First 11th Edition Tournament Report - Adeptus Custodes

My First 11th Edition Tournament – Adeptus Custodes Event Review

My first 11th edition tournament is now in the books! As mentioned in my previous post, where I introduced my Adeptus Custodes army and outlined my goals for the first year of 11th edition, it was finally time to put them on the table in a competitive setting.

Today I'll be talking through each game, what went well, what I could have done better, and my overall thoughts after my first event of the new edition.

First of all, a huge thank you to the tournament organisers for running a fantastic event, and to everyone who attended. Thirty-two players battling through one of the hottest weekends of the year here in the UK made for a brilliant atmosphere, with everyone helping each other through the opening weeks of a brand new edition.

You can find my full army list breakdown here.

The List

Lions of the Emperor

Force Disposition: Purge the Foe
Additional Rule: Might of the Moritoi

• Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike + 3 Vertus Praetors (Salvo Launchers)
• Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike + 3 Vertus Praetors (Salvo Launchers)
• 3 Vertus Praetors (Salvo Launchers)
• Blade Champion + 4 Custodian Wardens (Vexilla, 1 Castellan Axe)
• Blade Champion + 4 Custodian Wardens (Vexilla, 1 Castellan Axe)
• 6 Venatari
• 5 Witchseekers

Tournament Goals

My goals for the event were simple:

• Learn as much as possible about 11th edition.
• Play an aggressive, high-pressure game using the Purge Force Disposition.
• Play as cleanly and accurately as possible.

Round 1 – Layout A

Chaos Knights
Traitors Lance & Hunting Warpack
Force Disposition: Reconnaissance

Opponent's Army

• 2 Abominants
• 3 Executioners (Ignore Cover)
• 3 Stalkers (2 Daemonbreath Spears, 1 Avenger Chaincannon)
• Karnivore
• 2 Beast of Nurgle
• 2x3 Nurglings

Primary Missions

Mine: Consecrate

Opponent: Triangulate

Both missions naturally encouraged us to play aggressively, so I expected this to be a very high-scoring game.

Deployment

Knowing that, outside of the scouting Stalkers, my opponent had very little early-game shooting, I deployed the Wardens aggressively while keeping the bikes slightly more defensive as they dont benefit from hidden.

My opponent spread fairly evenly across the table, with the Abominants positioned centrally and towards the left flank. The only surprise was sacrificing both Nurgling units forward turn1.

I won the roll to go first.

The Game

Going first allowed me to immediately apply pressure, clearing the Nurglings and establishing board control by moving onto the centre and expansion objectives, Consecrating as I went.

My opponent responded by pushing forward aggressively. The Witchseekers died in the centre and I rolled poorly on a number of saves, losing the Wardens. Thankfully the Blade Champion survived combat with a Stalker and escaped.

I continued applying pressure across both flanks. The left-hand Wardens and Bikes cleared a Stalker and Beast of Nurgle while positioning to make counter-charges awkward.

The right flank was less successful. I expected the Bikes to do significantly more damage than they managed. Fortunately, their fly-over mortal wounds finished off the Beast, although they struggled into the Stalker in combat.

My opponent shifted two Executioners to deal with the Bikes on my right while an Abominant advanced through the middle. I Rapid Ingressed the Venatari onto my left flank to capitalise and benefit from gone to ground/hidden.

His shooting phase was surprisingly underwhelming. Across the army I only lost a single Warden and one Bike, while the central Bikes used their reactive move to pull away, causing the Abominant to fail its charge.

On the left flank, the Karnivore and Abominant eventually finished the Wardens, but once again the Blade Champion survived.

That effectively isolated my opponent's army.

The Venatari and Bikes swept through the left flank while the central Bikes badly damaged the remaining Abominant. The right flank also collapsed under sustained pressure, allowing me to Consecrate my opponent's home objective for additional end-game points.

From there the game snowballed, and I eventually tabled the Chaos Knights turn4 or my 5.

Result: Win 94–67

Round 1 Thoughts

I was very happy with both the result and how the game played.

There were still a couple of mistakes. I missed a 6" Heroic Intervention opportunity into a Stalker that had fallen back from my Bikes, and I could have been more disciplined about toeing into terrain for cover in several places.

Despite that, the overall game plan worked exactly as intended.

Round 2 – Layout B

Leagues of Votann

Force Disposition: Purge the Foe

Opponent's Army

• Berekh + 10 Beserks
• Kahl + 10 Einhyr Hearthguard
• Kahl + 10 Einhyr Hearthguard
• Memnyr + 6 Steeljacks
• Buri Aegnirssen
• Uthar the Destined + 10 Warriors
• Kapricus Carrier
• 6 Thunderkyn
• 10 Yaegirs
• 2x3 Bikes

Primary Mission

Meatgrinder

With both of us running Purge, I felt slightly favoured in the kill-more aspect of the mission, but Votann have several units capable of deleting Custodes if given the opportunity.

