Genestealer Cults | Warhammer 40,000 Tactical Guide

• Overall units are quite fragile, making the army capable of dishing a hit but usually not capable of taking one
• Character and Stratagem heavy in order to boost the power of units, taking steam away from the army quite quickly when killed or low on resources
• Some units can be swing and a miss, failing a crucial charge or whiffing some shooting leaving them utterly out of the game with no real way to try again
• Anti tank can be a struggle, often on flimsy or expensive platforms
• Anything heavier than a Marine in combat will be difficult to shift without special weapons, with much of their combat prowess being high attacks at low damage

When a CHARACTER fails a Saving Throw, another model within 3” can take the hit instead if you roll a 4+ (3+ for PATRIARCHS), dying in their stead. Whilst this will outright kill the saviour regardless of damage (so yes, you can lose a 3W ABERRANT against a Lasgun), it can be well worth it to keep a vital Character alive.

Every unit has this apart from the PATRIARCH and VEHICLES, so this really spreads out across the army to keep your key leaders a bit safer. Be wary it is model however, not unit, so you can only attempt to roll for each model in range, and not remove models from the other side of the unit. This does also mean you’ll have to slow roll a lot of the time, so you know where you stand in terms of when to roll, and who to remove, so be prepared for that. 

Also of note is any Mortal Wounds, regardless of source, will bypass this as no Save is being made, so be wary of Psychic Powers and the like.

If every model is CULTS (or UNALIGNED, or <25% of the army is BROOD BROTHERS) you can use the Crossfire rules. 

In your Shooting Phase, if a CROSSFIRE unit targets one enemy unit and either hits it 5+ times, or hits once with a Dmg 2+ weapon, the enemy unit gains a Crossfire marker after all the attacks are finished, until the end of your turn. 

You’ll also need to look out for if you can draw a 1mm line between any part of two CROSSFIRE models that are visible to each other, that crosses over an enemy unit, and doesn’t go over Obscuring as it does so. If it does, it is Exposed.

Right, now we’ve got the set up done, it’s time for the juicy bits!

When a CROSSFIRE unit shoots at an enemy unit with a Crossfire marker, they get +1 to Hit, which is a powerful ability for an army with average BS, letting you really stack up hits with your more potent weaponry. 

If it’s Exposed as well, you get +1 to Wound on top of that, making even the humble Auto weapons you have capable of wounding most things on 4s, and enhancing your heavier weapons into the lofty heights of wounding most things on 3s if not 2s. 

And that’s not all; if the model shooting is within 12” as well as the above, it Ignores Cover to boot! Ignoring Light and Dense is a potent tool, despite the short range, but putting units down to their base save or bypassing minuses to hit really helps stack up the damage.

Now obviously this is a powerful shooting tool, letting you outperform your otherwise average stats, though you need to position carefully, and focus fire is crucial to both set it up and maximise the benefits, but this adds some potent punch. 

Even if you can’t get close enough to Ignore Cover, or can’t set up Exposed, the +1 to Hit will stack up a lot over the game, as well as unlocking other abilities, and with ways to add Exposed via certain special rules, you don’t always need to get encircling happening to benefit.

Whenever you’re told to Summon the Cult, you bring back D3 destroyed Models to a unit, or D6 if they are a NEOPHYTE unit. Whilst you can Summon from different sources, you’re capped at a max of 3 revived models, or 6 for NEOPHYTES. Bringing back models is a powerful tool, letting you potentially steal Objectives, to bog down enemy units even longer, or just to add a bit more damage output. The downside is that Cult units tend to not be amazingly survivable in the first place, so sticking around long enough to revive models can be a bit of an ask, and the Icons are fairly costly. However the mere threat of leaving one or two models left alive only for them to turn into maybe 4 or 5 can be enough for the enemy to overinvest in destroying a unit, leaving other units alive. Is it worth it on small 5 man squads, not really, and putting it on every unit will stack up very quickly across the army, so either consider which units will need it most, or consider an Iconward surrounded by multiple units. 

