Necromunday: Helot Cults Gang Review (2025)

Representing the generic Chaos rabble wandering around Necromunda, Helot Cults represent some of the most numerous enemies in the 40k; poorly-armed renegades who are trying to impress their evil patrons. In a world of "House Of" books and beyond, Helot Cults have been somewhat left in the dust. While they got a glow-up in the Book of Ruin, over half a decade of successive supplements have left them a step behind in terms of weapon, gear, and access to faction abilities vs other gangs. That said - this is a beloved gang for many Necro players (including two Necromunday writers), and you can still put a formidable crew on the table.

My first group of Helot Cultists, built out of Chaos Space Marine bits and the Warcry Unmade set.

The Good Stuff

Dark Rituals

Ezekyle Catbaddon: Helot Cults have access to the Dark Ritual Post Battle Action, meaning that the Demagogue (Leader) of the cult can forgo trading or other actions to instead invoke the power of the Dark Gods!

Succeeding in this grants a powerful boon to the gang, while failing gets you nothing unless you are particularly unlucky, in which case a poor and stupid cultist is turned into a terrifying Chaos Spawn! Granted, other gangs that become Chaos corrupted can also do these Rituals, but in doing so they might forgo some special gang benefits and can only choose one god!

Helot Cults can choose whatever gods they want to gain the benefits from in performing their Ritual, though there is a penalty to the check for choosing a different god than that you already have an active boon from.

Chaos Cultists for Sale, Cheap

Helot Cults have a significant discount to the costs of their individual fighters in a gang, with a tradeoff of the ability and prowess of the individual fighters themselves. While the Demagogue costs 100 Credits, the same as a Cawdor or Delaque leader, the rest of the gang is cheaper than most options available to other gangs. Disciples (Champions) are 60 Credits, and whose stats are relatively on par with most other basic gang champions (and the Witch is allowed to be taken alongside 2 Disciples!).

Basic gangers are 35 Credits, an amazing discount for a standard fighter. Escher Sisters are 50 Credits, and the Cultist has the same Initiative, with a tradeoff of worse mental characteristics. Talk about a bargain! The individuals aren’t great, but they make up for that with their price.

Skill Access

Helot Cults have access to Cunning and Ferocity as PRIMARY Skill Sets! These two offer incredible amounts of variety in how you want them to play. Need someone to snipe from an advantageous position? Give a Disciple a Long Rifle and Infiltrate. Want a melee specialist that's nigh unstoppable or terrifying to the enemy? Give the Demagogue a good melee weapon and a Ferocity skill. So on and so forth.

Insane in the Membrane

The Demagogue, Disciple, and Witch of the cult all have the Inured to Insanity Special Rule, meaning that they can never become subject to the Insanity Condition. Playing against someone using weapons with the Cursed Trait or playing the Seize the Cache mission from The Coveted Cache Apocrypha? You have the advantage! However, basic gangers don’t have this rule, unlike corrupted house gangs, but there is a special rule that helps circumvent this later (wink wink).

My newest Helot Cultists, using the Games Workshop Chaos Cultist box.

The Bad Stuff

Blandness

Whilst the fighters are cheap, their stats aren’t anything to boast about. Though, as mentioned before, they generally have a fairly good stat block, just with some negatives that earn the cheapness. The equipment available to the gang isn't anything to hold over heads either; no cheap boltguns, stub cannons, special las-weapons, etc. Just stock standard for these boys; oh, but they do get a 10 Credit discount for Flamers and Grenade Launchers, and a 5 Credit discount for Hand Flamers.

Chaos Spawn

Chaos Spawn can be a fun addition to the cult, but does come with drawbacks. Its stat block is randomly generated when they are purchased or created, so if you are particularly prone to rolling 1’s, you’ll be left with a weak monstrosity that’s no better than an Ironhead Digger. Additionally, at the end of a battle you have to test to reign them in if they aren’t Out Of Action, potentially hurting other fighters or even having it run off into the hive and losing it.

