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From the publisher blurb
Genestealer Cults are the insidious result of a Genestealer or its spawn entering a large mortal population and starting to procreate, either through infection or plain sexual intercourse. Through this reproduction more Genestealer Hybrids come into existence, and this creates a Hive Mind, a mental link which connects members of the brood and allows them to communicate and coordinate their actions. The more members a certain brood has the more effective it becomes and eventually creatures such as Patriarchs and Cult Magi come into existence, and a true Cult is born; from there they can start infiltrating and converting the human population.
If heretical cults weren’t bad enough for the Imperium to cope with, once matured these cults can truly destroy a community over time, or worse attract a Tyranid hive fleet.
The first generation is of such a cult always make sure that they remain hidden from sight, using a Hive’s old subterranean infrastructure to hide; they only come out for two things, either to expend their brood or for food, and in both cases people start to disappear.
Eventually the brood will grow and in the end you will have a large family, fiercely loyal to each other, they will also try to corrupt the mortal population and convert them to worshipping the Patriarch as a god. The cult will infiltrate all layers of society and eventually topple the ruling status quo and planetary defences and sound in the planets doom as the hive fleet enters orbit.
This document is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop limited or Fantasy Flight Games.
- Access to powerful melee weapons (Rock Cutter, Drill, Saw).
- Strategic ploys like 'Cult Ambush' and 'Lurk in the Shadows' offer tactical advantages.
- Icon Bearers boost objective control.
- Some units have group activation of two.
- Many units have a 5-up save, which is described as 'terrible'.
- Basic guns on some units are weak.
- The team is found to be 'a little bit weak sauce in some ways'.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Concealed Order — The 'Cult Ambush' and 'Lurk in the Shadows' mechanics interact with the 'concealed' order status.
- Fire Team Structure — Can be two fire teams: Neophyte Hybrid, Acolyte Hybrid, or Hybrid Metamorph.
- Group Activation — Some units have group activation of two.
- Icon Bearers — Icon Bearers increase the action point value for controlling objectives.
- Melee Weapons — Features heavy melee weapons like Rock Cutters, Drills, and Saws.
- Strategic Ploys — Includes 'Cult Ambush' for redeployment and 'Lurk in the Shadows' for defensive bonuses.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it gives you a built-in reroll so it's a little kind of aim action for the tau there
- these guys could be interesting i think with a good mix of teams maybe battle suits with somebody else
- this is just one croot team it's gonna be one leader and also includes 12 operatives so this is going to be very much a swarm thing
- these guys are cool because they're just you can just deck them out and guns and things like that
- this seems like a cool team they give you some options to play with so i'm excited about this team
- the heavy rock cutter heavy rock drill heavy rock saw these are some big damage items there
- the five-up save just really just kills them
- I really liked that sort of aspect of that last edition
- the whole concealed versus engaged uh whatever the thing's called uh tactical marker right so I thought that was very very interesting
- the one thing i wanted to mention was we've been talking about kind of the older editions and stuff and shadow war and i couldn't really put my finger on it when i was doing the old review or the last review that's a week old but uh the melee the thing i really liked about it was it's hey it's actually kind of necromunda style melee
- i like that they in this case moved away from it because i don't always want to do that sometimes i just want to say you know what just hang in there and keep fighting
- this is not a games workshop game and it still feels like it in a way in a good way but they've done a lot of these little things i'm like oh cool they're really kind of breaking out of their their sort of design box with this one
- the one kind of worry that i have that they sort of lock stuff behind kind of a pay wall with these sort of thematic boxes