Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Genestealer Cults (section)

===Troops===

*'''Acolyte [[Genestealer Hybrids]]''': Your infantry blob, melee flavour. They're first and second generation hybrids, highly deadly for troops and can be made even deadlier with loads of weapons. Even vanilla Acolytes are gnarly; for 7 points you get a S4 WS 3+ 2A Deep Striking mutant armed with a re-named chainsword and a Rending Claw. Don't forget their pistols, too; great to soften up that juicy blob of GEQ before rip-and-tearing your way through the unbelievers with some knives. Absolutely an auto-take. 
**The Heavy Rock Drill and Heavy Rock Cutter can give tough enemy units a very, very nasty surprise with their mortal wound spam and instant kill abilities.
***If they wound, they will on average deal ~2.8 damage with each swing. Consider taking the Saw instead - it's 10 points rather than the Drill's 17.
***The maximum 8 Heavy Rock Drills in a 20 man squad is a potential 80 mortal wounds with every round of fighting (or 120 if you're using '''Might From Beyond'''). Never mind [[Meme|the heavens]], you can pierce a ''titan'' with power like that. Now only 136 points just for the Drills! Still, if you do somehow manage to get stuck in against something that would require that many mortal wounds to down (like an entire Imperial Knight army) they will make back significantly more than their cost.
**Now that Hand Flamers are 1 point each, seriously consider ignoring melee options and giving everyone of your lads a hand flamer. Set them up underground, emerge 3 inches away from some poor sod and drown him in a tide of flame. A GW approved strategy.
***Demo charges aren't a great pick - d6 shots at 4+ BS means you'll get 1.7 hits per model, on average, and since they have Grenade you need to spend CP to throw more than one at a time. Stick with mining equipment.
**Cult Icons are pretty much ALWAYS worth it. Re-rolling 1s for a mere 10 points is amazing on a unit that hits on 3s, and will be hitting on 2s so long as you're near a Primus. It can also save you when you roll three embarrassing 1s on 4 attacks with your heavy rock weapons.

*'''Neophyte [[Genestealer Hybrids]]''': Doing dual duty as both expendable meat shields and troops: ranged flavour, these guys manage to have a separate identity from guardsmen and cultists through their use of cult ambush. You can easily spare points for some of these guys without having to rely on transports. It's not one hundred percent reliable, but it is cheap and can be scary done properly. Can take two Heavy Mining Weapons and/or two special weapons. Consider what you're likely to be facing before making your choice.
**'''Big Warning:''' Chapter Approved has typoed them to be [[Wat|55 points per model]]. had been FAQed.
**Autogun Neophytes are perfect for seizing distant objectives. Plop down some guys from Underground and you instantly have the objective in your grip; an absolute irritation for your opponent if you leave them open on the first turn before you seize them and turn your big gunline of 20x Neophytes on that now-vulnerable objective seizing unit. Even better if you run Rusted Claw Neophytes, which consequently gives them the equivalent of a 3+ in cover.
**Shotgun Neophytes are the perfect bodyguard for a Kelermorph. Pop them up together, Kelermorph mows down the poor sod he aims at and all your lovely Assault 2 S4 guns are re-rolling 1s. Blast the apostates back to the Warp!
**Cult Icons aren't as valuable for Neophytes as they are for Acolytes, but they can be useful if paired with certain creeds; Twisted Helix, Pauper Princes and Hivecult spring to mind. They're only really useful for Shotgun Neophytes though; don't bother handing them to Autogun Neophytes.
**For 80 points a 10 man Neophyte squad can have 2 mining lasers, and 2 grenade launchers effectively doubling the firepower for the points cost for the weapons in most other forces. {{W40Kkeyword|Bladed Cog}} then means no matter how you move them up these boys still hit on normal BS!
***Give two of such squads this loadout and give the champ a Chainsword/Cultist Knife and a Web Pistol and give the five others shotguns to give a mean overwatch. Buff out these two squads with an Acolyte Iconward, and for 215Pts you have 4 Krak Granades and Lascannons going out to 24", and a nice DISTRACTION CARNIFEX for the rest of your dudes.
****This strat is only really worthwhile if you spring this blob next to some Leman Russ' or other type of tank/walker.
**Three squads with a Alphus and either a Primus or a warlord trait character giving them rerolling wounds vs a target means the Neophytes are hitting on 3s with 6 lascannons, along with 6 krak grenades hitting on 3s, all rerolling to wound - a major threat to any vehicle.
**Generally not advisable, but this unit can still use the Index entry to take a Heavy Weapons team in place of two Neophytes. While usually a substandard option (not only does it cost you the ability to take 2 Heavy Mining Weapons, but you even lose the extra Autogun that most other HWTs get to keep), this ''does'' reduce the base model count of this unit to 9. Since Goliaths make no mention of HWTs taking up 2 spaces, by RAW this would allow you to squeeze in a CHARACTER aboard with the squad. Very situational, but something to think about.

*'''[[Brood Brothers]] Infantry Squad''': These are the same as in the Guard codex. Your cheapest troop choice by 1 point. They swap out access to Guard Regiments & Regimental Orders for the basic GSC army rules of '''Cult Ambush''' and '''Unquestioning Loyalty'''. They're your source of man-portable heavy weapons such as lascannons and mortars, which combined with Cult Ambush can make for some nasty ambushes, but otherwise - pass in favour of Neophytes; the miners get Creeds, stratagems, buffs from characters, while the Brood Brothers are just...there.
**An alternate view: Per the latest FAQ, these dudes can no longer take orders from allied in Brood Brother Guard officers. However, a squad is up to 20 models and if you want to upgrade a cheap squad's firepower, they can take two flamers or grenade launchers regardless of squad size. There is, at least, an argument to be made for their place in a list.
*** Vox-casters are always useful as they grant re-rolls to Morale instead of the range boost to orders they give in the AM codex.

====Dedicated Transport====
As of the Codex, the Goliath Truck may only transport {{W40Kkeyword|<CULT>}} units, while the Chimera may only transport {{W40Kkeyword|Brood Brothers}} units. Bear this in mind when planning your army.

*'''[[Goliath Truck]]''': Open-topped so you can fire your autoguns and hand flamers out of it. You also get 10 point Demolition Charges to throw if there's a unit with a BS embarked. Comes armed with a single heavy stubber and a twin autocannon. Fragile at T6 and a 4+, but ignores wounds on a 6. This unit costs just under 80 points, so if you're taking it to solely protect your Neophytes, remember you could be taking 16x extra Neophytes for the same cost. It's also a pretty good way to deliver 10 d6 flamer pistol hit without using cult ambush.
**Consider using it as a battle-bus with some cheap neophytes in it, but be aware that it'll fold under any concentrated fire - it's a light vehicle, not a tank.
*'''Cult [[Chimera Transport|Chimera]]''': Generally more durable than the truck with +1T and +1Sv (although lacking the Rugged Construction ability to ignore wounds on a 6), but loses open-topped so your troops can't add their firepower to the Chimera's guns. The Chimera has more versatile - although not necessarily more powerful - weapon options, smoke launchers, and a slightly bigger transport capacity so you can bring a couple of characters with your 10-man squad. Embarked units enable it to shoot its Lasgun batteries, which are weaker but much longer ranged than the Goliath's demo charges.