Welcome to Ruleshammer Adeptus Custodes – the one place to look for Ruleshammer Q&A on Adeptus Custodes issues! You can also find answers to many more questions in the Ruleshammer Compendium! Last Updated: 2022-03-24
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Current Q&A
Gnosis in melee – what does it ignore?
This ability is become more common lately, and it’s interesting what rules GW considers this wording to cover.
Each time an attack made with this weapon is allocated to an enemy model, that enemy model cannot use any rules to ignore the wounds it loses.
The obvious ones are Ignore Wounds abilities themselves, quite often referred to as Feel No Pain rules from their old name.
IGNORING WOUNDS
Some models have rules that give them a chance to ignore wounds. If a model has more than one such rule, you can only use one of those rules each time the model loses a wound (including wounds lost due to mortal wounds).
However one other type of rule might not be so obvious and that’s models with a maximum wounds lost per phase/turn/round.
IGNORING WOUNDS VS RULES THAT PREVENT MODELS FROM IGNORING WOUNDS
Some models have a rule that says that they cannot lose more than a specified number of wounds in the same phase/turn/battle round, and that any wounds that would be lost after that point are not lost. When such a model is attacked by a weapon or model with a rule that says that enemy models cannot use rules to ignore the wounds it loses, that rule takes precedence over the previous rule, and if that attack inflicts any damage on that model, it loses a number of wounds equal to the Damage characteristic of that attack, even if it has already lost the specified number of wounds already this phase/turn/battle round.
So that puts Ghaz and C’tan on the menu for this weapon. There’s one other type that is commonly asked about though that this wording doesn’t cover and that’s damage reduction. To ignore a wound lost you need to have had damage inflicted, and damage reduction happens before this step of the attacks process.
Using multiple fight phase interrupts
The Adeptus Custodes have access to another fight phase interrupt ability in addition to the universal Stratagem in the core book, however you can’t use them back-to-back due to their timings.
INDOMITABLE GUARDIANS
Use this Stratagem in the Fight phase, after an enemy unit has fought. Select one ADEPTUS CUSTODES unit from your army that is in range of an objective marker and is eligible to fight; that unit fights next.
COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
Use this Stratagem after an enemy unit has fought in this turn. Select one of your own eligible units and fight with it next.
Some players might argue that “it is after” if the enemy has fought with a unit this turn, and they’re correct “technically.” However interpreting “after” in this way, rather than interpretations closer to “right after” or “subsequently” essentially breaks the game. For instance another Core stratagem the Command Re-roll.
COMMAND RE-ROLL
Use this Stratagem after you have made a hit roll, a wound roll, a damage roll, a saving throw, an Advance roll, a charge roll, a Psychic test, a Deny the Witch test or you have rolled the dice to determine the number of attacks made by a weapon. Re-roll that roll, test or saving throw.
Calistus Ka’tah – can I charge after advancing?
So the short answer on this is “no.” However, here’s a slightly longer answer on why not.
CALISTUS
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Stance 2: Each time this unit makes a Normal Move or Advances in your Movement phase, in your following Shooting phase, it counts as having Remained Stationary.
It’s not that count as stationary rules can’t do this ever; it’s that this one can’t. The effect only lasts “in the following Shooting Phase”. So once you leave that phase the restrictions from the charge phase on an unit that advanced apply as usual. However if the rule didn’t have that phase limit the rare rules make it clear it would work.
RULES THAT COUNT AS REMAINING STATIONARY
Some rules allow a unit to count as having Remained Stationary, or count as if it had not moved, even if that unit has moved during its Movement phase. The following rules apply to these type of rules:
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4. Such rules, if they apply in the Charge phase, mean that the unit is eligible to declare a charge even if it has Advanced or Fallen Back this turn.
So if the Ka’tah applied to the charge phase, it would work. It doesn’t though so no charging with advanced units.
Martial Katah Calistus can I charge?
Q: If you are in the martial katah stance that states if you advance you count as being remained stationary, I know you can shoot with those models but can you charge? – Justin
Short answer is no. Here’s why; Calistus Stance 2 doesn’t apply during the charge phase.
CALLISTUS
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Stance 2: Each time this unit makes a Normal Move or Advances in your Movement phase, in your following Shooting phase, it counts as having Remained Stationary.
The models only count as stationary during the shooting phase immediately following the movement phase that just triggered this effect.
GW FAQed!
So GW beat to me to the punch with Custodes, but there are several items in the recent FAQ I felt worth collating here!
Praetorian Plate – is it immune to being targeted?
So this relic is an essentially unlimited range teleport into combat with some oddities.
PRAETORIAN PLATE
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Once per battle, in the Heroic Interventions step of your opponent’s Charge phase, if the bearer is not within Engagement Range of any enemy units, it can perform a teleport-shunt. Remove the bearer from the battlefield and set it up within 3″ of a friendly unit (excluding VEHICLE units) and within Engagement Range of an enemy unit. If that is not possible, it cannot perform the teleport-shunt. The bearer cannot perform a Heroic Intervention in the same turn in which it performs a teleport-shunt.
So first of all, it doesn’t make it clear that it counts as a Heroic Intervention; in fact it says the model CAN’T do one. This is a very odd limitation seeing as to use this rule the model must end the move within engagement range of an enemy model, a place from which Heroic Interventions are banned anyway. So the fairly odd RAW on this was that they didn’t Heroic because they’re not allowed to for several reasons and thus couldn’t be targeted by enemy units that charged this turn. GW have fortunately stepped in to clarify this:
Q: Is a model that performs a teleport-shunt using the Praetorian Plate Relic considered to have made a Heroic Intervention when it does so?
A: Yes.
But they haven’t altered the rule text. Which seems a little odd but the FAQ answer does remove the attacks immune teleport into combat which was a bit of an odd rule.
Warden of Dark Cells – subtract how many attacks?
A key change because the RAW for this was a bit mad as well where you could end up stacking this effect on a unit over and if you had several units with it in range.
Wardens of the Dark Cells
Change Trait 1 of this shield host fighting style to read: ‘While an enemy unit is within Engagement Range of one or more units with this trait, subtract 1 from the Attacks characteristic of each model in that enemy unit.’
The new change limits the subtraction to 1 regardless of how many units with the fighting style are within range.
Using Stratagems on units that are not on the battlefield
Really this one is only “mostly answered.” The Adeptus Custodes FAQ added “on the battlefield” to a lot of rules selection eligibility, but not all the rules. One notable exception is Esteemed Amalgam. I don’t think this FAQ confirms anything specifically about using stratagems on units currently in reserve, but changing the wording of rules specifically to use “on the battlefield” reinforces the interpretation that that wording matters. Especially when if GW did want to weigh in on Stratagems on units held in reserves more generally they could have done so in the Core Rules FAQ that released in January.
The counter argument though is that there’s nothing all that different about Esteemed Amalgam that singles it out for this special treatment. So this could easily be an oversight.
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