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2018/02/06 19:42:05
Subject: Re:Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
So i libared all my genestealers from the cardbord storage. I am in a levithan pattern. I am also starting GSC in leviathan colour, but a yellow orange inatead of the red. Now i am finishing these 40 genestealera. Should i paint 20 of them as GSC genestealers (orange claws) to take them with a primus, or keep all 40 as leviatan?
I am looking to start a new project and play some 40k with some friends so I picked up a box of acolytes and a box of neophytes. As someone who doesn't play GW games that often, I'm completely overwhelmed by how many options I have to assemble. I've read through this thread but everyone seems to have different opinions on how to equip their troops. How should I build these 15 models as someone starting the faction?
2018/02/07 11:41:22
Subject: Re:Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
I have bought the GSC Battleforce and nearly done painting them and I want to get them on the table.
I also bought a Leman Russ and 8 Genestealers.
What kind of a list I can make from them or what tactics to use?
Im quite new to all of this so don't really know much about GSC but man, I'm in love with the models.
2018/02/07 15:08:31
Subject: Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
This is my very short summary of the common reccomendations that I find often comes up in listbuilding and strategy discussions.
Three really good assault units:
15-20 purestrains. Best unit we have.
10-15 acolytes with as many rock saws as possible. Good against many different targets, dies quickly.
5-8 Aberrants with hammers. Best against superheavy vehicles.
Primus. Used as a delivery service for reliably cult ambushing the three assault units. Take two, and ambush one unit each turn with the stratagem Meticulous Uprising. Recycle the first one with Return to the Shadows to ambush a unit the third turn.
Patriarch. If you have several units of purestrains one can run with a Patriarch.
Magus. Our spells are fun. Mass Hypnosis is a good support for the assault units. Keep near a GSC unit for Unquestioning Loyalty.
Leman Russ. Take several in AM detachment for orders and more options.
AM infantry is like Neophytes but cheaper and can use Orders.
Neophytes. They don't really kill much, and they die easily. take 10 with only autoguns, or with 2 grenadelaunchers and/or 2 mining lasers. You can instead have 8 shotguns and 2 flamers. Cult ambush them on objectives.
Scout Sentinels with H-flamers or lascannons. (GSC or AM)
AM Bullgryns, mauls and both types of shields. Good synergy with our agressive playstyle. Give them a priest and maybe an astropath to buff them.
AMHW-teams with 3 mortars or 2mortars+1lascannon. Stays on objectives and does a little damage.
Chimera is best troop transport. Double heavy flamer will hit things.
Goliath rockgrinder with incinerator is fun and somewhat useful. Add 5 acolytes with 2 demo charges or 2 rock saws as bonus damage.
Goliath truck with shotguns+flamers neophytes is also fun and somewhat useful.
The more vehicles (transports and russes) you have, the more valuable each vehicle will be. Because target Saturation.
Basic strategy:
Deploy several tanks with AM-infantry around them to be bubble wrap for your tanks. Try to concentrate their fire to either open up paths for your assaulting units or to destroy dangerous targets.
Deploy scout sentinels, bullgryns, magus and extra units of genestealers to the front. Spread out scout sentinels with scout move to make it harder to deepstrike near your valuable units.
Each turn cult ambush one of the dangerous assault units with primus and Meticulous Uprising. They should kill something important. Genestealers might even survive to your next turn. Try to support with mass hypnosis, or soak up overwatch fire with a vehicle charging first.
Advance bullgryns, magus with unit and any transported units.
Bonus things:
One unit of neophytes with shotguns + 2 flamers and a power pick stay behind to counter assault enemy infantry.
Use "Return to shadows" to move around units to where they can hold objectives/annoy the enemy.
We can build a decent army completely without vehicles. That might be useful against enemies with a lot of anti tank firepower.
2 squads of 20 neophytes and a Patriarch between them is a decent bubble wrap and counter assault unit.
There are good advice for mixing with tyranid units as well, but I know too little about them.
Final words.
At the moment we are not a very competitive force. With lucky ambush rolls we can win, with unlucky ambush rolls we are in a very rough place. We are sort of waiting for the codex to be released, and we can't really know what is going to be good and useful by then. So don't worry too much about it, build what you think looks cool and enjoy the game.
2018/02/07 17:52:09
Subject: Re:Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
No problem my friend. This post will be a tad long so everything will be in spoiler tags.
