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

===Brood Brothers, Tyranid Allies, and you===
As mentioned above, Genestealer Cults armies have the option of allying in with the following:
* '''Astra Militarum:''' Requires one Genestealer Cults detachment for every Astra Militarum detachment, so in most cases you can take one detachment of them. They lose their objective secured, and Regimental-specific orders, stratagems and relics. They may also not select a Warlord for their detachment. All other bonuses (such as voice of command) and stratagems can be used. Did I mention you can take a Baneblade variant in a Superheavy Auxiliary detachment? [[Cheese|It wasn't getting any regimental-specific bonuses anyway.]]
* '''Tyranids:''' These can be allied in freely. They also happen to have the {{W40Kkeyword|Tyranid}} keyword which they share with the Genestealer cults, (big surprise there what next telling us that chaos is bad?). Unfortunately, you still can't use any of the Tyranid stratagems on your GSC units, due to the Tyranid FAQ preventing you from doing so, and can't be the target of their psychic powers either.

You should use allies to shore up the weaknesses in the Genestealer Cults army (for example, by bringing in a Shadowsword to deal with titans). The "hot takes" for allies will be added below. In general Genestealer Cults have the following issues:

* '''Removing screens for their Cult Ambush:''' Any Genestealer Cults player knows that a simple screen can end up with you wasting a 376pts deathstar on a few weak squads. Genestealer Cults rely on their Cult Ambush to get a lot of their "heavy lifting" done, so it's often worth having allies on the board to first remove the screens with shooting.
* '''Anti-tank (and anti-titan):''' This issue can be resolved with Aberrants in melee, but this strategy often has the flaw of being screened, as mentioned above. Furthermore, your Aberrants can't be everywhere at once, and so it is best to have some points-efficient allies who can take down tanks. The mining lasers provided by the Genestealer Cults don't prove effective unfortunately, or at least when compared to allied choices. Or you could get a 6 point differnce in leadership and auto kill even a warlord titan.
* '''A first-turn board presence that doesn't feel wasted:''' As per the "Big FAQ 2", now at least half your ''points'' (and units) must be deployed on the battlefield. This means that without allies, you have to put over 1,000pts of squishy glass cannons on the board turn 1. Rather than fill up this 1,000+ points on Neophytes or expensive units like Aberrants that will quickly get picked off, it is better to have sturdier allies start on the board, and put most of your Cult in reserve, where they belong. 
* '''Keeping board control before Cult Ambush:''' It is highly important that you gain control of the "no man's land" area of the battlefield, to prevent your opponent from expanding their forces to create a null-zone of anti-deep strike. The last thing you want is for your ambushing units to be restricted to the back corner of your deployment zone when ambushing. Use some fast and reasonably durable units to do this. 
**Also, throw a Clamavus at the front of your deployment zone to get a nice 12" bubble of deep stike denial, then just shore up the flanks with some scout move Ridgerunners.
**Our new Ambush Blips provide a 9" no entry bubble for first turn.