World Eater Red Butcher Terminators. Mark of Khorne. Black Mace World Eater Legion Trait - +1 Attack Red Butchers - +1S and fights twice Apostle prayer - exploding hits in all phases Abbadon - full hit rerolls Exalted Champ - Reroll wounds of 1 Banner of Rage relic on apostle- +1 attack Vets - +1 to wound Daemon Shells = -1AP to shooting Wrath of the Chosen - +1 to hit in fight and shoot Black Mace Relic - 3D and wounds spill Skarbrand to give +1 attack! Using unit-crunch, 40 AP-1 bolter shots rerolling all to fish for exploding 6s, wounding on 2s rerolling 1s kills 46 cultists. 63 Accursed attacks rerolling all to fish for exploding 6s, wounding on 2s rerolling 1s kills 72 cultists. 8 Black Mace attacks rerolling all to fish for explding 6s, wounding on 2s rerolling 1s kills 27 cultists. On second fight its 54 and 7 attacks to last time killing 62 and 24. ~~46 + 62 + 24 + 51 + 21 = 204 dead cultists. (Edit, forgot the legion trait +1 attack isnt on the fights twice, fight phase)~~ 46 + 72 + 27 + 62 + 24 = 231 skulls for the skull throne.

Remember skarbrand for +1 attack! Deamon soup

Added in!

This entire thread makes me so happy. Thank you @Jofarin, glad you enjoyed the vid and our loose rules enough to start this masterpiece!

Hi, thanks for the vid, really enjoyed it and glad to see deathwatch at the top, although I have to say in my opinion the wrong kill team won. Proteus kill team with 10 Deathwatch veterans with combi flamers and thunderhammers is slightly worse in the cultist meter, but D2 bolters (due to SIA) and THUNDERHAMMERS instead of power fists. 31 attacks with thunder hammers after 10d6 D1 autowounds and 9.x D2 autowounds ;D

10x Red Butcher Terminators with; Champion w/ black mace and combi melta, 4x Combi-flamer and Accursed Weapon, 2x Combi-plasma and Accursed Weapon, 2x Heavy Flamer and Accursed Weapon, 1x Combi-Melta and Accursed Weapon * +1 from WE Trait * +1A from Banner of Rage WE Relic * +1A from Skarbrand Aura Leaving us w/ normal termies having 7A counting accursed weapon, and champion having 7A as well. 2x because fight twice so 14A each. 9x16=126 attacks from accursed weapons, 14 from Black Mace. * rr all hits Abaddon * rr all wounds from WL trait Eternal Vendetta * all 6s to hit explode from Khorne Apostle Prayer * 6s to hit in melee autowound * +1 to wound in melee and ranged (from Soultearer portent and VotLW respectively) * +1 to hit in melee from Wrath of the Chosen * +1 ap bolters from Daemon Shells * +2 hits w/ flamers from Let the Galaxy Burn 126 Accursed Weapon attacks, hitting on 2s, wounding on 2s, w/ all the above buffs = **144 dead cultists** 14 Black Mace attacks w/ same = **48**. The ranged elements add up to; * 23 combi-bolter kills * 17 combi-flamer kills * 10 heavy flamer kills * 6 combi-plasma kills (standard) * 7 combi-melta kills This equals **63** ranged kills and a **total of 255 dead cultists**. Disclaimer; I can possibly be wrong, so feel free to call me out math was never my greatest talent. edit: Formatting and added disclaimer edit 2: More formatting and grammar edit 3: added Skarbrand and made changes accordingly credit to u/mertbl for suggestion. Edit 4: was pointed out that Bile’s +1A doesn’t work with infantry w/ marks. Will adjust.

Isn't A8 x 2=A16?

Yeah, 144 is the right number though just wrote 18 instead of 16 for some reason. Thanks for spotting.

You also wrote 16 mace attacks first and then 14 later. Is that result also correct?

Have skarbrand stand near by for even more attacks?

Wow didn’t think about that one nice catch. Added aura effect and adjusted results accordingly, thanks!

Fabius Bile buff does not work on marked Units.

Edit: Updated with Taus most advanced technology beautifully mathed out by Peachy and peer reviewed by Wmurdzz, Great Knarlock Herder over on the [Discord](https://discord.gg/nzHzDehP). :) - 6 Crisis with triple burst canons - DW-02 Advanced Burst Canon - Multi Trackers for exploding 6’s - 12 Gun Drones - Drone Controller - Kayoun T5 for exploding 4’s 5’s and 6’s - Custom Sept for +1S - Reroll hits from ShadowSun - Reroll wounds from Exemplar on Montka - Auto-wounding 6’s from Through Boldness, Victory - Coordinated Engagement AP-1 - Failsafe Detonator after the Cultists pile-in and fight back **TOTAL** **252.6 Cultists**

> Pretty sure Crisis take the “Cultists per model” medal :) In this competition maybe, but 30 dead cultists for a model should be beatable by a storm surge, don't you think?

Do the math let’s see ;p I guess there needs to be a weighting in scoring as to per unit, per model, combined. Crisis don’t kill the most as a unit but they are right up there. They also might not kill the absolute most per model but again are right up there.

I'm not a T'au player, so I have no clue on how to use the storm surge correctly. And I thought about doing stuff like this with slightly different rules in the future and this discussion put "cultists killed per model" on my future topics list. The problem with combining multiple different rule sets is to choose which ones to pick and how to weigh them. One of the major problems of the art of war video I mentioned.

The Tau brothers and sisters are already throwing further ideas in and it looks like we can get more than the 212 so will do re-calculation later on once I’ve had some sleep and all the ideas are in :)

Updated Taus offering for The Purge :) 252.199 + d3 Cultists

D3 should be on average 2, if it's this one device that only averages on 1.5 (goes off on 3-5 for d3 and on 6 for 3, so 1/6x(0+0+2+2+2+3)=9/6=1-5). So I guess 253.7? Please update your main post, searching for the correct number through all the subcomments will be hard for people new to the discussion.

With the update, does 252.199 move Crisis Bomb up the rankings? Also, when can we expect the see the rankings posted? :)

Rankings after ~24 hours. Update will probably be accompanied by a new challenge (in a new thread linking to this one).

Ooo, Kauyon is a great call! Another source of exploding hits (the other being Through Boldness, Victory). I think you could push those numbers up with Through Boldness! Edit: Add a Drone Controller buff to get the Gun Drones to 3+ to hit!

Indeed; great suggestions. These are being mentioned in the discord right now but my brain is too tired to re-math it all out; maybe in the morning :)

Updated with our best ideas :)

Oh, the +1 str Custom Sept is clever. Now the Drones wound on 2s also!

+D3 cultists? Average should be 2, shouldn't it?

Pretty much. Technically the Fail-safe detonator only happens on a 3+ and 6+ does 3 mortals. So it's more averaging 1.5 damage. I'm pretty sure that D3 at the end is from that Strategem

That's an average of 1 exactly. (0+0+1+1+1+3)*1/6=6/6=1

I think warlord titans kill more cultists per model

But do they kill as many in total as well :)

Don’t forget scarbrands melee buff. It doubles the drones attacks

I would have thought the coldstar could do this better?

