Genestealer Cults limitations leak

Standard leak disclaimer: this could be fake. This could be meaningless. As real as the thing looks a fake like this is only a modicum of photoshop skill away. Also, sorry about the poor quality of the image, literally the best version I could find was on a Youtube video.

Here's the deal: instead of using allied detachments for some units and “Cult” versions of others from now on Genestealer Cults will just use selected datasheets from Codex: Astra Militarum and just replace the REGIMENT keyword with the BROOD BROTHERS keywork. For those using screen readers or unable to read the tiny, indistinct text the Astra Militarum units you can take are as follows:

Company Commander

Platoon Commander

Command Squad

Tank Commander

Infantry Squad

Conscripts

Veterans

Special Weapons Squads

Scout Sentinels

Armoured Sentinels

Leman Russ Battle Tanks

Chimera APCs

On the one hand its not everything, which is effectively what you could take before now (or, rather, anything with the ASTRA MILITARUM keyword). Its also more than could be taken in a pure Genestealer Cults list.

Do I like it? Hell yes. There's Company Commanders, Platoon Commanders and Tank Commanders on that list which means Orders are now something Genestealer Cults can use. I am heartily looking forward to giving certain opponents a heavy dose of Front Rank, Fire! Back Rank, Fire! We now have access to Veteran Squads for some extra heavy fire power, as well.

Yes, there are gaps. I'm a little surprised Heavy Weapons Squads aren't on the list and I would have liked to see Hellhounds because I like Hellhounds. However, I get why even some of the more basic stuff had to be left out.

You can't take Regimental benefits because BROOD BROTHERS replaces rhe REGIMENT keyword, for instance, so as good as it is to have orders and Veterans and Special Weapons Squads you can't buff them further than their base statistics. Similarly, I get why the full spread of tanks and the more elite infantry are out of bounds: Astra Militarum needs to have things that make them superior to Genestealre Cults just as Genestealer Cults have things that make them superior to Astra Militarum.

At the end of the day, if Genestealer Cults could take everything Astra Militarum can take then there's no point in having Astra Militarum.

And I like the humble Imperial Guard, I want them to keep having a point.

Am I saying people shouldn't be annoyed about this? Not entirely. The way this concept was introduced in the Index allowed you to use anything with the ASTRA MILITARUM keyword so I imagine a lot of players are looking at some units that are not quite game legal anymore. I know I have two Hellhounds I can't use for my Cults anymore and I'm just lucky that my Brood Brothers units also happen to be my Savlar Chem-Dogs army.

On its own, though, in the abstract I do like this rule and look forward to the tactical opportunities it opens up.

Some finished models and a goal for June

During my recent hiatus I had a chance to knuckle down and get some serious hobbying done. It was one of those moments when I really got into the zone and ended up actually getting a decent amount done. So much so that if I did individual pictures even for the units we'd be here for ages and I really want to just quickly showcase the miniatures and move on to my little hobby goal for the month.

So, to start off with there is this veritable Imperial Soup of things for the Deathwatch and their associated allied detachments. Starting from the left side of the picture and moving anti-clockwise we have a Company Commander and Command Squad for the 322^nd Savlar Chem Dogs made out of Cadians with the Genestealer Cults upgrade sprue (the foreheads cunningly filed down to remove the more overt signs of mutation). As it happens this army will be performing double duties as an allied detachment for my Genestealer Cults army down the line but that's neither here nor there. Next up we have two HQ choices for the Deathwatch itself: Captain Lucius Almas of the Angels Of Vengeance and Codicier Trayvon Delios of the Blood Ravens. On the far right we have Magos-Dominus Narses Hood (yes, not just a joke name, a pretentious joke name!) of Stygies VIII, overall commander of the Watch-Fortress' Mechanicus contingent. Finally, at the back we have the first of my Deathwatch Venerable Dreadnoughts, a charming fellow by the name of Antigeminus, late of the Omega Marines chapter.

As well as that little lot I also completed two six-man Kill-Teams. First up is Kill-Team Fury under Watch-Sergeant Varil Marak:

From left to right on the line-up we have Marines from the Fire Lords, Flesh Tearers, Consecrators, Brazen Minotaurs, Iron Hands and Subjugators chapters kitted out with long range firepower. By contrast, Kill-Team Mortis under Watch-Sergeant Zauriel (yes, I have a favourite Justice League run, why do you ask?) is geared more towards close range firepower and assault:

From left to right: Libators, Dark Angels, Carmine Blades, Sons of Medusa, Iron Snakes and Sons of Dorn (that last one modified slightly because there is no way I have the skill to freehand a circle, let alone a white circle).

Anyway...

The Goal

Since the New Year I've been keeping a little hobby diary and it informs me that with these models I have painted 78 miniatures this year. My goal for the month is to bring this to a nice round hundred or (fingers crossed) beyond before we enter the second half of the year.

My challenge to myself from there is to see if I can do even better in the second half of the year. This is already the most productive my hobby has been in a long time and I've been carrying that energy over into other aspects of my life. Its genuinely been a positive experience.

So, twenty-two models to go. Sitting here looking at the rambling excesses of the work in progress shelf, which has seen some reinforcements as I look through boxes for things to finish, I see three Kataphron Destroyer;, that bloody Cryptek that I still haven't finished; three Raveners; ten Skitarii Vanguard; another Venerable Dreadnought; six Poxwalkers; ten Genestealer Cults Hybrid Neophytes as well as a Magos and a Primus. More than enough to be getting on with although looking at my hobby diary I notice just how few Fantasy miniatures I've painted this year (a mere six Skinks) and feel the need to redress the balance somewhat.

Anyway, twenty-two models minimum in the next four weeks. Doable, especially with so many half-complete ones to chip away at.

Then the real fun of exceeding the record begins...

Test Models: Victoria Miniatures kilted legs

I have come to hate the Cadian Shock Trooper. Its not that they're bad models, they're perfectly competent sculpts, pretty user friendly to build and paint. However, they are also immensely boring and I have painted dozens over the years and they are basically designed to be boring. They are literally the “standard issue grunt” recruited in their billions by the Imperial Guard.

So, when I decided to finally revive my old Guard army, the Silvik 23^rd / Metellus 5^th Tactical Support Detachment, I knew I had to do something to make them a little more interesting to look at and paint.

Enter Victoria Miniatures and their Kilted Legs set. They, in fact, do entire figures “Highland Guard” figures who just happen to dead ringers for the Drookian Fen Guard but I did want to keep some of the outline of your classic Cadian Guardsman. Also, the complete figures come out a little expensive and I want a largely infantry-based force. My background for the army always had them (at least, the Silvik side of the regiment) come from a very mountainous world so tanks and such are at something of a minimum. Lots of Sentinels, though, I like Sentinels.

First, though, I'll be painting this Veteran Squad. They are Sergeant Pertwee and his Particulars, the regimental quartermaster's personal scrounging squad whose... extracurricular activities get a blind eye turned to them by Commissar Foster and Stratego Callum so long as the Sergeant is willing to lend the squad's considerable skills to certain behind enemy lines missions. This would be the reason they're armed the way they are: a nice all-round squad geared up to break bunkers and vehicle armour but capable of going anti-infantry if I have a need.

I'm almost certainly giving them a Chimera. It might not have originally been theirs but you can repaint those things pretty quickly if you feel the need and I don't know what you mean, Commissar, there's always been this many Chimeras in the pool, purely a discrepancy in the paperwork we'll get it corrected, just sign here, sir.

Now I just need to decide how to paint them. I don't want to go historical redshirt on them but I have also painted enough green and grey over the last couple of weeks to last me a while.

Maybe something in blue?