Genestealers in 6th edition

There's only two things that stand out to me on the bad side. The first is the number of special rules - not the potency, but man is that a lot of stuff to remember! Consider trimming or simplifying, remember people playing against this codex need to be able to figure all of it out in just a minute or so! The second problem is predictably the martyr harness.

Add in that it's scoring so it can't be kited or ignored and it's rather resilient to basic shooting, add in it ignores all armor, doubles out T4 AND strikes at I10 the holy grail of melee weapons and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The fact that it's yet another kick in the nuts to someone who DARES to try to melee this edition is just a bonus. Aside from that, the only nitpick is why are firebombs and improvised armor so good? Firebombs are almost a straight upgrade from frag grenades for one of the most basic of improvised weapons.

I don't think they're overpowered, it's just WTF. IA8 had rules wth grots for firebombs, maybe check that out. Improvised Armor is in the same boat - some garbage and cement provides the same level of protection as a Dark Eldar shield generator - with the added bonus of being probably too cheap. Consider the IG book has camo netting at 20 points per vehicle. I'd probably go with something like 5 points per HP of the vehicle. Thanks for the feedback. It is very helpful! I do agree there are quite a lot of special rules, but to get the flavor I want, they are fairly important.

Most of them seem a bit wordy, but they can really be summed up pretty quickly. The reason they are so verbose is to make it clear exactly how they work, reducing confusion when sticky situations arise. I am still looking to see if I can reduce their wording any without losing important information.

That said, none of my recent opponents seemed to be confused or overwhelmed by the number of special rules. As to the Martyr Harness, they really aren't as bad as you make them out to be. True, they are pretty strong, but no more so than Demolition Charges, which don't require you to get into close combat to use them though the Martyr Harness is a bit more accurate when it does go off.

In addition, it is virtually guaranteed to do some serious damage to the Initiate Mob when it goes off, since it causes Instant Death to them and ignores their Armour. Also, you are incorrect about the Initiate Mob being Scoring, because they have the Swarm special rule. Swarms are specifically prohibited from being either a Scoring or Denial Unit in the definition of Scoring units.

Finally, I only recently added the I10 aspect, specifically because they seemed to be dying before they could use their Martyr Harness far more often than not.

Sure, they are very dangerous weapons, and they are something that you want to try and shoot down rather than Assault, but they have not proved to be overly powerful in any of my test games thus far. I do see your point on the firebombs. They do sort of outshine frag grenades, and while I am charging extra for them, they might just be a bit too powerful for something that is - as you said - a rather basic improvised weapon.

Perhaps if I reduced their profile to S3 AP - and kept them to their shorter range 6" and keep the Gets Hot and Ignores Cover rules, they might feel a bit less over the top?

On Improvised Armour, it is a bit of a stretch to say it provides the same level of protection as the Dark Eldar Flickerfield. On the heavier military vehicles, it can be rather useful, but these vehicles already suffer from their own issues what with Poorly Maintained and Specialised Munitions potentially nerfing them halfway through the battle.

Ah, I hadn't noticed that improvised armor worked only on glances. That's pretty solid, then. Still not sold on the harnesses. Glad you like the rules and find them balanced. That is what I strive for. I am especially pleased that you find them balanced against one another, as that is one thing I really wanted to get right.

Hopefully some time soon I will be able to play a nice campaign between these forces. Arbites vs. Genestealer Cult as a narrative campaign is just such a great concept. I agree that the Hulking Hybrids have the potential to be very deadly, especially when outnumbered. They downsides to that are that you pay 45 points per model, so a full hulk brood is points, and that is without any upgrades like Rending Claws or Fleet. As to the Arbites, sounds like you were using them as intended.

I love the playstyle I've managed to create with them - that of shutting down the enemy's plays rather than being focused on certain aspects of combat themselves. If used properly, they can do a number on your enemy's battle plans. Any chance you could share your full army lists so I can see what units were involved? Re: Genestealer Cult Codex for 6th Edition I swear I dont know if it is the wording in this codex or what but i had to reread the special rules like 3 times before I even processed what the heck it meant.

