Neophytes might have the widest range of options in the whole codex. So, how do we avoid bringing cultist knives to a gunfight?
Neophytes. Hmm. They’re a thing, I guess. I’ve never managed to get much out of them, other than as cheap bodies to stand on objectives so better units can go off and hit things. Which is probably unfair. I mean, I like them. My first Cult unit was a neophyte killteam – I can still name them all (that’s Nicolai, Ilya and Yakov up there). I just don’t know what to do with them most of the time, apart from dropping in to menace AdMech rangers with shotguns and flamers. So I figured it was high time to take a proper look at the options, and see how the numbers and options break down.
BASIC WEAPONS - SHOOTING
As with our other troop unit, the Acolytes, Neophytes come armed to the hilt with ranged options – autogun, autopistol, blasting charges and frag greandes. Quite the arsenal. As we discussed when looking at acolytes, between the grenade options, we should almost always be opting for the blasting charges unless we’re facing guardsmen. And the autopistol is a freebie – you don’t have to give it up for any of the other options, including giving the leader a better pistol, as he gives up the autogun and does his best kelermorph impression (only with two arms). The autopistol is rubbish, but any damage it does is a bonus.
The first real choice we have with neophytes is the shotgun. Take this, and we’re trading off range for strength (and the ability to advance and still fire at -1). Within 12”, the shotgun is the better option – both have two shots, both have AP0, but the shotgun has S4 to the autogun’s S3. If you plan to engage within 12”, take shotguns. If you’re thinking about standing off and firing at range, then the autogun makes more sense.
And whilst we’re doing basic options, let’s think about the Cult Icon. This plays out slightly differently with neophytes, as they can regain up to 6 models each turn, rather than the usual 3. Given that a basic neophytes comes in a 6 points, we’re almost break-even if 3 come back, and up on points with 4 or more. As with any unit equipped with an icon, it’s only useful if the unit isn’t wiped out; but even then, it can push an opponent into over-committing against a relatively cheap unit in order to finish them off completely, knowing that a whole bunch could be coming back if they don’t.
On that basis, it’s almost always worth keeping the icon-bearer alive until the bitter end, unless you’re left with one model and really need to pass a morale check, in which case the leader might be a better choice. That scenario aside, imagine that your brood of ten takes eight casualties: if you keep the two mining lasers, you’re at best a brood of two for the rest of the game; but if you keep a mining laser and the icon, at a minimum you’ll get the other mining laser back in the command phase, and probably a few more too. The calculus is different in combat, where you’ll get to hit back before the icon takes effect, but if we have neophytes in combat, things are already going wrong.
HEAVY WEAPONS
Neophytes have access to three heavy weapons with a wide range of profiles. First up, let’s run all three heavy weapons alongside each other. For the purposes of comparison, we’ll imagine perfectly distributed dice rolls, and use much larger volumes of dice than we’d be able to get during a game (so the damage output will be ridiculously high, but balanced in relation to the other options).
Unlike the Acolyte mining weapons, Neophyte heavy weapons have very different profiles and preferred targets, so rather than just considering varying wounds on a set target, it makes more sense to consider three different targets – a guardsman, a marine and a Russ tank (now with 2+ save). We’ll also account for the differing rates of fire: given a base rate of 36 shots for the mining laser, we’re then looking at 108 shots for a short-wave seismic, and 216 for the long-wave version. We’ll also use 216 for the heavy stubber – the cheaper cost of the stubber means that we can run two (at 22 points) for the same points as a single seismic cannon or mining laser (21 points).
Heavy Stubber
The stubber doesn’t come out of this well. Even with two of them in play to balance the points, they’re still worse than a seismic cannon firing on long-wave. Which makes perfect sense, given that a pair of stubbers are heavy 6, S4, AP0, whilst a single long-wave cannon is heavy 6, S4 AP-1. Heavy stubbers give range, but not much else.
Looking the other way, a single heavy stubber is a point cheaper than two basic neophytes. At under 12”, a pair of shotguns is the better option, with four S4 AP0 shots to the stubber’s three. Against autoguns, the stubber is generally better, unless you’re targeting T5 or T8+ targets within 12”. So don’t put them in with shotguns; maybe add them to autoguns if you have five points going spare and like the models.
Seismic Cannon
As we’ve seen, the long-wave version outperforms the stubber across the board. More importantly, long-wave is the most effective option against light infantry, where rate of fire tends to be more important than multiple damage. Interestingly, long-wave also kills more marines than a mining laser (because in the example above, we’d expect two of those 12 damaging hits to then roll a 1 for wounds, failing to outright kill a marine twice, and wasting two shots). That said, you don’t need to targeting Astartes with long-wave, because short-wave does it better anyway, by some margin.
