Wych Cult Obsessions

[LunaSR]

Hey guys, I was wondering about some Wych cults and obsessions. How do they work? Which, in your opinion, is a good one to have? Is there specific ones you would use against specific armies?

 

In the codex, it’s kind of difficult to understand all of it being a newbie.

Also I would like to state that the armies I go against, since I battle at home rn, is space marines, chaos and Tyranids.

[Kingnoname1]

It's a bit of a general question but I'll have a shot at answering it.

 

As for how Wych obsessions work, and Kabal and coven ones in the same vein, are special bonuses you get for detachments being made out of one of the three Dark Eldar sub-factions, Wych/Kabal/Coven. You get a general bonus to all Wych/Kabal/Coven units as well as if you use the codex ones access to additional warlord traits, relics, stratagems and special characters. There are units outside these sub-factions such as Mandrakes, Incubi/Drazhar, Scourge, both flyers, both transports and if you are using Forge Word the Reaper and Tantalus which can be included without losing your bonuses. So to gain a wych cult obsession you need your detachment to be made out of only those above units and Succubi, Wychs(and Blood Brides?), Reavers, Beastmasters+Beasts and Helions.

 

As for what the best one is, it is a hard question to answer as it kind of leans into what army you already have. In the base book; Cult of Strife gives you Lelith who is cool and really helps buff up your Helions as their hit and run rule means they almost always gain the +1A bonus, Cult of the Cursed Blade allows you to turn a Succubus into a pretty deadly suicide bomber as well as makes your units almost immune to morale which encourages big units of wyches and maybe helions, Str 4 base girls is nice to, Cult of the Red Grief allows you to make a pretty scary, for her points, succubus as well as massively boosting your already high speed giving you a pretty good shot at a first turn charge with at least some of your army depending on deployment. The first psychic awakening book also gave Dark Eldar rules to build your own cult rules by picking two rules. Test of Skill really encourages you to use multi-shot or cheaper low str anti-tank options, Slashing Impact gives all your cult units a +5 hammer of wrath, There is one which ups your in combat invul save to +3 but counts are both selections and there are five others. The build your own cult rules don't give you access to warlord traits, relics, stratagems or special characters which I suppose is the cost of the adaptability.

 

I personally like Red Grief, but I play very herohammer centric and the 3+ invul Blood glaive succubus is hard to give up. I find Slashing impact to be pretty strong against space marines, mortal wounds ignore invul saves which can bring down storm shielded characters before attacks particularly if it is a big wych squad brought in by webway portal or a Reaver squad with grav talons for extra mortal wounds. Tyranids are kind of funny, from what I understand their meta lists are pretty range heavy so the extra speed from Red Grief might be nice but if you are facing a gaunt spam Strife or Cursed blade from to codex might work well or Slashing Impact+Berserk Fugue from psychic awakening for maximum chip damage. As for chaos marines maybe take Slashing Impact and Precise Killers to maximise armour penetration or swap Precise Killers for Test of Skill if they take a lot of vehicles.

 

The last thing to note is that you can have multiple detachments in your army so as long as they a pure within themselves they both get their specific bonuses, they don't get the others though. This even extends to Kabal or Coven obsessions, an example is I'm thinking of adding a Coven Air Wing to my mostly Cult army because both Artists of the Flesh or Dark Technomancers+Master of Mutagens is pretty good.

Edited May 5, 2020 by Kingnoname1

[WarriorFish]

I think the Wych Cult Obsessions are pretty solid, in that they all have merit such that one isn't head and shoulders above the rest. Cult of Strife has Lelith going for it as she's a great model and has nice rules but as King says you can always have multiple Detachments if you want to have your cake and eat it (a Strife Patrol as part of a Raiding Force for example).

 

The Cult Stratagems and Warlord Traits are worth a review too as they may influence your choice, depending on how you want to run your Cult - don't forget your Void Bombers can be either a Kabal or Cult unit

 

I think that the Cult of Strife is perhaps the weaker, as Cursed Blade's extra Strength will go very far against Marines and the like as well as only losing a single model to morale. Red Grief will get into combat quickly and easily which is where they want to be. For the Cult of Strife an extra attack is nice, but will help more with dealing with hordes and the like compared to Cursed Blade which would favour more elite armies.

 

Bes thing is probably to experiment with them over a few games and get a feel for how they work, you'll probably know which you want then