2.1 Genestealer Covens Warband

[Tiny]

Updated loads of stuff as suggested. Also took the liberty of amending some points values for some of the hybrids.

Take a look at your leisure and let me know if anything else looks broke.

Away in Spain getting drunk and sunburnt for a few days so will fix any issues when I return.

 

[Matelloco]

Cool ideas

 

[ewanwalker2001]

Finally an appropriately updated Genestealer Gang! Rather than a "new" one... >.>

I like it, it's similar to the Necromunda one I keep talking about:- https://yaktribe.games/community/th...nestealer-cult-gangs-updated-01-17-2014.1572/

And you've even included Purestrains, that learn, and Aberrants, awesome!

I would love to see added rules for the new Overkill Weapons:- Bonesword, Power Pick and Mining Laser etc
Not sure how hard it'd be to figure something out with them but maybe the 40k rules for using Overkill models on the tabletop would be a good starter?

Hope to see this become the main Genestealer Gang rules and that we can finally playtest one set and not twelve different ones that pop up each year...

 

[Tiny]

Finally an appropriately updated Genestealer Gang! Rather than a "new" one... >.>

I like it, it's similar to the Necromunda one I keep talking about:- https://yaktribe.games/community/th...nestealer-cult-gangs-updated-01-17-2014.1572/

And you've even included Purestrains, that learn, and Aberrants, awesome!

I would love to see added rules for the new Overkill Weapons:- Bonesword, Power Pick and Mining Laser etc
Not sure how hard it'd be to figure something out with them but maybe the 40k rules for using Overkill models on the tabletop would be a good starter?

Hope to see this become the main Genestealer Gang rules and that we can finally playtest one set and not twelve different ones that pop up each year...

Glad you like it. Would love some feedback if anyone has been playtesting it.

As for new weapons, I did consider those but they instead would need to be added to the main weapons lists. For the time being it would be easy enough to use them as follows:

Bonesword - Power Sword
Power Pick - Power Axe
Mining Laser - Multi Laser or Lascannon

 

[Meavar]

Few minor points, overal it looks really good.

Maybe change who can work (brothers can, purestrain and aberants cannot) now as I read it, same as normal so juve like cannot, but they make over half the gang at least.
Change starting xp of the brood brother to d3.
Maybe allow races like orcs/grots, tau and allies be allowed for the hybrids as well?
Maybe I should test it more, but the purestrain now feels very expensive. sure he hits hard, but without acces to weapons he is not that perfect.
no parry, no way to ignore parry, half the leaders who take a power sword and a pistol will kill him and cost less.

Take an orc nob, with axe and a knive: 1 more attack and lose just 1 ld and 3 ini but cost half (130TG) ad some armour and a sword (say another 40 gold thus still 80 TG cheaper)

And even if you do not take a real combat monster like the ork nob nearly all leaders start at ws 4 or 5 have 2 (mutation makes 3?) attacks and cost quite a bit less and a simple power sword will give the same strength and parry is in the beginning equeal but once you get one or 2 extra attacks even better then the extra attack.

So either make him a bit cheaper (200TG?) for while he looks impressive equipment really makes short work of him and possibly mkae his atacks impossible to parry?

 

[Tiny]

Unlike an Ork Nob, the purestrain has a 5+ save, is immune to psychology, can't be captures, has M6, can convert captured fighters and can take biomorphs. They do have some downsides though, like lack of weapons access, using better armour etc. I agree they are possibly a little overcosted. What if they got a parry as standard and dropped to 200TG?

For working territories, the gang may struggle to start (only G1, G3 and G4 hybrids working) but once Brothers start becoming gangers, they will be able to work. I do feel that perhaps G! and 2 hybrids shouldn't be able to work, in which case all brothers should be able to work IMO.

Any thoughts on those before I update?

 

[Meavar]

I think your suggestions make sense.

The addition of a parry makes a huge difference already for the purestrain. In that case you might even keep his pricing slightly above the 200 tg as well and still be a good addition.

For working I agree it is a hard call. If allowing G1and2 to work it would be a struggle in the beginning but once brothers reach ganger status it will be fine (but hard at the start)

Just letting brothers do the work does not sound to stupid to me and might be a good option.

 

[spafe]

I'd say 220, drop an attack, and give it parry.... means it's a solid fighter, and compared against a jakara, basically trades movement, str, tough, immune to psycology, immune to capture, ld, for a pistol, less starting xp and a bs stat that you can lose advances to (who wants better bs over ws with these sort of guys?).

they are both similar cost (220 for stealer, 200 for jakara), the other side is that the stealer can be in a gang with meat shields and numbers... which the jakara cant.

