Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm not sure what the most competitive way to use the GSC will be. The easy one seems to be using the formation and allying it in to a Tyranid force as assumed Battle Brothers means you can hand out Invisibility to Tyranid units that direly need it, but alternatively you could run 3 Combined Arms Detachments each led by 1 of the Unique characters, then spam the Acolyte Hybrids to use up all of your Troops slots and go from there. The Acolytes may as well be horde Orks turned up to 100, so spamming them in units of 12 might not be a bad idea at all.

If Unbound was widely allowed and it actually let you take more than 1 of a Unique character, taking three of the formations and an Aegis Defence Line with no upgrades would slot exactly into 1850 points, but alas...

Caederes wrote:
I'm not sure what the most competitive way to use the GSC will be. The easy one seems to be using the formation and allying it in to a Tyranid force as assumed Battle Brothers means you can hand out Invisibility to Tyranid units that direly need it, but alternatively you could run 3 Combined Arms Detachments each led by 1 of the Unique characters, then spam the Acolyte Hybrids to use up all of your Troops slots and go from there. The Acolytes may as well be horde Orks turned up to 100, so spamming them in units of 12 might not be a bad idea at all.

If Unbound was widely allowed and it actually let you take more than 1 of a Unique character, taking three of the formations and an Aegis Defence Line with no upgrades would slot exactly into 1850 points, but alas...

Ally them with Tyranids, use the GSC formation to assault on turn 1, which gives the rest of your Tyranid forces a little breathing room for moving up the board. Considering they have Fearless and Adamantium Will as long as the Patriarch is alive, they could be a pretty effective "first wave" assault force for roughly 600 points.

Only the two Genestealers and the Patriarch can get close enough to assault turn 1. So, they die horribly in one round, then the rest are meat shields?

As someone who last played 40k in 5th edition (and I'm looking seriously at picking this up for board game if nothing else) can you play GSC with the info in the WD plus a 7th ed core rulebook?

Or do you need other info?

 Crazyterran wrote:
Only the two Genestealers and the Patriarch can get close enough to assault turn 1. So, they die horribly in one round, then the rest are meat shields?

The rest have infiltrate, so best case scenario they can be within 12" and charge on turn 1. If they can't get close enough to assault, then yeah, use them as a shooting meat shield.

http://cdn.bols.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ghosar-broodkin-bw.jpg

The video they have demonstrating the game play seemed a bit incoherent to me, and I ended up shutting it off. The miniatures are beautiful, though.

 privateer4hire wrote:
As someone who last played 40k in 5th edition (and I'm looking seriously at picking this up for board game if nothing else) can you play GSC with the info in the WD plus a 7th ed core rulebook?

Or do you need other info?

You can play them as the formations described in White Dwarf, or add them as allies to an existing army. But there are no current rules for Deathwatch or Genestealer Cult armies in 40K until the rumored, forthcoming codexes later this year.

Yes, they are a playable force. You can build an army based on the rulebook CAD (standard force organisation chart like in 5th) with at least one HQ and two Troops choices chosen from the unit rules in White Dwarf 110. These are rumored to be available on the GW website for free soon as well, source: GW email to retailers.

Genestealer Cult is its own faction. See the unique Genestealer Cult faction symbol (center top of a datasheet).

And you can ally them. We do not know how they treat other factions because not all pages of the new rules have been leaked yet.

Thanks to both of you.
Great news---other than my pre-buying a WD issue 110

You are welcome. You can also ally Astra Militarum (IG) units if you want to play the Cult like in earlier editions. In 7th an army can have as many detachments as you want. So you could play 1 GC detachment (the formation counts as one detachment) and 1 Astra Militarum detachment in your army for example. Worst case the Cult forces and the IG will have to be deployed with 12" distance to each other (called Come the Apocalypse on the ally matrix), and psychic powers and other buffs do not affect the other faction's models. Using IG as cannon fodder and tank support is already possible. I'm currently checking the AM book for what I want to add to my 1500 points Cult Uprising force for a first game.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Btw thanks a lot, rules leaker

 privateer4hire wrote:
Thanks to both of you.
Great news---other than my pre-buying a WD issue 110

Where do you pre buy the next weeks WD? I can't pick mine up physically because there isn't a GW within an hour of where I live. And If I buy it off GW site, you paying 10 bucks shipping for a 4 dollar little magazine...and ebay is hit/miss when it comes to this stuff. I don't want to buy a year sub either because for one its a rip off, second I am only interested in maybe 1 or 2 GW releases every year. GW loves to make stuff difficult for their customers I guess...

Anyhow, the models look amazing...and have rebooted my interest in the hobby. I hope they get a proper book like the skitarii and cult mechanicus later this year!

Relapse wrote:
The video they have demonstrating the game play seemed a bit incoherent to me, and I ended up shutting it off. The miniatures are beautiful, though.

