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Just got a hold of the Genestealer Cult book, and still deciding on what models to get, a small blurb in the story fluff near the beginning caught my eye. GW mentions that other races have fallen afoul of Genestealer cults, but then gave several reasons why their xenos traits made it unlikely for the cult to get far. The thought hit me about making a Tau-based cult, and what obstacles would have to be overcome for it to prosper. The idea became that a Tau Ethereal was infected first (which seems to be the "source" of their resistance), and under the Ethereal's direction, the remaining Tau have fallen afoul of the curse.

So, I'm wondering what would be appropriate for military-aligned troops. These, I think, are easy to add:

- Fire Warriors Strike/Breacher teams
- Pathfinders
- Stealth suits
- Piranha
- Devilfish
- Hammerhead
- Sky Ray

I'm not so sure about pure drone units (including the Marksman unit), so I'm not including it above. I'm also unsure about the suits - crisis and broadside, whether they should be available or not. The bigger suits - ghostkeel, riptide, stormsurge feel like they shouldn't be available. Likewise, I imagine the airplanes are right out as well. As well, no Kroot as the Genestealer book indicates that they can recognize cultists by the pheremones they excrete. And that seems like it should also exclude Vespid as well.

Finally, I'm contemplating using my Ethereal model as magus. Maybe a Fire Cadre as a Primus.

The issue would be if you infect a ethereal would they still have the same effect on non infected Tau as a normal ethereal or would it be different?
You also then have the issue of demiug, kroot, vespoid etc etc all being commonly used throughout the tau empire, can 1 cult jump species like that?
Some of the suits talk about nano technology, which I'm going to say would probably cause some problems with the genstealer genes.
The answer seams tto be it would have to be a smallish force, you also have the caste system with each distinctly different from each other, can one cult cope with multiple genertics at once?

I would point you towards their name

I would say yes, genestealers could infiltrate a Tau empire enclave. Detection would be based on the degree of genetic testing that routinely occurs in Tau society, and even that could be circumvented by infecting or dominating whoever was in charge of the test results.

 Flinty wrote:
I would point you towards their name

I would say yes, genestealers could infiltrate a Tau empire enclave. Detection would be based on the degree of genetic testing that routinely occurs in Tau society, and even that could be circumvented by infecting or dominating whoever was in charge of the test results.

That assumes it's not done by a drone or such other means, also as said Kroot can smell genestealer infection, so your, not infecting a enclave with kroot.

Well the only official occurance is on Ksi'm'yen where it started with research subjects being intentionally implanted by Tau scientists and then seems to have spread throughout the world.

The difficulty I think is that Tau breed through a controled program using intensive gene scanning to determine compatible mating pairs. Therefore, the genestealers would need to corrupt the officials in charge of this program to avoid detection.

Wasn't there a Ciaphas Cain book where a Genestealer Cult took root on a T'au/Human frontier world, or am I mixing up books in my head?

You're right there was, but I thought the cult was only amoungst the humans in that book?

The genestealer cult infestation on Gravalax was amongst the human population but Cain (and Amberly Vail) conspired to allow two Fire Warriors who had been infected to return to the Tau population without warning them.

Tau also have relative short lifespans and their caste system is certainly an issue.

All of the above is true as far as I know... but there exists the fourth sphere.

Perhaps a sept or group of Fire Caste got separated when they were pulled out of the warp and perhaps they encountered Genestealers. Could work, just food for thought.

Also, wasn't part of the reason the Farsight Enclaves came to be was that they "got out from under" Ethereal rule? Could they be more susceptible to a Genestealer Cult invasion?

What I'm more concerned about than reasons how it occurred as to what models I should or should not be allowed to use if I flip this to a Tau infestation (including base GSC assets, like the bikes) - including substitutes (such as Hammerhead instead of Leman Russ, for example). I'm assuming the infection has occurred, and it's been allowed to spread wide enough they have now secured military assets.

There is also a novella about a tau team investigating a sealed bunker, found dead deathwatch, revived the dreadnought and fought with it to kill the GSC, the protagonist was infected and can feel the change, asked the dreadnought to kill her when the mission was done.

Thanks BCB for bringing that bit of fluff up and AndrewGPaul for the reference.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
The genestealer cult infestation on Gravalax was amongst the human population but Cain (and Amberly Vail) conspired to allow two Fire Warriors who had been infected to return to the Tau population without warning them.

Personally I think GW really could have shaken up the meta if they included rules for GSC xenos infections. Imagine a legal GSC, Orks, Tyranids soup army! Or swap out Orks for Tau, or Eldar/Dark Eldar for that matter. Some extremely interesting combos out there.

Speaking of which, I was just reading further into the GSC codex and was reading about the Bladed Cog cult. It got me thinking about a GSC that has AdMech units instead of IG units

- Rangers/Vanguard instead of Brood Brothers
- Ironstriders/Dragoons instead of Sentinels
- Onagers instead of Leman Russes
- Electropriests
- Kataphrons & Robots?

I'd like to see the designers put up "casual play" options for mixing GSC with various xenos races and possibly other imperial forces. I can't imagine GSCs getting access to marines or custodes, but what about sisters? Could they corrupt an Imperial assassin or two? Would GSC shun the likes of Knights (there seems to be hints in the Knights codex that at least one house is/was under the influence of a GSC) or other Superheavies (any reason a Baneblade or perhaps a Stormlord would be overlooked by a GSC?).

What would an Eldar/Dark Eldar cult look like?

1E/2E mentioned incidents of Genestealer Cults who magus fell to Chaos - what would a Demon/GSC group look like?

It's really something I'd like to see GW put up - even if it's not allowed for match play, just to acknowledge it can be done, and what should be considered acceptable for gaming (without having to delve into too much wrangling with an opponent).

I'd totally go for an infected Admech tie-in. I could definently see some jaded Biologis Magos accidentally let something slip through, like the Earth Caste scientists.