You Say You Want a Revolution? |
| Well, You Know…. The overall tone for this army
list will be for that of a Revolution, of a small inner circle cynically
leading others to take over either a local area, or the entire planet. The
leaders have no hesitancy in having their followers die, and die often, for
the cause. They will send them off to battle, and sometimes maybe join them,
but the overriding goal is self-preservation, especially for the Magus. After
all, as long as one Genestealer, or the Magus (especially him, as he can
more easily hide in normal society), can escape, then the Cult will live
on. Think James Earl Jones in the first Conan movie, and that’s the
tone I want for the Magus. Hypnotically leading his followers, and they will
follow him anywhere (usually to a painful death!). A Rabble in Arms, but
a fanatical rabble. Hopefully this won’t offend anyone, but when I think
of what a Genestealer Cult would be like here & now, I see the Church
of Scientology or the Mormon Church, with Magus Pat Robertson leading it.
And trust me, if either really wanted to start a revolution, they would have
plenty of access to weapons and vehicles in National Guard and regular military
bases.
Weapons and equipment are for the most part stolen, or bought via illegal means, or home-made – resulting in quite a range of armaments. They have access to a very wide variety of weapons & vehicles, but this comes at a cost. Points values for many items will be higher, for the same reasons (I’m starting at which I think is the upper end for a points value guesstimate, and will adjust them after playing). The text for the units will also reflect why some get pretty much anything they want, while others make do with the leftovers. Vehicles are limited to those which are easy to steal or build, thus none of the more rare vehicles or those that should be hard to maintain. No skimmers, Demolishers, Hellhounds, etc. – pretty much as it was in the Codex before. Since this list is more for existing Cult players, I really want to let them use everything they have now (both vehicles and troops). I added some other vehicles, mostly from imagining what common folks could create from vehicles around them (trucks, buggies, etc). I also wanted to add horses & bikes, just for the fun of it more than anything else. Since there would be little or no strategic or tactical training here, the Cult is not bound by doctrine – they will take pretty much everything they can find or adapt as a weapon. The Cult limousines that are used to transport members around without revealing their true natures are adapted for use in battle by adding extra armor – turning a city vehicle into a lightly armored combat transport. I plan to use lots of the info from the original RT Genestealer Cult articles, plus of course Andy’s bits from the old Tyranid Codex (the latter is the main guide I’m using here for units & weapons for the most part). I’m also working on variant lists for Feudal & Hive Worlds, and Hulk infestation/Fresh Cult type situations, to let players have more options for Revolutionary Wackiness. The goal is to let players have an extremely wide variety to troops & weapons to choose from, with primarily the Necromunda, Imperial Guard, Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Ministorum, and Warhammer Empire model ranges to work with. Vehicle wise, the IG, Ork, and Space Marine lines will offer supporting models. Winding throughout the article will be a story telling the rise of the Cult on a planet, starting with an infested Hulk being discovered (or crashing). One person is infected, and then more & more as a new religion forms on the planet. The Cult rises in strength, both as an overt powerful religious force and as an underground military force, as it gains members from PDF and government branches. Finally it overthrows the Imperial Governor and takes the planet (or at least the major cities) in a simultaneous strike, where many formally loyal forces reveal themselves as Cult operatives. Basking in their triumph, the story ends with the arrival of the Tyranid Hive ships, blotting out the sun as they approach the planet, drawn by the nascent homing beacon of the Brood telepathic energy. The story will be scattered in bits throughout the article, told in a variety of styles (Imperial Dispatches, notices in local news, Arbites log reports, etc.) as well as normal narrative. Any suggestions for a planet to fall the Tyranids anyone? Other items will cover Imperial reports on Genestealer activity, reproductive cycles, and