“I might actually post a thread on tactics.

There's a lot our army has going for it as is, but our real power
relies on shock troops and overlapping buffs, both of which are things that aren't necessarily intuitive.”

- Casualcryptic, 23 days ago.

“I went ahead and started working on it. I'll try to make it fairly comprehensive. I think i can probably
have it ready to post in a day or two.”

- Casualcryptic, 22 days ago.

“It’s almost finished. It really is. No really! I’m not crazy! Hahahahahaa. Oh, I should probably add this…”

- Casualcryptic 3 days ago.

And now at long last it is done.

Gratuitous Autobiography by Way of Introduction [You can Skip this!]

I’ve been playing 40k off and on for about 10 years now. I picked up Genestealer Cults mostly as a
statement of racial pride, as uncomfortable as that sounds out loud. I started playing way back in late 3rd
edition with the ork half of a friend’s Blackreach set. We’d agreed that if I liked the game I would pay for
his orks and start there.

When I finally did accept my fate in early 4th I did so by buying a Chaos Space Marines set. Some might
say this act of betrayal marked my true nature as filthy xenos scum, but I would argue that hindsight is
the only true gift the Emperor has for his faithful.

Not long after I picked up Chaos, they split demons and CSM into two distinct armies. This distressed me
enough to provoke an abrupt switch to Tyranids. Their aesthetic was great, and I had a feeling there
wouldn’t be any allegiance reshuffling with the hive. I played Nids in 4th through early 6th then quit
playing entirely because there was no love for bugs at the time and I liked the army enough not to want
to play anything else. Then too my life was getting busy with college and such. I skipped 7th entirely and
from what I hear that’s pretty okay. I plan on learning the rules soon because of Shadow War
Armageddon, so we’ll see.

Friends roped me back into the game for 8th swearing up and down that the game was better balanced
and Tyranids were receiving due attention. Turns out they were being honest with me. 8th has been such
a joy that I bought into Genestealer Cults, partly to show support, since my Tyranid army is mostly built
at this point, and partly because I considered them the natural extension of my army. I’ve bought a
spattering of orks over the years, but I intend to sell them when the codex comes out so that I can buy
more into GSC.

I bought into the GSC without much consideration for whether they would be playable, and my
expectations were grounded as I’d heard they were so-so, but it turns out they are actually quite good
with the right setup. They’ve won big tournaments and place in many others. The army is not weak, it’s
just not neophyte friendly. It’s important to realize what they are and what they are not.

With that said, I’ve come up with some things to go over before we get into specific options.

 The GSC is not a fully functional army. They are in some ways very similar to Eldar Harlequins.
YES, you can play them by themselves with no support from Tyranids or guard. They can even
 run well this way. Truthfully. I don’t think the index list was designed to be played this way,
however. For the sake of conciseness and focus I won’t be discussing Tyranid or Guard options
at this time. However, I may make a post regarding synergies in that direction later, once I’ve
playtested more.
 I don’t own any guard models at the moment, though I have a few things coming in the mail.
Still, when I’ve taken allies, I’ve always taken tyranids because them I have in abundance. You
may want to keep that in mind when evaluating my assessments. I am Xenos to the bone.
 One similarity between GSC and Harlequin is that the GSC have a tendency towards glass
cannons. They can hit incredibly hard, and their scouts, ambushers, and vehicles, mean that they
can reach face fairly fast, but the hardest hitting models tend to be immensely fragile with the
only real exception being the Lemon Russ. Using GSC well is often about protecting characters
with masses of cheap infantry, not overinvesting in models that will die quickly, and learning
how to get your heaviest hitters to efficient targets before they die. Some of this requires a
decent amount of skill to pull off, so GSC are not necessarily an EASY army to play, although that
isn’t the same thing as being a bad army.
 Repeat after me: GSC is not guard. GSC is also not Tyranids. GSC is GSC. Evaluating any given unit
in a vacuum you may think that our squishy guardsman/aliens are overpriced, or weak. You
need to factor in that the space we occupy is different from those other armies. Most of our
units have unquestionable loyalty and cult ambush built in. Our army has access to three
codices, two of which are widely different and basically gives us more tournament options than
pretty much any non-imperial faction. Our army can also put Genestealers in tanks.
 I feel this point bears repeating. We have access to three entire armies in matched play. This is
pretty huge, and imperial guard / tyranids are great armies to have at your beck and call. They
are arguably among the strongest armies in the game, meaning that we are arguably the
strongest, despite our index entries being fairly tame. On the other hand, managing three
armies at once is not necessarily easy, so in some ways this reinforces what I have suggested
before, that we should be considered an advanced army, rather than a starting force.
 We have a startling number of buffs which I discuss in more detail towards the end of the
tactica. We also have a lot of ways to run shock troops (infiltration, dedicated transports, etc.).
These two strategies don’t necessarily play nice together, but we do have some tools that seem
tailored to helping reconcile these playstyles.
 We are Deepstrike oriented, and have tools geared towards deep-striking. This is important and
tied to the above glass cannon comment. We are NOT a defensive army. If you don’t attack you
will probably die. Almost everything we have is fragile, but deadly, so we need to deliver
definitively hard hits ASAP. This is part of why people tend to prefer our scout sentinels over the
armored variant. If our models aren’t doing significant damage turn one, they might not be
around turn two. Thankfully, we can assault from Deepstrike, have models with scout, assault
transports, and some very long-range guns, so even on turn one we can go to face quite hard.
 Like the Tyranids, our army tends to be a bit more melee focused than Astra Militarum. Our
melee weapons tend to be quite capable, but our guns are merely acceptable. Our WS is
basically 3+ across the board with buffs that make it easy to reliably run a unit at WS 2+. Our
strength is usually 4. We can shoot better than orks with a certainty, but we can also potentially
hit harder than them in CC which probably tells you all you need to know about or melee
capabilities. Some of our melee weapons are among the strongest or most efficient (0 cost
 rending claws) in the game, and we have melee buffs and melee oriented psychic powers.
Playing a GSC army that is primarily guns is possible, as our guns are really not that bad at all but
right now it’s not the greatest idea. The same goes for vehicles. If you want to run a list just for
guns and tanks, guard is strictly better. That is not to say your list shouldn’t have ANY guns or
tanks. Like most things it’s a balance. The term being rolled around on the forums is Hammer
and Anvil, but really, it’s just ambushers and a core of support firepower.
 I make use of the terms GEQ, MEQ, and TEQ throughout this tactica. These are shorthand for
Guard, Marine, and Terminator Equivalent as a way of referencing the approximate stat build of
infantry. You can find more detailed information on this terminology at the following link, and if
you’re not familiar with the terms it’s a valuable read: https://1d4chan.org/wiki/MEQ. I also use
FNP (Feel No Pain) to describe any roll to “negate a wound” made after armor saves. I refer to
units coming in from reserves outside of a table edge as Deepstrike. Both FNP and Deepstrike
are outdated terms that GW no longer recognizes, but they are useful because GW is not
currently labeling these abilities in a specific manner.
 I tend to value AP higher than STR / Toughness (as in I value 1 point of AP over 1 point of STR).
This is partly due to the way STR / Toughness works in 8th. Take a look at the chart on the
following page if you want to get a bit more info on the subject:
http://www.3plusplus.net/2017/05/infantry-wound-chart-brave-new-world/. When going after
targets, it’s better to go after targets that have Toughness Equal to your Strength, half of your
strength, one point below your strength, or one point below double your strength. So, for
instance, autoguns are best for targets with Toughness values of 1-3, and 5. At values other than
these you get a little less return on your attacks. They are a little less efficient. This shouldn’t be
your sole way of picking targets, but it’s a good thing to keep in mind when evaluating weapons
and your chances of success on the field.
 The GSC army has been FAQ’d / Eratta’d a couple of times now, and the new rules updates are
mostly to our benefit. You can find all of the updates except the ones from Chapter Approved at
the following link, but I’ve tried to reference them in the tactica as well:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/faqs/

Well, that’s probably enough meandering. Let’s get the show underway.

CC’s Genestealer Cult Tactica

I. Abilities

Cult Ambush [Deepstrike All the Things]:

Cult Ambush is the core ability of our army. It has the potential to be quite strong, but it can be very
random as well. Because the ability relies on a table, you often won’t know where your units are coming
in, meaning that improvisation can be key. It makes sense to use command points to reroll catastrophic
ambushes, but you can only do that once per phase in matched play. Your griblies all come in at the end
of your movement phase. You can ambush on turn one, and can assault from Deepstrike, meaning that
you can gain a lot of speed by deploying through ambush, which is the main justification for putting up
with the randomness. Only units with the “Genestealer Cults” keyword can ambush. This means no
Tyranid allies and no Blood Brothers. An interesting and easy to overlook aspect of Cult Ambush is that
when you ambush a GSC character you can also infiltrate a GSC infantry unit attached, and they will
always arrive together (so long as there’s room). This is a great tool for attaching buffing characters with
a squad to receive said buffs, making the associated squad stronger and ensuring that your ambushing
characters don’t end up on their own and easy targets.

The way the table works, the higher your number the better the results. 5 (A Deadly Trap) and 6 (They
Came from Below) are exceptionally good results. 5 lets you choose between a free round of shooting
out of phase (which doesn’t stop you from shooting again later) or 1d6 of movement, and 6 let’s you
take a movement action as though you weren’t just out of reinforcements. 5 will generally be better for
shooty units whereas 6 is better for securing an assault. 4 (A Perfect Ambush) is simply standard
Deepstrike at 9” and as such is perfectly serviceable.

The lower three are trickier.

3 (Lying in Wait) puts you 12” from enemy models, which is bad as it means you will almost certainly fail
a charge that round, leaving your dudes out in the open, and will probably take overwatch in vain if you
try. As mentioned before, your troops are fragile, so you do not want this. It may well be the worst
option.

1 (Cult Reinforcement) and 2 (Encircling the Foe) can really hurt you if they go off the wrong way. 2 is
the better option, but barely. 2 lets you choose two battle edges, whereas 1 let’s your opponent choose
them. However, regardless of which edges you choose the actual edge is decided by a dice roll. In 1, you
roll the dice, whereas in 2 your opponent rolls. The significance of who rolls is that the roller has the
opportunity to command reroll the dice, so this acts as a balancing mechanism making the two results
much closer in terms of strategic advantage/disadvantage than they otherwise would be. As a general
rule, hope for 5 or 6, accept 4 when it happens, and consider whether or not you should command reroll
lower numbers on a case by case basis.

