Red Brotherhood

[Zoatibix]

@Roguereally glad you guys managed to pull out the win! 

[Rogue]

Played an Open War mission last week - lost by a couple of points to Tyranids (Vanguard Invaders); I killed almost everything he had (20 termagants, tervigon, psychovore, 3 leapers, 10 stealers, screamer-killer, 5 bugs with slow-down guns), but his greater mobility allowed the survivors (death leaper, a neurolictor, the new floaty brain and some neurolictors) to cover the objectives at the end, and then Shadow in the Warp at the end of the game lost me control of an objective and it was all over.

 

But, on the plus side, I killed almost everything he had. I was trying out Xenocreed, which was interesting. As it turned out, I only lost one infantry unit all game, which didn't come back even with a reroll, so that side of it was a bust (and in a tight game, could have tipped the scales). The advance and charge enhancement got the metamorphs into combat turn one, and the stratagem to make hand flamers into assault weapons was good too.

 

The main take-away for me was hand flamers. I really leaned into them, with three units of ten acolytes and one unit of ten metamorphs all toting them. I went first, and the metamorphs and one acolyte unit removed three slow-down bugs and 14 termagants between them, allowing the metamorphs to finish off the last two bugs and last six gants in combat. With another acolyte unit taking down five stealers (and a couple more with overwatch), I'd taken out most of his infantry by the end of turn one.

 

Into light infantry, they're brilliant (especially on acolytes firing at a target on an objective, when they hit automatically and reroll all wounds). I was also able to leverage two ridgerunners for -1AP, by firing the stubbers into the termagants (and the mining lasers into the tervigon, I think).

 

On the sneaker side, my deployment consisted of three vehicles with scout (thanks to metamorphs in the truck), three acolyte units on the table and one in reserve. With three Primi in the list, I could then put all three on-table acolyte units into reserve, and then strike them back in on turn one, giving me a ton of flexibility in bringing those flamers to bear.

 

I want to try the Xenocreed again, maybe with more of an MSU approach, but so far it feels like it has potential.

[Ulfast]

Intersting. Fun that you tried out new tactics with falmer and made it work. 

[Rogue]

A friend and I play a local doubles tournament every year, and this weekend just gone was the first time I've taken the Cult (alongside Necrons). We won all three games and placed second overall (the only other team that won three scored way more battle-points than us) - it's very exciting, as we've capped out at 2-1 a couple of times, and never previously gone undefeated.

 

I was running Biosanctic Broodsurge, with this list:

 

Patriarch (biomorph adaptation)

Primus

Biophagus (predatory instincts)

10 neophytes

10 acolytes - six mining tools

10 genestealers

10 genetealers

3 ridgerunners (two mining lasers, one mortar) 

 

The Patriarch led one unit of genestealers; the Primus and Biophagus teamed up with the acolytes. We usually infiltrated both units of genestealers and the acolytes, but then used the Primus to pick up the acolytes into a turn one deep strike. The Neophytes and the mortar buggy held the home objective, and the other two went wherever they were needed.

 

My friend brought three doomstalkers, a reanimator, six wraiths with a technomancer, three tomb-blades, three wraith-like destroyers. The wraiths could also infiltrate, the blades and destroyers played objectives, and the stalkers provided fire-support.

 

We were able to use the combat units (genestealers, acolytes, wraiths) to apply tons of early pressure and gain control of the board - with so many threats active from turn one, we had a surprisingly good survival rate, as we often killed everything in the immediate vicinity, limiting how much damage we could take in return. The Patriarch's stealers were good into various hard targets, including armigers, sanguinary guard and custodes wardens; and having enough resurgence points to bring back which ever unit of stealers died first meant that I could be really aggressive and still have turn two/three threats.

 

The acolytes were a bit of a surprise package, and chewed through whatever was put in front of them. In the third game, they finished off a warden unit after the Patriarch's unit fell short - the acolytes deleted the last two and an attached hero in a single turn, then turned around and counter-charged a knight, taking nine wounds off and leaving it ripe for death by doomstalker in our turn two. The combination of the Primus, Biophagus and Biosanctic was really strong: they get +1 to charge, and then +1 attacks when they do, meaning 18 mining weapon attacks that hit on 3s with full rerolls and lethal hits; they can either get +1 to wound infantry from the Biophagus, or +1 to wound vehicles and monsters from a stratagem (on top of native anti-vehicle 4+) - it means you're looking at around 16 hits, wounding on 2s into most infantry, -2AP (or -3 with crossfire from a ridgerunner) and 3 damage (enough to one-shot a custodes, as it turns out).

 

I'm not sure how I'd turn this into a 2000 point list of pure GSC, but I think I'd look at three Rockgrinders as fire-support, then small neophyte and acolyte units for objective play. Maybe aberrants, but it would be tempting to go with another 10 genestealers, just to have 30 of them infiltrating into midfield from the get-go...

