Warhammer 40K: There Is Something A Little Odd About Chaos Cultists

The current state of Chaos Cultists doesn’t make a lot of sense. But it may be a hint of where GW is taking Chaos Marines in the future.

In the lore of Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Cultists are a very common sight. Indeed, and unlike the tabletop, you are far more likely to encounter cultists than a Traitor Marine. Given how big a role they are in the lore, and how much trouble they make, Cultists of various stripes should be a big deal in the game. However there is something a little odd about how they work in the current Codex Chaos Space Marines. Lets take a look!

Cultists And The Past

While Cultists have been in the lore for a long time, they are a relatively new addition to the tabletop (at least this time around). They should form a core part of a lot of Chaos armies and their addition was viewed as a good thing. However, they had some serious issues with balance in some of the Chaos Space Marine books. Cultists seem to be a see-saw unit. They might start far too powerful, combining cheap models and the ability to get buffed to be really good. However, they would then get nerfed and end up kind of useless. That is where they were at before the most recent CSM book came out. It was clear something needed to be done about them.

Doubling Down on Chaos Cultists

The somewhat surprising choice was to double down on cultists in the new book. Cultists, as a general group, got a bunch of new models and several new units. Accursed Cultists Mutants, and Torments to name just a few. We’ve also seen quite a few alternative Cultists models coming out for the side games. In many ways, Chaos Cultists are in the best spot they’ve ever been, with a ton of models and units.

On the other hand, they aren’t really that good. In general, the Chaos Cultist units aren’t very potent. They also don’t super work well with the rest of the army. There is a distinct lack of synergy. In a book that feels very much about the Traitor Legions, the mortal hordes of the damned don’t have a huge rule to play. So what’s going on?

A Future Book?

The lackluster performance of Cultists isn’t the only odd thing in the CSM book. A very obvious oddity is the lack of rules for Renegade Marines. While Red Corsairs and Creations of Bile do get rules, a number of Renegade sub-factions that used to have rules no longer do. In addition, there are no rules to create your own sub-faction. It makes you wonder if all this isn’t some sort of lead-up to a new Chaos Codex of some type.

Lost & the Damned Perhaps?

A book that focused on Renegade warbands would actually be pretty dang cool. They tend to be much more a mix of small numbers of Marines and Cultists. Think of an army powered by lots of Chaos Cultists type models and lead by a handful of really elite customizable Renegade Marines. That sounds pretty cool and would fill in the gaps missing in the CSM Codex. Or maybe something that played more with Traitor Guard, and used Cultists along with them. It seems there is a lot of room for a new and original Chaos book, if GW wants to go that way. They certainly have all the minis they need already!

Let us know if you’d like to see a Renegades book, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.