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A chaos army makes planet fall and starts war against the Imperial Guard. I'm curious about the bulk of the chaos infantry. Is it mostly chaos space marines? I know I've read in the lexicanium that cultists from a previously conquered planet will be transported back to live on a demon world or join a warband.

Do cultists make up a large part of a warband's soldiers or is their presence predominantly just the cult that may already exist on the planet?

Finally, are cultists and chaos slaves the same thing or are chaos slaves other humans who would otherwise oppose Chaos?

I think it depends on the legion. Iron Warriors, for example, travel with a contingent of slave labor and human conscripts that they use as cannon fodder. It's not always a cult on the planet, they are basically a catch-all term for the groups of riff-raff that accompany a CSM warband and tend to the menial labor and such.

I think Cults would make up a large part of Chaos warbands. But as Wayne says, some will have comparatively much larger Cults.

Remember that Chaos also uses Cruisers and other void craft that have to be crewed by tens of thousands of menials. Alternatively, if they use warp craft, they'll also need a source of sacrifice.

There are a lot more cultists than Chaos Marines in the galaxy. I'd think the bigger difference between CSM factions would be how much they hang out with/fight alongside their Cultists. The Word Bearers have Marines leading Cultist warbands, for instance, but I don't see the Iron Warriors doing much with their Cultists beyond leaving them out front as human shields.

Cultists are never part of Chaos warbands. Instead they're often led by Dark Apostles. Sometimes they will form a cult and follow a Helbrute, but usually they just combine their arms in a detachment.

This is very much a 'how long is a piece of string' question, it's like asking what the TO&E is for the average American motorcycle gang. No two warbands will have the same makeup even if they're from the same legion, the Word Bearers are one of the more regimented legions and even their Hosts can vary from company to chapter sized. A warbands fleet and support assets are going to vary just as much, and likely independent of the size of the primary fighting force.

 Gashrog wrote:
...like asking what the TO&E is for the average American motorcycle gang...

This is a brilliant analogy, may I borrow it?

The irony that Chaos is suppose to be the "anything goes" faction and yet we're stuck with rigid formations and detachments.

At least Traitor's Hate solved some of that.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Gashrog wrote:
...like asking what the TO&E is for the average American motorcycle gang...

This is a brilliant analogy, may I borrow it?

Certainly!

Depends on the warband. Alpha Legion and Word Bearers use many cultists, albeit in different ways, while Death Guard and Black Legion probably not so much. Go with what you like.

Well let me tell you this, cant swing a dead cultist with out hitting one thats for sure.

I guess it would depend on if you're asking about frontline combat or an entire siege of a planet. I think it goes without saying that cultists (or slaves, or slave servitors etc.) would form the vast majority of the actual manpower of a fleet/landing army.

Definitely of a fleet. A cruiser-class vessel requires a crew in the tens of thousands - which when it's only going to be carrying a hundred or so astartes (plus wargear and landing craft) means that even a nominally 'astartes' warfleet can muster ten or a hundred times the number of astartes in armed slaves if so inclined.

In the whole galaxy there are what, a few million chaos marines? Cultists, rebels etc eould have to form the overwhelming majority of the armies of chaos; like millions for each chaos marine.

I think that the main Legion that would utilize their own cultists would be the Word Bearers. Iron Warriors have their own slaves that they use. In Storm of Iron they also use Imperial Guard that they have captured and drive them forward as cannon fodder. In Battle of the Fang the Thousand Sons had trained up the population of a planet and used them as a new version of their heresy era Spireguard, but I don't know if you would class them as cultists or not. The Violators broke out the inmates from a prison and used them. So I don't think the human elements are necessarily cultists

A Chaos invasion imo is what usually draws out the Cults that might be living on the planet. Due to the malign effects of Chaos taint you seem to get a lot of cross over from the Imperium to forces of Chaos. Like during the Siege of Vraks. You also then have a lot of renegade guard and cult elements that latch on to Chaos fleets as they go on their own rampages. So you might get previously free roaming traitor humans come under the command of a powerful warlord.

The Legion of the Damned story gives a good account of how a chaos fleet invading a world is built up. Predominantly it is a mish mash of human elements with a dash of Space Marine goodness.

The Night Lords series is also a good source for humans under Chaos enslavement. Like locorno24 says you need thousands of slaves to power your ships and maintain your wargear. Most, probably, would still be dead against Chaos, but speaking out, usually gets you dead.

I wouldn't use cultists in my Alpha Legion army. If they came together to fight a battle it would be the type of fight Astartes were designed for where human allies in the immediate area would be useless or get in the way. The only time I'd imagine them fighting alongside cultists/traitor guard would be if the humans are the army and the CSMs are just there to make sure everything goes to plan

Cultists are the meat shields of the chaos army so they are very common thats what most battle in the eye of terror are over

I always wonder how Cultists of Nurgle are supposed to "live" alongside plague marines/ Nurgle Daemons and on plague worlds. Do they have to wear gas masks all the time or do they let them down immediately, pray to Nurgle and some 10% of them actually survive nurgles blessings and the other 90% come back as Zombies?
Newer fluff seems to hint that the Death Guard or at least Typhus' forces are accompanied by large amounts of Zombies.

