Genestealer Cults: Xenocreed Congregation Detachment Guide (11th Edition)

One enhancement in this detachment is unlike anything else in the faction, and it is easy to skim past because its text is short.

Deeds that Speak to the Masses (25 pts), rewritten by Faction Pack v1.1, reads: MAGUS, PRIMUS or ACOLYTE ICONWARD model only, you start the battle with 2 additional Resurgence points.

Put that against the army rule's budget. At Strike Force you start with 10 Resurgence points for the entire game. Two more is a 20 per cent increase in how many destroyed units you can bring back, and in practical terms it is most of an extra Neophyte block, which costs 3.

No other enhancement in any Genestealer Cults detachment touches the army rule at all. Every other one improves a unit, a weapon or a save. This one improves the thing the faction is actually built on. In a list that expects to lose units on purpose, which is most Genestealer Cults lists, it is the strongest 25 points on this page.

The corollary is that this detachment is worth more in a horde list than a synergy read alone would suggest. Unquestioning Fanaticism makes your hybrid squads reliable, Deeds that Speak to the Masses makes losing them cheaper, and the army rule brings them back at full strength.

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

Tireless Fervour had its whole Effect section rewritten and now has two parts. First: if your unit made an advance or fall-back move this turn, that move does not prevent it declaring a charge. Second, optionally: your unit can re-roll charge rolls, on condition that it ends that charge move engaged with an enemy unit engaged with a friendly CHARACTER unit.

That second part is a real choice with a real string attached. Opt in when you actually want to pile into the fight your character is already in, and decline it when you do not.

The Downtrodden Rise costs 2 CP, had its When and Effect sections rewritten, and is the detachment's escape hatch from the marker economy: one qualifying hybrid unit in Cult Ambush can be set up without using a Cult Ambush marker, anywhere more than 6 inches horizontally from all enemy units. Against an opponent who has spent the game deleting your markers, that is worth double the command points.

Frenzied Devotion improves the Attacks and Weapon Skill of melee weapons on models in a qualifying unit, excluding Characters, by 1, and gives those weapons [HAZARDOUS]. The hazardous is a genuine cost on a large squad, so spend this on a fight that decides something.

Transcendent Celerity gives a qualifying unit [ASSAULT] on its ranged weapons, which is what lets a squad Advance onto an objective and still contribute shooting.

Vengeance for the Martyr! fires just after an enemy destroys one of your Genestealer Cults CHARACTER models: target another Genestealer Cults character, and for the rest of the battle your Acolyte, Metamorph and Neophyte models re-roll Hit rolls of 1 against that enemy unit, upgraded to a full Hit re-roll if the destroyed character was a Magus, Primus or Acolyte Iconward. The pack's FAQ confirms you do need another Genestealer Cults character on the battlefield or in Reserves to use it.

The Path of Anguish fires just after an enemy has shot: one ACOLYTE HYBRIDS or NEOPHYTE HYBRIDS unit that lost models makes a D6 inch move that must end as close as possible to the nearest enemy unit, and may end within Engagement Range of it. Being shot at moves you closer to the enemy, which is a very Genestealer Cults way to be punished.

Four enhancements, all MAGUS, PRIMUS or ACOLYTE ICONWARD model only, which is the same list of three that unlocks the Feel No Pain half of the detachment rule. That is deliberate: this detachment wants one of those three leading a big squad, and everything it sells you goes on that model.

Denunciator of Tyrants (25 pts) adds 1 to Hit rolls and 1 to Wound rolls against CHARACTER units for models in the bearer's unit. The whole unit, not just the bearer, which justifies the price.

Deeds that Speak to the Masses (25 pts) grants 2 additional Resurgence points, discussed above and rewritten in this pack.

Incendiary Inspiration (15 pts) makes the bearer's unit eligible to declare a charge in a turn in which it Advanced. Note this overlaps with the first half of Tireless Fervour, so take one or the other deliberately rather than paying for both by accident.

Gene-sire's Reliquant (5 pts) lets you re-roll Battle-shock tests for the bearer's unit. At 5 points it is the cheapest enhancement in the faction, and battle-shock is what actually costs this army objectives, because a battle-shocked unit has Objective Control 0. If you take nothing else, take this.

Neophyte Hybrids in large blocks, led by a character. They are one of the three datasheets the detachment rule names and the cheapest to return with the army rule at 3 Resurgence points for ten models.

Acolyte Hybrids are named by the detachment rule and by The Path of Anguish. Both the autopistol and hand flamer variants cost 2 Resurgence points for five and 4 for ten.

Hybrid Metamorphs are the third named datasheet. Their Brood Surge ability was rewritten in this pack: in your opponent's Shooting phase, when an enemy has shot, if a model in this unit was destroyed by those attacks, the unit can make a surge move of up to D6 inches.

A Magus, Primus or Acolyte Iconward is mandatory in spirit if not in text, because those three are the only models that unlock the Feel No Pain clause and the only legal carriers of all four enhancements. The Acolyte Iconward's Summon the Cult ability changed from 9 inches to 8 in this pack, and the Primus's Cult Demagogue was rewritten to add 1 to the Hit roll for every model in the unit it leads.

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 is blocked, because this detachment carries no Unique Tag. The most cohesive is Xenocult Masses, covered on its own page. Both names begin with Xeno and that is a coincidence rather than a family: it is the tag line that decides legality, and neither has one.