Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Genestealer Cults (section)

==Special Rules==
 
;Conceal: Drastically reworked from its original form. {{W40kKeyword|Infantry}} and {{W40kKeyword|Bikers}} with this rule can be set up "Underground", like any other kind of Deep Strike ability and with all the limitations normally associated with Deep Striking, except with some ''significant'' improvements below, or you can deploy an ambush marker onto the battlefield instead of the unit (non-infantry non-bikers with conceal can only use this latter option). The catch? You don't actually reveal which ambush marker corresponds to a given unit until either the start of your first movement phase or the end of the opponent's movement phase, and in the latter case they can't move within 9"* of the center of any of the markers; they can't be shot at either, so there's no danger of them being blasted off the board by out-of-phase attacks before they can do anything. With this, your opponents will have no idea what you've actually deployed until it's too late for them to prepare for it. Schrodinger's Xeno.
:*The upgrades to Deep Strike are substantial.  You can use either of the improvements to Deep Strike range listed below when you show up, and in addition, you can use Command Phase abilities when you show up!
:**Deploy >8" away (a full inch closer than the standard >9").
:**Deploy >6" away, but you can't charge.
:*Another thing about Ambush markers is that the wording "enemies cannot move within 9" of the center" means that no model (even flyers) can enter or move through the bubble surrounding your Ambush markers. This means you could create a barrier that your opponent can't move through with these markers. 
;Summon the Cult: Lets you put models back into each unit that either has a Cult Icon or are {{W40kKeyword|CORE}} and within 6” of an Acolyte Iconward in your Command Phase. When you Summon the Cult, you put d6 models back into a Neophyte unit or d3 models back into any other unit, and while you can roll twice and sum the results if you have an Icon and are in range of an Iconward, you’re respectively capped at 6 and 3 models total per unit (so no high rolling six Atalans back into a badly mauled unit).
;Unquestioning Loyalty: If a {{W40kKeyword|GENESTEALER CULTS CHARACTER}} model fails a saving throw and a model with this special rule is within 3", you may roll 1d6. On a 4+, the model is slain and the attack sequence ends. This effectively grants all your characters a 4+ to avoid all damage from a failed save so long as a squad is hiding them. Go full Bond villain with this one; surround your key dudes with cheap mooks and let them take the heat. 
:*Doesn't work to stop mortal wounds any more.
:*When choosing which models to kill off, you should always pick the cheapest, lowest wound, minions, as killing an aberrant so that your Magus doesn't suffer a single autogun shot is wasteful, unless, of course, the Magus is one wound away from death and no other models are in range to jump in front of the attack. The order should be, from most throw away to least, is: guardsmen/neophytes (they're pretty equal on this scale), acolytes, metamorphs, purestains, atalan jackals, aberrants, and characters.