Oh yeah, I watched through the whole thing and it was neither very informative nor entertaining:
- Oh hey this card says use it at the start of my ambush phase, guess I'll just try playing it after I've started deploying ambushers!
- "Can I reroll a reroll?" "Nope" "Why not?" "Because....nope" (if its an actual rule in the game, it should have been cited, if you can't do it just because it's a convention in GWs other games, that's sloppy writing
- The most interesting and unique part of the game, force selection (on both sides) gets no fleshing out. The video provides no information on any of the Deathwatch that could have been selected but weren't, nor does it say how ambushers and gambits are generated and allocated to entry points. considering ambushers were generated every single turn, it seems odd to miss out how they were generated, and yet spend time detailing how the terminator COULD have teleported next to the Assault Marine, but then it died, so couldn't use that mechanic

still, the video wasn't THAT terrible, it didnt put me off ordering or anything.

Speaking of which, preordered for £75 almost entirely for the GeneCult minis, they'll go nicely with the Space Hulk stealers and classic Tyranid Warriors I've picked up while waiting for this release. Kind of a shame all the HQs are unique and not customisable in any way, but that may change in the future I guess

 the_Armyman wrote:
Legitimate question: if this is a boardgame with 40K rules added on as an afterthought, why couldn't the uber mining lasers stay in the boardgame version of Deathwatch: Overkill and not bleed into the 40K rules?

Or why not have not afterthought rules? What's wrong with having TWO good sets of rules?

"Oh let's have afterthought rules just for fun of it". Umm...What?

Fact is: It's still inferior weapon to what IG has. You said forget IG, bring miners...Ummm...WHY? IG sports better guns. If you think this is good weapon what you think of IG weapons? Since this is sooooo horrible IG guns must be weapons of mass destruction! Horrible cheese!

(ummm...funny that tournies aren't dominated by IG's despite them throwing in nastier guns than your super broken mining laser)

Also game wise they need SOMETHING capable of hurting land raiders etc. If it was just S6 then...Well have fun when opponent brings in couple land raiders. Game where you can't hurt your opponent makes good game...Not.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Warhams-77 wrote:
You are welcome. You can also ally Astra Militarum (IG) units if you want to play the Cult like in earlier editions. In 7th an army can have as many detachments as you want. So you could play 1 GC detachment (the formation counts as one detachment) and 1 Astra Militarum detachment in your army for example. Worst case the Cult forces and the IG will have to be deployed with 12" distance to each other (called Come the Apocalypse on the ally matrix), and psychic powers and other buffs do not affect the other faction's models. Using IG as cannon fodder and tank support is already possible. I'm currently checking the AM book for what I want to add to my 1500 points Cult Uprising force for a first game.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Btw thanks a lot, rules leaker

That come the apocalypse is pretty nasty for 2 armies that are both hordish. I tried that with AM and orks. Not pretty Had trouble fitting all the army and orks were mostly in trukks/battlewagons/bikes rather than foot slogging to reduce space they require! In one deployment style I had half my army off table because they could not legally FIT to the deployment area.

Unsurprisingly not much CtA allies you see except for lone knights or flying hive tyrants...

So if I understand this right you can play a GS cult in 40k, but the only way to get infiltrate and stealth is to take EXACTLY what you get in the box.

So if you want more cultists, more pure strains or whatever they can't have stealthfultrate?

I am underwhelmed.

H8 formations so so much.

"Oh you brought a hellhound? You get preferred enemy!"

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
So if I understand this right you can play a GS cult in 40k, but the only way to get infiltrate and stealth is to take EXACTLY what you get in the box.

So if you want more cultists, more pure strains or whatever they can't have stealthfultrate?

I am underwhelmed.

H8 formations so so much.

"Oh you brought a hellhound? You get preferred enemy!"

As far as I can remember, this is the first time in a long time a new faction has been introduced as part of a boxed game. It's best to think of these rules as simply a placeholder for people to use the models in 40k until a full codex arrives. It's arguably better than no rules at all.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
So if I understand this right you can play a GS cult in 40k, but the only way to get infiltrate and stealth is to take EXACTLY what you get in the box.

So if you want more cultists, more pure strains or whatever they can't have stealthfultrate?

I am underwhelmed.

H8 formations so so much.

"Oh, you brought a hellhound? You get preferred enemy!"

*sigh* This is just the ruleset for the Ghosar Quintus cult. GW has done the formations with many of the box set contents. Deathstorm/Sanctus Reach etc. Basically, so you can play them right out of the box for a quick and fluffy game. I expect we'll see something more fleshed out when/if the codex comes out.

 Ravenous D wrote:
Meh.

It does look like its one step closer to pointless formation based 40k. GW continues the trend of doing less work and charging more, while suing anyone who tries to take the reigns and counter any ruling that stops the tardbus.

Disregarding the tiresome slur, can you explain what you mean? I remember seeing a lot of threads of people complaining about the ITC ruloes/FAQ document, but not that Games Workshop had initiated legal action to prevent its distribution.

Nearly had me GW, then I saw the price. I still can't understand how they can produce a boxed game that is dearer than the stuff that FFG sell. Especially as FFG will have to out source their miniature production.

 Wolfstan wrote:
Nearly had me GW, then I saw the price. I still can't understand how they can produce a boxed game that is dearer than the stuff that FFG sell. Especially as FFG will have to out source their miniature production.

