Hi everyone, Michael here to take you through one of the best Cult Creeds for the Genestealer Cults, the Twisted Helix. For more reviews and analyses, check out the Tactics Corner.
For me, Twisted Helix is among the strongest of the Cults that the GSC can choose from. Let’s see what makes them so special.
Cult Creed- Experimental Subjects
GSC units with this Creed add 1 to their strength and move characteristics. In addition, when targeting cult units, a wound roll of a 1 or 2 always fails, irrespective of any modifiers.
GSC are primarily a combat army, so gaining +1 strength is a huge boost to their damage output. This will make most of your infantry units S5, meaning they will wound most other infantry units on a 3+. This is going to be a big benefit to those units that get high volumes of attacks, such as Acolyte Hybrids and Purestrain Genestealers. It even puts Hybrid Metamorphs up to S6, allowing them to wound most units in the game on a 3+.
The additional strength on Acolyte Hybrids also means that most of your Heavy Rock combat weapons go up to S10, allowing them to wound even the toughest vehicles on a 3+, and allows them to wound most Bikers and elite T5 infantry on a 2+.
The additional strength of this Cult Creed really amps up your damage output in combat, as GSC generally lack access to a high number of re-rolls, so have to rely on rolling the base number to hit and to wound.
The +1 move also makes your units faster, allowing you greater access to board control and moving up to get charges. Most of your infantry will get a 7″ move, allowing them to get into position faster, whereas your Purestrains go up to a whopping 9″ move while still being allowed to advance and charge. Using the stratagem to auto-advance them 6″ means they can move up to 15″ and still get to charge. Deploy them out of a transport for an extra 3″ move, and you can potentially get a first turn charge on your opponent’s line if you set up near the edge of your own deployment zone.
Not only that, but you also get a mini version of Transhuman Physiology, where you cannot be wounded on a 1 or a 2. This affects all units in your army, including vehicles and helps with their durability. It is very frustrating for an opponent to fail to wound on a roll of a 2 with even their most powerful weaponry. When this comes up, it can really mess up an opponent’s plans and turn the game on its head. In a recent tournament game, my opponent was able to fire at the Patriarch with a unit of Broadsides. Two of his three big guns hit the Patriarch, but he then rolled two 2’s to wound, which would normally go through, but thanks to the Twisted Helix buff, kept the Patriarch alive to charge in and slaughter the Tau units.
This is an incredible Cult Creed that adds value to every unit in your army, and is one of the key reasons to use this Cult.
Warlord Trait- Bio-Alchemist
Adds 1 to the Damage of melee weapons your warlord is equipped with.
A nice trait for a Patriarch to actually give you some strong damage output in combat. Having at least Damage 2 is pretty much essential to deal with most of the threats in the game. The Patriarch gives you re-rolls to wound at good strength and AP, giving you a great way to chew through Marine units and similar threats. A nice upgrade if you have the CP to spare.
Relic- Elixir of the Prime Specimen
Allows you to pick a Genomic Enhancement for the character. If you have a Biophagus in the army, you select 2 genomic enhancements for the bearer to gain.
A great relic for boosting the effectiveness of a character. This obviously works best on the Patriarch, and the first choice should be the 5+ shrug on wounds. For a Twisted Helix Patriarch, this will give you a 4+ invulnerable, a 5+ FNP and you cannot be wounded on a 1 or 2. This gives you a great durability boost and helps keep your warlord alive for longer.
Stratagem- Monstrous Bio-Horrors (1CP)
Use in the Fight Phase on an Abominant or Aberrant unit is selected to fight. Each time an enemy unit is destroyed by an attack from a model in this unit, it counts as two models for the purposes of morale. A model in this unit can choose to gain +1 attack in return for changing the damage characteristic of its weapons to 1.
I’m not a big fan of this stratagem. Gaining bonus casualties for morale is nice, but there are a lot of ways for your opponent to counteract this. Gaining an attack per model is nice, but having to reduce damage to 1 is a poor trade off. Just use Might From Beyond psychic power instead and save your CP.
Psychic Power- Mutagenic Deviation (WC5)
The Twisted Helix power is Mutagenic Deviation. Select one friendly unit within 12″ and visible to the caster. Until the start of your next psychic phase, melee attacks from the unit automatically wound on a 6 to hit.
This is a great psychic power for the army. It is relatively short ranged, but is easy to cast at only warp charge 5. You can get around the low range with the Gestalt Consciousness stratagem, allowing you to cast it from anywhere on the table.
This power obviously works well on units with a high volume of attacks, such as Purestrain Genestealers or Acolyte Hybrids. This is great for sneaking through a few extra wounds, and very useful against tough vehicles and monsters, such as Knights. This power pairs well with Might From Beyond to give an additional attack to each model in the unit, increasing your odds of getting some wounds through on a 6 to hit.
This is a strong power that I always through on a unit for the bonus wounds if I have a spare power to cast in my turn.
Overall
I think that Twisted Helix is one of the best Cult Creeds for the GSC. Even though it has a mediocre stratagem, and decent Relics and Warlord Traits, the core bonus for the creed is enough to make this worth taking. The bonus to damage in combat and increased mobility is incredibly powerful. They also have a nice psychic power to further boost their damage output.
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