Hi everyone, Michael here to take you through the Psychic might of the Genestealer Cults. For more reviews and analyses, check out the Tactics Corner.
The Broodmind Discipline is great for boosting the effectiveness of your army. There are a number of powerful psychic powers that you can utilise to improve your army’s performance.
Mass Hypnosis (WC7)– Select an enemy unit within 18″ and visible to the Psyker. The enemy unit is -1A and fights last.
A great psychic power for the GSC. As a primarily combat-focused army, the ability to make an enemy unit fight last is fantastic, allowing your own combat squads to do maximum damage with less fear of interrupt ruining your day. If the enemy unit does survive, the -1 attack helps to make the reply attacks a little less punishing. This is one that I use often on my army. Great on the Patriarch, who is likely to be pushing up to support the attacks, than the squishier Magus.
Mind Control (WC6)– Select one enemy unit within 18″ and visible to the Psyker. The unit suffers -1 to hit each time it makes an attack. If the psychic test roll was equal to or greater than the Ld characteristic of the unit, they also suffer -1 to combat attrition.
You are really using this for the first part, the -1 to hit. This is a nice debuff to enemy units, but with decent terrain on the board, you are probably not using this power all that much. Does come in handy if you manage to stack with Mass Hypnosis, but I would probably prefer an opportunistic Smite than casting this.
Psionic Blast (WC5)– Select an enemy unit within 18″ and visible to the Psyker. The unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. If the psychic test was equal to or greater than the Ld characteristic of the unit, they suffer 3 mortal wounds. When picking units, the Look Out Sir rule is in effect as if the power was a range weapon, unless the target is in engagement range.
A smite that you can direct, rather than being the closest enemy unit. You can’t pick characters unless they were eligible for a shooting attack or in engagement range, so limits it a bit for sniping them. The automatic 3 mortals if you equal or beat the Ld is nice, but probably not going to come up all that often. A nice power if you have nothing else to cast.
Mental Onslaught (WC5)- Select one enemy unit that is visible to the Psyker within 24″. Roll four D6. For each roll of a 5+, the target suffers a mortal wound. If a model is destroyed, roll again with three D6, and so on, until you fail to roll a 5+, no models are destroyed or you roll no dice.
This went from an amazing psychic power, to an awful one. Odds are you might be able to do one or two mortals to a unit of single wound models, but you could equally roll nothing for this. Could be useful if you are looking to snipe a character or model on one wound and get lucky with the roll.
Psychic Stimulus (WC6)– Select a friendly unit within 18″ and visible to the Psyker. The unit can shoot and/or declare a charge in a turn in which it Advanced or Fell Back. Models don’t suffer the penalty to hit rolls for advancing and firing Assault Weapons.
Another great power, that you are probably using for the first part. This works great for a unit that advanced and wants to shoot or charge. The stratagem Genetic Lineage gives you some nice pairings with this, as you can advance a unit of Acolytes or Metamorphs and still charge, which means the unit can still do something if you fail the psychic test. This is a lot riskier with falling a unit back, as there is no stratagem to allow them to fall back and charge if you fail the psychic test. A great power for saving you a CP, but risky if you are counting on being able to fall back and charge. Definitely worth taking.
Might From Beyond (WC6)– Select one friendly unit within 18″ and visible to the Psyker. The unit gains +1A until the start of your next psychic phase.
The best power of the lot. Gaining an attack on your combat units is brilliant, and this is a power I use almost every turn. Putting Purestrains up to 5 attacks really boosts their combat effectiveness, and getting an extra attack on your Heavy Drill weapons means your Acolyte squads can be even more punishing. This power works really well with the Gestalt Consciousness stratagem, allowing you to cast the power anywhere on the board. This means you can boost the combat effectiveness of a unit, even if they are not in range of your psyker.
Overall
Of the six powers in the Broodmind Discipline, I’d say that two were fantastic and essential to your army. Mass Hypnosis and Might From Beyond are great for boosting the effectiveness of your units in combat. Psychic Stimulus and Psionic Blast are nice to have, and in the right situations can be very useful. Mental Onslaught is terrible, and I would be surprised if it gets picked very often, and Mind Control is situational as well, but a nice debuff to enemy forces.
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