Genestealer Cults: Brood Brothers Auxilia Detachment Guide (11th Edition)

The detachment rule carries a second half, and Faction Pack v1.1 rewrote its second paragraph, so read this even if you know the codex version.

You can include ASTRA MILITARUM units in your army despite their lacking the GENESTEALER CULTS Faction keyword, up to a combined 500 points at Incursion, 1,000 at Strike Force and 1,500 at Onslaught.

The rewritten paragraph then sets out the conditions. A GENESTEALER CULTS model must be your WARLORD. Astra Militarum models from your army lose the Voice of Command ability if they have it. And you cannot include units with any of these keywords: AIRCRAFT, COMMISSAR, EPIC HERO, MILITARUM TEMPESTUS, OGRYN, RATLING, TECH-PRIEST ENGINSEER, MINISTORUM PRIEST.

Build your shopping list from that exclusion list rather than from the Guard range as a whole, because it removes several of the units a Guard player would reach for first. Losing Voice of Command matters too: your Guard cannot issue Orders in the ordinary way, so a list built around Order-dependent units will underperform badly.

One exception the pack's own FAQ confirms: Kasrkin included this way can still use their Warrior Elite ability to select an Order for themselves in your Command phase. That is a specific answer to a specific question, and it does not generalise.

Six stratagems, five at 1 CP and one at 2 CP, and two of them were rewritten in this pack.

Symbiotic Destruction is the detachment's thesis in one card: one Astra Militarum unit and one Genestealer Cults unit that have not shot both lock onto a single enemy visible to and in range of both, and each re-rolls Wound rolls of 1 against it. The two halves shoot better together than apart.

Suppress and Overwhelm fires just after a Guard unit has shot: select one enemy it hit, and until the end of the turn that enemy cannot be targeted with Fire Overwatch and your Genestealer Cults units can re-roll Charge rolls against it. A shooting stratagem whose purpose is to land a charge, which is the right instinct for this army.

In the Shadow of Iron was amended in this pack, both numbers moving from 9 inches to 8. Just after an enemy ends a move within 8 inches of one or more of your Cult Ambush markers, target an ASTRA MILITARUM VEHICLE and move one of those markers anywhere more than 8 inches horizontally from all enemy units and wholly within 6 inches of that vehicle. It turns a tank into a mobile ambush anchor.

Regimental Reinforcements had its whole Effect section rewritten. Once per battle, just after an ASTRA MILITARUM INFANTRY REGIMENT unit, excluding Artillery and Characters, is destroyed: roll a D6, and on a 3+ place a Cult Ambush marker more than 8 inches horizontally from all enemy units and add an identical new unit to your army in Cult Ambush at Starting Strength, with all wounds remaining and [ONE SHOT] weapons treated as unfired.

That is the most interesting stratagem in the detachment, because it is how Guard units join the Cult Ambush economy that the army rule otherwise reserves for Genestealer Cults datasheets, and it does not cost Resurgence points.

Acceptable Losses costs 2 CP and lets a Guard unit shoot an enemy that is within Engagement Range of your own Genestealer Cults units; afterwards roll a D6 for each of those units and on a 5+ it suffers D3+1 mortal wounds. The only stratagem in the faction that can kill your own models, and exactly the trade this army is built to absorb.

A Dark Network answers deep strike: just after an enemy arrives from Reserves, one Astra Militarum or Genestealer Cults unit, excluding Monsters and Vehicles, within 12 inches makes a 6 inch Normal move. It works on both halves of the army.

Four enhancements, all GENESTEALER CULTS INFANTRY model only, which is worth noticing: none of them goes on your Guard.

Martial Espionage (25 pts) lets the bearer, once per turn, improve the Armour Penetration of a friendly Astra Militarum INFANTRY or MOUNTED unit's ranged weapons by 1 when that unit within 9 inches is selected to shoot. The most expensive enhancement here and the one that most directly repairs the faction's firepower gap.

The Hero Returned (20 pts) improves the Leadership and Objective Control of models in the bearer's unit by 1. Leadership matters more in this faction than in most, because a battle-shocked unit has Objective Control 0 and this detachment's whole plan is holding ground.

Adaptive Reprisal (15 pts) was rewritten in this pack and now reads simply: when you target this unit with the Heroic Intervention stratagem, that use is -1 CP.

Fire-point Commander (10 pts) makes Fire Overwatch on the bearer's unit hit on unmodified 5+. Cheapest here. Munitorum Field Manual v1.3 hyphenates the name and the community mirror does not; we use the official spelling.

Astra Militarum infantry regiments are the core of the allowance and the only units Regimental Reinforcements can bring back. Check them against the exclusion list before you buy: no Aircraft, Commissars, Epic Heroes, Militarum Tempestus, Ogryns, Ratlings, Tech-Priest Enginseers or Ministorum Priests.

An Astra Militarum vehicle. In the Shadow of Iron names ASTRA MILITARUM VEHICLE specifically, so the tank you bring is both your firepower and your mobile ambush anchor.

Neophyte Hybrids are the Genestealer Cults half of the overlapping-fire trade. Integrated Tactics adds 1 to Genestealer Cults Hit rolls against the marked enemy, and Neophytes put the most ranged attacks on the table to spend that bonus on.

Acolyte Iconward. A Genestealer Cults infantry character and therefore a legal carrier of all four enhancements. Its Summon the Cult ability changed from 9 inches to 8 in this pack.

We link no box for any of them. Our catalog holds no Genestealer Cults single-unit box, and the Guard half is bought from a different faction's range. One thing to be clear about: our catalog does hold Kill Team: Brood Brothers, and it is a genuine Genestealer Cults product, but it is a Kill Team box rather than a Warhammer 40,000 unit box, and no Warhammer 40,000 datasheet is called "Brood Brothers". It is not a substitute for the Astra Militarum units this detachment imports.

Pairing. At 2 DP this pairs with any 1 DP detachment for exactly 3 DP. The best is Purestrain Broodswarm, covered on its own page: this detachment supplies the ranged firepower the Cult lacks, and Genestealers stop an opponent simply walking at the gunline. Both names contain the word Brood, and that predicts nothing at all in either direction, because this detachment carries no Unique Tag.