Cult Witches

The Cult Witch has piss poor stats and really relies on Psychic powers to do any good in a battle. The twist is that the Cult Wyrd powers suck! They do have access to the Savant Skill set, however. Unless you want your Witch to sit in the back and do nothing to rack up Fixer Credits, talk to your Arbitrator about having better Psychic access for your Witch, or check out this article regarding Psychic Powers!

Limited Melee

When it comes to making a melee specialist for this gang, your two options are the Demagogue and a Chaos Spawn. The gang list lends itself to shooting, and the only fighter with a Weapon Skill above a 4+ is the leader. They are relatively good in a fight if kitted out well, but don’t charge them into a Goliath Stimmer. Not to mention the Demagogue has to not be in Recovery or Convalescence to do the ever-precious Dark Ritual.

Fowler: Arbitrator's note - I feel strongly that giving Helot Cults access to more melee weapons, Boltguns, and Plasma Pistols does not upset the balance too much. You could even consider making the house list Bolter a special weapon if you are too worried about spam. If you really want to give them a boost, why not think about adding the full list of gear from the Blooded kit to their house arsenal?

Gang Overview

Cult Demagogue (Leader)

Ezekyle Catbaddon: The Demagogue is more or less the average gang leader. 3+ Weapon and Ballistic Skill, 2 Wounds, and good mental characteristics. The main stat-block of the leader is not one to complain about, and is well-priced at 100 Credits. With access to all the weapons, and Cunning, Ferocity and Leadership as Primary Skill Sets, the leader will fill almost any roll they are thrust into.

Their availability and skills let them do anything they want. Give them a chainsword and a Ferocity Skill for melee combat, or a Long Rifle and Infiltrate from Cunning. If you prefer to keep the Demagogue safe to do the Dark Rituals, you can give him Overseer so that he really only has to be on the battlefield, and just let him delegate to other models to do his bidding. I personally find this boring, and real glory is found in the heat of battle, cleaving some gangers heads in and spilling blood for the pantheon of Chaos.

Hive Market Minis: While we at Goonhammer are generally Overseer-averse, I find the Chaos Cult Leader to be the best-case use for it, especially considering you won’t be double-tapping a plasma gun or heavy bolter out of the gate. Having an array of nearby models to oversee, between a possible Witch and two Champions, makes it more about applying the proper tool for a given job. Thematic! Taking two shots with a heavy stubber isn’t going to increase its bite but will provide respectable volume, while whipping off a pair of Wyrd powers can spice things up a bit. Double smoke grenades could come in handy as well.

Ezekyle Catbaddon: The Demagogue is the only guy who can do a Dark Ritual provided he’s not recovering from an injury, so keeping him in the back and out of harm's way is a valid tactic for those who want to ensure they get those rituals off and get the most out of their gang. Victory, however, goes to the person who takes risks, and what better way to take risks than to equip him for melee and utilize the Demagogue’s unique Special Rule: DEVOTION.

As long as the Demagogue is standing (so, Standing and Active/Engaged, as opposed to Prone and Pinned/Seriously Injured) friendly fighters within 9” and line of sight can use his Cool and Willpower for any checks using those stats. The Demagogue has a 5+ Cool and 6+ Willpower. ANY FRIENDLY FIGHTER, can use his Cool and Willpower when making any checks related to those two stats. This is huge! Sure, the Helot Cultist ganger has a 7+ Cl and Wil already, but this is a really great improvement. It is the sort of thing that really could be taken advantage of in Zone Mortalis or Sector Mechanicus, as it will be stronger there with everyone more clumped together; but I still have the Devotion rule work well in my favor many times during an Ash Wastes or Sump Sea campaign.

Armed with Chainsword and Lasgun (or Warp Bolter), the Demagogue is really to spill blood for his fell deities.

Cult Disciple (Champion)

Disciples are your champions, and they do all right. They have a 3+ BS, but only a 4+ WS, so really they are intended to be shooting the enemy with maybe some melee if you’re in a pinch. They are the standard step down from a gang leader, and at only 60 Credits are really nothing to complain about. I mean, a Cawdor Firebrand is 90 Credits, and the only difference in their stats is 1 fewer Attack and worse Mental Characteristics. It really seems like they just took the basic idea of each class, made them stupider, and knocked the price down for that. Other than Inured to Insanity, they don’t really have anything special about them.

