Warhammer 40,000: Genestealer Cult

Tips and Tactics

Patriarch / Magus / Icon Bearer / Character Hybrids / Genestealers / Hybrid Brood / Brood Brothers / Heavy Weapon teams / Support Weapons / Vehicles

Genestealer Patriarch
The Patriarch is the most powerful character you can have in your Genestealer army, and a character that I would always take in any army of more than 1000 points. I would give him all four powers, as he is still only 172 points, and he is a level 4 psyker. You can give him less powers if you wish, and he will still be a level 4, but if you do you should still always give him Catalyst, so that he can cast it and give its benefits to any brood within 18" (Stealer brood = 8 Attacks, 5+ save on 2d6). Also, the Patriarch causes fear and so use him to lead a clump of large genestealer broods so that he add his combat prowess and psychic ability to the fray.

Genestealer Magus
The Magus is a 4th level psyker, with one Tyranid power randomly drawn and three randomly drawn Adeptus powers for 107 points, plus he can be given up to 3 Wargear cards and you should give him a field, or some other type of protection with one of these. The Magus is not a combat character physically, so you must protect him so that he can use his psychics to strengthen your attack. Additionally if you are using the Patriarch as described above to spearhead an attack, then keep the Magus well away from combat and protected by Brood Brtothers from shooting attacks as if both the Magus and Patriarch are killed then the entire armt has to make an Ld check, and could possible run away.

Cult Icon Bearer
You may give the icon bearer one Wargear card, which should be protection. The Cult broods that have a model with 12" of the icon bearer may reroll the dice if they fail a Break test just as with any other army standard, so he is fairly important to your battle plans. You may arm the icon bearer with any combination of equipment from the Armour, Assault, Grenades, Basic, and Special Weapons sections of the Wargear list. I would equip him with better armour and some decent weapons for his own protection and the protection of the icon.

Genestealer Hybrids (Characters)
These are some of the cheapest champions around, Neophytes for 10 points plus equipments, Acolytes for 9 points plus psychic levels and equipment. You may include one of either in any Brood Brothers squad. My preference is the Acolyte with level 1 or level 2 psychic mastery. With level 1 you have a psychic champion that costs less than 50 points and adds to the Leadership of your Brood Brothers. I would always include a Hybrid champion in all Brood Brother squads. Use the Neophyte for those squads that are tooled up as close combat cannon fodder to protect the genestealers where the additional WS can help.

Genestealer Brood
These are some of the most deadly hand-to-hand troops in the 41st millenium. They have a M6, WS 7, S6, T4, 7 Initiative, 4 Attacks, and Ld 10. The Leadership doesn't really come into effect unless you general gets killed, as the Genestealer broods are immune to psychology. They have chitinous armour (5+ save on 1d6). these guys cause fear and they can rip through Terminators like a big Can Opener ("Look out! The Bugs are coming! And they're bringing Can Openers!" -quote by an unknown Terminator Captain). Take as many as possible but try and protect them with a front line of assault brood brother cannon fodder, a ratio of 2:1 genestealer broods to brood brother squads such be sufficient, or do what a friend of mine does - buy lots of genestealers, he has 12 squads of 12 (that is 144 genestealers!!!!) It is a nightmare.

Hybrid Brood
These can be very useful, take acolytes and give them armour and heavy weapons/special weapons in order to make a devastator squad or short ranged assault squad with flamers, meltaguns etc. Alternatively take the acolytes with boltguns and carapace to give you a more powerful basic troop that can stand up to orks, space marines and other tougher troops. Lastly equip Neophytes with close assault weapons and get in there to support the genestealers and brood brothers.

Brood Brothers
Brood Brothers are basically IG and PDF that have defected to the Genestealer Cult. They can also contain criminals, and the diseffected poor population, so their armament can be widely varied, everything from a club to bolt guns. In my experience, such things as bows and crossbows are a waste of time, but swords, autopistols, stubb guns, laspistols, and shotguns can be useful. You can equip your Brood Brothers as a basic mob with a sword and bolt pistol, and they make cheap assault troops. Another option would be to equip them with a shotgun for killing lightly armoured low-toughness troops or with bolt guns for taking out such things as Orks, Space Marines, and other higher Toughness troops. A good way to arm them is with shotguns, swords, and bolt pistol for 9 Brothers and one Brother with a heavy stubber, and give them flak armour and grenades, this makes them more than a match for most other low level troops like Imperial Guardsmen, Eldar Guardians and Gretchin.Remember the Brothers are subject to hatred which aids their close combat ability and increases their Ld to 10.

Brood Brother Heavy Weapons Team
If you have at least one unit of Brood Brothers you may include heavy weapons teams. These teams are exactly like IG heavy weapons teams. They consist of two Brood Brothers with one heavy weapon. You do have more flexibility than the IG though, as you do not have to have your heavy weapons clumped in groups of three, use this to your advantage and spread them out over as large an area as possible to reduce the chance of luck sustained fire hits wiping out numerous heavy weapons.

Support Weapons
Support Weapons are fully discussed under the Space Marine entry.

Vehicles
Everything relavant to the cults vehicles has already been covered in either the Imperial Guard tips or the Space Marine tips sections.

 

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