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I have been holding out on getting some cultists but have finally succumbed and will be hitting ebay on Monday. My plan is to use a 20 man autogun squad to keep on my home objective.

But what have other people found works best with cultists? I am also tempted to get a 10 man cc squad to move up and aosk up overwatch/soak up turn 1 shooting.

As far as i can tell there are basically 2 options:

1) Guard the home objective
2) move forward as a meat shield/mass fire blob

What have been your experiences with these tactics?

They're pretty darn good as a meat shield/fire blob unit considering their points, I've been running one 20 man squad with autoguns to run up midfield & gun down weak infantry, they've surpassed my expectations every time... but if anything assaults them they'll die in a second, which is their job at the end of the day!

Getting them a cover save is key though & I have to admit I've been lucky enough to roll the Fire Shield power for the couple of games I've had with them

I've been running thirty pistol toting cultists with an infiltrating chaos lord on steed

I'm running 15 with 10 Autoguns and a Flamer as a backfield objective holder. While very vulnerable, their numbers should make up for it, make them able to come in from reserve and take the home objective later on in the game.

 Valkyrie wrote:
I'm running 15 with 10 Autoguns and a Flamer as a backfield objective holder. While very vulnerable, their numbers should make up for it, make them able to come in from reserve and take the home objective later on in the game.

This is pretty much what i had in mind. But with 20 including 2 heavy Stubbers for a little extra range. I figure if they get charges then 2D3 flamer hits in overwatch won't make a lot of differece to the outcome. Thats 20 wounds, holding an objective (so ideally a half decent cover save) for less than 130 points. Whats not to like?

What's the fire shield power and where does it come from?

I'm guessing it is Psyker-related

Fire shield is from pyromancy.

30 man autogun blob as a meatsheild put a sorceror with biomancy powers behind make them T4 with FNP and laugh your way to the enemies DZ

Meat shields. I run 10 CC and 10 autoguns usually as a protective husk around a sorcerer or lord. Ranged go first, and maybe get off a couple shots before they die, and the CCs just absorb incoming fire. It's worked surprisingly well. Managed to draw a unit of Plasma Cannon-wielding Dark Angels off to the side and behind obstructions. Kept them tied up for three turns, counting moving to engage, engaging, and moving back into the rest of the field. Totally worth their points.

It sounds ridiculous, but i've been having great success running them as a retinue for abaddon the dark lord himself... I run them 20 with no upgrades and consider them as 20 additional wounds for him.. he's more than capable of killing units by himself and against monstrous creatures you look out sir/allocate every hit onto the cultists against monstrous HQ's, hive tyrants etc it gives you the rerolls to smash them in combat without feeling that your wasting your men by not fighting cos they're trash. You also stick abby at the front so bolter rounds are wounding on 5's then you can take the 2+ though I usually just take the cultists off by look out sirring it.

You can even use them as fodder, for example I used them to ring my army vs drop pods and abby just watched as they were shredded by salamander death but he then waded into the front wrecking their lines.

I know you kinda feel he should have chosen or atleast marines as his guard but I find that there really not needed and it means that decent weapons fired at the unit actually do something. as it is it's not a deathstar just a nifty 24 wound unit with a helllotof teeth .

Only thing, i haven't worked out whether it's an honour or a punishment for the cultists to be assigned to this duty fluff wise!

My weird idea's
The real cute hydra

I split DV with my brother, him being a blood raven guy, and me being a chaos player. so i have a 10 man cc squad, and 10 man autogun squad. i have to say, i put these guys at the front line to be a meatshield, and to also annoy anyone in range for shooting. they aren't the best, but as some other posters say, they do pass expectations. they are able to take down more than a few fire warriors from range and the cc squad is capable of killing terminators if you have enough numbers.

they are cheap and effective for covering up those oh-so-valuable units of yours.

I run mine as allied IG. Less points and more options

 Exergy wrote:
I run mine as allied IG. Less points and more options

true the basic guard squad with a Pgun is 65pts but you still need to buy a IG HQ

I've been running them in a Typhus list as zombies to screen out and tarpit enemy units. This gives my shooty units more time to shoot down the enemy.

