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Ive been wanting to try a heavy stealer list with broodlords

As a guard player, i always slaughter stealers, I hide in transports and BC them to death. But Id verse you any day if you had a GS heavy list.

What does BC mean?

Battle cannon, I believe.

I was actually looking at building a genestealer heavy list today. Yeah, they can outflank and have fleet, they also don't require synapse, but, with the exception of the broodlord, they only have a 5+ save. So, unless you can guarantee an assault on the turn that they arrive, I think they'll get shot to pieces.

Plus, genestealers aren't cheap. I would like a little more survivability out of them for the cost that you pay.

It's been my experience that flanking genestealers maybe eat one unit before they die horribly. Seem kinda expensive for a throwaway unit.

newbis wrote:It's been my experience that flanking genestealers maybe eat one unit before they die horribly. Seem kinda expensive for a throwaway unit.

The answer to that of course is to have the maximum possible number of Genestealer units (and at least +1, preferably +2 and a re-roll to Outflank to ensure your reserves arrive when/where you want them) to not just hit the opponent, but to eat everything near a table edge in one/two turns. The only real issues are large, good melee units in cover and heavy vehicles. Units in cover are a paint, but fall if you join them in cover before assaulting, and vehicles fall to Zoanthrope/Spore spam - which is very viable when you've got that much reserve boosting power.

Not an easy list to play but horrifying when it works.

i have seen Genestealer lists and, while they can be nasty....

Stealers are good in CC and can outflank.

if your opponent knows this, all his units will be more then 12" away from the board edge.

use this to support your army, don't rely on the stealers themselves

To support the outflanking ability of the Stealers - I would use a few spore mines and a smallish unit of Ymgarl Stealers. Both of these units would target the center of the table/opponent's deployment zone pushing him back to within 12 inches of the table edge....

HAve a friend who run bugs and I have rarely seen him play with more than 1 unit of genestealers, they are just too expensive points-wise and he tends to get the same effect on who he plays with gaunts.

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but an all-stealer list is not really viable. I own one myself, and I am only now coming to terms with the nid codex overall. Frankly, nids are an over-priced army, but the dex compensates for this by having excellent synergy between units. This is why spamming one unit doesn't really work with nids; you need different units for different roles. Stealers, for example, can best just about anything in close combat, and are ridiculuous against tank squadrons when they have adrenal glands, but are 14pt models with 5+ saves. They are great, but you really need to present your opponent with other targets, or they will never make it into close combat.

If you really like genestealers, try what I am doing, and construct an army with stealers as the centrepoint. Look through the codex, and find units that appear to have synergy with genestealers, and experiment. Fritz over at way of Saim-Hann has the right ideas, but until then I'll tide you over with the list I have been running lately. It isn't the greatest, but its a good start.

The Swarmlord, 2 guard w/ lashwips
3 Zoanthropes, Spore Pod
Deathleaper
16 Genestealers, Broodlord, implant attack, scything talons
16 Genestealers, Broodlord, implant attack, scything talons
Trygon Prime, adrenal glands
Trygon Prime, adrenal glands
Total Roster Cost: 1844pts

I like those 16-strong 'Stealer broods. You really do need to make 'em big enough to be able to take some shooting casualties and still make it into combat.

...Heck, I'd run 'em as 18 or 20-strong broods, me-self.

Thats what I was thinking too:

Prime
3 Zoanthropes
3 Zoanthropes
19 Stealers plus Broodlord
19 Stealers plus Broodlord
19 Stealers plus Broodlord
15 Stealers
15 Stealers

~1850 points

Thats pretty cool kaiservonhugal, but those zoeys need spods! Other than that, solid list.

I was thinking that in this list - Id want the brain bugs on the table to start. This does 2 things primarily - give the oppoent something else to shoot at besides my scoring units and allows me to start shooting immediately.

kaiservonhugal wrote:To support the outflanking ability of the Stealers - I would use a few spore mines and a smallish unit of Ymgarl Stealers. Both of these units would target the center of the table/opponent's deployment zone pushing him back to within 12 inches of the table edge....

My main opponent plays 'Nids, and I'd like to point out that running Ymgarl does not push me toward the edge. In fact, I'd usually try my best to occupy the area terrain in the middle even more, to deny them the ability to deploy and get a free kill.

He's never run spore mines against me, though, so I can't vouch for their effectiveness.

When I run stealers, I usually run 2-3 broods to take out specific units behind the lines. In combination with a pod of shooters and a TMC or two it provides enough havoc in my opponents face to get my footsloggers in range.

if you run genestealers you need a heavy presence in the middle of the board to force your opponent to a flank where you can outflank directly into combat.

They can do a gross amount of damage if they make combat, but are otherwise fragile. CC against mech allways loses and most armies are mech, so, on average, no they don't work overly well in mass numbers.