Tips for a new possessed warband?

Hey guys, I've played cult of the possessed before and had a lot of fun with them even though i never managed to get any wins. I'll be in pretty much the same position as i was when i played them before, starting them during a campaign that has plenty of warbands of different levels etc so i dont expect to kick ass straight away.

However i'd love if you guys can give me some tips or pointers for the warband such as good things to go for, stuff to avoid early (or later) on and how best to utilise certain units. When i played before i used my magister more as a combat mage, rushing in with a sword (and chaos armour thanks to lucky rolls on the shadowlord) and bopping peoples heads which was good fun but i know some people use mages to fight more at ranged (though are magisters spells powerful enough to do this?)

I'm aware my starting possessed units will likely be without mutations but their starting statlines pretty nice anyway. With my mutants i'm thinking cheap mutations and constant shadowlord rolls for shits and giggles (and saving up gold to potentially have to replace them if i get unlucky)

On another note my dads got some nice norman looking models floating around somewhere which i wouldn't mind using and giving the cult more of a disciplined chaotic army look than just ragtag frothy mouthed barbarians (though i have plenty of models for that option) But this would mean i'd have to run lots of spears and shields so not sure if that can be an alright style? (I'm not looking to min/max at all just to have fun running around with evil possessed people)

Anyway any help would be appreciated, I'd like to be able to max out my heroes if possible to get good gold income but also not have too little henchman that i cant do anything in early games as that would be no fun for me nor my opponent

Thanks in advance,
-Lightbox

Beastmen make the best heroes try to buy as many as you can and get them LTGT.

Try to build up gold first to afford better possessed and mutants.

3000 gold is too much to spend on a possessed every warband you face will go out of their way to ally with your enemies and try to crush you.

be risky with your possessed you will always be wanting to buy one with even more mutations.

Chaos Rituals give you insanity points while magic is awesome a simple bow is sometimes better.

Stay away from hired swords until you have paid over 1000 gold for two of your heroes

some games you will show up to lose.

Did you enjoy using your magister as a combat mage?  If so, I see no reason to change.  The flying spell is really useful for an assassin mage.

Quote :

Chaos Rituals give you insanity points while magic is awesome a simple bow is sometimes better.

Of course you only earn insanity points if you play with the experimental rules for insanity points...

I wouldn't call them experimental they were in TC 8

Maybe not experimental, but they are optional as stated at the beginning of the article in TC 8.

Yeah, experimental. Look in TC#14, p. 46. The Community Section under the heading Experimental Rules:
In the Mouth of Madness, TC 8.

The Community Section became The Watchtower until that was discontinued.

Some of those articles included under the Experimental label eventually became 'official rules', but not most of them. Either way not everyone plays with the insanity rules. If your group does, good for you.

I don't believe my group uses insanity points (we stick to basic rules stuff pretty much unless any warbands give extra rules) so no worry about that biting me in the ass

I can see wings being a good assassin spell to get me to pesky weak archers in the backlines and wreck them and i can see beastman being very useful with their higher strength and toughness possibilities over humans. But they might be pricey to get at the start unfortunately D: i know i could go super pricey but killey but im always worried with my dice rolls i might lose some of these badass expensive units after my first game

My experience with Possessed is generally one of a small and poorly-equipped warband that sacrifices low-cost henchmen to voluntarily rout in its first few games while it gains experience, money, and equipment. I don't think that's the most appropriate/characterful way to do it, but it works well.

I've even seen a starting warband with only one beastman that just hid at the back to get XP in the hopes he'd "get talent" before the cultists that were dying to let the warband rout.

You could balance it out and play to win (while protecting those more expensive/vulnerable warband members), but rout as soon as you hit 25% casualties to try and keep early-campaign losses to a minimum.

That's really annoying to some groups but seen as "playing the long game" to others. If your group is the former, I'd take a more balanced approach. If people are a bit more cut-throat or "WAAC" in your group, the voluntary rout strategy actually works fairly well.

Either way, a couple of "throw-away" henchmen (cultists with daggers?) are helpful in a starting warband.

Lightbox wrote:

Anyway any help would be appreciated, I'd like to be able to max out my heroes if possible to get good gold income but also not have too little henchman that i cant do anything in early games as that would be no fun for me nor my opponent

Hey, sorry I'm late to the thread. But I got a little idea if anyone is in a situation where they don't want to field a starting Possessed warband that doesn't stand a chance in early games.

So, unfortunately, maxing heroes here is not an option, since mutants requiring to buy mutations is almost a handicap for a starting band, since it heavily limits their numbers. Early on, numbers are pretty important for winning fights. So here's something I think can work to give the Cult a fighting chance.

Magister - Dagger - 70gc
Possessed 2x - 180gc
Beastmen x3 - maces, daggers - 144gc
Brethren x3 - 75gc
31gc

This gives you 9 members total, requiring 3 models to be taken OOA to route. Your beastmen start with 2 W and 4 T, which is pretty beastly. They can do wonders in combat with the Possessed.

As for the 31gc leftover, it depends who you're up against. You can either equip the Brethren with Short Bows (Bows if you convince your group the extra cost for Possessed is silly) or go with a combination of maces/swords (axes if against armour). If against high toughness units, the (short) bows will not be as efficient and it would be better to go with melee. However, if you expect to be charged, perhaps spears for them can be useful. Depends on your playstyle, I suppose.

Edit: I just realized you can also give your Beasts swords, and the Brethren maces instead!

Try to get your Mutants with scorpion tails or extra arms ASAP.

Let me know if anyone tries this and it works out. I haven't tested it myself yet.