STARTING A GENESTEALER CULTS ARMY IN 11TH EDITION: YOUR FIRST 1,000 POINTS
Genestealer Cults are the insurgents of the setting: mining unions and frontier congregations who have secretly worshipped something with far too many arms for four generations. This page covers the first 1,000 points, from Neophytes to the Patriarch.
Neophytes, twice
Your first purchase is the current Combat Patrol, which centres on Neophyte Hybrids, the human-looking rank and file with mining lasers and autoguns. Neophytes are the canvas of the whole army: pick your cult's colours here and everything else follows. Hazard stripes, work overalls and hidden claws make this one of the best narrative painting projects in the hobby. A second unit of them soon after is one of the rare cases where doubling up early is right, because the faction runs on bodies.
Acolytes and Purestrains
Acolyte Hybrids, the hunched four-armed faithful with rock saws and heavy claws, are your hammer, and Purestrain Genestealers are the faction's icon, the reason the cult exists at all. One box of each turns the army from militia into horror film. Add a Magus or Primus to lead and every layer of the cult is represented.
Recommended: Acolyte Hybrids With Autopistols
Recommended: Purestrain Genestealers
The Goliath Truck belongs in wave one
The Goliath Truck is transport and atmosphere at once: a rusted industrial hauler crammed with zealots. It is the model that makes your force read as Genestealer Cults from across the room, so buy it in the first wave of purchases rather than the third.
A Patriarch you can finish in a weekend
The Patriarch, the vast throned grandfather of the brood, is the obvious crown, and unusually for a centrepiece it is compact enough to finish in a weekend. Bigger and stranger things exist in the range for later; paint the Patriarch first.
Clergy after congregation
- Third and fourth character models. The cult needs congregation before clergy.
- Allied units from the parent hive fleet until your own core is done.
The cell's tally
On the table the cult is an ambush army: units vanish, reappear where they should not, and swarm objectives while the enemy looks the wrong way. Off the table, keep the same grip on what you own. Note each kit on arrival and stage it truthfully from bare plastic through built to done, because nothing exposes an unfinished uprising like an accurate count. The background and full roster are on the Genestealer Cults faction page under Data.