A pseudo commander/leader type Character, with a Marine Captain-esque statline, though lacking the Armour, he grants the all important 6” Aura of Reroll 1s to Hit for CORE, and he also has a Command Phase ability to grant a CORE unit within 9” Reroll 1s to Wound, making him ideal for supporting your shooting and melee units alike. His own output is fine, with a Bonesword (a Master-crafted Power Sword with AP 2), a Toxin Claw (an Astartes Chainsword that always Wounds non-VEHICLES/TITANICS on 2+), and finally a Needle Pistol for a single shot at 18” with same Wounding rule as the Claw, but with AP0 and D3 Dmg. This is fine. But he is not an offensive character, especially with his lack of defenses as T4 5W and a mere 5+ means he will get deleted by pretty much anything short of a few Guardsmen, and at 80pts he’s not too expensive, but expensive enough that you won’t want to throw him away. Keep him surrounded and helping your main forces as much as possible.

The Psychic support element, with a standard “human PSYKER” statline of T3 and 4W, knowing 2 Powers, Casting 2 and Denying 1. She packs a Force Stave, a Bio-dagger, an Autopistol, and the option for a Psychic Familiar, and also grants a 6” Aura to INFANTRY and BIKERS, granting a 5+++ vs Mortal Wounds in the Psychic Phase only. The aura is fairly niche, and the wargear is kinda there, but you’re taking her for access to more of those great Cult powers, which for 80pts is a decent enough cost given the strength of said powers.

75pts nets you a 4W 5+ Sv Space Marine who carries a big old standard, granting a 6” Aura that lets CORE units Summon the Cult, as well as a Charge boosting Action. The downside of the Action is it has to be started at the end of the Move Units step, so you can’t do it after arriving from Reinforcements, which admittedly is fair, otherwise it’s an autotake. However, when you do the Action, you get a 6” Aura of +1 to Charge Rolls to non-GENESTEALER INFANTRY, BIKER and CHARACTERS (the latter of which is irrelevant as all your CHARACTERS are INFANTRY or BIKERS, but ho hum…). Jumping this guy out of a GOLIATH to then slam the Banner down for other units arriving is a solid plan, or just have him hanging out with units to revive them. Putting him Underground will generally be a waste, as you’ll need to wait at least a turn for them to be in effect, as his Summon the Cult Aura doesn’t work on arrival, as the unit in range has to Summon, not the Iconward himself. As with all the Characters that aren’t a Patriarch, just avoid combat unless he’s needed to finish off a tiny unit, as his generally poor defensive statline won’t last long, and 4A at Str 3 -3 D1 won’t go too far.

The Alphus is predominately a support piece to set up Crossfire and Exposed by virtue of her rules and wargear. With a speedy 14” Mv, she can bring her BS2 Sniper Rifle to bear where needed to set up Crossfire with a single shot thanks to it’s Dmg2. It’s pretty hefty at Str 5 -3 and doing an additional Mortal Wound on an unmodified 4+ to Wound, but it’s not oneshotting too much so focus on the Crossfire aspect. It also combines nicely with her Priority Target ability, picking a visible enemy unit within 36” in the Command Phase, and letting herself and a CORE CROSSFIRE unit within 9” of her count that enemy unit as Exposed, making her an ideal support element to lay on ranged damage with some heavy hitters. On top of that, she’s untargetable with Shooting whilst within 6” of a JACKALS or VEHICLE unit, is always -1 to be Hit, and can Fall Back Shoot and Charge, making her a real pain to deal with. At 80pts, she won’t do much herself, but the support she provides for your ranged elements is pretty significant.

