Genestealer Coven - Building the Cult

Mr Saturday

Member
Hey hey. After some chattery in another thread I've decided to call upon any of ye out there doing, have done or intending to build a genestealer coven. I've had this idea running about my head for years now, and it's getting time to get the finger out. I've various ideas on how to build hybrids, what list to use, how I'm going to build a limo, that kind of thing, but I'm sure folks have found great bits and bobs from various sources for their own cults. Drop those tips and links right here kids.

So, first off, here's the blarg for my own coven, the order of the dawn:

It is M40.999 by Imperial reckoning, and world of Thelema in the Segmentum Obscurus is at war. After fifty years of conflict there is no respite to the fighting, and there is no end in sight. Both sides fight with righteous fury over the devastated remains of once mighty Imperial cities.

The Order of the Dawn had grown strong and powerful before the war, secretly expanding their power base over more than a century. They had moved into human society like the choking fronds of a creeping vine, patient and inexorable. The sons and daughters of the order had grown strong, reaching the highest position of authority by the middle the M40. It is around this time though, that the order began to diverge from the usual sequence of events when a powerful genestealer cult reached this level of infiltration.

The great patriarch of the order, known as father Calogero, is a truly ancient genestealer. Ferried across the void in stasis by the hive fleet, Calogero was secreted into the space hulk the Age of Dreams along with many of his brothers. The hulk had been vomited forth from the warp before the fleet as it made the journey across the empty space between the galaxies. There it hung for a time before again being drawn back into warpspace. How long it remained there, none can say, as time has no meaning in the realm of the Gods.

In the beginning of M38 the Age of Dreams again appeared in real-space near the world of Draconith. It drifted for decades before eventually being marked by an explorator vessel for future investigation. The world of Thelema was tasked with mapping the hulk and recovering any items or artefacts of worth due to the presence of the mechanicus forge temples on the planet. The Theleman team sent returned with the soon-to-be new head of their Order, the genestealer Calogero, who was christened by the leader of the explorator expedition. So the new cult was born.

The combination of the knowledge and mysterious nature of the ordo mechanicus and the single-minded ambition of the cult made for a powerful combination. By M40.508 the order was in control of many of the most influential institutions. But the cult had suffered it's own schisms in recent years. Many of the brethren felt something was wrong with the way plans were proceeding. This, in itself was troubling, as dissent in a genestealer coven is virtually unheard of.

Calogero was most pleased with his growing power, but he did not feel the pull of the hive mind as it drew close to devour Thelema. The whispers in his head were not those of the great beast. They came from another place entirely.

Far beyond Thelema, in the depths of space, lie the dead husks of the hive fleet that bore Calogero across the stars. Caught in a violent and sudden warpstorm soon after the Age of Dreams vanished back into the ether, the entire fleet was either pulled into the warp or destroyed. Not a single tyranid creature survived. As if this weren't enough to sever the link between Calogero and the hive mind, the creature that emerged from the warp was no longer a creature of instinct, but independent, cunning, and hungry for power.

Power that it's new patrons were more than happy to supply. For a price.


So it's a chaos corrupted mechanicus coven. Yeah. I wondered if that was a bit much, maybe lose either the mechanicus or chaos angle, buuut, I do like the idea of an augemented genestealer carrying a daemon sword.

I have zero work done as yet, I'm very much collecting bits, but I do have an idea how I want the hybrids and brothers to look, a wee bit like this:

GC+-+Hybrid_01.jpg


I've had a couple of great suggestions for parts, GW ghouls and Deadzone plague (cheers to theottovonbismark and cheetor) being some good ones. The plague miniatures I'd never considered, but looking at them the are perfect base models. Like, perfect. I've also been looking at GW crypt horrors for larger aberrations, freak hybrids who are much larger and more bestial.

Anyhow, my fellow devotees of the great beast, feel free to gush coven all over this thread.
 

cheetor

Member
Thats a lovely illustration Mr S, very evocative.

The three way chaos/genestealer/Ad Mech mash up does sound a little busy to me (as I mentioned before, I even think that adding chaos to the 'stealer coven sort of confuses things more than I like, but Im a pedant). Nonetheless, I am sure that you can pull it off.

The Deadzone Plague range is absolutely perfect for many of the elements of a 'stealer coven project. What miniature are you planning to use as Brood Brothers? Corrupted Planetary Defence Force is a straightforward option, but a more Cthulhu, b-movie style cultist always appealed to me more. That look is even more appropriate if the coven is corrupted Ad Mech.

Im glad to see that the RT side of things is going to get some Mr Saturday lovin'.
 

Chico

Member
I hate you Mr Sat... Heh at least I've finished buying my Cult now so won't be competing on ebay lol
 

Mr Saturday

Member
That's a relief Chico, it's not like hybrids are cheap on ebay anyway!

The Deadzone Plague range is absolutely perfect for many of the elements of a 'stealer coven project. What miniature are you planning to use as Brood Brothers? Corrupted Planetary Defence Force is a straightforward option, but a more Cthulhu, b-movie style cultist always appealed to me more. That look is even more appropriate if the coven is corrupted Ad Mech.

For brood brothers, initially I was going to use the old plastic imperial guard, but as time went on a more, as you say, zealoty, Cthulhuy cultist type appealed to me more. Shaven-headed lunatics type of thing. Add in some genestealer emulating mechanical add-ons, such as a three limbed hybrid who REALLy wants that fourth arm, some chaotic mutation and there you go. The trick is to keep the mech and chaos bits super subtle. A daemon sword here, slight mutation there. No genestealers with wings, flaming hooves and two chainsaw arms craic.
 

cheetor

Member
To reuse a very tired gag, you had me at "a three limbed hybrid who REALLy wants that fourth arm".

