New rules for Warhammer 40k 10th edition Genestealer Cults have been revealed by Games Workshop in the latest Warhammer 40k Faction Focus article. Published on Tuesday, the article reveals the Xenos-worshipping cultists will have an unmatched ability to return destroyed models to the battlefield.
The Genestealer Cults army rule for 10th edition is called ‘Cult Ambush’, as it was in 9th edition 40k, but it now works very differently. Whenever a Genestealer Cults Battleline unit is destroyed, or on a roll of 4+ when another Cults unit bites the dust, the controlling player gets to set up a Cult Ambush marker at least 9” away from all enemy models.
The marker disappears if an enemy unit ends its turn within 9”. Should any markers survive to your opponents’ next reinforcement step, the Cult player can Deep Strike in their own, destroyed units, touching those markers, which then get removed.
We’ve already seen Warhammer 40k 10th edition abilities that allow units (or whole armies) to keep control of objectives even when their models move off them. Those armies won’t feel anywhere near as safe with the possibility of the Genestealer Cults popping up in their backfield.
Cult Ambush will also give the Genestealer Cults a lot more staying power than their flimsy infantry stat lines would suggest. They have other recursion abilities, too; a newly revealed datasheet for the Neophyte Hybrids shows that the Cult Icon wargear item can return three destroyed models to the bearer’s unit in the movement phase, or D3+3 if they’re within range of an objective marker. Note that this happens after you’ll make checks for battle-shock.
If you think the idea of an unending swarm of humanoid alien hybrids is cool as anything, we strongly recommend Angels of Blood, one of the standout animations on the Warhammer 40k streaming service Warhammer+.