STARTING A GENESTEALER CULTS ARMY IN 11TH EDITION: YOUR FIRST 1,000 POINTS
Genestealer Cults are the insurgents of the setting, and 11th edition is a fine time to start the uprising — mining unions and frontier congregations who have secretly worshipped something with far too many arms for four generations. On the table they're an ambush army: units vanish, reappear where they shouldn't, and swarm objectives while the enemy is looking the wrong way. Off the table they're arguably the best narrative painting project in the hobby, all hazard stripes, work overalls, and hidden claws.
Start with the congregation
Your first purchase should be the current starter or Combat Patrol-style box, which usually centres on Neophyte Hybrids — the human-looking rank and file with mining lasers and autoguns. Neophytes are the canvas of the whole army: pick your cult's colours here and everything else follows. A second unit of them soon after is one of the rare cases where doubling up early is right, because this faction genuinely runs on bodies.
Then the inner brood
Acolyte Hybrids — the hunched, four-armed faithful with rock saws and heavy claws — are your hammer, and Purestrain Genestealers are the faction's icon, the reason the cult exists at all. One box of each transforms the army from militia into horror film. Add a Magus or Primus to lead, and you have every layer of the cult represented.
Recommended: Acolyte Hybrids With Autopistols
Recommended: Purestrain Genestealers
Wheels of the uprising
The Goliath Truck is both transport and vibe: a rusted industrial hauler crammed with zealots. It's also the model that makes your force read as Genestealer Cults from across the room, so it belongs in the first wave of purchases rather than the third.
The centrepiece
The Patriarch — the vast, throned grandfather of the brood — is the obvious crown, and unusually for a centrepiece it's compact enough to finish in a weekend. If you want something bigger and stranger later, the range will oblige, but paint the Patriarch first.
Hold off on
- Third and fourth character models; the cult needs congregation before clergy.
- Allied units from the parent hive fleet until your own core is done.
A cult keeps records
Every cell keeps a tally of its assets, and so should you: note each kit on arrival and stage it truthfully from bare plastic through built to done. Nothing exposes an unfinished uprising like an honest count. Background and the full roster live on the Genestealer Cults faction page under Data.