Wargames Gallery: Infestation

Deep within the rotting heart of the lower levels of the Hive spire lurks something altogether more sinister than brutish gangs in need of expedited Imperial discipline...

Genestealer Cults Kill Team: Armoured Sentinel painting

Finishing off the Genestealer Cults kill team painting reports today is the Armoured Sentinel [previous parts are here and here]. This is the most expensive unit in the kill team in terms of sheer points value, but it is well worth it due to the plasma cannon that it is toting on its right hand side.

The painting scheme is a muted one using a codex grey style base coat over a black undercoat followed by a liberal wash of nuln oil. Sharp edges have been picked out in a cream colour (and then a second slightly lighter cream for the extreme edging) and metallic details added on the rear exhaust port and a few select other places. 

The plasma on the sentinel is a green colour to provide a contrast to the more typically seen blues and reds. On the top, the lights have been done in reds and oranges. The final step was an application of some decals selected from various locations -- a skull (daily standard on many decal sheets) and some "script" from a 30k Mark 4 squad (Word Bearers style!). Combined with the base, the scheme is meant to communicate a stolen sentinel from the imperial guard stationed on whatever planet the cult has found a footing on. 

Genestealer Cults Kill Team: Metamorphs and Purestrains painting

To paint the more genestealer looking members of the Kill Team for the round robin games we are playing locally, I delved in to my very old paint pots. I dug out the first generation inks (purple and blue) from those paints which have aged very very well considering how many years have passed since I bought them. 

After applying a base coat in ultramarine blue and worm purple (yes, I still have those paints too!), I inked them over with the respective coloured inks. After allowing to dry, I went over the ridges and exposed regions with some brighter blue and purple tones to bring out the features a bit more. The finishing was done with the claws using a two toned vanilla and off-white scheme to create the final feel for the creatures. Otherwise, the human parts broadly followed the approach I had for the neophytes. 

Job done, and they look very respectable on the tabletop!

Genestealer Cults Kill Team: Neophyte Painting

Today a painting update on the Genestealer Cults Kill Team that I assembled and painted up for our mini round robin tournament that we are currently having. I am using my 30k Alpha Legion for this tournament, so have loaned the Genestealer Cults to a friend for this tournament. And they're doing rather well, having wiped out my Alphas once already.

These are the bread and butter (and expendable tar pits) of the Kill Team plus two heavy weapons -- the Neophytes. As can be seen, there are no conversions implemented here -- they are straight out of the box assembled and painted.

For the painting, I wanted to try to emulate some of the schemes shown inside the covers of the codex. The orange jump suits coupled with the grey body armour and the classical blue and purple colours of the genestealer inheritance. That hardest bit was doing the skin tones. Some of them feature dappled scalps that looks almost chimeric in nature. Others have more smooth, yet still noticeably purple tints to their skin. The edging took a long while to paint as well, but I think it was worth the investment in time.

Genestealer Cults Kill Team Army List

A few people have been asking me what I've got in the Genestealer Cults Kill Team that I've been posting about recently.

The points value for the tournament is 300 points. Its a little larger than a few Kill Team regular games, but very accessible for new players (which was kind of the point). We're playing with restrictions common to Kill Zone in the sense that one cannot have more than two models with Infiltrate, Outflank (or almost any other special rule or heavy weapon for that matter) with some nuances thrown in for good play as well.

Here's the list (give or take some rounding and a few points here and there thanks to the system we're using).

10 Neophyte Hybrids, including 1 leader with power pick and web pistol, 1 seismic cannon, 1 mining laser (115 points).

3 Hybrid Metamorphs, 1 crushing claw, 1 lash whip, 1 double talons; 2 with hand flamers (41 points).

6 Purestrain Genestealers, half with scything talons (93 points).

1 Armoured Sentinel with plasma cannon (50 points).

The basic plan is simple enough. The sentinel pumps out some blast templates in the shooting phase and hangs back when possible along with the heavy weapon hybrids. The rest of the hybrids (all of them) move up and engage by mobbing up against power armour and the like (making at least 3 or 4 on one combats where possible) and are essentially expendable as either tar pits or large number mobs. The genestealers meanwhile move individually and provide the real punch of the army with an impressive number of attacks on the charge. They pick off anyone (or anything) that they like almost. All in all a nasty close combat kill team with expendable hybrids that is backed up with a plasma cannon in the rear field.