Anything that makes me empathise even slightly with these quite obviously "bad" guys is great. A Chaos worshipping, evil alien spawned, techno-arcanist, cyber-fetishist with some pathos, lovely. The most entertaining villains dont realise that they are the villains.
 

Asslessman

Member
Really evocative and really promising as well. I'd let the chaos corruption for leaders to avoid something too messy but I'm confident in you finding the right balance amongst all this.
The way I see it, chaos is a last resort for stealers covens when they seek help and power to survive, an ad mech group can rely on technology and why not on corrupted old equipment (there comes the demon sword) but this is just personnal taste.
Some great opportunities you're opening here in terms of modelling and especially painting.
Funny a man of such taste as yourself starts another army with strange sexual practices... any more links with chico we don't know?
 

Mr Saturday

Member
Funny a man of such taste as yourself starts another army with strange sexual practices... any more links with chico we don't know?

He's my dad.

The most entertaining villains dont realise that they are the villains.

That's the ticket right there. I've never had any interest in one dimensional characters of the 'Mauarharharr! I am eville!' type. Giving them a back story from their point of view translates into modelling and painting directions I'd otherwise miss.
 

Suber

Member
This is going to be great. If you put on this just half of what you have put on your previous projects, it will rock. The combination of all those things you pretend to come along will be for sure a thing to see!
 

Naagruz

Member
That sketch is great.
At least you are sitting pretty for bits if you are going your own way versus chasing Olley sculpts. Dark Vengeance cultists, Stealers, plastic ghouls, plastic flagellants, Cadians, & other sets can all mix up quite nicely for a cult.
Really looking forward to seeing what you come up with. :)
 

Asslessman

Member
Naagruz":1r4t8n4p said:
That sketch is great.
At least you are sitting pretty for bits if you are going your own way versus chasing Olley sculpts. Dark Vengeance cultists, Stealers, plastic ghouls, plastic flagellants, Cadians, & other sets can all mix up quite nicely for a cult.
Really looking forward to seeing what you come up with. :)

Very clever, the chaos cultits also come outside the dark vengeance box, I would also add the dark eldar homunculi or whatever they're called (creepy guys with robes and long hair). The dark eldar raneg in general might help you a lot with all its Genetically modified/technology augmented/evil stuff
 

Mr Saturday

Member
The dark eldar raneg in general might help you a lot with all its Genetically modified/technology augmented/evil stuff

Definitely. The talos in particular has lots of augmetic bits and pieces that will work really nicely. The wracks have potential too.
 
I am (slowly) building an oldhammery cult, as a reboot of a project I started some years ago but then abandoned. I did have one idea you might find useful. In my opinion the new plastic Skaven Plague Monk bodies work very well as a basis for cloaked Hybrids, if you chop off the tails.
 

Mr Saturday

Member
Strikes me I've been neglecting this thread a bit, so here's an update.

I've been slowly collecting parts to make the hybrids. My issue is my stock of 40k bits is low, being more of a fantasy guy over the last few years. While I'm waiting for talos parts, bloodletter bits, Imperial guard guns and so on, I've been mocking up some hybrids with what I have. Here was my first attempt.

GSC_01.JPG


I've been getting regular shipments of parts and great feedback from some fellow oldhammers, so the next experiment was for a 2nd generation hybrid using plague parts from Deadzone. He's probably get a flamer or meltagun at some point, and some very minor mechanicus augmentations. I'll pear pack the stealer arm a bit too.

GSC_02.jpg


Last night some talos parts arrived. SO very useful. I had a go at a 1st gen, but as some pointed out, he's quite small for a hulling 1st generation hybrid. I may give him a ghoul head instead, add a hood and some bionics and make him a unit leader.

BmlDTfsIUAAvAgx.jpg


I'm still agonising over what list/rules to use. Imperial guard seem the most obvious choice, but I've no intention of painting 50 tanks. A Necromunda gang is another option, but that's a bit too small. I'd like a couple of limos, a couple of squads of hybrids, some larger augmented hybrids and some brood brothers, as well as some characters. I had a look through the Astra Militarum book last night for ideas. I had no idea what I was looking at. What does a vox-caster do? Is a power axe better than a power sword? When working on army/warband projects, I find I have to base it around some kind of list or rules, I can't just make random models.

On another note, I found the genestealer kit contains stealer skulls on it. Infected mechanicus genestealer servo-skull, anyone?
 

Asslessman

Member
Infected mechanicus genestealer servo-skull is sounding like the best idea of the day (at least) efinitely want to see it.

As for the army list, well, I'd say the compilation rules since they're the only ones made entirely for that purpose but if you want to stick with modern rules, I'd go with the orks codex. Though i'haven't read it or any of its predecessors, it seems to me a genestealer cult is oriented towards close combat, must somehow be poor at ballistics and must mix a lot of different troops. This does sound like what you should find in an ork codex with some imagination (different levels of hybrids could be used as different levels of irks,n different clans, you may even use small nids to count as gretchin/grots (whatever they're called now) and the limo could be very well use the rules of open top, nervous vehicles that Orks favor...

That leaves the point that tyrannids don't ally with anyone in recent rules so if you still want to stick with modern rules, you won't be able to use a proper "offiial" gene stealer profile without using the tyrannid codex but otherwise it is in the oldhammer spirit to just throw that rule away and use it anyway if you want to (the real easy oldhammer way would be to use compilation and RT though ;) )

Hope it helps, the conversions look splendid so far. I've never been much of a fan of the use of ghouls heads to make hybrids but it's just a matter of taste really) the ghouls bodies on another hand are remarkably good for that purpose (still just my opinion).
 
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