Genestealers aren’t subtle – they move fast and shred things. So the big question here is: do they still hit hard enough to matter?
Not going to lie – checking that Genestealers hung onto Advance and Charge was pretty much the first thing I did with the new Index. I’ve had a lot of success with my purestrains over the last edition or so, and I’m hopeful that the streak is going to continue. Let’s find out.
Baseline damage output (unit of 10): 22 Guardsmen, 5 Marines, 2 Terminators
Bolter-shots to kill (unit of 10): 90
GENESTEALERS
Genestealers don’t get options, other than running as a five- or ten-stealer brood. It’s claws or nothing. Those claws carry a bit of punch, but drop off noticeably as targets get tougher – guardsmen get blended; marines can probably be picked off if they’re running in small units; terminators are a problem.
They’ve lost a pip of save (both invulnerable and regular) but gained a second wound – into bolters (and other basic firepower), that’s an improvement: it now takes 90 bolter shots to kill a 10-stealer brood, whereas it previously took 60. On the other hand, multi-damage weapons (like heavy bolters) kill them outright, and are now more likely to beat the save. Still, if heavier calibre weapons are shooting genestealers, they’re not shooting something else, I guess.
Genestealers have the Infiltrate USR, allowing them to deploy anywhere on the battlefield (outside of 9” from enemy units or deployment zones). Whilst we won’t want to get too close most of the time, unless we have specific move-blocking plans, Infiltrate should allow us to make use of Swift and Deadly to land early charges and combats pretty much when and where we like. For the cautious, starting the game just over 18” from the enemy’s frontline units means we can’t be charged (unless they have tricks of their own): if they move forward anyway, all well and good; if they don’t, genestealers can move up 8”, and then have 3d6 (advance and charge) to cover the last 10”. It’s not nailed on from there, but it’s better than evens, and this is from a cautious starting point – we can always choose to play riskier and start closer.
PATRIARCH
Taking marines as our target, we’ve already seen that we’d usually kill around five of them. More specifically, we’d average 11 damage, killing five and wounding another.
The only Leader available to genestealers is the Patriarch. He confers Devastating Wounds on the unit, which combines well with WS2+ - genestealers will land a lot of hits, so will make a lot of wound rolls. A unit fighting at full strength would expect to land 33 hits, and see 5 or 6 of those become mortal wounds (regardless of the target). Into marines, that pushes the damage to 12 or 13 wounds, or six dead marines and maybe a wound – an increase of one dead marine. The Patriarch adds a further three dead marines, for a total of 9 casualties.
Into terminators, we expect the same number of hits and mortal wounds, which means two dead terminators right off the bat. With reasonable luck, the stealers can kill a third (but are more likely to get two wounds and just fall short). The Patriarch is likely to kill one more, so we’re looking at around 3 or 4 dead terminators.
COMPARISON
20 genestealers cost 180 points. 10 aberrants cost 330 points. It’s not spot on, but that’s roughly 20 genestealers for the cost of ten aberrants. How do they stack up against each other?
10 aberrants kill: 17 Guardsmen, 11 Marines, 7 Terminators
20 genestealers kill: 44 Guardsmen, 11 Marines, 4 Terminators
It’s not the deepest of dives, but these headline figures suggest that our elite combat units need to be pointed at the right thing. Genestealers absolutely murder guardsmen – AP-2, 1 damage weapons are perfect here – but that low damage starts to count against them as models gain additional wounds. On the other hand, aberrants’ multi-damage weapons are wasted into guardsmen, but really hurt terminators when they land.
Bolter-shots to kill 10 aberrants: 405
Bolter-shots to kill 20 genestealers: 180
Aberrants are way tougher than genestealers – bolters would finish off 40 genestealers faster than 10 aberrants, let alone the 20 we’re talking about here. And yes, being tough is very much the aberrant thing, but that’s still pretty impressive.
Genestealers are faster, and more flexible with advance and charge. However, they have no access to enhancements, as they can only combine with the Patriarch and he’s an epic hero.
CONCLUSION
I hate to say it, but I think genestealers have taken a hit here. AP-2 neuters them somewhat into heavier armour, and makes it more likely that they might just bounce off marines if they roll even a little below average.
The Patriarch adds some additional combat muscle. Granting Devastating Wounds to his genestealer brethren is nice, but offers only a minor improvement – we benefit more from the Patriarch’s own attacks (unlike the Abominant, for example, whose buffing effect is probably worth more than his combat ability). He also triggers battle-shock, which makes me feel like there may be a role for genestealers as line-breakers – throw them into screens, potentially tie up (or at least slow down) a counter-charge, leave the enemy disorganised and open to a counter-charge of our own.
I mean, I’m tempted to try an all-in approach, with thirty genestealers and a Patriarch infiltrating into flanking positions and trying to do enough damage to one end of the opposing battle-line that the rest can’t respond quick enough or hard enough. Would it work? I’m not sure, but I suspect it’ll be fun finding out.
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