CSM Cultist Force: How would it play out?

[Garlicson2]

Howdy everyone,

I have some CSM that I will plan to use as allies for my Daemons, and after some time I was thinking about making a fun army for CSM, using Cultists as my only Troops, and take advantage of their low points cost by investing into more expensive, albeit better units. I honestly don't have the codex yet, but I did went and read some tacticas on some units, and knew what to get (Khorne Berzerkers, Chosens, Chaos Lord, Raptors, ect). I was also thinking about throwing in a couple of Daemons to spice it up, like a Herald of Tzeentch and Flesh Hounds.

So if I were to take two blob squads or a few squads of 20 Cultist, and fill in the rest with the good stuff in the Chaos codex (Maybe Daemons as well), would this be considered a fun or competetive way for the army? I think given that scoring units is key in a 40k game, and cultist are easily vernerable to alot of range weapons and are meh in melee, this list would only be competetive in Purge the Alien, and would have a hard time in objective games. But if you disagree, or agree, let me know your reasons, and if you have any tips on how to make it more fun, I would appreciate it as well.

Cheers,

-Johnny

[optimusprime14]

Cultist's are great back field scoring unit. stick them in some cover on an objective and push forward witht he rest of your force. Stick a lord or a sorcerer with them to give them a little staying power. I would take them only if you are looking to pull other things form the CSM book as allies (Helldrakes, forge Fiends, etc).

On their own they suck, however they do allow you to take a good size troop unit for a minimal amount of points. I wouldn't take them just to take them though, as a Deamon player, you already have some pretty solid troops that can fill this role, Plague Bearers.

Cultist's are also a great delivery tool for a Lord to get him into CC. Use the cultist's to suck up any missle fire and to get your Lord across the table.

Unfortunately Tau and their Missilesides have kinda nerfed that tactic and they can put enough fire into the unit to wipe them out.

TL;DR: They have their place but it depends on what else you want the CSM force for.

[Garlicson2]

I do see what you're saying. I would definetly bring them in my ally list of I want other units like the Heldrake. As a main force, sometimes I won't bring Daemons into the mix, and if I do, I would tend to bring Daemonettes with some other choices here and there. I agree Plaguebearers are great tarpit/objective holders, but that's another topic on itself. I will say that in my main Daemon list, I bring at least one, so adding cultist to help out isn't a bad idea at all.

Yeah, Tau nerfed Nurgle's cheese, in fact, I think they nerfed it more thanks for the ruling stating that TL weapons can act as their own, meaning they can fire two missle pods rather than having TL MP, which is pretty cheese when combined with Markerlights and having a full Crisis squad all with two missle pods (12 Str: 7 AP: 4 shots, I mean WTH!!??). Again, getting off topic, I just want to agree that Tau is very brutal now with the new codex (I played them before 6th edition arrived, and right now they're collecting dust until I'm done with my other forces).

So yeah, in short I do think it can be competetive when build right, but since I'm going to the fun way with them, I think I should grab a couple of squads to hold objectives and to protect one of my HQs from small arms fire. From there, I'll just add things that either look cool or have some good stopping power, that're either overpriced or taking in a big unit.

Thanks for telling me your thoughts!

-Johnny

[comrade]

I have found with cultists the biggest issue is the horrid morale of the unit. I usually throw a cheap lord into the mix to make them fearless, but they are good at backfield objectives and ablative wounds for your CC lords.