Disciples are focused on shooting and form the backbone of a firing line in your gang. They are versatile thanks to having Primary Skill Sets of Ferocity and Cunning, and can fill any roll intended for a shooting fighter. Locking down a hallway? Give them a Grenade Launcher (or Lasgun if you need to be cheap) and Overwatch. Fire Support? Heavy Stubber and Nerves of Steel so they can’t get pinned and lose a turn of fire. Playing on an Ash Wastes or Sump Sea map? Long Rifle and Infiltrate to pick off your opponent with ease. The versatility of the Disciple goes far as long as you stick to shooting and within your budget, which is helped by their cheapness.

You do get to take two Disciples in addition to the Witch, so don’t be too held up trying to decide if you need a fire support champion or infiltrate champion. I personally take one guy with a Heavy Stubber and Nerves of Steel and one with a Long Rifle and Infiltrate, giving me good ranged control and a sneaky-beaky sniper.

The statblock on Disciples lends itself towards shooting, and shows what the gang as a whole is wanting to be doing. The Skill availability of the Disciples also lends itself really well to shooting. As I’ve said, a Disciple with a Heavy Stubber and Nerves of Steel is almost good enough to keep them standing and able to fire their Unwieldy weapon. Overwatch with a Grenade Launcher is always a good choice, as you can absolutely lock down a hallway by lobbing frags and preventing the enemy being able to easily approach you. Infiltrate is another godlike skill for this gang, as a Disciple with a Long Rifle can do serious damage from afar, while being far enough away to limit their exposure to enemy fire.

Fowler: One of my favorite combos in Necromunda is Overwatch, Long Rifle, Familiar. The familiar gives you an extra bit of survivability and potentially some emergency screening. Depending on the gang you are facing, being able to disrupt your opponent's action economy can have a huge impact. Locking down a particularly strong fighter on the opposite end of the board is quite the boon for a gang that needs every advantage it can get.

The brave Disciples of the Cult, ready to shoot down anyone standing against them!

Cult Witch (Champion)

Ezekyle Catbaddon: The Witch is a doozy. On one hand, it’s a Psyker, so you can take Cult Wyrd Powers instead of a normal Primary Skill, and they have good Mental Characteristics to support that. On the other hand, it’s a Psyker, so they have terrible WS and BS. On top of that, most of the Wyrd Powers are dogshit. Pure, unfiltered, doo-doo feces. Arguably the best one they have is Dark Shield because it adds 1 to Armor Saves for friendlies within 3”. Other than that they’re old and outdated powers. If your Arbitrator allows you to take the updated version of the powers, or some other change to Psychic Shenanigans, then that’s well and good. Otherwise, I discourage actually considering giving them powers, because Assail and Warp Strength require the Witch to actually be able to hit an enemy with a 5+ BS/WS, and Scouring requires you to spend your first action to manifest the power, preventing you from moving and then using it on the first turn. I’ll discuss the powers as stated more later so you can see what I mean.

Step 1: Hand Flamer Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit

If you have an Arbitrator doing house rules that make Psychic Shenanigans good for the Witch, they are definitely a good addition to the gang. Otherwise, your two best options are to either save Credits by not getting one (70 Credits buys two whole Cultists!) or to give them Fixer. That’s right, the Witch comes with Savant as a Primary Skill Set. Every campaign I’ve played I prefer to give them Fixer to give me free money, instead of actually trying to manifest Psychic Powers. Oh and before I move on, the Witch actually does get Group Activate 1 like the Disciples do.

Psykers are real dangerous in the Underhive, make sure you report them to your local Enforcer Patrol!

Hive Market Minis: I'm jumping in to represent the Pro-Witch faction here. Back in the dark days of 2019, Witches were understandably relegated to the back lines as fixers with their Savant access while adding to the headcount. This, however, is 2025, and I think these bad boys and girls have substantially more potential. What changed? Wyrd powers. The 2023 rulebook rework of “Maintain Control” made continuous effect powers work sensibly at long last, at the Book of the Outcast full-on Wyrd power expansion and “you can take these as advancements” opened up a buffet of tasty options. RAW, you *might* need to take one of the middling Witch-list powers first (a la Delaque and the HoS FAQ) before dipping into the full list, but that's an easy arbitrator conversation.

