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Hello all,

I hope this is the place to ask.

I am currently thinking about starting a new project and I thought about starting a GSC army. First of, I really like the army from an aesthetic and fluff point of view. So on this side I am already sold. I would also like to hear a bit how the army plays. The army is frequently featured in the battle reports over atTabletop Tactics, so I have a very rough view of the playstyle. I know about the cult ambush and stuff, but I always love to hear from experienced players of the army, why they like playing them. I also know, they are not in the best spot currently metawise, thats okay for me. I do not look for the ultra most broken competitive army, but also I hope they are not too underwhelming at the moment. I hear they make good use of a tyranid shooting detachment as allies (coincidently, the other army I wanted to start was tyranids, so thats a win win, My other army are Imps, so another way to make use of the brood brothers rule?).

As I don't want to buy too much of "unnecessary" stuff, I would like you to help me out. (I know this changes) but currently, what are the units that carry the army, which I definately should buy, which models are a good addition, which models are at the moment not aament not as good and should I avoid buying? Is the Start Collecting Bundle worth it? Can or should I buy it multiple times? Over at elementgames the Starting Bundle inclucdes a broodcoven,a goliath, neophyte and acolyte hybrids. Are these viable options? I really like the Broodlord. I also like the many different characters.

Any help or tips from experienced GSC players are welcome. Alternatively, you can also sell me on Tyranids


Thanks a lot in advance!

I am slowly building up a GSC force to compliment my Tyranids. I haven’t tested the GSC army yet, though my first impression is that the way I like to play Tyranids (lots of small gribblies rushing forward) doesn’t synergise that well with GSC.

There is a great GSC tactics thread on this forum, in 40K Tactics which you’d do well to read, at least the first post. Also I think it’s good to decide what kind of GSC army you want, for example alpha striking infantry or mechanised. Mechanised isn’t particularly competitive at the moment, which is a shame as I think it would look cool on the tabletop.

Recent discussion on starter army lists:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/787028.page

Basically, having discussed and researched it, i'd recommend 2 SC boxes and a Brood Coven but i'm a newb so YMMV

From my albeit limited experience, and from extensive reading online, the Tyranid shooting support is there to allow you to place the GSC half of your army as reinforcements - so ideally aim to have about half your proposed army in nid support or with neophytes who can deploy by blips - but they tend to be far too squishy so you may want to stick with nids for the shooting half.

Acolytes can be pretty good with the right support, so you'll want a good number of these - ideally aim for squads of no less than 10, with rock saws (cheap mining weapons with AP -4 and flat 2 damage with no penalties to hit).

The Broodcoven is excellent for netting you the main supporting characters as you'll want all three.

Would also recommend an Acolyte Iconward - these little guys can be amazing in supporting your acolytes. If you use the Deliverance Broodsurge specialist detachment (from Vigilus Defiant), and give him the WT: Augur Insurgent you get a re-roll advance and charges aura around him. Also a couple of handy strats - mainly The First to Draw Blood, which gives your acolytes a flat +1 to wound on the turn they charge.
If you run this specialist detachment you can make it Cult of the 4 Armed Emperor (4AE), and then add in a Clamavus so that as long as the acolytes are within 6" of the Iconward and the Clamavus, they have +2 to charges, re-rollable on the turn they arrive from underground.

Aberrants can also be quite good - especially when buffed in a max squad of 10 with a primus, but they are very expensive points-wise.

As for the other special characters, I find it's a careful balancing act - you either take too many characters and have not enough troops, or you take too few characters and your troops therefore lack support.
From experience, I'd recommend the Clamavus if you're going with a mainly ambushing army, and maybe a Kelermorph or sniper Sanctus for character-killing duties.

Can't really comment on the jackal bikes because I don't have any, but I hear they can be nasty as Rusted Claw.

Hope all this helps - other Dakkanauts may have a better picture than me though!

Generally, the most common GSC playstyle is: Cheap/Durable stuff on the ground (that can be GSC units like Neophytes and Jackal bikers, Tyranid units like 'gants and dakkafexes, or guard units like infantry squads and tanks/artillery), nasty nasty GSC melee bombs in deep strike ambush.

Plan to dedicate ALL your CPs to the big ambush bomb attacks, and the ideal game is that you cripple your opponent's ability to take the rest of your stuff out with your bomb, and after that point GSC can be surprisingly durable and obnoxious to take down.

Depending on what you like the looks of, it can be smart to structure the army in various ways.

1) Neophytes with the heavy weapons? You want to take the Bladed Cog chapter tactic so they can move and fire heavy weapons, pair them with a Jackal Alphus and you've got roving bands of BS3+ lascannons.

2) Genestealers? You...want to play them not in GSC. Lol. Allied Tyranid detachments with just genestealers and broodlords are infinitely better, just due to the tyranid stratagems and chapter tactics and the fact theyr'e troops, and cheaper.

3) Bikers? Rusted Claw makes them really excellent and you can use them as a backup deep strike bomb if your melee stuff doesn't work quite as well.

Generally, what you take in your army is pretty flexible, but the strategy you use isn't as much. If you don't take a deep strike bomb, you'll get outlasted by most enemies. If you put stuff that's too expensive/fragile down and not in deep strike, you'll be practically tabled by the time turn 2 rolls around.

 BennoPaints wrote:
Recent discussion on starter army lists:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/787028.page

Basically, having discussed and researched it, i'd recommend 2 SC boxes and a Brood Coven but i'm a newb so YMMV

Ah, I overlooked this as I did not search for GSC


Very helpful answers, thanks

I also did a fair amount of reading in the tactics thread and in the different codices and supplements. Still torn between Tyranids and GSC, but it looks like they can complement each other pretty well, so I just have to look in which way I want to dig in first.

Do note that if you want to go further with Start Collectings, the Iconward being a character is not a huge issue.

The flag arm will also accept the 'demolition cache' arm set, allowing for Iconwards to be used as a standard Acolyte.