Acolyte loadouts?

[Sawtooth]

I'm curious how people are running Acolytes, since they seem to be one of the big winners in the Codex. With hand flamers so cheap I'm tempted to toss them on everything, now. Do you think a giant unit of 20 for subterranean ambush is too much? What mining weapons do you prefer?

[Akrim]

Fortunately the points were fixed for them. They still suffer from being T3/+5 so avoid charging flamers/legit overwatch. Leading assaults with a vehicle is preferable.

 

If youre going hand flamer heavy might as well go all in - hit them with Lurk strat to get 6” away then hit them with demo charges with the extra explosives strat.

 

Otherwise i usually go rock saws - keep em cheap.

[Quasi Moto]

Two blobs for me. As many rock saws as they can carry. 10 is my personal minimum size, occasionally I take 15. Twisted Helix for Str5 x2 with rock saw. Makes wounding so much better on the high volume of attacks Acolytes get. Must win the fight phase as they will go poof when the enemy attacks.

[Arson Fire]

Personally I'm not a fan of the hand flamers.  They require a stratagem to get in range, which prevents the unit from charging.  They also don't offer much protection against being charged (6" range is short enough that units will happily charge from outside their range).  The damage output is... okish.  But math it out and it's actually not all that spectacular.  I'd much rather just have the acolytes charge instead.

 

 

I already have about 40 vanilla acolytes without any special weapons.  I'd like to (and soon will) add in a bunch of rock saws, and put a cult icon in each unit. 

 

But frankly, 20 bare bones acolytes for 140 points is still hilariously lethal.

Put them in the Deliverance Broodsurge specialist detachment from Vigilus, so they have access to the 'The First To Draw Blood' stratagem (+1 to wound rolls for 1CP).  Then use one of our myriad ways of getting +1 strength on them. Lets say Twisted Helix.

Now your basic 7 point troops are wounding imperial knights on a 4+, and rending on a 5+.

 

They only go up from there, with all the ridiculous combo opportunities this codex offers.

Want to make 7" re-rollable charges from deepstrike? Not a problem.

More attacks? Might from beyond is the power for you (also giving you that tasty +1S).

Bringing some rock saws and want them to both hit and wound knights on a rerollable 2+? Absolutely.

Want to do all of that at the same time?  We can do that.

[NatBrannigan]

I just wish Acolytes weren't so gosh darn expensive (money wise). I have 10 from various box sets and will probably pick up the Kill team box with Kelermorph, since it's  a good deal, giving me 15. I have LOADS of Neophytes so will be using them to start off with, but I suspect I'll want my troops to have more punch and will start adding more Acolytes.

 

Emperor (the four armed version of course) knows what I'll drop from my list to add them in though! All the "sub-par" units I like the aesthetics of too much to drop...

 

Are Acolytes even remotely worth taking in squads of 5?

[anarchistscourge]

Squads of 5 are less likely to run from morale (most times they all get shot off the board). I think there good for filling out CC detatchments. 70pts for 5 with handflamers and 2 rock saws looks pretty good.

Gives you lots of board control too. I plan on taking 2 10 man and 2 5 man in my TAC list, along with 2x 10man neophytes

[Link2edition]

I am trying out a unit of 20 with hand flamers and rocksaws today. Its going to ambush using a stratagem to get 3 inches away, and is going to come in at the same time as 20 genestealers and 40 Neophytes for target saturation. If it doesn't work he way I want it to, I will start using smaller units.

My first army was Imperial Guard so I like my blobs

[NatBrannigan]

I was thinking a big squad of 20 is a better target for powers and straegems but I'm planning on running 16 Genestealers and 5 Abberants, which are probably better targets anyway. A few little squads fills out troops requirements nicely and can help out where needed.

 

Still think I'll want to make them 10 man at least to get the most out of a Cult Icon etc. Seem like a great unit and look fantastic to boot.

 

What an army Cult are shaping up into!

[Link2edition]

I am looking at abberants, but I own so many genestealers that they are my go-to at the moment.

[anarchistscourge]

I love the look of Aberrants, but I'm in the same boat as you Link, so many genestealers I can use! It just irks me they dont get Cult Creeds and are more expensive than the Tyranids Genestealers. Tempted just to run a cheap Nids Battalion using Broodlord, Neurothrope, genestealers and then cheap as hell ripper swarms

[Dr. Clock]

I think in general 'big or small' units is the best bet... I'm taking 2x5 to deploy in Rockgrinders + 1x20 Subterranean.

