Three new detachments are rising up for Genestealer Cults players in 11th edition – take a look at what they bring to the tabletop!
It’s the beginning of what we think will be the final week of Faction Focus previews as 11th edition draws ever closer. Games Workshop is here with the promised look at Genestealer Cults in the new edition, with a little overview video as a deeper dive.
Heroes of the Uprising
The rebels and revolutionaries of a Genestealer Cult need their folk heroes, and this detachment is all about just those inspiring, multi-armed figures. Specifically, the Kelermorph, Reductus Saboteur, and Sanctus characters all benefit in a number of interesting ways.
Already superlative assassins, these characters become even more reliably deadly. These models are assassins to aim at your opponent’s characters and command structure. Being able to increase the reliability of these critical assassination runs could really improve the somewhat delicate order of operations required for success by a GSC player.
I have to admit, I’m a fan of enhancements that apply a bonus with minimal rules, and a straight +1 D for your heavy-hitting assassin/bodyguard units is really appealing. This bonus brings their attacks into a tier capable of threatening even the most heavily armored of your opponent’s infantry.
As we’ve seen in some previous Faction Focuses, battle-shock is much harder to shake in this edition. GSC battle-line are numerous but not particularly brave, so I can see this being a pretty important stratagem. When one of your Killer units destroys an enemy unit in full or assassinates a character nearby cultists steel their hearts (or whatever they have instead of hearts). Cool stuff and super thematic.
Purestrain Broodswarm
Man, I have loved genestealers since all the way back to when I first played 2nd edition Space Hulk so I’m excited to see these heroic murder-roaches of the revolution get a moment in the sun before they scurry back under the fridge. At any rate, this detachment is here to improve your already formidable and equally lovable purestrain genestealers.
Lurk and strike, rinse and repeat. With this ability you can charge in a unit of genestealers, shred an opponent and then take them off the board before the enemy can bring their guns to bear. This kind of strike and fade tactic is already key to a Genestealer Cult army’s playstyle and this will let you further lean into that strength.
Up to three of your Purestrain Genestealers can take this enhancement with bonuses to Toughness, Saves, and Strength. This is wild stuff and could let you mince even enemy terminator squads while increasing the somewhat limited survivability of the humble Genestealer.
A nasty little stratagem that could instantly move your genestealers out of effective firing range. This edition is looking to be a war of detection ranges, and it will be really interesting to see how GSC armies fare against detection heavy armies like the T’au or a Space Marine player using the Subversion Assets detachment.
Xenocult Masses
Elite warriors and powerful leaders are all well and good, but we all know that the heart of any good uprising is the simple worker/cultist. This detachment puts Neophyte Hybrid units at the front and center of your army, just where they belong.
Neophytes become incredibly resilient units with this ability. These are 1 wound models which means every turn they’re getting up to 3 dead models back as long as they’re skulking in terrain (where they want to be, anyway). Opposing armies are going to have to really work to eradicate every last cultist holding an objective.
More detection range mitigation here, allowing your Neophytes to reduce their detection range. Nothing too flashy here, but finding ways to stack detection range modifiers could be very important in this edition, especially for numerous but fragile battleline infantry like Neophytes.
A final ability here further increases the survivability of your Neophytes. These are units you’re abolutely going to be trying to keep in terrain either to hold an objective or while on their way to reach one. -AP could be just the thing to keep a unit holding out just long enough for relief (or the end of the game).
Well, that’s the final week (probably?) of Faction Focuses begun. Only a few more armies await and I am excited to say that tomorrow we are finally going to see my beloved Aeldari!
Genestealers: angels of salvation or alien horrors? Who can say? (I can. They are alien horrors)
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Simon Berman has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry since 2008 as a staff writer for the first three editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES. These days he’s the General President of the Brush Wielders Union, a worldwide organization of miniatures painters of all skill levels, a freelance games writer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and The Hammer and the Stake. He runs his own small-press publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. Simon lives with his wife in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of savage wiener dogs.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
