Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I am trying to determine how I plan to field my cultists. They come with either a auto pistol and close combat weapon or with an autogun. I just do not see them being viable in close combat. I mean sure if you field a blob of them (35 max or something like that) that is a heck of a lot of attacks, but is it worth it? Or is it better to just take a huge blob of them with Autoguns and rain down guard style fire power.

So, how are you planning on fielding your Cultists and why.

Well it's really tough to talk on this subject w/o official rules, but assuming http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-berDJTN8lLA/UEOImxSDNoI/AAAAAAAAKa4/0DJ6GtjivrE/s1600/Cultist+Screenshot+Cropped.jpg is anywhere near true, I will try. Honestly I disagree with you on their close combat abilities. I will run 30 with cc weapon and pistol, 3 flamers, power weapon on the champion-thingy, and Mark of Khorne. That's 4 attacks per cultist and 5 for the champ on the charge. Or almost a 1:1 attacks to points ratio (but who's counting?). Add in a Dark Apostle (for fearless) and you have one hell of a threat (for ludicrously cheap - I'll do the math later, class now).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nvm sadly no Mark of Khorne :( But the squad still has 3 flamers, 78 normal attacks on the charge, and 4 power weapon attacks for 125 points (135 with frag grenades). That's a .65:1 ratio w/o the frags and a .6/1 ratio w/ the frags. Add in an assumed 2 or 3 hits apiece with the flamers and I defy someone to find a unit that gets better than that.

But really please do... I wanna run it.

The main issue I find there is the doubt that the pistol-CCW squad you made will ever GET to combat anyone.

After all, anything heavier then laser pointers will mow them down, and even laser pointers wont do a bad job at it with proper commands.

They are a meatshield unit, nothing more. if you need a meatshield though, i doubt you will find any cheeper. (30 bodies for only 100 points? sweet!)

Sure you can have some nice weapons in the mix, but thats not the importart factor, the part where they shine is that you need to spend valuble bullets on them.

They aren't meant ot go kill things in close combat, or at range for that matter. They are a tarpit/speed bump/bubble wrap and so you should expect them to do much better, especially considering their cost.

Cheap troops are rarely seen at 40k battle fields. They are eventually on par with Gaunts and Orks when it comes to unit size.
As said, such units are perfect tarpit squads if they don't run away.

 Godless-Mimicry wrote:
They aren't meant ot go kill things in close combat, or at range for that matter. They are a tarpit/speed bump/bubble wrap and so you should expect them to do much better, especially considering their cost.

Or going to ground on an objective in some fortified ruins. That's where they're really gonna shine.

 TheNameless wrote:

 Godless-Mimicry wrote:
They aren't meant ot go kill things in close combat, or at range for that matter. They are a tarpit/speed bump/bubble wrap and so you should expect them to do much better, especially considering their cost.

Or going to ground on an objective in some fortified ruins. That's where they're really gonna shine.

Is there a way for Chaos to fortify a ruin? After all, they have lost all their TechMarines.

They have warpsmiths.

When the codex drops, we'll find out, I suppose.

 kronk wrote:
They have warpsmiths.

When the codex drops, we'll find out, I suppose.

They had warpsmiths but not in the current incarnation of the codex.

 wuestenfux wrote:

 kronk wrote:
They have warpsmiths.

When the codex drops, we'll find out, I suppose.

They had warpsmiths but not in the current incarnation of the codex.

I'm not following you. The codex that drops on October 6th has Warpsmiths. We'll find out what they do this weekend.

 wuestenfux wrote:

 kronk wrote:
They have warpsmiths.

When the codex drops, we'll find out, I suppose.

They had warpsmiths but not in the current incarnation of the codex.

Why would that matter? He's talking about Cultists, which aren't part of the current dex, they're part of the Codex coming out this weekend.

There is def gonna be warpsmiths soon, weather or not they can fortify we'll have to wait to see, I'm guessing yes... but I haven't read it in any solid rumors.

Cultists are probably going to be a great objective grab unit either way though.

If they are fearless, yes. Otherwise, it'd be way too easy to force LD checks on them.

I'm thinking of adding anywhere between twenty and thirty cultists, a dark apostle and then a large havoc squad to my chaos daemons. Not overly pricey - around 350 points only. It can add some balance to most daemon lists. I would rather have twenty-five cultists over six PBs or six horrors. Even the five point flamers are pretty good. They will kill something on overwatch if a squad of Meqs wants to assault.

From what I have seen so far from leaked pages, I would say they are your tarpit / backfeild obj holders.(The cultist page that was on Faeit's website was hard to read though).
Also the Warpsmith I belive can NOT bolster any cover but he does degrade some. So where Techmarines add +1 to a ruin in their DZ, Warpsmiths subtract 1 from a ruin somewhere else on the board. (Dont know if it can be in opponents DZ or not though).

I plan to use typhus/ plague marines so Zombies is where it is at for me.

Other times I will probably use them as just a mass of expendable troops.

I think if your running cultists a Dark Apostle will be almost mandatory. I have hopes that his marks will affect cultists he joins...

 Leth wrote:
I plan to use typhus/ plague marines so Zombies is where it is at for me.

Other times I will probably use them as just a mass of expendable troops.

