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Thinking of making some purchases for what little GSC I have, wanted to see what everyones opinion of this list is. Definitely not something I'm taking to a tourney but im hoping it'll at least hold its own in casual play?

Would appreciate everyone's thoughts

===Battalion===
==HQ==
-Abominant
-Iconward w/ Relic
==Troops==
-10x Acolytes w/ 4 saws, cult icon, bonesword on leader
-5x Acolytes w/ 2 Rock Cutter
-5x Acolytes w/ 2 Rock Drill
==Elites==
-9x Abberants w/ 4 Hammer, 4 Pick, Improvise Weapon on hypermorph
-10x Genestealers
===Battalion===
==HQ==
-Patriarch (Warlord: Focus of Adoration) w/ Familiar, Might From Beyond
-Primus
==Troops==
-20x Neophytes w/ 2 Grenade Launcher, 2 Seismic Cannons, Cult Icon
-12x Neophytes w/ 2 Grenade Launcher
-12x Neophytes w/ 2 Grenade Launcher
===Spearhead===
==HQ==
-Magus w/ Familiar, Mass Hypnosis
==Heavy Support==
-Cult Leman Russ w/ Battle Cannon, 3 Heavy Bolters
-Goliath Rockgrinder w/ Clearance Incinerator
-Goliath Rockgrinder w/ Clearance Incinerator

The 2x 5man Acolyte squads go in the rock grinders with the magus and iconward, the Leman Russ and 10 man Neophyte squads also start on the table.

The 20 man neophyte squad will ambush with the Abominant, the Primus with the 10 man Acolyte squad, and the Patriarch withthe Genestealers.

Is this a competent list?

In my experience with the Cult they are just too fragile to be played as a horde army. GSC can start racking up casualties fast as we don't have good toughness or saves nor do we have the moral buffs of factions like the Tyranids or Guard. Once you start taking casualties, it can get out of hand quite quickly.

I always find that 40K fluff and lore is full of clues as to how to make each faction viable. GSC is perhaps the most mobile army in the game, with fast, surprisingly durable transports (cant tell you how much damage I've shrugged off with rugged construction) and our limited but powerful stratagems like cult ambush and return to the shadows. The Cult is effectively a guerilla army which means we need to stay out of LOS as much as possible and move around the battle field faster than our opponent can counter. In order to maximize our transport ability, we need to keep our troop numbers in line with vehicle capacity. Three 10 man Neophyte squads riding shotgun in an open topped Goliath truck are going to be far more effective than trying to gunline a 12 man unit that melts at the first sign of trouble.

Similarly, the Leman Russ just doesn't have good synergy with the cult. For near the same number of points you can just run another Patriarch, that can actually use our stratagems, buff nearby units, cast physic powers, and be a damage output machine. The only real advantage of the Leman Russ is its ability to soak some enemy fire power, but if that is your intention I have a better suggestion for your points....

FORTIFICATIONS! 8th Editions black sheep. GSC is definitely lacking in two areas: defensive board control, and heavy firepower, especially of the anti-aircraft variety. This is exactly the niche that fortifications are designed to fill. You know what is absolutely terrifying? An T9, 20W, 3+ Imperial Bastion brimming with 20 Genestealers, 4 Heavy Bolters and a lascannon that hits anything with FLY on a 4+ at 96" range. No, it's not going to outshoot most units in the game, but its a threat your enemy can't ignore, and it keeps your most valuable unit safe and sound until the optimal time to charge out. With that armor profile, it's going to take more than a round to destroy, meaning you can safely counter attack with those genestealers any unit that is foolish enough to approach. In my optimal Cult list, there is not a single target on the board round 1 that is not a vehicle or fortification. And if you are savvy enough to keep those vehicles out of LOS and/or range, your enemy is going to have a pretty uneventful turn or two as you get ready to spring your trap.

Anyway that's just my two cents as to how to make the Cult function to their strengths. It looks like you have a decent enough backbone in your list, but need to tweak some points in order to maximize efficiency.

For what it's worth, its a pretty fluff appropriate, creepy deployment when your opponent is staring at nothing but a few buildings and tumble weeds.

