vs Genestealer Cults

Land Raiders are so cool.

Genestealer Cults is such an interesting match up for me. On paper, their sheer volume of attacks and high-damage weapons should rip my Grey Knights apart. But also on paper, they are made of paper, and Grey Knights are no slouches when it comes to horde-killing dakka.

We played the mission Four Pillars from CA2018, and rolled up Search and Destroy deployment. Four Pillars is a pretty straight forward mission. You set up four objective markers each 15" from the center of the board. At the end of each battle round, the player who holds the most objectives scores a point and the player who killed the most units scores a point. As I looked across the table, I immediately realized what my biggest issue would be.

Exactly 100 models.

That is a shit ton of Troops. The objectives in this mission are all pretty close to the center, and if I'm not careful he could hold all four every round just through having more guys with ObSec. Another problem I see here is that I simply have no idea what I'm looking at. Genestealer Cults is such a dark spot in my 40k knowledge. My buddy went over his list and told me his Warlord Traits (plural), Psychic Powers, Relics, and Specialist Detachments, but, if I'm being incredibly honest, there was so much going on in this list that I knew I wasn't going to remember any of it. I don't remember any of it now! I'm not even sure of the names of most of those units. I decided I would focus on broad strokes and I made some mental notes:

• The Troops die easy, but if even one is near an objective my Paladins will fail to claim the point.
• Those bikes can deep strike 3" away with a Stratagem.
• Mining Lasers are like lascannons with a little less punch.
• Under no circumstances should I ever allow the Patriarch to make any attacks in close combat. If I engage him, I need to kill him immediately.
• Those hammer monsters in the back there are not to be fucked with, and are to be avoided at all costs.

Before we even deployed I decided that I needed to focus on his Troops. They die like drunk flies and would be viable stepping stones towards the 'kill more' objective each round, and also if I kill them then he will have a much harder time claiming objectives.

Fortunately, I brought a lot of gun.

The Land Raider Crusader alone was going to give me a ton of mileage towards wiping out his Troops choices. My Paladin squad can shit out 40 bolter shots every turn, so that was going to be a huge boon, too. My VenDread with the missile launcher could shoot out a frag missile if I really needed it, and my psychic double-twin-autocannon VenDread was just going to absolutely mulch anything he looked at. My tools were there, I just needed to leverage them appropriately.

It is worth noting that I spent 2 CP for the Operative Requisition Sanctioned stratagem, so that I could look at his list and decide which assassin to bring along. He only had two psykers, so I set my Culexus aside and added in my Vindicare to hopefully snipe some characters.

Today's battlefield.

We rolled off and I chose the upper left as my deployment zone. He deployed in the lower right. I went up to the bar and grabbed a coffee and when I came back this was what I saw in his deployment zone.

"I thought you were deploying your army."

"I did."

"Huh? Oh. Right. Genestealers."

So he didn't actually put any of his models on the field during his deployment, which is a really cool tactic. Instead he places these 'blips,' and then during the first turn (mine or his) he deploys his entire army. Each unit goes on a different blip. So my main advantage during deployment -- deploying in response to his army placement -- was negated. I could only guess which of those were the Troops that I needed to hunt.

I then deployed my army as strategically as I could. My Deimos AdMech are close enough to each objective that an advance roll will take them there, my Dreads are hidden, and the Land Raider is tucked safely behind a building just out of sight of every blip counter. A small Paladin Squad, an Apothecary with a Daemon Hammer, and a Brotherhood Champion are all tucked inside the LR. I deep striked (deep stroke?) my Paladins, my GMNDK, my Paladin Ancient, and, in a controversial move, my Vindicare Assassin.

That decision took me a minute. I really like Vindicare Assassin, but she only gets 5 shots per game assuming she starts on the battlefield. If I deep strike her, then she's missing out on 20% of her shooting by coming in turn 2, and she'll be getting a -1 to hitting because of her heavy sniper rifle. But If I deployed her now, at the start, he could just hide all of his characters from her when he mid-turn deploys. I decided it was much more beneficial for me to respond to his placement than the other way around.

Chilling in the teleportarium chambers of the Indemnity.

It wasn't a surprise that he gave me first turn. I inched my forces forward to secure objectives and scout. At the end of my movement phase, he deployed his entire army. As is reasonable for someone to do while playing 40k, he placed all of his Troops on his front lines and safely tucked his HQs and Elites in his backline, carefully screening so that I couldn't Gate a squad into his deployment zone -- but this was also exactly what I had planned for. My psychic phase rolled around and I had one of my Dreadnoughts cast Gate of Infinity on my Land Raider. I set it up 9" outside of his deployment zone on top of an objective, and within rapid fire range of two units of his Troops.

After shooting hurricane bolters and assault cannons. There were a lot more models there a moment ago.

My lascannon Dreadnought aced his Ridgerunner that had the heavy weapon on it, which bought a minute of safety for my Land Raider. Also gave me First Strike. His hammerfuckers are on the other side of the board at this point -- far from my Land Raider and its precious cargo.

I didn't charge. He began his turn. During his psychic phase he threw me off entirely by asking me, "what's your Land Raider's leadership?" I had genuinely never considered this. I pulled out my Codex and told him 9. He cast a spell called Mental Onslaught -- a tricky little number in which we make competitive Ld rolls, and if he wins I take a mortal wound and then we keep rolling until he loses a roll. Potentially this could've hurt a lot, but ultimately it amounted to nothing because I won the first roll off.