Thanks for the summaries! Bit curious about your evaluation of Acolytes given that their relative flexibility in viable targets has been viewed as a benefit compared to the more single-minded Aberrants, but it makes sense given the context of the rest of the list. Having Might from Beyond available probably would have helped them out a bit since the extra strength and attacks makes the Saws much scarier. Also like seeing that the Drill performed reasonably well. I'm still painting up a few for testing.
Regarding the Magus, did you remember Unquestioning Loyalty? In some regards it is comparable to a 4+ invul but it also works against mortal wounds too.
Niiai wrote:So i libared all my genestealers from the cardbord storage. I am in a levithan pattern. I am also starting GSC in leviathan colour, but a yellow orange inatead of the red. Now i am finishing these 40 genestealera. Should i paint 20 of them as GSC genestealers (orange claws) to take them with a primus, or keep all 40 as leviatan?
I painted my cult to match my Tyranids so I could use the 'stealers interchangeably. Unless you are running a mixture of Hive Fleet Genestealers and Purestrains and need a way to tell them apart they should be fine with the Leviathan paint scheme.
Niiai wrote:40 gs. Are some gsc or not?
Looks like they are the Genestealer Box/Space Hulk sculpts. The version that comes in the Overkill box is a hybrid between the original plastic Genestealers and the 4th edition sculpt. Realistically though, any Genestealer is appropriate.
neenj wrote:I am looking to start a new project and play some 40k with some friends so I picked up a box of acolytes and a box of neophytes. As someone who doesn't play GW games that often, I'm completely overwhelmed by how many options I have to assemble. I've read through this thread but everyone seems to have different opinions on how to equip their troops. How should I build these 15 models as someone starting the faction?
Welcome! I would probably run the Acolytes with 2x Demolition Charges and build the Neophytes with Shotguns with the Leader taking a melee weapon of some sort (Autogun/Lasgun equipped models are fairly easy to get but shotguns are exclusive to the industrial Neophyte box). That way you have two basic squads with relatively low points cost and can build duplicates of special weapons for them with the next box (probably will want 2x Mining Lasers, 2x Seismic Cannons, 2x Grenade Launchers, 2x Flamers for the Neophytes and 2x Rock Saws for Acolytes).
Araablane wrote:I have bought the GSC Battleforce and nearly done painting them and I want to get them on the table. I also bought a Leman Russ and 8 Genestealers. What kind of a list I can make from them or what tactics to use? Im quite new to all of this so don't really know much about GSC but man, I'm in love with the models.
Hard to give a specific list without knowing how things were built, but in general I'd probably look towards putting Acolytes + Primus in the Rockgrinder/Genestealers + Patriarch/Magnus in the Chimera and drive them up the board while the Neophyte squads ambush into good positions and the Russ sits back lending fire support.
While the Primus is an excellent way to control ambushing, their +1 to hit bubble is a huge boon for the Rockgrinder and will give the small Acolyte unit better hitting power than their squad size would suggest. Meanwhile, the Patriarch and 'stealers provide a strong blender unit with access to both Might from Beyond and Mass Hypnosis available. Lastly, the Russ and Neophytes provide fire support to weaken targets for the melee units and clear opposing screening units.
Mellon wrote: Neophytes. They don't really kill much, and they die easily. take 10 with only autoguns, or with 2 grenadelaunchers and/or 2 mining lasers. You can instead have 8 shotguns and 2 flamers. Cult ambush them on objectives.
Chapter Approved made Siesmic Cannons fairly viable now as a generalist tool also. I've generally found Neophytes aren't too bad at killing other infantry (2x Grenade Launcher, 2x Seismic Cannon actually outshoots Guardsmen), they just can't be expected to do more than a wound or two vs big things.
Mellon wrote: Goliath truck with shotguns+flamers neophytes is also fun and somewhat useful.
From my experience, anything with a bias towards their ranged weapons will more or less prefer a Goliath Truck since it allows them to use said weapons while embarked. I'd actually probably put the Shotgun/Flamer units in a Chimera instead since they need to get close for full effect while the Goliath will generally want to hang back a bit. That said, Goliaths are more or less mandatory for Acolyte demolition squads since it is the most reliable way to get them in range to blow stuff up and can contribute an additional bomb itself.
Mellon wrote: There are good advice for mixing with tyranid units as well, but I know too little about them.