I really appreciate the advice and the perspective, but fortifications aren't quite up my alley. Although it does seem like a good idea to put the 2 Neophyte squads in Goliaths to camp on objectives.

Here's a revised list:

===Battalion===
==HQ==
-Abominant
-Iconward w/ Relic
==Troops==
-10x Acolytes w/ 4 saws, bonesword on leader
-5x Acolytes
-5x Acolytes
==Elites==
-9x Abberants w/ 4 Hammer, 4 Pick, Improvise Weapon on hypermorph
-10x Genestealers
===Battalion===
==HQ==
-Patriarch (Warlord: Focus of Adoration) w/ Might From Beyond
-Primus
==Troops==
-20x Neophytes w/ 2 Grenade Launcher, 2 Seismic Cannons, Cult Icon
-10x Neophytes w/ Shotguns
-10x Neophytes w/ Shotguns
==Dedicated Transport==
-Goliath Truck
-Goliath Truck
===Spearhead===
==HQ==
-Magus w/ Familiar, Mass Hypnosis
==Heavy Support==
-Cult Leman Russ w/ Battle Cannon, 1 Heavy Bolter
-Goliath Rockgrinder w/ Clearance Incinerator
-Goliath Rockgrinder w/ Clearance Incinerator

So I dropped the heavy weapons on the 5 man acolyte squads and switched the 12 man Neophytes to 10 man Neophytes with shotguns, also dropped the heavy bolter sponsons and the familiar on the patriarch.
I picked up 2 Trucks for the Neophytes. Hopefully with 5 vehicles on the table it'll be more difficult for my opponent to take them all down, especially with 2 camping back field objectives or rushing.

Is this an improved rendition?

I hear ya. Fortifications aren't too popular at the moment.

So far your changes are looking good, but I'm not sure it's points efficient to have so many points tied up in troops. Without a codex at present, 13 command points is way more than you really need especially now that turn 1 deep striking is not allowed.

I'd consider running a single battalion so that you can add more genestealers. If you have only 10 in a unit, they are likely to lose their extra attack bonus. But if you can get even 4 more in you list, you can weather a bit of overwatch without suffering a significant drop in damage output. My MVP unit is far and away a 20 count genestealer blob with a patriarch supporting them and buffing them with Might From Beyond. That's 100 S5 attacks hitting on 2+! And because of the 5++ it's not an easy unit to wipe from the board without a serious investment in firepower.

Acolytes are decent enough in melee, but they are really too fagile for what they cost. I'd eliminate the 10 man unit and put some special weapons back on the 5 man units zipping around in rockgrinders. Maybe give 1 unit a rock saw and rock cutters as a character/monster hunting unit, and outfit the other one with 2 rock drills as a vehicle hunter. Alongside a bigger unit of genestealers, and the abbarants you already have, you will be overwhelming your opponents target priority which is invaluable as a defense strategy for us.

I might beg to differ on the Battalions, with what 1500 pt games i've played (3 so far), I usually run out of command points around turn 6.

But with that advice in mind how does this look:

===Battalion===
==HQ==
-Abominant
-Iconward w/ Relic
==Troops==
-5x Acolytes w/ 2 Rock Saw
-5x Acolytes w/ 2 Rock Saw
-5x Acolytes w/ 2 Rock Drill
===Vanguard===
==HQ==
-Patriarch (Warlord: Focus of Adoration) w/ Familiar, Might From Beyond
-Primus
==Elites==
-5x Abberants w/ 4 Hammer, Improvise Weapon on hypermorph
-5x Abberants w/ 4 Pick, Improvise Weapon on hypermorph
-20x Genestealer
===Spearhead===
==HQ==
-Magus w/ Familiar, Mass Hypnosis
==Heavy Support==
-Cult Leman Russ w/ Battle Cannon, 3 Heavy Bolters
-Goliath Rockgrinder w/ Clearance Incinerator
-Goliath Rockgrinder w/ Clearance Incinerator
-Goliath Rockgrinder w/ Heavy Mining Laser
-Goliath Rockgrinder w/ Heavy Mining Laser

I've got 3 units that can ambush well in addition to characters. 5 vehicles to protect the Acolytes on the way up and hopefully crash into things. hopefully a step in the right direction