The shooting Troops, with a Guardsman’s statline (albeit with +1 Ld, cult mind control being a heck of a thing) and a fairly affordable 6pts.  Whilst their Autoguns won’t generally do much without Crossfire support, they can all freely trade them out for Shotguns a nicer Str 4 at the cost of range, and with both 2 Special Weapons and 2 Heavy Weapons per 10, they can pump out a significant amount of firepower. At 5pts a pop, some Flamers, Grenade Launchers or Webbers offer a bit more punch (the Webber being particularly weird, an 18” Range Flamer with D3 shots that, rather than wounding normally, does a Mortal if you roll over the target’s Strength). Heavy wise they can go for a Stubber for 5pts, or for 15pts go for the much more appealing Mining Laser, being a half range Lascannon, or the Sonic Cannon for some nice flexibility, shooting at 24” with one of two profiles, either a Heavy Bolter with +1Str and AP, or a Str 4 Assault Cannon. Finally you can take an Icon for Summoning, and give the Leader some pistol and melee options, though it’s not really worth the cost. When supported with Crossfire, these units can hit pretty hard for their cost, though not really able to take a hit in return. An Icon can help this somewhat, but not getting hit by being in a GOLIATH or Underground and not being hit at all is a safer, and cheaper, bet. Oh, and yes, the Points Section says 5-15 in a squad- ignore this obvious copy-paste issue of the Acolytes above them, they’re definitely 10-20 like the Datasheet says.

Basically an ACOLYTE in statline, but give them +1 Str and AP with their melee claws, and fight on death if they haven’t already fought. They also get capped at 10 models and lose access to the Industrial Weapons, and cost an extra 3pts. An odd sidegrade, the Str and AP bonus, whilst nice, isn’t really worth the 3pts, meaning the Fight on Death aspect needs to be used…but you want to be charging with Cults, making these a weird sort of sidegrade to the basic Acolytes. Their ability is a nice deterrent to chargers or interrupts, but they aren’t doing much that can’t be done elsewhere.

Ahh you silly chonky boys. On paper, these guys fill a much needed role for the cults in melee, hitting at a whopping Str 8 -2 Dmg 3 with their hammers and picks. But with only WS 3 and 2 Attacks each, and at 30pts a pop, they aren’t all that efficient at killing stuff. Where they do well is tanking stuff. Despite their 5+ Sv, they do pack a healthy T5 3W and -1Dmg, making them ideal to go and fight heavier hitting things to tie them up. The main downside of the Aberrants is, despite their lack of CORE, they are fairly reliant on support from Characters. Giving them an offensive buff from the BIOPHAGUS, or more importantly the 5+++, makes them even better at their role, coupled with Psychic Powers or ABOMINANT rerolls helping as well. Alone they are fairly overcosted, but with support they are significantly improved. Yes you have to pay the cost for the Character support of course, but they also help other units, and the cost-return is generally better. Oh, and one has to be a Hypermorph, giving him +1 A, a tail (essentially an Astartes Chainsword), and the option to swap out his hammer/pick for a Stop Sign (giving +1 -1 D2, but damage isn’t lost and overspills to give some anti horde, but meh). Overall, these guys are an interesting pick, and can be pretty nasty and hard to deal with, but only really with backup.

Speaking of backup, Mr Be Good here is both good support for the ABERRANTS, giving them full rerolls to Hit, as well as being a pretty decent big-thing buster himself, with 3A at Str 10 -3 3+D3 Dmg, and whilst only WS3 he can reroll a Hit or Wound roll each Fight phase. With the same -1 Dmg combined with a 5+++ and 6W, makes him pretty tough to chew through. At 95pts, he’s not a bad buy, capable of oneshotting most enemy Characters or tanks, or holding up small elite units with his sheer refusal to die. Oh his Familiar attacks as well with 2 Str 4 attacks, but whatever.

With his model of Warhammer World, the Nexos is here to scan the battlefield for key threats, putting an automatic Crossfire marker on an enemy unit anywhere on the battlefield in your Command Phase. He also acts as a relay for a PRIMUS, ALPHUS or CLAMAVUS within 6” of him in the Command Phase, letting a CORE unit anywhere else on the battlefield count as being in range of their Auras, as well as making them eligible for their Command Abilities regardless of range. A purely support piece, the Nexos is neither killy nor survivable with his Autopistol and Magus statline, they need to be accompanying one of the aforementioned Characters to make the most of their own rules, and whilst the Crossfire marker aspect is good, whether it’s worth 50pts by itself is a trickier ask.

