Genestealer Cults: Outlander Claw Detachment Guide (11th Edition)

Genestealer Cults are an army that arrives, kills, and leaves. That is excellent for removing things and poor for holding them, and holding things is how you win.

Rapid Takeover fixes exactly that, and only for Atalan Jackals. An objective you control with Jackals in range at the end of your Command phase stays yours through everything that happens afterwards, unless your opponent's Level of Control becomes greater than yours at the end of a phase. Not equal. Greater.

In practice that means a screening unit walking onto your objective does not flip it. A single tough unit contesting it does not flip it. Your opponent has to commit enough Objective Control to genuinely outnumber you, and that commitment is a unit not doing something else.

The +1 Objective Control on unbattle-shocked mounted and vehicle models feeds directly into the same plan and is worth reading alongside the battle-shock warning that applies to this whole faction: a battle-shocked model has Objective Control 0, and here it also loses the +1, so battle-shock costs you twice.

The honest limitation is the same as every other themed detachment in this faction: your infantry get nothing. Rapid Takeover names MOUNTED, VEHICLE and ATALAN JACKALS. A Neophyte block standing on an objective in an Outlander Claw list is holding it with the rules everyone else has.

Six stratagems, all 1 CP, and two of them were amended in this pack.

Along Shadowed Trails was rewritten in full with both distances moving from 9 inches to 8. In any phase, just after an enemy unit ends a move within 8 inches of one or more of your Cult Ambush markers, select one of those markers and set it up anywhere more than 8 inches horizontally from all enemy units. This is the marker-saving tool, and having one is a genuine reason to pick this detachment.

Deft Manoeuvring gives one ACHILLES RIDGERUNNERS or ATALAN JACKALS unit a 4+ invulnerable save until the end of the phase, just after an enemy has selected its targets in your opponent's Shooting phase. A 4+ invulnerable on a light vehicle is the best defensive stratagem in the faction.

Devoted Crew subtracts 1 from the Damage characteristic of every attack against one GOLIATH ROCKGRINDER or GOLIATH TRUCK until the end of the phase. Note it names the two Goliath datasheets specifically, not vehicles generally, so it does not protect a Ridgerunner.

Close-range Shoot-out gives one GENESTEALER CULTS MOUNTED or VEHICLE unit [LETHAL HITS] against targets within 18 inches. The range band is the point: this detachment wants to be close, not far.

Rapid Feint had its Target section changed from 9 inches to 8. Just after an enemy ends a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move, one ACHILLES RIDGERUNNERS or ATALAN JACKALS unit within 8 inches makes a 6 inch Normal move.

Encircling the Prey removes one GENESTEALER CULTS MOUNTED or VEHICLE unit that is not within Engagement Range of any enemy and is wholly within 9 inches of a battlefield edge, placing it into Strategic Reserves. The board-edge condition makes this a plan rather than a reflex: you have to have driven there first.

Four enhancements, three of them at 10 points, which makes this the cheapest enhancement suite in the faction.

Assault Commando (15 pts) is GENESTEALER CULTS model only and lets models in the bearer's unit re-roll Hit rolls on ranged attacks if they disembarked from a TRANSPORT this turn. The widest keyword requirement here, and the enhancement that makes a Goliath Truck a weapon rather than a taxi.

Cartographic Data-leech (10 pts) improves the Ballistic Skill of a transport's Firing Deck weapons by 1 while the bearer is embarked in it. It only pays out if you are actually using Firing Deck, so check the transport's datasheet before budgeting for it.

Serpentine Tactics (10 pts) is GENESTEALER CULTS MOUNTED model only and makes the bearer's unit eligible to shoot in a turn in which it Fell Back. Note MOUNTED specifically, not VEHICLE, so it goes on a Jackals character rather than into a truck.

Starfall Shells (10 pts) is also MOUNTED only: after the bearer shoots, select one enemy unit hit by a cult sniper rifle attack, and until the start of your next Shooting phase that enemy subtracts 1 from its Hit rolls. A defensive debuff bought with an offensive action, and it needs that specific weapon to trigger at all.

Atalan Jackals are named by the detachment rule's sticky-objective clause and by two of its six stratagems, so they are not optional in an Outlander Claw list: without them, half the detachment rule does nothing. They are mid-priced to return with the army rule at 2 Resurgence points for five models and 6 for ten, so a Jackals squad that dies holding one objective can come back to hold another.

Achilles Ridgerunners are named alongside the Jackals by Deft Manoeuvring and Rapid Feint, and are the natural home for that 4+ invulnerable save.

Goliath Truck. The transport Assault Commando and Cartographic Data-leech are written for. The pack changed its demolition charge cache to Range 8 inches and added the FRAME keyword to it.

Goliath Rockgrinder. The other Devoted Crew target, with the same two amendments in this pack: demolition charge cache to Range 8 inches, and FRAME added to its keywords.

We link no box for any of them. Our catalog holds no Genestealer Cults single-unit box at all.

Pairing. At 2 DP this pairs with any 1 DP detachment for exactly 3 DP, and none of the three is blocked, because this detachment carries no Unique Tag. The standout is Heroes of the Uprising: this detachment supplies mobility and sticky objectives, and four assassin-characters delete whatever is contesting them.