Goonhammer GSC Crusade Review

[ThePenitentOne]

The Goons just posted their review of the GSC Crusade rules, and they loved it- calling it the strongest set of Crusade rules they've seen for any faction.

 

https://www.goonhammer.com/codex-genestealer-cults-the-crusade-rules-review/

 

Fair warning: When I finished reading the Path to Ascension section of the review, I felt like the Goons were overselling it, and I personally felt a bit disappointed. But then I continued reading, and the way that the Agendas all tie in turned it around for me.

 

I really liked the Crusade rules for Sisters and Drukhari, but these are definitely in that league. Crusading with the GSC is going to be EPIC!

[Xenith]

Seems pretty fun! A project for this year is getting a 25PL GSC crusade force together. unlikely to actually play any games with it, but nice to know the rules are there, and theyre good!

[ThePenitentOne]

Just picked up the book today and these rules mesh really nicely with what I was trying to do in the Chronicle of Saint Katherine's Aegis. With Sisters, GSC and Rogue Traders all having Crusade content now, it's time to really blow that thing up and start over. These are some rough thoughts before I modify anything in the Saint Katherine's Aegis Forum- I'd love to hear what any GSC Crusaders think of these ideas, and whether or not any of you would ever be interested in running a Cult this way.

 

Essentially, I will be changing the scale, so it's not control of a planet that you get for each Path of Ascension, but control of one of the settlements on the planet of Orison's Wake, of which there are nine in total. 

 

Furthermore, because these settlements are represented by 5 X 5 arrays of territories, and occupied by the Nobles of the Thresher Houses, I can use the Institutions from GSC Crusade to define the character of each Thresher House: so for example, House Bannerjee might be the Community institution, House Jendaro might be Military and House Mercer might be Religion, etc. Next, I can assign each of the specific territories to whichever Institution it is best suited- a church goes to Religion, a Garrison goes to Military, etc. Then when I build each settlement, the Houses that control each of the four quadrants will determine which territories I choose from by matching the institution of the House to the Institution of the Territory.

 

The Brood Cycle rules in the GSC Crusade are not as detailed as what I was looking for, so I will be replacing those wholesale... But Agendas definitely interact with my custom rules, and further define and flesh them out.  Basically, I want my Cult to actually grow organically as a GSC would; it isn't just a Crusade Campaign- it's also an Urban Conquest: Streets of Death Campaign, but it's also the Sims: Genestealer Cult Edition.

 

So the planet is seeded with a single brood of Purestrain Genestealers- this is the entire Cult at the game's inception: these are the only models on the roster. Brood size will be determined by a pre-Crusade game of Spacehulk. Once the brood size is determined and the surviving Genestealers make planetfall, they fight as a Kill Team, and I will have to get my hands on the GSC KT rules in WD 472 to flesh this out a bit more, but one thing is for sure: they are using an equivalent of the Genestealer Kiss agenda every time they fight.

 

In the first Kill Team game, the Genestealer Kiss tally is tracked by individual Genestealer rather than by unit. The Genestealer with the highest tally begins his mutation into the patriarch; in a tie, it is the Stealer who achieved the first kill. I will have to coordinate the rules for his mutation so that they can start using the Kill Team set and Morph to the Crusade set once the Cult gets big enough to switch from one game to the next- but I have BOTH classic metal Patriarchs, the running one and the throned one, and I will be swapping models as part of the character's evolution.

 

After that first KT battle, I can track the Genestealer Kiss tally by unit as usual, but each mark in the tally adds one Brood Brother model to the pool. Once I have added enough models to the pool, I can field that unit following all the normal rules. However, for each campaign turn that a Brood Brother does NOT participate in battle, it can either Gestate or Nurture progeny. Every Brood Brother that completes one Gestate and two Nurture action allows me to add one Acolyte to the pool. Once I have enough Acolytes to form a unit, I can field them, following all the normal rules. But every campaign turn that that an Acolyte does NOT participate in battle, it can either Gestate or nurture as Brood Brothers do, but the progeny it adds to the pool will be a first generation Neophyte (represented by actual Neophyte models). Once again, I can field them once I have enough but they can also Gestate or Nurture to produce second generation Neophytes (represented by headswaps from the upgrade kit). Once again, as soon as I have enough to field a unit they can fight, and it's easier to do, because they're still Neophytes, so they can form mixed units with the previous generation. But the first born of this generation will automatically be the Cult's Magus. Other second generation Neophytes can Gestate or Nurture if they don't fight. Their offspring are Purestrains- the first generation of the Second Brood Cycle.

 

A few things will happen at or before this stage. First: even once I have enough models in the pool to form units, I'm not required to do so- if I prefer, I can just keep playing Kill Team with Purestrains if I want. I can also incorporate any models in the pool into my Kill Team... Though I won't know exactly how that works until WD 472 is in my hands. Once I have enough models in the pool to build a Book Legal 25 PL Crusade, I must do so. At that point, the game switches from KT to 40K, where the Crusade ACTUALLY begins. If that hasn't happened by the time the Second Brood Cycle begins, the Cult MUST grow to that size before it can fight again.  Also, during the First Brood Cycle, the Cult can only infiltrate ONE Institution- once it has done so, it stops accumulating Ascension Points... Until the beginning of the Second Brood Cycle. From this point forward, Ascension points will be accumulated as normal. Additionally, whenever I am eligible to add an Acolyte to the Second Brood Cycle, I can choose to add an Aberrant instead; once the Cult contains any Aberrant models, one can be upgraded to an Abominant if the Patriarch performs two Nurture actions instead of participating in battles. Finally, the firstborn Second Generation Neophyte of this Brood Cycle is automatically the Primus. Any further Second Generation Neophytes can be any of the characters that can legally be a part of the roster. 