Unquestionable Loyalty [Die for me]:

If you have a unit within 3” of a GSC character you can roll a dice for a 50% chance of slaying a model
from that unit instead. Useful for keeping your buffing agents alive in case of things like snipers or
Deepstrike assault, though in many cases just having your characters hang back a bit will be defense
enough. Worth noting that it’s not a mortal wound, but outright slaying, so it will kill multi-wound
models like Aberrants if you use them to block this way.

Brood Brothers [Guardsman, and Tyranids, and Cultists, Oh my!]:

Brood Brothers is the ability that lets GSC play Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) units in matched play. In
8th edition matched play, all of your units must contain a single faction keyword to be considered legal.
The optimal choice for a GSC player is to make that keyword Tyranids, even if your main force is
Genestealer Cults. Doing so allows you to play both Tyranids and Genestealer Cults in the same battle
forged list, as all GSC units ALSO have Tyranids as a faction keyword. Meanwhile, Brood Brothers makes
a specific exception to the single keyword rule, allowing you to play them in the same army as well. So
yes, you can play all three in a single battle-forged list legally and GW has confirmed this in the FAQ I
linked earlier.

There are some caveats on the Astra Militarum side though. You need to field one unit of GSC for each
unit of guard you want to include, and while Tyranid units do not count at all when making these
calculations they do reduce the points you have left to balance your Guard and GSC, so bringing Nids has
a more significant effect on how many Guard units you can bring than it otherwise would. In addition,
your guardsman can’t have a subfaction (your Nids can) and bringing Guard characters is specifically off
limits.

Neither your brood brothers nor your Tyranids will be able to use your GSC special rules, and your GSC
will not be able to use their special rules either, despite having the Tyranids faction keyword. This is an
official GW ruling that can be found in the linked FAQ. Same thing goes for Tyranid psychic powers,
stratagems, relics, etc. If you run a Tyranid detachment you can access stratagems / psychic powers with
your Tyranid units (or vice / versa with guard), but otherwise no dice.

Warlord Traits

Focus of Adoration [You get a Heroic Intervention! And you get a Heroic Intervention!]

We got this goody in 2018 Chapter Approved, hereafter referred to as CA18. Any unit within 6” of the
warlord can perform heroic intervention, even if they’re not a character. Powerful, and a reason for
trying to keep your units close to your warlord even when ambushing. This essentially allows any unit
within 6” of the boss to pile in 3” when another unit is charged. The warlord DOES NOT have to be the
target of the enemy charge, which is good since you probably don’t want your characters in the front
unless they’re a Patriarch maybe. If intervention puts your unit within melee range, then they will
participate. At times this can be a real upset. Imagine your opponent assaults your magus and you
intervene with a nearby squad of 20 genestealers. This is not usually what your opponent wanted. An
especially important rule to keep in mind: if you charge, you can only attack the targets you charged,
even if other units are part of the combat. In other words, your opponent cannot attack your
interveners until the following combat phase, but the interveners can strike them, effectively providing
a free round of combat for that squad without chance of reprisal.

Legendary Fighter: +1 Attack on the Charge. Good for any warlord you intend to see melee combat,
which essentially means Patriarch as the Primus is good at melee for his cost, but fragile and not really
powerful enough to justify an attack boost at the cost of a WL trait. If you have a Primus as your WL he
would probably be better served with Focus of Adoration. The Patriarch on the other hand SHOULD see
combat and is quite powerful, able to leverage extra attacks effectively. More attacks also mean more
opportunities to rend, which is always good.

Inspiring Leader: +1 to Leadership for Models within 6.” It’s okay, but we have a lot of morale buffs
available to us which reduces its usefulness a bit. If you’re using a warlord as a buffer Focus of
Adoration is probably the better choice, but you can take it on an iconward if you really hate morale for
+1 leadership + a reroll. Probably not necessary unless you know your opponent employs effective fear
tactics.

Tenacious Survivor: 6+ FNP on the warlord. Stacks with the Iconward buff to allow a WL within range of
the ward to reroll their FNP, but probably better on the Patriarch due to more wounds meaning more
chances to reroll. If your weaker HQs are being shot at, they’re probably going to die quickly, even with
Tenacious Survivor. They mainly survive due to being characters and therefore (mostly) untargetable at
range. Even the Patriarch is probably better just accepting his chances and investing in either Legendary
Fighter or Focus of Adoration but if you want extra survivability for him, you can pick it up here.
 Psychic Powers

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Psychic_101(8E)#Warp_Charge_Tables

The link has a section titled “Warp Charge Tables” containing data on your odds of getting a psychic
power off depending on the caster’s current wounds and the warp charge of the power in question. This
is a good chart to familiarize yourself with so that you have a good idea of your chances. Our two casters
are the Patriarch (starts at 6 wounds) and the Magus (starts at 4 wounds).

Our psychic powers run from warp charge 6-7 which is a touch on the high side, but hardly the highest.
As you can see, even with warp charge 7 you start with better than an 80% chance of success as long as
nobody is denying your psychic power and your psychers aren’t at 3 health or less. Under the same
conditions, your 6-cost psychic power starts at above 90%.

Mass Hypnosis [Warp 7, 18”]: Target enemy can’t fire overwatch, fights last, and subtracts 1 from their
hit rolls. This power is great for loading an opponent down with little problems which deplete their
options. It’s good for use before charging an opponent or preparing to be charged. Considering you will
mostly be using it in relation to charge, 18” is plenty of range, just keep in mind that your caster will
need to be relatively close to the target enemy, meaning this is not a power for a hang back psycher.
Giving a unit Hit Last can be combat winning in any turn that you manage multiple assaults, and -1 to hit
/ deny overwatch are also nice secondary bonuses to have for protecting your troops. Bonus points if
you use this on an assault screen with flamethrowers.

Mind Control [Warp 6, 12”]: This is our go big or go home power, which is ironic since it has the lowest
warp charge. Still, you need to beat the opponent’s leadership on a 3d6 roll, so it requires a bit more
rolling than the other two powers. Against Leadership 10 this only yields a 55% chance of success, so
your going to want to try to target lower leadership targets. Even LD7 is only a 66.66% chance of
success, but you can command reroll one dice on the test at least. Keep in mind that since you have to
succeed at the psychic test AND the leadership check your overall chances of getting the attack through
will usually be spotty. For instance, your total odds for getting the attack through against LD 10 are only
around 0.51%, and that’s assuming 4 wounds on your caster and no deny the witch. BUT if you CAN get
the power to go through you can do the naughty thing and have a tank fire off all it’s weapons into a
nearby squad. Firing weapons on vehicles is the best use of the ability as a single melee attack will be
lackluster the vast majority of the time and vehicles generally have the most guns. There are characters
powerful enough in melee to make it worth using the melee option, but their LD will usually be 10
making it hard to get off. Bonus points if you use their once per game gun or overheat their plasma
killing the vehicle in the process. This is probably our least useful power due to unreliability.

Might from Beyond [Warp 7, 18”]: +1 Strength, +1 Attack. No thrills, no chills. This is arguably our best
power. It singlehandedly turns a poor melee combatant into an okay one, an okay one into a good one,
and a good one into something truly terrifying. I usually take this on my first psyche in matched and in a
narrative / free play list I’d be tempted to take it on every psycher.

Smite [Warp 5, 18”]: And just as a reminder, all psychers have access to Smite as well. Smite has a low
warp value which allows it to reliable deal a single mortal wound. The chance for 2-3 wounds on a 6 is
nice when it happens, but it’s around an 11% chance, making it too unreliable to consider in battle
calculations even with command rerolls. Still there will be times when you just need to put one wound
on something with some degree of reliability and smite lets you do that.

You should consider what a psycher’s role is when picking their powers. You generally want your
patriarch in combat so a power like Might from Beyond or Mass Hypnosis synergizes with his role. Also
keep the powers’ ranges in mind when choosing them, especially if you plan to be within range of an
enemy psycher’s deny the witch (24”). Magus are surprisingly not terrible in melee, but it’s still not a
good idea to put them in melee except in very fringe situations. Mind Control seems natural for them,
but it’s actually only a 12” range, making it tricky to pull off from the backline. My priority on powers is
Might from Beyond > Mass Hypnosis > Mind Control.

Relics

Icon of the Cult Ascendant: Our only relic, added in CA18. +1 STR as a 6” aura. It can only be taken by an
Iconward and represents the strongest argument for always bringing at least one. Without the relic
Iconwards are okay, but this basically turbocharges your first Iconward each army and is essentially free.
Sadly, we can only take one. It has extra value for Aberrants with their STRx2 Power Hammers. Very nice
indeed.

Stratagems

Being an index army, we are fairly light on stratagems, but we have a few things to do with our
command points. We get the three standard uses from the core rulebook and two new ones from CA18,
which is enough to give us some basic flexibility.

Command Reroll [1 CP]: Reroll any single dice. This is often where index armies end up spending their
command points, and we are no exception. It’s not a bad idea to save 1 command point as long as
possible just in case you absolutely need to do this.

Counter-Offensive [2 CP]: Fight Second in any assault phase. Somewhat situational, but when you need
it you’re happy to have it. This can be very, very deadly in any assault phase where at least three units
are fighting. A full-strength squad of genestealers can erase many opponents before they would be able
to strike back, for instance, but some of our other squads aren’t exactly slackers either. This won’t be
useful every single game, but it’s always something to keep in mind.

Insane Bravery [2 CP]: Auto pass a morale test. Rarely useful for us since we have a lot of morale buffs
from different places, but in the event that you need it it’s good to know it’s there. 2 CP is a little
expensive, so weigh it against what you’re likely to lose. Saving a squad of Aberrants is probably worth 2
CP. Saving a few models from a neophyte squad probably isn’t.

Return to the Shadows [1 CP]: One of our CA18 goodies. In 7th edition, this was the most powerful
ability the army had. But in 7th it didn’t cost command points to use. As is it’s still definitely useable, but
you need to be much more selective. For a command point you can redeploy a unit with cult ambush.
This is mainly good for when a unit ends up far away from the action and would waste too much time
getting back into it were they to go on foot. This can happen from a faulty cult ambush or because the
unit needed to be somewhere previously to hold an objective or kill a dangerous target but has
accomplished said goals. This stratagem can also save characters whose escorts have been wiped out
and need to be rescued. It takes affect at the end of the movement phase and the target re-deploys at
the beginning of the following movement phase, meaning you effectively lose a shooting / assault phase
with the unit, but no movement.

Like any decent stratagem, it’s nice to have in the bag of tricks, as redeploying a unit can be very useful.
Keep in mind this is not “pick up a unit and put it where you want it.” The returning unit will still need to
come back to the field by ambushing with all of the chance that entails.

