The Gellerpox Infected are a kill team for Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team tabletop skirmish game, and their rules can be found in the Kill Team Annual 2022 book.
The Gellerpox Infected are a special brand of Chaos mutants who come into being when warp drives on Imperial voidships malfunction and let the influences of the Warp corrupt crew and machinery alike on a ship. Infected are bursting with technomagical mutations, combining furnaces, robotics and human mutated flesh into horrifying abominations rampaging through Imperial facilities to spread the Gellerpox disease no matter the cost. The Gellerpox manifests on multiple scales: some members of an Infected kill team are huge monsters, while others are tiny Glitchlings, mites and insects following in the wake of their curse-blessed larger brethren.
In the game, the Gellerpox Infected are an intensely melee-focused kill team with a couple of serious heavy hitters with tons of wounds, but they can also play as a “horde” kill team by spending equipment points to add all sorts of small Chaos bugs to your team to give you a lot of bodies on the battlefield. So if you like playing a kill team with tons of wounds and some seriously gross models to paint, the Gellerpox Infected might be just the kill team for you.
[Note: This article is up to date with the rules changes from the Q3 2023 Balance Dataslate.]
Abilities of the Gellerpox Infected Kill Team
All operatives in the Gellerpox Infected that aren’t added to your kill team as equipment (see below) have the following two (really good) abilities:
Techno-Curse
Techno-Curse gives enemy operatives 1 less attacks for their ranged weapons when they’re close to friendly operatives, or even within 3 inches/Square range (down from 6 inches/Pentagon range before the Balance Dataslate of December 2022) of Glitchlings. Pretty great for a melee kill team, and very useful in the tight confines of Into the Dark missions.
Revoltingly Resilient
This lets operatives roll a dice every time they would lose a wound and ignore that wound on a roll of 6+ (it was 5+ before, but was changed in the Balance Dataslate of December 2022).
All the operatives which are added to your team as equipment have the following ability:
Mutoid Vermin
Operatives with this ability can only make universal actions, can’t Pick Up stuff, can make Fall Back actions for one less Action Point (and other operatives can do the same if they’re close to an operative with this ability). Operatives with this ability also can’t control objectives or be equipped with equipment. They’re essentially living, moving pieces of equipment, not real operatives, but they do give you extra bodies on the battlefield with their own abilities and activations.
Operatives of the Gellerpox Infected Kill Team
Like the Elucidian Starstrider kill team, the Gellerpox Infected kill team is a theme with no customisation available in the squad-building process (apart from adding Mutoid Vermin as equipment), so your team will always consist of precisely the operatives listed below, in the exact amount listed in their parentheses.
Vulgrar Thrice-Cursed (Leader, 1 per kill team)
Vulgrar Thrice-Cursed is the Leader of the Gellerpox Infected kill team, and he is a veritable mountain of an operative. He has a whopping 19 wounds, and even though he only has a 5+ save, the Revoltingly Resilient ability (see above) makes him pretty hard to take down.
He has the Lead the Infection ability which lets him taint an objective marker and gain 1 Command Point from it. This seems to have no other effect than giving you that Command Point, even though it’s worded in a way that could give the impression that “tainting” something meant something specific rules-wise.
It doesn’t matter too much, though, because the real fun on Vulgrar’s dataslate lies in his weapons: Pyregut is a pretty standard flamethrower, but Fleshmelded Weapon is an extremely cool melee weapon with the Engineered Special Rule that lets it select two properties from this list at the beginning of a game: it can get a +1 to its normal or critical damage, the Balanced Special Rule that lets it reroll one attack dice, the Brutal Special Rule that only allows opponents to parry against it with critical hit rolls, the always lovely Lethal 5+ Special Rule or the Rending Critical Hit rule. There are a couple of good combos here, but an easy pick could be taking the Lethal 5+ Special Rule along with the Rending Critical Hit rule so that you have a better chance of scoring a critical and then use Rending to turn a normal hit into an additional critical hit.
Vulgrar Thrice-Cursed is a real lead from the front Leader type, with tons of melee damage potential, survivability and a bonus from being near objectives, so just throw him at the enemy as fast as you can. Just note that he’s so big, Light terrain and other operatives can’t give him Cover!
Bloatspawn (1 per kill team)
Bloatspawn is another huge operative with 18 wounds who’s so big he can’t get into Cover behind Light terrain. He excels at staying in combat and tanking multiple operatives.
His Mutant Tentacles are a short-range ranged weapon which can split its attacks between multiple targets, and its Mutant Claw & Tentacles melee weapon has two profiles: One with 6 attacks and one with 3, but the latter one also has the Swipe Special Rule that allows you to make an extra free attack after an attack action, but always with the second profile and always against another target than your first attack.
