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How do?

Last night I dug out my Genestealer Cult Toys, and turns out it won’t take a great deal to bulk them out into an army.

As something a little different, I want to embrace transports for them, and have a highly mechanised force. See, as a hangover from 2nd Ed day’s, when the quickest way to get your squad ded was to put them in a transport, I’ve traditionally shunned them.

Looking at the Index Xenos article, there’s not a great deal between Chimeras and Goliaths. Each has their perks, but both are looking (to my uneducated eye) about even. Chimera is more rugged (3+ vs 4+), and has a greater variety of firepower. Goliath has twin autocannon, and of course is open topped, allowing the troops inside to let rip. And as I’m currently favouring shotguns (just prefer the look), that could be rather a lot of S4 firepower against an unwary foe.

Of course, this isn’t a strict ‘there can be only one’. On the surface, it seems Chimera may be better suited to Acolytes. Having no real firepower to speak of, and two extra transport slots for characters may make them a better choice. But for Neophytes, I really do think Goliaths are the way to go.

Going transport heavy here also adds some much needed muscle to my firepower, so I’m fairly keen.

What are your thoughts, Dakka?

I am saving my cash to buy a pair of Chimeras for my GSC. I think they are a better choice over the Goliath. Slightly more resilient and a better selection of weapons.

Bare in mind we might be only a month or so off a Codex, which could change everything. May be worth holding on purchases if you aren't sure.

I'm a bit of a narrative geek, so for me the big question is what would your cult most likely be able to steal?

A young cult would have an easy time stealing goliaths, which would then improve their capacity for stealing chimeras once they are big enough.

Do you field a magus? If so, your cult is old enough that chimeras would be attainable. If not, goliaths are probably the best they can lay their claws on.

If you've got a crew of people who play escalation style, it's the best way to build a cult:

Battle one is small- completely purestain. Rules wise, you need an HQ, but fluff wise, you shouldn't have one yet.
Battle two can include the brood brothers harvested in battle one. By now, one of the original purestrains will be on the way to becoming a patriarch.
Battle three gets acolytes and a goliath. The patriarch is now fully active.
Battle four gets neophytes and maybe another goliath.
Battle five gets you a magus and a chimera.

From there, it's a cavalcade- you can bring anything, because everypart of the breeding cycle stays in play- ie. yes, aberrants and metamorphs are on the way, but while that's going on, purestrains are still creating more brood brothers, brood brothers are still creating more acolytes and looting more vehicles, acolytes are breeding new neophytes and neophytes are breeding everything from aberrants and metamorphs to new purestrains.

Waiting for the new dex is still not a bad idea though.

Goliaths look way cooler.
Done.

Book is soon, pointless to speculate when it's potentially just weeks away.

New points costs on Chimeras are hilarious. Track Guards + 2 heavy flamers means your Chimera is effectively immune to degrading and a permanent threat until ALL 10 wounds are removed. And it's only 98 points now!

My Emperor's Blade Assault Company runs 6 of these chimeras, and you have to remove all 60 wounds to completely remove the Chimeras as threats.

With 2 heavy flamers it has a 20" threat range until it is outright dead, and autohits targets with 2d6 heavy bolter hits. It carries 12 people, and has lasgun arrays for giggles as well (they don't do much, but last game I took the last wound off a jet fighter with them, so idk. ).

I’m also planning to include some AM allies.

Master of Ordinance. And three Manticores. Because I love Manticores. Always have, ever since Space Marine....

I have a Chim and an Earthshaker I’m turning into a Salamander-counts-as Chim as well as a couple of Goliaths. Chims aren’t that many more points and seem better overall.

I tend to use my goliaths as movable bunkers for my neophytes. The heavy weapon type for both autocannon and stubber makes them subpar at shooting if they move, but they can be a nice choice if you just want to drop a unit of neophytes on an objective and make a nuisance of yourself with autoguns/grenade launchers/seismic cannons.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Goliaths may be more competitive for delivering other types of melee threats now that the stubber is down to 2 points. I have also used them to deliver demo charge acolytes, but that hasn’t worked quite as well in practice as I thought it would. You either end up giving up the shooting to advance, or the vehicle just gets blown up as soon as they start to get close to demo charge range.

I don’t have any experience with using chimeras, but they seem pretty solid for delivering melee units. The 12 man carrying capacity is much better for adding a character or two, as well, as you will often have a character like a magus or abominant who doesn’t really need/want to ambush, but doesn’t want to ride by himself (itself?) either due to the risk of an auto-kill if the vehicle gets wrecked.

I haven't had as much experience with the Chimera but it does perform the role of dedicated assault transport a bit better, since it is very defensive (T7 3+ and smoke launchers for one turn of -1 to hit), has room for larger squads or accompanying characters, and is fairly good at clearing screens. The Goliath Truck is much more oriented towards getting to a spot and bunkering down or executing alpha strikes (either drive-by bombings or reckless maneuver slingshot). My main mechanized list has 3 Rockgrinders and 4-5 Goliath Trucks loaded with a mix of Neophyte squads and Acolyte Demolition teams. Demolition Charge carrying Goliaths follow behind the Rockgrinders while the rest move for objectives and stay put to provide cover-fire. Both Goliath chassis work well for saturation with each other, since defensively they are pretty much identical against most serious anti-tank weaponry.


The only concern I'd have with investing in too many Chimeras is that we don't know if they will remain in the codex or be regulated to brood brothers only. Granted, Chimeras can be gotten for relatively cheap second-hand so...