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Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Genestealer Cult Teaser Pictures Analysis (Rumours)

I typically don't go in for rumour posts, but I feel like all the attempts to decode the Genestealer Cult teasers posted on GW's 40K Facebook Page have been a little amateur hour. A lot of people are talking about seeing Power Loaders and mechs in those grainy, shadowy photos, and I think it's just optical wishlisting.

I ran a couple of the photos through Photoshop's ENHANCE! filter, and here's what I came up with:

First up, we got this one, which came out yesterday:



 In the foreground, we pretty clearly have a dude with a massive mining saw. Some have speculated this is one of the big, mutated Aberants from the Overkill box, but if you look at the top of it, the figure clearly has the squared-off mining armour that the various hybrids wear. In the following, ENHANCED photo, you can also see the figure's left hand holding the saw at the top. This version also lets you see clearly that there are TWO blades on the saw, which looks pretty scary.

You can also notice the squat, twisted leg beneath the figure, and the guard over the saw blade. Looks awesome, and can't wait to get my hands on one! The purple cast to the head and hand, as well as the twisted legs, lead me to believe this is one of the more genestealer-looking hybrids, not one of the human-looking ones (Are we calling them acolytes now?).

More interesting is the image behind this guy, which is far harder to make out. Here's my ENHANCED version:

THAT looks to me like a hybrid who has actually realized how to wear the Geordie-Laforge-inspired visor on the mining laser model from Overkill.

I love the visor and HATE that head since he's got the visor flipped up across his forehead and not over his eyes. THIS model, on the other hand, looks great, and something about the head leads me to wonder if he's actually wearing a full, closed mining helmet that the visor is a part of. It's hard to tell much else. The model clearly has 2 arms, but might have three as the right arm is raised, and we normally get this on models that have a third arm sprouting below. There's another hybrid beside him in the mining armour, and they're standing in front of something that looks like a Rhino but is probably the new Cult wheeled vehicle/transport (?) that we see in drawing form the Genestealer Cult teaser video.
Let's talk more about that wheeled vehicle :)

Though I didn't LOVE it in the above still from the teaser, it had potential, and I'm a little more in love with it in the teaser GW posted today:
 Specifically, once I ENHANCED this one:
I believe that the weird, wheeled thing on the left  of the photo is clearly this new Cult car thing. People are calling it the "Limo" out of respect to old cult fluff, but it's clearly some kind of utilitarian mining truck, which I LOVE.

The limos that the original genestealer cults would roll around in were kind of hilarious, and we all feel some nostalgia for them. However, the design of the original cult models was really...weird, without any real explanation for it. Thus, they could get away with using a really weird form of transport.

However, with the new Genestealer Cult, GW has done such an excellent job of explaining their weird garb as mining armour, and this new codex promises to carry that theme through with the cult using repurposed tools like mining lasers and saws to wage war (heck, they even say it explicitly on the quotation overlaid on this teaser image!).

I LOVE this idea, and I can't wait to see how far GW takes it. It is perfect for a resistance force that doesn't have military support. However, if you try to shoehorn a limo in there, just for wish fulfillment of us codgers old enough to remember the original cult, it's not going to make any sense within the new aesthetic of the cult.

If you're really hurting for a limo, just field one to count as the new mining truck that the cult is using :)

From this silhouette, I really like the look of this new mining truck! I was worried it would come out a bit too much like the Taurox, which I feel is far too tall and a definite tipping hazard. This truck looks more wide and squat, which I'm excited about.

Back to the image, the other fun thing we see in there is a solid confirmation that Genestealer Cults have access to Leman Russ tanks! YES!
I'm sure there will be some rules about them breaking periodically to represent the fact that the cult just stole them from the Imperium, but I'm ok with that. I have little love for the Leman Russ model itself, but having its slot in the Genestealer Cult list allows me to shoehorn in a converted Mechanicus Dune Crawler as some kind of big mech mining rig/tank. YAY!






The final bit of this second teaser image is the hardest one to parse:
I think this is another view of the new truck. I think we're seeing the knee/shin of one of the riders on top, and the turret that's going to be on the thing. The turret looks to me like twin linked autocannons with banana magazines curving up over them. We can also see the railings of what I'm assuming is an open crew compartment on top of the truck.

And that's about all I have. What do you all think of these leaks? Are you getting as stoked about the Genestealer Cult release as I am?

4 comments:

  1. Very impressive digital manipulation, thanks!

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  2. My only concern is how they include purestrain Genestealers into the army list. I fear they may be very limited as the current cult rules had them only in pairs. With a fair few stealers painted up I can field quite an army but if they're limited within the faction it's going to be a while before I can get into it.

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  3. "Are you getting as stoked about the Genestealer Cult release as I am? "
    Yes... I am getting soaked about this release... so soaked
    Finally something to my Tyranids thats not coming out of a thin white dwarf or forces them into odd formations
    Looks like for once we might not be getting the shaft

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  4. Sure am, Sebastian.

    I've been bad at blogging lately, but I've been doing lotsa work on my Cult and documenting it on my Instagram https://www.instagram.com/modernsynthesist/

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