 

The plan is to use vehicles, Mass Hypnosis and/or a unit of Neos to soak Overwatch for the small teams. In general they will be the 'mop-up crews' though, tooling around my deployment zone playing whack-a-mole while the big units come in to clog up the enemy deployment/advance

 

For the big team, again Mass Hypnosis for Overwatch, but they'll also be 'Extra Explosives' bait with 4 Demos charges. Currently that unit is at 170 points with 7 hand flamers, 8 normal Acolytes, 4 demos and the leader w/Bonesword. The hand flamers aren't really mandatory, but hey... why not?

 

It's CP intensive, but there's something very satisfying about the prospect of an (almost) guaranteed round of 7d3 hand flamer, 6d6 frag grenade and 4d6 demo charge shots for 3CP, or even 4CP if you want to attempt A Perfect Ambush and Extra Explosives for a charge after the 'satchel throwing'...

 

Right now my Acolytes are Rusted Claw to keep them around a bit longer vs. small arms fire... Cult of 4AE would probably be better for a list featuring multiple 12+ mobs coming out of Subterranean Ambush tho.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Quasi Moto]

What I failed to mention regarding hand flamers is their use while stuck in melee. If the enemy attempts to tarpit  with their T3 chaff it is likely the hand flamers can clear them out, opening a possible charge.

[brother_b]

Personally I'm not a fan of the hand flamers.  They require a stratagem to get in range, which prevents the unit from charging.  They also don't offer much protection against being charged (6" range is short enough that units will happily charge from outside their range).  The damage output is... okish.  But math it out and it's actually not all that spectacular.  I'd much rather just have the acolytes charge instead.

 

 

I already have about 40 vanilla acolytes without any special weapons.  I'd like to (and soon will) add in a bunch of rock saws, and put a cult icon in each unit. 

 

But frankly, 20 bare bones acolytes for 140 points is still hilariously lethal.

Put them in the Deliverance Broodsurge specialist detachment from Vigilus, so they have access to the 'The First To Draw Blood' stratagem (+1 to wound rolls for 1CP).  Then use one of our myriad ways of getting +1 strength on them. Lets say Twisted Helix.

Now your basic 7 point troops are wounding imperial knights on a 4+, and rending on a 5+.

 

They only go up from there, with all the ridiculous combo opportunities this codex offers.

Want to make 7" re-rollable charges from deepstrike? Not a problem.

More attacks? Might from beyond is the power for you (also giving you that tasty +1S).

Bringing some rock saws and want them to both hit and wound knights on a rerollable 2+? Absolutely.

Want to do all of that at the same time?  We can do that.

 

I'm a new cult member. Can you explain some of those combos you referenced at the bottom? Great stuff thank you.

[Link2edition]

For those interested I uploaded my list after my "lessons learned" here: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353977-2k-genestealer-cults-16cp/

 

 

 

 

I'm a new cult member. Can you explain some of those combos you referenced at the bottom? Great stuff thank you.

 

The short version is: This book has a whole lot of characters and cult traits that stack nicely to allow those things.

Long answer:
The 7+ charge is from stacking Calamvus with The Four armed emperor trait
Might from beyond is a spell that enhances melee ability
and I think for the knight he is referring to buffing strength before the x2 modifier for the rocksaws, and keeping a primus nearby for rerolls

[Arson Fire]

Yeah, Clamavus + four armed emperor gives you 7" charges from deepstrike.  You can also give a nearby iconward the warlord trait from the Deliverance Broodsurge specialist detachment (using the Field Commander stratagem, so it doesn't need to actually be your warlord).  This means that the unit also gets to re-roll failed charges.

 

For 2+ rerollable hits and wounds vs knights, you use the vigilus Deliverance Broodsurge specialist detachment again (such a great detachment).

Normally they hit on 3+.  You put a primus nearby to increase that to a 2+, and you also give them a cult icon, which means they re-roll hit rolls of 1.

 

Your rocksaws are normally S8, meaning they wound knights on a 4+.  You use something like Might From Beyond, or an iconward with the +1S relic banner, or Twisted Helix cult creed to bump them up to S5.  Now your rocksaws are wounding T8 on a 3+.  You use the 'The First To Draw Blood' stratagem from the broodsurge detachment to add 1 to their wound rolls, so they are wounding on a 2+.  Then finally you use the Meticulous Planner ability on that Primus that's already buffing their hit rolls by 1, to let you re-roll wound rolls of 1.

 

Now your rocksaws are hitting knights on a 2+ re-rollable, and wounding them on a 2+ re-rollable.

 

 

Bear in mind that beyond a certain point, you're just doing this sort of thing because you can.  Without math-hammering it out, I'd guess that depending on how many rocksaws you had, you could reliably drop a knight with half of those buffs.  It might be more efficient to split them between multiple units.  But still, it's cool that you can do it :)

[Marshlands]

Yar 20 acolytes with a banner, a primus nearby, Might from beyond and the strat can pretty much do the job without heavy weapons lol