 

In the Third Brood Cycle, any time an Acolyte would be eligible to join the pool, I can instead choose either an Aberrant or a Metamorph. Once a full unit of Metamorphs has formed, I can choose to make a Summon the Hive Fleet roll every campaign turn: roll 2d6- on a 12, add a 25PL Tyranid Vanguard Swarm Crusade to the campaign. Add one to this roll for every additional brood of Metamorphs on the roster. Finally, Second Generation Neophytes do not have a mandatory firstborn in this cycle, but they can be substituted for any character who could legally be included in the roster. 

 

In the Fourth Brood Cycle, there is a 50% chance that any Acolyte or Aberrant will be a Metamorph instead, and Summon the Hive Fleet rolls become mandatory.

 

The Hive Fleet, when it arrives, consists only of Vanguard Organisms- a Broodlord, Genestealers and Lictors. As the order of battle grows these units can be added without the need for detection rolls, but these become necessary as soon as any other unit is added to the roster. These two Crusades can fight independently or together, until the Tyranid Crusade reaches equal or greater size, at which point they MUST combine. From that point forward, the Tyranids can remove any number of GSC units from the roster and permanently replace it with an equal PL Tyranid unit. Purestrain Genestealers cannot be replaced in this way, but any Purestrain replaces its GSC and <Cult> keywords with Tyranid and <Hive Fleet> keywords. They may swap any Battle Honours when they do so.

 

It should also be noted that as there are Nine Settlements on the planet, the Cult and the Hive Fleet can split at any time to engage multiple settlements- even as early as the Kill Team stage for GSC and the Vanguard stage for Tyranids. No matter how many settlements they have engaged, however, they can still only fight one battle per campaign turn. Note that this does mean tracking multiple breeding pools and Paths of Ascension, but it allows for faster assimilation of the planet. 

 

Like I said, any feedback welcome. The Chronicle of Saint Katherine's Aegis has been slowed to a crawl, and I really want to change that- virtually everything there needs to be redone now. I don't really know how to make it more interactive, or even if anyone else finds it interesting. There are a lot of moving parts.

[Jorgend Lupus]

That sounds like a blast, and what should really be narrative play in my opinion !

Now I'm curious to know what your opponent (s) will play ; I guess a force of Imperium (sisters and guards, maybe Admech) is required considering the planet you described, but do you plan to have more than 2 players ?

 

Sure you can build a similar narrative for a Chaos Cult starting from a Kill Team of Chaos Space marines infiltrators, replacing the Tyranids allies with summoned Daemons once the cult has enough followers...

[ThePenitentOne]

So there's a few things going on:

 

I've created an NPC faction- the Thresher Houses. They are pretty much count-as-guard with a very limited unit selection. These are the fodder for the cult armies growing in the shadows, so they aren't TRUE factions, but they have to be interesting enough that games with them aren't totally bland.

 

The GSC cult has to grow from almost nothing, as described above.

 

There's also a Chaos Cult that has to grow from a single Kill Team to an army; they grow in the shadows in much the same way as the GSC- they have a Rogue Psyker who can tag enemies with a psychic power that corrupts them, and a leader who uses a needle pistol loaded with psychotropic darts to do the same. Once the human Cult grows big enough, they learn how to summon Daemons. There is also an ancient and dormant Daemonforge which can be discovered and reactivated. Once the Daemons and Daemon engines are recruited, the cult will be big enough to draw the attention of CSM.

 

The guard have detachments in every settlement- Battalions in the eight small settlements and a Brigade in the large one. Unlike the Cults, who grow in size, the guard are hard capped, though certain campaign events can allow them to request reinforcements from off world; these will arrive as full detachments.

 

Sisters have the huge titular Cathedral of Saint Katherine's Aegis in the large settlement, which is managed by a Brigade; there are also small missions in five the eight small settlements- two of these have Battalions and three have Patrols. This faction is also hard capped, but again, certain events can allow them to request off world reinforcements.

 

There are four Patrols worth of Admech scattered about the settlements; they are there primarily to operate and maintain the technological assets of the planet rather than acting in a military capacity... But events can trigger their military mobilization and bring reinforcements.

 

Tyranids are on deck, but they will only come if the GSC grows large enough to summon them.

 

This planet also has several dormant Eldar Warp Gates that provide access from Commorragh, but the Achon who controls these gates needs to rebuild his Kabal after the Daemonic Incursion that Yvraine brought to Commorragh destroyed most of his holdings.

 

Finally, there are Inquisitors of both the Ordo Xenos and Hereticus in the system, but they are not yet on this planet. There is a small Deathwatch Watch Fortress in the vicinity, though again, they don't yet have any interest in this particular planet.

 

Edit:  I tried to change the title of this thread as it's outgrown it's original topic, but I couldn't figure out how to do that.

Edited January 18, 2022 by ThePenitentOne