Picture: Familiar Ir Yut, Chaos Witch Kreza Rotchosen, Familiar Xivu Arath, and Cult Demagogue Häyhä. Credit: Fowler

What you're getting now is a reliable Wyrd machine, heavily bolstered by the inclusion of a Chaos Familiar (or two, if you're feeling spicy). Don't take a weapon. Don't start with armor. Use your advancement to pull a second power, and take advantage of the discipline bonuses if you're allowed to go down that path.

Freeze Time is an activation disruption bomb that doesn't require LoS. Precognition and Warp Whispers both help you shape the battle without needing to cast anything, while Visions will help your sad little gangers actually hit something within an impressive 18” of the witch. Wall of Flame is a handy control piece, while Molten Bolt whips off Melta shots and Scouting provides a whimpy-but-still-flame template weapon for blaze purposes. Weapon Jinx is “…Click” on demand, Crack Lock can win loot scenarios, and Manipulate Lumens is a fun one to build around. All of the Telekinesis powers are okay-if-unspectacular, and get stronger if you're playing with heights or near the sump. Telepathy is strong, with Mind Control and Terrify both capable of doing disruption work, though spamming Hallucinations for the auto-insane condition is a bit much in my opinion.

Lastly, it's cheap to upgrade that Willpower for a solid 6 to a reliable 5 or standout 4, which becomes that much better with a Chaos Familiar in tow. Do I think they're the strongest Psykers when their little pal is hanging around? Yes. Yes I do.

Helot Cultist (Ganger)

Ezekyle Catbaddon: The meat and potatoes of a good cult. Generic, cheap, none-too-bright and all-too-numerous. They excel in group activating, giving your Demagogue or Disciple one or two supporting punches on top of what they deal out. Their equipment list is limited to basic weapons, pistols and melee weapons, but they still have a good choice of weaponry.

Give them an Autogun and let Cletus run around with his 7 brothers Beetus, Deetus, Veetus, Gogeetus, Pleetus, Boleetus and George. Give them a Hazard Suit and a Stub Gun with a cheap melee weapon and have them run out to brain some enemies. Equip them with Mesh Armor and a Lasgun so you have someone who can take a hit, and fire back accurately! As basic gangers, they are kind of locked into the “shooting is good because they aren’t great in melee” role, but they do still have the small amount of flexibility that other gangers do, while being cheaper than their counterparts!

They’re basic gangers, they do whatever needs done. Give the Specialist a Grenade Launcher and equip the rest as you see fit. I do, however, highly recommend giving them Mesh Armor and a Lasgun, it just makes them good all around. The reliability of a Lasgun to hit and not run out of ammo, along with the armor that will be good in an early campaign, means that you have a core of fighters that are almost as good as a basic Escher Sister with the same loadout for 5 Credits less! Of course, you’re missing the rest of the benefits of being Escher, but we take what we can get.

These are the only members of the gang without Inured to Insanity, so your best bet is to keep them close to your boss to benefit from Devotion, mentioned above. Additionally, these guys have a 3+ Initiative, along with the Demagogue and Witch (why the Disciples don’t get it, no one knows), so the gang at least has a chance to survive when it comes to fighting atop gantries and other perilous areas of the Underhive.

Also of note, to strengthen the thought that you should take Cultists with Lasguns. I always take one Cultist I have lovingly named Lasgun Larry. Larry is a simple man and knows what’s good in life. He is content to be a simple bruiser and shoot enemies with his Lasgun, no schemes to rise the ranks and become top boss, no underhanded tactics to make himself seem bigger than he is. Lasgun Larry has been named Hero of the Wastes because he is simple and effective. He almost always hits his mark and almost always hurts them, too. Maybe it’s the dumb luck of the dice, but Lasgun Larry has never failed me, and will always be there in my gang list as a basic ganger, least among equals. Also, look in the images of the gang lists below and find Larry hanging around, spot all 3 and win a cookie!

