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First post so I have to admit I'm not 100% sure how to properly format and submit a list. however, here goes.

In our gaming group we tend to play 2.5k lists as standard, whether in fantasy or 40k. I have looked over the GSC codex and have come up with, through various re-writes and idea changes, a list that I think is all right, but being the inexperienced player I am, I though I'd ask a forum for some advice.

As a personal rule I never add unis that don't fit with a set narrative, for instance, in this list I avoided adding things such as imperial heavy armour as the focus is to be a mining planet's cult uprising.

A main concern I have with the list is at the moment is size of he units, however, in my head i see many small manoeuvrable units to be what the cults are about. In my head. Not necessarily what will work on the table.

Cult Insurrection Detachment

Command Formation - The First Curse
Mastery Level 2 Patriarch
20 Purestrain Genestealers w/ Scything Talons

Core Formation - Brood Cycle
Acolyte Iconward w/ Icon of the cult ascendant
10 Neophytes w/ shotguns - Leader(chainsword), flamer, webber, cult icon
10 Neophytes w/ shotguns - Leader(chainsword), flamer. webber, cult icon
10 Acolytes - Leader, heavy rock saw, 2 hand flamers, cult icon
10 Acolytes - Leader, heavy rock saw, 2 hand flamers, cult icon
10 Acolytes - Leader, heavy rock saw, 2 hand flamers, cult icon
10 Metamorphs w/ Claws, Leader, 2 hand flamers, cult icon
10 Purestrain Genestealers w/ Scything Talons
Goliath Rockgrinder w/ Clearance Incinerator

Auxiliary Formation - Subterranean Uprising
Primus
10 Acolytes - Leader, heavy rock saw, 2 hand flamers, cult icon
10 Acolytes - Leader, heavy rock saw, 2 hand flamers, cult icon
10 Metamorphs w/ whips, Leader, 2 hand flamers, cult icon
10 Metamorphs w/ claws, Leader, 2 hand flamers, cult icon

Auxiliary Formation - The Doting Throng
Mastery Level 2 Magus w/ 1 familiar
10 Neophytes - Leader, Seismic cannon x2
10 Neophytes - Leader, mining laser x2
10 Acolytes - Leader, 2 hand flamers, cult icon

Now i quite like the list, despite its lack of vehicles. Each of the 3 pillars of the cult are present, as is their acolyte icon bearer. Plenty of metamorphs and stealers display the later stages of he cult as well as an imminent hive fleet invasion, whilst the neophytes have given he cult access to the hand flamers and machinery used by he planets miners. Additionally, they have webbers and shotguns which could have come from Underhive deals or similar shady dealings.

All in all, I love the narrative aspect of the list but am wondering how much chance it has when played against competitive (or at least competitively minded) lists.

Any thoughts on the list would be appreciated, as will any feedback you would be willing to give.

I think it looks pretty sweet man, wouldnt worry about the unit sizes. Youre doing exactly what GSC does best, mass swarming alot of bodies. Might be tricky to keep track of that many bodies. Ive taken to having a seperate tray or tv table to differentiate casualties from stuff ive returned to the shadows.

Hey, thanks for the reply and sound advice. Good idea with separating the casualties, that should help a lot with the D6 models previously slain being returned, hopefully avoiding any confusion on who was from where.

The only problem I see in this list compitively is lack of anti air and very few warp charge. In a game of this point value you can expect superheavies and multiple fliers.

I see three ways to solve this.

Allie guard.

Guard that has been taken over by the cult is very fluffy and allows several anti air options as well as you can get 3 primaris psykers to boost warp charge to 10.

Allie tyranids

An allied tyranids could be a fast first response to the Cults distress. Tyranids are not stupid and if a major battle is going down that will break the back of a planet's restence they would send some fast units to help.

A pair of flyrants are both anti air and adding warp charge. In this case a pair of mucilids troops are actually flyffy (and very cost effective). You could add a few zoanthropes but unless you had them come in tyrannocytes it would take a bit from the fluff as how did they get there.

Add a cult CAD
You could add 2 more magus with a cult CAD as well as a Fortification with a quad gun for a little anti air.

One of the big things that 2 more magus add is the near certainty of getting summon. That power can get you an extra 200-600 pts In a game and they all come via cult ambush. This power is why I like to field mostly bear bones units in my formations as I can give all my upgrades for free to summoned units.

The lack of vehicles is a bonus for GSC, I think - the vehicles they get aren't fantastic and the Cultists don't particularly need them, so all they do is suck up points. I'd chuck that Rockgrinder. Your Rock Saws will do the same job.

The unit sizes are probably fine for 2500pts. I don't know if I'd trust 5-man squads of T3 5+ dudes to survive long at that points level, and if they get wiped out you can't Reinforce them.

I'd strip some of the wargear out as well - Template weapons seem a bit of a waste in this army, the Icons are nice but not strictly necessary with 30-40 attacks on the charge, and the Webbers just seem a bit strange to me. Good for killing Aspect Warriors and Scatbikes maybe, but you can do that in assault. Mining Lasers on BS3 Neophytes are a bit grim; Seismic Cannons seem like the way to go with those units. Keep the Rock Saws though, and the Metamorph Claws - someone else pointed out to me in another thread that Morphs with Claws get S7 Rending, which is awesome.

I don't think it's a bad army in it's current state, but there's a lot more min-maxing you could do if you wanted to run it against competitive armies.

Thanks folks, Using BBAP's idea of reducing the amount or wargear that each unit has - flamers in particular, special weapons altered for more heavy weapons on neophytes, dropped the cult icons for the brood cycle because they get increased WS in certain situations anyway and stealers are gribbly enough without the additional attacks (although i kept the rockgrinder because despite its meh-ness, im a fan of he model) as well as dropping he first curse formation for a Lords of the cult with the ML2 patriarch - I had points to follow Timeshadows idea of guard for extra anti-air.

Instead of an additional detachment however, i simply used the extra points from the above modifications to add in a neophyte cavalcade, adding a missile launcher weapon team with flak missiles (12 Neophytes - 10 +team), an autocannon weapon team (12 Neophytes - 10+ team), scout sentinel with autocannon x 2 and a Leman Russ with the anti-air autocannon and Heavy Bolter sponsons. Oh and the neophytes each had a chimera with heavy flamer turret and dozer blades - shame the phytes had to begin embarked in them but at least they can outflank - as can the entire formation so woop.

It far from solves the issues but I would much rather keep it to a single detachment. Well, that and it fits around models I currently have. It does mean a rather small amount of warp charges but 5-10 shouldn't be too bad as long as I focus on important buffs/debuffs rather than damage. The summoning ability also being useful.

Depending on how the list works out, I may alter it again if I do in fact need to focus more on psykers, or have a large amount of diffiuly with aircraft.

Thanks to Akrim, TimeShadow and BBAP for any and all pieces of advice given, and know that even if I didn't use all of the advice, it was certainly taken on board and will be remembered when creating new lists in the future.

Narowe wrote:
(although i kept the rockgrinder because despite its meh-ness, im a fan of he model)

Best reason to run anything, that. To be perfectly honest I think if you're set on the Cavalcade and Guard you could do worse than a Rockgrinder or two - I happen to think the GSC work best without vehicles, but that's only because I have the patience to run the infantry-heavy variant and I love me some Cult Ambush. The Grinders aren't terrible models, and in an army with lots of vehicles they're less likely to be smushed on turn one.