Metamorph Leader

Last one assembled now -- this time the leader of the Metamorphs for the Genestealer Cult Kill Team. He might get dropped though, to make way for the plasma cannon toting armoured sentinel!

More Genestealer Metamorphs

Getting in to a groove of assembling now. Here's the rest of the Genestealer Cult Metamorphs for use in the Kill Team tournament we are having locally. Love these models from Games Workshop -- simply wonderful in terms of the sheer amount of detail now possible.

Genestealer Cult Metamorph

I really do like these new Genestealer Cult models. They are some of the best produced by Games Workshop and really showcase what they are capable of doing with plastics these days (although this is clearly dwarfed in impressiveness by the Yncarne from the upcoming fracture of Biel-Tan release, obviously).

The particular model is upgraded with the whip appendage and sports a hand flamer for immediate toasting needs. This model alone accounted for one of my Alpha Legion marines in the earlier Kill Team game we had!

The Rest of the Neophytes

Following on from earlier posts about the Genestealer Kill Team I'm building (here, here and here), today are some pictures of the rest of the Neophyte squad. Just some basing and painting to now and they'll be looking good in a short amount of time. [In the first round of the Kill Team we played, I used my Alpha's and loaned the Genestealer Cult to a friend. And I lost by a massacre! Shocking!]

I have made a deliberate choice to try to select the goggles and eye mask wearing heads for these models where possible. I think they communicate the kind of vibe that I'm looking for nicely. 

More on the painting of these as time permits…!

Wargames Gallery: Kill Team Mission

Intercepted by infiltrating genestealers, the loyal Alpha Legion suffers heavy losses!

So, today was the first Kill Team game we played. I was using my Alpha Legion, whilst my opponent borrowed my genestealer cultists. The Alpha Legion were wiped from the table top due to a miasma of rolling 1's and 2's on the first two turns. By the third turn, all the enemy genestealers, and the remaining cultists charged in and pretty much finished most of my marines off. The picture shows the last marine standing who made it to turn 5 before succumbing to the rending claws of his opponent!

Neophyte Lobbing Blasting Charge

Assembling genestealer hybrids appears to be a time consuming business. Especially with little children running around(!) So here is today's slow progress: a neophyte in the process of lobbing a blasting charge where it needs to go! As with the earlier neophytes, this one is also wearing eye protection. It seems like its a bit of a theme really.

Genestealer Hybrids with Heavy Weapons

Today is a very short update with a couple of miniatures that I've recently assembled. These are from the Genestealer Neophytes boxed set and feature two heavy weapons: the seismic cannon and mining laser (basically a make-shift las cannon under another name). I like the look of these weapons, but I've erring on the side of choosing the visor head for my hybrids as I think they look neat and communicate the fact that they might be light-sensitive thanks to working underground for such a protracted period. I'll have to buy another box of these guys at some point and get another pair of these weapons in place I think. These will do for now very nicely though!

Genestealer Neophyte

I am in the process of assembling some test models for a small genestealer cult kill team … nothing too big or fancy, just a bunch of models that I like the look of in real terms. This is the first of them. 

He is a genestealer cult hybrid of the latter generations, featuring some upgrades as would befit a squad leader. No doubt he will get shot off the board on turn 1. But hey, their toughness is 3 and they have a poor 5+ saving throw. So I guess that's part of the course. I've not done anything particular with this model in terms of conversions -- just a simple assembly to get to grips with how these models are supposed to look and glue together. 

Although their arms are a bit more fragile than those of space marines, they come together nicely. The only negative is where the plastic joins the frame of the sprue, in a few places, it requires some filing and hobby knife application to get it smooth. Otherwise, its all good. I'd better decide on a painting scheme soon though!

Genestealer Cults Review: Purestrain Genestealers

Background.
Siblings to the Partirach, the purestrains are what genestealers should be and have been all the way back in the early days. Fast. Deadly. And alien.

