With the renewed might of Hive Fleet Leviathan chewing hungrily on the Galactic East, there’s no better time to be a worshipper of the Four-Armed Emperor, a survivalist of the Rusted Claw, or a devotee of the Pauper Princes. The Imperium treats its teeming billions of citizens as grist for the endless war machine, but there are promises of a better future – and the Genestealer Cults are expanding their seditious operations with a new Codex and miniature.
Through careful selection of psi-capable gene-stock, the Broodminds of the Genestealer Cults have cultivated a brand new mutation, a high-minded vector for its inhuman influence – the Benefictus.
With its grossly swollen brain, the Benefictus is able to focus the dispersed psychic energies of the Broodmind into beams of raw telekinetic force that rival a lascannon for sheer destructive power. The shockwaves from these impacts carry echoes of the Broodmind’s alien telepathy, forcing nearby enemies to recoil from waves of psychic horror and hallucination.
Rules for the Benefictus will be found in Codex: Genestealer Cults, a tome of utmost heresy that is filled from cover to cover with delicious promises and surprisingly compelling information on cults both major and minor – it certainly won us over. We’re signing up for the insurrection today!
On top of the background information and datasheets for the Genestealer Cults, this Codex contains five separate Detachments. One of these, the Biosantic Broodsurge, focuses on monstrous Purestrains and Aberrants, and lends its name to the new Genestealer Cults Battleforce.
The Biosantic Broodsurge box packs in the new Benefictus alongside 10 Neophyte Hybrids, a Goliath Rockgrinder and a Goliath Truck, 10 Purestrain Genestealers, a hulking Abominant (accompanied by its Mindwyrm Familiar), and five Aberrants ready and willing to tear their foes limb from raggedy limb.
For fans of small-scale combat, a new Combat Patrol leans into the fast-moving elements of the Genestealer Cults with plenty of motorised mayhem surging amongst its xenos hybrids.
Known as the Claw of Ascension, this warband combines the pack-hunting firepower of five Atalan Jackals – with four on bikes and one on the fearsome Wolfquad – with two units of five Hybrid Metamorphs and a durable Achilles Rockrunner. It’s all led by the Jackal Alpha known as Shanus Daskovian, who lays out exposed Characters with accurate sniper fire and supports the rest of the team from the rear.
We’ll have plenty more information about the Genestealer Cults as they emerge from the shadows later this year, but there are many more reveals today in the hub.