Fowler: Today's Lasgun Larry can be tomorrow's Hotshot Harry. It's a luxurious upgrade to give to cannon fodder, but having an upgrade path for basic fighters is nice if you don't want to go too wide in numbers.

The Iconic Lasgun Larry, with the New and Improved Hans Grenade as well.

Tangible Benefits

Dark Rituals

Ezekyle Catbaddon: Chaos Corrupted gangs and Helot Cults get access to the Dark Ritual post-battle action. As mentioned previously, your gang leader (the Demagogue in this case) has the ability to perform this action to gain or keep the favor of the gods. To do a Dark Ritual, just follow these steps. Have your Demagogue not be in Recovery, Convalescence, or already doing another action. Then, randomly choose one member of the gang who isn’t the Demagogue or Witch to be the focus of the ritual (or sacrifice a Captive). After, choose one of the four chaos gods and simply roll 2D6 and apply the modifiers below:

+1 if you won the battle you just played
-1 if you lost the battle you just played
+1 if you gained Reputation during the battle
-1 if you lost Reputation during the battle
+2 if you have the favor of the god you chose
-2 if you have the favor of another god
+2 if you’re sacrificing a captive

If you get a 9 or more, you win! The gods deem you worthy of their favor and benefits, and you gain the boons of following the god. On top of that, the focus of the ritual gets D6 XP for being such a good peon of the fell powers. If you’re really unlucky and roll snake eyes or the roll is modified to 2 or less, then you haven’t been paying your due reverence to the gods and don’t get your favors, and if you had a ganger as your focus, they are turned into a yucky Chaos Spawn.

Sometimes, getting turned into a Chaos Spawn can be a good thing. Some ganger that you just hired the other day may find himself being turned into a mutated horror, so really you spent 35 Credits on some goober just to turn him into an Underhive killing machine. On the other hand, your poor Disciple, who has stuck with you the whole campaign and successfully dished out some hurt to your enemies? Well, unfortunately you can’t wield an Autocannon with tentacles.

On the upside, if you succeed in your Dark Pact, you gain all sorts of cool benefits depending on what god you chose.

Khorne, the Blood God

You can choose to reroll one Wound Roll per turn (emphasis on the choice, you have to actually remember you can do it!)
Chaos Spawn get +1 Strength while you have Khorne’s favor
The Demagogue has +1 Attack while you have Khorne’s favor

Khorne is the most generic god for gangs to choose from, but the benefits are really tangible. Rerolling a Wound Roll gives a gang the chance to absolutely clown on some big melee menace advancing towards them, or ensure a vehicle takes a massive amount of damage from an attack. The extra attack for the Demagogue means that he really can be a true melee menace, and 3 base attacks is never something to bat an eye at, especially after a few games if you purchase a Goredrinker Axe or something similar for him to wield.

Nurgle, the Plague Lord

You can choose to reroll one Recovery dice per turn (again, emphasis on the choice)
Chaos spawn have +1 Toughness while you have Nurgle’s favor
The Demagogue has +1 Wound while you have Nurgle’s favor

Being able to reroll a Recovery dice is cool, but kind of a niche use case. In the scenario you would want to use it, you already are in a bad spot, and this is just a reroll. An Out Of Action or Seriously Injured has every chance to reroll into Out Of Action and screw you over when you really want the fighter to recover. Similarly, an extra wound is great but against certain gangs or certain times in the campaign it doesn’t prevent you from taking too much of a hit.

Slaanesh, the Dark Prince

You can Group Activate 2 fighters (regardless of if they can Group Activate, or how close they are) once per turn
Chaos Spawn’s random movement characteristic is now 2D6 choosing the highest while you have Slaanesh’s favor
Demagogues add 2 to their Movement while you have Slaanesh’s favor

The extra movement of the Demagogue and extra potential movement of the Spawn is great, but the real benefit of Slaanesh is the Group Activation. It can be used to activate your Demagogue and a Disciple, who are far apart on the battlefield, and those two can absolutely use their Group Activation, potentially activating 5-6 fighters all at once and just crushing your enemy.