Strengths.
These alien xenos are not the same as the ones on board the hive fleets. They're strictly better thanks to a 5+ invulnerable save from their Hyper Reflexes rule. This is just what the doctor ordered frankly!

Although they have no ranged weapons, they get infiltrate, fleet, move through cover, stealth rending, and the other usual cult rules. And if joined with a Patriarch, they get furious charge as well. Very nice indeed and certainly worth doing if you're not getting furious charge through any other means.

Weaknesses.
Unlike their hive fleet cousins, they do not have the sheer mutability that the tyranids supply. Its really no loss thanks to the invulnerable save in my opinion!

Builds.
There are only two variables here. The first is the number of models to take, ranging from 5 to 20. Small squads can be terrifying and a decent distraction. Whilst large squads would be very nice in conjunction with the patriarch.

The second choice is whether to take scything talons. This provides an extra attack. Worth it for building pseudo-death star units.

Here's my two builds.

5 Purestrains (70 points).
The minimum squad with no upgrades can provide a nice fright to opponents. Particularly if you take multiple small units that are all infiltrating. This could be truly excellent. Heck, if you take an unbound army, you could fit at least 21 such squads in a 1500 point army (thats 105 genestealers for the curious). They will struggle against fliers, of course!

20 Purestrains all with scything talons (340 points).
The fully ungraded squad. Add in a Patriarch and you've got a super powerful close combat unit backed up with the psychic might of the Patriarch. Unsubtle and will rip through most enemy squads. You will still need other things for fliers and things like land raiders though.

Genestealer Cults Review: Patriarch

Beginning the reviews of the Genestealer Cults codex, we start the New Year with the Patriarch. 

Background.

The Patriarch is the genestealer that originally started the cult by ovipositor implantation of a victim. As the loyal cults grew around him (her?), their body swelled up to a larger size and their psychic powers burgeoned to a high. This entry in the codex is exactly what one might expect of a Patriarch: a massive genestealer that is superior in every way to a tyranid broodlord and even regular genestealers from this codex. 

Strengths.

With rending, shred and AP3, the patriarch is a deadly close combat exponent who will readily rip through entire space marine squads with embarrassing ease on the charge when accompanied by other genestealers. 

As if that were not enough, he's a psyker with biomancy, telepathy and brood mind powers. Indeed, the primaris power of brood mind can render the target squad horrendously unprepared for the coming onslaught. With invisibility, he's a terror that few will be able to match on the table top (and dare I even mention initiative = 7). 

The 12 inch bubble of fearless that he provides is a huge boon to the genestealer cults army overall which can be somewhat fragile in the face of aggressive incoming shooting. 

Weaknesses.

The patriarch does have a ballistic skill, but is unlikely to be doing too much shooting unless its a psychic power. His saving throw is literally mid-range as well. Watch the incoming shooting and play him (and presumably his brood) tactically by choosing your targets and getting the charge in as soon as possible. 

Builds.

Overall, the Patriarch is an excellent choice for the army and one which merits taking for most builds. 

Speaking of builds, there's a number of options to weigh up. Here's a small sample.

Patriarch (naked) (90 points).

With no upgrades, the Patriarch is still worth taking to say the least. 

Patriarch, level 2 psyker (115 points).

The second level of psionic activity ensures that he can cast some of the more powerful abilities. Certainly worth taking in conjunction with a Magus to ensure a solid psychic phase of the game.

Patriarch, level 2 psyker, two familiars (125 points).

The fully upgraded Patriarch realistically doesn't need the familiars. But they could be very useful if he detaches from a genestealer squad and charges on his own in to a squad he wants to rout off the battle.

Genestealer Patriarch

Following on from yesterday's Primus, today I wanted to show my fully assembled Genestealer Patriarch. Again, this model is from the Deathwatch board game. 

Unlike the Primus, this one was a bit more complex to glue together, but not amazingly so. In line with the Primus, there is no option for poses or anything like that. The pose is fixed. The left leg comes cast directly on the the pipe that the patriarch is standing on, whilst the right leg is glued in to position directly at both the hips and the top of the pipe. Again the computer generation of this is incredible. One can hardly see the join between the right leg and the pipe (in my opinion). The other arms are then all glued in to place on to the main body -- the joins being rectangular nubs that go in to the appropriate holes. 

