The Adeptus Custodes never leave Terra and rarely if ever leave the Imperial Palace. Would they seek to maintain the personal battle barge of the Emperor in the event he is ever healed or reborn?

Also how would the Adeptus Custodes be portrayed in the game? Since they are above and beyond even the Astartes as capable warriors. One thousand of them routed and destroyed one hundred thousand orks and they lost only 3 custodians. So that speaks volumes of their skill and equipment.

I'd imagine they'd maintain the ship. Minor quibble: the Custodes do leave Terra, but they never leave the Sol System. They do that whole Bloodhunt thing where one of them goes out to beyond Pluto and then sees how far into the system he can make it without being caught. It's a test of their security.

TheHeavenlyLily said:

I'd argue a full chapter of Marines could accomplish the same feat. Given 100 Astartes is typically seen as a reasonable response to a massive Waagh.

And they're not quite beyond Astartes, there's a lot of places in the Horus Heresy books where it is said: "1 on 1, the Custodes. 10 on 10? Astartes" - Custodes are ultimately bodyguards and martial artists. But they're not Soldiers. And a skilled astartes can go toe to toe with a Custodes. I'd put it like… Astartes are 8, Custodes 8.5 (Primarchs 9, Emperor 10).

As explain in the Horus heresy serie custodes are the ultimate warrior (save for emperor and sons) but they are not soldiers.

They can outmatched any Space Marine on a 1 on 1 basis, but can't fight thousand astartes even if their number is the same, they never learn to fight as an army, that was never their aim or their goal. They was and still be the bodyguard of the emperor, the blade parrying the assassin blade. The shadow in the shadow. Why do you think they wear such armor, because all who don't are invisible and people aren't looking for Custotdes not wearing armor of gold.

By the way 100 astartes aren't commun response to massive waagh, maybe a medium size one , but look at armagedon and tell me how many astartesq and IG soldiers was send their and how long the battles take plaec… Second and third war.

Same 100 astartes are what is needed to put down Angrom alone and when I say astartes you need top hear grey knight.

It is true that most of the time a SM compagny is a force able to take planet. But as the Crimson Fist have learned sometimes a full chapter isn't quite enough…

Armageddon wasn't just 100,000 Orks though. 100,000 Orks is less than what attacked Helsreach alone… and that had barely the equivalent a company of Black Templars assigned to defend it (along with lots of other stuff! Yes. But that's the thing with Marines, anything big enough to entail their involvement is not likely to involve JUST them, by the time you get to important enough to need them, you've got tons of other things assigned too)

All that said, one great thing with Deathwatch… it has covered how Astartes in groups are better than Custodes. Squad Mode!

EDIT: And the… well, you be the judge of what positive or negative adjective to insert here… thing about Grey Knights is that since they're now a chapter made from the Emperor's Geneseed? They probably are better than Custodes one on one.

Writer consistency is always an issue. In one book a squad can beat an entire army, but in another they get pinned down by 30 Heretics. In the Space Wolf series, I forget which book while they are on the Chaos Cruiser the Wolf Lord and body guard are pinned down by I think it was 30 chaos devotees. But in the Word Bearer series a squad of Chaos Terminators manages to defeat an entire Skitarii host that defended an Imperator Titan. Though despite its terrible writing the Blood Angel Omnibus has Marines that stick mostly to their rules in the codex.

I like the older fluff with the Grey Knights made from the gene-seed of those who did not fall from the Traitor Legions, they looked at Chaos and turned it down. That is what made the Grey Knights so potent against Chaos.

The Custodes come from the Emperor's Gene-Seed. It was the Custodes Project, what he learned from the Custodes he improved upon with the Primarch Project and from that he created the Adeptus Astartes. And the Custodes have their abilities in DeathWatch? Which book?

If Lexicanium is correct there were about 14 thousand space marines on Armageddon and millions of Orks by the time they hit the planet. Of course there was also a massive pleathora of other Imperial forces but I think it's fair to describe that as a massive Waaaaghh.