Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Renegades And Heretics (section)

===Troops===
* '''Renegade Cultists:''' Cultists from the CSM list that exchange mark of chaos for chaos covenant. Good for armies that want a few reliable, but cheap infantry for ranged firepower, but inferior to their guard counterparts unless you kit them out for melee or use their covenant for a specific purpose. They can only take Heavy Stubbers and Flamers, so they are killier than Militia, but less customizable. A small squad with Autogun/Stubber could deal some good damage, as could an assault squad with flamers and Brutal melee weapons. If you want mid-range Dakka for sitting on objectives these seem to be the right squad, kitted with autoguns and a stubber they can deliver lots of shots downtable or at any pesky flankers. Just don't expect them to put much of a dent into MEQs, especially Primaris. Now outright superior to their CSM counterpart, since they no longer benefit from Legion Traits, while R&H Cultists can take Chaos Covenants!
**Due to an inability to take Chaos Sigils or Voxcasters these guys rely on either taking a 30pt Enforcer model or spending 2CP on a troop unit. Whether this, the lack of customisation, and/or being 1pt more per model is a fair trade for an extra +1WS/BS over Militia is up to you. (It probably isn't, you have Disciples and brutes for advanced shooting and melee respectively.)
***NOTE: The FAQ that reduced the price of CSM Cultists to four point from five didn't work on them, since these guys aren't Cultists, but rather Renegade Cultists.
* '''Renegade Militia:''' Poorly Trained mortal soldiers,  only hitting on 5+ in melee and shooting, and with 6+ saves. They can take heavy weapons (1 per 10) and special weapons (1 per 5), but you should only ever give them Heavy Bolters/Stubbers, Mortars or Flamers. In numbers and with an Enforcer to stop them fleeing they can make up for their poor accuracy, but otherwise you should mostly use them to screen your valuable units.
**Interestingly, these guys can actually form a surprisingly sticky back line, for GEQs anyways. One, they can take both a Vox-caster and Chaos Sigil, which significantly props up their otherwise flimsy Leadership, otherwise you will need an Enforcer. Two, if loaded up with Mortars and Grenade Launchers, they can actually lay down more ranged damage than a similar-sized Cultist unit through sheer mass of fire, even with their poor BS. Additionally, the Champion has +1 WS/BS over his charges, and he can take a Plasma Pistol as well. Combine with the Nurgle or Tzeentch Chaos Covenant, and you have a surprisingly solid block of troops for fairly cheap. They are going fall flat in melee, though, so stick with Cultists and Mutants for that and NEVER give them melee weapons. On a side note, the champion can take a krak grenade for some reason. Go figure.
**The volume of bodies and special weapons these guys can take make for an interesting close range shooting unit. 20 bodies with vox, sigil, and 4 flamers will run you just over 120 points and put down a decent amount of fire up close and be too good at overwatch for your opponent to able to charge them without getting hurt, especially if you have Covenant of Tzeentch which makes your flashlights just as accurate on overwatch as they are in your normal shooting phase! Don't forget to give the champ a krak grenade, you lose nothing by taking it, and since his shooting is better than anyone else in the unit, you might as well make it count.

* '''Renegade Mutant Rabble:''' A decent meatshield squad, especially since they have a chance to get T4. They roll a D6 at the start of the battle and either get +1 Movement (2-3), +1 Attacks on the charge (4-5), +1T (6) or lose 1d6 models (1) to uncontrolled mutation. Good meat-shields, and can do a bit of damage if they get into melee. An Enforcer can be the difference between this squad dying to small arms fire, or getting into melee, so if you intend on running more than 10 models you should take one. An enforcer also combines well since they can take a plasma pistol to fire into melee, and get a few wounds on any valuable units your mutants might tangle with. It is advisable to use this squad to force enemy weapon teams and tanks to fall back, or encircle them entirely if you have enough models. Don't have melee weapons outside of the Champion (who has +1 WS), but can replace their pistols with Shotguns, letting them spray and pray as they sprint up the field. 1/6th of 80 shots is still roughly 13 hits.
**On closer inspection these guys are the dedicated tarpit unit and not much else, mainly because they have no bloody CCWs for some reason. So in squads of 20 or less they are in stiff competition with Militia as assault units, believe it or not. Militia, who have double the number of attacks, up to four Flamers, and all the support of Sigil/Vox/Com-Vox without needing a dedicated Enforcer to stick around. Muties' main selling point, the mutations table, while pretty and all, doesn't make them kill stuff any harder except for one bonus, which merely ties them over attack number with Militia and only on a charge. So, if you are looking to put an actual dent into something in melee on the cheap, consider Militia instead.
**Obviously, bigger is better with this unit, as the number of models lost to uncontrolled mutation or Unnatural Vigor doesn't scale with the unit.
**If comboing this unit with Rogue Psykers w/ Unnatural Vigor and an Enforcer, place the Enforcer on one side, the Psykers at least 6" away from him and the Mutants in the middle. This way the Enforcer will not be wounded by Unnatural Vigor, but will still buff the Mutants due to only needing 1 model within 3" to affect the whole unit. See the diagram for more detail.
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*'''Diagram'''
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[[File:Unnatural_Vigor_Management.png|300px|center|thumb|They obviously do not need to be this close, this isn't Fantasy.]]
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