These are high quality HIPS minis, not boardgame plastic. Not comparable. If you want you can compare them to X-Wing, which would not be in FF's favor price-wise.

 Mymearan wrote:

 Wolfstan wrote:
Nearly had me GW, then I saw the price. I still can't understand how they can produce a boxed game that is dearer than the stuff that FFG sell. Especially as FFG will have to out source their miniature production.

These are high quality HIPS minis, not boardgame plastic. Not comparable. If you want you can compare them to X-Wing, which would not be in FF's favor price-wise.

Yeah. That would be like comparing a Ferrari to a hyunday and complaining about the price difference.

 angelofvengeance wrote:


*sigh* This is just the ruleset for the Ghosar Quintus cult. GW has done the formations with many of the box set contents. Deathstorm/Sanctus Reach etc. Basically, so you can play them right out of the box for a quick and fluffy game. I expect we'll see something more fleshed out when/if the codex comes out.

That's what kind of worries me. I mean they have the generic cult unit (granted with a set size and set weapons) and they do NOT have stealfultrate. Only when you get the exact combination of models do you get that.

Which makes this army list pretty useless with no long range shooting and no infiltrate. If this is a preview of what they will have if/when there's a codex then I will be sad

I've wanted a cult/terrorist/rebel/insurrection army for a while and Stealth/Infiltrate are perfect this kind of force.

But if they're only offered if you buy these exact units then no thanks.

Just play your game differently. No point taking to an open plain with this list.

Now, a big built up area (or rocky quarry with mining buildings) in which to hide, close the range and ambush the spehss murihhneesss? Now we're talking a fun game.

Then again, I always did play 40K with more scenery than most. The 'Let's spend £500, line models up, roll some dice then put it all away again' style of game never did appeal to me.

Yeah, if I bought thisbox, it'd be for small points value games in very congested urban terrain. Halfway between Kill Team and 40k (more like force size from 2nd edition).

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Just play your game differently. No point taking to an open plain with this list.

Now, a big built up area (or rocky quarry with mining buildings) in which to hide, close the range and ambush the spehss murihhneesss? Now we're talking a fun game.

Then again, I always did play 40K with more scenery than most. The 'Let's spend £500, line models up, roll some dice then put it all away again' style of game never did appeal to me.

GSC begs to be played in Zone Mortalis, city fight, etc. and they will look damn cool doing it.

If you play on tourney tables with four pieces of boring equidistant terrain then well....

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 angelofvengeance wrote:


*sigh* This is just the ruleset for the Ghosar Quintus cult. GW has done the formations with many of the box set contents. Deathstorm/Sanctus Reach etc. Basically, so you can play them right out of the box for a quick and fluffy game. I expect we'll see something more fleshed out when/if the codex comes out.

That's what kind of worries me. I mean they have the generic cult unit (granted with a set size and set weapons) and they do NOT have stealfultrate. Only when you get the exact combination of models do you get that.

Which makes this army list pretty useless with no long range shooting and no infiltrate. If this is a preview of what they will have if/when there's a codex then I will be sad

I've wanted a cult/terrorist/rebel/insurrection army for a while and Stealth/Infiltrate are perfect this kind of force.

But if they're only offered if you buy these exact units then no thanks.

Infiltrate alone is a pretty hefty skill, and it's not like Tyranids(their likely Battle Brother allies) don't have some kind of gribbly that grants Shrouded bubbles.

 CT GAMER wrote:


If you play on tourney tables with four pieces of boring equidistant terrain then well....

*shudder*

You have some of the most efficient units in the game here for their costs in the formation. If they all had stealth/infiltrate natively on top of their already good stats they'd be pretty bonkers.

Either take them in cads alongside some allies (venomthropes anyone?)

The benefit of CADs is you have freedom (usually, to spam only the good units and leave out the bad ones.) in this case you can leave out the crappy Aberrants and Prinus and just take hybrids, and take three units of super discount Purestrains (who have stealth and infiltrate natively).

Then you can stealth and infiltrate any unit you want with the Patriarch, and run everyone else up the board.

Does anyone know what this next WD says about Genecult faction force orgs and/or allies?

the_scotsman wrote:
Either take them in cads alongside some allies (venomthropes anyone?)

Venomthrope rules specifically only affect units from Codex: Tyranids. Technically they don't even give a benefit to the units from IA4 or even the Leviathan supplement, although good luck to anyone trying to seriously argue that in a game.

 xttz wrote:
Does anyone know what this next WD says about Genecult faction force orgs and/or allies?

the_scotsman wrote:
Either take them in cads alongside some allies (venomthropes anyone?)

Venomthrope rules specifically only affect units from Codex: Tyranids. Technically they don't even give a benefit to the units from IA4 or even the Leviathan supplement, although good luck to anyone trying to seriously argue that in a game.

The faq changes the Codex: Tyranids references to Tyranid Faction. Of course I'm not sure if GSC would be Tyranid Faction.

I'm interested to see if Heralds of Ruin will be adding rules for these models to Kill Team. I've already built most of the DW units (or as close as I could get) using the KT rules, but I wouldn't mind seeing them added to the rules.