Other than that it is a good codex just not one that I would personally play and enjoy. One suggestion I do have is moving Dark Eldar up to Desperate allies because I am not sure where I read it but the Dark Eldar have been known to use a Genestealer cult to soften defenses before a slave run.

Was it just some of the rules, or all of them that were giving you trouble? Any particular examples of confusing wording? Obviously, I know exactly what I mean, so they make perfect sense to me, but if they are unclear to others, I want to fix that. Clarity is very important to me. Re: Genestealer Cult Codex for 6th Edition I see where you are coming from on the Poorly Maintained and Specialised Munitions, but I figure that a simple counter placed on the vehicle will suffice for each.

Shouldn't be any worse than the Dark Eldar Pain Tokens. Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 Last Jump to page:. In this way they can use such knowledge to take advantage of unsuspecting victims, whose knowledge of the voidship's labyrinthine passageways are often woefully inadequate. This allows them to close incredibly rapidly, denying any opportunity to cut them down with ranged weaponry.

Purestrain Genestealers burst from concealment at a critical moment, falling upon the unwitting prey in a blur of eviscerating limbs. Once the Genestealer is in close quarters, it utilises its incredibly durable claws on each forelimb, able to slice through bulkheads and cut through the thickest armour.

Combined with the awesome strength afforded by the efficiency of the Genestealer's musculature, it is quite feasible for a Genestealer to rip its way through the side of a Chimera and get to the troops inside. Any returning survivors of a Genestealer attack are inevitably heavily armed, forewarned and well-trained, or have become a host carrying purestrain seed.

Although the characteristic claws of the Genestealer are its primary weapons, certain variations in the xenomorph's form have been reported across the galaxy. Long, stabbing talons occasionally replace the Genestealer's secondary limbs, and several specimens have been found on Ork -infested Space Hulks with thicker carapaces.

In M41, a captured Genestealer was discovered to carry virulent, inorganic poisons and haemotoxins in sac-like pouches on its arms. Another known genus can shoot thick, barbed strands of sinew into their victims to keep them from moving freely as the Genestealer closes in for the kill.

These "flesh hooks" are dispatched from the ribcage by a sharp intercostal muscle spasm, and can also aid the xenomorph in climbing walls and other vertical surfaces. Presumably these traits are either inherited in part from the host species, or bioengineered by the Hive Mind in its eternal quest for ever more deadly soldier-organisms. Purestrain Genestealers face the forces of the T'au Empire. Purestrain Genestealers have the same basic arthopodal body structure as all other Tyranid species.

They appear as roughly man-sized, six-limbed creatures with both the chitinous exoskeleton and endoskeleton common to Tyranids. They can function as a bipedal organism using their lower appendages; a second pair have extremely sharp claws used for evisceration in close combat -- these claws are sharp enough to hack through extremely well-armored enemies, such as Space Marine Terminators , with ease.

The third set of limbs may also act as arms, though their nature can vary depending on the type of host species used to create the Genestealers or the needs of the Hive Mind. In addition, Genestealers are known for their agility and adept fighting skill. Genestealers were first encountered by the Imperium of Man on the moons of Ymgarl. After this encounter, more and more were spotted on large derelict starships known as "Space Hulks" - these ship-borne encounters being the subject of the aforementioned Space Hulk game.

With the invasion of the Imperium of Hive Fleet Behemoth in the late 41st Millennium, it was discovered that the Genestealers were in fact a part of the wider Tyranid species.

Genestealers perform two primary roles for the Tyranid armies. First, they act as assault troops in Tyranid swarms; second, they can be found as an advanced reconnaissance force of a Tyranid Hive Fleet , preparing future planetary invasions and aiding biomass absorption through the use of their unusual reproduction method and the establishment of Brood Mind -based Genestealer Cults.

An Ymgarl Genestealer hybrid. Imperial researchers of the Adeptus Mechanicus have concluded that the Ymgarl Genestealer was a form of the species that separated from the main conglomerate of the Tyranids' Hive Fleet Behemoth several hundred Terran years ago and, having completely lost its psychic link to the Tyranid Hive Mind , had thus reverted to a feral state. Ymgarl Genestealers appear apparently different from normal Genestealers, which is also believed by the Imperials to be due to the complete separation from the Hive Mind, and generations of feeding almost exclusively on a native lifeform of the Ymgarl moons.