===Detachment and Army Rules===
*All {{W40kKeyword|Genestealer Cults}} troops in {{W40kKeyword|Genestealer Cults}} detachments gain Objective Secured.
*'''Brood Brothers''': You may include {{W40kKeyword|ASTRA MILITARUM}} units in your matched play {{W40kKeyword|GENESTEALER CULTS}} army, even though they share no faction keywords in common with you. You may only take a maximum of one {{W40kKeyword|ASTRA MILITARUM}} detachment for each {{W40kKeyword|GENESTEALER CULTS}} detachment you have, and you can't mix units within detachments. This detachment can only take units with the {{W40kKeyword|REGIMENTAL}} keyword and will lose {{W40kKeyword|IMPERIUM}} (''without'' gaining Tyranids), replacing that with {{W40kKeyword|BROOD BROTHERS}}. This {{W40kKeyword|BROOD BROTHERS}} detachment must be either a patrol or Super Heavy Auxiliary detachment. However, a {{W40kKeyword|BROOD BROTHERS}} detachment cannot include your warlord, warlord traits, or relics (which necessarily also locks them out of tank aces), and the detachment can only cost up to 25% of your total points allotment if you wish to retain the Crossfire monofaction bonus.
**The Regimental Doctrine grants all models +2 Leadership and gives {{W40Kkeyword|infantry}} Unquestioning Loyalty, which pretty much makes you sticky as hell in a fight. For the most part, this will only matter for any guardsmen you haul in. The big issue is that this is replacing their Born Soldiers doctrine, which limits their issues.
**This does come with several limitations as well. Aside from the obvious named characters, you also can't take any {{W40kKeyword|CADIAN}} units. The Rough Riders, Kriegers, and Catachans are similarly restricted, as are the Preacher, any bodyguards and attaché models and the [[what|Field Ordinance Battery for some reason]]. Probably the last one is because it uses Cadian models, [[Chapterhouse Studios|we all know conversions are the bane of GW's existence]].
*'''Broodcoven''': In matched play, if you include a Patriarch in your army, a Patriarch must be your Warlord. If you have a Magus or Primus but no Patriarch, one of those two must be the Warlord. Characters that aren't HQs can't be your Warlord.
*'''Crossfire''': The monofaction bonus for playing Genestealer Cults, this ability reflects multiple fields of fire pinning down and exposing enemies. Every unit in your army, excluding up to 25% of your points value in {{W40Kkeyword|Brood Brothers}} instead, has to have {{W40kKeyword|GENESTEALER CULTS}} and be from the same {{W40kKeyword|<cult>}} (no mixing detachments from multiple different cults). Only units that have the crossfire rule can benefit from this effect. [[File:Exposed.jpg|thumb|This handy diagram explains how Exposed works and repels youtubers.]]
**Applying crossfire tokens: If a {{W40kKeyword|CROSSFIRE}} unit shoots at an enemy unit, you can mark them with a crossfire token if a) every model in the shooting unit targeted the same enemy unit and b) you score either 5+ hits with D1 weapons or 1 hit with any other kind of weapon. 
***Note: other effects and abilities can give a unit a crossfire token without shooting - e.g. the Nexos has such an ability.
**Benefit: A {{W40kKeyword|CROSSFIRE}} unit gets +1 to hit when shooting a unit with a token. They may also gain additional benefits if the unit is exposed.
***Upgrading crossfire tokens to exposed: If a {{W40kKeyword|CROSSFIRE}} unit is shooting at an enemy unit with a token, you can try and draw a line connecting a model in the shooting unit with a model in another visible {{W40kKeyword|CROSSFIRE}} unit. If this line goes over the base or hull of a model in the enemy unit and doesn't cross obscuring terrain, congratulations, you have exposed the enemy unit. In addition to the +1 to hit, the shooting unit now gains +1 to wound and can ignore cover if the exposed unit is within 12".
****'''''Note:''''' You have ways to make something that hasn't got a Crossfire token Exposed.  This does ''absolutely nothing'' until you apply a Crossfire token to it (or use an ability that makes the target count as having one), as the benefits of Exposed only apply if the target unit is both Exposed ''and'' has a token.
**Removing: Crossfire tokens fall off at the end of the turn.
**You can also apply debuffs with stratagems to enemy units with crossfire markers that help out your melee dudes, so it's still worthwhile for a melee-focused GSC army to bring along some cult shooting or at least a Nexos.
**TL;DR: Target priority is key. Shoot with your high damage or multi-shot units first to make your other units more accurate. Set up flanking opportunities to make it easier for the follow up to wound and ignore cover. It is important to stress the importance of this ability if you want to play shooty cults. Make use of 5 person handflamer acolytes or 10 person neophytes to pop up 6" away in good locations to set up crossfire tokens and expose key enemy units.
*'''Gene-sect''': In matched play, you can include each character only once in the same detachment. However, each HQ slot you fill lets you take a {{W40kKeyword|Genestealer Cults Character}} without that unit filling up a slot, so you can stack up on support characters even if you fill your slots.
**In Arks of Omen, you can only ever have one detachment of GSC while also excluding us from the strat "Heroic Support", which would have let us take more than one character per detachment. You want more than source of reroll ones? You take a Primus & a Kelermorph, and hope your gunslinger can kill something every turn. You want more than one psyker? You take a Patriarch and a Magus, and no other combination. You want more than one Locus to protect 2 different squishy characters safe? Well, fuck you!