Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Genestealer Cults (section)

===Troops===

*'''Acolyte Hybrids<sup>{{W40kKeywords|Core|Crossfire}}</sup>''': These guys are your melee troops; halfway between a Neophyte Hybrid and a Purestrain Genestealer, Acolyte Hybrids are BS4+ WS3+ S4 T4. Each model has 2 attacks (except for the leader, who has 3), but their default Cult Claws and Knife weapon nets them a bonus attack and makes them AP-2, and each comes stock with an autopistol, blasting charges, and frag grenades. Acolytes come in squads of 5-15. At 9 points per model, they're roughly competitive with Ork Boyz.
**Acolyte options are closely tied to the kit - for every 5 models, you can replace the pistol ''and'' melee weapon on two mooks with your choice of a pair of demolition charges or one of the three Heavy Rock Tools - Saw, Cutter, and Drill. The Saw is the standard: WS3+ Sx2(8) AP-4 D2. The Cutter is WS4+ Sx2(8) AP-4 D3. The drill is the weirdest, at WS3+ Sx2(8) AP-4 D1, but if it hits it wounds automatically (so the Sx2 doesn't matter) and on a 6 to hit, it inflicts +2 mortal wounds. All of these are ten points each, which means Drill is ''far and away'' your best choice of weapon - there are targets for which the other two weapons are better (one for MEQ and one for TEQ), but against the vast majority of the game's targets, the Drill will outperform anything else.
**Any Acolytes and/or the Leader that do not have a mining tool and hence still have their autopistol can and always should swap their pistol for a Hand Flamer for 3 PPM. This gives them a decent ranged punch, but more importantly makes them play well with the Crossfire mechanic. Either you can use a squad of 5 to drop in and get 5 auto-hits for an automatic Crossfire token, or you can drop a large squad in, get the target Exposed, and enjoy +1 to Wound on 15d6 attacks.
**The Leader can swap out its melee weapon ''and'' pistol, ''individually'', for a bonesword (S+1(5) AP-2 D2, murders MEQ delightfully) or a lash whip (lets the model re-roll melee hit rolls against non-{{W40Kkeyword|monster}} non-{{W40Kkeyword|vehicle}}s) - limit one of each.  The whip isn't a melee weapon, instead buffing the user's melee (so if you swap the Leader's only melee weapon for a whip, you end up swinging your default CC weapon with re-rolls to hit, which is a lot worse than keeping the claw+knife).  That gets you a bunch of configurations that aren't very good, like autopistol+whip.  The configuration you should care about is Hand Flamer + Bonesword, for optimal murder.
***If you field the most murderous possible unit - 3 Hand Flamers mounted on a Leader with a Bonesword and 2 Acolytes with Claws and Knives, plus 2 models carrying Heavy Rock Drills - you have a 98.15% chance of being able to drop a Crossfire token on whatever you shot (the odds of rolling at least 5 hits on 3d6) and you will absolutely destroy most anything in your path, provided you can succeed on your charge roll.
*'''Neophyte Hybrids<sup>{{W40kKeywords|Core|Crossfire}}</sup>''': Your equivalent to Guardsmen, Neophyte Hybrids come in units of 10-20 with a single leader. For every 10 models, you get two special weapon slots and two heavy weapon slots. At 6 points per model, Neophytes are just as expensive as guardsmen, which is nice. If you're running a max sized blob, it's almost always worth it to run a Cult Icon so you can replenish your losses.
**Neophyte Hybrids can swap their autoguns for shotguns, sacrificing their 1 shot at >12" for the ability to shoot after Advancing and S4, which is usually worth it within 12" in terms of what the unit can murder, but significantly detracts from the unit's capabilities at longer range, particularly since it ''can't'' lay down crossfire tokens at more than 12" away with shotguns; take shotguns if and only if you take flamers (which implies the unit's job is to deep strike in and lay down vigorous murder).
**For special weapons, Webbers have the critical flaw of not hitting anything, not even automatically, so you can't lay down Crossfire markers with them, on top of not being able to wound anything that's S6+ ''at all''.  Flamers are ''better'' than Grenade Launchers against almost all possible targets, and that includes laying down Crossfire tokens - a Flamer on average hands out 3.33/5 of a crossfire token, and a Grenade's Krak profile needs to be at least BS3+ to have the same net average (since it hands out all 5 on a hit), which you already need a token on the target to reach, unless you have another special rule like exploding 6s to hit.  The issue is the same as with shotguns: superior performance within 12" in exchange for doing nothing at all in the >12"-24" band.  Take Grenade Launchers with Autoguns, Flamers with Shotguns - the former if you plan to start on the table, the latter if you plan to Deep Strike.  Longer range offers more versatility, so if you can't make up your mind, Launchers + Autoguns will be more forgiving of you deciding late.
**For heavy weapons, the Heavy Stubber isn't particularly useful, so you're reliably best off with the Seismic Cannon: it's the best weapon the unit can carry for handing out crossfire tokens, and will outperform a Mining Laser against the majority of Exposed targets.  If you use the Overload Fuel Cells strat, the Seismic Cannon gets ''even better'' in relative terms, with its two profiles going from 6 A*D each to 12 and 9 (x2 and x1.5), whereas the mining laser goes from A*D 3.5 to 4.5 (x1.29).  Stick to the Seismic Cannons.
**For the sergeant, note that every model in the unit has an autopistol it can't avoid taking, so if you swap the sergeant's autogun for an autopistol and chainsword, you've spent 0 points going from an autogun to 2 autopistols (same output from more than 1 to within 12", no shot from there to 24", and full output at engaged targets) and gotten a free chainsword for extra melee, which is usually a good choice.  The bolt pistol is always a bad choice (since a shotgun is free) and the web pistol is ''awful'' because it can't lay down Crossfire tokens.  Neophytes aren't really built for melee, though, so you probably don't want to shell out points for a melee weapon.  If you do, the Power Pick is better than the Power Maul against most things you have any chance of killing in melee, but the rest of the unit will hit so delicately you're honestly throwing points away.
**Note that as of this writing (1/10/22), the points entry for Neophyte Hybrids says that their unit size is 5-15 models, but the datasheet says 10-20, so the points entry is probably a misprint.