A big part of how the Genestealer Cults will work is around the new Ambush tactics. Lets take a look at them.
via the Warhammer Community
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/02/05/5th-feb-genestealer-cults-tactica-part-1gw-homepage-post-1/
First of all, I’d like to talk about the Cult Ambush ability and how you can overthrow your local oppressors on your path to welcoming the Star Children and their many gifts.
Cult Ambush: The Ambush
With Cult Ambush, there are two deployment styles you can utilise. You may decide to set up some of your units in hiding, which takes advantage of the ambush markers with the codex. This allows you to deploy units without saying what they are. Denying that information to your opponent is a great way to begin the wave of confusion. Even if your opponent has the first turn, they cannot destroy or move within 9″ of these markers. This grants you a powerful advantage in being able to keep adversaries away from your deployment zone during deployment and the first turn.
With the Nexos, you can even move one of these markers after he is revealed, furthering the confusion and changing up what your opponent thought to be true. If you liked that idea, the Meticulous Uprising Stratagem that allows you to move three of these markers up to 12″ – wow! That is a lot of area denial and deployment trickery that will make your opponent struggle to know where things are and how they can react. You’ll also have access to the Scanner Decoys Stratagem, which falsifies the number of ambush markers in your deployment zone.
Games are often won and lost in deployment, and servants of the Four-armed Emperor will rejoice in our thematic and unique ways to confound our oppressors during this crucial stage.
Cult Ambush: Setting Up Underground
It wouldn’t be a proper uprising if all we did was throw our foes into a state of confusion. We are also equipped with aggressive ways to get our engineered weapons where they need to be so that we can crush and destroy those who would oppose us. Setting up underground means that an Infantry or Biker unit can appear anywhere on that battlefield that is more than 9″ away from any enemy units.
At first glance, this doesn’t seem particularly special, but when you consider the ample ways to enhance the effectiveness of that deployment – such as the Clamavus adding 1 to the charge rolls of nearby units – you can begin to see its devastating potential.
However, that’s not all! With the fiendish Stratagem, A Perfect Ambush, one of your units – say, a hulking group of Aberrants or Purestrain Genestealers – can move D6″ after arriving from underground and still make a charge move. Alternatively, you can use this Stratagem to give the face of your rebellion, the dreaded Kelermorph, a free opportunity to shoot. With a Kelermorph’s Character-killing potential, that’s certainly a handy trick to have up your (three) sleeves.
Without giving it all away, I will tell you there are plenty of other ways to enhance these charge rolls to help us get the jump on our enemies. But if clobbering your foe with an industrial-grade weapon isn’t your idea of fun, perhaps consider some of the shooty-er options? First, take a full unit of 20 Hybrid Acolytes with hand flamers.
When they pop up from underground, use the Lying in Wait Stratagem – now that unit is just 3″ away from your target. They may well forfeit their ability to charge, but how is that a problem when you’ve just immolated the enemy unit with an average of 70 hits from your hand flamers? Alternatively (or in addition to), throw the Extra Explosives Stratagem into the mix for the ability to throw up to five demolition charges, each with D6 attacks at Strength 8 and D3 Damage – yikes!
Codex: Genestealer Cults offers us a fun, original and exciting way to engage our opponents. We are tricky, surprising, and if they aren’t careful we will spill out from every corner of the board and overwhelm our adversaries with a mixture of claws and crude weaponry! So go forth and pave the way, for our day of ascension is at hand! May the Four-armed Emperor bless you with its many gifts.