According to the Black legion supplement there seem to be quite a lot of cultists, as for every major chaos incursion you have to sacrifice some millions of them . The only Legion I can think of that might not use cultists to a larger extent could be the Night lords. They don't really belong to chaos or a specific god anyway so which chaos cultist should follow them?

Cultists is a bit of a catch-all term, though it should probably only be used for Chaos-worshipping cults, and not just any non-Astartes auxiliary force. Cultists are very commonly used by the Alpha Legion in form of highly trained saboteurs and operatives, the Word Bearers have their mobs of religious crazies, Iron Warriors (and Death Guard?) have cannon fodder etc. Any Warband/Legion have different traditions and strategies when it comes to their auxiliary forces, but as a whole, there's a lot more human followers than post-human followers of Chaos.

 Snake Tortoise wrote:
I wouldn't use cultists in my Alpha Legion army. If they came together to fight a battle it would be the type of fight Astartes were designed for where human allies in the immediate area would be useless or get in the way. The only time I'd imagine them fighting alongside cultists/traitor guard would be if the humans are the army and the CSMs are just there to make sure everything goes to plan

That's currently how my CSM/Renegade list works. CSM Allied detachment, Black Legion Cyclopia Cabal, and an Unending Host. A single squad of marines and heaps of cannon fodder.

Time 2 Roll wrote:
A chaos army makes planet fall and starts war against the Imperial Guard. I'm curious about the bulk of the chaos infantry. Is it mostly chaos space marines? I know I've read in the lexicanium that cultists from a previously conquered planet will be transported back to live on a demon world or join a warband.

Do cultists make up a large part of a warband's soldiers or is their presence predominantly just the cult that may already exist on the planet?

Finally, are cultists and chaos slaves the same thing or are chaos slaves other humans who would otherwise oppose Chaos?

Chaos Space Marines appear to be even less numerous (proportionally) than loyalist counterparts. I think that for mass battles the bulk are mortal chaos followers (maybe even of other species), while slaves may be cultists unfit for combat and used as workforce and/or cannon fodder.

In storm of iron.

There are few hundred marines.

And one nights assault on a breach costs 6000 ish cultists lives.
One night of a long seige. Don,t even take the outer Bastians with that.

They have tens of thousands of basically trained soldier cultest
And many thousands of slave labour.

Plus herding captives as cannon fodder.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Gashrog wrote:
...like asking what the TO&E is for the average American motorcycle gang...

This is a brilliant analogy, may I borrow it?

I like this as well!

 AnomanderRake wrote:
There are a lot more cultists than Chaos Marines in the galaxy. I'd think the bigger difference between CSM factions would be how much they hang out with/fight alongside their Cultists. The Word Bearers have Marines leading Cultist warbands, for instance, but I don't see the Iron Warriors doing much with their Cultists beyond leaving them out front as human shields.

It's actually the other way around.
Word Bearers use fanatical cultists as bullet catchers for themselves and their summoned daemons.
Iron Warriors organize their cultists to load and fire artillery, build siege works, and man secondary defensive lines.
Alpha Legion use Cultists to do just about everything. They also surgically alter space marines to look more like regular humans to lead cultists more effectively.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Time 2 Roll wrote:
A chaos army makes planet fall and starts war against the Imperial Guard. I'm curious about the bulk of the chaos infantry. Is it mostly chaos space marines? I know I've read in the lexicanium that cultists from a previously conquered planet will be transported back to live on a demon world or join a warband.

Do cultists make up a large part of a warband's soldiers or is their presence predominantly just the cult that may already exist on the planet?

Finally, are cultists and chaos slaves the same thing or are chaos slaves other humans who would otherwise oppose Chaos?

Depends entirely on the character of the leader of the warband and the location. There aren't a lot of humans living in the eye of terror, so war bands that operate from there will not have too many.
War bands that operate far from the eye of terror might easily have a lot of cultists.

Some warbands might not have any cultists.
Some warbands might be just 1 space marine and a million cultists.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
The irony that Chaos is suppose to be the "anything goes" faction and yet we're stuck with rigid formations and detachments.

At least Traitor's Hate solved some of that.

Only in the tabletop game. This is the Background forum.

In the backgroud cultists ,traitor guards, slaves and just regular human "heretics" (some even born a heretic) outnumber CSM vastly. CSM legions don't exist anymore - they have splintered into smaller bands, mixed and intermingled with each other (voluntary or involuntary).
Just read novels from ADB or novels dealing with IG and chaos rebellion.

The answer varies SO wildly. It can depend on the warband, legion, or even just the situation that they're in. Some have a lot of loyal cultists, using them from everything from meat shields to operating ships and machinery. Some keep average, loyalist joes around as playthings, to torture and laugh at. Traitor guard have at least a tiny bit of respect, even if it's just because they are sychophants Others use them as slaves, doing hard work till they die, usually tainting their souls in the process. All the better to feed the gods. Some might raid prison planets and find the nastiest of the nasty, promise them a chance at becoming a marine, and then laugh as they die horribly in some vain act. It's all over the spectrum.

Oh. And as far as how do cultists live around things like the plagues of Nurgle? I'd expect they have a bit of favor, relinquishing their souls to stay alive longer. Remember that the best plaguebearers come from the souls of the humans who fought the disease the longest, rotting out like bad fruit.