Detachment Focus: Lions of the Emperor

What’s that? A challenger approaches? The March Dataslate brings with it a quartet of new detachments, and in this article we’re unpacking the Lions of the Emperor detachment for Adeptus Custodes.

The Adeptus Custodes have been up and down this edition, but have recently emerged as real challengers following some point drops, buffs to their Detachments, and the release of the Solar Spearhead. The March 2025 Balance update further adds to this by giving them a sixth Detachment, this time focusing on taking solo units with little support, modeling the heroic actions of lone operatives taking on impossible odds.

We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of these rules for Review purposes.

Detachment Overview

The Adeptus Custodes are frequently depicted as singular warriors, standing alone against enemies unnumbered, wresting victory from the jaws of defeat through a combination of physical superiority, unparalleled martial skill, and a steadfast determination to prevail. And while the “elite army” playstyle of Custodes on the table does take its cues from those depictions, this detachment is the answer a simple question: what if we leaned into that vibe even further? To that end, the Lions of the Emperor detachment aims to reward Custodes players for picking fights without regard to the odds, offering substantial boosts to output that make your already-potent units that much scarier when they’re outnumbered. 

The Video Version

Would you rather watch a video on this than read? We’ve got you covered with a video version here:

Detachment Rule: Against All Odds

This detachment rule encourages you to spread your forces out and take lopsided fights, throwing your auramite-clad heroes into near-hopless situations and counting on their superior skill to win the day. Whenever an ADEPTUS CUSTODES unit from your army (excluding Vehicles) makes an attack, it gets +1 to the hit and wound rolls so long as there are no other friendly units within 6”. Thankfully, this rule doesn’t apply to VEHICLE units, so you won’t gain anything from slamming a Caladius in the back of your deployment zone.

+1 to hit may not seem like a big deal for Custodes units who already hit on a 2+, but it’s a great tool to have for shrugging off the-1 to hit modifiers enemy units can often throw out. The real meat however is that +1 to wound: Units with S7 melee attacks reap big benefits here, wounding T4 units on a 2+ and effectively punching up into bigger targets. It makes Custodian shooting more deadly and really helps you get the most out of Guardian Spears. If there’s a downside to this rule, it’s that its value is limited on your jetbikes, where the spears already have the [LANCE] rule to get +1 to wound on the turn they charge.

Enhancements

The Enhancements on offer here tend to push for solo characters. Superior Creation on a lone Allarus Shield Captain creates a powerful solo operative who will be difficult to remove, while Praesidius lets you give a character Lone Operative and Stealth.

• Superior Creation (25 pts): INFANTRY only. Once per battle on a 2+, the bearer stands back up with full wounds remaining at the end of the phase it died in. The detachment rule encourages you to send your units off on their own, and this lets you get a little more value out of a character that might otherwise be over-extended.
• Praesidius (25 pts): This enhancement also helps keep a character alive, this time by giving it both Lone Operative and Stealth. This is particularly interesting on a jetbike-mounted Shield-Captain, who can comfortably hang out at a range that lets them be protected by Lone Op, then use their 12” move to engage on their terms.
• Fierce Conqueror (15 pts): A Shield-Captain with this enhancement gets an extra 2 attacks with its melee weapons for every 5 enemy models within 6”. The range on the effect is a bit more lenient than you might expect, and if you’re smart about how you engage with the unit you should be able to fairly reliably get at least 2 extra attacks in the first round of combat, and things only get better when you remember that those extra attacks are more opportunities for Martial Ka’tah to go off.
• Admonimortis (10 pts): Another Shield-Captain-only option, this one amps the quality of the model’s attacks instead of their quantity, adding an impressive +3 Strength backed up by a bonus of 1 each to AP and damage. This pushes a guardian spear to strength 10, AP -3, and a flat 3 damage, which is pretty nasty even before you factor in the detachment rule, and lets a Bike Captain just fully punk vehicles like in the good old days.

Stratagems

The Stratagems here all cost 1 CP and so are priced to move, with two keying off targeting a CHARACTER unit.

