My new perspective and thoughts of pure GSC.
May 20, 2021 10:25:56 GMT
mattblowers and berserkguts like this
Post by niiai on May 20, 2021 10:25:56 GMT
Hi, fellow GSC player here. I have been trying out pure GSC all through 9th edition and got my first winn last saturday. Here are some of my opinons.
GSC are in such a rough place, to make a good list you need to work hard for it. By good, I mean one that has a chance of winning in even a very cassual setting. The book is quite bad: 1. Everything dies to a stiff breese, 2. very few units has any potensial to kill anything, 3. it has poor internal balance, 4. some 'tools' are missing from the codex and 5. it just costs to much CP to run efficiently.
Everything dying to a stiff breese you can not do anything with. Transports are how ever few enough in points that you can now use them. All goliath variants are gravy. And you characters are almost not worth taking because they are so hard to keep alive, and they do to little before they die. Trying to hold objectives through many bodies and attricion does not work as you are paying to much points for the models.
There are few units with a good potensial to kill anything. Hand flamers is our best ranged weapon vs troops. Heavy mining lasers are our best ranged weapon vs heavy thing. Grab these. Most of our killing potensial comes from close combat. All sign points to ridgerunners and acolytes.
The book has terrible internal balance. The only descent ranged anti tank is the ridgerunner with sniper girl backup. The closest comparison is the leman russ and that one is quite bad. (Leman russes is not taken by IG(AM), and that is with stratagems and synergies. BB has no stratagems or synergies in our current codex.) Metamorph Hybrids, Aberrants, Purestrain Genestealers and Acolytes are all variations of the same role. Acolytes is the only good one as it is cheaper and performs the job better then the other models. Now you have your units for ranged anti tank, ranged anti infantery, close combat anti tank and close combat infantery. This is due to bad internal balance, but you should be starting your army with ridgerunners and acolytes.
We are missing some tools in the codex. The most glaring one is that we have no good way to kill flyers. Flyers that are good at killing T3 5+ models is a problem. A dakkajett for instance kills on averadge 7 models each turn, mounting up to 35 dead models in a game. Any army with anti infantery flyers means you can not hold objectives in an atrition game. We can not charge planes, ridgerunners is the best awnser.
You can not rely on stratagems. We bleed trhough CP very fast. You can maximum pull of one 3CP 'A Perfect Ambush' once in the game, perhaps not even that. And 'Lying in Wait' is not worth 2 CP. The solution again is acolytes in transports, or reserves. The transports means they survive to charge. Hand flamers beeing range 12" means you save CP on Lying in Wait. You can of course use Hybrid Metamorphs for this. But you pay 2 more points for upgrading a dagger attack to a rending claw attack and loosing the troops abilaty to deny objectives. You are in fact paying more for a worse unit. It is again a problem with internal balance.
Take your choise of cult creed. Twisted Helix is good for S5, meaning you wound marines on 3+ and T8 on 5+. Four Armed Emperor makes charges easier. (3 CP to delay a stratagem might not be worth it.) Hivecult lets you fall back and shoot handflamers (if you are into that) and your warlord trait is not bad for ridgerunners. Bladed Cog would be good if neophytes where good, but they are not. I can not speak for Pauper Princes or Rusted Claw.
Sadly as the game is now, you should include acolytes and ridgerunners as the major parts of your list. Build your list how you want and have fun.
GSC are in such a rough place, to make a good list you need to work hard for it. By good, I mean one that has a chance of winning in even a very cassual setting. The book is quite bad: 1. Everything dies to a stiff breese, 2. very few units has any potensial to kill anything, 3. it has poor internal balance, 4. some 'tools' are missing from the codex and 5. it just costs to much CP to run efficiently.
Everything dying to a stiff breese you can not do anything with. Transports are how ever few enough in points that you can now use them. All goliath variants are gravy. And you characters are almost not worth taking because they are so hard to keep alive, and they do to little before they die. Trying to hold objectives through many bodies and attricion does not work as you are paying to much points for the models.
There are few units with a good potensial to kill anything. Hand flamers is our best ranged weapon vs troops. Heavy mining lasers are our best ranged weapon vs heavy thing. Grab these. Most of our killing potensial comes from close combat. All sign points to ridgerunners and acolytes.
The book has terrible internal balance. The only descent ranged anti tank is the ridgerunner with sniper girl backup. The closest comparison is the leman russ and that one is quite bad. (Leman russes is not taken by IG(AM), and that is with stratagems and synergies. BB has no stratagems or synergies in our current codex.) Metamorph Hybrids, Aberrants, Purestrain Genestealers and Acolytes are all variations of the same role. Acolytes is the only good one as it is cheaper and performs the job better then the other models. Now you have your units for ranged anti tank, ranged anti infantery, close combat anti tank and close combat infantery. This is due to bad internal balance, but you should be starting your army with ridgerunners and acolytes.
We are missing some tools in the codex. The most glaring one is that we have no good way to kill flyers. Flyers that are good at killing T3 5+ models is a problem. A dakkajett for instance kills on averadge 7 models each turn, mounting up to 35 dead models in a game. Any army with anti infantery flyers means you can not hold objectives in an atrition game. We can not charge planes, ridgerunners is the best awnser.
You can not rely on stratagems. We bleed trhough CP very fast. You can maximum pull of one 3CP 'A Perfect Ambush' once in the game, perhaps not even that. And 'Lying in Wait' is not worth 2 CP. The solution again is acolytes in transports, or reserves. The transports means they survive to charge. Hand flamers beeing range 12" means you save CP on Lying in Wait. You can of course use Hybrid Metamorphs for this. But you pay 2 more points for upgrading a dagger attack to a rending claw attack and loosing the troops abilaty to deny objectives. You are in fact paying more for a worse unit. It is again a problem with internal balance.
Take your choise of cult creed. Twisted Helix is good for S5, meaning you wound marines on 3+ and T8 on 5+. Four Armed Emperor makes charges easier. (3 CP to delay a stratagem might not be worth it.) Hivecult lets you fall back and shoot handflamers (if you are into that) and your warlord trait is not bad for ridgerunners. Bladed Cog would be good if neophytes where good, but they are not. I can not speak for Pauper Princes or Rusted Claw.
Sadly as the game is now, you should include acolytes and ridgerunners as the major parts of your list. Build your list how you want and have fun.