Tyranids offer a lot of flexibility but in general support aggressive armies. They can bring a lot of cheap, fearless bodies and get them into combat fairly quickly which is great for Ambushing units as it adds more threat overload. Tyranids also have a noticeable lack of high damage melee infantry which GSC can provide in the form of Aberrants and Acolytes. Lastly, Tyranids bring a lot of tools to counter psychic powers (Shadow in the Warp, Kronos) and a plethora of mortal wound generation for countering units with good invulnerable saves.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/02/09 13:44:46
2018/02/07 19:25:17
Subject: Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
Thanks for the summaries! Bit curious about your evaluation of Acolytes given that their relative flexibility in viable targets has been viewed as a benefit compared to the more single-minded Aberrants, but it makes sense given the context of the rest of the list. Having Might from Beyond available probably would have helped them out a bit since the extra strength and attacks makes the Saws much scarier. Also like seeing that the Drill performed reasonably well. I'm still painting up a few for testing.
Regarding the Magus, did you remember Unquestioning Loyalty? In some regards it is comparable to a 4+ invul but it also works against mortal wounds too.
The reason I scored Acolytes so low is because of their 5+ save and only 3 toughness. While they look good with the ability to either go infantry killer or half Tank/Infantry killer they just under preformed for me. Might be because I pinned them against really strong units with good saves or FnP type abilities but they didn't last longer then 2 turns in all those games.
I could have given them Might from Beyond but the issue was that if they did die (which they did in all of my games) what would my next MfB target be? Mass Hypnosis was a better pysker power because it affect Overwatch rather then any specific unit so it allowed Magus to help my Nids and AM detachments rather then MfBwhich only targets GSC infantry units and once they are gone your only target is the caster.
I also never used Unquestioning Loyalty because I needed my Neophytes in full units so that when they charged a you it after Cult ambushing I would have more modles which made me objective secured over my opponents battle-torn units.
Automatically Appended Next Post: What I like about Abberants is that they have lower modles which means it easier to buff them and Deploy them. They also reduce all damage taken by one so out that with an Iconwards 6+ FnP and they become stupidity resilient. Only bad thing about them is that when one dies you have no "tax" models that you can put the damage on to make sure these models last as long as possible.
Acolytes are pretty much to the total opposite of Abberants. Can have mass numbers (20 modles per unit at Max), can take on both infantry type units and Tank-type units, can pay to re-rolling 1s for fighting and of something takes damage they have tax modles that let you put damage where you want it. Issue is that it is hard to buff them in bigger numbers and if Cult ambushing them having more is harder to CA when the area your deploying is could be restricted by other enemy units
I would probably bring Acolytes in Trucks and Rockgrinder from now on if I was to bring them for tournament type situations.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/07 19:32:23
I played a game last night which was admittedly mostly using my tyranids with a small GSC portion. reports in spoilers:
Spoiler:
My game last night was practise with a team mate for an upcoming GT.
I was running my Tyranids/GSC friends and he was running Admech+Custodes.
My list:
Kraken battalion
Flyrant-devourers and claws, adrenal, onslaught and psychic scream, chameleonic
Neurothrope-catalyst
20 stealers
2x3 rippers
29 termagants-20 devourers
2x3 meiotic spores
Kronos Spearhead
Malanthrope-warlord, soul hunger (he had no psykers but event makes you select warlord trait on your list so I played it as it is.)
6 Hive guard-impalers
Exocrine
3x1 biovores
GSC Patrol
Magus-Mass Hypnosis
17 Stealers-13 talons (WYSIWYG, will be upping to 17 eventually)
neophytes-lasguns and a mortar team
His list:
Mars Spearhead:
Cawl
5 dakkabots
3x Neutronagers
Mars Battalion
2x cheapo enginseer hq’s
3x10 rangers
Custodes supreme command:
3 shield captains on bikes. Warlord was here with 3++ and 5+FNP
We were playing chapter approved mission 1 and the short board edges pointy deployment (names escape me) Note: where we are playing the terrain is terrible. So in prep this was on a board with two small ruins and 3 forests. That’s it for terrain. No BLOS at all.
I used my deepstrike drops (all the GSC, flyrant, rippers) to see where he was going, using single biovores dropped in the backfield until he was down with the crucial robots.
