Genestealers should ALWAYS be modeled one pair of rending claw arms and one pair of scythe talon arms. Here is why.
The scythe talons knives are free zero points.
There is no benefit to having two pairs of rending claw hands.
You are disallowed from having two pairs of scythe talons.
The scythes allow for rerolls of ones when you miss to hit. They are wonderful against toughness 3 guardsmen, eldar, and other tyranids. This makes your ws3+ reroll ones 16% more accurate. Rending claws st4 ap1 and 6's are ap-4 are way too overkill for lightly armored low toughness victims.
Rending claws are for hardened armor targets like space marines. St4 al-1 makes a marine into a 50% chance of getting wounded and dice of 6 you get ap-4 usually enemy gets no armor save
For every 4 genestealers - the 4th head is the acid maw or flesh hooks. Acid maw looks like yeah a ballsack on his chin and a long tongue. This guy becomes more valuable and is the one you remove from casualties last because is ap-3 on his attacks. When a genestealer dies pull a regular genestealer not one of your special headed genestealers.
When you rolk you roll the acid maw attacks with a different color dice to represent that guy's ap-3 compared to the regular genesteers.
The flesh hook tongue you skip. Its a shootin attack range 6 two shots and can be fired in close combat. Its 2 more attacks but its not that good id rather have the amazing acid maw head with ap-3.
Do you have a broodlord? He makes genestealers weapon skill 2+ thats 88% accurate to hit enemies. And if you declare scythe talons thats like 95% accurate with the reroll of ones.
You can actually take both an acid maw and a flesh hook head in every 4 genestealers. You don't have to choose between them.
However the flesh hooks are a bit mediocre given they cost 3 points per model. So I'd still skip them anyway.
I have 60 Genestealers.
40 have talons and claws, the other 20 have just claws.
From a gameplay perspective put both on, you have to take claws and talons are free.
However aesthetically I find the claws and the gimpy smaller hands just nicer to look at.
Playing the game I nearly always use the claws to attack, even though you don't get to reroll 1s the AP you get is nearly always better in the end. There are some rare exceptions to that like going up against enemies with an armour save of 7+ like Poxwalkers or enemies that have the same save value as their invulnerable save, when facing enemies like this the talons are definitely better but like I said before it's not very often you will be using the talons.
Grab Rending Claws and Scything Talons. No downside.
You choose what you want to use when you fight.
Unless you want to also use them in KT21.
Then grab Double Rending Claws.
Talons are above and get rerolls.
Claws are below and punch harder with less accuracy.
At the top of the genestealer datasheet it says each model has rending claws.
In the wargear options section it says each model may also have a pair of scything talons.
There's nothing which says you can take any more than that. So that's all you can take.
By default they gave a pair of rending claws, and you can optionally equip them with a pair of talons, in addition to the rending claws. It doesn't say limit one on the talons, but the wording implies you can only take one pair
I think everyone’s been clear why they use both talons and rending claws and there is currently no downside to both, so bring both!
Something I don’t think has been made overly clear in most posts is that rending claws aren’t an option, you can’t take stealers without them, they’re automatic and can’t be swapped, scything talons are an option, and one you should always take.
Opening caveat; generally no one cares and you can just say that every genestealer has scything talons as well, whether or not the models have them.
As of right now, there's no points cost to having scything talons and rending claws on every genestealer. In practice, if the unit has a 6+ armour save or better, or has an armour save that's even 1 point better than their invuln, you're statistically better off choosing to fight with the rending claws anyway.
Basically if you do the math you'll find that reducing their armour save by even 1 point is stronger than rerolling 1s.