Meticulous Uprising [1 CP]: Roll an extra dice for cult ambush and pick your poison. Get a bonus dice if a
primus is part of the landing party. This is nice to have, especially for important ambushes. The basic
version is somewhat redundant in open / narrative since you could just command reroll the ambush
rather than spending one ahead of time when it might not be necessary. In Matched play this is less cut
and dry. There are basically two approaches you could take. The first is to ambush without meticulous
uprising until you fumble then command reroll (for the same reason as in open play, to conserve
command points), and then meticulous uprising any other ambushes you feel you need to. The second
approach is to go ahead and meticulous uprising each ambush that you feel you need to, that way you
can conserve your command reroll for other rolls. 8th edition forbids making the same roll more than
twice, but Meticulous Uprising adds dice instead, so you could theoretically use both stratagems on one
ambush. Since all this happens in the movement phase there often isn’t much else to use command
rerolls for that phase. For ambushes containing a primus, the odds of getting something decent are far
better than if you were to command reroll (The Primus’s Meticulous Planner ability rerolls the entire
ambush, not a single dice, so using Meticulous Uprising on a Primus yields a hilarious 6 dice to get the
result you are looking for). So, if you’re using a Primus, there’s more of an argument to be made for
securing the drop of important units like full strength Genestealer squads by spending commands points
on Meticulous Uprising.

Units

HQs

HQs are one of the areas where our index really shines. We have several options, none of which are bad,
and all of which even work fairly well together.

Patriarch [The Big King Bufu Himself]

Expensive but hard hitting. Now 2 points cheaper than the Tyranid equivalent at a flat 150 thanks to
CA18. He brings a couple of goodies that the Tyranid Broodlord does not. While he lacks the Shadow in
the Warp, he more than makes up for this with his ability to ambush alongside any single unit of his
choice thanks to the Cult Ambush rules. He has +1 STR over the already nice 5+ that the classic
Broodlord gets. He has a buff which grants GSC Units (including vehicles) within 6” immunity to morale.

He can take Familiars for 12 points each which are essentially a place to delegate wounds, but also allow
an extra psychic power in a turn once per game. Other than that, they can swing for 2 attacks each,
although they have no weapons to speak of. Since the ability to cast an additional spell is granted for the
first familiar you take, one is the optimal number. You could take a second if you feel you need the extra
wounds, but the second should be considered less cost efficient. They’re only T3 but use the Patriarch’s
T5 making the familiars’ toughness irrelevant unless the Patriarch somehow dies first.
Other than these bonuses the Patriarch is identical to the tyranid unit, which is no bad thing. He’s a
psycher with one power known (which means familiars would have to cast smite for the second power).
Being a character with 6 Wounds, T5, and 4+/5++ make him fairly durable for his price and role, and his
WS 2+ Monstrous Rending Claws are mean spirited and abusive. If they fail to rend they are STR 6 before
buffs, have a fairly high AP of -3, and a respectable 1d3 damage. Any wound roll of a 6 rends, upgrading
to a flat 3 damage and a frankly disgusting -6 AP.

He has a solid 6 attacks to make use of this powerful weapon profile, but don’t send him after a hard
target without support. He is not intended to single handedly take out heavy tanks or melee monsters.
On the other hand, Legendary fighter, Might from Beyond, and Icon of the Cult Ascendant could have
him throwing 8 STR 8 Monstrous Rending Claw attacks, so it’s possible to get him there.

Along with the aforementioned morale buff he also gives Purestrain Genestealers +1 to hit. He himself
lacks the appropriate keyword so unlike most auras, his can’t affect himself. He’s already 2+ though so
it’s mostly irrelevant. As his two buffs indicate, he is best at the center of one or more groups of
Purestrain Genestealers. Finally, don’t let his cumbrous image fool you into thinking he lumbers forward
at a lingering pace. Setting aside vehicles he’s one of the fastest units in the army, with 8” and the ability
to move, advance, charge.3

If he has a downside, it’s price, as he’s more than double the cost of any of the other HQ options, and if
you’re looking to cut points, he’s a place to do it. On the flip side, there is (currently) no rule stating that
you can only take one Patriarch, despite the narrative logic of hive organization, so if you want to take
two or more you can, for now. This could change when we get our codex though, so buy at your own
risk.

Magus [Now this is a Cultist]: Less than half the price of a patriarch and hardly less of a psycher. Take
him for cheap access to psychic powers. He’s fairly well built for a budget mage. He has an Auto Pistol,
so he can make potshots in or out of assault, but no grenades. His Force Stave is actually a decent melee
weapon (S+2, AP-1, Dd3), and the Magus is competent with it at WS 3+, but he lacks any form of FNP or
invuln and his save and toughness are quite bad (5+ and 3 respectively), so he goes down easily if the
opponent manages to target him. In other words, although his melee output is decent, keep him out of
melee range. He can take Familiars though, and allocate wounds to them just like a patriarch, which can
help improve his survivability a bit. Unlike the Patriarch, the magus only has T3 though, so his familiars
don’t benefit from a toughness boost. Like the Patriarch he only knows one spell, so the familiars have
to cast smite.

Like all GSC HQs he comes with a buff. His is essentially a poor man’s Deny the Witch for every unit
within 6,” letting them attempt to reject powers that target them directly. Deny the Witch attempts are
always limited to once per power per phase, so no piling denials on against a single spell, but the Magus
can make use of his own aura, so he can deny one power in general and a second power that targets
him specifically each phase. The buff is situational, and its usefulness will depend on who you’re up
against. If you’re facing Thousand Sons, it’s excellent. If it’s Necrons, it’s useless. It’s certainly useful
against smite spam, but the heyday of smite spam seems to be passing. Vehicles denying psychic powers
is somewhat amusing though, and he can make that happen.

Primus [More Scalpel than Sword]: The Primus is interesting. His weapon skill is fantastic at 2+, and he
comes equipped with a special Toxin Injector Claw that wounds nonvehicles on a 2+ and has a bit of AP,
as well as an unfortunately mandatory Bonesword that isn’t particularly useful. For range he has a
Needle Pistol which is 12” at S1 but always wounds non-vehicles on a 2+ similarly to the claw. Don’t
forget your pistol attacks in melee. He also gets a Blasting Charge (Frag Grenade) which can help to
make him a little more of a presence during the shooting phase, although he will often want to advance
and the grenade can interfere with that.

He has 5 wounds and is a character which is great for survivability, but he’s still GEQ when it comes to
endurance and armor. In a pinch he can do a bit of work in melee, but he’s fragile like all GSC humans so
you need to bring him with a group and should treat fighting with him directly as a last resort. You take
him for buffs. His Cult Demagogue power works similarly to the Patriarch / Broodlord’s Genestealer
buff, adding 1 to hit rolls in melee, but his buff affects ALL GSC (including vehicles!) instead of only
Purestrains. Unlike the Patriarch’s buff, a Primus’s can affect himself. This is useless while he’s at 2+,
since that’s as low as you can go, but if he ever gets a penalty to hit his buff will negate the first point of
it. Meticulous Planner allows a Primus to reroll cult ambushes he’s involved in. You’ll recall that the
stratagem Meticulous Uprising gives 6 dice for ambushes that involve a Primus, which all but
guarantees a good ambush and, even better, might let you pick between several of the best options. So,
think of a Primus as a Deepstrike beacon that then goes on to buff the squad he comes in with and fight
alongside them in a pinch. Per the errata, a Primus CANNOT take familiars.

Iconward [We heard you like buffs, so we buffed your buffs, so you can buff while you buff]:

Possibly the most underrated HQ choice. The cheapest option at 53 points, the model is a glorified buff
marker, albeit one with a Rending Claw, which are excellent -1 AP melee weapons that upgrade to AP-4
on wound rolls of 6+. He also has an Autopistol and Blasting Charges which is all well and good. If you’re
lucky maybe he’ll get a wound or two per game if you don’t forget his pistol in combat or his grenade
during the shooting phase. He has a 6” buff range that allows GSC units to reroll leadership, and grants
GSC infantry a 6 up FNP. And lest we forget the relic Icon of the Cult Ascendant can also grant one
Iconward per game a +1 STR bubble as well, immensely boosting his utility and overall usefulness. He’s
about as durable as the other humanoids, which is to say not at all. He does benefit from his own buff
though, so you can at least rely on him having a 6+ FNP. Being a low-wounds character will mostly keep
him alive so long as you hang him back, but if he gets deepstruck without Focus of Adoration or
targeted by snipers he’ll go down quick. By himself an Iconward is worth very little but put him in the
center of two or more infantry squads and he will greatly improve their performance. Just don’t use him
to fight directly unless you don’t have a choice.

Troops

Acolyte Hybrids [That Does it. Get out the Power Tools]: Acolytes are 11 points each, making them 1
point more expensive than IG infantry per model, but for that point you get +1 STR, +1 WS, and +1
Attack over GEQ. Make no mistake, Acolytes fold under fire and return blows just as easily as
guardsman, but they can stretch to TEQ when it comes to offensive melee capabilities. Acolytes can be
very effective if you can cover the holes in their defenses. They can carry devastating weapons to make
up for their soft spots. Logically, it follows that they make good vehicle-based units, although ambushing
them is also an option. Each acolyte comes with a modest but useful pack of gear containing a cultist
knife, auto pistol, rending claw, and blasting charges.
Blasting Charges are glorified frag grenades which is situationally useful. Throw one every time you get
an opportunity for a chance of up to five extra auto-weapon equivalent shots. It has 6” range, but the
pistol only has 12” and acolytes are an assault unit. Just keep in mind that as a grenade weapon so you
can’t fire them if you advance, giving them a little extra synergy with vehicle-based squads.

The Autopistol itself is just a S3 pistol with 12” range. Unless you upgrade to flamers it represents your
primary ranged attack. Since it’s a pistol, you can use it in close combat, essentially giving you extra S3
attack per model. Make sure you remember your pistols shots in assault. In large groups they can
matter.

Speaking of extra attacks, the Cultist Knife is effectively a chainsword, allowing you an extra attack per
model each fight phase with the cultist knife’s weapon profile (So Strength user, no ap, 1 damage).
Between your base attacks, your pistols, and your knives, each model can throw 4 attacks per round
while stuck in assault, which is not bad at all for an 11-point model.

Every acolyte has Rending Claws and are the cheapest way to get mass rending claw attacks. They
compete with the more expensive Purestrain Genestealers, who are 4 more points per model but have
1-2 more rending claw attacks each, are more durable, and much faster on foot. In general, Purestrains
are the better choice for mass rending claw attacks, but Acolytes are the budget option. Still, this is what
your un-upgraded units will attack with and as a base weapon it’s solid and very nice to have.

