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Good day, Dakka. After studying Tyranids, and the Genestealer cults for a few days now, I feel that it is now time for a new army. Making my first Hybrid today, I decided to start a Genestealer cult army. Anyways, I have a few questions:

#1. What codex would I use? Tyranids?

#2. Does anybody have any advice on making Cults, and Hybrids

#3. Any advice on collecting a Genestealer Cult army?

Thank you, Dakka. Have a good day.

I would go with IG as a codex. If you can get your hands on some old cult figs run those. If not, get some stealers and convert away

Thank you. Should I just count the Patriarch as a Lord Commissar?

I am also building a genestealer cult army,


Orks is probably the best codex to use that fits fluff, ramshackle trucks / limos, good cc, bad shooting, etc.


other than that Ig is an ok choice but purestrains are hard to fit to a statline of a guardsman

I've been thinking seriously about doing the same thing; my present plan is to wait and hope Forge World will get around to models and a list one day. I have a pile of the old Rogue Trader-era hybrids for playing Space Hulk, but though the sculpts still look decent, they're more than slight;y out of scale with recent Citadel stuff.

As to rules, I'd advise adapting the old Genestealer cult lists from the Compilation.

Hm, Orks? I really don't see why, considering Orks are nothing like Genestealer Cults.

I have a cultist army on my shelf, you may need to find or dust off and old White Dwarf mag to get a basic feel of the lists and troop types such as the psykic hybrids and such but a IG book would help.

Hm, thank you for the advice, do the Cults have any rules, or stats?

Check out this Dakka article by Gorgon about his Genestealer Cult army:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Gorgon%27s_Genestealer_Cult

He uses the Ork codex (read the article to see how it works), and lots of conversions.

Thank you. I have actually seen it, and it looks good.

Somewhere on the interwebs you'll find some semi-official (studio-written but not published) Genestealer Cult rules for 3rd ed.

Best thing about Cultist armies I found is the psykic hybrids that can carry hvy/support weapons, the limo's that are basic 10 pt all around rhino's with 1 hvy weapon or 2 basic weapons. the use of massive 20+ genstealer units, and the basic Imp guard units with imperial vehicles. All the point values are almost the same as IG but you get no vet troops or storm trooper units. I got a massive horde force at about 3,000 pts for Apoc games as Chaos allies. lol other than that they collect dust.

Ah, thank you. Limos?

Limosines used as transports for the Genestealer Primarch, about 1 for every 1,000 pts

I'd like to second IG, if you decide to go with an 'official' codex. There are a bunch of things that can fit the army well, such as psyker battle squads and penal legionnaires. If the penal legion squad rolls a 5 or 6 at deployment, they get an extra ccw and rending, making them like mini genestealers. They also get scout, so they can outflank and do sneaky genestealery stuff.

Other than that, a genestealer cult is usually made up of regular humans anyway (well, regular as in unaugmented with genestealer genes), so the all human army is going to come the closest to representing them.

There is a yahoo group for genestealer Cults, the central info source for people interested in these.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Genestealer
As you can see from the infiltration cycle, you can play either an Ork or IG codex with the same fluff. If the planet has been thoroughly covered, the cult will have infiltrated the local guard and will be using all the associated tools.

You can also play a cult that is more savage and use the ork codex. You can field the battlewagons as tanks, and truucks as limos. You can field the stealers as nobs, and cultists as boyz.

Heck, you can even play them as footdar, and run the hybrids as either scorpions or banshees. The primarch can be Eldrad, and you can use a very powerful stealer to represent the Avatar if you like. That would make your army fearless (fitting the fluff), powerfully psychic (fitting the fluff). You could convert war walkers to be modified IG walkers.

The fact is no codex really fits the role perfectly.
- IG does not represent the assault effectiveness (relatively) of hybrids
- Ork codex does not represent the psychic powers of the primarch, nor the speed of stealers
- Eldar codex does not match the poor BS of hybrids.

So really its pick what you want to play.

BOLS has a pretty decent genestealer cult fandex available, I would reccomend that.

Although, IMHO, genestealer cults are fantastic, they are more suited to necromunda-sized games, and make great inquisitor warbands.

Just go with the Nid codex.

Warrior Primes= Patriarch
Genestealers= Genestealers(!)
Limos= Tervigons
Cultists= Termagants

...and so on.

Yah, use the IG codex,
convert some models using genstealer and imperial guard kits.
On tanks and transports put pictures of genstealers on them.
You probably should use veteran squads, not that many tanks.
Oooooh, and maybe you can make a genstealer like model and use marbo's rules, that could be the leader.

Thanks for the info!

Grimtuff wrote:Just go with the Nid codex.

Warrior Primes= Patriarch
Genestealers= Genestealers(!)
Limos= Tervigons
Cultists= Termagants

...and so on.

This is what I'd go on. I've seen it done before and it makes the most sense.

Thanks all for the advice. Any more would be great.

Depending on the size of the army, there's no reason why you couldn't use multiple codexes.

The same limo could count as a trukk, tervigon, or chimera, depending on what codex you want to use.

If you can use the same model in three very different lists, then it saves you money.

I'm a big fan of the Cult. I'm currently working on an actual Ork Kult, which is great fun. For a human cult, my favourite Codex options are either IG or Orks.

Whilst neither Codex can perfectly represent the Patriarch and Magus, it has to be borne in mind that these are both unique individuals in a cult which, when established enough to make battles interesting, is either citywide or global. To see them in every battle would be like seeing Marneus Calgar and Tigurius leading every Ultramarines strike force!

Limos and civvies are fairly well repped by Orks. They've got fast AV10 vehicles, and the tanks you can get are crewed by unprofessional amateurs with poor aims. Your hordes will be frenzied fanatics, with well-built hybrids (Nobz).

Infected military are great as Guard. Plenty of scope for lesser psychic Hybrids, and I do want to make a unit of Hybrid Penal Legionaries with some spare models to represent what ability they roll. They're Gunslingers? Four-armed Hybrids dual-wielding Lasguns. Knife Fighters? Rending Claws galore. Psychopaths? 'Agile' poses that make them look like they're leaping all over the place.

I do plan to make a human Cult sometime, got the parts for a Fortress of Arrogance with a Patriarch counting as Yarrick. Old school throne on a Baneblade ahoy

Speaking of which, the Cult really comes into its own in Apocalypse games, where you can legitimately play Genestealer units (Broodlord is a fine match for a Patriarch, though a Hive Tyrant and Tyrant Guard can make a nicely OTT Primarch with praetorians). You can even use an Inquisitor or suchlike as a Magus. Of course, in friendly matches, your regular opponents might be happy to let you play Genestealer units whilst not taking any of the high-maintenance Deathstrikes, Manticores, Deff Dreds or Killa Kans available in your main Codex.

With regards to the limo concept, it depends on what floats your boat. If you like the idea of a largely civilian force, then having 'prestige' vehicles knocking around can look great. If you want your cult to look like it wouldn't get leafblowered by the first Space Marine to step out a drop pod, then a more militarised look might be preferable.

An Ork Kult? Wow. I was just thinking about making one. Anyways, thank you all for the tips.