Genestealers are known to change over the generations. The different variations between broods can be quite marked, but Ymgarl Genestealers are truly unique because they possess the ability to alter their own flesh to react to incoming attacks or to change its colour like a chameleon, so as to blend into its surroundings and remain unseen until it strikes or flees.

Their claw-tipped fingers can suddenly elongate and fuse together to form curved blades and barbed hooks or split apart into tentacles of sinewy alien flesh to slash or entangle victims who attempt escape. Under assault, their chitinous carapaces thicken and help absorb the energy of incoming attacks. Some Imperial observers that have made contact with these creatures reported this strain's ability to change the colour of their skins, utilizing extreme light conditions to better go undetected.

Such an extreme adaptation comes at a high price for this bio-form, as Ymgarl Genestealers must feed on large amounts of biomatter often. Moreover, an Ymgarl Genestealer's most distinctive feature is the mass of writhing tentacles in place of a fanged mouth, which they use to pierce their victim's flesh and better feed upon the blood within -- this strain's only source of real nutrients.

When they cannot obtain adequate nourishment to feed their raging metabolisms, they will be forced to enter a state of dormancy or otherwise starve to death. Once in this state they must wait until something living and of fresh blood passes near enough to disturb their dreamless sleep. The origins of the Ymgarl Genestealers remain a mystery to Imperial savants, for they do not seem to have been a strain of bioform created by any of the Hive Fleets already known to have invaded Imperial space.

It may be that they are the last survivors of a Tyranid reconnaissance of the galaxy before the arrival of Hive Fleet Behemoth. Even stranger, whilst the survival instincts of the other Genestealer strains leads them to flee the oncoming arrival of their parent Hive Fleets, Ymgarl Genestealers actively seek them out, as if hoping to once again hear the comforting presence of the Hive Mind.

Jumping from planet to planet, they spread across the galaxy searching for worlds that lie in the path of an approaching Hive Fleet. Once there they will lay dormant until the Hive Mind reasserts contact with them and they can hunt alongside the rest of the Tyranid swarm.

However, the Hive Mind has no desire to reabsorb their biomass or genetic legacies, lest their instability spread throughout all of the bioforms in the Hive Fleet. Once the target world has had all of its biomass devoured, the Ymgarl Genestealer brood is abandoned, forced once more to enter their hibernation.

Unfortunately, Human starships often investigate the Dead Worlds left in the wake of a Tyranid attack. In this way, they have come to learn more about the horrific xenos, amidst the forlorn hope of discovering survivors, or as scavengers come to pick over whatever wealth may remain. These fools and idealists eventually leave with a far more deadly cargo hidden within their holds, ready to spread the cycle of death and terror anew. At first, Ymgarl Genestealers were not thought to be part of the broader Tyranid race, but were instead thought to be xenos native to the moons of Ymgarl.

However, two hundred standard years later, during the invasion of Hive Fleet Behemoth in M41, the Tyranids used Genestealers as shock troops and melee infantry in countless battles against the Imperium and the other intelligent races of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Magos Biologis of Mars spent many Terran years trying to classify the Tyranid artefacts and bioforms left behind on Macragge after the invasion of Hive Fleet Behemoth was stopped by the sacrifices of the Ultramarines.

Yet they could only learn so much of their origins from these remains. The only notable discovery was that the Tyranids used the Genestealers as their shock troops. It was believed that these xenos had spread across the galaxy on board Imperial cargo barges and derelict Space Hulks. Many of the Imperium's most violent encounters with Genestealers before the arrival of the Tyranids had been on board infested Space Hulks and names of such Hulks as the Sin of Damnation were forever synonymous with them.

The presence of Genestealers among the Tyranid bio-forms proved that these previous assumptions concerning the Genestealers' independent origins had been false. Further genetic analysis confirmed that all Genestealers, even the Ymgarl variant, were Tyranid bioforms. In response to this news, the Space Marines of the Salamanders Chapter unleashed a xenocidal campaign to purge the moons of Ymgarl of the foul creatures and the Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos intensified their search for any signs of new Genestealer infestations, but little else could be done to deal with the problem.