You can upgrade any Autopistols to very nice Hand Flamers for 8 points each. Very Expensive, but the
Hand Flamer hits automatically, even in overwatch, still counts as a pistol, and deals 1d3 shots per hit
instead of 1. Otherwise it’s identical to an Autopistol. As Acolyte BS is only 4+, hand flamers will
effectively double their ranged hits, before even taking into account the chance for a second or third
shot. It’s a big increase in firepower. The main downside here is that the hand flamer only has a 6”
range, meaning that getting those auto-hits can be tricky, especially in overwatch, where they would
otherwise be worth the most. Still, they threaten any assault troops that get to close trying to guarantee
a charge. The flamers are more useful if you’re on the attack, since you’ll want to be within 6” to secure
your charge anyway but taking them makes maneuvering well even more essential than ever. Once the
enemy is actually in combat they can be brutal, turning a 4-attack unit into a 4-6 attack unit who auto
hits on 1-3 attacks. With rending claws and hand flamers, large units of ambushing acolytes or small
crews in Goliaths represent an effective but expensive answer to hoard infantry. It’s worth noting that
we’re the only army that has access to hand flamers in the numbers acolytes can field.

The real strength of acolytes comes from their special weapons, which I will affectionately refer to as
Mining Weapons, despite the term being used for other weapons on other units. You are allowed 2
Mining Weapons (special weapons options) per 5 models.

- The Heavy Rock Cutter is a STRx2, AP -4, D2 weapon that can instakill a model if you can roll
higher on a d6. The Cutter is great. It can easily finish off low wound characters (like those GSC
has access to) and mops up TEQ units efficiently. However, as per Errata 1.1 it comes with a -1
to hit. If you use your acolytes to hunt heavy infantry (be they Characters or TEQ), you’ll want at
least 50% of your mining weapons to be cutters. Because of the penalty to hit and the generally
high number of wounds on vehicles and monsters, the cutter is less useful against these targets.
The Cutter should always hit last in the rotation so that the target has as few wounds as possible
when you roll for its special ability.
 - The Heavy Rock Drill has a similar profile to the cutter but only 1 damage. It makes up for this
with the ability to cause up to 5 mortal wounds based on an increasingly difficult roll. The drill
lacks a penalty to hit making it more accurate than the Cutter. Its average damage is 2.78. The
high damage makes the drill a good choice when going after vehicles but note that it’s AP value
is a point lower than the drill / cutter. It’s also the most expensive option at a whopping 30
points per drill.
- Finally, the Heavy Rock Saw is basically the Cutter without the special ability and associated
penalty -to hit. Due to being a simple straightforward weapon with no penalty to hit, 2 damage,
exceedingly high AP, and no penalty to hit, it’s a better choice than the cutter for a dedicated
anti-vehicle option, and its price allows it to compete with the drill in terms of utility if not with
sheer damage output. It’s higher AP means that it will wound more often than the drill, albiet
for less damage on average. 2 damage also puts it in a good place for TEQ / character hunting.
- Finally, if you decide to go after vehicles with these guys (which is a role they fill fairly well)
Demolition Charges can be picked up for a single shot/match Assault d6 attack that hits similar
to a battle cannon (S8, AP-3, Dd3). However, since most of the mining weapons deal 8 damage
anyway, the demolition charges are effectively the budget choice. It’s notable that the
demolition charges are the only special weapon that’s Strength doesn’t scale at all with buffs,
whereas the other weapons are all STRx2 and thus scale well. It only costs 10 points, whereas
the other three range from 23-30. Since they’re assault weapons and NOT grenades you can
move, advance, fire, and charge with them, which helps to overcome problems presented by
their 6” range. Not being grenades also means you can throw all of your charges at once. While
they do have a low range, keep in mind that the other mining weapons are close combat, so this
is still the longest-range option. If you’re trying to go lean here in order to afford something
somewhere else, this is a reasonable compromise. One build for acolytes involves putting a
squad of 10 in a Goliath with a demolitions cache. While each charge can only be fired once per
game, the acolytes can throw their charges out of the truck while also firing the cache for up to
5d6 hits at once. That’s a potential maximum of 90 wounds (the average is closer to 22 before
rolling to wound / saves but still).

Pricewise, the three close combat mining weapons are all similar. The drill is the most expensive at 30,
whereas the saw is only a point higher than the cutter at 24 and 23 respectively. Since your selection of
mining weapons will more or less decide the effectiveness of the unit, the only reason not to take one is
if you plan to use your acolyte squad to deal with light infantry.

I recommend the drill and cutter for dealing with characters / TEQ. Not only are they zany, but they also
feed off of one another, with the drill dealing a potentially large number of wounds per hit and the
cutter acting as a finisher. Against vehicles drills are better because your chances of finishing off such a
large target with the cutter’s finisher is slim, and drills have the highest damage. However, saws also
work very well vs vehicles and are cheaper / more likely to wound.

The leader can pay to upgrade to a Bonesword or Bonesword + Lashwhip. The regular Bonesword is
pretty bad for him as it actually decreases his odds of harming MEQ enemies while hardly increasing his
odds against GEQ. The Lashwhip and Bonesword combo, on the other hand, is actually decent for him
since he’s fairly likely to die if the unit fights second but may actually do some damage if he strikes back.
Acolytes like many other units can take a Cult Icon, but it’s prohibitively expensive, having been errata’d
to 20 points. You can improve accuracy more effectively with a Primus, but the cult icon is cheaper in a
sense. It’s also possible to stack the two since the Primus adds +1 to hit and the cult icon rerolls 1,
allowing for 2+ rerolling 1s assault units, which is somewhat obscene albeit mostly unnecessary. The
increase in chance to hit between just a 2+ and a 2+ rerolling ones is only 13% per attack, but it does
give you a 97% total odds of success, so you’re basically auto-hitting at that point. Dice will be dice
though.

When considering the benefits of an icon, you need to weigh it not only against other buffing units but
also against the price of simply adding more models (and therefore more chances to hit). At 11 points
per acolyte, the icon is barely cheaper than simply running 7 acolytes instead of five and having 6
additional CC attacks. Adding to a squad of five acolytes, 2 more acolytes means 3.96 more attacks hit,
whereas rerolling 1s leads to 1.78 more attacks, making the additional acolytes the clear choice since
they also increase your maximum damage. At higher numbers it’s less clear cut. A 20-man squad of
Acolytes hits with an average of 6.78 additional attacks for having an icon, but 10.17 for having a primus
nearby. As you can see, the more men you have the better value an icon is, but a Primus will always be a
better accuracy improvement.

One logical reason to take an icon rather than a primus on a unit is to save room in an ambush parings
for something else, such as an Iconward. Another niche use for the cult icon comes into play when
running high output models like drill Acolytes in low capacity vehicles like the Goliath Rockbreaker,
since adding more units isn’t an option and hitting accurately with high price weapons may be critical.
Another use is when bringing a large number of acolytes with saws, since it can help negate the penalty
from the saw to hit. At a flat 20 points it can be a reasonable investment, but often isn’t so evaluating
cost to benefit is key.

Neophyte Hybrids: These are our true GEQ squads. In some ways they are strictly worse then
guardsmen. They’re a little more expensive and can’t take orders, for instance. On the other hand, GSC
can layer buffs and with enough going at once these guys can even do okay in close combat.

Neophyte starting gear is Autoguns/Lasguns, Autopistols, and Blasting Charges (Frag Grenades). The
only difference between Autoguns and Lasguns is appearance. Both are S3, 24” rapid-fire guns.
Neophytes can switch out their autoguns/lasguns for Shotguns at no points penalty, sacrificing the
ability to fire any shots at range 12-24” for the ability to hit at STR 4 when within 6.” Autoguns are
probably the better weapon in general, as 12” of range is probably worth more than a point of strength,
even if it’s only half shots at that range. Still, shotguns can be good for offensive tarpits as well as
screens on melee-oriented walking armies since your opponent will often let them hit at STR 4 on
overwatch to secure the charge.

With Shotguns, pistols, and flamethrowers a neophyte squad can make an okay counter-assault screen.
The leader has an extra attack and can pick up a web pistol for 3 points along with a power maul or
power pick for a little extra melee bite. Along with screening and tar pitting, these “assault neophytes”
can be good for charging in ahead of a real threat to absorb overwatch since there are few things you’ll
be protecting that don’t want to charge eventually. The shotgun also benefits from being an assault
weapon, helping your neophytes to keep up with your fast assault troops like Purestrains.
Most opponents see neophytes as expendable masses of bodies to screen more important forces, tarpit
their powerful units, and tie up their tanks. In fairness these are roles they are often used for and do
fairly well. A max size unit of bare bones neophytes is 150 points and can soak up a fair amount of
damage. This is not exactly cheap for a tarpit though. For contrast, a squad of Tyranid Termagants at the
same size is 120, and a squad of 30 Guard Conscripts is 90 points.

Neophytes can also serve as a platform for special weapons. The heavy weapons and heavy mining
weapons that neophytes can bring to bear are actually quite potent with very long-range options, and
the special weapons can be fairly good as well. Because neophytes look less intimidating than vehicles,
mutants, or Tyranid allies, have a name that sounds unintimidating, and have a reputation as guardsman
equivalent, neophytes tend to be ignored. They can mask some of your offensive output effectively,
even if you go over weapon selections with your opponent before the match starts. A squad of
neophytes can bring to bear one heavy weapon or two heavy mining weapons alongside two special
weapons. 30 Wounds is a lot to chew through to remove a Lascannon and a couple of Grenade
Launchers. Since weapon upgrades necessitate a points investment, neophytes with special / heavy
weapons are somewhat less disposable than masses of starting gear neophytes. As such, vehicles make
sense for these builds. While this will be covered in more detail when we get to the Goliath Truck, this
vehicle has a lot of synergy with neophytes. It has the exact capacity of a basic neophyte squad and is
open topped allowing neophytes to fire their weapons from it.

Finally, due to their relatively cheap points cost and ability to ambush from reserves, small squads of
neophytes represent our go-to objective grabbers.

Leader Options:

Bolt Pistol: An auto-pistol with +1 STR and costing 1 point more. 1 point for 1 strength
seems like a pretty good deal, albeit one that’s completely inconsequential since you
only get one shot with it per phase at BS 4+, meaning statistically the weapon will cause
less than one wound per two turns even against low toughness/armor opponents.

Web Pistol: The main reason to take a web pistol is to upgrade the leader to d3 shots in
melee, which might make a wound or two in close combat after a couple rounds. At 3
points, it’s not critical, but might be a place to spend some leftover points. Web
weapons can also treat strength as toughness when preferable, but this doesn’t come
up all the time, and doesn’t usually matter a ton when it does.

