Hi everyone, Michael here with a review of the command points king of the Genestealer Cults army, the Nexos. For more reviews and analyses, check out the Tactics Corner.
Overview:
The Nexos has one role in the Genestealer Cults army, to help you regain command points. After deployment, his job is to hide at the back of your deployment zone and help you regain command points for your army. In combination with other characters, your odds of regaining points increases. The Nexos costs 50 points.
I would rate him as Efficient. His only role is to try and help you get back CP for your army. The matched play limitations to regaining one CP per battle round does limit the gains in the force, however, in combination with a couple of other characters, you are almost guaranteed to get one back per turn. Whether this is worth the 50 pts of your army is for you to decide.
Wargear:
- Autopistol
Abilities:
- Cult Ambush
- Unquestioning Loyalty
- Strategic Coordinator- After this model has been set up on the battlefield, you can select one ambush marker on the battlefield and remove it, deploying it anywhere in your deployment zone more than 12” from any enemy models. In addition, if your army is battle-forged, roll a D6 each time either player spends a command point to use a stratagem while a Nexos from your army is on the battlefield. On a roll of a 6+, you immediately gain one command point. If there is a <Cult> Nexos and Primus in your army on the battlefield, you regain a command point on a 5+ if you spent the command point. If there is a <Cult> Nexos and Clamavus in your army on the battlefield, you gain a command point on a 5+ if your opponent spent the command point.
Tactics
The role of the Nexos in the Genestealer Cult army is pretty basic and entirely what you would expect.
The ability to move one ambush counter after deploying the Nexos is very useful, as this is a key feature of the army. This allows you to re-position one of your units to better exploit a weakness in the enemy deployment, or to react to your opponent’s moves if you don’t get the first turn.
After that, the role of the Nexos is to hide and help you get command points back. This is one of the only ways for the Genestealer Cults to regain CP during the game. Deploy the Nexos out of line of sight and in cover if possible to keep him safe from enemy firepower and assaults. Sit him on an objective if one is suitable, so that he can claim it later in the game. You can also use a unit of Neophyte Hybrids to babysit him (and claim an objective) if they are spare, as well as providing bodies for Unquestioning Loyalty saves.
You get to roll a D6 each time you or your opponent uses a CP on a stratagem. By my reading of the rule, you would roll 3D6 if you used a 3CP stratagem, and any roll of a 6 means you get a command point back.
You get a bonus to the roll if you have a Primus or Clamavus on the table, depending on who spent the CP. Both of these characters are great and valuable additions to the Genestealer Cults, so you are likely to have at least one of each in the army to get the bonus. You are unlikely to get the bonus in the first turn, as these characters are likely to be deployed in underground ambush on the first turn, but should be getting the bonuses from turn 2 onwards, for as long as they are alive.
The limits to regaining CP in matched play do limit the effectiveness of the Nexos a bit. After you have gained a CP for the turn, there is little else for him to do.
There are a few Cult Creeds that will be of use to the Nexos. Rusted Claw will boost his save against certain weapons, and Bladed Cog will give him an invulnerable save. However, the best defence is to keep him hidden from enemy guns or combat for as long as possible.
Overall
The Nexos is one of the easiest support characters to use in the Genestealer Cults army. He is the epitome of CP farming, as his only role after deployment is to get you CP back. He has little shooting or melee prowess to contribute to the army, so don’t bother trying to do anything with him. He is not the most exciting characters, but is likely to be one of the most consistent in the army, giving you the potential to get back up to 7CP in a single game to use for key stratagems in your army.
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Being a Character seems like a major advantage for his secondary role of Backfield Objective Camper. Unlike a Unit of Neophytes or something, he can’t be targeted by random Mortars or Thunderfire Cannon or whatever. You only really even need to worry about LoS where Snipers and such are concerned.
Yeah, being a character is a big boost to his durability. Fortunately for his battlefield role, you can just hide him the whole game and don’t need to worry about getting into position, line of sight, etc.