I like both the pose (hand on brain and pointed claw finger) plus the near-kneeling on top of the pipework. The vibe of the patriarch is a good one overall and I'm certainly looking forward to painting this monster up in the coming weeks!

Genestealer Primus

I caved in and bought a few Genestealer models from Deathwatch. One of the first that I got hold of was the Genestealer Primus. As might be expected from the game and previous GW games, the miniature is a "front and back" style miniature. i.e. There is a distinct front bit and back bit to glue together rather than what might otherwise be expected from larger boxed sets (i.e. distinct legs, torsos and arms that all need to be put together). 

I actually like the front-and-back style of moulding as it means less messing around in some regards. Equally, it also means an order of magnitude less pose-ability. And this is a bit of an issue for anyone who likes to tweak or try to instigate unique poses like I do. 

However, I am very pleased with this particular miniature. The new line of GW models that they've come out with recently is really top notch. Its very easy to tell that this miniature was computer designed compared to the older series of plastics and metals that GW put out many years ago. The sculpt itself is still nice and crisp -- hence no signs of ageing. 

In all, the model was very simple to put together and I'm very pleased with it! I have a patriarch from the same game to assemble yet, and then I'm thinking of getting the codex and seeing if I want to purchase anything further to be honest. I'm really liking what I'm seeing with the gene stealer codex though and I certainly will think about adding a small genestealer army to my collection. 

Genestealer Evolution

There has certainly been a lot of evolution in genestealer models over the years.

The picture below shows the very original plastic genestealer from Space Hulk days of yore compared to a more "modern" model (well -- from the 2000's at any rate).

I've noted this before on different posts, but ignoring the different plastic technologies, it is readily clear that the newer version is much more dynamic and can be posed in a variety of ways. The sculpts are also subtly different: the new version's exoskeleton appears stronger with fewer weak-spots compared to the older counterpart that has exposed flesh in the centre of the back. This has been replaced with a more boned exoskeleton along the back that looks radically different. Clearly the hive mind has been at work over the years. The new model's rending claws are also better looking to me, but the more human, rear pair of hands are broadly similar. I might go as far as to say that the older genestealer's human-like hands are preferable given their dynamic look; the newer one can appear like it is about to slip on a pair of mitten gloves before venturing out in to the dank, chilly service tunnels of the Space Hulk. Regardless, I still have a few very old genestealers knocking about the collection. I think I might even have a lead patriarch in the mix somewhere as well.

With the new codex about to be released, I might well dust off some of my very old models and see if I can re-purpose a few of them for a genestealer mini-cult.

Genestealer Cult Codex Excitement!

Seriously? A genestealer cult codex?

You know, I would not quite have believed it unless it was Games Workshop themselves announcing it. But: it was Games Workshop themselves! Horrah! I'm stoked!

As my very ultra long term readers might know, I harbour a love for the genestealer cult army, having had a range of figures from my earliest days in the hobby. I guess I got hooked on Space Hulk, that later turned in to the Deathwing expansion that included all the hybrid models. And I still really love them. Even if they don't come with a cult limo, I'm still very likely to purchase the new codex to be honest!

And to demonstrate just how far I travelled down the genestealer cult road ... here's a little conversion that I created many years ago -- its of a genestealer-ork hybrid model! I'm still fond of this idea personally, but can certainly see that its not the most common kind of xenos that one expects! (Yet it certainly was in the earlier publications; or at least hinted at within them that such hybrids could be created; along with Khorne worshipping orks!).

Deathwatch Overkill Genestealer Army List for 30k

Today, I'm going to continue a trend that we started on Warpstone Flux with the release of Betrayal at Calth. We're going to see if we can build an army list for Horus Heresy 30k from the components contained inside the Deathwatch Overkill board game! Given there there are so few marines, and that they already come with data sheets to cover their use, I wanted to specifically focus on the Genestealer faction.

Arguably the optimum faction to represent the Genestealer Cult in 30k is the Imperialis Militia and Cults army list presented in Horus Heresy Book V: Tempest. Although the Solar Auxilia could be used, I think the Cults army is designed for this kind of force. 

