Unit of the week Unit of the week: Cultist Mob

[Cpt.Danjou]

+++Unit of the week+++

 

Cultist Mob

Extremely few marines cares about them, they are a tool to be used, something to throw at the enemy as a meat shield, maybe something to sacrifice to the Gods or just simple playthings.

 

How are we using them, as simple objective holders, shields for our more expensive troops? How do you equip them? Have you used them in a spectacular way? Share your experiences and thoughts about them. 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Cpt.Danjou
Edited tags

[Cpt.Danjou]

I usually just take two maximised groups without any upgrades, they are there for one reason and one reason only. Stand on an objective and hold it. Getting obsec is an huge upgrade from the other two codex who has them, when I play DG I never take them. If I had more cp I would probably equip them with a flamer, just for he chance to hurt chargers on over-watch. I have thought about using them as a shield for more expensive Infantry units, like Obliterators or Terminators, using the "Cannon fodder" stratagem, but as before I need my CP for other things, and the stratagem is way to expensive, 2 CP.

Cpt.Danjou

[Tallarn Commander]

I often take 1 to 2 squads of 15 to 20 Cultists. Like Captain Danjou's they are usually are used as backfield objective campers in my CSM armies. In addition I sometimes push them upfield and use them to screen out my more expensive units like Legionaries, Possessed, etc.

These days I don't spend CP on them. But I used to frequently use Tide of Traitors on 'em.

 

Night Lords Cultists and Spawn (on left) screen Chaos Marines, Daemon Prince Buzzard, and Helbrute (on right) on the 6th moon of Vesperus VI

Edited September 2, 2022 by Tallarn Commander

[Gamiel]

Episode 193 of the pod Masters of the Forge - Wait. Am I in a Chaos Cult? - talk about cultist mobs and chaos cults.

[Khornestar]

I love using Insane Bravery on them when the opponent fails to kill the unit off in their turn. Usually guarantees victory points. Not that this would be different for other units (though with their low Ld they're almost guaranteed to fail without an apostle around), but they will then have to dedicate another round of a unit's shooting or close the distance to kill the cultists, and that can be used to divert fire from more important units or allow a counter charge/heroic intervention.

Edited September 3, 2022 by Khornestar

[acrozatarim]

I use a squad or two for back objective camping and zoning out deep strikers.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

My operatives are used in small squads to zone out rear-areas deep strikers and to hold backfield objectives.  They are used in larger squads as meatshields for the Conceal stratagem, or to screen gunnery units like Legionnaires and Havocs from advancing enemy CC units.

[Maschinenpriester]

I only had one game with he now codex yet. But twobsmall squads in the back worked nice.

When The opportunity arose they moved a little towards the middle in cover in order to attack some t5 targets.

I think they are quite annoying and cost efficient for that task compared to normal bolter dudes.

I play a lot against necrons and space marines. Their codex has a big variety of targets with t5.

If they are able to plink away 4 wounds they most of the time makeback their points.

I also used tide of traitors to replenish a squad that survived after falling morale but still had some models left, which also runied my opponents day a bit.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Maschinenpriester

[Toldavf]

Their bread and butter are actions and objectives, they need proper screening though as they are easy to remove.

[Relic]

3x10 Cultist Mobs to fill out a battalion feels solid so far. 

They sit on backfield objectives, screen or sacrifice jump onto objectives, baiting the enemy forward so that your real units can take over the objective holding role mid-board. You tend to need some chaff to do actions, so can't ask for much more from a Cultist Mob!

From an Iron Warrior perspective - the stratagem to auto-pass morale if under half strength can be clutch if you really need the last survivors of a unit to stick around. 5+++ vs mortal wounds is also a good one if using a unit to soak mortal wounds. 

More generally - Tide of Traitors is good for sneaking models back onto an objective in your command phase and then scoring the objective at the end of the command phase.