After a short break and we're back! A big weekend down in Meadowie at the Down Under 40k Major hosted by Ben Way, Dale and their amazing crew and man, what an event!
These guys really did an amazing job with this one, as always the venue was amazing, atmosphere was one of the best I've been a part of in a long time, you guys should be proud.
So going into this event I started working on some new cult ideas that were relatively untested for me and there was a number of reasons that sold me on the Rusted Claw and I'll talk about why I went with them and where I thought their tech choices would be useful into what I was expecting from the meta, but first lets start with the list I took;
Rusted Claw
Patriarch, The Nomads Mantle, Entropic Touch, (mental Onslaught, psionic blast)
Magus, Psionic blast, Psychic stimulus
Primus
5 accolytes, 1 hand flamer
5 accolytes
5 accolytes
20 neophytes, 4 flamers - Lying in Wait
20 neophyte, 4 seismic cannons, 4 webbers, cult icon
20 neophyte, 4 seismic cannons, 4 webbers, cult icon
Kelermorph
Nexos - Cranial Inlay
Saboteur, oppressors bane
Sanctus, Cult sniper rifle
8x Purestrains
4 jakals, 2 demo charges - Came from Below
4 jakals, 2 demo charges
Rockgrinder, demo cache, heavy seismic cannons
Rockgrinder, demo cache, heavy seismic cannons
Rockgrinder, demo cache, heavy seismic cannons
Truck, demo cache - From every angle
Truck, demo cache
Now this list plays considerably different to the old Myriad Cult build I usually play and this really showed at the event with people getting more and more experience into the GSC when you throw even a slight curve ball and really change how the list plays on the table you find them really struggling to come up with an idea on how to respond or defend against it and this list really packs a number of tech choices that are purpose built to respond to the common way to defend against GSC.
The big inclusions is of course, my man, The Nomad Patriarch, I cannot express how much I loved having this character, in almost every game he was incredibly useful even if it was just for the threat of what he can do, your opponent needs to constantly bubble wrap important characters or units because you just cannot let the patriarch slip into a gap and pick up some important buffing characters or screening units like infiltrators, for the most part it forces your opponent to bunch up a little more then they would like to which of course as a GSC player is exactly what you want, it stops them from fanning out and screening effectively to stop the neophytes, not only was the Patriarch so good on its own it works in sync with the Jakals.
Rusted Claw Jakals bring something to the table that GSC really has been missing in the other lists, especially as people adapt to playing against them, and that is the ability to throw demo charges from out of line of sight which is huge in so many match ups! on paper the idea of it doesn't seem like much but I can assure in you in practice it's amazing, for those of you that don't know I'll quickly walk you through how it works,
In the movement phase you select one enemy unit you moved/advanced/fell back within 6" of, and you throw a max shot demo charge at the unit regardless if you are no longer in range or line of sight of the target, so there's a couple of things here, because the weapon doesn't have the ability to shoot from out of line of sight you won't suffer the indirect penalties, on top of that if you're targeting something within 6 of the jakals you will also gain exposed and ignore cover and pocket the +1 to wound into the target which you will gain the benefits of because unlike the other GSC lists in this one the nexos will start on the table to buff the jakals in the games where you need to pull out some teeth early from your opponents screening ability, so in my final game vs Chris Wright there was a small ruin hard up against the edge of the table serving as a really irritating staging ruin for something like spacewolves, normally that would cause massive headaches for the GSC army but with the Rusted Claw you at least have an answer, so I could move near the skyclaws/wolfguard using the ruin to stage, throw 6 demo shots hitting on 3s re rolling ones and wounding on 2s re rolling ones this becomes really effective at crippling units wanting to attack your objectives from behind walls, on top of that because it happens in the movement phase it opens up a range of opportunities with your gene stealers and the nomad patriarch to slot in and cause some serious issues.
Heading into this event though I expected a number of the top players include tech choices to better handle GSC and I saw this show up a number of times with more and more infiltrators filling out the field, lists trying to include as many fast melee units as possible to better absorb the neophyte drop and clap back, so my expectations were pretty accurate for this and I was really happy with the changes I've made to the list and how it handles the tech people have brought into the list for GSC, this version simply isn't bothered by infiltrators or a fast melee list planning to play its game staging around ruins and projecting threat from safety.
All in all I was very happy with how the list performed and it certainly lived up to expectations, there wouldn't be many changes I'd think to make if any and in my eye this is the tip of the spear for GSC in the current meta
