The competetive potential of GSC

[TrawlingCleaner]

How do you feel GSC get on competetively? What have your experiences been? Have you found any strong combinations that you want to try out?

 

I'm looking to get into the more competetive side of GSC and am wondering what your guys opinion of them are so far? I honestly haven't seen that much if anything at all about GSC in the competetive scene other than they have potential. I have played a few more serious games with them, not to toot my own horn here but I've been doing very well with all comers lists.

 

For 1250 I usually take:

Patriarch

Magus

Acolyte with Banner

Jackal Alpha

 

2x10 man neophytes with mining lasers

17 man blob of acolytes 

 

2 bikes squads with quad and mining lasers

Achilies with heavy mining laser

 

5 man abherrant squad

Sanctus

6 purestrains

 

Goliath Rockgrinder with Heavy mining laser

 

Patriarch has the Biomorph Adaptation

Bikes are run as rusted claw for ignoring heavy penalties which only really applies to the Alphus and the quads.

Everything else is run as Pauper Princes.

 

Sanctus takes the relic sniper rifle to deal with Psykers (This combo ontop of being able to shoot turn one movement phase regardless of who's turn it is makes this guy incredible)

 

Magus keeps everyone denying powers and moving up with the neophytes and bikes

 

Stealers and acolytes deal with chaff.

 

 

 

I have my first mini tournament (1200pts) coming up in June at a local GW store and I'm not sure where to go with this list. Do I have too much AT, do I need more bodies or less bodies? Any suggestions?

[Marshlands]

My experience has been:

 

Nothing but bodies and command points. The only thing I take with more than 1 wound that isn't a character is bikes and HWTs to fill out a brigade

Brood brothers with allied orders and acolyte spam, a flamer/demo bomb or 2 can be useful with enough CP

Maximising what you can get in reserve, particularly by having 3 big units that start on the table to use the stratagem on

Maximising fearless for hoards, double patriarch can be worthwhile

Lots and lots of pressure when you drop in

 

I think a highly tuned GSC list is currently extremely powerful BUT it is risky army. Main risks being charges and when Mental Onslaught fails and you were relying on it going off

 

I also think they are a finely balanced knife edge, at the moment powerful but the expected faq could devastate the army with a few small changes I think. We dont have reselience so we NEED to overwhelm the opponent when we hit

[Akrim]

Agree with Marshlands. Comp/ITC - GSC vehicles are a liability. Best to go mostly infantry and max out on bodies.

 

GSC really epitomizes glass cannon - it may hit hard but disappears just as fast. Not much in the way of save or cover boosting so you want to inflict as much damage in the early game.

Having a few cheap units like 10 man Neos to hop on objectives from reserve is good too.

[TrawlingCleaner]

Okay, so less vehicles and more bodies. I had a feeling that that would be the case. My thought is to swap the Ridgerunner out for another squad of bikes as they offer so much utility and are so cheap for what they can do.

Should I be building specifically? IE heavy on AT or heavy on CQB. Or should I be going for a generalist list?

 

I don't think I'd take anything other than Mining Lasers of Neophytes as everything else is so hit and miss. Even just having 3x10 man squads with 2 mining lasers is cheap for what they can do and also usually enough AT for 1000 ish points. I don't think having Quad bikes with mining lasers is a bad thing at all as I would obviously run them with Rusted Claw and near to the Alphus.

 

Are 5 man Abherrant squads worth taking without the Abominant?

[Marshlands]

Webbers can be worth a go for 1pt, Adds a bit of resiliency against penalties to hit but obviously very minor

 

5 man abberants are ok, putting aside the abominant himself, his buff is id say the least important 1 for abberants (compared to MfB and a primus for example)

 

Bikes come in 3 varieties (ish) I think

 

Min squad to fill a brigade

5 with demos to bomb something, possibly from reserve, usually RC

10-12 bikes with 10 bombs, maybe lanuchers and optional quads (massive RC double shoot bomb for 8cp)

 

In terms of general building, it depends on your list, if you use some heavy hitting CA melee it's usually early game chaff clearance you want to focus on

[Akrim]

In the top placing lists Ive seen the following elements;

-Zero vehicles aside from plasma cannon Armored Sentinels

-20 man Acolytes maxed out Rock Saws, alternatively one squad maxed out hand flamers for Lying in Wait.

-Jackals (5-10) maxed out demo charges

-10 man bare Neos (this is usually to bridge a Brigade and board coverage, mining lasers are not very efficient with bad BS and range - Jackal Alphus can help but its tricky to pull off. Also these squads vaporize easily)

-Aberrants frequently appear, unit size dependent on how focused on them you are 5-10, 10s usually when Abominant and/or Twisted Helix on board.

-three squads of BB mortars for heavies.

-Metamorphs max Talons - hit with Might from beyond for 6 attacks each.