The Custodes Are Being Rebuilt as the Elite Army They Were Always Supposed to Be
Games Workshop has finally revealed the next Warhammer 40,000 codex, and the Adeptus Custodes are getting considerably more than a new book.
The Big Autumn Preview has confirmed a new Codex: Adeptus Custodes, plastic Aquilon Terminators for both Warhammer 40,000 and The Horus Heresy, a new Combat Patrol, and one of the largest expansions of the playable Custodes range we have seen since the faction entered 40K.
More importantly, GW says the faction’s datasheets are being fundamentally rescaled to better represent what Custodians are supposed to be in the lore.
That last part may end up being the real story.
Aquilon Terminators Finally Cross Into 40K
The new Aquilon Terminators are enormous, ornate, and exactly as excessive as Custodes Terminators probably should be.
The unit can be armed with lastrum storm bolters and Solarite power talons or adrathic combi-destructors paired with Solarite power gauntlets. GW describes them as extremely durable elite warriors capable of destroying units far larger than themselves.
Visually, they sit comfortably between the familiar Allarus Terminators and the more elaborate Age of Darkness side of the Custodes range. There is a lot of layered armor, engraved detail, and oversized weaponry without losing the clean silhouette that makes the faction recognizable.
The bigger news is compatibility.
These are not Horus Heresy miniatures that happen to look useful in 40K. Games Workshop has explicitly confirmed rules for the Aquilon Terminators in both systems. Their Heresy rules appear in Liber Custodes, while their Warhammer 40,000 rules will be included in the new codex.
That is exactly the kind of cross-system support Custodes players have been asking for.
Custodes Are Getting Fundamentally Rescaled
GW is being unusually direct about what it wants the new codex to accomplish.
According to the announcement, Custodes datasheets are being “fundamentally rescaled” so that even the army’s basic warriors operate at a level beyond most Space Marine heroes. Squad sizes and points are being adjusted around that concept.
That sounds like a genuine philosophical change rather than another round of minor stat adjustments.
Custodes have always existed in a strange place on the tabletop. Their lore presents individual warriors as near-mythical combatants, but game balance inevitably compresses that difference once they begin sharing the table with other elite armies.
If GW is willing to push the model count down while making each Custodian considerably more capable, the army could finally move closer to the fantasy of fielding a handful of absurdly dangerous golden demigods.
There is an obvious tradeoff.
Fewer models means every lost Custodian matters more, and points costs will determine whether this feels elite or simply restrictive. Until we see full datasheets and points, there is no sensible way to judge how strong the army will actually be.
As a design direction, though, it makes sense.
A Very Different Combat Patrol
The new Combat Patrol reflects that smaller, heavier approach.
A Shield Captain leads six Sentinel Guard and three Venatari alongside a Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought. GW also notes that players who are not building specifically for the Combat Patrol game mode can assemble the included squads in alternate configurations.
That makes this a more interesting box than a simple introductory force.
You are getting infantry, highly mobile jump troops, a character, and a Dreadnought in one package, with enough build flexibility that established Custodes players may have a reason to look at it as well.
The 40K Custodes Range Just Got Much Larger
This may be the most important practical change for collectors.
A long list of recently updated Custodes kits is now being packaged for both Warhammer 40,000 and The Horus Heresy. That includes the Shield Captain, Custodian Guard and Sentinel Guard, Venatari, multiple Dreadnoughts, Gyrfalcon Jetbikes, and several grav vehicles including the Caladius and Coronus.
For 40K players, that dramatically broadens the range without requiring GW to reinvent every unit from scratch.
It also means many of the plastic kits introduced or refreshed for Heresy are no longer sitting on the other side of an artificial game-system wall.
That is a very good move.
Custodes are one of the factions best suited to sharing kits across eras, and using that overlap to expand both games makes considerably more sense than maintaining two largely separate ranges of nearly identical golden warriors.
Our Take
This is a much bigger reveal than simply “Custodes get a new codex.”
The Aquilon Terminators look excellent, but the more important announcement is that GW appears willing to rethink the army at a fundamental level.
If Custodes genuinely become smaller in model count but substantially more powerful per warrior, that gives the faction a much clearer tabletop identity.
The range expansion matters almost as much.
Pulling the newer Custodes plastics into 40K means players suddenly have access to far more infantry, Dreadnoughts, bikes, and grav vehicles without waiting through years of individual releases.
There are still major questions around points, detachment structure, and exactly how far these stat increases go.
But from a collecting standpoint, this already looks like one of the most significant Custodes updates the faction has received.
And for once, calling them the Emperor’s Ten Thousand may actually start to feel like an exaggeration of how many models you need on the table.