Power Pick: With a decent AP value and moderate damage potential, a power pick isn’t
necessarily a bad weapon. The main issue here is that d3 damage is still unreliable and
you realistically won’t be hitting multiple wound enemies with neophytes often. It
doesn’t boost your strength either which means you will struggle to wound with your
GEQ STR. If you get lucky the power pick could one shot a TEQ but at equal price to two
neophytes it doesn’t necessarily make sense for neophyte leaders. Its biggest advantage
is it’s AP value.

Power Maul: Turns a leader from S3 to S5 and gives it a point of AP. It’s a whopping 6
points cheaper than the pick, making it much more appealing. AP tends to matter a bit
more in 8th than Strength, so the two weapons are pretty close in terms of wounding
 capabilities. The pick will end up being more useful if you have a run in with TEQ but
otherwise, the Maul seems like the clear choice.

Heavy Mining Weapons Options:

You can have one heavy weapon or two mining weapons, which effectively means that
you should weigh the value of two mining weapons against the value of one heavy
weapon. You can go cheap and only take a single mining weapon, which might be
reasonable for say the mining laser. Worth noting here is that a more or less universal
advantage of mining weapons coming in pairs is that you can split damage across two
targets, which increases your damage flexibility. Factor that in when weighing mining
weapons against heavy weapons.

Heavy Stubber: For the same price as a heavy bolter you get a strictly worse gun with -1
strength and -1 ap. The only reason to take the Stubber instead is if you need massive
anti-hoard firepower, as you can take two heavy stubbers but only one heavy bolter.
You still have to pay double the price though.

Mining Laser: The mining laser is actually a pretty solid heavy weapon and when taken
in pairs exceeds even the Lascannon for damage potential. STR 9 is excellent, -3 AP is
great, and while the damage is random, an average of 2 means two lasers are putting
out around 4 damage a turn assuming they hit and wound, which is excellent. They are
pricey though. If you’re having issues budgeting in a Lascannon, you could take one
mining laser as a cheap substitute, although an autocannon might be a better choice in
that scenario. The main benefit to two mining lasers over a Lascannon, aside from the
increased damage potential, is that they can also be used to go after heavy infantry
effectively as a secondary target, since they can split their damage among multiple
models.

Seismic Cannon: A variable output weapon with rending, which is unreliable, but
potentially devastating. The shortwave profile isn’t quite as hard hitting as a mining
laser / Lascannon and has a troublesome 12” range. The long wave (24”) profile is
basically a poor man’s heavy bolter, again with considerably worse range. The long-
range profile pairs well with the grenade launcher which is also a 24” weapon. Together
the two profiles give you a fair package for dealing with a variety of targets, but the
range limitations represent a real problem, making the seismic cannon best for Goliath
squads as they can make up for the lack of range with increased mobility. As of Chapter
approved these are 10 points each, making them very cheap weapons.

Heavy Weapons Options:

Autocannon: Autocannons compare with mining lasers in terms of damage potential. If

both shots hit autocannons will deal 4 damage, whereas mining weapons will deal 2-6.
In this respect, Autocannons sacrifice damage potential for consistency. They are
designed to take out monsters and light vehicles, and they do this well with STR 7, as
most of these targets are T6 or T7, meaning you wound them on a 3+ or 4+ depending.
A point of AP is nice, though two-three would be better as monsters and vehicles both
 tend to have decent armor. Auto cannons are the cheapest heavy weapon by a fair
margin. If you need them to they can function adequately against heavier tanks but they
will often wound on a 5+ against these targets, since they tend to be T8.

Heavy Bolter: Good range, reasonably cheap at 8 points for 3 shots at STR 5 and -1 AP.
Heavy bolters don’t have a big effect on a unit’s wound output, but they are fair anti-
infantry for taking on MEQ and give a large anti-infantry blob a bit more bite.

Lascannon: The lascannon compares directly with two Mining Lasers as a dedicated tank
busting tool. 2d3 yields an average of .5 more damage that 1d6, but 1d6 is better for
command rerolling and 48” is substantially better range than 24.” One lascannon is also
8 points cheaper than two mining lasers, but you can’t split the damage from a
Lascannon between two targets. The Lascannon seams better for footslogging
neophytes, whereas I’d be tempted to take the mining lasers on Goliath crews since you
can compensate for the range issues.

Mortar: Surprisingly cheap and very long range at 48”, mortars are a solid budget
weapon for killing hoard infantry, throwing up to 6 weak long-range shots which don’t
require line of sight.

Missile Launcher: Very long range. Two profiles lend flexibility. The krak missile profile is
a bit worse than a Lascannon, wounding on a 4+ instead of a 3+ against T8 and losing a
point of AP. Still solid vehicle removal. The frag missile is like a heavy stubber but will,
on average, land less attacks. Two profiles which are almost as good as what they
should be weighed against makes the missile launcher a pretty good weapon, but you
also have to factor in that the price is steep. Most of the time a missile launcher should
be firing krak missiles, as 20 points for a bad Heavy Stubber is very overpriced.

Special Weapons:

Flamer: The 7-point Flamer is cheaper for what you get than most flame weapons we
have access to in-army. It fires 1d6 shots and auto-hits. It’s a good weapon if your
neophytes will be operating within the 8” range. In practical terms, this mostly restricts
this choice to assault screens and Goliath teams. There is some synergy between flamer
range and demolition charge range, but the two weapons prefer different targets. At the
same time, the Goliath’s other weapons are oriented towards anti-infantry, so this can
be an okay weapon for a dedicated goliath troop. The main limitation here is
competition from acolytes who can carry hand flamers across the entire crew. Since
Neophytes have a 4+ BS, flamers double their number of hits on average. The Flamer
also increases the strength of the neophytes’ shots by 1, helping them to wound T3/T4
infantry better. Not bad for a special weapon, and reasonably priced, especially for a
flame weapon, which tend to be expensive, so a good choice for screens if you’re going
to invest in anything special for them. It has some range synergy with the similarly
offense-oriented shotguns. As with all flamers you need to pay careful attention to the
range, as it can cause issues with overwatch.
 Grenade Launcher: For the most part, this is the special weapon that your neophyte
weapon crews will be fielding. It has two profiles, both of which are 24,” making it the
longest range special weapon, and therefore the closest range fit to the 24-48” heavy
weapons neophytes can field. At 5 points, it’s cheap to add in, and will almost certainly
deliver on its returns. The first profile is S3, d6 shots. Good for piling wounds on infantry
since it’s basically a demolition charge, but at much better range, and not an actual
grenade (meaning you could throw a demolition charge and fire the grenade launcher).
The second profile is single shot S6, AP -1, Dd3. Good for weak characters, TEQ, and light
vehicles. By itself, a grenade launcher doesn’t represent much of a threat, but two
grenade launchers and two mining lasers / one Lascannon is decent damage output,
albeit probably spread out among multiple targets. Unlike most multiple mode
weapons, the anti-tank profile isn’t strictly better than the anti-infantry profile, making
the flexibility aspect a bit more appealing.

Webber: The webber is an odd weapon. The 16” range is okay but not fantastic. 1d3
shots is decent if you want a midrange anti-infantry force. It’s strength 4 which
represents a marginal increase in chance to wound over an autogun, and the webber’s
special ability represents a similarly slight increase, as strength tends to scale with
toughness for most units or be higher (as with GSC). The real problem with the webber
is that it’s the same price as the much more versatile and potent grenade launcher, the
frag profile of which will usually represents more reliable anti-infantry firepower
ironically.

Elites

Hybrid Metamorphs: For their points, Metamorphs have good weapon skills and attacks, okay ballistics
skills and strength, low toughness, and bad saves. They run 5-20 models, and all things considered, they
are very fragile. Their main gimmick is loading out on exotic weapon profiles. The problem is that the
metamorph weapon profiles are all fairly lackluster.

The best is Rending Claws (errata’d to be free at least) but at that point why aren’t you just taking the
much better Purestrain Genestealers or the cheaper Acolytes? The Metamorph Whip is fairly decent,
allowing a dead metamorph to strike back after being vanquished. It’s most beneficial because the strike
back ability does not require the whip to actually be used to attack, so you can go all in on rending claw
attacks and treat the whip as a passive. And since the whip is only a couple points it’s viable to have one
on every model.

As for the other weapons, they’re not really worth taking. Metamorph Claw gives a two-point increase
to Strength, allowing metamorphs to wound T6 monsters / light vehicles on a 4+. STR 6 is an awkward
position though because there are so few T5 units. The Bonesword is leader exclusive and gives -2 AP,
not substantially better than a Rending Claw, but a touch more consistent. The Metamorph Talon gives
+1 to hit. Since they’re all mutually exclusive they don’t amount to much, but if you wanted a CC anti-
hoard unit the talon might not be terrible.

Like acolytes, Metamorphs can take Hand Flamers, and they have the same advantages and pitfalls here
as they do for that unit, although Acolytes are cheaper for flame troops. At 23 points per model with
hand flamers (for insta-hit overwatch), whips (to strike back after the enemy lays into them), and
rending claws (for the actual fighting), a team of Metamorphs can represent a decent counter-assault
screen. The biggest issue with this is that they are still fairly expensive.

Like acolytes, Metamorphs can take a Cult Icon, but seeing as how their damage capacity is relatively
low, this is probably a poor use for an icon.

Aberrants: Aberrants are a good bit more expensive than Metamorphs (9 points more with the cheapest
gear), but they make up for this with a considerably better weapon setup and better stats. Aberrants
share some superficial similarities with TEQ, since they have two wounds, 4 toughness, and power
weapons, but their abysmal 5+ saves make them fairly squishy against certain attack strategies. Their
special ability Bestial Vigor reduces the damage of attacks that target them by 1. Since Aberrants only
have two wounds (and no way to get more) Bestial Vigor only actually matters against Strength 2
attacks. Anything higher will still be lethal, and damage 1 attacks are unaffected. Bestial Vigor is actually
pretty helpful against Strength 2 attacks though, since it effectively halves the damage. But that’s not
the issue with aberrant durability. Their saves are. With poor saves and no invlun, GEQ/MEQ mobs can
easily wipe the floor with them in shooting (or even assault) without relying on weapons teams.

With that said, they have some things going for them. WS 3+, S5, and 2 attacks per model is all fair and
good for a dedicated assault unit, and their power hammers can drive their damage potential up
significantly if you take them. Aberrants choose between Power Picks and Power Hammers, but always
have Rending Claws as a secondary attack. As of Chapter Approved, Picks are 10 points and Hammers
are 16.

