Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - Genestealer Cults Jackal Alphus

Product Information

The Primus can attach to Acolytes, Neophytes and Hybrid Metamorphs. He offers his unit full rerolls to hit (tasty), and your army a three unit redeploy after both players have deployed, including allowing you to place units into strategic reserves. Some weapons have ‘Blast’ listed in their profile’s abilities. These are referred to as Blast weapons. In addition to the normal rules, the following rules apply to Blast weapons: When ascension day comes, no chances can be taken by the forces of the Genestealer Cults. And with this dice set, themed around the cults, there will be no chances, and no failure…

Overcharged Weaponry – 1CP: A unit shooting clearance incinerators, heavy mining lasers or heavy seismic cannons gets +1 to wound. Extremely good on Ridgerunner squads with 3 HMLs, and part of the reason they’re making a big splash in lists. Doesn’t even require them to focus fire on a single unit like some similar abilities. A Stoic and inhumanly patient, the Locus can go from sombre stillness to a blur of motion in an eye-blink. This sudden eruption of violence is as startling as it is deadly. Like a Lictor jumping from the shadows, the Locus makes a lightning-fast decapitating strike, their twin sabres flashing through the fog of battle to take the head of their foe. Genestealer Cults also get a second Army Rule, Brood Brothers. This allows them to bring up to 500pts of Astra Militarum units along in their army (with some exclusions for Epic Heroes and Militarum Tempestus stuff, and no Enhancements). While they’ll be operating without any real faction synergy, Guard indirect shooting is looking very strong in their Index, so there’s a decent chance this ends up being quite potent! Detachment Rules – Ascension Day

Nexos – The Spine that Strengthens the Body

HQ: Acolyte Iconward – Field Commander – Augur of the Insurgent, Relic – Icon of the Cult Ascendent The latter part used to be even more important, as some poor wording let you hold the deep strikers pulled with it past turn 3, but it’s still exceptional now that’s been fixed by a FAQ. Most GSC armies will contain several “bombs”, large deep striking units that often run to the 200-250pts range (usually Acolytes). You might not normally be able to get all of these plus their required support characters into deep strike under the “half your army limit”, but with this stratagem it’s trivial, and it’s very common to declare these units as setting up in Cult Ambush then move them underground. The only thing to be wary of with that is if your opponent has access to Vect or GSC’s own “counterspell” stratagem – in this case it is critical that you remember to put a Four-Armed Emperor unit down on the board prior to activating this stratagem, as that way you can counter their counter – getting this ability stopped if you’ve built your whole plan around it can easily lose you the game on the spot, with your fragile units ending up standing in the middle of nowhere looking awkward. Stratagem 1 – T he First to Draw Blood – 1CP: +1 to wound for a Broodsurge unit that charged. Incredible. A. The units able to exploit this rule best are BATTLELINE, but all the infantry and biker units in here are able to regenerate in this fashion on a 4+. Your vehicles and characters may fall permanently, but an endless swarm of minions is now at your disposal. Units also don’t leave ambush just because your opponent manages to tidy up all your markers on a given turn, so if you lose a high-value unit early and manages to get rid of the marker that was placed the first time, you can spring it on them later on during a turn where enough markers get placed that they can’t clear them all.

Stratagem – Drive-by Demolitions – 1CP: a RUSTED CLAW BIKER unit gets +1 to hit and wound with Grenade weapons for a phase. They can also move as if it was the movement phase after shooting, but cannot charge this turn. Cult Ambush’s ability to be reactive in deployment is exceptionally good in the missions, allowing GSC to adapt to going first or second on the fly. Use Scanner Decoys a lot. The Clamavus is an Elites choice for your Genestealer Cults army. You’ll find your nearby troops benefit from better Leadership as well as improved advance and charge rolls, making him great when paired with close-combat units. Meanwhile, you’ll be able to deny your enemy reinforcements and deal mortal wounds with the Clamavus’s scrambler array. Stratagem – Vengeance for the Martyred 1CP: Use this if an enemy unit destroys a PAUPER PRINCES CHARACTER from your army. Your PAUPER PRINCES units add one to hit rolls against it for the rest of the battle. Working within constraints means focusing on what an army needs, and in 9th I’d basically want the following in all of my GSC lists:Cult Creed – Nomadic Survivalists: Add one to your non-invulnerable saves against AP-0 or -1 weapons. In addition, BIKERS can move/shoot heavy weapons or advance/shoot assault weapons without penalty. When forced to lie low for a time, the Alphus will hole up in an abandoned cellar or cave, taking the opportunity to scribe maps and charts with painstaking care as they record every observation for the later assessment of the gene-sect's leaders. It is not unheard of for hundreds of Alphus maps to grace the war room of a Nexos, each of which they and their Primus peer commit to memory for the insurrection to come.