Built a firebase of hive guard, exocrine and biovores cuddling the malanthrope in some ruins. All 37” away from the robots so if he got first turn he would have to move to shoot them. Including malanthrope buff I’ll take re-rollable 6’s to hit me. Neurothrope central surrounded by termagants. Genestealers loitering out of range.
We roll off and he gets first turn. That’s not ideal.
I put my meiotic spores 12” away from him anyway. Pretty pointless but thought I’d see if he was daft enough to not kill them.
Eddies Turn One:
He moved up with his screen, pushing up to block my deep strikes as best as possible. His custodes stayed behind his screen as the whole army moved up. Using his techpriests to block me out of his backfield.
He popped the stratagem to flip the robots into double fire mode, locking them down for the game.
His onagers let fly and oh boy were they hot. 3 onagers, all rolled max shots, all hit, all wounded. Dead exocrine, 3 dead hive guard. Ouch!
Fortunately his robots were less hot and somehow just killed 1 hive guard and wounded another.
The rest of his shooting predictably picked up the meiotic spores.
Reasonably pleased the turn passes to me.
My turn one:
Stealers pop movement stratagem and finish 1” from the screen.
Termagants mill around a bit, moving up but not close enough to achieve much. Then reserves. Rippers stay at home, the rest drops in. Pop the meticulous uprising stratagem on the purestrains and get that 6. They line up 1” away from his screen too. Magus tags along for the ride. Flyrant drops on the other side to draw his forces into two halves. Neophytes join the flyrant because why not.
Psychic phase I catalyst the stealer, smite and psychic scream some screening rangers. Importantly I get mass hypnosis on the robots.
I shoot some more holes into the screens and take 5 wounds off an onager with what remains of my gunline.
Charge phase: purestrains charge in and take 2 rangers units, robots and one of the custodes (couldnt possibly clip the robots without letting the custode heroically intervene so might as well tag him so I can hit him.)
Other stealers grab the same 2 rangers units, robots and another custode (same issue)
Flyrant makes a long bomb into the last rangers unit (already depleted)
I target the custodes as much as possible as they will obviously be problematic at some stage. One takes 2 wounds, the other takes 4. Jesus these things are tough. I also do a sneaky consolidation into an onager.
Both units of stealers take minimal damage back.
Through morale and leftover attacks the 3 rangers units are all removed.
Eddies turn 2:
He falls back with both custodes, jumping over into my lines. The third custode comes over to play with the flyrant. The engaged onager falls back. Cawl moves up to shoot the flyrant with his sunshine gun.
This turn largely revolves around shooting at the flyrant and the flyrant not caring.
The custodes on the other side of the board cleans up the magus who foolishly stood 6.5 inches from a gsc unit so they didn’t fancy jumping in front of the hurricane bolter for him.
In combat the custode which didn’t fall back charged the flyrant and they mostly shouted at each other. The flyrant ended the turn on 11 wounds. The custode was unscathed.
The genestealers whaled on the robots for a bit. Killed 3 of them.
My turn two:
Kraken stealers fall back from the robots towards the onagers. The flyrant hope out of combat and makes the 5 wound custodes closest target.
Neurothrope moves to make the 3 wound custode the closest. Termgants move up some more as do the neophytes.
Psychic phase I do 1 wound to each custode……with two smites and psychic scream. Despite burning a command point on a re-roll.
All the biovores shoot the 2 wound custode. No damage…..Hive guard shoots him. No damage.
Termagants and flyrant shoot the 4 wound custode. No damage. Seriously?
Assault the stealers charge all 3 onagers. The flyrant charges the damaged custode.
Stealers take a chunk out of an onager, purestrains kill another robot. Flyrant does 1 wound on the custode (really?) in return I lose a couple of stealers and the flyrant takes 3 wounds.
Eddies turn 3:
Nobody falls back, the 2 wound custode moves up to dakka the neurothrope. The admech characters go to clear the stealers off the onagers.
Shooting phase the custode does 3 wounds to the neurothrope.
Assault he charges the neurothrope and puts the unscathed custode into the flyrant too. All the characters charge the genestealers.
Neurothrope dies (proving at least one of us can fail 3++) to the custode who piles into the last hive guard (one died earlier, cant remember how.) Flyrant takes 1 wound from the custodes and kills the wounded custode.
The stealers finish off the first onager and are in turn cleaned up by cawl and friends.
Purestrains kill the last robot.
My turn 3:
Purestrains move to tie up the onagers again. Flyrant hops out of combat and positions to smite and mess with the unharmed custode.
