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I've fallen in love with the Genestealer cult models and plan to shuffle my way away my rather competitive Dark Eldar for a more thematic themed force. I'd like to build up to around 750-1000pts. With the inclusion of all the new models how should I expand the cult while keeping the main theme of the army? The Vanguard formations seem like a good idea, perhaps the Manufactorum Stealer brood to put even more 'Stealers right up in your face. The Spawn of Cryptus seems like a good formation as it's very simply a better Genestealer squad with Stealth and Preferred enemy. A Venomthrope always be a great addition, as would some Lictors or Deathleaper. I could even convince myself to include a Carnifex as I would use it as a Genestealer abomination.

We use pretty terrain filled boards and there aren't many super competitive armies about unless I look for them.

I think they will be super fun and potentially even decently competiitve. Will have to wait to see the rules to determine how and if they will really work together, but if the psyker is 100 points or less and not a unique character, we are going to have shrouded genestealers, invisible carnifexes....the whole nine yards. I am very excited, as my Dimachaeron can finally reliably make it into combat (or soak up literally all of the opponent's firepower)

I think they are going to be fun to play, but i dont know about competitive. Big blobs of dudes arent exactly favoured in the meta atm. But if the people you play with arent scumbags a genestealer force should go down a treat.

Genestealers and Lictors are the obvious go to units from the Codex but you could also try Old One Eye as well. I've toyed with the idea of a Vanguard force as well which is why I'm so excited for GSC's to return, I included units like Raveners and Mawlocs because I like the idea of burrowing Nids being part of the Vanguard (and you need something more than OOE for the heavy lifting and Mawlocs are defintiely better than Trygons for this).

Should really wait to see the rules. Who knows they may not be able to use powers on theCodex: Tyranids, or some other silly rules.

Now that we've seen quite a lot of the rules I must say I am very, very impressed. They have a pretty unique play style when taking in formation, as if you get first turn and there is anywhere to hide your units within 12'' then you are almost assured a first turn charge. And the Patriarch and his Princelings are always assured a first turn charge. I can forsee them being used very well to box the opponent in their deployment zone.

Since I want to play at rather small points at first I'm going to set my goal for 100pts. I'm assuming that Tyranids will be battle brothers, so my additional 1000pts on top of the formation will be Deathleaper, Ripper Swarm and a Ravener Brood (4+Red Terror) all with Rending Talons.

Lacking a little in AV, but almost everything in my army has at least strength 4 and rending. And with 2 mastery level 2 psykers on telepathy you bet I'll be fishing for Invisibility. I really like how viable they've made the Cult.

Link to said rules?

JK I found them

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/1920/671862.page

For those who are curious


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It is indeed super impressive. I can't wait to use these alongside my Nids. Entire infiltrating army with stealth and shrouded? YES please. It probably won't be super viable until you can take 10-15 man stealer squads, instead of...2 man squads lol. But this is very promising.

 luke1705 wrote:
Link to said rules?

JK I found them

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/1920/671862.page

For those who are curious


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It is indeed super impressive. I can't wait to use these alongside my Nids. Entire infiltrating army with stealth and shrouded? YES please. It probably won't be super viable until you can take 10-15 man stealer squads, instead of...2 man squads lol. But this is very promising.

Edit: thanks for the link
Just read these rules and oh momma! Now I have a fever, and the only prescription...is more Genestealer Cult!

I am very satisfied with their rules and happy I pre-ordered my box, probably get a second now aswell for more cults

As for those purestrain genestealers, I believe once the official codex drops we will see the ability to take more in a group thus making my genestealers relevant again!

They have to release larger squad options in the actual book. No way GW isn't going to let me throw my money at those gorgeous genestealer sculpts. Only way that happens is if I can take more than two in a squad lol

Very cool! It gives me hope that I can field Broods of Stealers without needing to check my meds...

What's wrong with 30pt Genestealer broods? That sounds like an amazing MSU tactic...

the_scotsman wrote:
What's wrong with 30pt Genestealer broods? That sounds like an amazing MSU tactic...

You wouldn't be wrong if you could take a decent amount of them. As is, the special turn 1 assault variant is limited to one, and the normal squads are limited to three. Less if you want any of the other elite choices.

Basically, they could very well work out nicely. There just isn't enough there yet to form a full-fledged army until we see the Broodkin codex IMO

Good old Xenos inquisitors(any inq. really) can neuter this with servo skulls FTW

for the rules I saw, they're basically Ork boyz with rending and fearless.

Ork Boyz with RENDING and FEARLESS.

That already makes them a hell of a lot better than most of the other swarm units we have, definitely a good choice especially if we can shove em in a Tyrannocyte.

peirceg wrote:
Good old Xenos inquisitors(any inq. really) can neuter this with servo skulls FTW

Not necessarily if the 1" infiltrate becomes more of a thing. Tough to block out all that ground

The Abberant models are NOT part of the Overkill set? So more models are coming, either as an Overkill expansion or as a 40K kit?

Abberants are in the Overkill box. Theyre the big dudes with hammers/picks.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
for the rules I saw, they're basically Ork boyz with rending and fearless.

Ork Boyz with RENDING and FEARLESS.

That already makes them a hell of a lot better than most of the other swarm units we have, definitely a good choice especially if we can shove em in a Tyrannocyte.

Hope you can't. BB taxi services is dumb enough with the IoM, but between nids and broodkin it will be slowed.
Imagine broodkin get "limo" , and you fill it with nids warriors or the sorts X_X

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
for the rules I saw, they're basically Ork boyz with rending and fearless.

Ork Boyz with RENDING and FEARLESS.

