Traitor’s Hate: Cult of Destruction In the Crosshairs
Howdy Heretics! Today we see if the CSM Cult of Destruction formation can cut the mustard!
Dean from Blog for The Blood God here with a new weekly review / Tactical article series for the formations found in the new Traitors Hate Chaos Space Marine Suppliment!
If you have any ideas / tactics you wish to contribute / discuss head over to my Facebook Page and shoot me a message! Without further adue lets get into the 5th installment!
Cult of Destruction
Units:
1 – 3 warpsmiths
3 -5 units of Obliterators or Mutilators
Rules
Empyrionic Guidance Rituals – at the start of the movement phase each warpsmith can select a unit from this formation within 8″. Your Obliterators may fire twice in the shooting phase, or if they are Mutilators they can attack twice in the assault phase. It sounds epic until you read the last paragraph which states they must use a different weapon for each attack and it cannot be a weapon used in the previous turn.
Loadouts:
First lets discuss the units, the warpsmith is the only one with loadout options, if you plan to run him with Obliterators i would not give him any upgrades, where as if you run him with Mutilators you may want to considder the Axe of Blind Fury.
As for Marks of Chaos, Obliterators benefit very little from the MoK and MoS so skip those, MoT is good but in my opinion MoN is the superior choice as it increases the instant death threshold making your Obliterators significantly more difficult to kill.
Now on Mutilators it is not quite as simple, the MoN is still a strong choice for the same reason as on Obliterators, however MoS and MoK are now viable options too. Personally I think MoK is also a strong choice as it increases the number of attacks you make which combined with this formation allowing you to attack twice significantly increases your damage output.
Only other thing to considder is make sure you take maxed out squad sizes to get the most out of the Warpsmith “tax” being that stock a warpsmith costs the same as 2 mutilators or 1.5 obliterators it is not cost effective to run small squads as the points you spend on the warpsmith would be better spent on more bodies.
Thoughts:
So is this formation good? Hell yeah! I used this formation in my battle report series “The Blood Crusade” and it was extremely effective. I ran 3 squads of 3 Obliterators with a Warsmith for each. I only realistically see this working for Obliterators. Mutilators suffer from a significant weakness which I will explain below.
As for your Obliterators I see this best used as maxed out squads with the Warpsmith attached, this protects ol’ smithy from being targeted independently. The trick to making this work is positioning and combining weapons, as you have to target the same unit with both rounds of shooting you will want to ensure both weapons are effective against the target. So on turn 1 you might move forward and fire the Multi Melta and Lascannons at enemy armour then turn two move further forward and fire the assault cannon and twin linked plasma gun at some infantry or light armour. Turn 3 if you are still alive you move again so you should be in range to fire both heavy flamer and twin linked flamer at some infantry OR go back to the Multi Melta only this time combo it with twin linked melta guns.
Weaknesses:
There are a couple flaws to look out for in this formation, first is that the Warpsmith must be alive and within 8″ of the other units for them to get the boost, and as he cannot deep strike with them that will often result in your Obliterators walking up the field ever so slowly.
Now Mutilators, wow this is a complex unit when taken in this formation. First the formation forbids using the same weapons that were used last turn and Mutilators cannot used the same weapons in two subsequent fight subphases! So assuming you declare a charge, in that first turn of combat you have 2 fight sub phases, in each fight subphase you have to use 2 different weapons, meaning in the first round of combat you must use 4 different weapons. Mutilators only have 5 to choose from! Since you cannot use ANY of those weapons the following turn you essentially can only attack with the 1 weapon you didnt use in 1 fight subphase and then cannot attack at all in the next!
Mutilators bring a pair of chainfists but I would avoid combat with walkers as you can only use them once out of the potential 4 rounds of attacks you make before you can use them again. Stick to charging infantry or MCs and use the Lightning Claws and Swords in the first fight subphase then mauls and chainfists in the second fight subphase
So what are your thoughts on this formation? Have i missed any fantastic uses? How would you equip them an what tactics would you use?
Chuck some comments below or join the conversation on Facebook. Lets show the false emperors lackies what the power of Chaos can do!
-Dean Sinnbeck
