Let’s not beat around the bush – neophytes are the current hotness of the Cult Index. But for those of us who can’t just drop eighty of them on the table, how can we make the most of what we’ve got?
Neophytes are one of our battleline units (alongside acolytes), and have already put down a marker as the main source of firepower for the current iteration of the Cult. We’ll get to the fully-loaded version later on, but it’s still interesting to see how the different options play out against each other first. After all, we’re not always aiming for a hyper-competitive take-all-comers tournament list.
Talking of options, and given that we’re not currently paying for upgrades, it’s always a good idea to take an icon. It’s probably sensible to maximise heavy and special weapons too, although that might vary slightly in a couple of specific situations.
NEOPHYTES
The basic neophyte carries a hybrid firearm (the old autogun, in effect, which is a shame because I liked the shotgun option). We can upgrade four to heavy weapons, and four to special weapons. We can also arm the leader for combat, but two chainsword attacks or a single strike with a power weapon are unlikely to make much difference if it comes to fisticuffs.
Heavy weapons out-perform firearms (even with the firearm at rapid fire range, and with the heavy weapon having moved). The heavy stubber isn’t great, but is always better than a firearm (it’s not heavy, despite the name, so is still BS4+); the mining laser is worse into T3 with a 5/6+ save, but better otherwise; and the seismic cannon is just better, even before we add the rapid fire bonus. And if a firearm would be in range, so would a heavy. Whatever you plan to do with your neophytes, you should be taking heavy weapons.
With the special weapons, range matters a bit more, with both the flamer and webber only having 12” range. That aside, the flamer is better even if it rolls a single attack; the webber is better at three attacks or more (before worrying about devastating wounds); frag is generally better (unless you roll one attack); and krak is better into everything except T3, 6+. Unless you’re incredibly unlucky with variable attacks, you should be taking special weapons too.
If you want to go the combat route with leaders, it’s a bit of a toss-up. A power weapon is better into T4, 6 and 7 (and terminators), whereas the chainsword has an edge into lightly armoured targets, and almost everything from T8 upwards (unless it has a 2+ save). If you’re worried about being mobbed by guardsmen or orks, take a chainsword. Given the volume of fire a unit can put out, you probably won’t miss a single firearm, but the leader pistol is worse than the basic firearm into everything.
Defensively, neophytes gain a mild degree of durability from the size of their unit – it’ll take 68 bolter shots to clear them out in one go. That’s slightly more durable than acolytes, but only because they have twice as many bodies.
BASELINES
Let’s get into the numbers. Assuming that we are going to take advantage of all the upgrades, which are doing the most for us?
[Here, we’re working with twelve firearms, and four each of all the other options – adding the damage output of the firearms to a heavy and special option tells us how effective a unit of 20 would be. We’re also assuming that we’re within 12” (because otherwise the flamer and webber can’t shoot); this means that firearms, heavy stubber and the seismic are within rapid fire range. The heavy weapons have two scores – the first is standing still (gaining the benefit of heavy), the second is moving.]
So yeah – seismic cannons are the winners here. They out-perform everything else (heavy, special or firearms), with the exception of mining lasers into terminators. Similarly, flamers are the strongest option amongst the special weapons (unless we want to engage at range, in which case grenade launchers may be your preference).
Assuming that we can get within 12”, the seismic cannon and flamer combination will take down 18/16 guardsmen, 4/3 marines or a terminator. So we can absolutely blitz light infantry, but things drop off pretty quickly into marines or terminators (where the low AP of our better guns becomes more of an issue).
VEHICLES
How do the option weapons stack up into vehicles? As with the acolytes, we’ll tap everything from T9 to T12; everything except the rhino has a 2+ save. For this one, we’ll look at the number of damaging hits each weapon is likely to cause (given a perfect distribution of results). We’ll also assume that we’re within rapid range and standing still (just to make life easier for me).
The seismic cannon has more chance of doing damage; the mining laser does more damage when it connects. As the mining laser averages more than twice the damage of the seismic cannon (4.5 against 2), it should cause more damage into armoured vehicles over the course of a game.
