Cataclysm in the Abyss

Genestealer Cults

Faction detachments for Boarding Actions

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Contents

Cult Unveiled

Mustering a Boarding Patrol

You can include up to one of the following units:
You can include up to two of the following units (duplicates are not allowed):
You can include up to three of each of the following units:
You can include up to one of the following unit:

Forming Boarding Squads


Rules Adaptations


Army Rule

Insidious Ambushers

Genestealer Cults survive and spread through a combination of stealth and sudden, decisive violence. These traits make them especially nightmarish foes to face in the confines of a voidship, where they spring seemingly from nowhere to attack.

Units from your army with the Cult Ambush ability lose that ability and GENESTEALER CULTS units from your army gain this one.

In the Deploy Armies step, your opponent must set up their entire army before you set up any of your units. If both players have a rule that allows them to do this, both players set up their units normally.

Detachment Rule

Harassing Fire

Focusing on hit-and-fade tactics to wear their enemies down, the guerrilla fighters of the cult hammer the foe with swift volleys before vanishing back behind closing hatches.

At the encl of your Shooting phase, you can select one GENESTEALER CULTS unit from your army that is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units. If you do, that unit can attempt to operate one open Hatchway it is within 1" of (if there is one), and can then make a Normal move of up to 3" (regardless of whether it attempted to operate a Hatchway or not). Until the end of the turn, that unit is not eligible to declare a charge.

Stratagems

PLANNED EXTRACTION
1CP
Cult Unveiled – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Driven by the Broodmind and their own guerrilla training, these cultists refuse open battle, instead firing hails of cover fire as they retreat into the shadows.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase.

TARGET: One GENESTEALER CULTS unit from your army.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, your unit is eligible to shoot in a turn in which it Fell Back.
OUT OF HIDING
1CP
Cult Unveiled – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Wary of detection, the cult has concealed cells of the faithful through the structure of the ship. Now they emerge into the fight like insects from their cocoon.
WHEN: Your Movement phase, at the start of the Reinforcements step.

TARGET: One NEOPHYTE HYBRIDS unit from your army that is in Reserves.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, models in your unit have the Deep Strike ability.

RESTRICTIONS: You can only use this Stratagem once.
FOR THE BROOD
1CP
Cult Unveiled – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Fanatical, and with wills suborned by the insidious Broodmind, these cultists will gladly die amidst hails of their comrades’fire if it means victory.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase.

TARGET: One GENESTEALER CULTS unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot this phase.

EFFECT: Select one enemy unit within Engagement Range of one or more friendly GENESTEALER CULTS units. Until the end of the phase, your unit can make ranged attacks that target that enemy unit. If it does, after your unit has finished making those attacks, roll one D6 for each of those friendly units: on a 2-4, that friendly unit suffers 1 mortal wound; on a 5+, that friendly unit suffers 2 mortal wounds.
LURKING MENACE
1CP
Cult Unveiled – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Foes find their aim confounded as the Genestealer Cultists prowl through gloom and drifting steam, rarely presenting themselves as targets.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One GENESTEALER CULTS unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit's attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time an attack targets your unit, if the attacking model is not within 3", subtract 1 from the Hit roll.

Enhancements

We are not using enhancements from Boarding Actions in the crusade. These are here for reference only!

Click to view
Master Saboteur

This cult leader is skilled in the arts of covert sabotage, and has pre-emptively employed these skills against a key strategic target on this deck.

The first time in the battle that your opponent’s army Secures an objective marker while the bearer is on the battlefield, roll one D6: on a 3+, that objective marker is not Secured by your opponent’s army.
Primary Detonator

A chunky technological device with a deviant machine spirit and an array of triggers, this jury-rigged detonator connects to multiple explosive charges laced through this deck. By pumping one of the triggers, its wielder can set off a powerful detonation.

Once per battle, when an enemy unit opens a closed Hatchway, if the bearer is on the battlefield, it can use this Enhancement. If it does, roll one D6: on a 3-4, that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound; on a 5+, that enemy unit suffers 2 mortal wounds.

