Sunday, January 15, 2017

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.

1 comment:

Mike (Didcot Wargames Club) said...

Nice review. I think a unit of 20 with the Patriarch will tear through most units with ease.
I really need to get started on my own Cult, can't wait to try them on the tabletop.

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