Rippers drop onto objectives.
All the dakka lines up to shoot him too.
Smite and psychic scream take 3 wounds off the custode.
Dakka does nothing to him.
The bivores finally kill the wounded custode nearby to them.
Stealers charge and tie up the onagers again (and grab an enginseer who was in the way)
Neophytes heroically run into the custode overwatch so the flyrant doesn’t have to. They are heros.
Flyrant takes 2 more wounds off the custode. The custode either kills him this round or next.
Stealers wound the enginseer and knocks an onager down some.
Turns 4-7:
It all sort of blurs here. The flyrant dies to the custode who takes 62 2+ saves without failing any from dakka. Hes eventually killed by spore mines.
The purestrains eventually die to cawl and friends who heal each other.
A damaged onager makes a run for the objectives but is eventually finished off by a malanthrope whipping his tail back and forth.
Game ends with him having 2 enginseers and cawl.
I have the neophyte mortar team, 8 termagants, enough rippers to hold objectives, malanthope, 3 biovores and 1 hive guard.
He has first blood.
I have warlord, linebreaker, a 1t objective and 2 2pt objectives.
Extremely violent and bloody but a 7-1 victory to the hive mind.
The event I'm practising for has very very little terrain and I'm finding the purestrains combined with meticulous uprising invaluable for locking down gunlines before they can do too much damage.
Originally I had a primus in there for re-rolling the ambush but found I didn't need it and it actually tempted me to re-roll 5's (a perfectly adequate result) fishing for that 6. I'm happier with the magus to shut down overwatch and saving a CP for incase I need a re-roll on the ambush.
I am gluing together my neophytes. I dont know what weapons to give them. One I asume will get the 2 mining lasers and grenade launcher. I do not know about ther other..
I don't know what to put on the 2nd group of neophytes. I plan to scale the list up and down on points. I can iclude ripper swarms, so just 10 naked neophytes seems like a waste.
Guys, I've assemled my 7edition GSC army for the game I play tomorrow.
Seems kinda weak.
Any comments?
Spoiler:
Is there any way right now to take both Genecult artefact and Kurov's aquila in the same army if I have IG warlord?
If only games workshop gave us generic stratagem for extra relics. :(
I will try to stretch my ambush over couple turns to allow Primus to jump back and forth for extra miticulous planner value.
Unfortunately the core of my GSC army comes from the Overkill box, so I lack extra heroes and kinda reluctant to expand collection before we get codex.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/09 19:17:30
2018/02/09 20:58:00
Subject: Re:Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
Fan67 wrote: Guys, I've assemled my 7edition GSC army for the game I play tomorrow.
Seems kinda weak.
Any comments?
Spoiler:
Is there any way right now to take both Genecult artefact and Kurov's aquila in the same army if I have IG warlord?
If only games workshop gave us generic stratagem for extra relics. :(
I will try to stretch my ambush over couple turns to allow Primus to jump back and forth for extra miticulous planner value.
Unfortunately the core of my GSC army comes from the Overkill box, so I lack extra heroes and kinda reluctant to expand collection before we get codex.
You can definitely have 2 relics. Just make your IG relic your 2nd one and use 1CP from the IG Stratagems to use an extra relic. You can also 5+ the CP you used for Kurovs Aquila once you take it as your 2nd relic.
I would also buy the Battleforce box for GSC as it is quite the steal. Nothing in our army will get worse once the codex comes out. So, there should be no issue buying yourself more models.
Speaking of Codex's, wouldn't it be amazing if we could take our own Tank Commanders and name them Cult Commanders? Would be awesome to have our Russ's hitting on 3s.
2018/02/09 21:30:14
Subject: Re:Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
You can definitely have 2 relics. Just make your IG relic your 2nd one and use 1CP from the IG Stratagems to use an extra relic. You can also 5+ the CP you used for Kurovs Aquila once you take it as your 2nd relic.
Well, yeah, but in order to do this I need to change my Warlord from IG to GSC, and GSC warlord traits suck, while Grand Strategist feels important (but I have no idea what I am going to do with all these CP - probably should have taken one serious IG squad to spent CP on. Lemon Bus propably or Wyvern to go through the screening units).
I probably will dump a lot of CP for charge rerolls and morale of the larger units, so some extra points won't hurt.
