With approval from exactly no one I've decided to create my own Genestealer Cult list. The reasons for doing this are twofold.
1. Matching up the Genestealer Cult with new units released in 40k.
2. Development on the existing experimental lists seems to have stalled.

I’ve decided to base this list on the Cult of the Four armed Emperor (C4E). In the fluff C4E are mentioned to be the most expansive of the cults. Trying to spread as far and as wide as possible and therefore coming into contact (and conflict) with more than just the imperium. Thus a plausible reason for fighting any race not just PDF forces and the Deathwatch. C4E was the first Genestealer cult ever discovered by the Imperium and one reason for the expansionist behaviour is that their Patriarch was cleansed by the Deatwatch. But instead of collapsing, the cult spread through mining worlds, using its hypnotic control over its brood to take control over the settlements. They persist and thrive by being exemplary, out producing tithes and staying out of the Imperium’s focus. This way their services are useful to the Imperium and the Imperium on their part unwittingly helps the cult to spread by employing their mining and producing expertise.

Design Brief:
As the Patriarch has been killed it will not be a part of this list (furthermore I feel as the Patriarch is revered as a God and the glue that holds the brood together, It would be strange to risk its life in combat). Something that’s plagued cult lists before has been the felling that they are merely “Purple guard”. This will (hopefully) be addressed by including the cult specific equipment from 40k, minimizing IG equipment and a different force organization.

Ambush and surprise tactics – The C4E is known for using ambush tactics, striking from unexpected directions using tunnelling and stealth to achieve their goals.

Mining and industrial equipment – As the C4E isn’t a military force in the direct sense most of their equipment is actually created to be used in mining. This will manifest itself in short range weapons with AT values better than AP values (Compare a Multilaser AP5+/AT6+ to a “Seismic Cannon” AP6+/AT5+). The rational for this is that industrial equipment is designed for use with/against metals and rocks not soft materials. MW/TK stats will generally be associated with CC weapons.

Hypnotic mind control – The more human members of the brood are kept in line using hypnotic and pheromone mind control. This will make the brood brothers fight on when normal humans would have fled the field.

Design choices
Ambush tactics – The most important aspect of getting an ambush to work is getting to strike an unprepared enemy. I therefore gave the C4E a fairly high starting Strategy Rating of 4. This will significantly increase the chances of having the first activation. But as the element of surprise is lost the strategy rating will decrease every turn.

Father’s Will – Brood Brothers has been given a version of “They shall know no fear” rule. The rule is complicated by the fact that a brood brother formation generally will be comprised of several different unit types not all affected by the Father’s Will rule. Therefore I couldn’t just copy the rule. This rule encourages the player to include different unit types with the humans. Giving formations a more adhoc feel. As well as symbolising the hypnotic control the brood has over its members.

Brood Brothers formations – I choose to not go the regular route of upgrades adding units (this in my experience will usually not be efficient, most upgrades are simply not taken), instead most upgrades are replacing Brood Brothers. Keeping formations at a manageable size and cost.

Ambuscade – C4E needs some way to execute its ambush tactics. Instead of trying to invent the wheel again I looked at existing rules. Ambuscade is simply the space craft rules by another name. Game wise it doesn’t matter if explosive missiles rain down from the heaven or a buried explosive detonates, the effect will be the same. And paying for the “space craft” opens up the avenue of using “drop pods” to place troops in unexpected positions.

Primus & Mine Adit (Adit is a horizontal mine entrance) – just like Ambuscade these are more or less just renamed drop pods. The primus is a little bit special though. Here I’ve used a character as a drop pod, its rules are probably not sufficiently well explained in the list. But the thought is that the character acts as the drop pod location but once on the board acts like a normal unit. For now the Primus is limited to 1 and Mine Adits limited to Purestrain formations.

New War Engines – I’ve included two new War engines. The Aardwark is a banebladesque vehicle, the vision for this is a wheeled mining rig. With an assortment of weapons to extract the ore from tunnels. The Geostratic Bore is based on fluff describing the use of huge drilling lasers to penetrate a planets crust and wipe out a Hive Spire by creating a volcano beneath its foundation. The vision here is a large quadruped with a huge underslung laser. The stats are based on a Squat Cyclops, with more DC but no shields. I figure the CC and FF values of 5 will not make its DC of 8 a problem.

Characters – As mentioned before no Patriarch. A leader type character in the Nexos. A “drop pod character” in the Primus. Supreme Commander in the Magus. The mounted infantry (we all know how much GW loves its motorbikes) receives a rather special character, the Alphus. The Alphus bestows the sniper ability to all Jackals in the formation. As they have no ranged weapons this ability will only be relevant in firefights. And finally the Brood lord with the same rules as in the tyranid list.

Infantry – I saw no reason to change the infantry from the other Genestealer cult lists. Except adding the Jackals mounted infantry.

Vehicles – The only two IG vehicles left in the list are Leman Russes and Sentinels (both allowed in the 40k list). All other vehicles are adapted from the 40k list. Atalan wolfquad is more or less an attack bike. The Goliath is based on a chimera, but with CC better than FF and Seismic Cannon instead of multilaser. The Achilles ridgerunner will probably be the most discussed vehicles. Following the 40k list, this comes with three different equipment variations, Light mortar, missile launchers and mining lasers. As C4A doesn’t have too much variety as is I decided to include all three variants more or less based on chimera vehicles. They are all light vehicles (not being armoured vehicles in the same sense as chimeras, but with one better save to compensate for the added vulnerability. The light mortar is based on the Griffon, the missile launcher on the Hydra.