[brother_b]

Great information. I’m a sucker for neophytes and abominants so not sure biosanctic is the best call but dang it’s tempting to yolo stealers and aberrants and follow up with tide of neophytes.

[Rogue]

Yeah, it was certainly a fun way to play. Very proactive, close-combat units getting to do their thing, rolling buckets of dice knowing that you just need a fairly average result to wipe something off the table :)

[Ulfast]

So, Rogue, how is your cult going? Was a long time since I saw you or your blog got updated. Hope all is well?

[Rogue]

Hey Ulfast - thanks for asking.

 

There's been a lot going on recently. On the positive side, I've been painting a lot of not-40k stuff - all of the HeroQuest box, and I'm currently finishing off a Wood Elf BloodBowl team (just a treeman to go (and a pair of back-up catchers, if I can ever track them down on ebay)).

 

On the less positive side, life's been a struggle for a while, and that's really dented my capacity for things like blogs and updates. Even painting and playing has been hard work.

 

The Brotherhood is still ticking over, and continues to fight off the vanguard tendrils of an approaching hive fleet; and hopefully I'll find the energy at some point to pick up some of the extras again. 

[Ulfast]

It sounds good that you chose the most important part of your life, hobby can always take a backsite when it comes to more important things. But that BB team sounds fun and good to know you are stilla round :)

 

Good to hear also that GSC is still there on your map, even if it right now is taking it slow :)

[Rogue]

I've had a few quiet days, and have spent some of the time putting together a pair of trainee Biophagi (see here with their boss). It means I can make more use of the Biosanctic detachment rules.

 

(The arms are from the broodbrother killteam kit; the bodies are standard neophytes.)

 

Edited August 19, 2025 by Rogue

[Rogue]

A trio of aberrants. For some reason, I'd ended up with a dozen painted, so this rounds me out to 15. Coupled with August's biophagi, it opens up the possibility of three rockgrinders full of lethal hits aberrants :)

 

 

[Ulfast]

Great looking models. I really like the blue colour. Looks very nice.

[Captain Durante]

Great Idea with the Biophagi. I don’t like making multiple of the same character. But treating them like assistants is awesome, Full of flavor, and tactically playable. I may have to purloin this idea in the name of Mordecai.

[brother_b]

The kill team is chock full of opportunities to kitbash characters. They do look great.

Edited September 17, 2025 by brother_b

[Rogue]

Keeping up the momentum, here's a couple of jackals to round out a third unit (of five) - going to have to give Outlander another go soon.

 

 

[Rogue]

And to finish off the year - banners :)

 

 

 

Edited December 9, 2025 by Rogue

[Rogue]

I had a couple of games in the run-up to Christmas - both at 1500, and with me as Outlander Claw. I ran with this:

 

- rockgrinder, with 5 aberrants and an abominant

- goliath, with 10 metamorphs and an iconward

- goliath, with 10 metamorphs and an iconward

- 3 ridgerunners, all with mining lasers

- 3 units of 5 jackals

- 10 neophytes

 

Everything except the neophytes and the rockgrinder could scout. I didn't take any enhancements (and only used the Devoted Crew stratagem from the Outlander set).

 

The jackals were great. Being able to sticky mid-table objectives was really useful. And having a unit in my pocket for late-game secondaries was ideal. In the second game, they all died across the first couple of turns, but not before they'd scouted up, and claimed two of the three neutral objectives. On the flank, they then advanced forward and move-blocked several units, keeping the objective safe for a turn; in the centre, they were wiped out by bladeguard, but that left the bladeguard exposed to my metamorphs, who were able to jump out of a transport, gain reroll wounds on their hand-flamers, then charge in and finish them off. Having that early objective control immediately put pressure on my opponents - they have to come contest the objectives, otherwise I'm just getting free points; but clearing out the jackals exposed more valuable units on their side.

 

Which leads into the other thing I learnt from these games - units in transports are so much more versatile. I was able to loiter near objectives, wait until enemy units committed to objectives, and then jump them. With rerolls to wound and crossfire, even hand-flamers are dangerous in numbers. And even better, I was able to commit a unit at a time, rather than piling forward to avoid getting shot at for too long. It felt likea much more controlled approach, especially compared to my more usual Biosantic tactics of early pressure and hope to hang on through the endgame.

 

That said, I did wonder how effective the list would be as a different detachment. I'd lose the sticky jackals (very useful), the extra OC (mildly useful, but I wasn't really using vehicles to hold objectives), the Devoted Crew stratagem (great against 3-damage exocrines, less so against d6 damage vindicators), and maybe the scouting metamorphs (because I'd swap the Iconwards for Biophagi to get the keyword in Biosanctic). Biosanctic woud give me more combat punch with the aberrants and metamorphs, and a more useful set of stratagems; Xenocreed would put a lot of focus on the metamorphs, but with the Deeds enhancement, I could potentially regenerate a unit three times...

