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So GSC looks pretty darn damn interesting. Where would one recommend starting with them?

Start Collecting! GSC.

Genestealer box

Get on the 2nd hand market and go a little crazy with Guard/AM then go Dr Frankenstein on it all!!!

As many deathwatch overkill boxes as you can get. Cheapest way to start the army.

Bear in mind this is not a cheap army. 3 DW:O boxes nets you 36 acolytes, and 48 neophytes.
Sounds like a lot, but including the weapons the neophytes come with that's actually only around 650 points.

The HQs add a few hundred to this though. You should be able to make a decent 1000 point army with those 3 boxes.

You can stretch it a bit higher by using the aberrants.

My local shop has only one DW:O box.

Then your options are:
1. Find more
2. Shell out for heaps of expensive acolyte boxes.
3. Convert lots of guys out of guardsmen + genestealer bits.

You'll probably need to do more than one of these whatever you do.

Okay, let me put it this way-what would a cheap 1,000 point army look like?

 JNAProductions wrote:
Okay, let me put it this way-what would a cheap 1,000 point army look like?

The contents of DW Overkill + 3 Leman Russ w/ Battle Cannons is about 1000 points.

With list price, you can get 3 Leman Russ for about $150...or go used for cheaper (you can usually find them on eBay and other places)...or scrathbuild for even cheaper.

True. But I didn't think about GSC for the tanks, I wanted them for the gribblies!

Which is going to drive up the price, I know. Ger bluh.

Looks like the GSC part of DW:O is 546 points wysiwyg without upgrades like mastery levels and familiars and relics. I'm starting out with 3 of those and I'm going to pick up some boxes of hybrid acolytes/metamorphs to make a bunch of metamorph squads. Obviously for more than 1000 points but starting with dwo is more than half of your 1k list at least.

Chaos cultists can be used for regular Joe acolytes and those guys are cheap as chips on eBay. Crappy eBay tanks look better for genestealers too.

Brood cycle is a core formation for the super-detachment.
At minimum it's:
Iconward
3x5 acolytes
2x10 neophytes
1x5 metamorphs
1x5 genestealers.
400 points.

Subterranean Uprising formation is at minimum:
2x5 acolytes
1x5 metamorphs
although usually you add more units of metamorphs, as they're really good. 2 units each of metamorphs and acolytes makes the formation a little under 200 points.

A Patriarch and a Magus are fairly essential. Usually both given mastery level 2, and the magus with the Crouchling familiar.
Together those are another 200 points.

That's a fairly decent 800 points, and a solid core to expand on.

To make the army cheaper you can load up on vehicles. Leman Russes, Chimeras, Sentinels, and Goliaths. But at that point you're playing slightly assaulty imperial guard.

What Arson Fire said; I'd add that tanks and Allies might make the army cheaper to buy, but they also make it less effective. Full-bore, 150+ model Hybrid horde seems to be the best way to play Genestealer Cults, although it's shockingly expensive.

So, I do have Cawl and Celestine. Any good relics to nab by allying in Guard with Cawl, Celestine, or both as HQs?

 JNAProductions wrote:
So, I do have Cawl and Celestine. Any good relics to nab by allying in Guard with Cawl, Celestine, or both as HQs?

Note that Cawl and Celestine would be treated as Come The Apocalypse allies, even if you are allying them into a Guard detachment. This can be a bit of a pain for your deployment shenanigans.

 DarkStarSabre wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
So, I do have Cawl and Celestine. Any good relics to nab by allying in Guard with Cawl, Celestine, or both as HQs?

Note that Cawl and Celestine would be treated as Come The Apocalypse allies, even if you are allying them into a Guard detachment. This can be a bit of a pain for your deployment shenanigans.

Don't they assume the faction of their CAD?