Unit of the Week: Cultists

[Wolf Lord Loki]

The unsung heroes, the ragged multitude. The ones dun wrong by this edition.

 

I want to make more use of these chaps -they have guns they have 'brutal' close combat weapons they have toilet tissue for armour!!

 

I've been playing a lot of kill team sized games lately and the Cultists have held their own against Guardsmen and Tempest Scions, but last 40k game they came face to face with the business end of the flamer on that new scout walker marines have.

 

Suffice to say that ended badly for them....

 

I feel they would have been given a bit more utility if they had been given objective secured/ ability to perform Actions and the poxwalkers hadn't (I mean come on - zombies Investigating or Siphoning Power???)

 

How can we use these regular mortals to spread the grandfather's love?

[Tokugawa]

I cut partially the muzzle parts off on cultists models, and paint their skin in nurgling green. So they are pox walkers holding blunt weapons now. But if one day cultists are buffed and become more playable, these models could also be WYSIWYG compatible cultists.

 

Currently, I think they have very limited use. If you prefer to pick "raise the banner" but don't have many walking bubonic astartes unit, cultists could see some use. I've seen a GT winning list has 2 minimum cultists units in extra to pox walkers.

[Plague _Lord]

Only usefull for actions but I prefer other seconadaries.

Poxwalkers are both tougher and potenatially more killy.

[KingYertle]

I do think Cultists have their place, and that place is standing somewhere and getting shot at so your enemy doesn't shoot something more important, or standing somewhere so deep strikers / Reservists cannot access that area of the board.  I agree Poxwalkers are much better suited to this task but the limitation on how many poxwalker units you can field can be problematic, especially when playing Incursion games.

 

PROs:

6 inch movement, makes them 50% faster than poxwalkers.

They have guns.  Firing into a T3 target in Contagoin range is wounding on 3+.

They can do Actions that poxwalkers cannot.

The Blackstone Fortress Traitor Guard models look cool

 

CONS:

-NOT OBJECTIVE SECURED (as far as I am aware, they are the only troop choice that is not Obsec)

-Despite being called "Death Guard Cultists" their datasheet doesn't have any Death Guard or Nurgle flavored fluff.  No Contagions of Nurgle, No Toughness boost, etc.

-Outside of their datasheet they have Zero interaction with anything else in the codex.  In 8th you could use The Dead Walk Again strat to turn dead cultists into poxwalkers.  It wasn't really that useful but it was very thematic.  

-Very low Leadership with a high chance of failing moral whenever they take damage.  

-As weak as a basic guardsman with no available buffs or defensive capabilities.

 

Like the Chaos Lord, the cultists appear to be an Obligatory, Legacy entry in the codex and not intended to be a core part of the army design.  That said, if you are out of poxwalker slots and need a cheap screen for your more valuable targets the cultists are there for you.  With M6, they have some play as a unit to advance out on T1 to quickly (relative to the rest of our infantry) setup screens or grab an early objective.  

[Relentless]

I've actually had my opinion of cultists go up recently.  It sucks they dont have obsec, but they're great for actions.  I've been keeping to squads in my backfield for ROD/Banners, and it's working well. Plague marines just cost too much and do too little to bring more than one sqaud

[Wolf Lord Loki]

What would it take to make cultists work?

 

I'm in agreement about ObSec. They should have it, not poxwalkers.

[Special Officer Doofy]

Nah, I'm glad they don't have it and poxwalkers do.

[WrathOfTheLion]

Nah, I'm glad they don't have it and poxwalkers do.

I rather agree. I could see both having it, but I think Poxwalkers need to be favored to some degree. If it's a choice between Cultists and them working, it should be them.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

 

 

Nah, I'm glad they don't have it and poxwalkers do.

I rather agree. I could see both having it, but I think Poxwalkers need to be favored to some degree. If it's a choice between Cultists and them working, it should be them.

Why do poxwalkers need to be favoured? They can be replaced midgame. They are fearless.

 

There should be a reason to take everything in the codex.

[WrathOfTheLion]

I meant that poxwalkers are definitively thematic, so they need to work. It'd be great if both worked, but I see poxwalkers as essential.

[Tokugawa]

Rod is not good option for DG, even before nerf. After CA2022 nerf is would be a definitely "no".

[Iron Sage]

 

Nah, I'm glad they don't have it and poxwalkers do.

I rather agree. I could see both having it, but I think Poxwalkers need to be favored to some degree. If it's a choice between Cultists and them working, it should be them.

 

I agree that if we have to choose, then poxwalkers should be "best", but ideally all units in a codex should be of use in some sort of scenario. Of course, some will always be better, but unit x should at least be able to work well in scenario Y. Currently, this is not the case and a weakness in our Codex. Ours is not alone in that of course, but now I am speaking of what would have been ideal, not what is. And yes of course, Poxwalkers are currently far superior to Cultists. Perhaps too much so (meaning that Nurgle cultists should have some of Nurgle strat at least and not that walkers should be nerfed in any sort or way).

Edited December 20, 2021 by Iron Sage

[Special Officer Doofy]

No codex is ever truly balanced, and if I had to choose which unit was better/playable, 100% I rather have the DG only unit be better than the CSM codex copy and paste for DG.

[Plague _Lord]

No codex is ever truly balanced, and if I had to choose which unit was better/playable, 100% I rather have the DG only unit be better than the CSM codex copy and paste for DG.

 

That is untill/if CSM get traitor guard and LaTD - then I want those units in my DG codex :D

[Special Officer Doofy]

 

 

No codex is ever truly balanced, and if I had to choose which unit was better/playable, 100% I rather have the DG only unit be better than the CSM codex copy and paste for DG.

That is untill/if CSM get traitor guard and LaTD - then I want those units in my DG codex :D

I doubt we will get any of those units or the warpsmith if/when those come out. I'm surprised TS and DG even got cultist (seeing as gors/poxwalkers exist).

[tychobi]

Having holes (sub optimal choices) in the codex like cultists serves to separate new and fluffy players from more competative ones. Some think that gap is a good thing but I believe that it would bring the community together and provide more actual choice to more gamers if there was better balance. I would make cultists ob sec and t4.

[Iron Sage]

No codex is ever truly balanced, and if I had to choose which unit was better/playable, 100% I rather have the DG only unit be better than the CSM codex copy and paste for DG.

I like it to be lore-correct. The Death Guard is a legion and they possess countless of predators and landraiders, as well as vindicators and millions upon millions of cultists. I agree with you that if I have to choose, our Death Guard special stuff should be the best (so we don't really disagree), but I do lament that our old school legion vehicles and indeed, the countless cultists and traitor guardsmen fighting for our legion, are so useless.

 

But I agree that if we have to choose, then yes, stuff that is Death Guard only should be better. Even so though, we could easily have had another page with stratagems etc. Of course, I am wish-listing, but that's part of the hobby too ! :)

[Wolf Lord Loki]

 

 

No codex is ever truly balanced, and if I had to choose which unit was better/playable, 100% I rather have the DG only unit be better than the CSM codex copy and paste for DG.

That is untill/if CSM get traitor guard and LaTD - then I want those units in my DG codex :D

I currently have a Legends army of Lost and Damned coming together for a campaign so my cultists are doing some of the heavy in that.

 

It's a bit of a shame that they aren't doing well in my death guard but push comes to shove, I'll make a separate detachment and run a cultist hoard like they are meant to be in the fiction

[40k nut]

I have a crap-ton of the models. Wish they were not so terrible. Hoping the upcoming Chaos Marine codex will make them playable again. Maybe then I could actually put them on the table.