    

[Ulfast]

Sounds like an intersting list and a couple of good games. That´s good. I really want to play more with my GSC but right now at a backburner for me :(

[Rogue]

Saturday just gone marked my annual dipping of the toe into the tournament scene with our local doubles tournament, and having put the thought in my head back in December, I decided to give Xenocreed a bit of a run out.

 

The format is straight-forward - two 1000pt forces in a ream, shared CP, your rules and effects don't affect your team-mate. We went with a Tyranids/Cult combo.

 

The Tyranids brought a pair of tyrannofexes, deathleaper, neurolictor, 10 stealers with a broodlord, 10 gaunts, 10 flappy gaunts, and a biovore.

 

My contribution was:

10 metamorphs and a Iconward in a truck

10 metamorphs and a Iconward in a truck

10 metamorphs and a Iconward in a truck

Ridgerunner with mortar and spotter

Sanctus

 

One Iconward had +2 resurgence points (giving me 8 in total), and one had the reliquant to reroll battle-shock (because five spare points).

 

My role was to take (and hold, ideally) objectives, and to blend light infantry whenever the opportunity presented itself. With 8 RPs, I could afford to throw metamorphs at things, knowing that I'd get two units back again (280 points extra in a 1000pt list, which feels like a lot).

 

GAME ONE: SALAMANDERS AND CUSTODES

Hmm. Well, this one went about as well as you'd expect, give that half the enemy had flamers with assault, and the other half were never going to get swept by metamorphs. 

We really struggled here - the metamorphs, even with FNP4+, didn't want to get overwatched, and that really limited their movement and options. The Salamanders player was very good at sitting just inside ruins to prevent me charging through walls, and stopping the trucks having LoS for fire-support. By the end of the game, the Marines were all dead, but it had taken almost all of our infantry (resurgence units and all) to get there, and the Custodes were barely touched. 

We were out-played, but I think it was a really tough match-up out of the gate.

 

GAME TWO: TYRANIDS AND GSC (Final Day)

This one went much better. We got the first turn, which really changed the dynamic - I was able to push all three trucks forward to threaten the midfield objectives, with the option to send the metamorphs in turn two, and then again if necessary. 

In the end, I was able to hold the morphs in the trucks on both flanks - one one side, that was enough, as they just didn't have the resources to crack the truck and then deal with the contents; on the other side, their Lector bounced off the Goliath, before the morphs disembarked, flamed him down and then charged something else. At close quarters, that ability to drop 30+ flamer hits in one direction and then charge something else with 30+ S5 attacks made the morphs a real threat, especially with that "I can trade into you because I get them back and you don't" element.

It felt like this one was about the  threat more than the reality, and the longer that goes on, the more powerful RPs become, as two fresh units appearing on a scattered field can pick up a lot of points. In the end we maxed out on this one, without having to use the Ambush units.

 

GAME THREE: ORKS AND WHITE SCARS

We went first again, but were very aware of the orks' threat range - we pushed the trucks out again, taking both flank objectives and daringnthe orls to come after us. Which they did. One one side, a unit of 20 bounced off the truck, and were then flamed and clawed to pieces - all 20 boys died, leaving just the characters. On the other side, Ghaz crushed the truck, but the morphs hopped out and exactly the same as their brothers, flaming and clawing the ork boys out of the game. I feel like these were big wins for us, with the bulk of the ork bodies out of the game before their turn 2. Both units or morphs got taken down by surviving characters, but I was getting them back, unlike the orks.

In the middle, the third unit chopped up a smaller unit of Boyz, and three bikers, forcing the opposition to commit more and more resources into the blender, letting us recapture the flanks with a tyrannofex and the flappy gaunts.

It was the closest game, and we took it by three points - the morphs were sacrificed on  other flanks, but it completely drew the sting from the ork assault before it really got going.

 

Did I learn anything? I think so. 

The metamorph/iconward/truck combo feels like it has real synergy. Obviously, there's the Scout thing, which gives the trucks real reach going first, and a pseudo-redeploy when going second.

Then there's the firing deck - I can fire two-thirds of my flamers without disembarking. Not game-changing, but a useful option, and having overwatch threats is always good.

And if the truck gets blown up before the morphs disembark, I can shrug of half of the casualties via that 4+FNP, so staying in there at close quarters feels less risky too.  (The same goes for the Frenzied Devotion stratagem (+1 attack, +1 WS, become hazardous - lots of upside, but a significantly reduced downside).

 

Tactically, pushing trucks out to the flanks forced the game - you have to come after them, or I get points. But if you do, you probably can't get the morphs (especially if I have a nearby ruin to emergency disembark into), so I have an immediate counter-charge (which gets even better if I can push two trucks to the same flank.

 

Patience remains the big thing. I'm definitely getting better at not commiting too early. But at the same time, Xenocreed really allows me to get innthere when I need to, knowing that if my unit does get wiped, they'll be back via deep strike 

 

I feel like I want to play around with Xenocreed a while longer, so we'll see what else I can get out of them.