How do you deal with Genestealer Cults?

[CCE1981]

I am getting back into the game and haven’t been able to play as much as I have wanted, and up until this weekend never fought Genestealer cults.

 

How do you deal with them? The part I have trouble with is their deepstrike - move - advance - charge from 1” and denying overwatch psychic power. One unit wouldn’t be bad, but three 20-man units of Genestealers ate my army in a turn.

[Frater Cornelius]

Scouts and Tarantulas (Forge World) is what worked for me against GS spam when facing Nids. Scouts and deny deep strike area. Alhought Tarantulas do not infiltrate, they are cheap and can block the approach as well. That is basically it. The rest comes down to dakka. The main aprt is to disrupt his deployment.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Yeah, you basically need pickets in this edition almost regardless of what army you're playing against.  They'll just be sacrificial speed bumps for basically any deep striking unit, but it forces your opponent to waste his alpha strike on chaff instead of ripping the heart out of your army.

[CCE1981]

The problem it seems for me seems that he used his kitted out Leman Russ Tanks to blast away my chaff then on turn two jumped into the fight. Also my after action assesment of leaving my rhinos on holding the flanks was right. Though it doesn’t adress my entire front being multicharged into melee.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

At a certain point, army building concepts and list construction will only take you so far.  You have to be able to read the terrain and your opponent's army and determine where the best places are to establish your pickets.  I mention terrain specifically because it's key.  First, you should have some LOS blocking terrain in the middle of the board, which other than being thematic also shuts down things like "my pickets get blown away by battlecannons."  Second, scouts with cloaks in terrain are a lot harder to shift with shooting than scouts with no cloaks deployed in the open but far forward to ensure the longest distance between deep strikers and the battle line.  Keep in mind that the scouts are, ultimately, expendable, but also that you need to survive opening salvos so that there is a physical barrier between the deep strikers and your battle line.  If you're sticking them far forward to establish the widest possible buffer zone. . . don't.  Place them in cover where they're more survivable, even if you're sacrificing a few extra inches of buffer.

 

And lastly, never forget about the Auspex Scan stratagem.  So long as you're not using pistol & sword-scouts, it's a good way to spend some CPs.  Shotguns and boltguns both provide decent volumes of shooting, while sniper scouts can -- dice willing, of course -- provide mortal wounds to bypass the Genestealers' invulnerable saves.  You're probably not going to stop the 'stealers from engaging you or even wiping out the squads they charge, but every 'stealer that dies on the drop is one less you have to deal with later.

[CCE1981]

I tried the auspex scan, unfortunetly it doesn’t work on a Thunderfire Cannon, I had to use it on a Devastator Squad (2x Las, 1x Plas, 1x Heavy Bolter). I killed ONE genestealer :(.

 

A nuetral party placed terrain and placed none of it in either of the deployment zones.

[Frater Cornelius]

I tried the auspex scan, unfortunetly it doesn’t work on a Thunderfire Cannon, I had to use it on a Devastator Squad (2x Las, 1x Plas, 1x Heavy Bolter). I killed ONE genestealer .

 

A nuetral party placed terrain and placed none of it in either of the deployment zones.

 

Well, there's the issue. You didn't cover your rear/flank with Scout or other expendable units ;)

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Another issue: terrain placement.  Zero terrain in either deployment zone is madness.

[Sonoftherubric21]

Yeah thats a heck of an odd terrain placement. 

Okay so; scouts are a fantastic answer to this issue and will create "dead zones" that he cant deploy into.  

When you look at army builds include more volume shooting as most Genestealer Cult units are "quantity over quality." A single unit of terminators in deepstrike might prove useful for this scenario as they can plug almost a whole unit of stealers in a round of shooting 4 storms + assault cannon. 

 

I would include 2 units of scouts with either shotguns or bolters against regular stealer (or even deepstrike heavy!) opponents. Or if you chose scout snipers you could try and nail the magos or primus if you got lucky. 

[SanguinaryGuardsman]

I am getting back into the game and haven’t been able to play as much as I have wanted, and up until this weekend never fought Genestealer cults.

 

How do you deal with them? The part I have trouble with is their deepstrike - move - advance - charge from 1” and denying overwatch psychic power. One unit wouldn’t be bad, but three 20-man units of Genestealers ate my army in a turn.

 

You need to deploy wide so that your opponent cant popup next to your stuff and ruin your army.  That means putting scouts in the mid field and placing tacticals or other cheap assets in spider web like spread so that your important units are 18 inches or more distance away from potential deep strike locations.

 

My army has a firebase of devs with support character for rerolls.  If that firebase is in close combat on turn 1 i instantly lose the game.  To prevent that I have tactical marines inches away from the firebase on both sides.  Scout in the mid field about inches infront of the firebase.  Then I've got scout bikers on the flanks... 9 inches away from the tacticals.  Additionally... I've got assets in deep strike reserve.  That leaves no space for deep strike silliness on turn 1 at all and severe punishment for anyone that tries. 

 

The absolute worst thing to do with a tight deployment since if you get charged by too much stuff the game is over on turn 1.

 

Tabletop Tactics shows us the way!

 

https://youtu.be/3xGVnCfTa5M?t=2416

Edited November 28, 2017 by Race Bannon
A literal bathroom joke removed. Think of the children!

[Captain Idaho]

Bolters kill anything less than Space Marines this edition. Folk often say how rubbish bolters are but I've wiped out Tyranids armies with an army that has plenty of bolters.

 

I often think this edition has a problem in that many people see Troops as a tax and poorer choice because of older editions and the Detachments providing such variance in list building.

 

My most competetive Space Marines list has over 50 infantry models in it. Only half are Tactical Marines (but Sternguard are like super Tactical Marines so there's some more) but that's still a good amount.

 

Bolters are you friend. They kill troops whilst your other stuff kills everything else.

[GreyCrow]

Indeed, you need a lot of infantry in this edition !

 

If you Space your combat squads around 12" away from one another you get a pretty decent bubble of nope for your more crucial units.

 

Against very aggressive armies like Cults, it's not about preventing the alpha strike, but taking it like a man and laugh at it! Preparing a counter strategy for after the Storm has passed and steamroll from there. Your army's list and placement needs to give you opportunities to do so too.

 

Another point is that perhaps your army's system is not synergetic.

What's your list like ? And what's your favored units ?