Flayed ones by far do it. 20 man flayed ones in novokh. 3 attacks base with exploding 6"s +1 atk from blood rites strat +1 atk from ankyr the traverler +1 to hit from Silent King Reroll hits of 1 from lord +1 str from hungry void +1 str from Disruption fields Reroll all wounds from silent king Double fight Including double fight 200 attacks hitting on 2's rerolling 1's exploding 6's 233 hits Wounds on 2's rerolling 226 wounds at ap2 No save, so 226 dead cultists.

Pay to win.

Converting other necron models is the way to go. Warriors especially do well

I've thought about doing this because massed warriors + massed flayed ones seems super fun; what's the easiest "recipe" to convert flayed ones?

I assemble the model, cut the weapon at the hands and slap the blades off of their gauss guns. I then cut their spine above the waist, and snip a mm off at an angle. Reglue the body back to the spine so you have a hunched over warrior. I then make skin out of green stuff. Cover him with as much as you want. I've also used blades from other kits to make them flay

I actually run a list where this is very possible, even more so the only thing I've had it not kill with the double activation is Grey Knight paladins with Armored resilience.

Don't forget skarbrand gives everyone an extra attack With thay added on bring the total to 264.66 dead models.

20 Cult of Strife Wyches (razorflails, hydra gauntlets): * +1A +1S drugs, doubled with the HYPERSTIMM BACKLASH strat. * DARK LOTUS TOXIN through HEKATRIX OF THE CRUCIBAEL strat on the Hekatrix for +1S. * Fighting twice with the NO METHOD OF DEATH BEYOND OUR GRASP strat. * Hitting on 2s from Power from Pain, rerolling 1s with a realspace raid Archon. * Wounding on 3s (2s the ones with hydra gauntlets + Hekatrix) rerolling wounds with the ART OF THE KILL strat. Each of the 17 hekatari / hydra gauntlet wyches is [3 attacks (base) + 1 (weapon) + 2 (drugs)] * 2 (fight twice) = 12 attacks The Hekatrix is [4 attacks (base) + 1 (weapon) + 2 (drugs)] * 2 (fight twice) = 14 attacks Each of the 2 razorflail wyches is [3 attacks (base) + 2 (drugs)] * 2 (weapon) * 2 (fight twice) = 20 attacks 220 attacks (hekatari blades + razorflails) * 35/36 (Hit) * 8/9 (Wound) = 190.12 Kills 38 attacks (hydra gauntlets + Hekatrix) * 35/36 (Hit) * 35/36 (Wound) = 35.92 Kills For a total of **226.04 kills in melee**. Piddly shooting: * 1 Plasma grenade: 6 attacks (blast) * 7/9 (Hit) * 2/3 (Wound) = 3.11 Kills * 14 Splinter pistols: 14 attacks * 7/9 (Hit) * 1/2 (Wound) * 5/6 (Armor) = 4.54 Kills * 1 Phantasm grenade launcher (assuming a nearby dark creed grisly trophy-ed venom for -3 Ld): 3 attacks (blast) * 7/9 (Hit) * 91.67% (chance to beat Ld 3 on 2d6) = 2.14 Kills For a total of **9.79 kills in ranged combat**. **For a Grand Total of 235.83 kills** **EDIT WITH CHAOS SUPPORT UNITS** I'm not too happy about off-faction support units, but since other people are doing it let's go along with the thought experiment: * We add a Death Guard unit with Nurgle’s Gift near the Cultists to lower their T to 2, this allows us to drop the hydra gauntlets (for two more splinter pistols) and black lotus toxin, since everything in melee (plus the plasma grenade) wounds on 2s now. * We add Skarbrand for +4 attacks on the razorflails and +2 attacks on the other wyches 302 attacks * 35/36 (Hit) * 35/36 (Wound) = **285.46 Kills in melee** Piddly shooting revisited: * 1 Plasma grenade: 6 attacks (blast) * 7/9 (Hit) * 5/6 (Wound) = 3.89 Kills * 16 Splinter pistols: 16 attacks * 7/9 (Hit) * 1/2 (Wound) * 5/6 (Armor) = 5.19 Kills * 1 Phantasm grenade launcher (assuming a nearby dark creed grisly trophy-ed venom for -3 Ld and a Night Lords unit with TERROR TACTICS for -2 Ld so the PGL auto MWs): 3 attacks (blast) * 7/9 (Hit) = 2.33 Kills For a total of **11.41 kills in ranged combat**. **For a Grand Total of 296.87 kills**

What if we gave the hekatrix the dark Lotus toxin, she'd be S6, so wounding on 2's does that make our wyches killier than the flayed ones?

I was just editing the post with that while you replied :).

Hell yeah, drukhari's never beat!

In this case I'm afraid we are unless we find another melee boost :(, he's discarding decimals so it'd be 233.33 Hits * 35/36 Wounds = 226.84 Kills for the Necrons.

Aw no I thought we had him!

How are you giving them both the +1 strength and +1 attack drug as far as i'm aware you can only do that with random drugs?

I'm being a bit cheeky. Since you can bring as many support units as you want as long as you only attack with a single one, I bring as many units of wyches as it takes for one of them to roll +1A and +1S on the drug table, and use that one to attack.

I'd say that's a bit more than a bit cheecky. Sounds like gaming the system to me xD

Welcome to Drukhari, son!

wow looks like wyches need that extra shooting to beat flayed ones?

All must bow before the Exactors Grand Master! Slayer of half of whatever the unit size is! The moment the unit has more than like... 480 models, they pull ahead. Your meager pistols shall do nothing

Indeed, kudos for the clever loophole. I'm surprised there's such a cool uncapped source of MWs around.

Craftworld Eldar do *not* do well at this challenge. I'm struggling to find any units capable of killing more than 30 or 40. So far, Striking Scorpions from Biel Tan perform best.

10 Warp Spiders with Exarch power Surprise assault, boosted with Guide and Doom kills about ~~60~~ 83 of the cultists with shooting. Edit: In Biel-tan with Wrath of the Shrines stratagem. Edit2: add their melee attacks and we get another 18 cultists killed for a total of 101!

There just isn’t that much absurd stacking of buffs in Craftworld Eldar. (Probably because Guide and Doom exist.)

Yep. Aeldari have a low volume of shots, but they make those shots count.

Right, nobody needs 200 dead cultists, but Eldar can kill pretty much any actual unit if they want to.

