Cultists, Large blob or multiple squads?

[tbone]

I don't think I have ever in all my life seen a rhino carrying cultists. I think at that point of investment I would just take chaos marines for 2 pp more.

Well it wasn't til this edition that you could deploy cultists inside a rhino, so I wouldn't count historical evidence against the idea ;)

 

Also consider that, point for point, cultists are actually a lot more killy than CSM. Whether you are playing power levels or points, a single CSM are basically the same cost as 2.5 cultists.

No matter their basic loadout, both will get a combination of 3 attacks on a turn at which they shoot and charge, the only difference is the offensive output of CSM are S4, while cultists are S3.

 

2.5 cultists kill 1.25 GEQ

1 CSM kills .89 GEQ

 

2.5 cultists kill .42 MEQ

1 CSM kills .33 MEQ

 

Obviously against T5 the cultists will fair a lot better than CSM. The only time CSM can beat out cultists is against T6 and T7.

 

Personally I don't think cultists have a whole lot of uses besides getting into combat and pushing back deep strikers. If you run a blob or MSU of cultists in the open, you are setting yourself up to either babysit with an HQ or you will have some serious moral issues. Cultists in rhinos don't really have to worry about either of those issues.

Edited June 30, 2017 by tbone

[bozo69pd]

Cultists hit on 4+ and Marines hit on 3+

[tbone]

Yeah sorry. It is factored in the math, but forgot to mention it :/

I'm not saying Marines in rhinos are bad. Actually they are much better at capturing/camping objectives. If you want bodies on the table/tarpits/blobs poxwalkers are way better. If you want a cheap throwaway troops with an ok amount of offensive output(for their points), and won't be worthless against a mobile dakka list, grab some melee cultists in a rhino ;)

[Aothaine]

A loyalist Astartes perspective here:

 

Seeing Cultists on the board makes me think. We all know that Cultists are chaff units. You use them to lock or block. But they have teeth so they have to be handled carefully. A blob of 30 Cultists is nearly as bad as 30 Orks. 

 

If I had access to a unit like Cultists I would run them up to the mid board on first turn with an Apostle. I would use a squad designed to kill elites and other such things in reserve until my opponent deploys his force that is aiming for your back line. On your turn you drop your boys in two ways:

 

Aggressively: Drop them in to the side of your tanks. Make your opponent decide to charge them or your tanks.

 

Defensively: Drop them to the side in a wall like formation and pull your tanks up behind them to block the charge.

 

This still leaves your tanks open for the charge on their turn. Keep in mind they will need to roll 9" on the dice to make that charge. So if you expect them to try and make that charge line up maybe two smaller 10-man Cultists units on the sides to prevent the charge. They are there to die so don't worry if they do. Unless what is coming in against them clears them entirely in the shooting phase, it can happen. Then you will have something that will block the charge into your back line.

 

Another deployment method is to just deny your opponent a back line. This comes at a cost usually. But if you move your entire force up every turn your opponent is going to have a rough time catching things out.

 

Edit: Something else to keep in mind here is that a list can only ever have half of it's army behind you. But I think most armies will have 1-3 units at most that are designed to do this in their lists unless they are going full alpha strike. At which point you just need to out last your opponent's initial strike and then collapse on their units that do the most damage.

Edited July 1, 2017 by Aothaine

[bozo69pd]

Yeah sorry. It is factored in the math, but forgot to mention it :/

I'm not saying Marines in rhinos are bad. Actually they are much better at capturing/camping objectives. If you want bodies on the table/tarpits/blobs poxwalkers are way better. If you want a cheap throwaway troops with an ok amount of offensive output(for their points), and won't be worthless against a mobile dakka list, grab some melee cultists in a rhino

Alas I do not own a single rhino. I am footslog FTW.

 

I am trying to figure out the perfect balance ratio of pox walkers + cultists + nurgle marines + plague marines + nurgle havocs into my list. I basically have limitless models for each of said unit...