Tzeentch, Architect of Fate

One fighter per turn can choose to ignore all negative modifiers to a Shoot (Basic) or (Double) action
Chaos Spawn have a 4+ Armor Save while you have Tzeentch’s favor
Demagogues get a random Wyrd Power from the full list of powers in the Necromunda Rulebook while you have Tzeentch’s favor

Ok, ignoring the negatives of a shooting attack is awesome. You can make someone with a hit roll that would be unlikely to hit on their base BS instead (or better if they have a few range benefits) to get in a good shot on an enemy. The Demagogue’s free Psychic Power is pretty cool too, since it is any power from the main rulebook, instead of the Wyrd Power list for the Witch.

Chaos Spawn

As mentioned above, if you’re unlucky enough, then one of your fighters will be turned into a terrible Chaos Spawn, but it isn’t all bad! The Chaos Spawn is a tough and hard to kill entity that can prove a boon to any gang. If you do well enough, it can be a formidable foe to even Ogryn and Goliath Stimmers. To get to that point, however, you have to roll their statistics, which is determined from my favorite thing in these kinds of games: Charts!

When the fighter is turned into a Spawn, it has a movement speed that is randomly determined by rolling a D6 at the start of every Move action. Then, you roll a D6 for its WS, Strength, Toughness, Wounds, Initiative and Attacks and consult a chart that determines what those stats will be. Roll well enough and the Spawn will be tougher than an Ogryn and hit like a brick; or roll poorly and it will hit poorly like a wet napkin.

The real problem is at the end of the battle. If the Chaos Spawn is not Out Of Action, you have to choose 3 people not Out Of Action to try and restrain the Spawn. If you fail, it runs away and is removed from your gang, and anyone who rolls a 1 has to roll a Lasting Injury as the Spawn lashes out at them. On the bright side, however, when they are taken out, they are automatically restrained. The Chaos Spawn is also completely immune to being Pinned, Broken or Insane, and any Injury Dice that show a Serious Injury or Flesh Wound are not applied to it, it can only ever be hurt by being taken Out Of Action.

If you are relying on a Chaos Spawn for your gang, I will also suggest either Nurgle or Tzeentch for the extra durability. Making the Spawn potentially Toughness 7 or give them the save equivalent to Light Carapace Armor is incredible. If you are planning to have a Chaos Spawn, consider trying to please one of these two gods.

Pets and Powers

Chaos Familiars

Chaos Cults get access to Chaos Familiars, which are similar in function to Caryatids. Basically, this Exotic Beast is just a little goober who isn’t any good in a fight, but can give his owner the ability to dodge a single attack every turn by passing a Willpower check. As an added bonus, it lets the owner reroll one Willpower check to manifest a Psychic Power (provided its owner is a Psyker, of course). They’re actually pretty useful little dudes, and while I can’t recommend taking one at gang creation, they are considered common, so you could give one to your Demagogue to let them be a little harder to kill before they close in to melee, or to your Witch if you’re using modified Psyker rules so that you have a useful magician who can be even more reliable in their power manifestation.

Arbitrator’s Note: If a player is going to be running a Helot Cult gang, consider limiting the amount of Familiars they can take, as RAW you can give up to 2 to any fighter eligible to take Exotic Beasts. We don't really want our players complaining that half the Helot Gang is able to ignore the first 2 hits of a turn. Having it be that you can have 0-2 per gang may be a little more balanced.