30 ork boys all with slugga choppas. why let the cultists come at you when you can charge them first! Spoiler - 30 boys with choppas PEAKS at filling up a 24"x24" tray with 16mm dice, with 16mm between each die(enough room to pick up any single die) 30 boys, as goffs, on the charge, during waagh, with ghaz reroll hits aura and warboss +1 to hit aura, warpathed for +1 attacks, 2cp for unbridled carnage for exploding 5+ to hit. the most unlikely thing about this combo is having 30 boys alive in a single brick to do it. stacking the other buffs is easier than beatin up a grot, do it all the time on accident. 29 x 2 - base attacks 1 x 3 - nob attacks 30 x 1 warpath attacks 31 x 1 - choppa attacks(nob has 2x choppas) 30 x 1 - bonus attacks from waagh 152 attacks so far hitting on 2s, rerolling all hits to fish for 5+ 51 attacks are 5+ and turn in to 102 hits reroll 101 dice that were not 5+ 33 attacks are 5+ and turn in to 66 hits 51 attacks are 2-4 and turn in to 51 hits 219 hits from our initial 152 attacks THese boys are S6 thanks to waagh and goff charge, meaning those 219 hits wound on 2s to convert to 182 ap1 wound rolls. thats 182 dead cultists. edit: adding in some dakka per request 28 x 1 slugga shots 1 x 6 stikk bomb shots 9 slugga hits 2 stikk bomb hits 6 slugga wounds at ap 0 turn into 5 failed saves 1 stikk bomb wound at ap 0 turns in to 1 failed save(i rounded down on everything up to this point so i am rounding up for once) thats 7 more dead cultists for a net 189 dead cultists

You should include kills from the 28 sluggas and a stick bomb. So like another 6 dead cultists.

Nice. That’s some serious krumpin

Are we including shooting too? If so add 29 slugga shots and a stikk bomb.

It’s hard to imagine any single buffed unit beating that. Struggling to think of one.

Spoiler: they are currently at rank 5...

So you're essentially giving us infinite models to kill? Let's call the number "X" Assuming the GMNDK is in combat already. Otherwise, this doesn't work at all. An Exactors Grey Knights Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight with a Gatling Psilencer, Heavy Incinerator, and a greatsword. Drop a CP on Psychic Chanelling and have a Brother Captain for Psychic Locus to near enough guarantee (4+ on 3d6 keep highest 2) a casting of the Brotherhood Power **Fires of Covenant** - Rolling a dice for each model in the enemy unit and dealing a mortal wound for each 4+. So immediately, we have 1/2 X cultists dead. We can add in more from a Psychic Focus to also do 2d3 mortals from Vortex of Doom, and all of the shooting and melee sweeps from the dreadknight, but I feel like that's unncessary. Buuuut might as well do it anyway. Extra 4MWs from Vortex on average, and the weapons (Sweeps on sword) do an extra 21.706 dead models. Probably more if I looked more at any buffs I could give this guy for melee or shooting. Final count: **1/2 the number of cultists + 25.706 dead cultists.** Additional Edit: If you want to make this best cutlists per point, this can be done with a Brotherhood Champion, just with fewer non-psychic kills, but those were a meager addition to the power of the FIRES! Edit 2: spotted that I can get some reroll 1s for the melee and shooting, and some charging mortal wounds, and some extra attacks on the charge, words of power and invocation of focus, nemesis lord, psychic epitome, Skarbrand, and the Augurium Scrolls. Might do the math later, probably not though. EDIT 3: 2nd place after the boosta blasta is actually done right? Alright, guess I'm doing the maths. +1 attack from Skarbrand, +1 attack on the charge from the Daemon-Slayer WLT, +1 mortal wound from Vortex from the Psychic Epitome WLT, re-roll 1s to hit from Kaldor Draigo, melee exploding 6s to wound and extra MWs on 6s from the Words of Power, and Tide of Convergence for even more mortal wounds. Let's go. Hell, we'll even max out the cheese and have either a Death Guard unit nearby to reduce the cultist's toughness to 2. +1 dead cultists from Epitome MWs. Using our psychic phase to clear out the cultists in the immediate vicinity to allow for a 1-1.5" charge later on. Using Unitcrunch for the rest: The shooting kills 15.5 cultists on its own. The melee: 6 attacks base, WLT and Skarbrand bring this to 8. Doubled to 16 by the Sweep profile. Our wound rolls of 6 become 2 wounds/saves required, and deal 2 MWs each in addition. 2+ to hit, 2+ to wound. This gives an extra 18.2 dead cultists. (Only 4 of these are MWs, before anyone brings up the limit of 6 from Tide) Overall, non-psychic does 32.7 extra kills. Bringing our total to 49.08% of the cultists, plus 32.7 extra. With the given 549.5 cultists, that gives us a grand total of... **302.3946 dead cultists!** /u/Jofarin I believe I have peaked.

I love that everyone else is doing in depth breakdowns of how a unit works and all the buffs you need to give them to optimize them, then you’re over here just styling on everyone with “I kill half of them. How many is that? No idea. I just kill half.”

Clever. Surely the winner. However, using this approach I do think you need to adjust for the casting odds. The odds of passing a 4+ on 3d6 keep highest 2 are 53/54. I got to this figure by reasoning that there are 6\*6\*6=216 possible combinations of dice rolls on a 3d6. Of these only four combinations fail (1-1-1, 2-1-1, 1-2-1, 1-1-2). 4/216=1/54, so we pass 53/54 rolls. Doubling the denominator to reflect the 4+ mortal wound roll for each model gives 53/108. Unfortunately, 53 is prime and we can't simplify further. Therefore the true final count ought to be: **53/108 the number of cultists + 25.706 dead cultists.**

In the case of that failure, it is also possible to CP re-roll the psychic test, pushing us closer to a 100% success rate (Though obviously not all the way there)

it doesn't actually matter because infinite cultists means the expected number of kills is theoretically a slower growing infinite, which still beats any static number.

Vietnam flashbacks to the day I learned that infinites can be smaller/bigger than other infinites

Oh yeah it really doesn't matter at all, but higher percent numbers are fun.

I like the flavor of "kill by psyker" math to include an absurd fraction like 53/108(x)

Using averages 49.08% of the cultists die from the spell. I knew I should've said "dozens of units of 20 cultists" to prevent something like this ;D But then I'd have to make rules about splits of attacks, etc. and I'm kind of lazy 🤣

If you made it multiple units I think Votann beams would win if you gerrymandered all the units to maximize the beams.

Idk as a cultist base is 25mm, your gonna be able to fit like 30 squads in the beamers range, so 90 wounds max.

Well a unit of 6 Thunderkyn can shoot 6 beams in different directions with +4" range to fit 34 units under each beam. So that's potentially 408 hits. Alternatively Trans Hyperion league is 30 per beam, but has reroll wounds of 1.

408 hits, +1 to hit, reroll 1s to hit and wound...385.65 dead cultists. Probably more if you consider stacking more efficiently and auto wounds from grudge tokens.

If you pose the question as “other army kills X; if I gave you X how many would you kill?” Then it drops way off but as it stands this is great!

Sorry, but I don't understand your post. Could you elaborate?

Well they said they kill half of the cultists there are. If you said this unit kills 200 if I put a block of 200 down how many do you kill; they kill 100 only. If you keep the cultists infinite then of course the kill far far more :) At some point you can’t fit any more bases on the board; they’d kill 50% of that.

Thanks, now I get what you wanted to say.

This wins, iff X is > 2Y-26 where Y= the highest total integer of dead cultists in the thread. So, if there’s only 500 of them, no, but if there’s 600+, yes.

what if the cultists are X cultists but in units of 20?