Power Picks are fine if you want an adequate melee fighter who can take on terminators or light
vehicles, and are 6 points cheaper than hammers, but in general we have better options for character /
heavy infantry hunting than Aberrants with Power Picks. A potential use case for picks is to intermingle
them within a primarily Power Hammer Aberrant unit for wound allocation purposes and to reduce their
price. They’re not bad, per say.

However, the Power Hammer deserves more attention and is the main reason to take Aberrants. While
it makes Aberrants less accurate with a -1 penalty to hit, it is still clearly the strongest weapon for them,
turning them into Strength 10 terrors with -3 AP and 3 damage. The power hammer is similar to, but
considerably more powerful than, a Space Marine Power fist (identical, except that the hammer always
deals 3 damage whereas the fists are 1d3). If you can keep Aberrants alive long enough to reach combat,
they can quickly destroy a squad of TEQ with this loadout, or put some serious wounds on a vehicle,
even a heavy tank. The weapons are actually STR x2, so boosting an Aberrant’s strength via Icon of the
Cult Ascendant or Might from Beyond offers double returns. With both active at the same time it is
possible to have Aberrants strike at STR 14 (to wound T7 tanks / monsters on a 2+) but getting this off
while ambushing takes some finesse since you can only ambush one character with the aberrant unit.

Aberrants compete directly with Acolytes as our CC anti-tank option. Aberrants are more expensive, but
somewhat more durable. Power hammers have tough competition from acolyte mining weapons, but
Acolytes can’t take as many due to unit restrictions. On the other hand, Acolytes are more versatile.

As a general rule, you should avoid assaulting units with large numbers unless there’s no avoiding the
fight, as Aberrants will underperform in these situations. They are inaccurate, heavily invested in hitting
targets with multiple wounds, and can take heavy damage from overwatch. A unit of 5 Aberrants with
hammers only has 10 attacks at -1 to hit. Without buffs, only half of those attacks will hit, and less will
wound, which along with the Aberrant’s poor defenses means that when the enemy hits back they will
probably do some real damage.

Aberrants are expensive. A unit of 5 Aberrants with power hammers represents a 165-point investment.
They need to deal a lot of damage to justify the points investment they represent, which means they
need to kill high wound targets that likewise represent large points investments, which is a challenge
because they are not extremely durable. To this end, they usually need to ambush directly into the
target or take a transport like the Goliath Rockbreaker or the Chimera.

Purestrain Genestealers [A Genestealer by Any Other Name; Well not Quite…]: In a very real sense
Purestrains represent your army’s main problem-solving tool. While mainstaying as infantry shredders,
they can go against most forces smaller than heavy tanks and perform reasonably well. Compared to
Tyranid Genestealers, Purestrains have an identical statline but a 50% price hike, which is still down
from what it was before Tactics Approved. Since they’ve had a Codex release, Tyranid Genestealers also
have options that our Purestrains don’t, like Flesh Hooks, Acid Maws, and Infiltration Nodes. We’re
liable to get goodies of our own once we receive our codex but that may well be a while. Nevertheless,
our Purestrains got to keep all the most important things. Swift and Deadly and 8” movement makes
them incredibly fast. T4 with A 5+ invuln makes them reasonably sturdy.

Offensively, they are still quite obscene with 3-4 attacks each (see Flurry of Claws) and the
awesomeness that is Rending Claws. They can also take Purestrain Talons at 3 points more per model.
These talons trade AP for rerolling 1s. While this can be more useful against certain niche targets such as
demons (against which AP has no effect) or mass hoards (who may have little armor to speak of), it’s a
downgrade in general, and certainly not worth 3 points more than Rending Claws. Still, if you know
you’re going up against a target where AP will be devalued, it’s worth considering.

You may be wondering validates or justifies a 50% price hike. Well, Purestrains lose morale immunity
from synapse, but the Patriarch grants a similar effect and they gain unquestionable loyalty as well, so
morale is mostly a wash. They get Cult ambush, but again, they are giving up Infestation Nodes as a
deployment option. Cult ambush is probably better though, even with the element of chance implicit in
ambushing. They also gain access to vehicles as an alternative deployment method, but then again they
are giving up tunneling via Trygons, Raveners, etc. Assaulting Genestealers from Chimeras can be pretty
choice, and there’s not really a Tyranid equivalent.

If you’re not doing vehicle shenanigans it may be worth considering a Tyranid detachment for your
Genestealers because taking a 20-man squad of Genestealers through GSC instead of Nids costs 100
points for basically just faction traits, access to vehicles, and access to GSC buffs. On the other hand,
stacking GSC buffs can lead to some scary things and a Tyranid detachment probably necessitates an HQ
tax, which should be factored into your cost to benefit assessments. In general, some form of price
increase is probably justified, but 50% is probably too much.

The unit is still good regardless. Purestrains may be the most potent thing in the army. Genestealers are
one of the best things in the Tyranid codex. In massive numbers they can tackle targets they have no
business taking on, and after a while one starts to wonder what fits into that category. Don’t send them
alone after heavy tanks obviously, but light tanks?
When deciding on buffing combos, these guys are a priority target. The Patriarch is the usual dedicated
support unit since he has a buff that only affects Purestrains (not even Tyranid Genestealers can benefit
from it) and can also cast spells that either turn them into combat gods or take away the opponent’s
ability to fight back effectively. More so than any other unit in the army, Purestrains benefit from being
fielded in large numbers. They need to reach the opponent with enough bodies left to do some damage,
but really the reason you’ll almost always want them in bulk is that Flurry of Claws only kicks in when
the unit is at 10 models or more. You can get away with running 10+ in a chimera or ambushing 10 and
hoping for the best, but usually even when ambushing, it’s a good idea to max out the unit in case you
fail the charge or get waylaid.

Dedicated Transports

Goliath Truck: At 66 points, the Goliath would be a cheap transport option, but the 33-point autocannon
drives its price up a fair bit. After paying for its mandatory weapons the Goliath runs 107 points. In terms
of durability, it’s actually not bad at all, especially for an open topped vehicle: 10 wounds, T6, a 4+ save,
and 6+ FNP (granted by Rugged Construction). In the event a vehicle is destroyed in 8th you have a 5/6
chance of the unit inside surviving, and a 1/6 chance of it being destroyed. You can command reroll this
roll (if you haven’t already burned the reroll for the phase), so explosions are somewhat unlikely to
threaten your crew. The Goliath’s carrying capacity of 10 is decent. In terms of offense, it only has one
possible gun loadout although Demolition Charges are optional.

The Goliath’s Heavy Stubber is okay for opening up a hole in weak infantry screens, and the Twin Auto-
Cannon can either support in this role, kill some TEQ, or wound a light vehicle. With double the shots of
a standard Auto-Cannon (while being otherwise identical), there’s some solid bite there. For a cheap
transport, the Goliath’s guns are perfectly serviceable.

The Cache of Demolition Charges are one of the vehicle’s better virtues if you can get them off but
represent a 12-point upgrade. Assault d6 and Dd3 gives the weapon the same maximum damage output
as a Lemon Russ’s Battle Cannon and it’s AP is actually higher. Surprisingly it’s not a single use weapon
either, though it does require an embarked unit to use. At 12 points it’s a steal but take note of the
range. Like most light transports it will go down quickly if targeted for removal so getting it into 6” range
of another vehicle before it gets dropped can be challenging if your opponent runs screens. A full crew
of Acolytes in a Goliath can toss 4 Demolition Charges themselves, (although only once per game), along
with the Goliath’s cache, which allows for a staggering maximum of 90 damage. More realistically,
expect around 22.5, before wounds and saves. In other words, the swing is wide. Still though.

The Goliath degrades, getting slower and less accurate below 5 health. It’s attacks also decrease, but
with WS 6+ it’s not much of an assault tool anyway (that’s what the Rockgrinder is for). Rather, the
Goliath is for carrying ranged troops. If you need a dedicated transport for melee squads the
Chimera/Rockgrinder are almost always a better choice, but the Goliath is open-topped, and demolition
charges want a dedicated crew, so there are some natural synergies with neophytes. They can fire their
guns out the top, while gaining a much-appreciated boost in endurance, speed, and even damage
output if you take the charges.

Cult Chimera: For a little more than the cost of a Goliath you can pick up a Chimera. In actual fact, when
you factor in the prices of starting guns the Chimera actually comes out cheaper at 93 points. The
Chimera represents a small upgrade over the Goliath both in in terms of power and efficiency. It can
carry 2 more passengers, has a point more armor, the same BS, same Strength, and a point more
toughness. The toughness and armor can be misleading though since the Goliath has an invlun save that
the Chimera lacks. They are close to equal in terms of durability.

That 12-passenger capacity is good in that it can hold a 10-man squad and two characters, which
considering the way our buffs work, could make for a potent ground force. The vehicle degradation
chart is identical to the Goliath’s. The Chimera doesn’t get a FNP save, but it can pop Smoke Launchers
to make it more durable for one turn and is probably the best choice for doing so as its main job is
delivering assault troops to the frontline, not contributing directly to combat. You can’t fire the phase
you pop smoke though, so it’s still fairly situational.

To say that the chimera has a main gun would be something of an overstatement. It starts with a multi-
laser, heavy bolter, and two lasgun arrays.

The Heavy Bolter is functionally best at killing MEQ but can go after TEQ as well. It can be upgraded to a
Heavy Flamer at a high cost premium of +11 points, which adds an average of .5 attacks and auto-hitting
to the bolter at the cost of most of it’s range. Since Chimeras hit at a 4+ AT BEST, effectively half of your
shots will go down to misfiring, meaning that the Flamer effectively more than doubles your hits over
the Heavy Bolter while making degradation suck less, meaning that the price increase is justified if you
can afford it. As always with flamers, be aware of the short range you have to operate with.

The Multi-Laser can be traded off for another Heavy Flamer or Heavy Bolter. Trading up to the bolter
probably isn’t necessary, as doing so sacrifices 1 Strength AND 9 points for -1 AP, which isn’t a thrilling
deal. If you want to go all in on heavy flamers though, you can get one here.

The Lasgun Arrays that the Chimera starts with can’t be traded off, which is fine because they are
decent anti-infantry weapons which is what you want from a vehicle designed to deliver assault troops.
At Rapidfire 3 and 24” range, these guys and throw a nice 12 shots into a screen that is otherwise
preventing your assault troops from going directly for the prize (albeit S3, 0AP potshots). The arrays
require a passenger to fire but usually by the time you disembark they’ve served their purpose. Still, this
can be a reason to re-embark one or two leftover models from a squad that had a rough go of it later in
the game).