The question continuing to perplex Imperial savants is whether the Ymgarl strain of Genestealers are the remainders of an unknown ancient Hive Fleet that entered the galaxy before Behemoth, or whether there is more to the current Tyranid invasion that has yet to become apparent.

Regardless of the outcome, the Ymgarl Genestealer strain was not completely destroyed by the Salamanders' efforts. They endure in the darkest corners of the galaxy, always waiting for the opportune moment to infest new worlds and offer another sacrifice for the Great Devourer. The truth about the Ymgarl strain has yet to be revealed. Adrenal Genestealers are a newer strain that have emerged within the Tyranid armies: deathly agile and relentless, these dangerous new foes spring out from every dark corner, unleashing volley after volley.

Attached to these deadly creatures are Adrenal Glands , a common Tyranid biomorph which can be found on most of their front-line fighters. Polyp-like organisms clamp themselves onto the host and secrete doses of a powerful adrenaline-like substance during combat, making the host creature relentless and nigh unstoppable in the heat of battle.

The Vectori strain represents a classification of Genestealers adopted by the Deathwatch of the Jericho Reach to refer to the unique Genestealer breed encountered aboard the Space Hulk Mortis Thule. Much more agile than the Purestrains from which all Genestealers derive, this xenos breed is well adapted to moving swiftly, as well as silently through confined spaces, while their lowered body mass reduces the energy required of their metabolisms, allowing them to operate effectively for longer periods without sustenance.

Vectori Genestealers are nimble and stealthy hunters, operating with a focus and efficiency natural to such creatures for which economy of energy is an essential facet of survival. They have tentacled, lamprey-like mouths and the ability to partially transform themselves depending on the circumstances, at the cost of being genetically unstable and only being able to feed on blood.

In fact, they're so unstable that the Hive Mind deliberately abandoned them for fear that they would contaminate the Tyranid gene pool. Because of this, they compulsively seek to reach planets that have recently been visited by the Tyranids in a futile attempt to be reabsorbed into the Hive Fleets. If they weren't horrible monstrosities, their predicament would almost be sad.

The result of this is that 6E Tyranids now have a Bio-Artefact If you feel unclean about the name, that's natural called the Ymgarl Factor that gives any Tyranid unit the same unstable properties rule, but now lack the assaulting from Outflanking. As a final note, Warhammer 40, fiction is very human -centric, and so most Genestealer infestations depicted have occurred among human populations, but the Ciaphas Cain novels have suggested that Tau and Orks are also susceptible to Genestealer infection.

The novel Death of Integrity also confirms that Genestealers will attack and assimilate other xenos, though this plot point lasts about one paragraph. What, exactly, a Tau Genestealer Hybrid would look like is the subject of much speculation. There is old canon art of Ork Genestealer hybrids, but given the vast amount of retcons since then its canon status is questionable It should be noted that Orks reproduce asexually by way of fungal spores they secrete both at a perpetual slow trickle from their skin while alive and en masse while a decaying corpse and also that "Ork" is but one of many many different Orkoid phenotypes that a given spore might develop into depending on environmental conditions, so one has to wonder how the genestealer mutations might interact with a spore that grew into, say, a mushroom , so it's pretty hard to envision an Orkified Genestealer Cult actually working, or lasting beyond the first generation or two, since they have no ways of mixing genes to produce purestrains in time.

Even if they could, the Orks have an inherent ability to determine if one of their own isn't proppa Orky and will inevitably krump the gits. Some old, old fluff portrayed Purestrain genestealers descended from Ork hybrids as having denser musculature and most likely greater physical strength. In another of these dusty accounts, an incident on the fringe of the Octarius system had a massive, purple, six-limbed Gargant attacking a Guard regiment.

When it was melta'd open, purestrain genestealers emerged to eat the Guardsmen. You are encouraged to take these older bits of fluff with a generous pinch of salt. In any event, ancient and likely non-canonical fluff aside, the unique quirks of Ork biology boil down to the fact any attempt to infest an Ork warband would almost certainly fail and not be worth the effort in the first place. Commissar Cain encountered a genestealer infested space hulk in which genestealers were using infested orks to guard their hibernation chambers.