Helot Cult Wyrd Powers

Scouring: The Scouring allows the Psyker to be armed with a half strength flamer. Which would be awesome, because Blaze is an excellent Trait, except for the fact that the power is not used as soon as you manifest it, it merely equips you with the Scouring as a ranged attack. Meaning that if you actually want to use it, you have to either already be in the danger zone with somebody, or manifest it early and roll well enough in maintaining the power to actually catch someone unawares with it.
Levitation: This power lets the person manifesting it increase their Movement by 3 and fly across the battlefield. This power is a niche case scenario, where its use is probably best for crossing a gap without needing to jump it, or if you have an objective that is on a different level that would be easiest to fly to. Otherwise, it’s not the worst Psychic Power ever, and at least maintaining the powers are free with the newest edition of the rulebook.
Warp Strength: The caster of this spell gets +2 Strength and +1 Damage to all melee attacks so long as they maintain the power. That does, however, mean that you can’t charge into close combat, as you’ll be spending an action to maintain the power. This is also coupled with the fact the Witch has a 5+ Weapon Skill, so the likelihood of actually hitting this attack is pretty low.
Dark Shield: The Shield gives the Witch and friendlies within 3” a +1 to Armor Saves for the rest of the turn, which is really grand. It means that anyone within 3” and equipped with Mesh Armor will get a 4+ Armor Save, and if you have better armor then you can give people in the radius up to a 2+ Armor Save on a D6. This should not be a lightly considered power, however. Enemies with Blast or Rapid Fire weapons could easily take advantage of the clump of fighters you’ve just created. In which case, bonus armor is good, but only does so much against Blaze or Autocannon shells.
Maddening Visions: Any enemy ending their turn in 3” of the Witch has to make a Willpower check or immediately become Insane. This could be a good use, but it specifies when they end their turn within range, so an enemy that charges and takes the Witch Out Of Action nullifies this, as well as the possible use of running straight into a clump of already activated enemies (or ones who have yet to activate) and triggering the power to send them Insane.
Assail: The Witch makes a ranged attack against an enemy within 12” and line of sight. Let me repeat that. The Witch, with a Ballistic Skill of 5+, makes a ranged attack. The only time I can even consider using the Witch to make a ranged attack is if they’re in short range of a Stub Gun, much less to make any other sort of attack. Granted, if you hit, the person is flung D3” in whatever direction you think is funniest, and becomes Pinned. So you absolutely can throw some hapless ganger off a cliff, or into a Beast’s Lair, or somewhere even funnier. Do keep in mind you have to actually HIT though.

Tactics Cards

Fowler: Helot Cults only have access to two tactics cards. The printable web exclusive Dark Blessings works out to be a bit of an insurance policy for your Demagogue. If your leader is seriously injured or would be taken out of action, a successful Willpower check will turn them into a Chaos Spawn. This is obviously swingy and incredibly random. As this roll happens before you are removed from battle, you can benefit from a Familiar on the Willpower check. If they are still standing at the end of the battle, you roll as if the leader was seriously injured (not OOA). At the very least, you can go from a guaranteed lasting injury table roll to a shot at walking away just fine. On the top end, your leader could briefly become a wrecking ball. This has saved my leader on multiple occasions, in one case winning a game for me as the Chaos meatball shredded the Cawdor who took my leader out.

Rise Up, Brothers and Sisters from the Zone Mortalis Pack gives your entire gang Spring Up for a turn. Helots don't exactly have the best initiative, but a chance at being able to make that charge or Heavy Stubber shot is fantastic. We love cards that give better action economy - especially when it's balanced well. Both of these cards are worth putting into any deck for Helots!

Others in our campaign chose more heretical recruitments.

Brutes

Hive Market Minis: You can check out our review of the Outlaw Brutes options here. Let me call out the ever-so-tasty Warp Horror brute option, which you can now bring in your starting lineup. If Chaos Cults lack one thing, it's a model with actual legitimate damage output. This guy brings all the muscle and "Distraction Carnifex" energy you crave with endless modeling possibilities to boot. The base monster clocks in at 210 credits, with Terrifying as armor and Nerves of Steel with a 6+ cool keeping the melee pressure on.

It's fast with a 6” move, and brings 6 strength on two melee appendages, getting you to 5 attacks at D2 a pop on the charge with Pulverize and Rending adding to overall deadliness. At T4 with 3 wounds and no base armor, you're going to want to keep it hidden until it’s time to strike, but Terrifying makes it a less-than-ideal target as it crosses the board. Don't waste your time chasing mere gangers, as the Warp Denizen rule can cause it to take flesh wounds the longer a game drags on. The upgrades are all solid if you've got credits to spare, but I like the base model just fine for mortal murdering purposes.