planet infestations. Other sections will include modeling, converting, and painting tips for the Cult, plus of course lots of ideas for making Brood Brothers and other models that won’t exist like the Limos. Choosing & Building a Cult will also be covered. There are no plans for any new Magus, Patriarch, or Hybrid models to come out, so lots of converting will be required! Hopefully the old running Patriarch model, plus the old Magus models, can be brought back into the range. Players who don’t like converting will be warned to stay away from this list – some assembly will be required! J Feedback is of course extremely desired here, and don’t limit it to just battle reports. If you have good ideas for new items, troops, weapons, etc., or want to know why the heck I did something the way I did, let me know. I am very open to suggestions! I would ask though if there are questions on points values to first play a few games before rushing to judge – I know many are in serious need of tweaking, but get some firm playing in before commenting there. Have fun! Band-Leader Tim 1/30/99 Updates: lots of changes here – added vehicle malfunction special rule, Cult Censers, Demagogues, Sawn-off Shotguns, special character; variant Cult lists finalized; lots of cleaning up throughout. Stubb Gun got changed to S4 (the goal is to make it, Autopistol, and Laspistol all equivalent power). Next up will be the Missions & stories. 2/15/99 Updates: Changed Initiate WS to 2 (from 3) to reflect their lack of any real combat training, and dropped the Initiate Bodyguard Save to 6+ (seemed wrong that they saved better than a Genestealer). Added Flamers as weapon option for Bodyguards. Worked in some heavy weapons limitations for Bodyguard and Hybrid units. Did some work on the Demagogue section to make it more into a Cult commando-attack unit, and added option for Demagogue on horseback or bike too, with mounted/biker bodyguards. Slight changes to the army list variants. Minor cleaning up of some rules for clarity. This feels pretty solid now – Missions & stories will be next. 3/1/99 Updates: Added "regular" wargear descriptions. Fiddled with Riding Lances, Double-handed weapons, Heavy Stubbers, Suicide Bombers, Comrades weapon options (based on some other codex work). Initiates can now take CC weapon + pistol too (but it’ll cost <g>). Also working on Support Weapon rules & will add them in too. Missions & stories are really coming, honest. Also coming will be Support Weapons too. 3/15/99 Updates: Made pretty copy for posting. No real changes of import, honest. 04/04/99 Updates: Added option for Un-Armored Limousines, changed Carapace & Chitin armors to match IG Codex latest wording. Story vignettes in work: Initial Hulk sighting, along with investigation report and first infestation No more updates for a month – working on stories and modelling. I’ll be sending this around to lots of other folks for comment, so possibly lots of changes next time. 6/1/99 Updates – lots of changes due to great comments from playtesters & new draft of IG Codex. Created new rules for Primitive Weapons, Mounted Cultists got changed (Trot ability switched to Feudal list), added Sidecars to carry Hybrids and Demagogues in Biker units, added Firebombs (Molotov Cocktails, and yes I know I misspelled it in the text, it’s on purpose), new Feudal Cult weapons (especially want feedback on them – are they just too over the top for 40K?), tinkered with Armistadt a bit, changed purchasing rules for most Space Marine vehicles, added Ordnance weapon failure rules, added Brood Brother "frenzy" rules, added new vehicle upgrades (shamelessly stolen from IG draft), added Heavy Flamer to Cult Trucks, tightened up the Limo rules, added in the work-in-progress Support Weapon rules (really want feedback there too!), and two new special characters (one will be featured in the Hunt for the Fallen summer battle tour!). 6/12/99 Update: Changed Stubb Guns to be the same as autopistol/laspistol (consensus was that there was no real point to making them different); deleted Sawn-Off Shotguns (ditto with them and regular Shotguns); let Hybrids start with an Autopistol; did up fluff for Fast Attack units; took Biker units to 3-5 size; added weapon options for Sentinel and Chimera; fiddled with the Cult Battle Trucks a bit; did up fluff & finished out the rules for the two new special characters. Gonna let this one rest while I work on stories, and the other books it’s tied into (IG, Sisters, Tyranids) firm up. |
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