With a bunch of speakerphones, this guy yells so loudly even your opponents have to listen. Focusing on controlling parts of the battlefield and the mission, his first of three abilities picks a CORE unit within 12” in your Command Phase, and lets them autopass Combat Attrition as well as be able to still Shoot whilst doing an Action, ensuring a unit can stick around to hold a point or do a Secondary until the last bug-man hybrid thing. The second ability picks an enemy unit within 12” in your Morale Phase, and should you roll over their Ld on 3D6, you can either turn off ObSec, or prevent them from doing Actions (and auto fail any current Actions), both powerful abilities to help flip Objectives and mitigate scoring. And just to cap it off, they have a 12” bubble of “No Deep Strike here please” to help cordone off parts of the battlefield. At 50pts, they are cheap for the abilities they bring, however they are all fairly niche ones, and quite short range putting their Nexos-identical statline in danger. In some games all three will come up and win you the game, in others they won’t do much, so account for at least some aspect of that in list building.

A Bodyguard/light melee Character, coming in with a Primus statline with +1A, a Master-crafted Power Sword, 5++, Fight First, a 6” Heroic Intervention which can ignore the closest enemy model if they can fight an enemy CHARACTER instead, and during Deployment picks a single non-LOCUS CHARACTER to protect, making them untargetable by Shooting when within 3”, and Melee if the LOCUS can be targeted as well. At 50pts, he’s handy in a fight as well as effectively acting as 4 ablative wounds to a key Character, so long as he’s nearby. Now of course, if both are targetable in the first place, you probably have some bigger issues, and whilst decent enough in a scrap, might not be quite enough to punch out heavy units in melee, though they’re probably cheap enough to justify if other support Characters aren’t fitting your gameplan.

Rootin’ tootin’ shootin’ alien cowboy. That’s all you need to know. Alright fine. The Kelermorph comes in at 80pts but gives a ton of utility. Whilst only having a Magus level statline (though with +1A and a 5++), they pack 3 Liberator Autostubs, each one a Pistol firing 2 shots at 18” with Str 5 -1 D1, ignoring Look Out Sir and doing an additional Mortal Wound on 6s to Wound. On top of that, each Hit lets you fire another shot at the same target (not stacking, obviously), if you kill a model in the Shooting Phase they get a 6” Aura for CORE units to Reroll 1s to Hit for the rest of the Phase, and for ultimate trolling, after you finish shooting in the Shooting Phase, they can immediately make a Normal Move or Fall Back, even if you arrived from Reinforcements! This ability alone is wildly good, letting you avoid reprisal, nab Objectives or Secondaries, set up a Charge to a unit that won’t kill them, reposition for his new found Aura or move to grant Exposed for other units. Overall, he’s a great unit, able to support shooting elements, set up Crossfire, deal with light characters, or just chip away at enemy units. Difficult to pin down with a decent amount of firepower, the Kelermorph is a great pick in most situations and army builds, and affordable enough at 80pts. 

A glass cannon assassin type Character, coming in at 70pts and with a choice of 2 bits of wargear, either a Sniper Rifle for range or Bio-dagger for melee. Regardless of choice, you have a Magus level statline, but rock WS/BS2 (lol we’ll get to that), and 4A, as well as a bunch of special rules. First and foremost they’re a literal ninja with -1 to be Hit, a 5++ +1 to Armour when getting Cover and untargetable unless within 12”. Yup. Even if they are out in the open, with no other targets, if they’re 12.1” away, you can’t see him. John Cena would be proud. On top of that, they can see through walls and magic, ignoring cover and autohitting. That WS/BS 2 above? Minuses to hit? Who cares! So far, so bonkers, but let’s talk wargear. The Sniper gives him the CROSSFIRE Keyword and rules, and you always count as getting Exposed when Shooting, whilst the Bio-dagger is the same Mortal Wound chunning machine as the Magus’ version, but with 5A instead of a max of one. So it boils down to what you want him to do. The Sniper won’t be killing too much, though over the course of the game and with limited reprisal he can pick off stragglers and is ideal for setting up Crossfire, whilst the melee is obviously better at killing stuff, but will be at a higher risk of danger to themselves.

