Who /custodies/ here?

Don't they still patrol Terra, route out terrorists, assassination attempts against the Imperial Senate, protect the Emperor and the Golden Throne, and still do Blood Games? Also how long did the War in the Webway last? Because it seems like it was at least five years or something.

I'm not caught up but I heard Primarch Smurf is back and the Custodes are being sent back to fight on the battlefield. I think HH wise I left off at finishing Pharos.

They guard the Imperial Palace, i.e. the single most defended place in the galaxy, alongside scores of marines, praetorian guard, arbites, assassins, sororitas, titans and null-maidens (plus other, more sinister shit). They do occasionally inflitrate the high houses in disguise (how is anyone's guess) and do bloodgames. They couldn't give less of a shit about the senate or anything else; if those get their asses killed it's their own damn problem.
As for the war in the webway, we don't know for sure, but five years seems like a reasonable estimation. The custodes lost 900 of their numbers, so it had to have been going on for a while.

>Marines
What Astartes are guarding the Imperial Palace on Terra? Imperial Fists are the only ones that fit the role as the Emperor's Praetorians besides the Custodes themselves and aren't the majority of them still on the Phalanx?
>They do occasionally infiltrate the high houses in disguise (how is anyone's guess)
Blood Games by Abnett covers this. They have devices that display an illusion that alters their size, voices, and physical stature.

Also what happened to Valdor? And how did some random Daemon fuck up the Emperor during the War in the Webway? And why wasn't the Emperor able to destroy it and had to seal it in Ra, one of his main Custodes?

Because author fiat. Emps must suck at all times, so obviously Drach'nyen is invulnerable.
Also, fuck you, dad. Chaos is best step-dad.

>What Astartes are guarding the Imperial Palace on Terra?
No clue it this is still canon, but 2nd edition mentionen how several chapters were on terra for the explicit purpose of protecting it.

Ah. I don't do the tabletop stuff, I just read the novels. Does the lore in the new novels supersede the guidebooks for the games?

Yes. Well, sorta. It's iffy. Strictly speaking everything is canon and nothing is, since everything is just one point of view for the entire setting. In theory everything has equal standing, but that has changed recently.
BL is generally somewhat shit, so people are wary of it, but the writers at GW lap it up and integrate it into anything.
Basically, just guess. It'll probably be retconned or contradiced by another author anyway.

Wait then how the fuck does anything even count as canon in Warhammer/40k then? I remember that really really old early 40k omnibus I read that is so out-of-date now that its practically non-canon with its references to squats, ratmen, space marines needing to be constantly mentally reindoctrinated to fight daemons, etc...

When everything is canon, nothing is.

What would use for a hq in the meantime?

Kitbash rawbutt to make Big E.

So on average, whose tougher individually, a Grey Knight or a Custode?

Battle janitor. Space marines aren't ageless, custodies are.
Also, the custodies use gene therapy and have the initiate grow the organs inside his body, and marines just shove organs into kids and hope their bodies don't reject the organs.

Is TotE a good buy if im looking to start collecting space janitors?

Custards are the closest thing to a Primarch and they are all pumped with Big juice.

Grey knights are just space marines able to remember fuckloads of prayers to resist the slanesh sluts.

There was that one time eldar snuck in and the Custodes caught them.

I always heard that basically every Custodes is nearly on par with a Primarch, hence why they guard the single most important person in the galaxy.

Not really, not at least if you're going to do it properly.

That's not accurate, there are some Primarch tier Custodes like the Tribune's and Constantine Valdor, but most are just really beefy marines.

Grey Knight gene-seed comes from the Emperor directly.

nope, they are way superior to any marines from the heresy era. It is said in the fluff they are the closest emperor's creation to the Primarchs.

>do you love me brother
>>be strong clarancestode
>>be strong for the emperor

That's a rumour, more likely it's a blenderized mix of mostly traitor gene-seed.
Or maybe just modified Thousand Sons.

I'm talking tabletop here, going by HH they're just marines with +1 in every stat.

Custodes and Astartes are considered to be cousins. Obviously their profession differs, Custodes are guardians and warriors who are trained also in the arts of covert operations, espionage, assassination, and fighting individually while Astartes are first and foremost soldiers and battle in tandem with their comrades and battle-brothers. On average though, a Custode is taller but slightly leaner then an Astarte.

>basically every Custodes is nearly on par with a Primarch
Aside from Valdor, they aren't. Vendatha in The First Heretic killed like three Word Bearer high-ranking officers and champions before they could counter his attacks, killing like two Chapter Masters and a Captain if I remember this right.

