Genestealer Cult, fluff rewrite.

[Insurgent]

Now that Genestealers are out as an actual 40k army it might be time for the skirmish community to forge our own path with the bug brothers. Even though the models are great, the profile for Neophyte Hybrids is for a 4th generation hybrid in the brood cycle. That leaves our classic Brood Brothers out in the cold as far as a Necromunda gang on the battlefields of 40k. I was so hoping to use my Necromunda figs as cultists on a 40K field but the profile simply isn't there in the codex.

The current fluff for the brood cycle goes against the conventions the Necromunda community has build for 20 years about Genestealer Cults. Some significant aspects like the Magus and Gangster Patriarch just aren't possible with the current fluff. People have been using the Magus for years as a source of intrigue in 40k skirmishes and the way the fluff plays out now these characters are only presented in the final apocalyptic battle.

Perhaps we should develop our own genestealer cult system for Necromunda/Inquisimunda/Skirmish. Something that makes this faction more scalable to the needs of shrimish gaming. Current writeups on Genestealer cults that try to follow the codex fluff leave out the Magus and feel like an awkward refit to an already established convention.

Games Workshop has a long history of working it's fluff for maximum marketing potential. I can't help but feel that the current Genestealer Cult fluff deliberately limits the potential for small scale factions. The fluff forces the player to play 40K in order to use traditional figures like the Magus and Patriarch on a scale well beyond the size of gang/skirmish warfare.

 

[Insurgent]

Is everyone just head over heals for that codex?

 

[Insurgent]

Just vote and I'll totally review my thinking on the codex if everyone votes.

 

[spafe]

I've not read the new dex.... but why does it have too?

Assuming the brood cycles are still there... keep using them as is, if gw wants to write about the massive battles where the Magus reveals himself to be the big bad... that's fine... can that not be what our low level gangster ones are aspiring to one day?

 

[Gregor Firedrake]

Brood brothers are still mentioned in the codex and neophytes are supposed to represent both 4th gen and brood brothers just like acolytes are 1st generation and 2nd I believe lol

 

[Insurgent]

"Genestealer Secrecy" has been a really cool part of Necromunda. Many Delque gangs have secretly harbored horrible secrets for many games before the full power of the pure strain was unleashed on an enemy gang. A gang could easily pass off its Magus as a Telepath or simply not use Wyrd powers until the time was right. The Magus played an important part of the intrigue of a Genestealer Cult Gang. Many newer Genestealer Cult Gangs don't include a Magus profile because they are attempting to follow the orthodoxy of the 40K codex. In Inquisimunda the absence of the Genestealer Cult is notable. For a faction that once was a staple in small scale 40k gaming they are now considered too powerful for a skirmish campaign. Their status has been upgraded to full blown 40K army but the auxiliary roots of this small subversive faction are still important to Necromunda. I think they need a place in Inquisimunda and Necromunda. It is an important recognition of how small the first seeds of infestation are and how their deception grows to engulf whole hives.

 

[spafe]

While I get what you are saying @Insurgent , it was missing from imunda because there was a push to get something to a release stage so it didn't completely stagnate, and the stealers couldn't be sorted in a reasonable timeframe. Nothing to do with the 40k side of stuff.

As for them 'now being too powerful for a skirmish game', they originally were in a skirmish game against a squad of terminators! In a game like necromunda where it's almost ful lconsensus that a marine in power armour is too powerful.. its really not a new thing that for many stealers are too god like too.

Like I said, I don't know what the new stealer fluff is, but I don't think there is anywhere near as much of an issue as you seem to think there is in terms of stealer lists in necro/imunda. There is a current thread in imunda that is making headway at getting them ready for inclusion... it has stalled because the project is going back to basics and addressing central core parts of imunda first, but it is very much a gang that everyone there wants to get working/see back in the main rules alongside all the others.

 

[Insurgent]

Its great to hear that Genestealer gang profile is moving along. Do you have a link for the thread you're talking about?

I understand that Genestealers are god like and I really think their point costs should reflect that. The Old School alien bestiary puts them at 280 and I wouldn't feel bad seeing them at 350-400. They are pretty much the ultimate stealth, speed and HtH bio-killing machines. That said they are not invincible and they are a central feature of science fiction for the last 40 years.

 

[spafe]

sorry for the slow reply... heres a link to the stealer coven discussion...

https://yaktribe.games/community/threads/2-1-genestealer-covens-warband.4890/

I think the end conclusion was to make them a mentor rather than permanent member of te warband... then up their power level to blender scary levels.