Cultist Band

Tempted by boons and offers of power, many mortals have chosen of their own free will to serve alien beings from beyond Urcaen. Infernalist cultists are corrupted and manipulated into surrendering their former loyalties to become willing collaborators in the infernal invasion. Wielding rune-covered ritual blades that whisper to them and pulse with inner heat, the most prodigious killers are elevated to dark sentinels, bestowed with more formidable swords and entrusted to take on special tasks.

Orin Midwinter is a man who has gone through several transformations in his checkered past. Some people seem destined to lead, others to serve, and Midwinter has always felt driven to assist those in power. Perhaps it was inevitable that he would become one of the most influential secret infernalists in western Immoren, playing a key role in the great invasion. He has earned a special place of power and influence among the infernalist cultists, collaborating with the infernal masters. In doing so, he has earned the unending enmity of the rest of humanity.

Basic Info

Leader & Grunts

Abilities

• Leader & Grunts
  • Template:Gang
  • Template:Magic Ability

    They have a N/A score because they only have non-offensive spells.

• Dark Sentinel (WA)
  • Template:Battle Wizard
  • Gang
  • Magic Ability [6]

    He has the same spells as the Cultists, plus one offensive spell

Weapons

Leader & Grunts	Hand Weapon File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  1 4 9
Dark Sentinel (WA)	Great Sword File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  2 7 12 Template:Magical Weapon

Master Pereceptor Orin Midwinter (CA)

Abilities

• Battle Wizard
• Gang
• Template:Granted (Template:Self-Sacrifice-alt)
• Magic Ability [7]

  He has a completely different spell than the Cultists & Dark Sentinel

• Template:Marked Soul
• Template:Shepherd
  • Template:Arcane Vortex
  • Template:Knowledge of the Damned
  • Template:Strength of Death

Weapons

Twisted Staff
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				7				11
Template:Magical Weapon

Theme Forces

• Template:Dark Legacy
• Template:Hearts of Darkness

Thoughts on the Cultist Band

Cultist Band in a Nutshell

File:DarkSentinel.jpg

Weapon Attachment

The Cultist Band is the heart and, er, soul of most Infernal forces. They provide the delicious soul goo for your Masters to consume to replenish their Essence, while also providing a versatile light combat unit to mix things up. They also have support actions to add Essence to your Horrors, or heal them. Later in this document, you'll also notice they have some attachments, which adds a bit more combat prowess to the unit. In the Dark Legacy theme force, you can also Ambush a unit of them.

Thoughts on the Attachments

Dark Sentinels are, for all intents and purposes, just a powered up Cultist; they have the same statline and support spells plus they bring a longer range, higher damage sword, battle wizard and a range-damage spell. They can help turn a cultist unit into a much scarier melee unit. Keep in mind they do not have improved defensive stats and will die to a stiff breeze.

Orin is a powerful wizard who swaps the support spells for the powerful Annihilation spell that gives him the souls of his victims, which he can then spend for effects to protect and augment his unit, such as Arcane Vortex, or rerolls from Knowledge of the Damned, or just save them for next time he wants to cast Annihilation. Battle Wizard lets him bonk things with his staff, and then blast enemies.

Combos & Synergies

Battlegroups stand or fall on their ability to use Cultist Bands - notably they synergise with

• Any Horror - the ability to add Essence to Horrors both keeps them alive and makes them useful.
• Any Infernal Master - cheap living troopers for Essence refreshes.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Stats: The basic unit of Cultists has victim stats and a fairly low command radius.
• Positioning: They cannot be held back without losing a great deal of support, and generally need to be played just behind your front lines in order to keep your horrors on the table. This opens them up to getting wiped out by ranged units, AOEs, and many solos.

Tricks & Tips

• If you are taking them for support it is more points efficient to take two minimum units (10 points total for 8 models) over adding the weapon attachment to a single unit. (11 points for 7 models). Furthermore, a pair of basic units could provide more tactical flexibility.

Orin

• Orin gives Self Sacrifice to the whole unit, and you can use it for so much more than just saving Orin's life:
  • Using Self Sacrifice prevents anything triggering on destroy. For example Sprint, Berserk, Swift Hunter, Snap Fire, Overtake, War Path, Quick Work, etc.
  • Sacrifice the basic Cultists to keep the more powerful Dark Sentinels alive.
  • Cavalry can't move on after charge impact if the model they "killed" is still in front of them.
  • It can be used to keep something engaged. This especially helps to keep an Arc Node engaged to prohibit that caster or 'lock from channeling through it.
  • Cultists can sacrifice themselves for each other. Say you're being attacked by an enemy unit. If there are multiple enemy models that have a Cultist in range, then sacrifice that model as soon as possible to minimize the number of attacks the enemy can make. If a Cultist gets destroyed but there are no more enemies that can make any more attacks against it, then keep that Cultist alive. Whatever you do, don't keep a Cultist alive if there are more enemy models in range to attack it, because that just results in further casualties to the unit.

• Orin's Knowledge of the Damned is one of the most powerful and versatile abilities in the whole faction, like a multi-use Puppet Master that doesn't take an action to activate. It can be used on your rolls or your opponents', and is best used on rolls that had unlikely outcomes: either your rolls that you needed average but rolled badly, or opponent rolls that they did much better than average.

Other

Trivia

File:MiniCrate DiscoInfernal.jpg

Disco Infernal (WA), Limited Edition Sculpt (Mini Crate)

• Template:LES
• Released with the Faction launch (2019.06)
• There's an official short story, The Mind Beneath by Doug Seacat 2019.06, with Faustus' origin story.
• Prior to release, PP hid the identity of Orin2 from players. His concept art was "unfortunatley not complete in time for CID" and he was called a completely different name (Lord Adept Quintus Faustus). He was revealed via the short story in the week just before the Faction was released.
  • "Faustus" is a reference to "Goethe's Faust" a tragic play by the titular poet. "Faust" was portrayed in goethe's adaptation of the legend as a dissatisfied scholar who made a pact with the devil, not unlike Orin in this universe, who is an accomplished arcanist.