With the special weapons, the webber is the clear winner – the combination of Torrent, Devastating Wounds and strength 2 means that you hit automatically, always need 6s to wound, and when you roll them, they cause mortals and bypass the armour. Bluntly, webbers give us d6 attempts to roll a 6 and cause a wound, which is way better odds than any of the other options can muster. Krak is a better choice than frag (more likely to land damage, and probably causes more damage when it does); krak is fractionally less likely to cause damage than a flamer, but will average twice the damage so works out as the better option overall.
So webbers, or krak grenades if you prefer to engage at range.
Let’s assume that we’ve decided to go with a unit of twenty, armed with seismic cannons and flamers (it’s the strongest all-round option, and significantly better than other choices into infantry). The only leader who directly affects their damage output is the Primus – he brings full rerolls, which is useless on the flamers, but valuable on the seismic cannons.
PRIMUS
Full rerolls makes a big difference. BS5+ hits 33% of the time; with the Primus, that jumps to 56%. And BS4+ moves from 50% to 75%. So we’re looking at a 23-25% increase in output. On the other hand, for just ten points more than a Primus, we could get another 10 neophytes – ten neophytes represent a 50% increase in output for a 20-neophyte unit (or 100% over a unit of 10); in isolation, both options offer a better return on our points than the Primus.
But as ever with the Cults, it’s not that simple. If we really want to amp up damage, we can utilise the usual suite of buffs: deep strike for sustained hits and ignores cover, Crossfire from a ridgerunner for AP-1, Perfect Ambush for +1BS and another AP-1, and Coordinated Trap for +1 to wound (and if we have a Nexos, we can trigger Trap for free). Plus the rerolls from the Primus. The only downer is that we’re moving (because some of the buffs rely on coming in from reserves), so the seismic cannons start at BS5+.
That’s a lot of firepower. Too much, into guardsmen – one of the limitations of the Coordinated Trap stratagem is that everything has to go into a single target, and we’re not going to find 40 guardsmen in one unit (in which case, we don’t use the stratagem and split fire). But very nice into marines and terminators – the threat of removing five terminators in one go is a useful one. And it’s worth noting that most of the damage here is coming from the seismic cannons, so if the enemy wants to overwatch us first, they’ve got to get through a lot of bodies to hurt the good stuff.
Earlier, we noted that it was more points efficient to add 10 more neophytes than a Primus. Here, that’s no longer the case, as the combination of Primus and the various buffs (which we can’t always drop on two units) creates an increase of 127% into guardsmen, 250% into marines, and 400% into terminators. Granted, we’re pulling in a 75-point ridgerunner and 3CPs of stratagems, but that’s still a pretty good return.
VEHICLES (AGAIN)
What about vehicles? As we’ve seen, the better option here is mining lasers and webbers (or krak, if you prefer a more generalist approach). But seismic cannons aren’t far behind, and it’s interesting to see how they play out when fully buffed too.
[We’re counting the flamers as 3.5 shots, the mining lasers as 4.5 damage, and the seismic cannons and krak as 2 damage. We’re also in rapid range, but it’s worth remembering that the mining laser and krak combo doesn’t really need to be. The numbers below represent total damage, but as an average (hence the odd numbers).]
Mining laser and krak grenades first:
Yup, everything’s dead. And as a sidebar, notice that when fully buffed, just the firearms alone do more damage than the whole unbuffed unit.
And then seismic cannons and flamers:
And it’s all dead again. In fact, the seismic cannons do better than the mining lasers into everything except the Raider, compensating for the weaker flamers. Why? Because the S6 seismic cannon really benefits from the +1 to wound stratagem (Coordinated Trap). It usually wounds most tanks on 5s (the Raider on 6s), which become 4s and a 5 – in effect, the seismic cannon is boosted to as high as S11 (into the Russ), almost doubling its effective strength, but more importantly, increasing its chance to wound by 50%, or 100% against the Raider. (Compare that to the mining laser, which is usually going from 3s to 2s to wound for a 25% relative increase).