The Chimera can choose to take an extra gun, either a Storm Bolter or Heavy Stubber. The Storm Bolter
makes a lot of sense for the vehicle. It’s cheaper, has a shorter range, and delivers more firepower if the
opponent is within 12,” a perfect compromise for a vehicle that wants to pull into position and open a
hole for infantry to charge through.

Finally, you can take a Hunter Seeker. 9 Points is fair for what you get. It can only be fired once per
match and should be fired as soon as a good opportunity opens up to ensure it gets value. Firing this off
early in the match can make a decisive difference as it averages 3.5 damage when it wounds and has a
decent chance of impacting. One time you might consider not firing it ASAP is against Necrons, when
you’ll want to try to stack damage at opportune times to make sure the target stays down.

Fast Attack

Cult Scout Sentinels: Starting at 45 points with a multi-laser, sentinels are your cheap weapons
platforms. This puts them in competition with neophyte squads. Compared to a basic squad of 10
neophytes a sentinel is 2 points tougher, has 4 less wounds, a +1 save, and is 15 points cheaper before
adding weapons. With 9” movement and the Scout special rule (effectively a free extra move at the start
of the match), the scout is fast. It can pop smoke and it does not degrade.

The Multi-Laser is fairly pricey for what you get at 10 points for 3 STR 6 shots and no AP, so it’s probably
worth moving up to one of the heavier weapons. The main reason to take this is on a distraction unit
when you just want the bare bones cheapest model you can put on the table. Since Scouts can move
quickly and have a decent toughness for their points values, they can make fair tarpits.

The Heavy Flamer is the shortest-ranged weapon at 8”. It’s fairly expensive at 19 points. 1d6 shots yields
an average of 3.5 hits and the weapon’s profile (S5, AP-1, D1) is good for killing small numbers of
infantry, and even better for hurting characters, since the weapon auto-hits. There’s some synergy
between the scout’s mobility and the flamer since an auto-hitting weapon can’t take a penalty to hit for
advancing and firing a heavy weapon. Some people like to use thus equipped scout sentinels as suicide
distractions, similar to the way the multi-laser is used. At 54 points each, they’re fairly cheap for the
problems this can make for the opponent. In squads of three, Flamer Scouts become a more serious
source of infantry damage. The Heavy Flamer is available on the armored sentinel as well, but usually
makes more sense on the scout due to it having the mobility necessary to reach the front lines before
the unit is destroyed.

The Autocannon is the cheapest upgrade at 15 points. It’s 7 strength wounds T6 targets on a 3+, and
with 2 damage, 2 shots, and 1 point of AP, it can do triple duty by threatening TEQs and Heavy Tanks as
well. Unfortunately, the AP is a little light for either of these roles, but the cannon does make do.

The Lascannon is a tried and true anti-tank weapon. Tied with the Missile Launcher for most expensive
weapon choice, the Lascannon’s 9 STR, -3 AP and 1d6 damage (average 3.5) makes it a top end anti-tank
gun.

The Missile Launcher is the most versatile weapon option, able to switch between a poor man’s
Lascannon (-1 damage, -1 AP) and 1d6 S4 shots. At 20 points the mediocre frag profile is really a waste
of points, meaning that you should be trying to fire the gun on krak every time. And at that point, why
not just invest in a Lascannon? You’re essentially firing a worse Lascannon to have one more option for
infantry threats if they become a more immediate problem.

The Sentinel Chainsaw is mostly inconsequential, only granting -1 AP. As the sentinel only has 1 attack
and mediocre weapon skill the effect of the chainsaw ranges from minor to non-existent, but it’s only 2
points which is very cheap. If you’re taking a squad of three Flamer Scouts it starts to make sense to give
them that extra bit of melee bite since it costs very little.

The scout can also take Hunter Seeker Missiles and represents a good platform for them since the odds
of the sentinel only getting one or two shooting phases before it’s taken out is fair and it has limited
access to weapon slots.

Scouts are better taken in large numbers (either in one squad or several) since a single scout is relatively
easy to take out. It has Smoke Launchers which let you trade shooting for a -1 to enemy shots for one
round. This is mostly useful for when you are outside of weapon range and therefore couldn’t shoot
anyway. As such it benefits Heavy Flamer sentinels most, though all of your sentinels get it standard.
Cult Armored Sentinel: The armored sentinel represents a 5-point increase over the basic version but is
not a strict upgrade. The armored version moves 1” slower and loses the Scout Vehicle special rule,
making it a good deal slower. In exchange it gains 1 point of Armor, 1 point of toughness (per the FAQ),
and access to the powerful Plasma Cannon. Other than the plasma cannon, weapon options and abilities
are the same as the Scout.

The Plasma Cannon is actually cheaper than the Missile Launcher and Lascannon by 5 points so for this
build the price increase on the Armored Sentinel can be a wash. With S7, d3 attacks and -3 AP but only
one damage the Plasma Cannon can function similarly to a Poor Man’s Autocannon without being
overcharged, but it only really shines when it is fired with abandon, increasing it’s damage to 2 and
upgrading it to STR 8 (increasing the chances of wounding T7 vehicles / monsters to 3+, and T8 heavy
tanks to 4+). If you roll a 1 while overcharging Plasma your Sentinel is slain. The sentinel doesn’t take a
mortal wound; the model is removed. As such you need to save a command point to reroll the 1 if it
happens. Therefore, it can be a good idea to fire plasma before the rest of your shooting so that you
don’t have to avoid using a command point you might not need. Its only around a 17% chance of
occurring on any given shot but Scouts fire 1d3 shots each and dice will be dice. The Sentinels you have
running plasma, the more plasma mishaps become a certainty. The more certain a sentinel’s impending
death is, the more reasonable overcharging plasma becomes, but when you need heavy firepower to
deal with a real threat it should always be considered an option. If you’re not going to run the sentinel
with plasma, it’s probably not worth upgrading to the armored variant due to the speed costs. However,
the mobility hits are more affordable for sentinels running 48” weapons.

Heavy Support

Cult Lemon Russ [The Big Guns]: At 132 points before guns are paid for, this is by far our most
expensive armor option. 12 wounds, T8 and a 3+ save make for quite a durable vehicle, but the Russ is
far from invincible. Mortal wounds will eat away at it fairly quickly and toughness and armor aren’t as
effective deterrents as in earlier editions. Ours is mostly identical to the Guard version, although we
can’t take our Russes in squadrons without resorting to Brood Brothers. It can pop Smoke Launchers
which will rarely be relevant since the occasion when the Russ doesn’t have good reasons to fire its guns
are slim, even if it means it will die next turn.

Grinding Advance gives you some additional flexibility and sheer firepower by allowing your main gun
(Battle Cannon, Vanquisher, Eradicator, or Nova) to fire twice when you’re operating at half speed or
under, as well as for that weapon to ignore the penalty for firing heavy weapons while moving (as per
errata). The latter is mostly good for the first turn while you’re still positioning your Russ, since ideally,
you’ll plant it somewhere and leave it so that you can fire all weapons at full accuracy the rest of the
game. Still, if the Russ absolutely needs to tuck and run to avoid getting wrecked, grinding advance will
have added value, and in any case firing your strongest gun twice is never a bad thing.

The Russ does degrade, losing mobility, BS and Attacks as it loses wounds. The attacks are mostly
irrelevant, and the mobility can be so long as you can position your Russ before it starts taking hits, but
the BS degradation smarts, since we are only 4+ to start with.

You have a number of weapons choices for the Russ. Part of where it shines is in its ability to leverage
multiple powerful guns simultaneously in any given shooting phase. It’s weight of firepower can be quite
frightening and is certainly noteworthy. When choosing weapons it can be prudent to keep range in
mind and to try to keep weapons ranges similar so that the Russ is always piling all of its guns on at
once. Generally, this means electing for a 48”, 36” or 24” operational range. Keep in mind the longer the
range of your guns, the easier it will be to trigger double-firing your main gun via Grinding Advance. Your
first weapons choice is for main gun, between Battle Cannon, Vanquisher Battle Cannon, Exterminator
Autocannon, and Eradicator Nova Cannon.

The cheapest is the Battle Cannon. The battle cannon is a lot of gun for 22 points but has a wide swing
in terms of damage output. Both the damage and number of shots are very random. Sometimes it can
one shot a vehicle. Sometimes it does little to nothing. On average it will fire 3.5 shots at 2 damage
though, and that’s not bad at all for its strength and AP. Both it and the vanquisher represent the
highest range you have access to at 72” as well.

The Vanquisher version of the Battlecannon is a tad more expensive and has a MUCH lower damage
cap but is more consistent and has a point higher AP value. (The extra point of strength shown in the
index was errata’d out). I’d probably go with the standard battle cannon against most opponents due to
the reduced damage capacity.

The Exterminator Autocannon is a little expensive for what it does, but it has a dedicated role as a TEQ
mower and does it fairly. 2 damage, 4 attacks, and 7 strength are all good for killing TEQ level enemies.
One only wishes the AP was higher like with all autocannons. Between firing this twice and secondary
guns it’s easy to pack a ton of anti-infantry firepower into the Russ if you need it, and it can do double
duty as a T6 / T7 tank/monster hunter.

The Eradicator Nova Cannon is a strange choice and probably suboptimal. It is VERY expensive at 46
points, is only STR 6, AP -2, and d3 damage. Its range is also only moderate at 36.” It fails to make up for
this mediocre profile with the ability to deny cover. Keep in mind that against anything without special
cover-based abilities ignoring cover only means one more point of AP (assuming the target is even in
cover), so it’s almost always better to just take one of the cheaper weapons with higher AP values, like
the battlecannon.

Choice two is between a single Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer, or Lascannon. The Heavy Bolter is a budget
option and is mostly for combining multiple guns to mow down large swathes of infantry, or for
diversification. In the context of the Russ, the Heavy Flamer is essentially an overpriced premium
version of the Heavy Bolter with an unfortunately low range. As a long-range weapons platform that is
rewarded for moving as slowly as possible, the Heavy Flamer is probably a poor choice for this vehicle.
The Lascannon is, as always, a solid anti-vehicle weapon.