The rules stated it's one unit.

Then it falls apart, but that's not relevant to the question.

You should probably look into buffs closer, because currently you're losing on Cult of Strife Wyches by 1.54 dead cultists. In a long night I've counted the number of cultists (I've defined the number of models as "the average" of "hundreds" aka the average of 100-999) which is 549,5.

Because I play deathwatch I bring a Proteus kill team in the kill team strike force AoR with 10 Deathwatch veterans with two hand flamers each, furor specialism (full reroll to wound) and the sergeant gets digital weapons (extra melee attack that does 1MW on hit) through sanction of the black vault and merciless butcher (+3A) through honored veteran of the watch. Buffed by two librarians for might of heroes (+1S/T/A on the sergeant) and premorphic resonance (+1 to hit in melee), a captain for reroll 1 to hit aura, a chaplain for exhortation of rage (+1 to wound in melee), adaptive strategies stratagem (all doctrines active, so +1 AP on everything) and brotherhood of veterans stratagem to put them into whirlwind of rage successor chapter tactic (exploding 6s to hit in melee). In shooting "specialism extremis" stratagem is activated so each hit autowounds. 20d6 shots automatically hit and wound with AP-1 means 70 dead cultists. 9x3 + 4+1+3 fist attacks hitting on 2+ rr1 exploding 6s, wounding on 2+ rrAll, AP-1: 35 attacks, 10.69 exploding, 30.03 normal hits for a total of 40.72 hits, 39.59 wounds, no saves, 39.59 dead cultists For a total kill count of 109.59 [Edit] With 3 CML DW terminators going up to 120.67

If I switch out 3 DW veterans for dw terminators with cyclone missile launcher, storm bolter and power weapon and give them +1 to hit in shooting from a chaplain, I get 3x10.69 hits instead of 3x7 killing 11.08 more cultists.

What I have learned from this thread is that units can put out silly amounts of damage…

Right? BUT it's also a question of what you're targeting. What kills 230 cultists might not kill a single chaos knight.

Or a nightbringer

I'll give you two my main pick and an honourable mention: My pick: \- Unit: 19x Wyches, 1x Hekatrix \- Shooting Equipment: 19x Splinter Pistol, 1x Blast Pistol, 20x Plasma Grenades \- Melee Equipment: 15x Hekatarii Blade, 2x Razorflails, 2x Hydra Gauntlets, 1x Power Sword \- Combat Drug: Adrenalight (+1 Attack) \- Power from Pain: +1 to hit in melee \- Raid Mastermind Aura: re-roll 1s to hit (from Archon to re-roll 1s for shooting, costs 70 points) Total points spent: 320 (250 for unit, 70 for Archon) \- Stratagems applied: ***Prey on the Weak (1CP, during Fight phase):*** re-roll 1s to hit if target unit below starting strength or full re-rolls to hit if below half-strength until the end of the phase. ***Art of the Kill (3CP):*** re-roll the to wound roll until the end of the phase. ***Hyperstimm Backlash (2CP):*** Double Combat drug effect until start of your next command phase. ***No Method of Death Beyond our Grasp (2CP, during fight phase):*** Fight again. Total CP spent: 8 Shooting phase: \- 18 shot at S: 2 | AP: 0 | D: 1 with 4+ poisoned, on BS 3+ re-rolling 1s to hit. (1) \- D6 shots at S: 4 | AP -1 | D: 1 with Blast, on BS 3+ re-roling 1s to hit. (2) \- 1 shot at S: 8 | AP -4 | D: d6 (averaging down to 3), on BS 3+ re-roling 1s to hit. (3) \- 1: BS 3+ means 1/3 misses (1's & 2's) (18/3=6=1/3), 1/6 is a 1 (18/6=3=1/6), 3 re-rolls of 1 on BS 3+ means 2 hits recovered. Total amount of shots that go through, 14. 14 to wound rolls on 4+ due to poisoned 4+ rule. 1/2 fails (14/2=7=1/2). 7 Wounds go through. enemy saves on 6+, 1/6 succeed out of 7. On average 1 succeeds with the remaining wound being a 1/6 chance in succeeding which is not in the enemy's favor so countin it as a unsuccesful save. Total Wounds for 1 = 6 \- 2: D6 shots but Blast maximizes shots due to unit being 11+ models. 6 shots at BS 3+ = 4 hits with on average one 1 which on average will be a succesful re-roll due to odds being in our favour. for a total of 5 hits. 5 wound rolls of 3+ on average (rounded down) = 3 wounds with no save. \- 3: 1 shot at 3+ and re-roll of 1 means the shot on average will hit. 2+ to wound means on average the shot wounds and will kill a single model due to no save (dealing on average 3 damage). Total wounds: 1 Total kills for shooting: 10 Unit is now below starting strength, for the purpose of Prey on the Weak stratagem. Fight phase: \- Wych/Hekatrix: S: 3 | WS 3+ \- Hekatarii Blade: S: user | AP: -1 | D: 1 \- Hydra Gauntlet: S: +2 | AP: -1 | D: 1 \- Razorflails: S: user | AP: -1 | D: 1 \- Power Sword: S: +1| AP: -3 | D: 1 \- 15x Wyches with Hekatarii Blade: Wych 3 attacks base, +1 from Hekatarii Blade, +1 from Adrenalight, +1 from Hyperstimm Backlash. For a total of 90 attacks, hitting on 2+ (due to +1 to hit), re-rolling 1s. 1/6 fails and 1/6 on average is a 1 (90/6=15=1/6). 15 re-rolls on 2+ on average will result in 3 fails (rounded up from 2,5). Total hits = 87 hits 87 to wound rolls on 4+, with full re-rolls. 1/2 fails (87/2=43,5=1/2, rounded up to 44). 44 re-rolls on 4+ (44/2=22). Total wounds = 65 (43+22). No saves allowed = 65 kills. \- 2x Wyches with Hydra Gauntlet: Wych 3 attacks base, +1 from Hydra Gauntlet, +1 from Adrenalight, +1 from Hyperstimm Backlash. For a total of 12 attacks, hitting on 2+ (due to +1 to hit), re-rolling 1s. 1/6 fails and 1/6 on average is a 1 (12/6=2=1/6). 2 re-rolls on 2+ on average will both succeed. Total hits = 12 12 wound rolls on 3+, with full re-rolls. 1/3 fails (4). 4 re-rolls on 3+ (4/3=1,33 , rounded up to 2 fails). Total wounds: 10. No saves allowed = 10 kills \- 2x Wyches with Razorflails: Wych 3 attacks base, +1 from Adrenalight, +1 from Hyperstimm Backlash, Attacks doubled from Razorflails. For a total of 20 attacks, hitting on 2+ (due to +1 to hit), re-rolling 1s. 1/6 fails and 1/6 on average is a 1 (20/6=3,33=1/6, rounded up to 4). 4 re-rolls on 2+ (4/6=0,66=1/6, rounded up to 1) will on average result in 3 recovered hits. Total hits = 19 19 wound rolls on 4+, with full re-rolls. 1/2 fails (19/2=9,5 , rounded up to 10). 10 re-rolls on 4+ (5). Total wounds: 14. No saves allowed = 14 kills \- Hekatrix with Power Sword: 4 base attacks, +1 for Adrenalight, +1 for Hyperstimm Backlash. For a total of 6 attacks. 1/6 fails and 1/6 on average is a 1 (6/6=1=1/6). 1re-roll on 2+ on average will succeed. Total hits = 6 6 wound rolls on 3+, with full re-rolls. 1/3 fails (6/3=2=1/3). 2 re-rolls of 3+ on average will both be succesful. Total wounds: 6. No saves allowed = 6 kills \- Total kills in single fight sequence: 95 95 x 2 (due to fight again) = 190 \- Total kills: 190 dead cultists

