The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 1 - the beginning)

Picture this: it’s 1990. Wee Dai, the 14-year-old lad has been collecting Games Workshop’s monthly publication White Dwarf magazine for a bit now and casts his eyes across a brand new army that he never conceived could exist – The Genestealer Cult. Mesmerised is a small way to put it, though I’d already committed to both my first 40K love (My sorely missed and now completely currently unloved by GW) Squat army and my Nurgle obsession, so always planned to make a Cult army in the future, yet never did. The army lists (There were two, regular Cult and Chaos Cult) ended up in the 2^nd Rogue Trader expansion, Compilation.

Fast forward 20-something years and GW has really gone and fleshed out the whole idea of what the Genestealer Cult is and their model range is phenomenal. Of course I was suckered in by firstly picking up Warhammer 40K: Kill Team core set which included some of the tasty new Genestealer Cult sculpts. This in turn got my creative juices flowing and so my mind when back to that 14-year-old dream of starting my own Chaos Cult, just like in the White Dwarf. Now, the current Codex doesn’t allow for Chaos versions of a Genestealer Cult, but rules and revamped fluff be damned, I’m doing it anyhow cos they’re MY models.

The original Chaos Cult as featured in White Dwarf that got this all started. I'm planning to stay true to the same colour scheme as best as I can where it's practical. No Limo's though as I'm trying to do this project on the cheap, but there WILL be some transport options for a more modern take.

Close ups of some of the Aulde Cult. There are direct translations to the new entries int he current codex. Sadly though, those cool Beastmen and the Rogue Psyker aren't going to be featured.

So here’s the start of my take on the Chaos Genestealer Cult. It’ll loosely be based off this list from the Compendium:

As you can see there's not a tonne of entries to have to work toward and some of it will need to be switched out for figures I own in my existing collection cos like I said, I'm not in the position to spend out on stuff right now (Unless I can do so on some cheeky Ebay auction or other). The one thing I DO plan to buy are a box of those new plastic Flesh Hounds, but they'll just be added to a unit of Purestrain Genestealers using the same stats for sake of ease. I'm not about to play in tournaments with this army, it's just a "for fun" project that will be used in a campaign a friend and I are planning for next year.

The overall look of the force is also inspired by the art in the old Warhammer 40K Compendium, this image especially grabbed my attention as a lad, just as it does now. Evocative of what horror the Cult and especially a Chaos Cult can bring to any battlefield!

Looks like utter bloody pandemonium eh? That's how like my Chaos. :)

You have seen in my last post, the first two entries of my list, my Magos and the army's Standard Bearer, the Acolyte Iconward - these two are the inspirational figureheads of the Cult. The Magos is a powerful Psyker and the Iconward buffs nearby units greatly.

Next up I assembled a small 5-man unit of Acolyte Hybrids, 4 armed with hand flamers and the last with a Heavy Rock Saw. Coming in from ambush, this small squad will pack a punch and should be able to deal with most light to medium targets with ease. These will represent the 1st and 2nd Generation Hybrids in my force.

Next up is another venerable leader, my Primus. Where the Magos is a mistress of intrigue and manipulation, the Primus is the martial mastermind behind the Cult. Whilst the official sculpt for the Primus is by no means a bad sculpt, I already had a plan for making my own once GW released their special Imperial Guard character, Severina Raine. I wanted my army to have a martial background (More appropriate for worshipers of Khorne I think.) so felt a Primus who was a former Imperial Guard Commissar sounded way cooler!

The finished model is basically just Raine with Khorne trophy poles, a Bloodletter (Lesser Daemon) sword in place of her regular saber and a Hybrid's arm carved up a bit and glued to the underside of her left arm. The rules show a Primus as wielding a Needle Pistol, but I really like the sculpt-standard bolt pistol she comes with so I'm leaving that alone. I think she makes for quite a cool and dynamic looking character and am excited to get paint on her over all the models I've previewed for this project thus far.

Still lots to go though as I have units of Brood Brother Infantry (Traitor Imperial Guard) and Weapon Teams, their transport vehicles, some Neophyte Hybrids (3rd and 4th Generation) and one more character to add.

Watch this space!

Bullocks (Part 1)

Some time back, a very lovely surprise parcel arrived at my home from a kind fellow blogger by the name of Iain. (His blog is very spiffy with some lovely armies and terrain to drool over HERE) Inside I found two old Marauder Miniatures Minotaur sculpts circa 1990 that I had owned when I was but a young teen and they were first released, but sadly since lost in the annals of time and girls and booze. Iain heard my sob story after he posted his own painted versions and sent me a spare pair of these lovely bovine warriors. Below, you'll see only one of the two painted up, the 2nd to be previewed at a later date.

Now I love these old cartoony style sculpts. Per usual, they have lots of character and this fellow looks like one heck of a thick-headed brute to me. My only complaint is that as part bull, wouldn't he be sporting a lovely pair of knackers betwixt his legs like real bulls do? Of course he should! So yeah, I green-stuffed some testicles on the bloke and made sure they were appropriately visible. (Added the same to his soon to be shown pal as well.)

Yet to name him, but if you can come up with something appropriate, fire away int he comments!

A simple paintjob to just get him off my desk. It'll do for Tabletop and Roleplay games!

Guess they don't make comfortable undies large enough to contain his manliness?

Also, I found myself entertaining a little insanity and decided that starting a new Warhammer 40K army would be a great idea! So, I assembled these two and now have the start of a burgeoning Genestealer Cult army! 

Wait, are these Xenos freaks sporting Icons dedicating them to the Chaos god, Khorne!? (More on this in a future post)

Stalingrad 2019

Been a bit since I've been able to get on and post this.

The aforementioned Stalingrad event turned out to be a lot of fun, though sadly due to it starting a tad late, we couldn't finish. (Due to Densmol's prior arrangements with his inlaws for that evening)

There were 12 players at Ogre's Den in Orange Vale including the Store owner Joe who had to play ringer due to an unexpected dropout on the day. I found myself set to attack the tank factory along with a very nice chap who'd played perhaps one game of Bolt Action previously and who's name completely evades me. Our opponents were Joe and another game fellow and so the Germans and Soviets descended upon the ruins of the factory and had it out.

All started off pretty well for the Soviets with good use of terrain to cover their advances, but after a lucky hit on my partner's tank left it a bunker with a rear facing main gun, and our troops staying clear of the actual factory floor due to the Germans having both a heavy mortar AND and medium mortar AND some off-table artillery ready to light up the first sucker who rolled into the factory things ended up in a stalemate. Not a foot was placed inside the objective until the last two turns where both sides swarmed the building in an effort to hope and pray that they would be the ones left standing when the smoke cleared.

Then Densmol  realised the time and the game was called and I think overall........ it was a draw across all three tables. Not very historic at all. Good times were had by all in attendance and I have to say our end of the extra long (16'x4') table was the most fun with me and Joe giving eachother masses amount of shit each turn and resulting roars of laughter eclipsing the games on the other parts of the board.

Pics taken were not as many as I'd remembered and I blame me for having far too much fun to remember half the time and they are all out of order cos after the first pic I really can't remember which went where, but I think they are good views regardless of a gorgeous table.

The Ogre's Den has since put on a D-Day event last month to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the largest Amphibious assault ever that seemed pretty damn good too, though you'll have to look pics up on their Facebook page as I couldn't go, sadly.

O and the KV-1 tank that I was furiously trying to get painted for the day? Well..... I failed. It got a whitewash and that was it. I aim to try to get it done before the end of the Summer though. We'll see.