Genespawn Onslaught

Mustering a Boarding Patrol

You can include up to two of the following units (duplicates are not allowed):
You can include up to two of the following unit:
You can include up to one the following unit:

Rules Adaptations


Army Rule

Insidious Ambushers

Genestealer Cults survive and spread through a combination of stealth and sudden, decisive violence. These traits make them especially nightmarish foes to face in the confines of a voidship, where they spring seemingly from nowhere to attack.

Units from your army with the Cult Ambush ability lose that ability and GENESTEALER CULTS units from your army gain this one.

In the Deploy Armies step, your opponent must set up their entire army before you set up any of your units. If both players have a rule that allows them to do this, both players set up their units normally.

Detachment Rule

Blessed Visages

To the faithful of the cult, these warriors appear as the blessed and beatific chosen of the Star Children. To all others they are grotesque hybrid horrors whose unnatural aspect triggers repulsion and aversion in equal measure.

Each time an enemy unit declares a charge that targets one or more GENESTEALER CULTS units from your army, that enemy unit must take a Leadership test. If failed, until the end of the turn, each time a model in that enemy unit makes an attack, subtract 1 from the Hit roll.

Stratagems

MONSTROUS MOMENTUM
1CP
Genespawn Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Not content with slaying their immediate prey, these warriors press on in search of more before the bodies have even stopped twitching.
WHEN: Fight phase, just after a GENESTEALER CULTS unit from your army destroys an enemy unit.

TARGET: That GENESTEALER CULTS unit.

EFFECT: If your unit is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units, until the end of the phase, each time your unit Consolidates, models in your unit can end that move as close as possible to the nearest Hatchway instead of the nearest visible enemy unit. Your unit can then attempt to operate that Hatchway.
UNSTOPPABLE BRUTES
1CP
Genespawn Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Bulked out with enormous slabs of twisted muscle, Aberrants and Abominants simply smash aside hatches and bulkheads that block their paths.
WHEN: Your Movement or Charge phase.

TARGET: One ABOMINANT or ABERRANTS unit from your army that has not been selected to move this phase and has not declared a charge this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, when makinga Normal, Advance or Charge move, your unit can move through a single closed Hatchway as if it was open. When doing so, that Hatchway is opened and cannot be closed for the rest of the battle. This can allow that unit to declare a charge against enemy units that are not visible to it, but to do so those enemy units must be within 1" of that Hatchway and wholly on the opposite side of it from your unit.

RESTRICTIONS: You can only use this Stratagem once per turn.
SOLDIERS OF THE STAR CHILDREN
1CP
Genespawn Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
For all their grotesque appearance, Hybrid Metamorphs are amongst the most skilled and ruthlessly efficient of the cult’s warriors.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase, just after a HYBRID METAMORPHS unit from your army is selected to perform the Set Overwatch Tactical Manoeuvre.

TARGET: That HYBRID METAMORPHS unit.

EFFECT: Select one objective marker you control that your unit is within range of. That objective marker is Secured by your army.
GROWING DREAD
1CP
Genespawn Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
The more enemies see of the gene-wrought terrors they are fighting against, the more their tactical cohesion is drowned by horror and panic.
WHEN: Your opponent's Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit is selected to perform a Tactical Manoeuvre.

TARGET: One GENESTEALER CULTS unit from your army that is within 9" of and visible to that enemy unit.

EFFECT: That enemy unit must take a Leadership test, subtracting 1 from the result: if failed, that enemy unit does not perform that Tactical Manoeuvre and it cannot perform anotherTactical Manoeuvre this turn (but can otherwise act normally).

Enhancements

We are not using enhancements from Boarding Actions in the crusade. These are here for reference only!

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Spiteful Imp

This Abominant’s familiar is of an especially vicious breed. Not content to lead its lumpen companion into the fight, it also exploits enemies’fearful distraction to strike barbed blows of its own.

ABOMINANT model only. Each time an enemy unit opens a Hatchway, if the bearer is within 1" of that Hatchway, roll one D6: on a 3-4, that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound; on a 5+, that enemy unit suffers 2 mortal wounds.

Miasmic Fumes

So potent are the bubbling toxins and tinctures carried into battle by the Biophagus that they choke the ship’s corridors with gene-corrosive fumes that choke foes and obscure their bearer from view.

BIOPHAGUS model only. Each time an attack targets the bearer, subtract 1 from the Hit roll and subtract 1 from the Wound roll.