Deployment

We both deployed conservatively.

My Venatari started in reserve, while my opponent held both Hearthguard units and the Thunderkyn off the table.

I won the roll to go first and knew I needed an early kill.

The Game

My opponent exposed the Kapricus Carrier just enough for me to reach it, by scouting forwards.

I pushed my three man Bike squad forward, but they finished within 11" of the Beserks. My opponent Heroically Intervened and made the charge on a built in re-roll.

That immediately put me on the back foot.

I destroyed the Carrier and killed four Beserks, but thanks to Fight on Death the remaining squad wiped out my Bikes and was then free to pressure the rest of my army.

Fortunately, my opponent slightly overcommitted and split his attacks too much. As a result, neither my Wardens nor my second Bike squad were fully destroyed.

Once the Beserks were cleared away, I was able to push into his staging units.

In return, my opponent walked on the 6 Thunderkyn to protect his backfield while one Hearthguard unit arrived aggressively on my side of the table via rapid ingress the turn before. Thankfully, they failed an important 6" charge after killing a unit of bikes in shooting.

That failure proved decisive.

I removed the Hearthguard on my side of the board with Wardens and 6 Venatari, preserved my remaining units and gradually increased the distance between our armies.

At that stage, meaningful combat largely stopped, and the game came down to secondary cards. Holding a slight primary lead was enough to secure the win.

Result: Win 79–67

Bit of a damp ending as we both stood at each other and dared the other to cross no-mans-land. But pleased to have come through with a win.

Round 3 – Layout C

Death Guard

Virulent Vectorum

Force Disposition: Take and Hold

Opponent's Army

• Mortarion
• Daemon Prince (Extra Wounds, 5+ Feel No Pain)
• 2x10 Poxwalkers
• 10 Blightlord Terminators
• Foetid Bloat-Drone
• 2x2 Chaos Spawn
• 2 Brigands
• Defiler

This looked like an excellent Take and Hold list, and I knew controlling the centre objective would be critical.

For the third game in a row, I won the roll to go first.

The Game

My opponent split his deployment across both flanks, with Mortarion, the Daemon Prince and the Poxwalkers occupying the centre.

Unfortunately, I made my biggest mistake of the weekend before the game had even started.

I overloaded my left flank and didn't commit enough resources towards the centre.

More importantly, I misunderstood how the mission was actually going to play out.

I knew my opponent wanted to dominate a side objective while controlling the middle for primary points, but I didn't fully appreciate how much pressure that would create until it was too late.

Looking back, I should have left the Witchseekers holding my expansion objective, cleared the pressure around it, and then committed almost everything else into the middle to deny primary scoring.

Instead, I attacked piecemeal, mainly trying to benefit from Lions Detachment while my opponent turtles up.

One unit after another was picked up, and I gradually lost control of the game.

There was one moment where I nearly turned things around, leaving Mortarion on a single wound, but after that opportunity slipped away the result was effectively decided.

Result: Loss 69–92

It was a frustrating defeat, especially knowing another win would likely have put me in contention for a podium finish.

Overall Tournament Thoughts

Overall, I came away extremely pleased with the weekend.

Playing Purge taught me that you have to be applying pressure almost constantly. If you allow your opponent breathing room, they can often dictate the pace of the game while you struggle to keep scoring, game3 made this perfectly clear.

Going into the event, I wanted to experiment with different Force Dispositions. This tournament has convinced me that I need to explore alternatives to Purge and see whether another option better suits both the army and my own playstyle.

I really enjoyed the "tall" style of the list, but I can definitely refine how I pilot it. If I move away from Purge, I'll probably need to revisit the overall list construction as well.

Lions of the Emperor felt powerful in the early game, but much less so once units became fragmented and casualties started to mount. I also found myself accidentally entering the 6" Detection Zone after making aggressive plays, which often turned off key parts of my own detachment rule. While the detachment is undeniably strong, I'm not convinced it's the right fit for how I naturally like to play.

Most importantly, I'm delighted to have finished my first 11th edition event with a 2-1 record while learning a huge amount about the new edition. More than anything, the tournament highlighted just how important positioning has become maximising cover, staying hidden, using Gone to Ground effectively, and carefully planning movement all had a massive impact on every game.

Thanks for reading! I'll have more post tournament reflections coming soon, along with the next version of my Custodes list as I continue refining it for 11th edition.