Although I can see how legendary fighter and the icon of the cult ascendant can be useful as well.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/09 21:35:07
2018/02/09 23:07:34
Subject: Re:Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
You can definitely have 2 relics. Just make your IG relic your 2nd one and use 1CP from the IG Stratagems to use an extra relic. You can also 5+ the CP you used for Kurovs Aquila once you take it as your 2nd relic.
Well, yeah, but in order to do this I need to change my Warlord from IG to GSC, and GSC warlord traits suck, while Grand Strategist feels important (but I have no idea what I am going to do with all these CP - probably should have taken one serious IG squad to spent CP on. Lemon Bus propably or Wyvern to go through the screening units).
I probably will dump a lot of CP for charge rerolls and morale of the larger units, so some extra points won't hurt.
Although I can see how legendary fighter and the icon of the cult ascendant can be useful as well.
Fair enough point. I think if you are using an IG Warlord for Grand Strategist then you will not need K.Aquils because GS grants a 5+ for every CP used e.g. if you spend 3 you get to roll 3 dice. while K.Aquila lets you gain a CP on a 5+ your opponent uses a stratagem e.g. if they use a Stratagem worth 2CP you only get to roll 1d6 to gain a CP on a 5+.
just use IG as your warlord and use the GSC relic.
2018/02/10 06:18:41
Subject: Re:Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
just use IG as your warlord and use the GSC relic.
As per current rule set this is impossible, because GSC lacks extra relic stratagem.
You can either have GSC warlord and relic, and buy IG relic with CP, or otherwise stuck with IG general and IG relics with no access to GSC banner.
2018/02/10 20:55:31
Subject: Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
Well... today I lost to drop GK+BA (plus couple of assassins).
Anihilated death company with accolytes, but couldn’t withstand the amount of bolter drill and smite spam from GK.
I went first, so he waited till turn 3 and obliterated me.
Really wanted that Aquila Strongpoint from my Chaos army.
Missions were Ascension (lol) and Race for Victory, both from Chapter Approved.
Had very thematically appropriate terrain this time
Spoiler:
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/02/10 20:59:25
2018/02/10 21:30:11
Subject: Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
Fan67 wrote:Well... today I lost to drop GK+BA (plus couple of assassins). Anihilated death company with accolytes, but couldn’t withstand the amount of bolter drill and smite spam from GK.
Did they remember Grey Knights only get 1 mortal wound per Smite (barring Purifiers) from their Rites of Banishment rule? I've seen a few people who overlooked that little detail and it skewed their matches quite a bit... Even still, all the storm bolters do make Grey Knights obnoxious to deal with unless you go heavy on the mechanized elements (Our local Grey Knight absolutely hates my Goliath-spam lists, just too many metal boxes to chew through before his anti-infantry weapons can do any work).
Apart from that how well balanced did the new missions feel? I have not had an opportunity to play them yet but they look interesting.
Fan67 wrote: Had very thematically appropriate terrain this time
Spoiler:
Beautiful miniatures! Wish mine were as cleanly done as that (alas, no airbrush).
Odrankt wrote: Practicing some lists for my tournament scene. Any one have any tips to make this list better?
Looks good apart from perhaps your Hive Fleet adaption. With the forces you have I don't think you are really getting much from Kronos apart from its additional psychic defense. Besides the obvious Kraken, Hydra might actually be a good fit. Genestealers love the reroll to hit ability and Hydra has the relic Deathspitters for one of your Tyrants. If you just need the psychic defense, you could try fiddling around with the points to make room for a Fortification Network detachment and a Kronos Sporocyst. It doesn't require synapse oversight, never moves so it always benefits from the adaptation, and spits out additional Kronos Spore Mine and Mucolid Spores to spread out the area of influence for The Deepest Shadow stratagem. Bit fragile, but you can drop it somewhere safe and churn out Spore Mines or else plop it down aggressively and force the enemy to deal with it or drown in a cloud of mortal wound dealing bombs.
