Faction Focus: Genestealer Cults

We finally get to my sub faction, the Genestealer Cults.

As a faction, GSC is a hard army to write rules for.  They're a force that consists mostly of not just base-line humans, but untrained base-line humans.  The bulk of the "army" are the weak and down trodden of the Imperium, drawn to the siren song of justice, change, and salvation by the cult's psychicly laced words.  Their statlines have usually reflected this, with datasheets seemingly not worth any points investment.  Instead, they are an army that thrives on stealth, infiltration, and espionage, as well as the arrogance, corruption, and incompetence of their enemies.  The rules need to reflect this.

The 9th Edition GSC Codex is widely considered to be the best book of the edition, if not all of 40K.  The mechanics so perfectly displayed the faction and how it fights in the lore while remaining balanced.  For nearly all of its tenure in 9th, it was a middle of the road faction that only overperformed in the hands of its most stalwart fans.  But it also showed how precarious such balance can be, as only a slight buff turned GSC into a terror on the top tables.

Let's see if GW can bottle lightning twice.

CULT AMBUSH

The article starts by detailing that every GSC Infantry unit will have access to Deep Strike, likely replacing the old blip mechanic that GSC used in 8th and 9th.

Well . . . it looks like not replacing.  Blips are indeed back, but they work way differently and look like they might be crazy powerful.  Now, rather than starting with blips on the battlefield, you roll a dice when one of your units is destroyed, adding 3 if it was Battleline.  On a 4+ you place a blip using Deep Strike rules and place the destroyed unit in Cult Ambush at full strength.  The marker is lost if there's no legal place for it.  Then at the end of your opponents movement phase you get to Deep Strike the unit.

This is a potentially powerful rule that will take a lot of skill to use properly.  On the one hand, you get your full unit back.  On the other, you place the blip marker when it was destroyed.  Depending on when this is, your opponent will get to respond.  I can easily see a scenario where the opponent guns one squad off the table in the Shooting Phase, you place the blip, then they charge within 9", and you have to remove it.  But then you Deep Strike those units at the end of your opponent's movement phase, so they'll get a chance to respond to them before you can do anything.  I'm betting GSC will get some stratagems or rules for returning units with better timing though.

So it looks like GSC will continue to be a high skill ceiling, high skill floor army that will reward the players who are willing to put the time in to learn the faction.

THEY CAME FROM BELOW

This, on the other hand, is simple and powerful.  You Deep Strike a unit, they get SUSTAINED HITS 1 and IGNORES COVER.  Hard to argue with that!  Although it doesn't explicitly say in the text, Cult Ambush counts as Reinforcements according to the article.  This makes sense, since it occurs in the Reinforcements step.  So you're opponent will be destroying units only to potentially see them come back with a vengeance.

BROOD BROTHERS

They return!  And it's just a nice and simple faction rule.  You basically get a quarter of your force to dedicate to Brood Brothers.  They don't get any special rules or anything, but they're also much simpler to include.  Unlike before, where the unit had to have a specific keyword, now you're just excluded from taking specific keywords.

And of course I had to check: none of those keywords appear on the Baneblade!

NEOPHYTE HYBRIDS

The Neophyte profile is exactly as expected, no surprises there.  Weapons also seem mostly unchanged, though krak grenades and the mining laser have been given a boost.  I'm also noting the squad leader gets a stronger pistol.

A Plan Generations in the Making is the standard CP generation rule we've seen before.  But the real kicker here is that the Cult Icon now lets you return 3 destroyed models, D3+3 on an objective.  This is a unit you'll want to aim to keep on objectives as much as possible.

We also get a reveal that the Goliath Truck will have Firing Deck 12, allowing 12 neophytes to shoot out of it.

THE PATRIARCH

For our second reveal, our alien overlord makes his appearance.  The model itself is mostly unchanged, though its claws have gained some some strength in exchange for that standard pip of AP.

But of course, 10th is all about the special rules.  Might From Beyond gives the Patriarch's unit his DEVASTATING WOUNDS rule.  My guess is you'll usually be using this with Genestealers, whose weapons lack any special rules now.  Cosmic Horror brings in the new Tyranid penchant for Battle-shock.  Then, finally, the Familiar returns with an ability to double the range on Cosmic Horror.

Swift and Deadly will definitely be missed (at least on the profile as I'm betting there will be a Stratagem) but for a model leading some Genestealers this could be potent.

WEAPON SPOTLIGHT

We next get a peak at our returning 9th Edition character, the Reductus Saboteur.  Demo charges are much more simple now, dealing a one shot blast at a standard new 10th edition profile, though it's gained 3 shots.  Remotes look like they're nerfed, but what actually seems to have happened is that they're now the old blasting charge profile but with INDIRECT FIRE.  Kinda disappointing as the Saboteur no longer has a fluffy anti-vehicle attack.

Next we get the Abominant, and the power sledge has taken a bit of a nerf.  The formerly S10 weapon would be S14-16 in the new Edition, and it's lost 2 points of damage in addition to the standard AP nerf.

For now, the Beach appears to still be closed.

STRATAGEM SPOTLIGHT

While Crossfire is gone, it looks like we'll be getting some Stratagems like this to allow us to gain a similar benefit.  For 2CP, Coordinated Trap allows two units to gang up with a +1 to Wound on a target.  One complaint GSC players had with Crossfire is that it only benefited shooting.  But GSC feels like a melee army.  This Stratagem can be used for either.  So you can use it if you want to lay careful ambushes from cover, or get in close to tear down your oppressors.

And if you're worried about being able to use those blip tokens with your opponent getting plenty of time to respond, you've got Tunnel Crawlers.  This allows you to Deep Strike in as long as you're outside 3".  Now, even if your opponent is crowding in close to your blip tokens, you can still get your unit into position.  Then you'll be able to avenge your fallen comrades at close range!

FINAL THOUGHTS

We get a couple more reveals snuck in at the end for this Faction Focus, with the Locus giving led units Fight First and the Biophagus granting LETHAL HITS.  GSC are definitely going to get to take advantage of the new Leader rules.

GSC is not an easy army to play, and that's not changing in 10th.  As I said at the top, they're datasheets are suitably underwhelming.  And that's how I feel about the reveals we've seen for units and wargear.  But those Faction Rules and Stratagems are where the real power lies.  If you can perfect these challenging but powerful rules, I can see GSC having some real potential.