Cpt Stubbs wrote:What's the fire shield power and where does it come from?

Yeah as ThatEdGuy said it's a power from the Pyromancy table. Grants a 4+ cover save against shooting that doesn't have the Soul Blaze or Melta special rule, it also grants 2D6 Strength 4 AP- hits when an enemy unit successfully charges the unit (resolved at initiative 10 I think)

jy2 wrote:I've been running them in a Typhus list as zombies to screen out and tarpit enemy units. This gives my shooty units more time to shoot down the enemy.

No doubt zombies are awesome, but how about regular cultists? I noticed you used a few autogun squads in your first game but dropped them in the next two, would you consider adding 1 or 2 in addition to the csm/pm & zombies?

 Chris P Bacon wrote:

jy2 wrote:I've been running them in a Typhus list as zombies to screen out and tarpit enemy units. This gives my shooty units more time to shoot down the enemy.

No doubt zombies are awesome, but how about regular cultists? I noticed you used a few autogun squads in your first game but dropped them in the next two, would you consider adding 1 or 2 in addition to the csm/pm & zombies?

The problem with regular cultists is that they will break unless you have a fearless IC with them. They are ok as objective holders but do not make for good screening units (which is usually how I run mine). That's because they can and will get swept in assault by any half-decent assault unit. I would probably run 1 at most and put my fearless IC with them. Other than that, I usually rely on the rest of my army for offensive firepower. That's not saying that they are bad. It's just that they don't really suit my style of play.

I use them as a second wave alongside some Traitor Guard. Stick them behind a couple of squads of marines, and let the marines be the shield to carry them across the board. My opponents are too busy shooting up the marines to spend too much time on the guard, so they usually make it there intact. If the opposite's the case then you still have the marines to do the damage (as a rule the marines can take the hurt a lot more than T3 humans).

This is just a rehash of my 5th edition tactic of moving up the marines and summoning daemons. Use the marines as decoys as well, everyone seems to think of them as the main threat. ...Yes, my marines are true-scale though, so they do however look a bit more intimidating than the smaller scale humans. =P

 jy2 wrote:

 Chris P Bacon wrote:

jy2 wrote:I've been running them in a Typhus list as zombies to screen out and tarpit enemy units. This gives my shooty units more time to shoot down the enemy.

No doubt zombies are awesome, but how about regular cultists? I noticed you used a few autogun squads in your first game but dropped them in the next two, would you consider adding 1 or 2 in addition to the csm/pm & zombies?

The problem with regular cultists is that they will break unless you have a fearless IC with them. They are ok as objective holders but do not make for good screening units (which is usually how I run mine). That's because they can and will get swept in assault by any half-decent assault unit. I would probably run 1 at most and put my fearless IC with them. Other than that, I usually rely on the rest of my army for offensive firepower. That's not saying that they are bad. It's just that they don't really suit my style of play.

I agree, but there is the tactic for relying on them (as a bubble wrap) to get charged & swept by the opponent, consequently rapid firing what's left with your more valuable units. If you could combine that with an earlier tarpit from zombies you'd have a sufficiently depleted unit once they got to your csm/pm.
IMO one 20, or two 10 man autogun, MoN squad(s) could do this quite well & if they were overlooked by your opponent by the time the tally is maxed, that many ignores amour save shots (although S3) is nothing to scoff at.

 cute-hydra wrote:

. You also stick abby at the front so bolter rounds are wounding on 5's then you can take the 2+ though I usually just take the cultists off by look out sirring it.

Question because I am new to this, don't you use the average toughness when rolling to wound a unit? So having Abby at the front would result in him being effectively toughness 3?

 cute-hydra wrote:
Only thing, i haven't worked out whether it's an honour or a punishment for the cultists to be assigned to this duty fluff wise!

Fluffwise, the cultist would think it is the greatest honour possible short of daemonhood. They would think it was an incredible honour if it was a regular traitor marine, let alone one of the most exalted champions of the 4 Gods. Abaddon wouldn't give it much thought at all. He would quite literally think of them as a gakky speed bump.

Fluffwise, I would think you'd want to be rolling a maxed out squad size with Abby, just because. I like to think of them constantly trying to polish his armour in battle as he storms forward. Them getting cut down by both Abaddon and the enemy with no other goal than maintaining the shine on his armour.