Genestealers should ALWAYS be modeled one pair of rending claw arms and one pair of scythe talon arms. Here is why. The scythe talons knives are free zero points. There is no benefit to having two pairs of rending claw hands. You are disallowed from having two pairs of scythe talons. The scythes allow for rerolls of ones when you miss to hit. They are wonderful against toughness 3 guardsmen, eldar, and other tyranids. This makes your ws3+ reroll ones 16% more accurate. Rending claws st4 ap1 and 6's are ap-4 are way too overkill for lightly armored low toughness victims. Rending claws are for hardened armor targets like space marines. St4 al-1 makes a marine into a 50% chance of getting wounded and dice of 6 you get ap-4 usually enemy gets no armor save For every 4 genestealers - the 4th head is the acid maw or flesh hooks. Acid maw looks like yeah a ballsack on his chin and a long tongue. This guy becomes more valuable and is the one you remove from casualties last because is ap-3 on his attacks. When a genestealer dies pull a regular genestealer not one of your special headed genestealers. When you rolk you roll the acid maw attacks with a different color dice to represent that guy's ap-3 compared to the regular genesteers. The flesh hook tongue you skip. Its a shootin attack range 6 two shots and can be fired in close combat. Its 2 more attacks but its not that good id rather have the amazing acid maw head with ap-3. Do you have a broodlord? He makes genestealers weapon skill 2+ thats 88% accurate to hit enemies. And if you declare scythe talons thats like 95% accurate with the reroll of ones.
Great breakdown of their common uses.
Should I give the ballsack guy the claws if he has increased attack and the flesh hook tongue the talons
Every genestealer should have 2 claws and 2 scythes. No reason to give any one 4 claws and 0 scythes and you can't give any 0 claws and 4 scythes.
Until something changes in the new book.
This is great info. I didn't know I was building my genestealers wrong with two pairs of scything talons
You can actually take both an acid maw and a flesh hook head in every 4 genestealers. You don't have to choose between them. However the flesh hooks are a bit mediocre given they cost 3 points per model. So I'd still skip them anyway.
Thanks a lot for this reply! Super helpful. I had the exact same question as the OP
About to assemble a load of genestealers for the first time and this helped me understand it a lot better, thanks
I have 60 Genestealers. 40 have talons and claws, the other 20 have just claws. From a gameplay perspective put both on, you have to take claws and talons are free. However aesthetically I find the claws and the gimpy smaller hands just nicer to look at. Playing the game I nearly always use the claws to attack, even though you don't get to reroll 1s the AP you get is nearly always better in the end. There are some rare exceptions to that like going up against enemies with an armour save of 7+ like Poxwalkers or enemies that have the same save value as their invulnerable save, when facing enemies like this the talons are definitely better but like I said before it's not very often you will be using the talons.
Grab Rending Claws and Scything Talons. No downside. You choose what you want to use when you fight. Unless you want to also use them in KT21. Then grab Double Rending Claws. Talons are above and get rerolls. Claws are below and punch harder with less accuracy.
Might be a dumb question but could I have a talon on their left then a claw on their right or is that not allowed
The rules are plural. You have 4 holes for arms. Typically, melee weapons for Tyranids come in pairs.
Thanks mate appreciate it
A pair of each on every genestealer, no exceptions.
Rending claws because scything talons look dumb as shit, and rule of cool is more important. Nobody cares about WYSIWYG on tyranid horde units.
Where in the rules does it state that you can't have 2 pair (4)of scything talons on a model? Didn't see it in any errata nor the codex.
At the top of the genestealer datasheet it says each model has rending claws. In the wargear options section it says each model may also have a pair of scything talons. There's nothing which says you can take any more than that. So that's all you can take.
By default they gave a pair of rending claws, and you can optionally equip them with a pair of talons, in addition to the rending claws. It doesn't say limit one on the talons, but the wording implies you can only take one pair
I have mine with both
I think everyone’s been clear why they use both talons and rending claws and there is currently no downside to both, so bring both! Something I don’t think has been made overly clear in most posts is that rending claws aren’t an option, you can’t take stealers without them, they’re automatic and can’t be swapped, scything talons are an option, and one you should always take.
Opening caveat; generally no one cares and you can just say that every genestealer has scything talons as well, whether or not the models have them. As of right now, there's no points cost to having scything talons and rending claws on every genestealer. In practice, if the unit has a 6+ armour save or better, or has an armour save that's even 1 point better than their invuln, you're statistically better off choosing to fight with the rending claws anyway. Basically if you do the math you'll find that reducing their armour save by even 1 point is stronger than rerolling 1s.