Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Genestealer Cults (section)

==Proficient Planning==
Proficient Planning is the Genestealer Cults' special unit upgrade system, where you can pay points and power level to give units special buffs, similar to Space Marines' Chapter Command. Unlike most factions' equivalent of this, Proficient Planning isn't exclusive to {{W40kKeyword|CHARACTER}} units, opening up a variety of options other armies simply don't have. Note that these are chosen in the listbuilding phase, and thus telegraphed to your opponent.

*'''A Perfect Ambush''': +1 PL/+15 pts: When a unit arrives from underground, it gets to treat a single target within 12" as having a Crossfire token and being Exposed. Decent for when you need to zap something and no one's in position to do it, but are you going to plan on that ahead of time?
**Uh, Yeah? For +15 points, you can place heavy weapons underground (This is distinct from Ambush, where they ''have'' to be revealed in the First Round), and have its Heavy Mining Laser hit on 4s, wound on 2s. 
*'''A Trap Sprung''': +1 PL/+15 pts: After arriving from underground, roll an extra die and discard the lowest for charge rolls. Since you're already at 8.1", this greatly improves your odds - you go from making it 41.67% of the time to 68.06% of the time.
**If you can re-roll charge rolls already, like the Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor or if you took the custom creed effect for it, this brings you from 65.97% (the creed's baseline for an 8" charge) to 89.80%, since you roll 3 dice, drop the lowest, and then if you didn't make it, roll 3 dice again and drop the lowest.
*'''Alchemist Supreme''': +1PL/+15 points; exclusive to the Biophagus, but that's an extremely misleading statement, because it doesn't upgrade the Biophagus at all - that is, you put it on the Biophagus, consuming its ability to take a Proficient Planning upgrade and of course requiring you to have a Biophagus in the first place, but then you pick any {{W40kKeyword|CULT CORE}} or {{W40kKeyword|CULT ABERRANT}} unit in your army and give it any 1 of the Biophagus's buffs that you choose: -1AP on melee attacks, unmodified melee hit rolls of 6 inflict an additional hit, or a 5+++.
**This means, of course, the buffed unit can also receive a Proficient Planning upgrade of its own, which is recommended.
**Because you can choose the result it's arguably best to use this to buff a core unit which normally requires them to rolled for their benefit.
*'''Exacting Planner''': Exclusive to the Primus, see its Unit Analysis entry.
*'''Excavate''': +1 PL/+20 pts: Now this is a weird one. Before the battle, as long as this unit is underground, pick a terrain feature on the battlefield - it loses the Light Cover, Heavy Cover, and Defensible features and gains the Difficult Ground one. 
**This one's a really interesting pick. Most tables have at least one ruin in each player's deployment zone, and while this doesn't get rid of Obscuring, it does make the ruin essentially useless as a defense for units hiding inside it. Because it takes away Defensible, this is good for killing stuff in melee as well as at range.
**Remember that for one CP you can ignore the difficult ground with the strat "tunnel crawlers", making this upgrade much more tempting.
*'''From Every Angle''': +1 PL/+10 pts: You can put the unit into Strategic Reserves for no CP ''at the start of the first battle round'', letting you exceed the usual caps on unit count and total points in reserve. Then it can count the turn as being 1 higher for the purpose of Strategic Reserves, letting it come in from any board edge on turn 1 (the same turn it left!), making this upgrade practically mandatory in every possible list. Do remember that this means that you have to set up this unit outside of 9" instead of your normal 8"/6".
**Just to be clear, by definition, a unit in Ambush can't be put into Strategic Reserves, so you can't cause a rules paradox by putting an Ambush marker into Strategic Reserves with this - if you're using this upgrade, you have to deploy the unit onto the table normally, then remove it from the table.
**If you plan on running Goliath Trucks, this can be a good way to maximize their use, because you'll get to Deep Strike (near a board edge) the Truck ''and its contents''.
*'''Lying in Wait''': +1 PL/+20 pts: When this {{W40kKeyword|Infantry}} unit arrives from underground, it can appear >3" from enemy models rather than >6" without the ability to charge. This can be useful for positioning shooty units in spaces your opponent would normally consider covered, but the only non-melee weapons you have that will notice the benefits of being so close are grenades and the Reductus Saboteur's Reductus Explosives ability (remember, Ambush lets you pretend the Move phase is the Command phase, so she can pop her Plant Explosives action when she Ambushes in - this upgrade lets her also immediately detonate her explosive, but remember, friendly fire is on with her - she can't die to her own explosive, but she has a 50-50 chance of losing a wound to it).
**Since most of your ultra short range shooting either has limited use (demo charges) or is >6" range anyway (<s>hand flamers</s>, hand flamers are 12" range), this stratagem's primary utility is as a mind game. Because the safe space from deep strikes is only 3/8 the size it normally is, your opponent has to expend way more resources covering his backfield, or else you can essentially guarantee a unit goes anywhere on the board, great for secondary objectives.
*'''Meditations in Shadow''': +1 PL/+15 pts: A {{W40kKeyword|Psyker}} knows an extra power. Doesn't get you an extra cast or anything, so it might not be worth it.
**Best used in tournaments to give your psyker more versatility; especially if you're only taking one caster.
*'''Our Time Is Nigh''': +1 PL, +15 pts. Unit gets +1A on its first fight of the game. Doesn't stack with Might From Beyond.
**Great for Aberrants, whose main weakness is low number of attacks and who really need to capitalize on the fights they get.
*'''They Came From Below''': +1 PL/+10 pts: Non-{{W40kKeyword|VEHICLE}} unit only. When revealing ambush markers, the unit can either be moved from under its ambush marker to underground, or can be set up and then make an immediate Normal Move (it still moves normally in its next movement phase) that must end >9" away from any enemy models.
**This one's a great pick for any unit that wants to get into melee quickly, as it gets to pick between charging up the board or joining other stuff in reserves. Lets you make an important decision after you find out if you're going first or second.