But on average, unless you are a Valdor whose at least physically on par with Alpharius and Omegon and considered tough by Russ, they are still way below any Primarch. Basically it goes:

Emperor > Primarchs + Valdor > Custodes >= Grey Knights >= Deathwatch (elites of the elites are the only Space Marines allowed to enter the Deathwatch/Ordo Xenos kill-teams) > regular Astartes. Not that many years ago we didn't even know if Custodes were actually born into becoming what they are or if they were put in a process similar to Astartes and enhanced with chemical stimulants, organs, and biological stimulii.

>Custode is taller but slightly leaner then an Astarte.
How about no?

>I'm talking tabletop here
Didn't first edition 40k have original SMs just being normal guys in power armor?

How come some of the HH books I read directly say Custodes armor is leaner then Astartes armor then?

>How come some of the HH books I read directly say Custodes armor is leaner then Astartes armor then?
Because fluff is unreliable as shit and doesn't correspond with tabletop?

A lot of that stuff was also written before they got real models and rules.

This is also 7th and 8th ed stuff so it's not like I'm dredging up outdated lore from the annals of time.

Also if you're wondering these are the most recent Custodes rules in 40k.

why didn't the emperor just make all space marine geneseed out of his genes instead of his mutant kid's?

First it was faster, Emps doesn't have "gene-seed", Custodes are based on his genetic material but they're crafted individually since there's no gene-seed to act as a shortcut.
Secondly he wanted Space Marines to be somewhat disposable, they were never intended to stick around for over 10,000 years.

Space Wolves have a permament detail on Terra but thats it as far as I know.

Incidentally, the Guardian Spear is now the inferior choice in both 30k and 40k.

Gray Knights actually do shit so they are superior

Why isn't the US military nothing but navy seals?

Wrong.

Space Marine gene seed is diverse. The Emperor intended his soldiers to be versitile, the banana men are not.

I mean there's that too, but that's probably third on the top three of why.

>into kids
Thawn was an adult by the time he was taken in by the Black Ships.
He is an outlier though.

Because ADB has started to just phone it in, Abnett style.

The viable range is like 6-22, lower end of the spectrum just tends to lead to less complications.

The End of Empires/Drach'nen is no random daemon. It's the darkness within mankind made manifest. A horrid monument to all their sins. It's evidence that humanity is the most EVUL and wretch race in the galaxy. It's seeks to give humanity what it deserves for creating it. Extinction. The Emperor shares in the crime of its existence so like all of humanity he is its prey.

STFU. You dont talk shit about Abnett

fucking cringe

Yeah, yeah, we get it, ADB, Chaos is awesome and being edgy is a good revenge on your dad, but Drach'nyen still is just a really fancy sword.

I don't see how. It's shit for shooting yes, but a +1 to strength with a -3 save sounds godly in close quarters.

>I support murder

It's not about Chaos being awesome. It's about humanity being sucky.

Drach'nyen is trapped in sword form and shackled to Abaddon but its destined to destroy the Emperor and end humanity. As it is immortal and nigh-indestructible (The Emperor being powerless to destroy it), Drach'nyen will ultimately fulfil its purpose. It's inevitable.

The whole point of this is supposed to be to create a fun setting as a backdrop to putting together model dudes that you like the look of and then sending them off to die against other model dudes.
Canon is kept relatively 'soft' so that it's easy for everyone's aesthetic to live together, whether Grimderp, or HFY, or Metal Hurlant.
The class of 40k fan that is actually the biggest problem in online discussion is the ones who take the idea of canon (and the whole universe) way too seriously.

Now look at the Sentinel Blade.
Notice something?
Oh yes, that's the same profile as the Guardian Spear, except without the S+1. Instead you get a 3++ and a two-shot pistol you can also fire in melee. For a mere 2pts more.

I'd like to add that having at least S5 is a lot more important than having at least S6. S5 will wound anything in the game at least on 5+ while S6's only real advantage is fighting against T5.

It's about some neat weapon in the lore suddenly being spawned by the first murder or some shit like that, bestowing way more importance on some background thing than it was ever meant to have.
See also: Perpetuals, the cabal, beast waagh, the list goes on.

Kys ADB

Custodians are closer to individual creations compared to the standardized gene seeds Marines have. There could be a Custodian who's an expert at coding antivirus software for the cognators in the Imperial Palace or can sit in the same security room watching over camera footage for millennia without boredom.

