Biophagus

Greetings Jenkins. I see you have arranged an appointment to unknowingly serve the Hive Mind FIX YOUR BOWEL PROBLEMS! YES!

What happens when you combine a Haemonculus and a Genestealer with a dash of Just As Planned. The Biophagus is a specialist in gene-manipulation and bio-alchemy, responsible for industrialising the process of contaminating and indoctrinating new recruits into the cult. To that end, they are often found posing as medical staff and aides, where they can infect their victims with new genetic concoctions they have created in order to leave their victims more susceptible to the cult’s subtle influences.

In addition to an autopistol, the Biophagus is armed with the Injector Goad which is a weird staff-sized syringe which can cause some mortal wounds and always wounds non-vehicles on a 2+ with D3 damage. Not too bad considering he is an overglorified nurse. It’s also shaped like the Genestealer symbol. Don’t believe me? Look again. The medical bits are spines, there’s an indent where the “head” connects to the “neck” on the staff, it’s all there!

Overview

As you can imagine, having a Biophagus run rampant and undetected is extremely dangerous for the world's long term stability as you can have an entire population and even the Planetary Defence Force severely compromised if everyone starts to go a tad-bit nuts after a visit from Doctor Ridge-Head over there. Despite their extreme covert importance for the Genestealer Cult, Biophagus are 'doctors' first, warriors second, so they don't do too well in combat. What they can do is to act as a important support unit in a Genestealer uprising, especially for the Genestealer Aberrants that double as his lab rats. Crunchwise, this includes some unique abilities such as Genomic Enhancement which can enhance one friendly Aberrant within 1" of the Biophagus at the end of the Movement Phase. Roll a D6 and if it rolls on a 1, one model from the selected unit is slain. Then roll a D3 and depending on which number you get, you gain the following bonus:

• 1: Enhancement Musculature= +1 Strength
• 2: Enhanced Resilience= +1 Toughness
• 3: Enhanced Aggression= +1 Attack

As you can imagine, Aberrants by themselves are already beefy units, but this ability can theoretically turn your half-breed purple Hulks into a force to be reckoned with, even with the risk that one of your Aberrants will die.

In a nutshell, the Biophagus is a pretty nifty unit, especially when considering he can 'summon' a unique unit called the Alchemicus Familiar. What is the point of this little guy? Well it is there to act as a helpful synergy unit; basically it allows you to roll 2D3 on the Genomic Enhancement and pick the result. It’s only once per battle but that can help add some consistency to the roll and really make that one unit of Aberrants perfect for the job you need them to tackle. Essentially speaking, the Igor to the Biophagus's Dr Frankenstein. The Familiar also acts as a bodyguard of sorts; he can absorb a point of damage if needed or provide a couple of extra S4 attacks in melee.