How many Genestealers for an Army?

[lobster-overlord]

Hi all,

I used to have a huge Tyranid force, but the biomorph junk really soured me on my army, so I havn't played them regularly, and sold off everything except my large force of genestealers. I havn't even fiddled with the new codex as a result, so I am not knowledged on them anymore.

how many genestealers would be needed for a viable 1000 or 1500 point army? and is it even worth while?

THanks,

John M.

[Mike X]

In my experience, I've played against three Tyranid players, and watched two of the matches other Tyranids players were having, and I have not seen a single Genestealer being fielded. It's usually monstrous creatures and gaunts from what I've seen. But I don't know the Genestealers entry or statline, so I have no idea how good or bad they are in general.

[Valkerie]

I really have no idea how many would be needed for an army. One Tyranids player here usually runs two large squads of Genestealers, and it seems to work out for him.

Three points to consider:

One: An all Genestealer army would not have any synapse creatures, and so would be subject to morale checks.

Two: You would have no shooting attacks at all. Not necessarily that big a problem, except maybe against mech armies.

Three: All Genestealer squads can outflank, so you would have an entire army of outflankers. This could cause some interesting problems for your opponents, and could make for some unusual and fun games.

It might be worth a try, just to see how it works out. If you do try this, please post the results for us all to see.

[Yhcrana]

I always take at least two squads of 10, sometimes I take three, it depends on the list I am mucking round with at the time.

I find they are very useful for disrupting deployment as I always outflank. A lot of people still give me grief for taking them, stating they are useless but I disagree.

My two squads of stealers won me my last game.

They both turned up on turn 3 and assaulted a two tactical squads, a librarian and a dreadnought, the way I assaulted they pulled the tactical squads off of the objective and tied up his troops for two turns. By turn 6 when the game had ended they had killed the dreadnought, 1 squad of marines and the other squad was fleeing leaving my stealers sitting on his objective and winning me the game.

[lobster-overlord]

My issue is that I have 64 GS models, 1 warrior (unbuilt, I sold the rest, and knew I needed to be able to convert up an HQ out of something) and one 2nd ed Screamer Killer to work with.

I know this is a 100% close combat army, and I know it is a one off kind of deal for fun only and not for anything serious. \

John M.

[PalinMoonstride]

My issue is that I have 64 GS models, 1 warrior (unbuilt, I sold the rest, and knew I needed to be able to convert up an HQ out of something) and one 2nd ed Screamer Killer to work with.

I know this is a 100% close combat army, and I know it is a one off kind of deal for fun only and not for anything serious. \

John M.

Make a tervigon or two, give them feel no pain in blocks of 20!

[lobster-overlord]

Is the idea of an all GS army viable with the tervigons in it? Would it be worth while to go ahead and pick up the codex to run this army, or should I just shelve it for later use and not worry with te current codex? (I have opportunity later today to pick it up while out shopping).


John M>

[mynameisgrax]

I usually see 1-2 units of them used as small ambush squads. 6-8 outflanking, to jump distant enemy units and grab objectives, seems to be the way they work best. The Yrrgasl (or however you spell it) genestealers are incredibly vicious and effective, but unfortunately they take up a very valuable elite slot, so they rarely seem to get used.

[DaveLL]

Since you don't have the codex: somebody should mention to you that they don't have grenade-type options, and so will be attacking last if they charge anyone in cover. An intelligent opponent will put most of his force in cover if he realizes you've got a stealer-heavy army.

[Xas]

one squad of 16+1 stealer champion works quite well for my mixed forces.

they either outflank (and kill something the turn they arrive or force my oponent 17" away from all edges) or infiltrate and put a lot of preassure on the enemy. their 19 wounds are enough to survive any "casual" answear or take at least one whole turn of shooting off my army (with raveners and flying tyrants this often is your only round you have unhindered).

the psychic ability and outokill on a 6 to wound mean the stealer magus is a real treath to any single modell in the game (especially as he has so much ablative wounds so he can afford the few rounds of combat he needs to bring that crucial wound trough).


I dont know if a all stealer army works but if you include some hiveguard, a few gaunts and backward synapse to babysit them as well as 2-3 heavy support bugs (trygons/screamer killer) to get rid of all the tanks (carnifex with dual scyting is a very good insurance that any ehicle that gets within charge range of him dies a horrible death!)