Warhammer 40000: Genestealer Cults – Biosantic Broodsurge

“Rise, Star Children! For the four armed Emperor!”

This is the latest box set from Games Workshop, especially to coincide with the new 10th Edition Genestealer Cults codex, and like the creatures it is named after it does have some teeth!

Biosanctic broodsurge is one of five new detachments available to cults players in the new book and focusses on the more mutant side of the army. If you’re a fan of aberrants, genestealers and the biophagus, this is the detatchment for you and the box set contains plenty of units to build around.

The new detachment rule for these strains of xenos abominations gives out +1 to charge for genestealer, aberrant and biophagus units amd +1 attack if they made a charge, which really pumps up decent units to dangerous levels of damage output!

The box itself contains various units to help with this, including: 10 genestealers, 5 aberrants, 10 neophyte hybrids, a goliath truck, a rockgrinder, an abominant and last but not least the brand new character the benefictus.

“Deeds that speak to the masses”

The genestealers are a new sculpt and are very dynamic (but monopose) and as someone who owns 60 genestealers i definitely appreciate the diversity! All of these units will be valuable for starting a new army for your first foray into genestealer cults or bolstering an existing force.

The genestealers are a very versatile unit with a truly terrifying turn of speed and threat range. They have a scout move built into their datasheet allowing them to put pressure on your opponent right from the outset, then they also have advance and charge (with a +1 to charge from the detatchment) giving them a very achievable 30 inches of assault range across the board! Broodsurge also pumps up their attacks to 5 apiece on the charge, giving a full squad 50 attacks hitting on 2’s!

Aberrants are your ‘tanky’ unit, sporting 3 wounds each and a 5+ feel no pain, paired with a -1 to wound when you use the abominant as the unit’s leader. Don’t be fooled into thinking they’re just a ‘tarpit’ though their bonus from the detachment means they can delete most units in your opponents army with an extra attack each and a strategem allowing them +1 to wound against vehicles and monsters!

The neophyte hybrids are a nice small footprint unit you can use to to claim objectives even if you move away from it in later turns. They won’t benefit from the detatchment rule by themselves and won’t last long out in the open, but battle line units will be a very useful part of any army (and you can never have too many neophytes!)

The truck and the rockgrinder can be built as either or both options giving you a lot of versatility straight out of the box. Trucks will provide valuable protection to your 12 man units while you move them up the battlefield and come with a decent gun (for a transport) and allow you to reroll wound rolls on a unit disembarking from them with their guns, creating an effective crossfire effect.

The rockgrinder sacrifices some transport capacity (only 6) but brings a mining laser and a heavy hitting drill dozer melee weapon to the table! With a decent range of movement it can lay down some firepower and is perfect for getting your aberrants into the fight safely, then backing them up with a charge of its own.

The benefictus is the new character for the 10th Edition codex and is exclusive (for the moment) to this broodsurge box. He is a rare source of anti tank for the cults with a strength 12 psychic attack and provides a very handy ‘lethal hits’ to the unit he joins. The model itself fits nicely into the range with the familiar miners uniform present in the rest of the army and has a giant, comically oversized brain to represent his savage psychic attacks. He can also boost his output by doubling his attacks at the expense of making them ‘hazardous’, it’s hilarious when his brain goes pop and he takes out himself as well as his target!

To get the most out of these units the detachment give you access to some decent strategems including: a bonus to wound against vehicles and monsters, a 2D3 mortal wounds ‘pop’ when an abominant or patrarch dies, a 6″ pile in and consolidation move to get more models into the fight, a potential +3 to charge! And some shenanigans for moving your ‘blips’ to get some genestealers recycled back into the fight. These will apply to a good portion of the units in the box.

Denumciator of Tyrants

The only miss with this box is the lack of a biophagus, which you will want at least a couple of, in order to buff up the acolytes and neophytes in your army list. The biosanctic broodsurge set is a decent 750 points straight out of the box and is a great start to running this detatchment in 10th Edition. The box is also great value for money with all the units adding up to almost double the money if bought sperately. If you add a couple of units of acolytes and a couple of biophagus to what you get in this set you will have a fairly versatile, (if a bit more melee focussed) army which can compete fairly well at a casual/competitive level and some units that will definitely strike fear into the oppressors of the cult (your opponents!)

Definitely a big hit for new and existing cult players alike!