Do you like explosives? Do you like setting us up the bomb? The Saboteur has you covered. Another Magus-esque statline, the Saboteur has BS2 and all the Grenades (though frustratingly no way to throw them all- you have 3 arms, that’s one for each Grenade, come on GW it writes itself!), as well as their Remote Explosives for a cool Assualt 2D3 Shots at 24” with Blast and Str 8 -3 D1, plus a tasty Dmg 3 vs VEHICLES and MONSTERS, though not able to target AIRCRAFT (hard to set off bombs in the sky). In addition, once per game they can do an Action from your Command Phase to the end of your Movement Phase to plant a stack of Goldeneye Proximity Mines, setting them off when an enemy ends any Movement Phase or your opponent’s Charge Phase. When they go off, every enemy model within 3” takes a Mortal Wound on a 4+ (2+ if a BIKER, VEHICLE or MONSTER), which becomes 4 Mortals if they’re a VEHICLE or MONSTER, which is hilarious on units of Vehicles like Sentinels, Talos or ironically Ridgerunners. Finally they’re a pseudo-ninja, having -1 to be Hit vs Ranged, and being outright untargetable whilst on Area Terrain and over 12” away from the attacker, keeping them safe for a good period of time on the battlefield. At 80pts they aren’t that cheap for what they do, but offer some good anti tank as well as bit of area denial

The final support Character, and the cheapest at 40pts, albeit the nichest. With a statline you can probably guess by now (you have 3 guesses, the first 2 don’t count, and if you said anything other than ‘Magus-like’, get out), they are here to buff up units with one of three abilities via an Action. Started at the end of your Movement and completed at the end of the Shooting Phase, you pick a CORE or ABERRANT unit within 3” with either a +1AP to Melee, Exploding 6s in Melee, or a 5+++. If it’s an ABERRANT you can pick, otherwise roll a D3 for them respectively. They can also take an Alchemus Familiar for 10pts to extend the range of the Action to 18” once per game, letting him stay away from dangerous melee (also worth it for the image of a baby Genestealer running across the battlefield with a bunch of strange potions labeled “Drink Me” and yelling “I’m late I’m late!”). They also have their Injector Goad for melee, which at AP 0 but D3 Dmg and always wounding non-VEHICLE/TITANICS on a 2+ is ok, and if you do manage to wound something at the end of the Fight Phase you just instantly kill them if you roll over their Wound Characteristic on a D6, which is cute. He also throws vials of acid, with a single shot at -1 D2 with the same wounding ability as the Goad (but not the instant kill). Without ABERRANTS or at least a big unit of ACOLYTES or METAMORPHS to support, he’s a waste of points and space. With them, he can make them much scarier, and even with the random element on non-ABERRANTS, all the buffs are great melee boosters.

Big ol’ dune buggies that look sweet and offer some of the much needed heavy firepower in the book. A decent enough statline of T6 and 8W makes them tough enough to shift, though their 4+ Sv leaves a bit to be desired, and they have a bunch of wargear and weaponry options. Coming standard with 2 Heavy Stubbers for some light anti infantry, they come with either a Heavy Mining Laser (a 36” D3 Shot Blast Lascannon), a Heavy Mortar (48” D6 Blast Str 6 -1 D1 Ignore Line of Sight) or the unique Achilles Missiles (3 Shots at 36” at Str 6 -3 Dmg 3). Each one obviously fills different roles, and so it will depend on what your army needs, though really you have infantry covered so it’ll be the potentially devastating if unreliable Mining Laser, or the generalist and consistent Missile Launcher. Then there’s ancillary wargear, either a Spotter that gives +12” Range to your Weapons, letting them stay safe on the backline, the Augur to Ignore Cover against enemies within 24” for some mid range boost, or the Flare Launcher to grant a 6++ vs Ranged and -2” to enemy chargers provided you aren’t in Engagement Range, for some nice defensive boosts. Given the small board sizes the Spotter isn’t necessarily the best choice, and Crossfire might afford you the Ignore Cover if used well, albeit not without risk. The Flare Launcher is always useful however, and will generally be the go to choice. Finally they come with the same Scout move as the JACKALS above. All in all these guys are pretty great, and at 80pts regardless of loadout are affordable and offer some necessary firepower, alongside being reasonably tough to shift. Leverage their speed and effective redeploy to avoid getting caught flatfooted and set up firing lanes, and try to get Crossfire going for them as much as possible to maximise their output.