The Cult Rises!

 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 

The Dust Settles

We're back after a week off post The Gladiator Games Team Event and damn was it a good weekend. A massive shout out to Joshua McGowan for putting on a great event and leaving us all keen for more! 
But lets get into talking all things GSC! There's still plenty more testing to do before I'm totally sold on this archetype but so far so good, with the games I played over the weekend I couldn't fault it if I'm honest, not only was it a real bully for pairings but it also just really wasn't scared of much, for everyone that knows how well GSC can score I could confidently throw myself into any lists from the other teams and know I was going to be able to hold my own without being too concerned with what they were packing. 

In my mind this archetype functions far better into the current meta over the Jakals and there's a few reasons for this. With lists starting to include more and more volume in their melee units (world eaters, orks, daemons) and in their shooting (guard, tau, votann, admech) the Jakals need more and more protection and force you to play far more conservatively then you would really like to. Something a lot of people can't quite wrap their head around with the GSC to really unlock its potential is the units that are on the table NEED to force an over commitment from your opponent to drag them out from playing super cagey and screening or defending themselves from the neophyte drop and with the bikes being so fragile into a number of those lists they are no longer achieving what they were once there to do. When I busted out the Jakal list for WTC the meta was very different, for one thing it was Nephlim but also your "big dog" lists were leviathan nids, sisters, tau using hammer heads and crisis suits that has all for the most part changed dramatically, those lists really struggled in being able to handle the bikes while they threatened a primary lead and held onto a very commanding board state. Now those units are much easier for the current lists to deal with thanks to the added injection of volume and re rolls that all those factions have this forces players to be far more passive with their bikes because you don't want them to be picked up too cheaply but while doing that you're really hindering the overarching idea of the list in being so good at forcing your opponent to leave their solid defensive set up behind walls to enable the neophytes to actually do their damage. 

I know there is always an argument that all the high strength and damage weapons people pack into lists just pick of the trucks far too easily and for the most part that would be correct, but there is so many ways to mitigate how effectively they can do that through obvious things like dense cover but also really abusing how toxic blips are, placing a blip hard up against the wall giving yourself options to deploy defensive on your side of the wall if you're going second or hyper agressive and using your turn 1 movement phase to hide further up the table if you're going first, but not only that with -1 damage the FNP they can be really irritating to pick up and often leads to people needing to over commit to kill the trucks. 

In addition to all that there is a number of lists that do not excel at killing the vehicles from range and this allows you to play very fluently with your vehicle placement and launching obsec accolytes out of trucks to hold objectives out of sight and really threaten a strong primary lead against your opponent and this starts to create a really frustrating on flowing effect for your opponent, they are forced to engage in an exchange war with you which is perfect, utilising agile guerrillas with all the seismics and demo charges on the vehicles makes it really easy to bring the guns to bare and start pulling teeth out of the opponent's lists very quickly, this forces a stronger commitment from them which is now exposing them to more damage from the neophytes and this is where you break their back everyone does seem to forget that the list is all about the neophytes, not the jakals and not the vehicles everything in the list outside of the neos is all about supporting and creating the best possible scenario for the neophytes to come in and do their job, majority of the thought process and planning MUST go into getting maximum value from the neos or you simply aren't going to make enough of an impact on turns 2/3 and you'll find yourself running out of steam very quickly. 

In my games over this event and every other event I've taken the GSC to I spend an extra bit of time on turns 1 and 2 ensuring I can set up a position that is really going to land my opponent in an awful spot and a lot of this comes down to experience with the faction and really understanding the limitations of your list and that will help you determine what sort of position you can put yourself in without giving them too much or you under committing because you are being more cautious than you should be. 

During the event I had the pleasure of playing 5 great opponents and I was lucky enough to play against a healthy mix of factions ( Drukhari, Tau, World Eaters, Chaos Marines, Drukhari) 
you can see for this event I was strongly hunting melee lists for 4/5 rounds and round 2 against the tau I was looking to catch a list no one in my team wanted to play against, a lot of people think this sort of thing only works in teams where you can avoid bad match ups but it's often looked over how much the GSC is used to bully other defending lists into a match up we want because they are not confident enough to take on the GSC, this happened a number of times with Daemons and Guard. 

Overall the list was very successful and really shined in the team environment, the only things I would really look to consider adding into the list is making room for icons on the neophytes for singles, for teams I don't think its needed as much, I would also look to maybe a bit more melee threat in units like metamorphs just for some extra teeth in digging certain units out from behind walls. 

I hope you enjoyed the read! If you'd like to see more or have a chat directly to me like and follow the facebook page The Alien Majesty ( https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090609639176 ) and if you enjoy the adventure I'm on with this feel free to show some love and support over on the Patreon ( patreon.com/TheAlienMajesty )

Chad-stealercult cometh!

 Over the past few weeks I've been working on some different Genestealercult builds in preparation for the Gladiator Gaming Teams Event and have just been ironing out some of the final tech choices in the list, now some of this may seem crazy but bare with me I believe there is two directions I would move the cult list in heading into this ever changing meta and I will touch on that in this article. 

