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Was wondering how people have been handling the New Genestealer Cult.?

I been having really good success with playing it myself. But I am wanting to here bout how people have been beating it. I been lucky so far winning a small point GT with them and a local 1850 RTT. I have faced Necrons, nurgul deamons, raven guard with skyhammer, SM flyier spam, another GSC, IG, IK, and Orks wining by the skin of my teeth in a few games. I was wondering wht people have been finding good in dealing with them. Tactic's and unit that have been problematic. Math hammer only goes so far.


I think mainly this is because they are a new army and people have not gotten use to them in the meta yet. I am a decent general and know the game fairly well but I am needing to improve my game with them. If you haven't gotten a game in with them yet feel free to give your impressions of this unique army.



So please talk about how you have won or loss to this New Cult in the mist of us.

I played a cult in a tournament recently, playing tau myself. he had brood cycle, 2 times sub get rising, 3x flyrants and spore bombs.

I had drone net, regal and Rapid insertion. he got first turn and for some reason reserved his flyrants. Ideployed everything I could, making a castle with my drones up front. failed to seize, he had 6 6s on cult ambush, rest on all the objectives.

his charges..... I killed 5 units via tau overwatch and lost some drones and my stealth team.

my turn 1 I deleted 5 more via target lock broadsides, crisis bomb and riptide

his flyrants all come on and kill my commander but crucially not the buff suit.

my turn 2 some of my reserves come on, I kill 2 flyers and some small units. Killed the other flyrant next turn

after that it was mopping up. kept my units closed together in 2 kill groups moving up the table to use tau overwatch to stay save, but he wasn't rolling enough 6s for cult ambush to threaten me and won game via objectives/concession

I think if he alpha struck WITH the flyrants it was gg because they could kill most of my drone wall. if I went first it would have been considerably worse for him than the game we played.

ECPA heavy burst cannon tide with Killing blow was clutch for me, but it was my best unit all tournament. also without the splitfire broadsides I'd not have been able to clear the table.

IMO this matchup would be decided via first turn mostly, GSC gping first I can loose turn 1. Tau go first is deadly for cult. SMS really wrecks them.

I also have had a great deal of success playing as the cult. I have only played one game against them and barely managed to scrape out a hard fought win as the Deathwatch.

My General tips for fighting the cult would be

1. Objective Secured. Most Cult armies will have very limited objective secured units so being able to hold down the objectives is a big deal.

2. Always be prepared to be charged. Keep units within range to support each other. Do not have units going solo because they will be ambushed and murdered. Only do so if you really need to grab an objective or seek to draw the enemy away.

3. Remember they can only return to shadows if they are outside of 6 of one of your units OR their own allies of convenience".

4. You can bubble wrap important units you dont want charged by setting up other units around it to prevent the cult from setting up within easy charging distance of it.

5. Try and control the board if you have the bodies to do it. This limits their ability to deploy practically anywhere.

6. Take the high ground to limit easy charges.

7. Try and kill their psykers. They are very strong additions to the cult army especially so if they get summoning.

8. Remember they are very squishy, but also very killy. Volume of fire is what you want. Oh and flamers... pray for flamers.

Faced them only once and as allies to a larger Tyranid force and saw a game.
My thoughts: They are squishy unless the patriarch rolls invisibility or chimera spam, but that's only for your cultists or acolytes, but it isn't an assault vehicle. Although first turn pinning assault or pinning shots are painful I have no problems as I play Renegades and Heretics IA13. Fanatic + vox+ banner of the apostate. Any army will need good leadership to manage this. Orks are in trouble. 1st turn charge is no trouble as powerful overwatch eg tau, DA, IG and salamanders.

Try to pay attention when shooting at them. If your opponent tells you a squad is going to ground it means they're returning to the shadows next turn. Try to save some bikes or vehicles that can turbo boost / flat out to get within 6 inches of them so they can't and have to sit there.

 Hades wrote:
Try to pay attention when shooting at them. If your opponent tells you a squad is going to ground it means they're returning to the shadows next turn. Try to save some bikes or vehicles that can turbo boost / flat out to get within 6 inches of them so they can't and have to sit there.

See, we play it that G2G units can't RttS, and I think that's probably how it'll end up being in tournament FAQs - I can't see any good reason to allow it, it's cheap and it doesn't fit the RAW (RttS is instead of moving, G2G units can't move) at all. That said, if your opponent says a unit is going to ground and there's a Patriarch within 18" of that unit, he'll probably move the Patriarch up next turn, re-pop the unit, and *then* RttS or charge with it.

A lot of dealing with the Cults comes down to watching your opponent's Ongoing Reserves and messing with his RttS. Cult Ambush is the main advantage of GSC, so denying it where possible is a good way to cripple his army. Be prepared to sacrifice units to keep his stuff on the board, especially anything that's part of a Subterranean Uprising formation. Try to position units so his charges are awkward, or so he's forced to charge something he doesn't want to. Making sure you kill units outright is also important. Leaving one dude alive out of a 5-man squad is a good way to ensure it'll RttS and come back next turn with reinforcements.

Don't bother trying to clip his ICs. The bubbles they provide are useful to him, but they're not Synapse; the army won't necessarily collapse without the ICs, and they auto-pass all LoS rolls which means dealing 10-20 wounds to the unit before you can even touch the character. Instead, focus on killing his assault units. Metamorphs, Acolytes and Genestealers should be blown up as quickly as possible, the priority depending on what's the most immediate threat. Don't make the mistake of thinking he can't hurt you just because you killed his Genestealers - Acolytes and Metamorphs are just as capable of wrecking stuff as Stealers are, Claw-Morphs especially. Aim to remove a minimum of 25-30 models a turn. If you can't do that, you're going to have a bad time.

Killing Hq unit will hurt GSC but keeping unit from going off the board can be gaming winning for their opponents. It is also a two edge sword because you are now in range to be assaulted. Some armies have the units to sacrifice some don't.

I have yet to play a game where my opponent didn't have a chance to win. I think that's the beauty of the GSC they are not a easy win button.