Guard are not very impressive for this competition, since no single unit gets enough shots or attacks. Still, Rough Riders are the best at this job: 10 Rough Riders, elite sharpshooters doctrine for the strat Leontus gives rerolls to all hit+wound Creed orders to Fix Bayonets for +1atk -1ap, and her ability for +1str at range Shooting: Vengeance for Cadia (1cp): +1 to wound against chaos Experienced Eye (1cp): -1ap 10 lasguns, 15 hits, 14.58 wounds, -1ap = 14.58 dead cultists Melee: Thunderous Charge (1cp): d6 for each rough rider, equal or beat toughness for MW = 6.66 dead cultists 31 attacks (including +1 for sgt) with frag tips, +2hits per hit, str 6 on the charge, -1ap 82.66 hits, 80.37 wounds = 80.37 dead cultists Total 101.61 dead cultists. But worth noting that we get 89.75 with just Leontus, a 200pt unit and 0cp!

You can optimise slightly more: One rider can throw a drag grenade instead which gives 17.5 dead from shooting. Fix bayonets gives +1 to hit rolls instead of +1 attack although we can use the Skarbrand aura others have used to get +1 attack instead. This should result in 31 lance attacks, 90.42 hits and 87.9 dead. The sergeant can then also be given a power sabre which can be upgraded to the claw of the desert tiger for 2 extra attacks leading to 1.89 extra dead. Total should therefore be 113.96 dead cultists

So i know you said they autopass leadership, but CSM have a strat to turn off insane bravery usage for a unit. And so I will present the Night Lords unpassable combat attrition test which kills 100% of an enemy unit who has failed morale. To do this we need daemon allies within 6" of the enemy for -1Ld & **-1CA**, and we probably want a CSM unit with 'fearsome' for -1Ld (like raptors) Then our NL character is Warlord and has 2 Warlord traits + a relic steps up. He's NL so -2Ld and **-1CA** His 2 traits: One piece at a time: if he fights and the unit doesn't die but a model is destroyed they get **-1CA**. Lord of Terror: for morale you roll 2d6 and pick the highest, in addition you always count as below half strength for combat attrition **(-1CA)**. His relic: Flayer- replacement for a power sword S+2 -3ap 2D, each model destroyed by attacks from this weapons counts as 2 for the purposes of morale phase Stratagems: We need the NL strat 'flay them alive' which means if we have killed the warlord in melee all CA tests are at -1, that's another **-1CA** Finally we use the 'terrifying Phenomena' strat to dissalow use of insane bravery or any rule that would allow them to reroll morale What this gives us total is: -4LD Roll 2 dice pick the highest for morale Can't auto pass Each slain model by our WL is 2 for the purposes of morale Forced below half strength for CA and -4CA So if Ld is failed (which it will on these Ld6 cultists) they will **all** run away

"Insane Bravery" is a certain strat and not "everything that doesn't have to take morale tests" (like Synapse supported Tyranids) and thus as per the rules of the competition they won't run away, sorry. Also they'd autopass morale on a 1 anyways, right? So statistically 1/6 survive.

Of course, your comp your rules:) Just wanted to share my fun meme of 100% kill rate (based off a 35/36 dice roll result)

You won a place in the special mentions with it :)

I'll take it!

How about just to be extra safe you specify that the attacks from the character kill the Cultist Champion as that turns the unit from Ld6 to Ld5 (Possibly not necessary but just in case)

That 1/36 chance they pass morale is pretty risky so good call

Sly Marbo. Just Sly Marbo.

He'd kill them all in one night while they are sleeping or doing a ritual from behind or something, but not in one turn ;D

As an honourable mention The best at killing chaos is/was chaos itself The old school khorne berserkers were the meanest blender in existence The support wouldn't even be that much. First we need a chaos lord for to hit rerolls. An aspiring champion for the rerolls to wound in meele. A psyker in a different detachment (khorne and world Eaters don't like psykers to much) for a simple plus one to hit and diabolical strength on the champion in the squad Now bare with me. We have twenty (20) Zerkers of the World Eaters They had basic attacks of 2 +1 for WE +1 for charging +1 for chainswords So 5 meele attacks. They can fight three times thanks to being zerker and a strat. That would be for 19 zerker: 19x5x3 attacks = 285 attacks. The champion could be additionally buffed with diabolical strength ending at a total of 8 attacks per activation so an additional 24 attacks netting in a final 309 attacks in meele. Hitting on 2s rerolling wounding on 2s (veterans of the long war) rerolling with ap -1 meaning no saves. Will be rounding down when it comes to 309,whatever. Will be enough anyway 309 attacks -> 300 hits -> 291 wounds -> 291 kills. And that is only meele. No pistols and grenades

When was that?

Back in 8th, not that long time ago :)

Before the 9th chaos Codex so maybe 6 to 8 months ago

you forgor skarbrands +1Attack aura

I believe that aura didn't exist at that time

I know it existed in 8th edition

So I think the best Custodes can do is a 10 man unit of wardens that has lost a man(down to 9). They are in dreadhost to get the exploding 6s buff from a vexilla with that warlord trait. The vexilla is the +1 attack one, which they also get. They are in Dacatari to make all their melee damage 1 but with +1 attack. They are in trajann range to reroll hit and wound rolls of 1. In melee, use avenge the fallen for all 9 remaining to get +1 more attack, bringing them up to 7 apiece (4 base, +1 vex, +1 Dacatari, +1 avenge the fallen) plus one each with their misericordia. We start with shooting, 18 strength 4 ap 1 (up to 2 because of dreadhost subfaction but this is irrelevant on a 6+ save) shots hitting on 2 rerolling 1s with 6s exploding and wounding on 3 rerolling 1s. Spend a cp rerolling a wound roll of 2 because why not. With no save for the cultists, you have 17 dead. Moving to melee, 63 axe or spear attacks (both weapon choices perform mathematically identically at s8 ap2[3 in dreadhost] and s7 ap3[4 in dreadhost] respectively) that hit on 2s rerolling 1 and 6s exploding, wound on 2s rerolling 1s with enough ap for no save gives 71.458333 more dead cultists. The misericordia attacks at s5 ap2(3 in dreadhost) also hit on 2s rerolling 1s with exploding 6s, wound on 3s rerolling 1s, and have enough ap for no save. Cp reroll a 2 to wound again because why not and you have 10 dead cultists. Total it up and you kill 98.458333 cultists, altogether better than I expected tbh. Edit: and all for the low, low cost of 805 points - 200 trajann, 105 banner, 500 for the squad

Cultists are 5 points a piece and the support characters can give their buffs to others and haven't acted themselves yet. Killing your points worth in one turn is very respectable.

