Warhammer 40000 Psychic Awakening : The Greater Good, Genestealer Cults Review

Time for a Cult review !

Following the article on the Tau (here ). We'll review today the Genestealer Cult rules section included in the Greater Good book of the Psychic Awakening series.

Only 10 pages of the Greater Good or so are allotted to the Genestealer Cults. They get Custom Cults making, new stratagems, and a psychic table for each named broods from the codex. Also included, the ambush and Brood brother rules, amended by the different ERRATA.

DIY Cults

Instead of the 6 cults included in the codex, you have the option to build your own Cult! The Cults from the codex are all fine choice as you can see (included the one from the codex for comparison purpose.) but if you want some variety or want to try some special tactics list you can toy with the new options presented in this book. Before that check the old one so you know the competition ^^

Now the if you want to build your own cult, choose 2 powers from a list. 11 options to choose from. some goods, some bad. Build the Cult you need for your list or make a Cult enabling new optionsn, your choice! This comes at a price, as the powers presented here are weaker (even when you take 2). Also, the new Psychic Powers are reserved to the 6 Cults.

The best one are :

These 5 abilities are the best in the book IMO. Are these strong enough to change the average GC list? i don't know but I hope we'll see new variation!

I'll include the full list but truly, the one lefts are not that great :/

Stratagems

Units specific stratagems are the theme of the one included in the book. These new stratagems open new list options as you can count of a bit more on certain units. Strong but limited in scope as they only affect one specific unit or one character each time.

for example :

Evasive Driving is cool if the opponent doesn't have High PA weapons at the ready. Also, the timing of this stratagem is a nice trick, as you can force the opponent to use a lot more firepower than he originally planned.

Sanctus threat extender is good too if you want to get those pesky support characters, heavy units or even tag an objective.

note : With the number of Stratagems, it's going to take a lot of practice as a player to keep all those in mind and use them at the right moment. Rewarding decision making during the game is a good thing !!

For reference the full list

Psychic Powers

6 new Psychic powers, but restricted to named original cults.

Undermine : The spell is very strong as you can really "fuck up" the enemy plan. Still with a warp charge of 8 it's risky to count on it !
Synaptic Blast : Waaaaagh ! not very good but look fun ^^
Undying Vigor : 5+ feel no pain ? and not limited to infantry ?
Decay : -1 save against an enemy vehicle is good !
Last Gasp : meh :/
Mutagenic Deviation : Target limited to infantry, range is 12" only, and for melee attack. Still if you can make it work it's awesome !!

4 of these spells are good and can be built upon, it's a strong incentive to play with a Named Cult...

Conclusion :

That's it for the Cult review. Custom Cult making seems a bit weak to me unless you go Yolo and build all the list around what you get. Still, I think it's a better option to take a Named Cult to get et extra Psychic Power.

The second review of the Book is done now. All that left is the Imperial Guard that I'll do tomorrow. in the meantime you can check the Tau review here

/Cheers.
Bob.