He ran these Genestealer... Acolytes? Hybridons? up to my Land Raider and charged it, hoping to tie it down. He picked off a few wounds with those little spiky hands. Also an autogun from the other side of the nearest building took a wound off my Land Raider, which was just embarrassing for me. As it was in this picture, his Troops held that point and thus we held an even number. I got 'kill more' on turn one, and neither of us 'held more.' So it was 2 to 0.

On my next turn I disgorged the LR's occupants. They skirted around the Genestealers and moved towards the Patriarch nearby. I knew that that motherfucker was heading towards my Land Raider will full intent to ruin it, so I had to kill him immediately. I deep striked (deepstruck!) my GMNDK and my Ancient near enough to the smaller Paladin Squad so that they would buff them with rerolls and bonus attacks.

"Hey guys!"

Here's where the fun began. I chose not to fall back with my Land Raider, and instead I used Gate of Infinity to pull it out of combat and yeet it across the battlefield onto another objective.

Hammerfuckers in the lower right, ready for 24 bolter shots and 12 assault cannon shots out of no where.

In an incredibly lucky bout of shooting, my GMNDK annihilated the Patriarch with just his Heavy Psycannon. So then all my guys were without a target to charge. My Paladins turned around and charged the Genestealers on the objective where only recently there stood my Land Raider.

That dude did not survive.

I was holding three at the end of my turn, and I killed a bunch of his units. He was going to have to shift me off of two objectives and kill several groups of my guys if he hoped to outpace me on points this turn.

He inserted a biker squad 3" from my backline Dreadnoughts, as I'd expected. He has a combo of multiple stratagems that allows the entire squad to hurl demolition charges, and he used this to drop my lascannon Ven Dread to 1 wound. But he didn't kill it! So I was still getting 'kill more' that round.

He did another stratagem that allowed his big 20-man unit of... Genestealer Protege-Sons, Hybridomorphs? spiky claw dudes... to deep strike super close to my GMNDK. They unloaded their autopistols and did nothing, and then charged.

"Brother, did you hear something?"

There are some scary melee weapons in that unit of Genestealers. Gimmicky auto-slaying drills and saws that are essentially power fists without the to-hit penalty. Fortunately, my GMNDK's 3++ invuln saved him from all of it. Those Genestealers would take him down over the next two battle rounds, but my Grand Master did an admirable job keeping that Troops choice from going to one of the objectives. I will trade Warlord for objectives any day of the week, especially since I had already slain his Patriarch.

Still on his second turn he charged my Land Raider with his hammerfuckers and their accompanying HQ, who I am certain is called Hammerfucker Prime. I remember from past experience that these dudes tear vehicles apart, so I was expecting my Land Raider to just soak attacks for a turn or two before falling to the ravenous claws of aliens.

That feeling when you know you left something on the roof but you really don't want to get out of your car to check.

His Hammerfucker Prime whiffed pretty badly, so my Land Raider tied them up for a whole battle round before dying. He shot a couple of units of Troops off the board before he died, so he did his job. Well done, Land Raider.

Speaking of earning your keep, my Vindicare Assassin did an absolute shit job this game. When she came in on turn 2 she rolled a 2 to hit one of the enemy HQs and missed, which I blamed myself for because I'd forced her into deep striking and she was suffering the -1 to hit because of it. But on my third turn she straight rolled a 1 when shooting at his Nexos and that is entirely her fault. I swear, she hasn't successfully killed anything in like three games.

Get off your fucking phone.

My opponent deep struck his Magos into the backline behind my Ven Dreads with the intent of mind-controlling them, but I rolled well for my deny and nullified him. The second time he tried to cast Mind Control was the turn after his Hammerfucker Prime whiffed all of his attacks, and I denied it with The Aegis stratagem, causing my opponent to utter the phrase: "Why don't you want me to have fun?"

And--

...

Hmm.

So, I just looked at The Aegis while writing this.

That stratagem is definitely not 1CP, like I have been playing it as for the last two years. It is 2CP, which feels both too expensive and shameful because I definitely have not been spending 2 CP on it. That's... my bad, I suppose. Uh. Whoops. Guess I will remember that in the future. Sorry, all of my opponents throughout 8th edition.

Anyway.

After I cheated and spent only half the necessary CPs for The Aegis, I deep stroked my big squad of 10 Paladins and killed two of his HQs in the backline. Then we stood stoically and waited for the second hammerfucker mob to charge us.

"Greetings, foul xenos!"

This little fight right here was very fun. Both of these units are super durable for very different reasons (I have invulns, he has FNPs and damage-reducing abilities), and both of them hit like trucks. They got stuck here and just mauled each other.

At the end of the third round, I had 6 points and he had 1. It was getting late, and we decided to call it. In the end he was very happy with how his Genestealers performed, despite the loss. His combos and stratagems all functioned very well; I just happened to leverage the mission to my advantage. It was a very good game and I was very pleased with all of my units, especially the Land Raider and excepting the Vindicare Assassin.

Before we parted ways, he showed me a piece from his next project:

Now if this isn't the most heretical thing I have ever seen.