Wish there was room to include more than a token GSC presence, but with the amount of Genestealers and tanks it should still look like a GSC army even if it is technically mostly allies.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/11 15:15:14
2018/02/11 17:51:50
Subject: Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
Looks good apart from perhaps your Hive Fleet adaption. With the forces you have I don't think you are really getting much from Kronos apart from its additional psychic defense. Besides the obvious Kraken, Hydra might actually be a good fit. Genestealers love the reroll to hit ability and Hydra has the relic Deathspitters for one of your Tyrants. If you just need the psychic defense, you could try fiddling around with the points to make room for a Fortification Network detachment and a Kronos Sporocyst. It doesn't require synapse oversight, never moves so it always benefits from the adaptation, and spits out additional Kronos Spore Mine and Mucolid Spores to spread out the area of influence for The Deepest Shadow stratagem. Bit fragile, but you can drop it somewhere safe and churn out Spore Mines or else plop it down aggressively and force the enemy to deal with it or drown in a cloud of mortal wound dealing bombs.
Wish there was room to include more than a token GSC presence, but with the amount of Genestealers and tanks it should still look like a GSC army even if it is technically mostly allies.
Yeah I thought Kronos Stratagem lasted a whole turn rather then 1 time use. With that in mind I am looking at either Behemoth for re-rolling charges. Kraken for 3 dice rolls for advancing as well as the Stratagem to double up 1 of those dice. Or, Leviathan to to give everything 6+ FnP if within range of the Flyrants.
I never thought of Hydra though. Ability to re-roll hit rolls might be clutch. Only issue is that I would need the Stealers to be in combat to make use of this.
Fortification detach. Of Kronos Sporocyst sound lethal! Never thought of it and it is such a great idea. If I was to run it I would probably drop the AM Detachment though and just use straight GSC Russ's.
To be fair, the lack of GSC is because I am focusing on a list I can bring to the singles event at ETC and while my GSC is basically a "tax" Detachment it is the glue that binds the rest of my army working together.
However, if I was to drop the AM and went for something like this do you think it would preform just as well?
I never thought of Hydra though. Ability to re-roll hit rolls might be clutch. Only issue is that I would need the Stealers to be in combat to make use of this.
I've been experimenting a bit with Hydra and I've found them to be better than I initially thought, though they do have a strong bias towards infantry swarms over monsters which makes them a bit less flexible than the others. If you have points left over you could also use their version of the Endless Swarm stratagem to respawn a 'stealer unit in the opponent's backfield after it is destroyed (one nice thing about it, respawned units pop up 6'' from any board edge - basically outflank).
To be fair, the lack of GSC is because I am focusing on a list I can bring to the singles event at ETC and while my GSC is basically a "tax" Detachment it is the glue that binds the rest of my army working together.
I know and it is quite understandable. The comment was meant as a minor lament rather than a criticism. I think the first list is probably going to do "soup" better, though I like the second one too. Main thing is the first gives you lots of CP regeneration from both the AM and Tyranids (Feeder Tendrils) and you have the Neophytes to bodyguard the Magus when he ambushes (opens up Mind Control as an option too if your opponent has a good target for it). I've not really had a chance to play with our Cult Russes, but I have been on the receiving end of Tank Commanders enough to know they are a royal pain to deal with.
This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2018/02/11 22:03:27
2018/02/11 22:40:09
Subject: Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
Fan67 wrote:Well... today I lost to drop GK+BA (plus couple of assassins).
Anihilated death company with accolytes, but couldn’t withstand the amount of bolter drill and smite spam from GK.
Did they remember Grey Knights only get 1 mortal wound per Smite (barring Purifiers) from their Rites of Banishment rule? I've seen a few people who overlooked that little detail and it skewed their matches quite a bit... Even still, all the storm bolters do make Grey Knights obnoxious to deal with unless you go heavy on the mechanized elements (Our local Grey Knight absolutely hates my Goliath-spam lists, just too many metal boxes to chew through before his anti-infantry weapons can do any work).
Apart from that how well balanced did the new missions feel? I have not had an opportunity to play them yet but they look interesting.
Beautiful miniatures! Wish mine were as cleanly done as that (alas, no airbrush).
Yeah, it wasn't the first time I faced GK. They yield remarkbale number of MW from Smites due to the sheer number of casts, but Purge Soul mechanic, Banner of Refining Flame and Brother-captain doubing the range of smite - that's all more that enough compensates for the limitations of the Rites of Banishment and helps to pile up the number of MW which is very hard to deal with. Astral Aim on a 10 man strike squad is also crucial to deny, but GSC alone lacks reliable counter to psychic army, while GK just put Culexus amid themselves with no drawback, which along with +1 bonus to cast from Brotherhood of Psykers requires GSC to roll +4 higher than initial cast roll... it's just dirty.