Either way, fully buffing either version of neophytes means we’re likely to kill any tank we point them at.
COMPARISON
20 neophytes cost the same as 10 metamorphs, and are just 10 points more than 10 acolytes. How does their shooting match up (assuming we can stand and shoot with the seismic cannons)?
Shooting:
10 metamorphs kill: 12 Guardsmen, 2 Marines, 0 Terminators
10 acolytes kill: 15 Guardsmen, 7 Marines, 2 Terminators (demo charges)
20 neophytes kill: 18 Guardsmen, 4 Marines, 1 Terminator (seismic and flamer)
Remember, these are the baseline numbers, before adding any leaders or other enhancements. Interestingly, a standard unit of neophytes is our best bet into Guardsmen, but falls behind acolytes into heavier infantry (where the higher AP, more reliable damage and sheer volume of fire of the demolition charges makes the difference). Neophytes are always shootier than metamorphs, and over the course of a game will likely outperform acolytes (even though acolytes may (currently) get their demo charges back for a second go later in the game). But for a single strike, acolytes are still stronger.
That said, if we’re going for an alpha strike, the better comparison would be between the fully buffed versions of each unit (Primus and the full package). In that scenario, the demo charges gain an even greater advantage into marines and terminators, with neophytes remaining the better option into guardsmen.
Bolter-shots to kill 10 acolytes: 45
Bolter-shots to kill 20 neophytes: 68
Despite their lower toughness, the greater numbers of the neophytes offers a survival advantage. And with an icon, we’re getting at least three (and up to six) back each turn. Neophytes can definitely be wiped out, but it takes effort to make sure, and if not, they can potentially hide and recover pretty quickly.
CONCLUSION
So yes, they’re popular. And yes, they can be pretty good at shooting. What else did we learn here?
Heavy and special weapons are always worth it
Seismic cannons and flamers are the strongest combination into infantry
Mining lasers and webbers are the equivalent into vehicles
A fully buffed unit is going to obliterate whatever you point it at
Neophytes are our main shooting unit, and they can certainly deliver. But the important caveat here is that buffs make a huge difference: a standard unit of 20 neophytes will kill three or four marines; add a Primus, ridgerunner support, two stratagems and deep strike, and that jumps to fourteen, almost five times as effective. So this isn’t a unit we can play thoughtlessly – we need to be planning our CP usage, activation order and so on (especially if a Nexos is involved for CP manipulation too).
One downer (and honestly, I’m stretching here) is that, ideally, we want the neophytes hopping in and out of ambush all game (to trigger sustained hits and allow the use of Perfect Ambush). That means they’ll be off the board during the command phase, and unable to use their Generations ability to gain CPs. We could drop Inscrutable Cunning on an attached character, because we’ll definitely be using CPs on them; or we could just have more neophytes (maybe units of ten) for the purpose of sitting on objectives and shooting from the backfield.
The other interesting use of Return to the Shadows is that we can start these units on the table to balance the number of units we have in reserves during deployment. Assuming we can avoid getting them shot to pieces turn one, we can remove the neophytes at the end of our opponents turn, and bring them back as standard reserves. And because neophytes are battleline, we can use the stratagem on two units at once. Not only that, but as we’re unlikely to have used other stratagems on them so early in the game, we can use the Nexos to do this for free.
The other bonus of neophytes is that they’ll always drop into ambush if they’re wiped out. There’s a couple of good things here. One is that, because they have guns, they don’t need to come in close to the enemy and we can drop their blip a fair way back in relative safety, knowing that anything caught within 24” next turn is in trouble (although comparatively less trouble, because we’ll have lost the Primus). The other is the psychological effect on our opponent. Is it really worth the resources needed to cut down 20 neophytes in a turn if they’re just going to come back at full strength anyway?
Neophytes. Not bad on their own, but lethal once buffed. As long as we can keep the CP flowing, those heavy weapons are going to be a threat to anything and everything on the battlefield. Vive la révolution.