As of , GeeDubs has recently reaffirmed their existence in a White Dwarf. According to the article, they generally show up in Ork Kommandos , as they tend to live away from the main force of Orks, making it easier to slip in. Also in the article, they showed you how to make your own out of Acolyte Hybrids, Abberants, and the new Kommandos. That's right, GW is encouraging you to kitbash. Did we slip into an alternate dimension?

Tau, similarly, have certain complications which may prevent Genestealer infestation. Firstly, their Kroot allies can tell if a person is infected or not simply by tasting some of their blood, and secondly, Tau-tech is certainly advanced enough to scan for this threat once they know about it. Furthermore, Tau explicitly practice caste-restricted bureaucratically arranged breeding processes; Tau don't have kids until their higher ups decide they should, and they don't even get to pick their own partners.

Two Tau get paired up by the decision of a committee, spend a couple of days off work having sex, then separate and go their separate ways. This means the genestealer taint is seriously difficult to spread amongst the race. The caste-based structure of Tau society also poses problems to any potential Tauified Genestealers, and that's without presuming the caste-system is now so inherent that different castes can't even physically breed with each other anymore.

All that being said, according to the new Genestealer Cults Codex, not only can Tau-Genestealer hybrids happen, but one time they were deliberately created by a team of Earth Caste researchers who wanted to see what would happen. The infection got out of control and actually ended in violence. It's even implied that they may have produced a hybrid Ethereal, which would be a disaster for the Tau given how obedience to the Ethereal caste is basically hard coded into their DNA.

While it is possible for Genestealers to infect the Eldar , it's extremely hard for them to get anywhere with any of the four varieties due to their highly advanced medical technology all four, yes even the Exodites , universal emphatic abilities, very regimented lifestyles Craftworld , slow breeding rate and the fact that irregular psychic activity amongst them gets located and dealt with very quickly all four, heck mind bulletry is pretty much the only thing the Dark Eldar ban.

Even when they are infected, the taint spreads much more slowly due to the Eldar's prolonged gestation period, which makes infecting them more trouble than it is worth in most situations. So far the only examples among Eldar are those who knowingly and openly embraced their pants-thieving overlords. Needless to say, the other Ynnari who contacted them were pissed.

This was done in their misguided attempt to avoid getting consumed by Slaanesh because this Craftworld had left before the Infinity Circuit was invented and thus didn't have one; their logic was that if they gave themselves over to the Broodmind, their souls would be assimilated before Slaanesh could consume them.

There is also something of a Genestealer cult growing among the Dark Eldar in Commorragh. After a raid with lots of captives taken to Commorragh, the Haemonculi found out some of them were Genestealer cultists. The hybrids were singled out and experimented on so their mutations would emerge.

When some bored Dark Eldar among the social elite found out about this, they paid the Haemonculi to graft these Genestealer body parts on them for kicks given how Genestealer reproduction involve a genetic re-write of infected hosts using the Stealer's own DNA, you can see what a stupid idea this is.

It looks like the Hive Mind might find a way into Commorragh given how these Dark Eldar, who collectively call themselves the Vorgani, started forming tight-knit groups and share a singular obsession over a Tyranid-infested planet trapped in the Webway.

And of course, the haemonculi know this and think this is just a jolly and amusing thing because of course the sickest fucks in all the galaxy would look at this and think, "what an interesting turn of events! If a Genestealer Cult somehow got somewhere near a Stryxis convoy and for some reason decided they wanted to interbreed with them they would quickly run into two main problems; the first being that Stryxis are extremely untrustworthy little shits so they don't exactly operate in large enough groups to be really worth the effort, the second problem also being that the Stryxis are untrustworthy little shits and would probably scam the Genestealer cult of all its possessions before enslaving the bastards assuming they don't "trade" a few hundred bullets in exchange for the Tyranids teeth to sell to some orks or somthing.

As for the Necrons , they're goddamn undead robots. If you even consider this possibility you're the biggest idiot since Magnus the Red.