That's how I'd approach it, see what other similar fighters have in that price bracket... so the ork in question really looses in that he will get the odd bs advance that he doesn't want, be in a worse gang, and the biggest thing, be slow! the stealer has better skills acess, higher M and therefore for a combat model, that is a massive bonus.

 

[tribeof1]

I'd give the genestealer "can't be parried" rather than parry, and keep the cost at 220.

I also like the idea of flipping it so that G1 and G2 can't work territories but brood brothers can.

 

[spafe]

the cant be parried is actually quite nice, I like that.

If you really wanted to add more you could say they cant be parried by anything bar a power sword... but tbh I don't think I'd bother.

 

[Meavar]

I like the idea of can't be parried (even if parry is slightly better).

 

[Tiny]

Can't be parried and 220TG it is. Also change roles of Brothers and G1/2.

Does giving G1 and G2 the "heavy" role and a special rule for brothers stating that they "may always work territories or visit the trading post as if they were a ganger" work? Does it also make sense to mess with the starting xp for the hybrids if they're all counting as heavy role? (e.g. make them all D6+40 starting xp or something?) or is that too much?

Will update the document as soon as I have chance.

 

[Meavar]

I think changing the roles will work, but I am unsure about the xp.

I would keep the xp of the G3 at 60xp in line with other heavy weapon users. The G1 and 2 could go up to 40xp (unsure) but going to 60xp seems a bit excessive. And G4 should not change from 20+d6 xp, since they are now the ganger equavalents.
I was also thinking maybe they could have other mutations possible as well, "Lithe Form" and "Arachnid legs" both seem to bring them more in line with genestealers and fit well I think.
You might even want to consider chameleonic skin as an option instead of chitinous skin since they are very sneaky in the lore (or maybe just in my mind).

Another question you can have 2 claws does the str bonus stack (For why else buy 2 claws)?
But with the +1 str in the stat block, it seems the first and second gen and aberants can get str 6 before xp advances which seems a bit high to me?

 

[spafe]

2 claws would be so that you don't have half your hits hitting at str 3 and half hitting at str 4, same way as buying 2 clubs or similar. I would guess, not actually looked into the wording, but that's generally how these things work.

 

[Meavar]

Ah, I always assumed you could just make the hits with any weapon you wield, for any number of hits.
Where can I find this in the rules?

 

[spafe]

under the NCE page 24 (labeled, actually 25 of the pdf), under Hits, top left. The second paragraph.

Hits are done using half each if wielding two weapons (and remember everyone comes with a knife so no just equipping with a single club and saying its only 1 weapon, as they get the knife for extra attack dice but also do half hits at base str because of it).

 

[Meavar]

ok, thanks.

Did that completely wrong in all my games.

Was thinking about an orc cult. should gretchen and orcs then be mixed since they come from the same breed or just use gretchen as brood brothers?

 

[scavvyjay]

I'm a bit unsure about the stealer can't be parried rule. As its more likely that a stealer will charge than the opponent youre giving a WS combat monster a huge advantage. Most gang leaders will only be Ws 4 at the outset and without the slim chance of a parry they'll get chopped up swiftly. I think i will try to have a game or two to playtest it before i can make an informed judgement though. I've recently gotten some ork hybrids so i'll try them out.

 

[Meavar]

While I do not completely disagree,
Remember it is a combat monster only, usually combat is considered slightly below optimal since it is hard to get there without massed covering fire.
And while it is a combat monster, Xenos can quit easily have a starting leader with ws 5 (orc, eldar, tarrelion, hoxltl)
And I do not think it is a slim chance to parry, with 2 attacks (3 for the orc) they have 30% chance to get a 6 which is the same as us, but when parry is added this drops to below 8% (1/36 chance to get double six and another 1/6 chance in the case of the 27%). This makes our beatstick very hard pressed to defeat any leader half it's points with a simple sword, ad in the possibility for outnumber for normal humans and other weak xenos. The other point is that the genestealer purebreed has no tooling options, you cannot give him the powersword which you would give to nearly any 200+ combat monster.

I must admid I regularly play against an ork player so that might scew my perception a bit on what is a high ws. But I usually find that orks also struggle against humans if they cannot parry and the enemy can, even with the extra attack and rerolling 1s from choppas.

 

[tribeof1]

We can see how it goes in playtest and tweak later if needed. I just like the fact that "can't be parried" makes 'stealers scary, as in nothing's going to protect you but luck and/or extreme skill. It's also a plus, in my mind, that it is a purely offensive ability - can't be parried doesn't help the 'stealer defend itself, really.

Ooooo, wait, I've got an idea: What if, instead of "can't be parried," we have their claws count as power weapons? That way they could only be parried by someone with a force or power sword (a la Space Hulk)?