That already makes them a hell of a lot better than most of the other swarm units we have, definitely a good choice especially if we can shove em in a Tyrannocyte.

Better than that; Rending, Fearless, I4 and assault grenades!

And yes, they make for a very tasty tactical army. The Purestrain Princelings aren't unique, so even just the ability to run 'stealers in pairs is disconcerting. Easy to hide (and get 12" rather than 18" infiltrate), cheap enough to be expendable, and just dangerous enough that you can't ignore them.

Think of them as stabby spore mines that can take an objective given half a chance.

The basic cultists are nice too. Pretty comparable to guardsmen - giving tyranids a force that doesn't need a synapse babysitter to keep it in line, but can use one if it gets the choice.




You can pair up the many 'stealer formations floating around into quite a nice force. Sadly the Children of Cryptus is a troops choice, not a formation by itself, but that's still useable if you allow yourself a bit of flex.



I'd suggest that the Broodkin would work well with a Manufactorum stealers force (or two) - which gives you a charge-on-turn-two wave, many more purestrains, and plenty of broodlords to use The Horror to pin down enemy responses.

If you don't mind a non-pure force, you could throw in Deathleaper's Assasin brood for extra leadership-crippling shenanigans.





Of course, if playing Maelstrom games and wanting to be a prat; a 1500 point army consisting of 50 off "the Purestrain Princes" would be kind of scary to face.

 luke1705 wrote:
You wouldn't be wrong if you could take a decent amount of them. As is, the special turn 1 assault variant is limited to one, and the normal squads are limited to three. Less if you want any of the other elite choices.

Assuming that these guys are battle bro's to 'nids, I wonder how that formation can be used with 'nids to increase their overall effectiveness.


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 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
for the rules I saw, they're basically Ork boyz with rending and fearless.

Ork Boyz with RENDING and FEARLESS.

There are some differences between them. Favored cannot waaagh!
But yea, for 7 points a pop, they are insanely good.

I have a "manfactorum genestealer" formation I plan to use with mine.

I'm not a fan of adding in true tyranid units (carnifexes, lictors, etc.) for fluff/nostalgia reasons ("back in my day we didn't need those fancy tyranid units, we just brought lots of brood brothers and stealers and we liked it!").

I plan to use them at 1000pts. or less mostly in Zone Mortalis and Cities of Death games.

There are some differences between them. Favored cannot waaagh!
But yea, for 7 points a pop, they are insanely good.

And don't have Ere We Go.

Essentially, when not taken as part of the formation, getting to the enemy will be kind of difficult without using Tyrannocytes (which feels weird).

Even in the Broodkin formation, a 12 strong unit is unlikely to fit out of line of sight, so 18" away from the enemy - meaning that whilst you have the potential to infiltrate and assault....actually doing it is unlikely.

The Aberants probably can - if you can manage to hide them they can be 12" away, which isn't bad.

Realistically, it's only the purestrains who'll pull off a turn 1 charge. A manufactorum genestealers formation is key to get loads of The Horror to pin their target - which makes up for the lack of assault grenades and takes overwatch out of the picture.

Paired with the stealer cult telepaths, you can do well - especially if one of them gets Terrify to knock leadership down further, and Deathleaper's assassin Brood for extra shenanigans..

On the other side, the way the formation deploys we can partically avoid the One Eye Open rule. This opens the door to a quite fluffy alliance with Imperial Guard. Due to GSC deploying at the opponents feet I could stock up on long range weaponry and be rather safe from retaliation.

What makes a good long ranged Guard allied detachment for say, 400pts. I imagine a Wyvern or two, some Veterns with an Autocannon and a CCS with Sniper Rifles?

I don't really see any way to run them outside of the formation at the moment.

Infiltrate, fearless etc is to strong.

 dan2026 wrote:
I don't really see any way to run them outside of the formation at the moment.

Infiltrate, fearless etc is to strong.

And first turn shrouded. And stealth. Haha

Can only hope the broodkin dex lets us run three of these formations, but with 10 genestealers in each purestrain unit

I know it won't really happen (unique HQ's) but if I can get a 1st turn charge with 10 genestealers that are stealthed and shrouded. Well then. I may just be buying GW stock. And running 3-6 such squads

 CT GAMER wrote:
I have a "manfactorum genestealer" formation I plan to use with mine.

I'm not a fan of adding in true tyranid units (carnifexes, lictors, etc.) for fluff/nostalgia reasons ("back in my day we didn't need those fancy tyranid units, we just brought lots of brood brothers and stealers and we liked it!").

I use my brood brother models as proxies for tyranid models. So civilians with handguns counts as termagants/hormagaunts, necromunda gangers and hybrids with heavy stubbers are devourer gaunts, a liberated imperial transport vehicle with propaganda is a Tervigon. And I'm currenty building a heavily armed anti-grav vehicle for my throned patriarch so he can be a flyrant.

That way I get the traditional looks and feels but with a bit more tactical flexibility.

Mellon wrote:

 CT GAMER wrote:
I have a "manfactorum genestealer" formation I plan to use with mine.

I'm not a fan of adding in true tyranid units (carnifexes, lictors, etc.) for fluff/nostalgia reasons ("back in my day we didn't need those fancy tyranid units, we just brought lots of brood brothers and stealers and we liked it!").

I use my brood brother models as proxies for tyranid models. So civilians with handguns counts as termagants/hormagaunts, necromunda gangers and hybrids with heavy stubbers are devourer gaunts, a liberated imperial transport vehicle with propaganda is a Tervigon. And I'm currenty building a heavily armed anti-grav vehicle for my throned patriarch so he can be a flyrant.

That way I get the traditional looks and feels but with a bit more tactical flexibility.

That works.