In short, both weapons have options for attacking multiple targets, which is handy since Bloatspawn also has the Tentacled Grasp ability that lets you roll a dice every time an enemy operative tries to Fall Back close to Bloatspawn, and then prevent that Fall Back action on a roll of 4+ while still forcing the operative to pay for the Fall Back action. This makes Bloatspawn an ideal candidate for tying down a couple of enemy operatives at the same spot and slowly killing them off while they’re unable to get away, especially because Bloatspawn’s 18 wounds and ability to ignore wounds on a 5+ means he’ll stay in the fight for a long time.
Fleshscreamer (1 per kill team)
The Fleshscreamer is the same as the Bloatspawn when it comes to basic statistics and abilities, but he is enitrely melee-focused. He has the Mutant Fist & Cleaver melee weapon, which has two profiles: Bash and Slash has 5 attacks and 6 critical damage, and Lopping Blow only has 1 attack, but it does 8 normal, 6 critical damage and has the Lethal 5+ Special Rule. Lopping Blow is a really fun attack that can kill enemies in one blow, but since it only has 1 attack and a 66% chance to hit, it’s a bit of a risk to take if you can also take the more consistent damage output of Bash and Slash.
The Fleshscreamer is so terrifying that enemies close to him have to subtract 1 from their Action Point Limit for the purposes of determining control of objectives, and Pick Up actions cost one more Action Point than usual close to him. This means Fleshscreamer is great for guarding objectives, but bear in mind that he also has to pay an extra Action Point to perform Pick Up actions, just like Bloatspawn and Lumberghast (see below).
Lumberghast (1 per kill team)
Lumberghast is the fourth and final megabrute for the Gellerpox Infected kill team. He is just like his brothers, but while the two other non-Leaders are good at staying in one place and killing stuff, Lumberghast is made for staying on the move: His Spiked Charge Unique Action gives him a free Charge action, at the end of which all enemy operatives close to where he ends his charge suffer D3 mortal wounds.
Lumberghast can follow up his charge with his Mutant Claw weapon, which does 7 critical damage, and it can only be parried with critical hit rolls. He is a bit less advanced than the other big hulks, but he’s great at crashing through enemy lines.
Gellerpox Mutant with Frag Grenade and Heavy Axe (1 per kill team)
Gellerpox Mutants trade the insane wounds statistics of the operatives above for a Group Activation of 2, but they all have free Frag Grenades, which is pretty great since those became much harder to get after a Balance Dataslate for the game, and this version is also armed with a Heavy Axe that can only be parried with critical hit rolls.
All Gellerpox Mutants have the Gellercaust Masks ability, which allows them to change all hits that would inflict critical damage on them into normal damage instead, which is a pretty insane ability for an otherwise slightly unremarkable operative. Subverting basic principles in the game such as “critical damage has great value” is always an excellent tool to have in your kill team, so while the Mutants don’t seem as imposing as the big hulks in your team, don’t underestimate them.
Gellerpox Mutant with Frag Grenade, Improvised Weapon and Mutated Limb (2 per kill team)
This version of the Gellerpox Mutant has everything mentioned in the section above, but instead of the Heavy Axe, it has Improvised Weapon & Mutated Limb, which only does 3 critical damage, but it can reroll all of its attack dice.
Glitchlings (4 per kill team)
These little bastards only have 3 wounds, and their melee and ranged weapons are terrible, but they have a 5+ invulnerable save, and they ignore Vantage Points when shots are made against them.
The main function of Glitchlings is to run around and spread the Techno-Curse that worsens enemy ranged weapons, since Glitchlings have a larger aura for that ability than other operatives.
Ploys of the Gellerpox Infected Kill Team
Strategic Ploys
Blessings of Pox
For one Turning Point, this Strategic Ploy gives an operative defending against a shooting attack the ability to turn a failed save into a succesful normal save if the sum of all its other rolled saves in that defence roll is 7 or more, succesfully confirming that the Chaos God Nurgle (who is the god of disease and decay and whose wholy number is 7) had something to do with the outbreak of the Gellerpox. Situational, but thematic and fun.
Blessings of Infection
This Blessing also lasts for one Turning Point, and it lets your operatives retain a failed hit as a succesful normal hit in combat if the total sum of their discarded failed hits in that combat is 3 or more.
Drawn to the Hum
This is a great one: It allows you to pick an objective marker and let every friendly operative close to it perform a free Dash action toward it. You can use it multiple times, but the Command Point cost increases by 1 each time.