Flyers – I’ve so far chosen not to include any flyers. If I were to include flyers it would most likely be some type of converted cargo plane (think C130 dropping pallets of explosives through its back door). Fighter aircraft simply doesn’t fit C4E so unless the list needs them out of balance issues it will be hard to justify their inclusion.

Miniature suggestions
Here are some suggestions regarding miniature options for the Cult of the Four Armed Emperor. This is not to be considered mandatory, just some miniatures I find fit well. If you have suggestions please let me know and I will update this list.

Magus, Broodlord – Onslaught Terran Hybrid Command
Nexos, Primus – Depends on which Brood Brother infantry you choose.
Brood Brothers, Brood Fire Support – Any human infantry of your choice.
Hybrids - Onslaught Terran Hybrids
Aberations - ?? post suggestions.
Genestealers – GW Genestealers or Onslaught Terran Hybrid Abominations
Atalan Jackal – GW IG Bikes or Microworld Insect Nomad Bikers (unreleased)
Cult sentinel – GW Sentinel or Vanguard Novan Light Walkers
Atalan Wolfquad - Vanguard Novan Desert Quadbikers
Achilles Ridgerunner – Vanguard Novan Scout Buggies
Goliath – Onslaught Grudd Balder
Cult Leman Russ – GW Leman Russ or Vanguard Novan Regular Centurion
Aardwark Miner - ?? post suggestions
Geostratic Bore - ?? post suggestions

i think, your inclusion of the mini proxies is a nice touch and good bit of player service. kudos

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Loving the list.

A few things though after trying to write lists with it today.

I find it too expensive currently to have any hybrids in the list, trying to get formations with the 1core to 1 support ratio I'm saving my upgrade points to get the genestealers planetfall, a couple of characters and some abberrants.

So far my list looks like:

Brood Brothers 250 [350]
12 BroodBrothers + Char
Magus (SC) 100

THE TRAP [150]

Brood Brothers 250 [355]
12 BroodBrothers + Char
Primus 75
2 Aberations/replace 30

Brood Brothers 250 [250]
12 BroodBrothers + Char

Brood Brothers 250 [250]
12 BroodBrothers + Char

Brood Brothers 250 [250]
12 BroodBrothers + Char

Purestrains 150 [230]
6 Genestealers
Broodlord 50
Drop Pod 30

Purestrains 150 [230]
6 Genestealers
Broodlord 50
Drop Pod 30

Claim Jumpers [200]
5 Achilles Ridgerunners
2 AA, 3x Mortor (3BP)

Claim Jumpers [200]
5 Achilles Ridgerunners
2 AA, 3x Mortor (3BP)

Claim Jumpers [200]
5 Achilles Ridgerunners
2 AA, 3x Mining Laser (AT4)

Prospectors 150 [155]
8 Bikes/Quads
Jackal Alphus 5

Prospectors 150 [155]
8 Bikes/Quads
Jackal Alphus 5

The idea to have the formation with the primus call for a combined assault with at least 1 formation of genestealers out of the planetfall/droppod (Are we supposed to get deathwind with these pods?

2nd formation to retain and jump in/maul something as well.

Love the Ridgerunners, and would be looking to take 3 formation.
2 to drive up and sit behind terrain and provide prepping artillery for the assaults and another to "try"tank hunting

My other issue is all the core blobs of basicly gaurdsmen I have. too slow to provide support they'd have to garrioson off the objectives to be of any use. Transport is too costly for them. I'd love it if they came more of a mixed unit of hybrids and normal guard as well, give some actual cult additions.

Prospectors will be the fast moving FF support squads, will be interesting to see how they go.

Only major concern is after the main drop, you don't have a lot to eal with larger war engines, RA or armies that hover/will force you to FF


But it's cool to see a cult list getting out there again

Thanks for your input and comments.

I see what you mean, restricting the number of supports allowed to 1 per core has the (for me at least) unforeseen consequence of making hybrids less attractive. This will need to be addressed as hybrids is a signature unit. Either forcing the brood brother formation to include some from the start (10+2?) or making a second core formation of hybrids. I'm afraid of opening up more support slots, as I think that will make the list to "popcorny", seeing as many of the support options can be had quite cheaply.
Regarding transports I kind of disagree. Yes they may be slightly over costed (The Goliath in fact a worse chimera for the same cost, so some reduction wouldn't be that farfetched) but the utility of making the formation mobile, larger and generally more useful is worth the cost.

Interesting to see that you have not included any Purestrains in the Brood Brother formations, thereby losing the "Father's Will" bonus. Was this also a cost limiting factor? Part of the reason for the design of that rule was to incentivize the use of mixed Brood Brother formations.

In regards to drop pods, my thinking was to change as little as possible from the Marine drop pod rules. Partly for rules consistency but also fluff (it would make sense to have some booby traps go off as you spring your attack). So yes deathwind is to be included.

The fact that you won't have much reach is by design, a lot of the army strength will come from the initial ambush, and if it comes down to an attrition game, Genestealer Cults should loose.

Also I notice that your points for the Genestealer formations are slightly off. The drop pod upgrade is 5 points per unit, The Broodlord is not a character upgrade it's an infantry unit, and hence the formation cost would be 235 points.
In the prospector formations you haven't specified the quads vs bike ratio, but the Alphus +5 is per bike unit in the formation. As it stands now there are 7 quads and 1 bike in the formations.