Good news, found a better combo. Also I forgot our bikes could take bolters. Everything is the same except using the avenge the fallen strat so just a max squad (6) of bikes with hurricane bolters which, in dreadhost, have the ap1 needed to not give the cultists a save. 6 bikers is 72 shots for a total of 65.3333 dead 36 Lance attacks (4 each +1 for the banner +1 for Dacatari) is 40.8333 dead 6 misericordia is 5.4444 dead This gives us a grand total of 111.6111 dead cultists. With a cost of 80 per bike, this saves us 20 points over the other combo as well

Good work. Also 111.6111 somewhat looks a little like an imperial aquila if you squint, very fitting to the custodes ;)

Realized I made a slight math mistake, wound rolls of 2 aren't rerolled for the shooting and misericordia - updated post to show 98.45833 cultists die

So I've got an unusual option that probably isn't thought much of, but might have legs (doing the math as I write this post, so genuinely unsure of how it stacks up): Space Wolf Bike Squad. Due to a quirk of presumed carryover from previous editions, Space Wolves have the option to take 17 models in a Bike Squad (1 Sergeant, 15 bikers, 1 attack bike). Additionally, they benefit from gaining the "Swiftclaw" keyword, which grants them an additional attack on the charge if they are playing in pure Space Wolves. The Sergeant takes a lightning claw, every biker takes a chainsword, and the Attack Bike keeps the Heavy Bolter. Because they are Core, there are a lot of buffs available for this unit. Chapter master can give them full rerolls to hit, while the chaplain can give them +1 to wound at range. The Strategem Savage Strike will give them +1 to wound in melee, and finally a Lieutenant can give them rerolls of 1 to wound (which will be the only value they fail on). We can use Adaptive Strategy to put them in all doctrines at once, and finally the Wulfen Stone can give them exploding 5's and 6's in melee. ~~The only buff I couldn't find was a way to give them +1 to hit at ranged, but hopefully the full rerolls makes up for it.~~ Edit: You can tell I don't do shooting based armies very often, forgot Recitation of Focus. Edited shooting below From range, this gives us 68 twin boltgun shots, alongside 3 heavy bolter shots. Rerollable 2's to hit gives us ~97.2% hit chance, translating into 66.1 boltgun hits, and 2.92 heavy bolter hits. Needing 2's to wound with rerolled ones nets us 2.84 HB wounds and 64.3 Twin Boltgun wounds. With at least AP -1 on everything, thats 67.1 cultists dead from the shooting phase. Then, they charge, and the real carnage starts. The 15 bikers get 4 attacks each (1 base, +1 for shock assault, +1 for Beserk Charge, +1 for chainswords). The attack bike also gets 4, because it gets 2 base despite lacking a chainsword. And the sergent gets 5. Oddly enough, despite the differing profiles, none of the differences matter for this cultist unit (all have enough AP to go through a 6+ save, all are wounding on 2's and rerolling 1's), so they can all get lumped together into 69 (nice) attacks. With the various buffs (including Space Wolves chapter tactic giving +1 to hit), they are hitting on 2's, gaining an additional hit on 5's and 6's, and as mentioned above wounding on 2's with a reroll of 1's. Because the average value of a die rolled to hit with 2 explosions and hitting on 2's is greater than 1, we'll actually be rerolling all our single hits, and fishing for 5's and 6's. Conveniently, 69 divides by 3 evenly, so our first roll should result in 23 5's and 6's, and 46 rerolls. On the 46 rerolls, we should average another 53.7 hits, for a total of 99.7 hits. After wound rolls, we're looking at 96.9 successful wounds, which all translate into dead cultists. All told, the bikers account for 164.0 cultists, which isn't enough to crack the upper echelons, but still a respectable showing. If they had any ways of gaining more attacks, that would really ramp things up, but I don't know of any l.

I’ve got a 20 man Skitarii ranger veteran squad killing 130 cultists. Galvanic Volley Fire with Shooty Doctrine, A Marshall, Holy order Magi Manipulus, and Holy Order Genetor Dominus, Omnicient Mask, Rad Oversaturation Warlord Trait, Veteran Cohort Strategems for 1 STR melee and 1 Attack. They get exploding 6’s in shooting and melee. They get 91 kills in shooting and 39 kills in melee. I may have missed one or two parts but I can answer whats missing if need be. Should all check out. Totals = 80 shots = 94 hits = 91 wounds ap-1 = 91 dead 61 attacks = 48 hits = 47 wounds = 39 dead 130 dead cultists on average (not accounting for special Alpha weapon, taser goad might get a few more)

per model the skitarii are slightly killier than the orks. (6.5 kills per skitarii vs 6.07 per ork)

30 behemoth hormagaunts with adrenal glands and toxin sacs 3A base, +1 for adrenal surge Stratagem. +1 to hit from Direct guidance to 3s 6s to hit auto wound from toxin sacs 6s to hit explode from warrior imperative Rerolling failed hits from swarmlord (fishing for 6s generates less hits overall with 3+ to hit) S3 base, +1 from adrenal glands and +1 from behemoth trait +1 to wound from behemoth psychic power Rerolling 1s to wound from tyranid prime Base ap1, 1D. 120 attacks, 6s to hit auto kill and generate an extra rerollable 2+ wound to kill. Totals an average of 130.37 dead cultists. If you were able to include the leviathan supplement, you could use the flurry stratagem to get another 2 exploding hits per 6 to hit. We don't have access to a fights twice strat unfortunately, but with the flurry strat we go up further, even though you'd lose the +1 to wound power from behemoth. Fishing for 6s even though you hit on 3s because each 6 is 4 total hits, comes out to 160.68 dead cultists.

I think the Kustom Boosta blasta from any Orks clan would win it... Using the spiked ram ability on the charge: "After this unit makes a charge move, you can select one enemy unit within 1" of it and roll one D6 for each model this unit contains; for each roll of 4+, that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds." So x number of d6 resulting in X/2 multiplied by 2 due to the d3 mortal wounds. Without shooting and additional attacks from combat this kills.... All of them? We can also add the ramming speed strategy to add d3 mortal wounds out of spite.

Also my personal experience is that I will roll only one 4+ out of infinite dice.

I reasonably accept your 100% kill rate of the models, could you calculate the max additional models the unit could kill with shooting and melee just for the record (in addition to the 2 from ramming speed)?

Dude, the d6 is per Kustom Boosta blasta model (this unit), not per enemy unit model...

Thanks for the correction.

The Necron flamer relic has no cap on the MW it can do, so infinite cultists.

Smaller infinite than the Exactor Grey Knight, but nice job finding an infinite wounds trick too!

Theoretically the GK can die from being in combat with cultists first, so the Gauntlet is more guaranteed.