Rust Emanations
This makes all enemy operatives act as if Injured when within Engagement Range of a friendly Nightmare Hulk operative (changed from “all friendly operatives” to the Nightmare Hulk in the Q3 2023 Balance Dataslate) for 1 Turning Point (Mutoid Vermin don’t count). The movement penalty from being Injured only counts if an enemy operative begins it activation engaged to a friendly operative.
Tactical Ploys
Pollute Stockpile
This Ploy makes one item on the opponent’s equipment list cost an extra equipment point and be limited to one per battle for one battle.
Barge
This lets one of your big guys (the ones with the Nightmare Hulk keyword) ignore enemy operatives when moving for one activation, so that he can move through them and ignore Engagement Range.
Putrescent Demise
This is a self-destruct button that lets you do 1 mortal wound to every enemy operative around a friendly operative when it is incapacitated. It increases to D3 mortal wounds if the chosen friendly operative has the Nightmare Hulk keyword.
Frightening Onslaught
This lets a Nightmare Hulk friendly operative fight again immediately after making a Fight action in one activation, without paying any more Action Points for it.
Equipment of the Gellerpox Infected Kill Team
The following pieces of equipment are actually operatives, but they just cost equipment points. Note that each of them costs 3 equipment points the first time you select them, but 2 points for subsequent versions of the same operative.
Cursemite
The Cursemite has 2 attacks with the Rending Critical Hit rule and the Feast Special Rule, which adds 1 to its attacks and the Lethal 5+ Special Rule when it is attacking an enemy operative that has less than its starting Wounds left. Like all Mutoid Vermin, it has a Group Activation of 2.
Eyestinger Swarm
The Eyestinger Swarm has a ranged weapon and a melee weapon, but both barely do any damage. Instead, they both have the Stun Critical Hit rule, so use them to debuff your enemies.
Sludge-Grub
The Sludge-Grub is slower than the other Mutoid Vermin, but its Acid Spit ranged weapon has Armour Penetration 1 and the Splash 1 Critical Hit rule which deals mortal wounds to everyone around the target, and the Sludge-Grub’s Caustic Demise ability has a chance to deal a mortal wound to everyone around it when it is incapacitated, so even though it looks really small, it is actually a tiny mortal wounds-dealing killing machine.
Tac Ops of the Gellerpox Infected Kill Team
The Gellerpox Infected kill team has the Security and Seek and Destroy Archetypes, giving it access to the Tac Ops associated with it in the Core Rulebook. In addition to this, it also has access to the following faction-specific Tac Ops.
Rampant Nightmare
This Tac Op gives you one point for a Nightmare Tally every time an enemy operative loses a wound from something a Nightmare Hulk operative does within Engagement Range of it (so attacks or mortal wounds from a Lumberghast’s Spiked Charge Unique Action, for example). If you reach a Nightmare Tally of 30, you score a Victory Point, and if your reach a Tally of 50, you score another one.
Pestilent Hosts
This Tac Op places a Pestilent Host token on the battlefield every time an enemy operative is incapacitated, on the exact spot where that operative fell. Your operatives can then move over to that token and control it to add it to a Pestilent Host token pool. When you have as many or more tokens than a third of how many operatives the enemy fielded at the beginning of the game, you score a Victory Point, and you score another if your pool increases to as many or more than two thirds of the enemy starting force.
Tech Infection
This Tac Op lets friendly operatives make a Tech Infection action for 1 Action Point to tech infect an objective marker you control. You score 1 Victory point when you have tech infected 3 or more objective markers, and another when you’ve infected 4 or more.
Playing the Gellerpox Infected Kill Team
The Gellerpox Infected kill team is a melee team first and foremost. You use Mutoid Vermin and Glitchlings to pave the way for your big Nightmare Hulks and Vulgrar so that they can get stuck in melee – preferably on an objective – and then you try to make sure nothing is left standing.
In a way, the thing to keep in mind before choosing the Gellerpox Infected as your kill team is that it’s a weird hybrid between an elite team and a horde team: It can have quite a lot of bodies on the battlefield due to Mutoid Vermin, but almost all of the power lies with your really big operatives, so think of the Hulks as “battleships” with a bunch of “fighter planes” circling around them, only instead everyone in this metaphor is actually a terrifying techno-mutant.
The Gellerpox Infected also excel at debuffing your opponent, which isn’t that common among kill teams: Techno-Curse makes the game really tough for ranged enemy teams in close quarters (perfect for Into The Dark missions), the Rust Emanations Strategic Ploy makes everyone in Engagement Range of your operatives Injured, and Eyestinger Swarms are great at Stunning enemy operatives. It’s a pretty powerful combo to be this strong in melee while also making everyone else weaker in close quarters, so if you’re headed into the Gallowdark (the new indoors campaign setting for the game), you can’t go wrong with the Gellerpox Infected