Great news for all cultist rabbles looking for some diabolical direction from the Dark Gods, because Codex: Chaos Space Marines is available for pre-order this Saturday. This weighty tome is packed with 10,000 years of unholy instruction, but you don’t need to be a superhuman amalgam of flesh and armour to be touched by the Ruinous Powers – Cultists are also getting plenty of new tricks.
Granted, one of those tricks involves barely contained daemonic parasites that twist mortal flesh into mind-bending new forms, but anything’s better than being ground under the boot of the Imperium, right? That’s certainly what the Dark Commune preaches.
This gaggle of berobed weirdos lead the many Chaos cults that plague the Imperium. Led by a Cult Demagogue and their two Blessed Blades bodyguards, Dark Communes also contain a psychic Mindwitch and a zealous Iconarch. Together this plucky group of misfits propagate malefic doctrine, inspiring their cults to fight the tyrants that oppress them.
Any friendly <LEGION> CULTISTS units within 6” of a Dark Commune’s Iconarch are encouraged by the dark sigils they carry, boosting their leadership and providing a chance to re-roll fumbled attacks that scored a 1. The Dark Commune itself will automatically pass any morale checks while the Iconarch still stands.
Carrying a big flaming emblem of hate is fine and dandy when you want to incite violent insurrections, but you often need something more direct on the battlefield. Cult Demagogues are blessed with words of power by the Chaos Gods and can empower their Chaos Space Marine allies with the dark potential carried by vile glossolalia and mantras of violence.
As a PRIEST, each Cult Demagogue knows the litany of Dark Zealotry, which grants <LEGION> CORE, CULTIST, or CHARACTER units within range of the Demagogue a better chance to land their hateful blows.
They can also choose an invocation aligned to one of the four Chaos Gods – Feculent Beseechment lets a Demagogue beg Nurgle to bloat one <LEGION> NURGLE CORE or NURGLE CHARACTER unit with plague wrought extra toughness, which is great for fattening up your Chaos Space Marine Legionaries.
Mindwitches can aid their allies or lash out at their enemies with bolts of empyrean energy, using powers from the Dark Hereticus discipline – at a terrible price, of course. If anything is unlucky enough to be left standing, the Blessed Blades are there to leap into combat with their warp-touched steel.
Whether you want to use the Dark Commune as heretical hype-men for the Traitor Astartes or as an HQ choice for a Legionary-sponsored cultist insurrection, you’ll need to pick up a copy of Codex: Chaos Space Marines when it goes up for pre-order this weekend.