You have the option to pay for an additional pair of weapons which can be Heavy Flamers, Heavy
Bolters, Multi-Meltas, or Plasma Cannons. Both weapons MUST be the identical. Plasma vents make it
less punishing if you hit a 1 on plasma, making Plasma Cannons somewhat more reliable. On the other
hand, 6 mortal wounds can still be pretty crippling and may well be fatal in the mid to late game. At the
very least it will degrade the Russ. Plasma is also less appealing on a vehicle with so many heavy gun
options. Still, plasma cannons are fairly cheap, so it’s a decent budget option that adds more solid anti-
tank. They are more appealing the cheaper you build the Russ, as a Plasma Cannon represents
proportionately more firepower on a cheap Russ, and you risk losing less in the event of a mishap.
Heavy Bolters are a very reasonable choice here, due to the cheap efficiency the guns represent and 36”
being a fair range. The Multi-Meltas are the most expensive option at 20 points but are fairly consistent
and able to deliver a similar damage output to overcharged plasma guns without the risk to your vehicle.
The main issue with Multi-Meltas is that 24” gives them substantially less range than many of your other
guns, which can be a problem if you are holding your Russ in the back field with a screen.

You have the option to take a Heavy Stubber or Storm Bolter as an additional weapon. I recommend
getting the Stubber if you want to fill the weapon slot. The Storm bolter is a couple points cheaper can
potentially fire an extra shot, but only at 12” range, which you probably don’t want to be at with most
Russ builds. In exchange the Stubber gains 1 shot at 12-24” and a second at 24-36.”

Because the GSC version of the Russ is more expensive, albeit barely, and can’t be taken in bunches,
whereas the Guard version can be taken in groups of 3, there are some incentives to get these guys
through Brood Brothers. But these incentives are mostly in the form of the option to invest more in, so
the GSC Russ is still a fine choice. When considering if you want to go Brood Brothers for your Russes,
make sure to factor in the cost of the HQ tax. Admittedly, this HQ can be a tank commander, which is
essentially a Lemon Russ that can give orders to other Lemon Russ so if you’re looking for 4+ Russes,
that’s probably the way to go.

Goliath Rockgrinder: Our final vehicle is a GSC only option and quite interesting. It’s a fair bit more
expensive than the standard goliath and represents a more aggressive tool with some important
caveats. The rockgrinder 2” slower, is NOT open topped and only has 6 carrying capacity, which makes it
far more specialized. On the other hand, the Rockgrinder has 1 point more toughness, keeps rugged
construction, and has more potent weapons access.

The Clearance Incinerator is the most expensive flamer in the army at 22 points. For those extra three
points you get an extra 3” of range, an additional point of STR, and a point of AP. Since the Rockgrinder
starts with a BS of 4+ which can degrade to as poor as 6+, the auto-hitting aspect of the incinerator is a
serious boon. 12” matters in that it secures overwatch against assault troops, in the event that that
occurs for some reason. It’s a very good range for a flamer. STR 5 is a great strength for dealing with
infantry, as is AP-1, but D1 stops the Incinerator from really pouring hate on TEQ. Still great for MEQ
though. The CI is a good choice for if you intend your goliath to be going after infantry / characters, but
not vehicles. As an assault weapon, the Incinerator also helps enable your Rockgrinder to reach the
enemy ASAP.

The Heavy Mining Laser is identical to the Mining Laser we went over earlier, but with increased range.
It makes a decent choice if the crew is going to be pure anti-tank, and it makes the vehicle more useful if
it survives deployment of troops, but in general it lacks much synergy with the Rockgrinder’s role as an
assault transport and doesn’t offer much incentive over just taking a neophyte troop with a mining laser.

The Heavy Seismic Cannon, on the other hand represents a considerable upgrade over the infantry
version, and seems like a good choice for the rockgrinder, able to pile in shots on TEQ enemies 4 S4, AP -
1, D2 shots, or hammer vehicles with 2 shots of S8, AP -2, D3 (yielding a scary damage potential of 6). Its
small range is also less of an issue than for neophytes as you’ll most likely be rushing into the opposition
to deliver your payload of fighters. At 25 points, the HSC is tied with the Heavy Mining Laser for price.
Like the Seismic Cannon, the heavy variant can rend, which can’t be considered reliable, but is
wonderful when it goes off. As an aside, the rending benefit is better on the standard version, since the
base AP is lower, but rending isn’t really why you take the weapon anyway.

Like the Goliath, the Rockgrinder can bring Demolition Caches for added bite, and since it’s almost
certainly heading directly into contact with a tank or monstrous creature, they seem like a logical choice.

Notably it’s an assault weapon. The basic order of operations is drive up, fire cache, drop payload of
fighters, assault alongside them.

The Rockgrinder is clearly oriented towards bringing small close combat forces and is actually a fair
combatant itself with S5 base and 6 attacks. You’ll note here that the regular goliath actually has S6, but
this decrease in strength is largely immaterial as the rockgrinder will always be swinging at S8 AP-2 Dd3
thanks to the drilldozer blade, which also grants an additional 1d3 attacks. All in all, a fantastic weapon
profile hampered significantly by a 5+ weapon skill, which only an average of 2-3 attacks will get past.

Acolytes seem like an obvious choice as far as who to carry. A 5-man squad of acolytes represents a
viable anti-tank squad that is extremely fragile, and the rockgrinder provides a solid answer for that
puzzle. There are some natural synergies in terms of weapons choice between acolytes and rockgrinders
as well. You could run aberrants in a rockgrinder instead, but this is something of a waste of their
natural durability compared to your other models, which is why I generally recommend them for
ambush rolls instead. You may notice that a squad of five acolytes leaves you with one slot remaining in
the inventory space, assuming you just use a bare minimum squad.

This is a perfect space to fit a primus.

The Primus will not only boost the acolyte’s performance, but the rockgrinder itself, improving that
horrible 5+ weapon skill to a more sustainable 4+. He will most likely assault with the acolytes (especially
since auras only work while a unit is outside of vehicles), but you also have the option to keep him
onboard so that the rockgrinder can continue firing its cache.

Aberrants also make for a good Rockgrinder crew for similar reasons, and also run very well with a
primus or (because their minimum squad is 4 instead of 5) a primus and an Iconward/Magus. The only
real reason not to take Aberrants in a Rockgrinder is that it’s something of a waste of their durability,
though this isn’t necessarily a deal breaker.

Supporting Tactics

That’s it for the units but I’d like to take a moment to discuss how to run GSC effectively.

First, on buffing.

As I’ve mentioned a few times, we have a lot of buffs. I’ll list them out here for reference. All of GSC’s
buffs effect units within 6” of the buffing unit. Also, keep in mind that buffing units are always affected
by their own auras as long as they meet the criteria. Pay special attention to the units that are affected,
as not all of our buffs are one size fits all.

Patriarch’s Brood Telepathy: PURESTRAIN GENESTEALERS get +1 to hit

Patriarch’s Living Idol: GSC Units Autopass Morale

Magus’s Spiritual Leader: GSC Units can deny the witch on spells that target them
Primus’s Cult Demagogue: GSC Units get +1 to hit

Iconward’s Nexus of Devotion: GSC INFANTRY get 6+ FNP

Iconward’s Sacred Cult Banner: GSC Units Reroll Failed Morale Checks

Iconward’s Icon of the Cult Ascendant: GSC INFANTRY get +1 Strength.

Warlord’s Focus of Adoration WL Trait: GSC INFANTRY can perform Heroic interventions.

As you can see, The Iconward’s Cult Banner, the Primus’s Demagogue, and the Magus’s Spiritual Leader
are the only powers that can affect non-infantry units. Everything else works on GSC infantry with the
exception of the Patriarch’s Brood Telepathy which only affects Purestrains.

All of these buffs stack. You might wonder whether buffs from multiple of the same model stack. That
depends on exact wording. In the case of Patriarchs, they do, but in the case of Primus’s they do not,
despite the powers being similar. Multiple iconwards will give multiple FNP rolls. You can never re-roll a
dice more than once, so Sacred Cult Banner does not stack, and you can only have one warlord trait /
copy of a relic, so stacking is irrelevant to Icon of the Cult Ascendant / Focus of Adoration. Multiple
Magus can allow multiple deny the witch attempts per model, although each power can only be denied
once per phase, so they have to be on different spells.

In addition to the 6” buff bubbles we also have access to our spell Might from the Beyond which gives +1
Strength & +1 Attack at 18” range and affects GSC INFANTRY, and the debuff Mass Hypnosis which
makes the target unable to fire overwatch, strike last, and gives -1 to hit.

As you can see it’s possible to have a 20-man squad of genestealers hitting on 2+ at S6, with 5 rending
attacks per turn, immune to morale, with 6+ FNP, and denying psychic powers as though they were
psychers. Don’t expect to see that every game. Keeping your buffers in line with your actual combatants
represents a real practical challenge. 6” bubbles are small. By putting your buffers in the center of your
infantry formation you can potentially hit every unit with the bubble, but when they have different
movement speeds, and some are assaulting, keeping them together can be difficult without sacrificing
speed. Focus of Adoration can be a tool for helping with this, allowing you to move units forward by
small degrees, but it is not itself a solution. Your units’ auras don’t work when they are in vehicles. This
is especially noteworthy for when planning your Primus + Rockgrinder shenanigans. You may be
tempted to hold your assault squad back in order to keep them buffed, but it’s usually better to move
them as quickly as possible and let the hanger backs play catch up. The sooner you tie up your
opponent’s models, the sooner you prevent them from using them to remove your own.

Below is a link on bubble wrapping, which can matter quite a bit to our army due to the way our units
interact, and our large number of characters.

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2012/08/40k-tactics-making-breaking-bubble-wraps.html

Finally, I have a few Teamup Combos I’ve found to be particularly effective. I’ve listed them below, along
with the reason(s) I find the combo effective.

Ambushing:

- Magus with Might from Beyond + Hammer Aberrants: 3 Strength 12 Attacks per model.
 - Primus + Any Combat Team: accurate landing and accurate attacks. For 1 CP you can be
relatively assured of landing the charge as well. Especially good for landing Aberrants or
Acolytes with Cutters, since the Primus cancel’s out their accuracy penalties.
- Patriarch + Genestealers: Accurate attacks and spell support for Genestealers, Bubble Wrapping
for Patriarch.

Vehicles:

- Acolytes/Aberrants + Primus + Rockgrinder: Primus buffs the vehicle’s assault accuracy along
with the Acolytes, which increases the speed and durability of the crew.
- Neophyte Weapons Team + Goliath with Demolitions Cache: Open-topped vehicle adds speed
and durability to weapons team while giving them additional firepower. \
- Chimera + Genestealers + Patriarch + Iconward with Icon of the Cult Ascendant: All the benefits
of Patriarch + Genestealers, but with much more durability, and ranged weapons for clearing
out screens before assaulting leads to better targets, along with additional attacks and the
ability to wound at STR 5 before factoring spells.

And that’s it. Please feel free to comment below. I’d love to see some discussion on the finer points of
these notes, and I hope something in here helped you improve your game in some way.