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Brainstorming tactics for my upcoming game: Armoured Battle Group with Allied Infantry versus a Heretical AND Xenos genestealer cult army.

My opponent is bringing the new cultist formation from Deathwatch, Broodlord Hunting Pack and Psykana division in Chimeras (and this is why psykers are bad and we should kill them all - look at them turned heretical to xenos)

My army is:


I have very little flexibility since this is very nearly all my models. I could field a Vindicare or tweak the fortifications.

My thoughts so far-

1st turn charges!
Their army is THE hard counter to mine. 1st turn charges are a big part of that. So I'm thinking denial. Put most of my army in reserves. Most of it has the range to be effective coming on later and most units are sufficiently general purpose to be okay showing up on their own.

I start with the Exterminator and Veterans on the board with the troops in front to protect the tank from being charged. This way even if they get wiped out I still have a unit on the board and don't insta-lose. They are deployed in my my fortifications and backed into a corner. This way I can fully surround the tank to deal with the 1" deployment. Tanglewire keeps the assault to I1, even if their move through cover means the charge distance can't be slowed.

I only have to inflict 5 wounds on the Ghosar + Princelings, so maybe that works with the heavy flamer auto-hitting. If not, alas, I have to hope they break or get wiped so that in my next turn they aren't tied up in combat and can assault my tank on turn 2.

Additionally, I'm inclined to deploy the Culexus as well. The question being where to put it? Do I try to get it in the back where I expect the Psykana to be? Do I put it between the tank and the vets? Do I put it out front of the vets?

Or off to the side to give them a second target to think about - if the Culexus dies early but I can shoot that unit to death is that a good enough trade given the Psykana still out there? I think not on this one. On the other hand Ghosar will struggle to survive close combat against me.

Psykers Everywhere!
Where is the Psykana most likely to be deployed? It can't be infiltrated but the fast Chimeras allow it to catch up pretty quickly.

Do I try to get the Culexus between the Psykana and the rest of his army?

However, if I put the Culexus in front of the Vets when I deploy I may be able to force the Patriarch's unit to assault it first turn if it wants to be able to charge at all. His unit is only 3 models, so that may not work, but a counter charge from my Culexus the next turn could hurt. And if they sweep/consolidate into the Culexus instead then I'm still not worried. This also prevents it's psychics from effecting my opening units before the charge.

My Scions Kill Tanks
I think this means they should try to deep strike in to the Psykana Division's Chimeras.
(And I don't have the other special weapons modeled yet. Maybe next week)
(This is the reason that in a non-WAAC setting I think TAC means that these squads should have mixed weapons instead of being single-purpose.)

Welp, those are my thoughts so far.
What do you think?

Thanks.

I think Heavy flamer and flamer are actually your best choice, So does a large blob of cheap Guardsman backed by a priest. Genestealers Cult 1st turn assault is huge threat to low model count elite shooty army, like Space marines Centurions and bikes (more so to those non - White Scar). But not so much to a horde shooty army like blob IG. When they charge you, just laugh while you pick up somewhere around 100 overwatch dices after resolved the nD3 wall of death with all those template weapons.

As a Cultist player I can say that rarely works. The Genestealer player with have multiple units all capable of charging and all he will do is throw the least important one to eat all the over watch. It only works if the opponent only has a single unit to throw at you.

I'll tell you a secret he doesn't want you to know. Genestealers aren't good at killing vehicles in assault. Rending doesn't grant AP 2 vs vehicles so he has to get 3 glances (3 6's) to bring down a tank. Sure the Abhorents can wreck a vehicle any time they like and a Brood Lord can likely cause a glance or two, his anti-vehicle is entirely dependent on him rolling 6's to pen and he also has no ability to kill vehicles outside the assault phase. That means Chimera's are your friend, they are expendable and large and can hide Guardsmen.

His Psyker division is basically useless, they are simply there to proivde warp charges for the Broodlords. You can ignore them. Remember Militarum and Cult are come the apoc allies so they can't cast blessings on each other. And he can only get a good assault if you leave him space to deploy out of LOS, otherwise all his units save for the Patriarch's are on double 6's for charge range. Position units to deny infiltrating in optimum positions. Alternatively buy a single unit of ratling snipers. There is now a 50% chance every game you can infiltrate first and deny him a huge swathe of the board.

Make some room for an inquisitor with 3 servo skulls to deny infiltrate/scout moves. I think they cost around 30 points for just the man and the 3 skulls. Drop some upgrades (such as pintle stubbers or camo nets) to free up enough points for him.

Am I missing something with cults or is it literally just 3 models who can assault the first turn?

Well, this turned out to be an awesome game! I was eisenfresser's opponent, and we played the "hidden objectives worth points" eternal war mission.

At the end of it all, it turned out to be a 7-7 tie thanks to obsec leman russes steamrolling onto the two most valuable points turn 6. It was a low kill count game thanks to my limited anti tank and his low model count. I ended up losing all the hybrids, aberrants, two Genestealer squads, two chimeras and a squad of wyrdvanes. He lost his vets, wyvern, lord commissar, stormtroopers and the culexus.

I love the Genestealer cult, they're a blast to play but I definitely need some more anti tank capabilities, or at least the ability to roll something other than Telekine dome on my wyrdvanes.

 SHUPPET wrote:
Am I missing something with cults or is it literally just 3 models who can assault the first turn?

There's a whole 600 pt formation, here: https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Deathwatch/40k-rules-deathwatch-en.pdf.

It includes several varieties/generations of genestealer cultists, plus characters.

the_scotsman wrote:
Well, this turned out to be an awesome game! I was eisenfresser's opponent, and we played the "hidden objectives worth points" eternal war mission.

At the end of it all, it turned out to be a 7-7 tie thanks to obsec leman russes steamrolling onto the two most valuable points turn 6. It was a low kill count game thanks to my limited anti tank and his low model count. I ended up losing all the hybrids, aberrants, two Genestealer squads, two chimeras and a squad of wyrdvanes. He lost his vets, wyvern, lord commissar, stormtroopers and the culexus.

I love the Genestealer cult, they're a blast to play but I definitely need some more anti tank capabilities, or at least the ability to roll something other than Telekine dome on my wyrdvanes.

I'm running Cult at 1500 with the Broodkin, the Manufactorum Brood Stealers and Lictors Assassin Brood. I agree with you, Cult are more fun to play with then any other army I've owned. 100% of my army could infiltrate and 90% was at least Str 4 with rending. The Lictors provided anti-tank as well as disposable units to throw into overwatch and the Manufactorum provided a very Stealer-y second wave assault. Very fun list if you wanna ditch the Astra Militarum side of things.