It explains why Abaddon launched a whole Black Crusade to claim the sword. I remember some morons in the past bitching at Abaddon for going after the sword and wasting men and material for it.

Now we know why. Abaddon holds the extinction of mankind in his hand.

People would launch large raids for shiny weapons all the time. It's a strong Daemon weapon. Even if not here was no legend about any of it, people would want it nonetheless.

Modern fluff > game books.

Because the custodes are warriors and he needed soldiers

But that's not an hq choice in 8th

Chaos dudes have always been about getting their mitts on super-fancy weapons. Abbadon has done this several times himself like with the Hand of Darkness and shit.
This does not need a convoluted explanation beyond "It's a good sword, and he wants it because he's a really good fighter." Even most of his chaos lackeys would accept that explanation.

>Necron Player here

I can admit that S/T5 is pretty awesome, I just wish they brought by our wargear and septernal weave So Lords and Lychgaurd could be scary again.

Hello Carnac

Except I know for a fact that Imperialfags harped on it constantly. "LOL launched a whole crusade and lost tons of men for SWURD". Sorry, guys, but this is all your fault. If you don't want something to change, then shut your mouths. GW hears everything and they act on it.

I mean ADB was assigned by GW to dispel the Abaddon meme which you guys started and refused to let die, He is going at it hard. How overboard he takes it is on you guys.

Yes, and people also constantly shit on the wolves, but I see no-one doing much to un-fag them, nor does anybody seem particularly invested in de-scrubbing the nids as a whole.

Here's the thing: He'll stay the Armless regardless of how much effort anyone pours into it because of two facts:
- it's a funny joke (funny being debatable, but that's how memes get started
- no-one with half a functioning brain cell ever actually thought that Abby was a non-thread.
This has taken a life of its own and it is beyond anyone to handle.

Anyone?

Rowboat is.

Forge World is butthurt they're being forced to port over the 30k stuff, they'll drag their feet as long as they can in the name of "fluff"

What detachment let's you take a lord of War as a hq?

Because it takes a fuck long time to produce Custodes and Astartes were meant to be mass produced.

Where do Thunder Warriors rank on that scale?

depends on who you ask or where you look

in some fluff they're budget, garage-built marines
in other fluff they're larger, stronger, faster, and generally more capable in every way when compared with marines

Outcast Dead had the big grand papa Thunder Warrior beating the shit out of several Space Marines including three World Eater berserkers.

In current 40k, we have at least two surviving Thunder Warriors, one whose the Big Boss of the Thunder Warriors, running around in the slums of Terra. The big boss nigga wants to find out the secret to Astartes longevity so he can prevent genetic instability the Emperor engineered in the Thunder Warriors from killing him and presumably others besides his #2 as well as him himself.

They fucked up several Astartes including a "giant" of a Space Marine from the Death Guard.

I thought they were just physically stronger than marines and more ruthless, not necesarily physically better overall.

Because Custodes are the perfection of the formula, essentially a designer baby. And designer babies aren't easy to make.

From the Outcast Dead. Note how Nagesena, a man specifically chosen by Malcador and Dorn to hunt down the traitor Marines for his skill and tracking abilities talks about how dangerous they are and compares them to the Thunder Warriors.

Also apparently baring a naked blade before a Custodian is a taboo.

Would you have a sword out in front of a guy who could snap your spine with a flick?

Then what should I start at that won't cost me my other kidney?

Did Nagesena hold his own against a fucking World Eater Captain in a sword duel later in the novel?

*Didn't

Thunder Warrior vs Space Marines

Continued

Thunder Warriors time.

I don't know, haven't read the book.

But still, it's disrespectful to have an open sword in front of anyone, much less your superior officer.

...

Thunder Warriors are amazing at killing, worse than Custodes, but are also unstable and crude. Emps got rid of them for a reason, really. And hell, in Outcast Dead some of the Thunder Warriors even seem quite understanding and accepting of exactly why.

Yeah the tracker dude/samurai man does indeed face the traitor World Eater Captain in a duel, though it also involved some luck. Nagasena is simply THAT good but he still gets fucked up.

Forgot my image.

Thunder Warrior Captains are bigger then even big-ass Space Marines.

ARMLESS THE HARMLESS

People only shit on the wolves because they jelly to the max

they shit on the wolves because its funny, same reason people shit on the eldar for being pansies or the nids for being NPC's or magnus for ruining everything