I'm doing the same thing. 35 FNP/Fearless zombies for a 150 points.. thank ya Papa.
I'm thinking I'm going to be using the mantic zombies mixed with some of the melee cultists, appropriately GSed of course. What models do you think you'll be using, the GW ones?

 Ixidor13 wrote:
Well it's really tough to talk on this subject w/o official rules, but assuming http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-berDJTN8lLA/UEOImxSDNoI/AAAAAAAAKa4/0DJ6GtjivrE/s1600/Cultist+Screenshot+Cropped.jpg is anywhere near true, I will try. Honestly I disagree with you on their close combat abilities. I will run 30 with cc weapon and pistol, 3 flamers, power weapon on the champion-thingy, and Mark of Khorne. That's 4 attacks per cultist and 5 for the champ on the charge. Or almost a 1:1 attacks to points ratio (but who's counting?). Add in a Dark Apostle (for fearless) and you have one hell of a threat (for ludicrously cheap - I'll do the math later, class now).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nvm sadly no Mark of Khorne :( But the squad still has 3 flamers, 78 normal attacks on the charge, and 4 power weapon attacks for 125 points (135 with frag grenades). That's a .65:1 ratio w/o the frags and a .6/1 ratio w/ the frags. Add in an assumed 2 or 3 hits apiece with the flamers and I defy someone to find a unit that gets better than that.

But really please do... I wanna run it.

from the photos of the codex, those rules are def not true. The entry is for 9 dudes + a sergeant for 50 points! Significantly worse than IG infantry squads.

Secondly if they cannot gain fearless or at least stubborn relatively easily, these things are not going to be something for combat. They will run up, charge, do a few wounds but get mopped, break and die.

 Sigvatr wrote:
If they are fearless, yes. Otherwise, it'd be way too easy to force LD checks on them.

Doubt they will be fearless at 3 points a piece. That might make them one of the strongest troop choices in the game.

 Stoffer wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
If they are fearless, yes. Otherwise, it'd be way too easy to force LD checks on them.

Doubt they will be fearless at 3 points a piece. That might make them one of the strongest troop choices in the game.

That scan is wrong; cultist cost 10p base and 4p for addtional cultists (up to 25 more).

They do however get fearless and fnp if you include Typhus. But they lose the ability to shoot.

 Darkseid wrote:

 Stoffer wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
If they are fearless, yes. Otherwise, it'd be way too easy to force LD checks on them.

Doubt they will be fearless at 3 points a piece. That might make them one of the strongest troop choices in the game.

That scan is wrong; cultist cost 10p base and 4p for addtional cultists (up to 25 more).

They do however get fearless and fnp if you include Typhus. But they lose the ability to shoot.

No, you get 10 for 50pts, and then 4 for any additionals; not 10pts base.

So basically if you run 35 cultists which is 150 points and add a Dark Apostle which if you read the scans right is 105 and if he doesn't have to take any other upgrades thats a tough unit for 255 points.

Who know what kind of shenanigans you could do with them and other bonuses.

 Chaos Santa wrote:
So basically if you run 35 cultists which is 150 points and add a Dark Apostle which if you read the scans right is 105 and if he doesn't have to take any other upgrades thats a tough unit for 255 points.

Who know what kind of shenanigans you could do with them and other bonuses.

walk up with 255 points of nasty unit+character
challenge
cultist champion accepts, dies
next round challenge
Dark Apostle accepts and dies, unit breaks.

Sure if your looking for a a fight with them but I thought we were talking about them as great objective holders that would be fearless and hard to move, maybe even tarpitters.

 Exergy wrote:

 Chaos Santa wrote:
So basically if you run 35 cultists which is 150 points and add a Dark Apostle which if you read the scans right is 105 and if he doesn't have to take any other upgrades thats a tough unit for 255 points.

Who know what kind of shenanigans you could do with them and other bonuses.

walk up with 255 points of nasty unit+character
challenge
cultist champion accepts, dies
next round challenge
Dark Apostle accepts and dies, unit breaks.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but characters are only eligible to make/accept challenges if they are engaged in combat. The brb specifically states that in order to be engaged in combat you must be in base contact with an enemy model or within 2" of a model in base to base after you pile in at the fight sub phase.

You can easily hide your character in a sea of 35 bodies and deny the charging unit from issuing a challenge for a turn or 2, and then they have to take another turn killing the character when it's able to be challenged. Add the FnP to the zombies and you have a nice cheap tarpit unit IMO

I am painting up my dark vengence ones as my nurgle cultists/plague zombies, however I am going to make them suitably sickly. That is for 20 of them per squad. However for the other 10-15 per squad I will find some other more zombie like model(not the GW zombies, they look awful) within the range to use to mix it up a little bit.

Thanks BarBoBot for that info. Thats the greatness hidden in the cultist rules.

It's worth noting that the Dark Apostle only needs to be within 6" of the unit to confer his Ld too, so if the units gets bogged down, he doesn't have to be bogged down too (I hope people don't think he is Fearless, because he isn't).

I was under the impression of a rumor I heard Godless-Mimicry that he was or could get it to confer to the unit.

Though it seems like you have more knowledge or are able to read the scans that are out better, so if you could enlighten us what the Dark Apostle can do and why to take him?