Genestealer Cults: Final Day Detachment Guide (11th Edition)

The detachment rule carries a second half, The Star Children's Blessings, and it is the part that decides whether you can build the list at all.

You can include TYRANIDS VANGUARD INVADER units in your army, excluding AIRCRAFT, BROODLORD and GENESTEALERS units. The combined points cost depends on battle size: up to 500 points at Incursion, 1,000 at Strike Force, 1,500 at Onslaught. And no Tyranids model from your army can be your Warlord.

Three things follow from that, and all three catch people out.

The Genestealers exclusion is deliberate and awkward. You cannot spend the Tyranid allowance on a second brood of Genestealers, and the Broodlord is excluded too. The allowance buys you Tyranid vanguard organisms, not more of the models you already have.

The allowance is huge. A thousand points at Strike Force is half your army. This is not a garnish detachment; it is a genuine two-army list, and it should be built as one.

Synapse units are the throttle. Psionic Parasitism triggers once per Tyranids Synapse unit per turn. If you import one Synapse unit you get one drain a turn. If you import three you get three. How many Synapse units you buy is the single biggest decision in the list, and it is paid for out of the same allowance that buys the units you want to heal.

The second half of the detachment rule gives all your Tyranids units Catalyst (Aura): while an enemy unit is within 6 inches of the Tyranid, each time a friendly Genestealer Cults unit attacks that enemy, add 1 to the Hit roll. That is the payment running the other way, and it is why the two halves of the army must stay close rather than operating as two independent forces.

Six stratagems, all 1 CP, and they split cleanly into three that name your Genestealer Cults half and three that name your Tyranid half.

Hyperferocity targets a Genestealer Cults unit that has not fought and re-rolls Wound rolls of 1 until the end of the phase, upgraded to a full Wound re-roll if one or more friendly Tyranids units are within 6 inches of the target. The upgrade clause is the whole reason to use it, and it is the same 6 inch condition as Catalyst, so one piece of positioning turns on both.

Divine Imperative fires when a Genestealer Cults unit within 12 inches of a friendly engaged Tyranids unit declares a charge, giving +1 to charge rolls, plus an optional second part granting a charge re-roll on condition that the unit ends the charge engaged with an enemy already engaged with that Tyranids unit. The optional half is a real choice with a real string attached, so read it before opting in.

Avenge the Star Children is the best value on the page. Just after an enemy destroys one of your Tyranids CHARACTER units, your Genestealer Cults models add 1 to Hit rolls and 1 to Wound rolls against that enemy unit for the rest of the battle. You can use it on the unit even though it was just destroyed. A permanent army-wide buff for one command point is unusual in any faction.

Psi Surge increases one Tyranids unit's Catalyst range by 3 inches until the start of your next Command phase, and restricts itself so you cannot use it again until the end of your next Command phase.

Darting Attacks makes one Tyranids unit eligible to shoot and declare a charge in a turn in which it Fell Back. This is what stops your imported organisms behaving like a slower second army.

Resistance Tunnels removes one Genestealer Cults or Tyranids unit not within Engagement Range of any enemy and places it into Strategic Reserves. Note it works on both halves, which is how an imported Tyranid unit gets to use the Cult's signature disappear-and-return trick.

Four enhancements, and they are split between the two halves of the army in a way that makes the choice easy once you see it.

Synaptic Auger (15 pts) is TYRANIDS model only: each time the bearer would regain wounds from Psionic Parasitism, it regains up to twice that number instead. This is the enhancement that turns the detachment rule's self-harm into a genuinely favourable trade rather than a thematic one. If you take one enhancement, take this.

Inhuman Integration (20 pts) is GENESTEALER CULTS model only: weapons in the bearer's unit gain [SUSTAINED HITS 1] while targeting an enemy within 6 inches of one or more friendly Tyranids units. Same 6 inch condition as Catalyst and as Hyperferocity's upgrade, so one positioning decision turns on three separate effects.

Enraptured Damnation (10 pts) is GENESTEALER CULTS model only and stops enemy units using the Fire Overwatch stratagem against the bearer's unit. The cheapest enhancement here and the most reliable way to get a charge through.

Vanguard Tyrant (25 pts) is WINGED HIVE TYRANT model only, improving that model's melee Strength and Armour Penetration by 1. The narrowest requirement in the detachment: if you are not fielding a Winged Hive Tyrant, this enhancement does not exist for you.

Build this as two armies that stand near each other, because that is what the rules pay for.

Tyranids Synapse units are the throttle on Psionic Parasitism, one trigger each per turn, and they come out of the points allowance.

A Winged Hive Tyrant is worth calling out because it is both a Synapse unit and the only legal Vanguard Tyrant carrier, so it feeds the detachment rule and takes its best character enhancement at once.

Tyranids Vanguard Invader units are what the rest of the allowance buys, minus Aircraft, Broodlord and Genestealers.

Neophyte Hybrids are the unit you feed to the rule. At 3 Resurgence points for ten models they are the cheapest thing in the faction to bring back, which is what makes deliberately damaging your own infantry a sustainable plan rather than a gimmick: the army rule refills what Psionic Parasitism spends.

We link no box for any of them. Our catalog holds no Genestealer Cults single-unit box at all, and the Tyranid half is bought from a different faction's range.

Pairing. At 2 DP this pairs with any of the three 1 DP detachments for exactly 3 DP. The best is Purestrain Broodswarm, and the reason is an exclusion rather than a synergy: Psionic Parasitism cannot select Purestrain Genestealer or Patriarch units, so the units that detachment is built on are exactly the ones this detachment can never eat.