The 9th Age/Tactics/Cultists
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The promised beta for the Demon Legions Supplement. Represents the various Cultists that summon the infernal Daemons.
Why Play Cultists
Do you play Daemons and, like, another army? Because congratulations, you now have a Cultist army. Seriously, it doesn't matter what other armies you are playing, they can fall to Chaos and as a result, you can mix them with Daemons to make a new army out of both.
Pros
- Cheaper and expendable core units
- Summoning lets you pick where your daemons show up.
- Powerful magic via buffs to your wizards and the ability to sacrifice models to empower spells, as well as freebie magical items.
- An impressive monster
- Possibly better than a pure DL army for Greed or Sloth fans
Cons
- Can't take Greater Demons
- Have to wait unit turn 2 before the demons even arrive on the board, assuming your wizards are still around.
- Oh yeah, you absolutely need a wizard if you want to summon more than an errant pack of daemons.
- Shouldn't go majority Daemon - if you do there can be bottleneck issues regarding summons.
- Summoning diminishes the returns on fast Daemons, so Lust suffers
Tactics
A recently made Auxiliary army of DL, currently in Beta
Army Rules
The Enemy Within: let you gain +6 on rolls to choose Deployment Zones. Great for stealing the terrain advantages.
Nobody Expects: At start Spell Selection, your opponent can choose a character, they become an Inquisitor with Fear, Hatred, and Terror. All units with Pledged to Darkness get Battle Focus against the Inquisitor and, which is pretty fluffy.
- Depending on the enemy, this may make killing generals easer, or be more of a problem if given a solo fighter of old.
Universal Rules
Pledged to Darkness: Your Cultist units. PtD Characters can only join other PtD units. Cultist becomes Fearless when joined by Characters.
Your army may also choose 1 out of 4 Archetype upgrades that all PtD units must take.
- Wayward Children: Represents elfs, +1 Agility, +1"Advance rate, +2" March Rate.
- Lets you move into position that much quicker and hit before most enemies.
- Fallen Heroes: Represents orcs, Bigger Footprints(25X25mm), Resilience set to 4, but -1 Agility.
- Reduce Attack density but makes it easier to for your R&Fs to act as a screen.
- The Dishonoured: Represents dwarfs, Resilience set to 4, March set to 9" (Possessed and Daemon Symbiotes set to 12" instead), but -1 Agility and -1" Advance Rate.
- A combination of Wayward Children and Fallen Heroes, combining speed and durability but at the cost of only benefiting from movement when Marching.
- Kinslayers: Represents Vikings. Bigger Footprints(25X25mm), +1 Offensive and Defensive Skill.
- Makes your Cult more killy so they can at least properly trade blows with normal troops.
Sacrificial Offerings: When a wizard casts a spell, an attached unit with this rule can eat an Armour Penetration 10 wound (no saves) to give him +1 to cast.
Daemonic Summon: How you get your Daemon from reserve to the field. At the end of the Movement Phase, pay up to 6 of Veil tokens per turn to summon units equal to the cost of the unit divided by 200 rounded up, then place it on the field fully within 12" of the Summoner. This counts as they had moved for moving and shooting and they lose scoring after turn 3. You'll absolutely need a few units with this rule + Token Generation, so daemons don't wait in reserve all game.
- Token range based on price:
- 0-200: 1 Token
- 201-400: 2 Tokens
- 401-800: 3 Tokens
- 801-1200: 4 Tokens
- 1201+: probably not something that would practically fit on a list.
Hereditary Spell
Spear of Infinity: A 4+ cast 24 inch range Missile. Only deals one hit at Strength 2, Armor Penetration 2, and Area Attack of 1x5 (with one model of your choice in the Area Attack getting hit at Strength 5 with Multiple Wounds 2), but every spell other than Attribute spells you cast in the same Magic Phase boost the Strength by 1 point. So while this spell won't mulch entire units, it gives you a concentrated nuke for single models or small units.
Unit Analysis
All Summoned Daemons units count towards Summoned Daemons(Max. 45%)
Characters
Cult Leader: Your wizard lords, giving you an option for Witchcraft, Thaumaturgy, and Occultism. He can become a Master of Ritual when made your general, granting a greater Commanding Presence range, scout, and Daemonic Summon. A master also has to align to one of the gods, allowing him to gain an Artifact from other army books that help with Token production
Daemon Symbiote: Your big Daemon to make up for not having Daemon characters. A Wizard brute with Heavy armour and aegis and a selection of weapons. Symbiotes can take a single non-guiding Manifestation from the Daemons book in addition to normal Special Items.
Core
Cultists: A cheap throwaway unit. Have Frenzy with Devastating Charge (Battle Focus) so they will charge things they shouldn't but are Unstable so they don't run as they take casualties, just die faster. They have Sacrificial Offerings and can be upgraded to either be a Wizard Conclave that casts Spear of Infinity, Channel(1) and summon, or Gain Scout at the cost of no longer being scoring. Whatever you use them for, their main purpose in life is just to hold out until the Daemons arrive.
Daemon Legions from Core: Notable roles
- Imps: fire Support and more magic flinging.
- Succubi: Cleaves through Infantry.
- Lemures: Roadblocks
- Myrmidons: Big Slayers.
Special
Possessed: Your bigger Cultists being more killy. In addition to weapon options, they can take a Manifestation that makes them more durable, killy, or faster
Ritual Alter: your secondary Summoner in the shape of a building, A Adept Wizard that knows Wrath of God and Pentagram of Pain and can cast them at double the range.
Profane Idol: Your big giant daemon statue that also has a Bigbrother upgrade. Must be upgraded to Apostate Automaton(more durable + crush attack), Wicker Man(Flammable Wood on Fire that deals more fire to B2B enemy), or Heretic Golem (+1 Str/AP).
Daemon Legions from Special and Aves:
- Eidolons: Flame throwers
- Hellhounds: Fast-moving hunters and Adept at killing.
- Threshing Engine: Chariot that mutch infinity
- Titanslayer Chariot: Chariot Slayer Giants
- Mageblight Gremlins: roadblocks with a lot of poison attacks.
- Clawed Fiends: fast move anti horse.
- Hoarders: roadblocks and deals grinding over time
- Sirens: Fast-moving Calvary
- Blazing Glory: big monster
- Hope Harvester: Machine gun on a monster.
- Brazen Beasts: Hard-hitting shock cav.
- Furies: Flying monkeys
- Veil Serpents: flying Wizard Conclave
- Bloat Flies: Flying savage walls.
Magic Items
Special Items
Lifeforce Talisman: 35pts. when the user miscast, its unit takes d3 wounds and then you can apply +1/-1 on what miscast you get.
Ledger of Souls: (75p) when a friendly model within 9" is dying, gain Veil tokens equal to its starting HP. Turns Meatshield into daemons and dead daemons into reinforcements.
Scurrying Veil:
Locket of Sunna:
Gem of Faith's Tithe: 40pts. you may cast spells through a PTD Champion within 12".
Fiendish Snares: 20pts. pick a terrain mostly in your deployment and not open or Impassable, it becomes s Dangerous Terrain (2). Further securing your deployment zone.
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