Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Genestealer Cults (section)

===Melee Weapons===

*'''Bonesword (3 pts)''': An AP-2 melee weapon for your unit leaders and the Primus. More of a sidegrade to the standard Rending claws which are free for those who come with them. It costs 1pt less than a Power Sword that other armies get access to and is 1 ap worse. Skip unless you take a Primus as he has to have one. Never let the Primus use it, the Toxin Injector is always better. Acolytes Leaders perform worst against T4 Sv3+ and less than 5% better against guardsmen by using a BS instead of the Rending Claws, take an additional Neophyte Hybrids that have a 16.66% to kill a guardsman instead and wait for GW to learn how to math and price things.
**'''Lash whip & Bonesword (5 pts)''': The reason not to take a solo Bonesword. For 2 points more, you get the same stats as a base Bonesword, and the ability to use that character's attacks if they're slain before their turn in the fight phase. If you're going to spend the points for that -2 AP, may as well spend the measly 2 points for this as well. Remember that an Acolyte Leader has to trade both the Autopistol ''and'' its Cultist Knife for this - this does mean you lose an S4 AP0 D1 attack in melee ''and'' an S3 AP0 D1 attack at range, and, of course, you can't take this with a Hand Flamer.
*'''Chainsword (0 pts)''': Bonus attacks as standard.
*'''Cultist Knife (0 pts)''': It's a chainsword with a funny name and great aesthetic.
*'''Heavy Improvised Weapon (25 pts)''': A Power Fist only better, in handy stop sign format. Exclusive to the Aberrant Hypermorph. Sx2 AP-1 D2, makes ''two hit rolls per attack'', and doesn't have -1 to hit like a power fist....now your squad leader(s) can oneshot Primaris units by THEMSELVES before the others can even attack! Sadly got a hefty point increase with Chapter Approved 2019...
*'''Heavy Rock Cutter (12 pts)''': Sx2 AP-4 D1d3 -1 to hit sounds fantastic (in fact, that's better than a power fist but worse than a chainfist), but that's not all. If you successfully damage a non-{{W40kKeyword|VEHICLE}} target and beat its remaining wounds on 1d6, ''it dies instantly''. Goodbye Ogryns, TyraWarriors, Terminators, and characters.
**The roll to beat a model's remaining wounds happens ''each time it takes damage''.  If you're rolling lots of dice at once, make sure to stay on top of this - for example, if you hit, wound, and beat the target's save twice with one of these, and you're trying to murder some Ogryn (W3), correct procedure is roll the first damage die, then if the Ogryn lives roll to slay it, and only then move on to the second damage die.  You can speed this up with colored dice, so you can roll the damage die and the slay die together, but be careful of doing this against a target with optional abilities for damage resistance, like a feel no pain strat - you should be forcing your opponent to be making the choice to trigger those abilities or not after the damage die but before the slay die.
**Don't forget, while the instant slay will trigger instant slay feel no pain, like Graia has, that's incredibly rare - most feel no pains will not be able to roll against the slay effect.
*'''Heavy Rock Drill (17 pts)''': At first glance, it's a D1 Power Fist with no accuracy penalty. However, it can inflict up to 5 extra mortal wounds per unsaved wound. No piercing the heavens for us, unfortunately, as the rock drill stops dealing mortal wounds once the skewered target dies. However, this is our best weapon against tough targets with lots of wounds, as it does an average of 2.777 damage against any target with 6 or more wounds or that has a feel no pain.  Usually worse than the Rock Saw, because all that damage is ''incredibly'' swingy, with lots of variance - unlike the Saw, which is also a lot cheaper, you can't really guess how well this will do against a given target.
*'''Heavy Rock Saw (10 pts)''': A chainfist, ''without'' the -1 to hit roll. ''Real'' saws that make chainswords look like pool noodles. Stick a primus nearby for effective 2+ to hit shenanigans. Best special CQC weapon GSC has by a mile.
*'''Heavy Power Hammer (16 pts)''': Your Aberrants' weapon upgrade choice. 7 more points than the already expensive Pick they start with, but it might be worth it for a thunder hammer, which is what it is. Generally not worth it due to -1 to hit and the loss of your rending attacks.
*'''Improvised weapon (0 pts)''': Probably the most egregious example of copy-pasting from GW ever. [[Derp|It's just a close combat weapon, doesn't even give +1 Strength or anything]]. For obvious reasons, take cultist knives or guns on your Jackals instead.
*'''Injector Goad (0 pts)''': A poisonous(2+) with d3 damage for the biophagus. Also when a character loses any amount of wound due to this weapon, roll a die, and if it's higher than it's wound characteristic it suffers d3 extra mortal wounds. Like a shittier Heavy Rock Cutter. Weirdly it also has S+1 even though it always wounds on 2+ except against vehicles and Titanic units. Good weapon on a throwaway unit like Biophagus.
*'''Locus Blades (0 pts)''': Basically a power sword; SU AP-3 D1, but boosted to 2 if the Locus charged, got charged, or performed a heroic intervention. 4 attacks and always strike first makes a great chaff defense against any melee units, like berserkers and such.
*'''Power Axe (5 pts)''': S+1 Ap-2. It's a power axe, what else do you want? Give it to an Atalan leader or a neophyte if you want to splurge a bit, but it's not really points efficient, since you're only S3 - stick with a Maul on the Neophyte (if you really want them), and the Atalan Leader should be taking an autogun plus shotgun before he takes this.
*'''Power Hammer (4 pts)''': This is a Power Maul. A classic, and pretty nice on your neophytes so they can wound easier.
*'''Power Maul (4 pts)''': S+2 AP-1 D1.
*'''Power Pick (9 pts)''': Your choice of viewing this as a -1S Force Axe or a +1AP Force Sword, that costs halfway in between what those two cost for factions that can take them. Grants a free Rending Claw attack (if you have one) for each attack made with the Power Pick, which is the only way to make this weapon earn back its cost - because there are exactly three ways to take these, the rule of thumb is simple.  Neophytes and Atalans should never, ever take this.  Aberrants should take this to be cheaper and better at better at fighting hordes than their hammer flavor.
*'''Drilldozer Blades (0 pts)''': S9 AP-2 D1d3 and can make an additional 1d3 attacks when the rockgrinder charges.
*'''Sanctus bio-dagger (0 pts)''': The Sanctus' brain melting knife with 2's across the board. S1 but always wounds on 2s, Ap-2 and 2 damage and can make an additional attack with this weapon.
*'''Toxin Injector Claw (0 pts)''': Default Primus weapon, a venomous Rending Claw. It always performs better than the Bonesword the Primus carries, so this should be chosen for slicing and dicing.