Gang Lists

Ezekyle Catbaddon: I’ve rambled on long enough about how to use the gang, so I can at least provide you with list suggestions. I will give 3 lists; one for basic fighting in the Underhive, one tailored to the Ash Wastes rules, and a third tailored for Sump Sea rules because who doesn’t like pretending to be an 18th century (CE) sailor?

The Cult is ready to ply the Underhive.

Underhive/Zone Mortalis: Reverence to the Eight Peaks (1000)

Your standard gang. Nothing special about it, though maybe a bit tailored to my idea of what works and what should be used or is worthwhile to take, flamer notwithstanding.

Demagogue (Fearsome): Chainsword, Lasgun, Mesh Armor (155)

Disciple (Nerves of Steel): Heavy Stubber, Mesh Armor (205)

Disciple (Overwatch): Grenade Launcher, Stub Gun, Mesh Armor (135)

Witch (Fixer): Stub Gun x2, Mesh Armor (95)

Ganger (Specialist): Flamer, Stub Gun, Mesh Armor (185)

Ganger: Stub Gun, Incendiary Charges, Mesh Armor (95)

Ganger: Lasgun, Mesh Armor (65)

Ganger: Lasgun, Mesh Armor (65)

Ridgerunners are an essential part to any good wasteland gang. Just make sure the Helot's has plenty of chaos gubbins on it!

Ash Wastes: Disciples of the Blooded Wheel (1400)

Sure, there's only one vehicle, and no one has any bikes, but you can worry about that later. Flamer is dropped for an extra ganger to sit his ass in the back of the Ridgerunner and use the Mining Laser.

Demagogue (Fearsome): Chainsword, Lasgun, Mesh Armor (155)

Disciple (Nerves of Steel): Heavy Stubber, Stub Gun, Mesh Armor (210)

Disciple (Infiltrate): Long Rifle, Stub Gun, Mesh Armor (110)

Witch (Fixer): Stub Gun x2, Mesh Armor (95)

Ganger (Specialist): Grenade Launcher, Stub Gun, Mesh Armor (110)

Ganger: Stub Gun, Incendiary Charges, Mesh Armor (95)

Ganger: Lasgun, Mesh Armor (65)

Ganger: Lasgun, Mesh Armor (65)

Ganger: Stub Gun, Mesh Armor (55)

Ridgerunner (Scum Racer Crew): Heavy Stubber (Crew Operated), Mining Laser (Passenger Operated), All-Wheel Steering, Tyre Claws, Flare Launchers, Headlights (440)

A good sea captain needs a good boat. er.... barge...

Sump Seas: Cult of the Sunken God (1400)

The gang I used in my last Sump Sea campaign. They work well, though as with the other gang, you need to buy your Mounted stuff for most of the gangers later, as they otherwise have to crowd onto one big boat, talk about smelly.

Demagogue (Fearsome): Chainsword, Lasgun, Mesh Armor (155)

Disciple (Nerves of Steel): Heavy Stubber, Stub Gun, Mesh Armor (210)

Disciple (Infiltrate): Long Rifle, Stub Gun, Mesh Armor (110)

Witch (Fixer): Stub Gun x2, Mesh Armor (95)

Ganger (Specialist): Grenade Launcher, Stub Gun, Waster’s Dirtbike, Mesh Armor (110)

Ganger: Stub Gun, Incendiary Charges, Mesh Armor (95)

Ganger: Lasgun, Stub Gun, Mesh Armor (70)

Sludge Barge (Scum Racer Crew): Heavy Stubber (Crew Operated), Harpoon Launcher (Passenger Operated, Front/Right Facing), Easy Turnover, Gas-Promethium Engine, Ram, Transport Bed, Weapons Stash (505)

These lists are in no way the pinnacle of a Helot Cult, and in the end it is your decision what to do with it. My Ash Waste and Sump Sea lists are very heavy on vehicle expenditure, but these lists have served me well, and I can never not include my Lasgun Larry and Hans Grenade in my lists. May you receive the same success that I have, and may the gods give you favor.

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Tags: Review | reviews | necromunda | Necromunday