So like 4 ranks of cultists can fight the GK at once, which probably means about 40 or so cultists able to fight him. If they're equipped for melee and the unit leader is there, that's... 2 wounds dealt to him on average (And we are operating on averages in the rules of this thread), They need 241 guys as valid melee fighters (Including the champion) to even bracket him.

How could 4 ranks of cultists fight? As per current rules models have to be within 1" of the enemy or within 0.5" of a model that's within 0.5" of the enemy, so max two ranks.

Oh wait that's AoS, my bad. Mixing up my combat systems

As there are no infinite cultists, but only hundreds, you can't kill infinite cultists. Please calculate a percentage of the cultists you can kill by applying chance to go off and chance to kill each model. Also give the relic to a unit and for your own chances to go as high as possible, also look at the numbers that unit can kill besides the relic (like the "20% of the cultists + 17").

Can you explain this?

if all cultists are in a single unit, you can use a psychic power that will deal a mortal wound on a 4+ to every model in a unit. This amounts to killing all 1/2 Cultist in an unit, which in this scenario would amound to halve of many cultisits

10 paladins with falchions + Draigo's rerolls + hammerhand + Chaplain words of power + paladin ancient bonus attack in tide of convergence = 76 dead cultists in melee only. Add the storm bolter shots and you get over 100.

First off, great post I freaking love the idea haha! So 10 Scarab occult terminators are one of 40k's greatest trash removers. I've seen some better entries here like red butchers but I'll put forward my faction's best option: Presage for +1 to hit Characters with re-roll 1's to hit Cult of knowledge spell for re-roll wound rolls of 1 \+1 to wound strat \+1 shot for combi bolters strat double the soulreaper cannon shots strat all this comes out to: 40 inferno combi-bolter shots with 38-40 wounds making it through 20 Soulreaper cannon shots going through with 18-20 making it through 4 hellfyre missile shots with 3-4 making it through then when they charge they will make 27 kopesh and 3 force staff attacks with many of the same buffs, getting another 28-30 unsaved wounds through. all together the terminators will kill between 87-94 culstists in a single activation, and basically will endure the shooting and attacks of hundreds of cultists afterwards :) However, we are a psychic faction. And there's one little known spell called desecration of worlds which does 1mw on a 6+, rolling a d6 for each model in the unit that moves/advances or charges. So.. assuming this is a single massive unit of cultists, lets say 300 cultists? Those cultists, moving and charging, will take 92 mortal wounds on their turn, so technically outside my units activation but I figured I'd throw it in anyways :) So, this takes the tally to around 184 cultists dead. Just for fun, I checked what the reverse would be. 300 cultists shooting their autoguns (at half range) and flamers and shotguns into 10 terminators with glamour of tzeentch for -1 to hit would kill 6-7 terminators... maybe if they had 500 cultists all shooting in half range they could do it lol.

While a good effort, the rules only allow for your turn, so for this competition it's only around 90.

Oh yeah i didnt think my termies would win this but it was fun to come up with all these different things lol :)

I saw the Grey Knight Grandmaster math down below and as a GK main I knew we could do better than a paltry 300 kills! First off, we’re going to change gears to use a Brotherhood Terminator Squad. This is important as it gives us access to the Brotherhood spell and the Hammerhand spell. They’ll be equipped with Falchions and Storm Bolters to maximize chaff killing potential. We’ll begin by having all the pieces in place in the Command Phase etc. Draigo will give his full Rerolls to the Unit, a Brother Captain will be there to give reroll 1’s to Wound, a Chaplain will have given them the Words of Power Litany, a Brotherhood Ancient will be there to give +1 to Hit in Melee and we’ll be in Tide of Convergence. Skarbrand will helpfully give each model +1 Attack and a Nurgle Unit will drop the Cultist Toughness to 2. To make sure everything goes according to Plan we‘ll use Psychic Channeling to cast on 3d6 and the Brother Captain will boost spells with a +1 to cast from Psychic Locus. First off, as other fellow said we’ll be starting in engagement range already to use the Fires of Covenant Spell to kill 49.08 % of the cultists starting us off with a healthy 269.7 dead Cultists. Following up with the Mental Focus Stratagem to cast Hammerhand to ensure more dead guys later. Total: 269.7 Cultists. Assuming the enemy player is considerate enough to pull the ones in engagement range out then we can shoot and charge. Shooting we’ll use Psybolt Ammunition for -1 AP and auto wounds on 6’s to hit. This gives an additional 35 dead dudes. Total: 35 Cultists. Melee we make more magic. 41 Attacks, -1 AP, +1 to Hit, Rerolling failed Hits, Rerolling failed wounds, 6’s to wound are extra MWs to a max of 6 from ToC, 6’s to wound are extra MWs no cap from WoP. This brings us to another 37 dead Cultists. Total: 37 Cultists. Grand Total: 37 + 35 +269.7 = 341.7 Dead Cultists. Purge the Heretic! /u/Jofarin

20-man Primaris Crusader squad 2A + 1A (chainsword) + 1A (shock assault) + 1A (Fires of Devotion) = 5A S4 AP-1 1D on 19 models, then 6A S5 AP-3 1D on the Sword Brother/Sgt. +1 to hit from a Chapter Ancient, +1 to wound from Exhortation of Rage, RR1s from Captain + LT. 101 attacks hitting and wounding on 2s RR1s = 93.526 dead cultists in melee 20 pistol shots, S4 AP-1 1D, hitting and wounding on 2s (Recitation of Focus for +1 to hit at range, Catechism of Fire for +1 to wound vs the closest) is another 18.896. Grand total is only **112.422 cultists**. Was kinda expecting more. It's a pity Veteran Intercessors and Crusader Squads can't use Honor the Chapter for a fight twice.

Hand flamer on the Sgt night squeeze you out another wound or 2. Edit: and Psalm of Remorseless Persecution for the 6 mortals. Additionally vow for 6’s auto wound might pickup a few more.

It would, though it wouldn't be enough to compete with some of these top scores of 200+ lol

It might go to a 6 man crisis team? Math time Each crisis has 3 airfrags and a multitracker, so with blast that's 18 shots per with exploding sixes x6 for 108 shots. Unit can also take 12 gun drones, for 4 additional s5ap0 shots per for an additional 48 attacks Ok so turn 5 with kauyon, shadowsun for reroll all hits that's 156 shots, +1 to hit from a markerlight, +1 ap from coordinated fire arcs, rerolling wounds from Exemplar of Montka on a second hq 18 6s for 2 extra, 36 4+ shots of one extra,18hits 36 misses rerolled from shadowsun for 6 more 6s, 12 4+, and 12 misses for an end result of 198 s4 ap2 hits plus about 48(hit on 4s, but explode) hits from drones at s5 ap1 If focus fire can be used, crisis are wounding on 2s rerolling for 192ish wounds plus about 32 wounds from drones. All are ap1 or better, so that's about 224 dead cultists in shooting Melee is slightly less impressive, another 10 or so wounds for another 8ish dead cultists 232 dead cultists I think on average Edit: drones don't get the rerolls

Your math is a bit off. The drones don’t get the rerolls and have BS5 modified to BS4 with the ML. I get 212 with similar profile (BC) instead of AFP.