 Chris P Bacon wrote:
I agree, but there is the tactic for relying on them (as a bubble wrap) to get charged & swept by the opponent, consequently rapid firing what's left with your more valuable units. If you could combine that with an earlier tarpit from zombies you'd have a sufficiently depleted unit once they got to your csm/pm.
IMO one 20, or two 10 man autogun, MoN squad(s) could do this quite well & if they were overlooked by your opponent by the time the tally is maxed, that many ignores amour save shots (although S3) is nothing to scoff at.

I suppose there is that strategy. But something to keep in mind. Chaos does not have the "infinite" sacrificial units that Guard and Tyranids do (not really infinite, but they can afford to sacrifice their troops because they can have more than 6 scoring units). Every troop that you sacrifice matters. How chaos gets around this is by having tarpitting troops...zombies (or cultists with a fearless character in it) to tie up assault units for several turns so that the core Chaos army can focus on other units. Chaos just doesn't have the firepower of Tau, where this strategy of dying screens work so well. And once the enemy breaks through the screen, Chaos forces do not have the mobility to get away like Tau jumpsuits can.

MoN cultists can still work as long as you give the opponent more high priority threats. With oblits, havocs, bikers, chaos spawn and the heldrakes, that's easy enough to do. The combination you suggested above is a very good recommendation, especially for those who don't want to run Typhus. However, as Epidemius-Chaos builds gets more popular in competitive play, the better players are going to wise up and take out your troops first. That's why you need a mix of tougher troops (CSM, plague marines) as well as the cheaper cultists. The two working together helps to create a much more balanced Chaos army.

4TheG8erGood wrote:

 cute-hydra wrote:

. You also stick abby at the front so bolter rounds are wounding on 5's then you can take the 2+ though I usually just take the cultists off by look out sirring it.

Question because I am new to this, don't you use the average toughness when rolling to wound a unit? So having Abby at the front would result in him being effectively toughness 3?

Yup. The exception is if he is in a challenge.

Sucks for Abby/Typhus. Also sucks for my T6 Destroyer Lord with a unit of T4 wraiths.

Always with auto guns and maybe the mark of nurgle.

My little auto guns have killed many things simply by mass of fire, and they are great objective campers.

autoguns are a must i play guard aswell as chaos so i understand how much damage mass str 3 shooting can do

Play them like Guardsmen .nuff said

 jy2 wrote:

4TheG8erGood wrote:

 cute-hydra wrote:

. You also stick abby at the front so bolter rounds are wounding on 5's then you can take the 2+ though I usually just take the cultists off by look out sirring it.

Question because I am new to this, don't you use the average toughness when rolling to wound a unit? So having Abby at the front would result in him being effectively toughness 3?

Yup. The exception is if he is in a challenge.

Sucks for Abby/Typhus. Also sucks for my T6 Destroyer Lord with a unit of T4 wraiths.

Thanks for the clarification!

I use them as better Grots. This means I put them in reserve and they come on to claim a home objective close to the beginning of the game. They don't have significant weapons to contribute to the fight, so I don't take more beyond a min sized squad.

Last two games I've run 35 of them with a CC loadout and they've soaked an incredible amount of damage. No one really wants to find out what 105 attacks feels like so they keep soaking up a ton of fire. With a little bit of cover, I've been able to keep them alive for long enough that they're definitely worth the 150 points.

 cute-hydra wrote:

You also stick abby at the front so bolter rounds are wounding on 5's then you can take the 2+ though I usually just take the cultists off by look out sirring it.

you are of course forgetting the fact that when rolling to wound during shooting or assault, you use the majority toughness of the unit, so those bolter rounds should wound abaddon on a 3+ (unless he has a special rule i'm not familiar with)

I am running 30 cultists w/ cc weapons, 3 flamers and a Dark Apostle attached. The Dark Apostle gives them leadership 10 and also Zealot. Not sure if he confers Fearless. Throw in mark of Khorn or Slaneesh for all and its a bit scary (and pricey).

A second unit of 15 with an Aegis Defense Line and Quad gun.