As an anti-infantry weapon, the seismic cannon is a clear winner here. With the ability to flip between profiles, it’s the most effective option against light infantry and marines, and with S6 can take on T5 models just as easily. In fact, it’s so far ahead of the mining laser against marines that the seismic cannon remains more effective against 3-wound models too, even with all the wasted damage.
Against basic neophytes, two seismic cannons (42 points) are equivalent to seven shotguns (42 points). That pits 12 S4 AP-1 shots against 14 S4 AP0. The cannons come out slightly ahead against both Guard and Marines, but not by much. If you plan to stay mobile, shotguns are probably the better option; stand-and-shoot, go with the heavy weapon.
Mining Laser
it's for shooting tanks; but not reliably. At S9 and d6 damage, you’d hope mining lasers would cover that side of things. And they kinda do, but not well. In the example above I started with 36 mining laser shots. To achieve that in a game, we’d need two full-size neophyte broods, both with four mining lasers, firing every turn of the game (for a total of 40 mining laser shots). If we can pull that off, we kill two Russes with a few wounds to spare (but at that point, I feel like I’d rather have a couple of broods of aberrants and punch the tanks to death instead). Against more lightly armoured tanks, and making good use of Crossfire, they could be a serious threat. [With a BS of 3+, and against a base save of 3+ (reduced to 6+), the same 36 mining laser shots would generate 13 damaging hits, for around 45 damage (average)]
SPECIAL WEAPONS
Neophytes can also access three special weapons (in a different option slot than the heavy weapons, so they’re not in direct competition). As with other neophyte weapon choices, there are varying ranges here; so if you plan to engage at maximum range, the grenade launcher will become more appealing, with the webber somewhere in-between, and the flamer only of use if you plan to get within 12”.
We’ll stick with the same pattern as the heavies, working with 36 shots as a baseline, but increasing that proportionately to reflect multi-shot options, taking the mean average of 2 shots for the webber, and 3.5 shots for both frag grenades and flamers. On top of that, the webber is more expensive than the other two options. To balance this, we’ll run a pair of webbers (32 points, 144 shots), and three each of the grenade launcher and flamer (33 points, 108 kraks, 378 frag and flamer). I’ve also included 5.5 regular neophytes (also 33 points) by way of comparison.
Well. I’m a little surprised by that. Let’s break it down weapon by weapon. (And remember, the numbers are absurdly high, but balanced from a relative point of view – we’d never see this much damage in a game.)
Grenade Launcher
The grenade launcher brings flexibility and range, but not much else, it seems. It does worse into our three targets than either of the other options, with the lone exception of the Russ, where it does better than the webber (because the webber just can’t damage the Russ at all). Not only that, it’s also out-performed by the shotguns and rapid-firing autoguns in almost every category as well.
Compared to the other two special weapons, grenade launchers are the only ones that have to roll to hit, which is significant thing when your BS is just 4+. But that’s true of shotguns and autoguns too. If the grenade launcher has a place, it’s somewhere between 18” and 24” from the enemy. Any closer than that, and we should look elsewhere.
Webber
The webber is interesting, and useful at the right time. Against light infantry, it loses out to flamers and shotguns; but against marines it’s suddenly effective. The mechanic of simply rolling against strength means that a third of all shots (against S4 marines) cause a mortal wound. Hello, bladeguard veterans. Now, before I get too excited, we should remember that individual webbers don’t have a great rate of fire. In a ten-neophyte brood, with two webbers, we’d expect an average of four shots (six if we can trigger Blast), or one-and-a-bit mortals, so we’re not suddenly going to scything down everything in sight. Even a brood of twenty, with four webbers, we get maybe three mortal wounds. But every little helps, right?
Flamer
The humble flamer. Better than anything else against light infantry. Better than anything except the webber against marines. Better than anything except a krak grenade against a Russ (because volume of fire is still a thing). True, it has the most limited range of all three special weapons, and so it’s not really a gunline weapons (although will have the usual flame-weapon utility in overwatch (as would webbers, interestingly)). But then, we’re not really a gunline army, and flamers are definitely worth it on any neophyte brood that expects to get up close with the enemy.
NEOPHYTE LEADERS
Neophyte leaders have a slightly curious set of options. By sacrificing their default autogun, they can take a close combat weapon and a second pistol. Which is nice. Combat-wise, they can opt for a free bonus attack through the chainsword, or pay for +3S/AP-1 or +2S/AP-2. With the pistols, they can go to S4 with the bolt pistol, or fish for mortals with the web pistol. It’s an interesting set of options.
