Warhammer 40K: Using ‘Cult Troops’ In Chaos Space Marines
One big question about Chaos Space Marines was how will the Cult Troops interact with the new army? Now we know.
If you’re a long time vet then you know what a Chaos Space Marine “Cult Troop” unit is and if not, allow me to educate you. They are the specific units from the various Traitor Legion Chaos Space Marine factions that used to all be a part of the Chaos Space Marine army. You know the ones:
- Khorne Berzerkers
- Rubric Marines
- Plague Marines
- Noise Marines
Of the four units, Noise Marines are still a part of the Chaos Space Marine army where the other three have spun off and gotten their own factions/armies altogether. But the good news is these units haven’t forgotten their roots and you can still add them into your CSM armies if you choose to do so — with some limits. You can find those in the new Chaos Space Marine Index:
And while we don’t have exact points yet you can probably ballpark the units you’ll be able to include based on the scale.
- Incursion – 250 points
- Strike Force – 500 points
- Onslaught – 750 points
It’s also important to note that it’s just these specific units that drop their Faction keywords and get them replaced with Heretic Astartes. You can’t use a unit like Scarab Occult Terminators if you want to bring in some Thousand Sons — only Rubric Marines.
The points limit does scale with the game size, too. That helps to keep it really simple. As a person who wanted to include some Khorne Berzerkers in a Black Legion army this is all good news for me. There’s more good news when it comes to allies for the forces of Chaos as well. If you want to add Chaos Knights or Daemons it’s just as easy.
Other ‘Allies’
For Chaos Daemons it’s a bit more flexible with the units you can add but the points limits are basically the same. There’s additional limits based on the faction and warlord as well.
With Chaos Knights you can bring them along using the Dreadblades rule. You can add 1 Titanic Chaos Knight or up to 3 War Dog models in your list. There’s not a limit on points here but rather a hard cap on the model count.
This system can allow you to bring a whole mix of units together into some kind of Chaos United army. Now, I don’t know how effective that’s going to end up being but it’s a cool idea. If you’re just a fan of all things Chaos mixing and matching is going to be pretty simple (within points limits of course). For me this is probably going to lead to a sprinkle of Cult Troops in my CSM army. And maybe a Chaos Knight at higher points (eventually). But overall, this really just opens the door for some cool, thematic army options.
Mixing and matching Chaos Armies? Sounds quite…Chaotic!
