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I’ve been wanting to get into Tyranids for a while. I find their models really sick, and their gameplay variety just really nice for some overall longevity. Something I always thought was always awesome was the GENESTEALERS! I just think they look absolutely wicked and they seem to be so much fun to play. I’m playing on buying in finally and getting some Tyranids for christmas, getting the leviathan half probably would be good a start, but something I 100% want to implement is as many Genestealers as I can! I’m talking three 10 man squads at 2000pts something, maybe with a broodlord for each one. I wanted some advice as to how Genestealers play and a list that implements them heavily without attaching Genestealer Cult (I think they’re cool too but I want to enjoy normal Tyranid Genestealers first!). Does anyone have any advice?

Why it may sound fun to spam one unit over and over (the 250 Kroot Hound meme army comes to mind), remember this might get Same-y pretty quickly.

You might want to think about diversity in your force, which doesn't mean throwing your idea out entirely, just modifying it.

Maybe research Vanguard Tyranids, add a couple Lictors, Von Ryan's Leapers... etc.

Of course, Of course! I do want to include other models! And I do intend to mix up my lists! I just tend to see a lot of 1000-2000pt lists have like only a single squad of Genestealers and I would like to implement them a little more. Lictors seem really cool to run as well, and having a more elite army seems to benefit the genestealers the best, I’m just not entirely sure as I’ve never played more made a Tyranid army. From my understanding they’re incredible melee and are great for holding objectives and messing up opponents early, how I just need to see what units I could Adas that takes full advantage of my Genestealers!

I know you can play an all genestealers Boarding Patrolgame and those points are 500 points, with some cool stratagem built for an all stealer force.

I'll ask around for advice from the other xeno players I know.

Thank you very much! And thats awesome that I can run all Genestealers for Boarding Patrol

So, there is a detachment for this very thing! The Vanguard detachment in the tyranid Codex gives all units with the vanguard keyword the ability to Advance and still Charge (these units include genestealers, broodlords, raveners, mawlocs/trygons i think and a few others) 10 man genestealer squads with a broodlord in them are VERY nasty in combat, as now the broodlord is a synapse creature (added in a recent balance update...available for free on the warhammer community site) they benefit from +1 strength to close combat attacks, and stealers have many, many attacks.

In a Tyranid army, stealers have scout, so they get a free move after deployment, allowing to run up the board into cover before you spring out and mercilessy slaughter anything ytou can reach.

Don't have enough time to run through a whole list right now, but i would recommend checking out some Tyranind youtube channels..I particularly recommend Maelstrom gaming, a channel almost 100 % dedicated to Tyranids that has a lot of very well explained videos on all aspects of nids.

Hope this helps.

p.s. Also, the new plastic genestealer kit is top notch but you dont get any in the leviathan set...its still Absolutely worth picking up though.

Absolutely thank you so very much! I’m super excited to run them. I picked up an old Kill Team Genestealer kit, and I’m buying five more to make the full ten man, so far they look good but the newer kit does look absolutely gorgeous!

See if someone has a copy of the new Boarding Patrol Compendium, the Genestealer Detachment is in there.

Genestealers are basically your scary close combat shock troop. They have decent survivability for Tyranids and they hit hard. The big thing is getting them into close combat.

As noted they have scout so they basically get a free movement at the start of the game - factor that into how you choose to deploy them.

The big trick is ensuring that you bring some support for them. This might be something like a Tyrannofex/zoanthrope/exocrine to fire at further off targets to weaken them/threaten them or otherwise distract them with another target whilst the Stealers are moving forward to get into combat.

Or it could be deep striking units like Mawlocks, Raveners, lictors (of various kinds) or transports.


Basically you can't just thrust stealers out there on their own. That can work on a small unit on a flank that an opponent ignores; but otherwise if you just blindly charge forward they will get focused on (people rightly fear stealers). So you want some other punches and distractions in your army as well.

Also don't forget that Necromunda had some corrupted stealers released semi-recently. Not as cheap as core ones, but honestly if you're going stealer heavy its worth considering a pack just for some visual variety in your swarm.

I miss the good old days of 2nd edition 'stealers...
M6, WS7 (2+), BS0, S6, T4, W1, I7, A4 (roll 4 dice), Ld10, Sv5+
Cause Fear, immune to psychology.
28 points each though verses a marine costing 30.

I remember the nightmare that was rending... nothing like spending an entire game driving your Armoured Company in reverse... away from a Horde of 'stealers!

Ahh yes those were the days of stealers tearing open hulls!

I agree with you.

genestealers in 10th can still be scary to vehicles if they've got a broodlord with them. 10 genestealers making 40 attacks with dev wounds and rerolling 1s to hit will put a heavy dent in anything

As previously mentioned, the Vanguard Onslaught detachment is a fairly good place to start. The core detachment ability helps with both getting into combat and also allows you to fall back and charge again to keep swinging first (or leave combat with chaff to go after more important targets). There is also a stratagem that allows units to be put back into reserve, allowing them to be redeployed to a more advantageous location. Defensively, the Vanguard Onslaught offers an enhancement that grants cover to the bearer's unit (meaning a 4+ in the open) as well as two stratagems that offer some defensive assistance. One gives your unit a weaker version of the Lone Operative effect (preventing the squad from being shot at long range) while another allows a reactive move (allowing the unit to hopefully move out of charge range or get to cover). It does not have quite as much to offer offensively however. Assassin Beasts allows the entire brood to gang up on a buried character if one needs to be removed (and will probably succeed) but the other offense-minded stratagem is better suited to the Leapers or Raveners since the main effect is a WS improvement and Genestealers already hit on a 2+ (the to-wound improvement is nice, but it is more efficient to use the stratagem for one of the other squads and hope it sets off a Neurolictor for the 'stealers). The main downside for the Vanguard Onslaught is that your Genestealers are probably going to be the softest target in the army while also being the hardest hitting so they will attract a lot of fire. The toolset also acts a bit like "training wheels" in that they can mitigate some positioning mistakes that would otherwise be lethal for the squad elsewhere, which can result in bad habits.

The second place I'd look to using Genestealers en-mass is potentially the Invasion Fleet, where they can really leverage the Sustained or Lethal hits granted by the detachment thanks to their innate reroll ability. The detachment gives them a lot of extra offensive help (the aforementioned critical effects, fight on death, critical hitting on a 5+), but getting them into combat alive is a bit harder than it is in the Vanguard. You do get access to Feel No Pain from rapid Regeneration, but there are generally other units that will want it more (such as a Hive Tyrant, Zoanthrope Brood, or Malceptor) so it is hard to have available.

Now as a general piece of advice, Genestealers in the Tyranid codex are generally best used as your second-wave or counter assault. They will die in droves if they break cover and aren't the as fast as some of the other melee troops in the book so they ideally want to lurk behind the main swarm out of sight and emerge only when you have something that needs to be eviscerated (ideally something expensive like Terminators). They work really well as a hammer to follow up something like Von Ryan's Leapers or Hormagaunts that are cheap and good at tying up targets but generally struggle to finish said targets off.