Infestation Swarm

Mustering a Boarding Patrol

When selecting this Detachment, you must select either the TYRANIDS or GENESTEALER CULTS keyword.
If you selected TYRANIDS, you can include up to one of the following unit:
If you selected TYRANIDS, you can include up to three of the following unit:


If you selected GENESTEALER CULTS, you can include up to one of the following unit:
If you selected GENESTEALER CULTS, you can include up to three of the following unit:

Rules Adaptations


Army Rule

Auspex Ghosts

All the enemy see are half-glimpsed darting shadows, or partial returns of contact blips on sensor-screens. At least, that is, until the Genestealers are in position to pounce...

Units from your army with the SYNAPSE or Cult Ambush abilities replace those abilities with this one.

In the Deploy Armies step, your opponent must set up their entire army before you set up any of your units. If both players have a rule that allows them to do this, both players set up their units normally.

Detachment Rule

Half-Glimpsed Shadows

Possessed of alien cunning and unnatural stealth, Genestealers are able to fade back into the shadows or crawl across ceilings or under deck-plates, the better to evade notice by their prey.

Each time a ranged attack targets a GREAT DEVOURER unit from your army, if the attacking model is not within 6" of that unit, subtract 1 from the Hit roll.

Stratagems

HYPERADRENAL REFLEXES
1CP
Infestation Swarm – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Goaded by the biostimulants surging through their bodies, these warrior organisms evade their enemies'attacks with unbelievable swiftness.
WHEN: Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One GREAT DEVOURER unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, models in your unit have a 4+ invulnerable save.
PERVASIVE DREAD
1CP
Infestation Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
With the death of their leader, the surviving prey feel an ominous sense of doom press down upon them, heightened by subtle psionic assault.
WHEN: Fight phase, just after the enemy WARLORD is destroyed (and is not returned to the battlefield) by a GREAT DEVOURER unit from your army.

TARGET: That GREAT DEVOURER unit.

EFFECT: In your opponent’s next Command phase, each enemy unit on the battlefield must take a Battle-shock test, subtracting 1 from the result. This Stratagem cannot cause a unit to take two Battle-shock tests in the same phase.
HUNTING GROUNDS
1CP
Infestation Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Genestealers on the hunt are relentless, squirming through hatches before they have even half opened.
WHEN: Your Movement phase, just after a GREAT DEVOURER unit from your army opens a Hatchway.

TARGET: That GREAT DEVOURER unit.

EFFECT: Your unit can make a Normal move of up to 3", provided at least one of its models ends that move on the opposite side of that Hatchway from when your unit opened it.
OUTFLANK
1CP
Infestation Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Swarms of Genestealers crawl through vents and ducts as they seek to outflank their prey.
WHEN: End of your opponent’s Fight phase.

TARGET: One GENESTEALERS or PURESTRAIN GENESTEALERS unit from your army that is wholly within an Entry Zone.

EFFECT: Remove your unit from the battlefield and place it into Strategic Reserves. It will arrive back on the battlefield in the Reinforcements step of your next Movement phase. When doing so, if it was within one of your Entry Zones when it was removed, it must be set up wholly within another one of your Entry Zones. If it was within one of your opponent’s Entry Zones when it was removed, it must be set up wholly within another one of your opponent’s Entry Zones instead. If this is not possible, your unit is destroyed.

Enhancements

We are not using enhancements from Boarding Actions in the crusade. These are here for reference only!

Click to view
Stalking Menace

Soon after this nightmarish predator vanishes from sight, its victims feel the hot reek of its breath upon the napes of their necks in the instant before it strikes.

Once per battle, at the end of your opponent’s Fight phase, if the bearer is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units, it can use this Enhancement. If it does, remove the bearer from the battlefield and place it into Strategic Reserves. It will arrive back on the battlefield in the Reinforcements step of your next Movement phase as if it had the Deep Strike ability. If this is not possible, the bearer is destroyed. When the bearer is set back up on the battlefield, until the end of the turn, it cannot declare a charge.
Psi-spoor Sensitivity

Able to taste its prey’s terrified mental signatures like pheromones, there is nowhere to hide from this beast.

Each time the bearer declares a charge, it can target enemy units that are not visible to it.