• Gilded Champion (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Use this Stratagem on an ADEPTUS CUSTODES CHARACTER just after they use a “once per battle” datasheet ability, and they can use it a second time later in the battle. You can only use it on each character once, but getting a second use of a Blade Champion’s advance and charge ability or Trajann’s Moment Shackle could be game-changing.
• Defiant to the Last (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Used in the Fight phase after an enemy unit picks targets. The models in a unit get to fight on death on a 4+, with a +2 to the roll for CHARACTER models. Interestingly, this works on any ADEPTUS CUSTODES unit, including vehicles, though they’ll count as having 1 wound remaining and so will suffer the hit penalty if applicable. That said, the detachment rule will still apply if the unit is far enough away from its allies.
• Peerless Warrior (Battle Tactic, 1 CP): Used in the Fight phase to give a unit’s melee weapons [PRECISION] for a phase. Simple, but potentially nasty if you pick the right fight.
• Unleash the Lions (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Used in the Command phase to split a unit of Allarus or Aquilon Custodians that is on the battlefield into a bunch of separate, new units, each of 1 model, and each counting as having a Starting Strength of 1. This Stratagem finally returned from 9th edition, and is perfect for when you want to saturate the opponent with individual threats. It’s especially strong on a full unit of Allarus, because each model can then individually use From Golden Light through the rest of the game, giving you a huge well of scoring pieces. Note that, as written, we do not believe this will let you use From Golden Light individually if you already used it on the squad before splitting, since your new units would carry the “used from golden light this game” status with them.
• Manoeuvre and Fire (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Used in your Movement phase after a unit falls back. That unit can shoot and charge. This would already be good, but anything that improves your ability to control your positioning is even better in this detachment where managing your units’ spacing from one another will be key.
• Swift as the Eagle (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Used in your opponent’s Shooting phase after they shoots at one of your non-VEHICLE ADEPTUS CUSTODES units. That unit can move up to D6”. Again, an already useful movement trick just becomes that much more so in a detachment that relies on smart placement of your units.

Playing This Detachment

This is a Detachment that really favors taking Allarus and Custodian Guard units, where you’ll get the most out of +1 to wound on your spears. Your big concern there will be ranging wide so you can retain the benefit, but Custodes armies tend to run small enough on unit counts that “being too close to other Custodes units” shouldn’t be a common problem. That said, you’ll likely want to take either big units who can eat up a lot of points and make more of the buffs or units of individual models, like a shield captain who can stand back up on death or a single dawneagle captain with Lone Operative.  

From a support standpoint, this Detachment doesn’t do anything for vehicles with its rules – you want Solar Spearhead for that – but it being able to fall back and shoot with the Maneouvre and Fire Stratagem is notable and the Caladius is still good enough to take without extra buffs. 

Strengths

• Support for single model units. Custodes cost a lot of points and anything that lets them alleviate their unit count issues by making single model character units more effective or durable is a big help.
• Melee support. +1 to wound is a big deal on Custodian spears.
• Utility. The ability to split a unit into multiple single model units (which can then be pulled off the table), and the ability to fall back and shoot or make a reactive move are great tools to have, which can give you a lot of flexibility.

Weaknesses

• +1 to hit on BS 2+ models isn’t that useful. It’s not a major complaint, but this is really only going to matter when you’re going up against -1 to hit or an effect that reduces your Weapon Skill. 
• Need for spacing. There are going to be times when you’ll want multiple units ganging up on a target, and in those instances having to stay 6” apart to get your bonus is going to be an issue.
• Weak vehicle/jetbike support. +1 to wound isn’t something you really need on Vertus Praetors – who already get [LANCE] and there isn’t really much here for your vehicles. 

A Sample List

The challenge in building an effective Lions list is balancing the new cool toys with the point increases that hit in the March 2025 Balance update. Blade Champions and Wardens both got more expensive, making it a bit tougher to fit everything you want into a list.

Sample List - click to expand

TheChirurgeon: While I think this list is better with a Blade Champion than a Shield-Captain, I wanted to make use of all three of the solid Enhancements in the Detachment. The solo Dawneagle Captain with Lone Operative and Stealth is a fantastic scoring and harassment piece, while the Allarus Captain can also be a wonderful little solo nightmare or mob up with the other three (and split again) as needed. The regular Shield-Captain and Trajann are both combat monsters who pair with Warden units and should operate far afield from each other while the Caladius Tanks offer support. 

Final Thoughts

This is an interesting Custodes Detachment, and really does a better job of what Auric Champions seemingly wanted to do with its focus on Characters as solo units. There are a lot of good rules and effects here, and the benefits you can get for running units away from each other can help offset the need to over-commit to killing key threats. At the very least, getting +1 to wound on your spears is a big upgrade that lets the army punch up into a bunch of tougher threats. 

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