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I figure a full bore major hive fleet wouldnt bother aiding the cults and nom them right off the bat, but maybe the vanguard force of a splinter fleet would spice up an uprising.

Probably a fethload of spore mines and lictors. Maybe a few MCs in that fleshy drop pod.

i was thinking the cults could "summon" 1 or 2 dimachaerons by liquifying enough neophytes to get the required biomass or something

To go true fluff of GSC with Tyranids..

Pretty much anything tbh.. bepends on how early of a Tyranid Invasion you want..

First Wave is generally Hordey with Warriors
Then bigger and bigger bugs as the invasion/resistance progresses

In the lore, Genestealer Cults fight alongside the Hive Fleet hordes during all the invasion. Is just after all the native defenders are gone that the Tyranids go against the Genestealer and nom nom them.

But fluffy Tyranids, I can see the stealthy ones, like Lictors, more Genestealers, etc... and the small ones like Hormagants and Termagants, used as some kind of war-dogs, you know? Controlled by the Genestealer Patriarch.

I think the abundance of purestrain genestealers would make hormagaunts redundant, and i know the cults fight alondside the hive but once you have carnifex and biotitans hitting the field having what is essentially a handful of guardsmen and mutants running around instead of added to the overall biomass doesnt make much sense, also i dont think they would be able to bolster their numbers by infecting once their cover is blown and there are swarms about.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Although i do like the idea of an aberrant hive fleet that keeps the cults and has cult crewed imperium ships

Bicius wrote:
I think the abundance of purestrain genestealers would make hormagaunts redundant, and i know the cults fight alondside the hive but once you have carnifex and biotitans hitting the field having what is essentially a handful of guardsmen and mutants running around instead of added to the overall biomass doesnt make much sense, also i dont think they would be able to bolster their numbers by infecting once their cover is blown and there are swarms about.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Although i do like the idea of an aberrant hive fleet that keeps the cults and has cult crewed imperium ships

It really all just depends on the level of planetary defence

If the GSC managed to take a world before the Invasion... there can be very little Tyranid ground force

If there is a major bitter battle happening, you could easily have GSC untis fighting along side the largest of Tyranids

At the same time once an area has been cleared of defenders, the Tyranids normally kill their hybrid brethren, as their usefulness is complete

Anything described as a "vanguard organism" would be a common sight among GSCs since they would make planetfall first. Unfortunately the only two I can think off the top of my head are Lictors and Genestealers, the latter of which the GSC has a better version of and the former being essentially a really. huge. genestealer.

On the other hand, the only ones I know of that will likely NOT be part of a joint Tyranid-GSC force would be the Malathrope and Rippers, since these tend to come at the tail end of invasion forces to actually start devouring biomass, which means they usually only show up once the world's defenses are largely suppressed and the local population mostly slaughtered.

i would think the smallest splinters would need to gather biomass initially to help fund the invasion

Lictors often predates even GSC on planets. It's their psychic signal that draws the hive fleet to a specific location. Some Lictors are so old that they evolved to be part of the natural fauna before the hive fleet arrive. The catachan devil is an example of this. Lictors work perfectly as a fluffy vanguard force.

Hormagaunts are often found to create their own eco system on planets that have survived/repelled a Tyranid invasion. Dan abnets ganger "Snowdog" who shows up in warriors of Ultramar and a few short stories, run into a pack who are happily breading in the underhive. It seems the Hormagaunts can reproduce without the norn Queens or spawning pools. So if a cult would rise on a planet that long ago repelled the nids chances are the Hormagaunts are going to be around.

Purestrain Genestealers for obvious reasons.

Carniflexes have been known to survive Exterminatus and just refuse to die for centuries. Just running around terrorising countries in a small godzilla esc manner. See the Hormagaunts thing, if they've shows up after the main fight a pet carnilex or two might be present.

 Nerak wrote:
Hormagaunts are often found to create their own eco system on planets that have survived/repelled a Tyranid invasion. Dan abnets ganger "Snowdog" who shows up in warriors of Ultramar and a few short stories, run into a pack who are happily breading in the underhive. It seems the Hormagaunts can reproduce without the norn Queens or spawning pools. So if a cult would rise on a planet that long ago repelled the nids chances are the Hormagaunts are going to be around.

yeah in 2nd ed coxed, it goes into telling about how Hormagaunts will lay eggs in the ground at the start of an invasion, This helps with reinforcements or just to lay dormant if they are repelled

What about ymgarls or even greenstealers and eldar genestealers gettin to the cult from a space hulk or merchant fleet before the hive fleet, i think a patriarch is enough of a psychic beacon to draw them in. Im not sure if only narwhals can pick up cult beacons and lead the fleets or if every nid can feel em

A higher proportion of synapse creatures if possible, to keep the swarm in line and not devouring the gsc allies too soon? Will the regular tyranids still ignore the hybrids when out of synapse range and revert to animal instincts?

 Nerak wrote:
Lictors often predates even GSC on planets. It's their psychic signal that draws the hive fleet to a specific location. Some Lictors are so old that they evolved to be part of the natural fauna before the hive fleet arrive. The catachan devil is an example of this. Lictors work perfectly as a fluffy vanguard force.

Hormagaunts are often found to create their own eco system on planets that have survived/repelled a Tyranid invasion. Dan abnets ganger "Snowdog" who shows up in warriors of Ultramar and a few short stories, run into a pack who are happily breading in the underhive. It seems the Hormagaunts can reproduce without the norn Queens or spawning pools. So if a cult would rise on a planet that long ago repelled the nids chances are the Hormagaunts are going to be around.

Purestrain Genestealers for obvious reasons.

Carniflexes have been known to survive Exterminatus and just refuse to die for centuries. Just running around terrorising countries in a small godzilla esc manner. See the Hormagaunts thing, if they've shows up after the main fight a pet carnilex or two might be present.

Best answer. Could build an awesome back story with this.

I need to give a Carnifex to my Genestealer Cult, frozen inside a iceberg from a long past Tyranid Invasion, to be adored as the Devourer of Worlds, with the Patriarch as his "avatar".

 Galas wrote:
I need to give a Carnifex to my Genestealer Cult, frozen inside a iceberg from a long past Tyranid Invasion, to be adored as the Devourer of Worlds, with the Patriarch as his "avatar".

Bonus point if its Old One Eye.

epronovost wrote:

 Galas wrote:
I need to give a Carnifex to my Genestealer Cult, frozen inside a iceberg from a long past Tyranid Invasion, to be adored as the Devourer of Worlds, with the Patriarch as his "avatar".

Bonus point if its Old One Eye.

I like this.

What you could do is take a Tyrannocyte-heavy force and fluff it as a splinter fleet whose tactics parallel those of the Space Marines, using drop pod-equivalents to hit key targets while relying on auxiliaries for holding ground. Bonus points for putting Tyrant Guard in the Tyrannocytes for space marine-inspired bio-organisms using drop pod-inspired bio-organisms, or carnifexes for "dreadnoughts."