<here is the mandatory rant about culexus not hurthing friendly psykers>
Thank you for the compliment. I love my GSC army, which is essentialy a Deathwatch Overkill box expanded with several genestealers from Space Hulk, a rockgrinder and the 4 boxes of accolytes/metamorphes.
Looking forward to the Codex so I can safely expand my collection.
Spoiler:
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/11 22:41:09
2018/02/11 23:34:44
Subject: Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
I never thought of Hydra though. Ability to re-roll hit rolls might be clutch. Only issue is that I would need the Stealers to be in combat to make use of this.
I've been experimenting a bit with Hydra and I've found them to be better than I initially thought, though they do have a strong bias towards infantry swarms over monsters which makes them a bit less flexible than the others. If you have points left over you could also use their version of the Endless Swarm stratagem to respawn a 'stealer unit in the opponent's backfield after it is destroyed (one nice thing about it, respawned units pop up 6'' from any board edge - basically outflank).
While that is a sound strategy I Dont know if I will have 180-240pt spare to use for reinforcements on. I could swap a unit out with a unit of ripper swarms to save those pts but not sure if it is a wise move. I will play test it atleast and come back with a better idea on Hydra Flyrants + Stealers.
To be fair, the lack of GSC is because I am focusing on a list I can bring to the singles event at ETC and while my GSC is basically a "tax" Detachment it is the glue that binds the rest of my army working together.
I know and it is quite understandable. The comment was meant as a minor lament rather than a criticism. I think the first list is probably going to do "soup" better, though I like the second one too. Main thing is the first gives you lots of CP regeneration from both the AM and Tyranids (Feeder Tendrils) and you have the Neophytes to bodyguard the Magus when he ambushes (opens up Mind Control as an option too if your opponent has a good target for it). I've not really had a chance to play with our Cult Russes, but I have been on the receiving end of Tank Commanders enough to know they are a royal pain to deal with.
You are fine my friend. No criticism taken. I understand you point though as this is the GSC tactics page not Specifically Nids/Am The main reason I take Am is for Grand Strategist Warlord trait because regaining CPs on a 5+ is totally amazing and you should definitely do it if you can. Second reason is because of Tank Commanders. While more expensive they have a better BS skill and grant re-rolling ones to other Russ's including themselfs so in regards to GSC Russ's it probably always better to go AM if you can.
I like Mind Control cause you can take over an enemy unit that next to their Warlord and just use the closest model to attack it. Not a bad option to have. I just think Mass Hypnosis is more situational though.
Thank you for the compliment. I love my GSC army, which is essentialy a Deathwatch Overkill box expanded with several genestealers from Space Hulk, a rockgrinder and the 4 boxes of accolytes/metamorphes.
Looking forward to the Codex so I can safely expand my collection.
Spoiler:
Those models are an inspiration! Thank-you so much for posting such nice detailed photos. I too lack an airbrush but I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished. I'll post when I'm done my army....3 Sentinels, 2 Rockgrinders and a Leman Russ to go.
2018/02/13 20:18:32
Subject: Re:Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
Lots of great comments in the thread - I actually am writing up a personal GSC index review myself. I started with HQ models - check it out here. If you have any thoughts let me know on the blog for sure!
Edit: I finished my thoughts on Troop choices and Dedicated Transports as well, here.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/16 20:36:38
2018/02/18 19:15:28
Subject: Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
Have had my GSC packed since 7th while I work on a DG army, I see a lot talk about rock saws now, I thought the 1.1 FAQ gave them -1 to hit?
Mine are modeled with rock drills, mostly because that's the only bit that I could find to buy, and sure as gak wasn't going to buy entire boxes for 1 saw each(my army is almost entirely converted overkill boxes), and when I built them drills didn't have -1 to hit so seemed like a good go.
So I've got two units of, 10 acolytes with an icon and 2 drills each.
How terrible is this load-out with current rules, or are they still workable?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/18 19:16:46
2018/02/18 21:45:20
Subject: Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
Just hack the drill bit off and glue on an ork buzzsaw, it’s what I did with all my non-saw rock weapons. As it is, it turns out to be roughly the same points per wound but you have significantly more expensive units, which is suboptimal when the saws acolytes are already expensive
2018/02/18 22:25:21
Subject: Genestealer Cult 8th Edition Tactics - The day of Ascension draws near.
The main reason I take Am is for Grand Strategist Warlord trait because regaining 