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With the recent FAQs, I'm a bit hesitant to run my Nid army for the time being (I've always run a swarm army...don't care much for the Godzilla lists).  Also, after about 10 years at this game (well, 10 years since I've started...there were many gaps of not-playing in between) with only my Nids, I kinda wanna start up something different as well.  So I thought making a makeshift Genestealer Cult would be fun (what can I say?  I can't stray too far from my Nids.) as it would be a completely different army while still being somewhat familiar.

My question is, which rule set would be best to represent a Cult army?  I've heard of people using the LatD lists, and  I also saw mention of using the standard IG list with certain doctrines.  Could anyone with experience with either provide some help?

Looking at my 2nd Ed. Tyranid codex, I'm feeling that the LatD would be a better fit.

What're your opinions?

Thanks in advance.

Ahh, your title brought back some fond memories of the RT days. Since the original GC had access to demons, LaTD seems like the better choice. I'd have no problems with you proxying a Patriarch for a prince or GD with stealers as demons.

Ok, so assuming I go with an LatD list I figure that I can use (going by the 2nd Ed. GC listing in the back of the Tyranid Codex):

Brood brothers => Traitor Guard
and
Genestealer Hybrids => Mutants?

I envision the Patriarch as being pretty much what the Broodlord is in the current Tyranid Codex listing. Would a Demon Prince be a good way to represent this? Or would a semi-tooled up Aspiring Champion work out better? What would be good for a Magus?

You suggested demons to represent stealers. I was wondering which demon in particular would be most similar to a genestealer (I'm really horribly unfamilar with the specifics of the Chaos Codex).

Also, out of curiosity, do you recall what other differences there were between the RT and 2nd Ed. GC lists (asides the loss of demon-access)?

Thanks again in advance.

I'd use:

Patriarch = D. Prince
Magus = Asp. Champion
Brood Bros. = Traitors
Hybrids = Mutants
Purestrains = Daemonettes (or Bloodletters)

You'd have to get more creative for some of the other LatD unit types, but with Genestealers being very mutable creatures it's easy to come up with new ideas for creatures to represent hounds or Chaos Spawn, for example. I have a bunch of GC models (inc. about 80 metal hybrids) that I'm eventually going to use to build mine. As of now, I'd use LatD.

There is another, less obvious option if LatD lose their "official" designation. When you think about it, a GC is a militia army with a clear hierarchy including everything from cheap cannon fodder troops to tough h2h fighters, along with a mix of commandeered military equipment. That could also describe Orks. So you could do something like:

Patriarch = Warboss
Magus = Painboyz
Brood Bros. = Grots
Hybrids = Boyz
Purestrains = Nobz
"Liberated" Russ = Looted Russ
Support Weapons = Big Gunz
Limos = Trukks
etc.

Like I said, less obvious and probably less powerful than a tuned LatD list, but a footslogga force is probably a decent match for what a GC would look like in action.

Regarding the RT and 2nd ed. lists, IIRC the RT list distinguished a little more between levels of hybrids. And I believe the 2nd ed. list lacked cult limos, which were basically just armored-up automobiles that the GC drove around.

Sweet. Thanks Gorgon and Flagg.

As I doubt that I'll ever run this in an "official" tournament/game/whichever, I'll probably stick with the LatD list, though using Orks does seem like an interesting alternative.

I'll also probably only stick to those main units for the bulk of my army, so I most likely won't have to deal with the other LatD unit types.

Once I get the necessary codices, I'll whip up a list for evaluation.

Thanks again for the advice.

Okay, here's a list I came up.  I'm envisioning a cult group that's just managed to infiltrate into a small PDF station somewhere on some random planet so that they've got access to some goodies. 

Genestealer Cult (LatD)

HQ
2x  Hybrid Liutenant or something (Aspiring champions) w/ Powerfist, MoCU - 124

ELITES
8x "Genestealers" (Daemonettes) - 120

TROOPS
6x Brood Brothers (Traitor Guard) w/ Lascannon - 68
6x Brood Brothers w/ Lascannon - 68
6x Brood Brothers w/ Autocannon- 63

19x Hybrid Neophytes (Mutants) - 114
    + Hybrid Acolyte (Boss) w/ Powerfist - 31

19x Hybrid Neophytes - 114
    + Hybrid Acolyte w/ Powerfist - 31

FA
2 Cadian Pattern Sentinels - 100

HS
Leman Russ Battle Tank w/ Hull and Side HBs & x-a - 160

Total: 993

Is this viable at ~1k points?  Am I picking up too many toys at this game-size (After playing nothing but Nids for a while, the units with Armor Values are rather tempting to me)?  Should I stick with the Daemonettes or use Bloodletters instead to rep the 'stealers?

Thanks to all in advance.

if i wasn't lazy enough to post a link i would show you my ideas/concepts and models that i have been making using the LATD list. The painting blog is on warseer called "Do the Wrong Thing (Genestealer Cult Blog)".

basically the same idea as you using a souped up DP as the patriarch, mutants = hybrids, traitors = brood brothers, stealers = bloodletters/daemonettes. It's a very viable list even if you take out the marines/greater demon/oblits as most everything on the list cna be justified in one way or another and still fit the overall theme.

Link to cerealkiller195's *cough*BossSnikRukk's*cough* genestealer cult blog: "Do the Wrong Thing"

Worth the Google hunt it took to find, and it's good to see your LatD is still up to no good, ck. Oh, and your blog showed me the beauty of Warseer's "Project Logs" section. Lots of good stuff to be found ...

- Boss Salvage

I have a friend who is using the Witch Hunter adversary rules combined with the Tyranid codex for his Genestealer Cult, it allows you to have real Genestealers in the same army as a Magus (the Pyscher adversary) and the various traitor humans.

heh thanks Salvage yes i do go change names every now and then, gotta keep people on their toes! ha! Yes i like warseers because of project logs, though mine is a bit lacking on updates (have been doing way too much drinking...) i do have a bunch of primed stuff that will make its appearance soon onto the blog and revive it!