Close Combat
Both power weapons outperform the chainsword. But it’s fairer to run the power options (11 points each) against the chainsword leader plus another neophyte (12 points). When we do that, we find that the pick remains better against everything except a 6+ save or a guardsman; and the maul is just better.
Putting the pick and maul head-to-head is less clear. Broadly, the maul is better against T3, T5 and T6, but only up to a point: the maul and pick match at T3/4+, T5/3+ and T6/2+. Beyond that, the pick is better. In practical terms, the pick is likely to be better (or evens) against most infantry targets – it’s worse against guard, evens against AdMech, better against T4 marines, evens against T5 marines (and better if they have a 2+ save). There’s no clear ‘winner’ here, but it feels like the pick is the better utility weapon.
[As a general rule, AP is more useful than strength – every point of AP is useful (at least until the enemy has no save left), whereas strength bonuses have a variable value depending on the target’s toughness. Here, for example, both the maul and pick let the neophyte leader wound T4 marines on 3s, but the pick reduces their save to 5+, whereas the maul only drops it to 4+.]
Pistols
In the hands of a neophyte, an autopistol has a 17% chance to kill a guardsman, and a 6% chance to wound a marine. A bolt pistol is slightly better, at 22% and 8%. A web pistol is noticeably better, at 50% and 33% (although those are still lower chances than the power pick has in combat, for the same 5 points).
If you’re taking any of the combat weapons, taking a second autopistol is free, so why not? The other two options feel like preference calls – the bolt pistol is a marginal increase, but only 2 points; the web pistol is surprisingly nasty (whilst still not killing lots), but if we want to be shooting, then leaving the leader with a shotgun and spending the five points on another neophyte gives an 89% chance of killing a guardsman, but still a 33% chance of wounding the marine. Probably a pass on the pistol upgrades (rule of cool aside).
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Rather than scroll up and down, here’s a quick summary of the numbers:
o Shotguns for close-up work, autoguns at range
o Seismic cannons are the best all-round heavy, but mining lasers should do more damage against tanks. Don't take heavy stubbers
o Flamers are great, webbers are niche, grenade launchers are not great (but have some uses)
o Leader upgrades are cool, but not necessary
In a lot of ways, what we’ve discovered here is the completely obvious. Short-ranged weapons are good at short range. Anti-tank guns are better against tanks than anti-infantry guns; and in turn, the anti-infantry guns do better against infantry. We don't need for 2000 words to tell us that. And in many ways, I think that might be the point with neophytes – they have enough options that you can arm them for the role you want them to play.
So perhaps what we should be asking is not, ‘What are the best weapon options?’ – instead, we should be asking, ‘How am I going to use them?’. Once we have that in mind, we can run the numbers and arm up. Here’s a couple of suggestions that I’m inclined to try out in my own Cult force.
Shotguns and flamers. Appear close to enemy units, hit them with 8 shotguns and two flamers. Against AdMech (a common opponent of mine), there’s a fair chance of completely clearing out a squad of five rangers or vanguard. I could also see this sort of brood as part of the battle-line, moving up alongside combat units to provide some ‘softening-up’ firepower, and to put down crossfire markers for use in the charge and fight phases (and with both shotguns and flamers being assault, I can even advance and still fire).
Autoguns, seismic cannons and grenade launchers. Stand back and fire. Seismic cannons are probably the best all-round heavy weapon (helped by having two firing modes). Grenade launchers aren’t great, but are better than standard weapons at range, and a single krak grenade hit will drop a crossfire marker (and is another assault weapon, so has that advance and fire utility). Recent experience suggests that they’re still not going to do much, and I can probably spend the points better elsewhere, but if I wanted firebase neophytes, I think this is what I’d go with.
Looking at leaders, I’m generally inclined to leave them without upgrades (although they do make the models look cool). For a firebase brood, gearing for short-range combat feels like a waste. And in a shotgun team, I’d rather have more shotguns and hope I don’t end up in combat.
And that’s pretty much it. I feel like this one is still just scratching at the surface – we’ve looked at the raw numbers, but I suspect the real utility here is going to be in synergies: putting down crossfire markers for other units, jumping out of Goliaths to take objectives and freeing up other units to press further forward, that sort of thing. Which is tricky to quantify, and is much more about tactics and general good play than number-crunching. But hopefully this is a useful starting point. Thanks for giving it a look, and may your neophytes always remain unquestioningly loyal to your cause.