Let's first do a head count of Deathwatch Overkill though. The boxed set contains the following miniatures:

1 Genestealer Primus;

1 Genestealer Patriarch;

1 Genestealer Magus and two Familiars; 

2 Purestrain Genestealers;

4 Aberrants;

28 Genestealer Hybrids.

From this, we're not going to make a high points level force, but let's see what we can do.

Firstly, we want a Force Commander. To characterise our force, we want to take some Provenances that will resonate with the Genestealer Cult. I think for this, I cannot go past Abhuman Helots (which provides a bonus to toughness, at the expense of initiative) and Tainted Flesh (to provide fear, feel no pain, as well as access to Mutant Spawn -- these will be the Aberrants). The only problem here is the Tainted Flesh. Although I really want to get Mutant Spawn, the fact that we would have to take heaps of Inducted Levy squads makes this a non-starter if we only have one lot of the Deathwatch Overkill Genestealers. Equally, I also want access to Rogue Psykers so we can use the Magus. That means we have to take either Cult Horde or Tainted Flesh. So, we're effectively stuck with one of these. Of these two, Tainted Flesh seems a lot more appropriate, so we will live with this one.

We will represent the Force Commander with the Genestealer Patriarch. Its either him, or the Primus to be honest.  We can use the Primus as a squad commander instead, and then take some other squads. Either way, we are looking at buying additional squads from Cadians (or similar) regardless. The only way around this would be to take an army that's just got Abhuman Helots and therein take Grenadiers. We'll look at the separately in the second half of this post. 

First Army List:

Force Commander, power weapon (replacing pistol), infra-visor, carapace armour, iron halo, planetary overlord rule; Provenances: Abhuman Helots plus Tainted Flesh (175 points).

The options here have been selected to represent the patriarch. They're all "counts as" in this context rather than WYSIWYG. 

Rogue Psyker, Alpha Psyker (60 points).

This one will represent the Magus.

Inducted Level Squad, lascarbines, discipline collars, frag grenades, vexilla, Custodian with hand flamer (90 points).

Sadly, this squad is 20 strong. It will therefore fill up with the vast majority of the hybrids. And we need yet another one of these squads to meet the minimum number of troops.

Inducted Level Squad, lascarbines, discipline collars, frag grenades, vexilla, Custodian with hand flamer (90 points).

We will need to purchase at least 12 other squad members to complete this squad (8 hybrids, plus maybe a box of cadians, the Primus could be thrown in here as the Custodian to take the number down again, and possible the familiars as well?). 

Mutant Spawn (85 points).

One squad of 3 spawn. Perhaps this is 2 aberrants plus 1 purestrain?

Mutant Spawn (85 points).

Another purestrain plus 2 aberrants! Obviously we could put these two squads together, but there's no reason to do that.

TOTAL COST = 585 points.

Suitable for an ally perhaps, but little else in 30k!

Alternative Army List:

Force Commander, power weapon (replacing pistol), infra-visor, carapace armour, iron halo, planetary overlord rule; Provenances: Abhuman Helots (140 points).

Again, this will be represented by the Patriarch.

Platoon Command Cadre, Commander with Melta Bombs, Refractor Field, Plasma Pistol, Bodyguards with close combat weapons, 1 extra body guard all with carapace armour (65 points).

These squad members will be represented by the Primus (Commander), Magus (Vox or Standard Bearer); A hybrid as the other out of the Vox or Standard bearer; Purestrains and Familiars as Body Guards.

We now have 27 hybrids and 4 aberrants left. We could use them as follows:

3 Grenadier Squads, Sergeant with Melta Bombs, Power Weapon, 1 Vexilla, Bolt Guns, 2 Melta Guns (145 points)

These will be represented by the Hybrids and Aberrants. One of these 3 squads will take an extra member, for an extra 5 points, making for a total of 440 points.

TOTAL COST = 645 points.

These two army lists are just suggestions of course. And they need a lot of "Counts As" permissions. But I kind of like them. They're not uber effective, so don't expect to win games or tournaments with them. Just enjoy them for what they are: a way to represent Genestealer cults on the battlefields of the Great Crusade potentially!