard unit. You have two bully units in the Wardens with Blade Champions. You then have three sweet little Telemon bullies that are designed to move thru the middle and Kool-aid man thru a wall if needed. The Grav-tank is there as the perfect tank to throw damage across the table.
For the Emperor!
