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Are there any formal rules for Genestealer cults knocking about ? I know they kinda disapeared following the birth of the Tyranids ( was this to protect copy right from the Alien francaise ? ) well back to the main point. Any rules knocking about for building an army of these guys ?

No, unfortunately. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the Aliens movies; Genestealers were part of the Tyranids shortly after they were introduced, and are still present in a lot of BL novels and the like. They were removed in the late 90s with 3rd edition 40k.

There are a few alternatives that Ive seen on different 40k boards:
- Codex: Orks, using cultists as boyz and Genestealers as Kommandos
- Codex: Tyranids, using cultists as Gaunts, Genestealer limos as Tervigons, and Genestealers as Genestealers! A Tyranid Prime can be the Patriarch.

It's also possible to make use of 6th Edition's Allies rules to pair a small IG tank force and a platoon or two with a main tyranid invasion force. A few LRBTs taken by cultists can provide some heavy ranged firepower for a Gaunt blobline.

The new ally rules would have made an obvious window for genestealer cults to come into the rules, but unfortunately the Tyranids are denied in that regard. No-one wants to be friends with them :( ("Are you sure you don't want to take a dip in this pool over here? I've got some champagne on ice!")

So your options are:
- Hope that Forgeworld release some kind of campaign book with a list that combines IG with 'Stealers. The FW Vraks books were a lifeline for fans of the Eye of Terror codex, who had had their chaos marine/cultist armies made invalid. I don't think this is likely for the foreseeable future though.
- Depending on what your gaming group is like, and how open to thinking outside the box they are, use some home-brew rules. You are not alone in wanting a Genestealer Cult army, and there are loads of fan made 'Cult' lists out there, some which have had a lot of effort put into them to make them fairly balanced.

Using other codecies is a nice idea, but for me it stretches some of the rules a little bit too far.

Brother SRM wrote:No, unfortunately. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the Aliens movies;

Although Space Hulk was 'strategically released' following Aliens. I won't say 'cash in', but the influence is immediately obvious, and I still remember the chap in the shop even selling the game to me as such. GW has obviously made the Tyranids a concept of their own, but there are a number of other sci-fi tropes that the race is based on, and Alien/Aliens are a fairly notable component of that.

Google Tim Huckleberry or something like that. He use to work for GW and made an "Unofficial Official" Genestealer codex for 3rd edition. Yes it's old, but it's the closet you will get to an "unofficial official" Genestealer codex.

Pacific wrote:
Although Space Hulk was 'strategically released' following Aliens. I won't say 'cash in', but the influence is immediately obvious, and I still remember the chap in the shop even selling the game to me as such. GW has obviously made the Tyranids a concept of their own, but there are a number of other sci-fi tropes that the race is based on, and Alien/Aliens are a fairly notable component of that.

Oh, I know! It even had the little blips like on the motion detectors in the movie. I'm just saying the removal of cults had nothing to do with that, since it happened a good decade later. Sorry for the confusion!

I have to admit I'd love to see a return of the cultists. I want to see a new GW limo model.

I want to see a model altogether; the Genestealer Limo back in the day was just a converted model car from some other company. Considering how cool GW can make plastic kits these days, I'd love to see Genestealer Cults again. Even if they were a small WD sublist or relegated to small 500 point games or something, it'd be really cool if they saw a return to the game.