Hi everyone, Michael here with a review of the key upgrades for your Genestealer Cults units, through the proficient planning section. For more reviews and analyses, check out the Tactics Corner.
Proficient Planning upgrades are one of the key ways to get the best out of your GSC units, giving you access to a number of key bonuses and tricks that you can use for your army. I’m going to take a look at the ones that I use most often in my army, and the key tactics you can use with them.
They Came From Below
This is one of the most powerful upgrades that you can give to a GSC unit, and an absolute bargain at only 10 pts. Once you deploy a unit from a blip counter, you can make a free move, as if it was your movement phase. This move cannot end within 9″ of an enemy unit. Alternatively, you can choose to remove the unit from the table and set them up Underground.
This upgrade is amazing on a unit of Purestrain Genestealers. Once deployed, you can use this upgrade to move them 8″ (9″ with Twisted Helix), then move another 8″ in your movement phase, auto-advance 6″ with the stratagem. This means a unit of Purestrains can move 22″ (24″ with Twisted Helix) and still charge. This gives the unit an incredible threat range and almost guarantees a first turn charge.
A unit of 10 Purestrains puts out 40 attacks, hitting on 2’s at S4 (S5 with Twisted Helix) and AP-3. This can be further boosted by adding psychic buffs to the squad, such as +1 to attack with Might From Beyond.
This unit is an extreme threat that will need to be dealt with. Thanks to the ways that Blip counters work, you can line this unit up across from the biggest threat in your opponent’s army and get a charge on them on turn 1. Given the power of the Purestrains, there are few units that can handle their attacks, so you get the chance to eliminate a key threat on turn 1.
The mobility of this squad is also great for move blocking your opponent on the first turn. Even if the squad does not charge, you can easily string them across a bit proportion of your opponent’s deployment zone, blocking them from moving out to grab objectives. Just be aware of any characters or units that can heroically intervene and take out the Genestealers if you are using them as a speed bump to the enemy army.
If you don’t get the first turn, you can choose to put this unit back into reserve to keep them safe from enemy firepower, or can use the extra move to push them up into cover or onto an objective. Another great tactic is to use this squad to take out any forward deploying units that can hamper your reserves coming in. Units such as Infiltrators or Incursors will fall to the Purestrains quite easily. Once a unit is destroyed, you can always use Return to the Shadows to put the Purestrains back into reserve to keep them safe from reprisal for another turn. This makes the Purestrain Genestealers a great unit for destroying an enemy threat without having to inevitably lose them the following turn.
A Trap Sprung
This upgrade allows you to roll 3D6 for a charge (picking two dice of your choice) on the turn that you charge from being set up from Underground.
This upgrade is 15 pts to boost your odds of making a charge coming out of reserve. This is a key upgrade for a close combat unit, giving you a greater chance of making a charge when you come out of Ambush. GSC are an army that can live and die with charges from reserve, so any buff to this is going to be key. This improves your odds of rolling an 8″ charge, and you can always use a CP re-roll to improve your odds (or get a re-roll thanks to Four-Armed Emperor).
Obviously, the best place to put this is on a combat unit, helping to ensure they get to make that key charge from reserves. There are a number of great combat units in the GSC, such as Acolyte Hybrids, Metamorph Hybrids and Purestrain Genestealers. I like to use this on an Acolyte squad with Heavy combat weapons (Drill, Saw or Cutter) to ensure that they make it in to do the damage with their heavy weaponry.
Lying in Wait
This is one of the most expensive upgrades at 20 pts, but I think it is fantastic and can swing games for you. This allows a unit to set up from Underground anywhere on the battlefield at least 3″ away from enemy units, though you cannot charge that turn.
This upgrade is fantastic for getting right in the face of the enemy army. A unit of 5 Acolytes with this upgrade costs 65 pts. What it excels at is stealing objectives from under your opponent’s nose. A lot of the time, your opponent will just be in range of an objective marker, or guarding the backfield objective with some non-obsec units. Being able to put down a unit of 5 obsec models just over 3″ away means a lot of the time you can steal what your opponent thought was a safe objective from them, denying primary pts or shutting down secondary objectives.
GSC also have access to stratagems that block heroic interventions, so you can even steal objectives from lone characters from holding objectives without fear of the unit being wiped out. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have used this to grab an objective from my opponent and deny them any primary points.
While the squad cannot charge, they can still shoot. This allows you to take some Demo Charges, or load up on Hand Flamers in order to fire at nearby enemy units. I used to like keeping the unit bare bones, to allow them to do an action, such as Teleport Homers. With this going away, I may look at adding some firepower to the squad, though they can always do RND if needed.
A Perfect Ambush
When a Crossfire unit is set up from Underground, select one enemy unit within 12″. Until the end of the turn, each time a model in the unit makes a ranged attack, the enemy unit is treated as having a Crossfire marker and as being Exposed (+1 to hit and to wound).
This upgrade is 15 pts and seriously boosts the firepower potential of a squad against a single enemy unit. Getting +1 to hit and to wound is great for the GSC, as their firepower is generally pretty poor. This works well on a unit of Neophyte Hybrids, as they generally have access to a wider range of weaponry. A unit with Shotguns will get two shots each, hitting and wounding on 3’s against any target that is T4. However, the lack of AP on some weapons is going to be an issue for dealing with tougher enemy units.
It is also nice to counteract the penalty of firing Heavy Weapons when coming out of reserve (unless you ignore the penalty with Rusted Claw), as these are some of the more potent weapons in the Neophyte’s arsenal.
I have been using this with the Kelermorph in my list to boost his potency on the turn he comes out of reserve. Getting +1 to hit and wound on a S5 pistol that can do mortals has proven to be very useful. He is great for clearing weaker 1W units off of objectives the turn he arrives. In addition, he can move after he shoots, allowing you to clear a unit off the objective with his firepower, then move onto it to claim it.
Overall
These are just some of the tricks you can use with your Proficient Planning upgrades, as well as ones to look out for if your opponent is using them. Some of these are pretty much essential upgrades for the Cult, really boosting their threat potential by ensuring they can get into combat, or moving to steal objectives from your opponent.
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