If there’s one faction that knows how to count down to an event, it’s the Genestealer Cults. For today’s Grotmas Calendar Detachment, it’s the long-awaited Final Day.
Every Genestealer Cultist longs to witness the arrival of the Star Children, and then ascend to join them in blessed oneness. This will be a transcendent experience, a sublime reward for their devotion, or so they believe. The reality is altogether more hideous: as the Tyranids approach, the utterly alien Hive Mind assimilates the more nuanced Broodmind of the Cult.
Many of the faithful die from psionic shock, while others are freed from Tyranid mind control only to go mad with horror as the truth is revealed. The rest become short‐lived puppets for the first waves of Tyranid vanguard organisms descending on their world. Exerting its will to make them fight harder and move faster, the Hive Mind swiftly burns out those who survive, harvesting each flicker of bioenergy to reinvigorate its more valuable Tyranid organisms.
Now, that doesn’t sound like good news for the Genestealer Cults, we’ll grant you – nor very Grotmassy at all! You might feel better about the whole affair, however, when you discover how the Psionic Parasitism Detachment rule works. Yes, you may include Tyranid Vanguard units in their army, and your cultists earn +1 to Hit when selecting targets within 6” of these organisms. The Tyranids can also get +1 to Hit – and heal a few lost Wounds – for the low, low price of some Cultist biomatter… perhaps with a dollop of cranberry sauce.
The definitely justified devotion of the cultists towards these Star Gods is represented by Enhancements such as Inhuman Integration, which grants a Cults unit’s weapons Sustained Hits 1, and by Stratagems such as Avenge the Star Children. When a Tyranids Character is slain, Genestealer Cults get +1 to Hit and to Wound against whoever dared raise a hand to their long-awaited saviour.
And what’s more Grotmassy than futile vengeance almost immediately before being digested once and for all? We’re back on familiar Grotmas ground tomorrow: plump cherubs and their Adepta Sororitas allies.