Before I get into the list I want to talk about why I've chosen to go down this path. Since before WTC I've been playing the 30 jakals religiously but with guard entering the meta, tau not changing and remaining an issue to deal with and the biggest baddie for GSC being Chaos Daemons I've decided it's time to change things up, the jakals are still an amazing archetype and would definitely be something I would still consider for teams. The core of the list being the neophyte bombs still remains the backbone of the army so for the most part the good match ups haven't changed at all but I've made an effort to adjust how the list matches up into the harder games (Daemons, Guard, Tau and Chaos Knights). To do this I have pivoted into the myriad cult ( Agile guerrillas, Industrial Affinity and War convoy) the list is built around being able to be just as mobile as the jakals but also keep the damage threatening before the neos even show up, a lot of the lists that you play against these days have a considerably less amount of shooting activations that are genuinely threatening and the mass transports that are fairly tough make this a little more awkward to handle it becomes very easy for them to under commit while still being fast enough thanks to agile guerrilas to project damage/threat even while hiding so the games where your opponent actually has the ability to pick up multiple transports at range you aren't hindered by hiding while you wait for the neophyte drops before you really throw the kitchen sink at them. 

Lets get into the list; 

Myriad Cult  ( Agile guerrillas, Industrial Affinity and War convoy)

HQ: 
Patriarch, Prowling Agitant
- Psychic stimulus, Psionic Blast 

Primus 

5 accolytes, 2x demo charge 
5 accolytes, 2x demo charge 
5 accolytes, 2x demo charge 
5 accolytes, 2x demo charge 
5 accolytes 

20 neophytes, 4 seismic cannon, 4 webber - Lying in wait 
20 neophytes, 4 seismic cannon, 4 webber - A Perfect Ambush 
20 neophytes, 4 seismic cannon, 4 webber 
10 neophytes, 2 seismic cannon, 2 webber 
10 neophytes, 2 seismic cannon, 2 webber 

Kelermorph - Wyrmtooth Rounds 
Nexos - Cranial inlay 
Saboteur - Opressors Bane 
Sanctus, Cult sniper rifle 

Rockgrinder, Heavy seismic, demo cache 
Rockgrinder, Heavy seismic, demo cache 
Rockgrinder, Heavy seismic, demo cache 

Goliath truck, demo cache - every angle 
Goliath truck, demo cache 

Now this list is a very different take on the faction compared to the Jakal archetype but is holding some really niche tech for certain match ups that I believe tip them over the edge. 

For starters I think Chaos Daemons have got to be one of the toughest games for GSC and having something like prowling agitant on the patriarch becomes a really useful tool when most of the daemons lists are packing very minimal flamers or shooting in general, he becomes a really useful screen and damage dealer with the double up of damage spells in smite and psionic blast and with the daemon infantry units being very vulnerable to melee damage this piece becomes a real pain for them to respond too, I also decided against throwing mental onslaught on the Patriarch not only because it has a higher cast level but I also really wanted psychic stimulus in the list to protect myself from random units landing big charges and being able to tag units of neophytes, this at least gives me some level of safety from this. This is something I spent hours mulling over but after a couple of games I really like how he fits into the list. 

Now, the Saboteur, for some reason a generally laughed at unit which to me is insane because in the right build giving this model crossfire is amazing tech, she really helps in any of the mech match ups whether it be sentinels, knights, daemon monsters or anything packing a high number of transports. Against any vehicles or monsters she becomes a really useful tool at generating crossfire which as anyone who plays this faction knows the more cheap crossfire generation you have the higher ceiling you have on your damage. 

The real sleeper is the demo cache on all the vehicles, and I don't mean something as simple as throwing demo charges = good, but it opens up the auto explodes stratagem which really is a money maker especially against phase capped models, between the armed explosive strat you can use on an objective, the saboteour mine and the auto explodes in combination with a few cheeky damage spells you take an army that typically struggles to do multi phase damage to having a comfortable amount to deal with a number of various problems. 

For me personally I really enjoy how the Agile Guerillas plays with the advancing transports launching 2d6 demo shots into people with the heavy seismic shots the damage on the table becomes very potent that the jakal list just cannot do from a safe distance. 

Long story short I still think the Jakal build is incredibly strong but I believe this handles the current meta slightly better and has more game into everything across the board as it also doesn't give up a relatively soft no prisoners but we'll see how it all pans out this weekend when I bust this bad boy out, look out for updates on The Alien Majesty Facebook page I'll be posting pictures of all my match ups there as well as some mid and post game photos! 

The Awakening

 Welcome to the depths of The Hive Mind! 

In this blog I'll be covering the process to preparing for a big event, discussing my results both good and bad along with offering in detail analysis of some of my match ups both in tournament and practice games, how I plan to improve my own list and play style against some of the more common lists getting around at the time. As you all know this game changes rapidly and with 10th edition on the horizon I expect things to start getting pretty crazy, so I'll also be providing my own thoughts on where the meta is heading and how exactly we should consider approaching the changes. 

But before we get into the juicy stuff and talk about what it is I'm working on right now, a bit about myself. 
My name is Erik Lathouras, I've been playing 40k competitively for roughly 12 years now, out of those twelve years I spent many of those learning the game and trying to improve on my own skills and ability to read the meta, a background in competitive chess certainly has helped me there. In the past 7 years I've made some monumental achievements and some of those include; Cancon 2019 winner, Briscon Major winner, A three time Queensland master, 5/5 tournament wins at the Australia and New Zealand Team Championships playing for Team Queensland and as of recently Captain of the 2022 World Champions - Team Australia. Over the years I've played in countless events with consistent results and podiums but these are some that I am most proud of. 

I look forward to working with many of you throughout this tournament season and I hope you enjoy hearing about some of the innovative ways I come up with to tackle the meta with Forces of the Hive Mind, the first event on the menu is Gladiator Gaming Teams Event held on the 4th/5th of March here in Brisbane, QLD so stay tuned to see what I'm playing for this one and why! 

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