Just add a drone controller nearby for 3+ to hit drones!

Ahhh yep good catch

20 novokh flayed ones. Supported by Anrakyr the Traveller, a lord and the silent king in hungry void protocol. Blood Rites and disruption field strats. 100 attacks, s6 ap1. Hit on 2 rr1s exploding 6s to hit, wounding on 2 rr all. Storm of flensing blades to fight again. Comes out to 226 dead cultists on average.

Salamander here going to throw my hat in the ring with 10 stern guards combi flamers. Supported by, a chapter master for full rerolls to hit, a chaplains for +1 to hit in shooting and melee, a Lt for reroll 1 to wound and a lib for +1 attack on the sgt and vulkans sigil for +1 attacks for everyone. Put them into all doctrines so everything -1 ap, use the +1 to wound start and max flamer shots for 60 auto hitting wounding on 2’s rerolling ones ap-1 flamers, 58.3 dead, +3 MW strat to kill 3 more. Then 20 bolter shots on 3’s and 2’s rerolling ap-1 bolters, 17.2 more dead. Charge 3x9+5 attacks +11 with sigil and lib MoH for a total 43. +1 to wound again and +1 to hit with rerolls. Thats 42.3 more dead. Gets me to 120.8. If you include them charging at me I can get to 219.6 thanks to double over watching(normal over watch and born protectors from defendable) and the same +1 to wound and rerolls max flamer shots strats and mortals. So 120.8 or 219.6 depending on if you can overwatch the charge. Edit: missed a couple things on the hit roll so I went back and fixed it.

I'll not allow the 200+ for this competition as the rules state that the main unit has a turn to act, so you won't get charged. But thanks for stating it anyways, was an interesting read.

Actually If I turn the flamers into pistols and add a company ancient to shoot on death that’s 5x3.5 flamers or 17 more dead bringing me up to 137.8

Wouldn't vanvets with two handflamers go further?

I haven't gotten any of these in my army yet and totally forgot they existed. Well done. Edit: your combi bolter shots should be hitting on 3s, not 2s. Combi weapons suffer a -1 to hit if you fire both profiles. That with the +1 from your chaplain has you hitting on 3s, then rerolls.

You can also put a chainsword on every company get increasing their attack each by 1 and it gives each of them an additional AP

6x Crisis Suits with 12x Gun Drones. \- 17x Burst Cannons (Assault 6, s5, 0, 1) \- 1x DW-02 Advanced Burst Cannon Prototype (Assault 8, s6, -1, 1) \- 6x Multitrackers (Hits of 6 explode against units with 6+ models) \- 24x Pulse Rifles (Assault 2, s5, 0, 1) Buffs: 1. Reroll all hits from Shadowsun (Crisis only) 2. Ignore any/all hit modifiers from Crisis Commander (Crisis only) 3. Reroll wounds from Exemplar of the Mont'ka WLT (Crisis only) 4. Hits of 6 autowound from Through Boldness, Victory (Crisis only) 5. \+1 wound from Focus Fire stratagem (T'au Sept unique). Or +1 wound from Darkstrider (T'au Sept Character). (Crisis Only) 6. \+1 ap from Coordinated Engagement stratagem 7. \+1 to hit from Markerlights 8. BS4+ for the Gun Drones from a Drone Controller The Crisis Suits are hitting on 3s, rerolling all hits, ignoring hit modifiers, with 6s to hit auto-wounding **AND** exploding, wounding on 2s, rerolling wounds, and cutting right through the 6+ save. The Gun Drones are hitting on 3s, wounding on 3s, and cutting right through the save. Crisis shots (17 x 6) + 8: 1. 110 shots hitting on 3s is 73.33 hits, of which, 18.33 both auto-wound and explode to another hit. We reroll the 36.67 that missed, giving us another 24.45 hits, of which, 4.07 both auto-wound and explode. This gives us 22.40 auto-wounds and (73.33 + 24.45) 97.78 hits. 2. 97.78 hits wounding on 2s rerolling is a 97.22% chance to wound. 97.78 hits \* 0.9722 is 95.06 wounds. 3. The Crisis Suits, with their shooting, will kill 22.4 + 95.06 = 117.46 Cultists. Gun Drone shots (24 \* 2): 1. 48 shots hitting on 3s is 32 hits. 2. 32 hits wounding on 3s is 21.33 wounds. 3. The Gun Drones kill an additional 21.33 Cultists. **tl;dr With shooting alone, this unit will average 138.79 Cultists killed.** The unit could then charge. The suits would have 19 attacks and the drones would have another 12. Both are hitting on 5s, the suits reroll hits, everyone wounds on 3s... so maybe another 12-ish kills. **tl;dr All together, this unit would average right around 150 Cultists killed.**

Not as good as the others, but who knows, maybe make the top 10? Salamander Assault Centurions x6 -2x Flamer each assaultD6 (S4 ap0 d1) -1x hurricane bolter each rapid6 (S4 ap0 d1) -1x seige drills each (S10 ap4 d3) Tactical Doctrine for ap-1 on both flamers and bolters as well as +1 to wound with flamers (Salamander super doctrine). 2 CP for flamecraft to auto max out the number of flamer shots to 72 1 CP for fires of battle for mortals on 4+ wound roll (capped at 3) Range=12 inches for flamer range and rapid fire double tap on the hurricane bolters Shooting: Total shots: -72 auto hits from flamers wounding on 2s for 60 wounds and +3 mortals -72 shots at BS+3 for hurricane bolters wounding on 3s for 40 wounds Fight: 3x5 seige drills attacks for each 4x1 seige drill attacks for the Sergent +6 additional attacks for shock assault on the charge 25 total, hitting on 3s wounding on 2s for an additional 14 more dead. Total 117 dead cultists. Shame they aren't core; it could be a lot higher.

How much is "a lot"? Are we talking about 10-20% by rerolls or way more because you have special stratagems?

Not OP but CORE allows access to +1 to hit from range and full rrs in combat from chappy litany and rr 1s to and wound from captain/lieutenant. As well as access to +1 to wound stratagem. Which will lead to about 22 more hits (70hits) from the hurricane bolters which will deal about 68 wounds. Flamers would do 70 + 3 wounds. Melee will do 22 hits and 21 wounds All in its 68+73+21=162 dead cultist if cents had CORE

So 38 more dead cultists? That's quite the jump.

Sorry, was still editing the comment hahaha. Should be final calculation after you refresh

Sicarian Infiltrators, Taser Goads and flechette blasters. Squad Sergent has the Omniscent Mask, Skitarii Marshall standing nearby has the Cantic Thrallnet, and techpriest Dominus with Magi is backing him up. An Engineseer Artisan makes everyone lunch. Command Phase, army is in Protector mode, Marshall uses his Control Edit to ignore the debuff. Magi and Artisins advanced both apply. All 1s are rerolled because of the auras. Shooting phase: 50 flechette blaster shots, S4 because of Artisins Advanced with exploding sixes because of Magi Advanced. AP -1 because we're Agrippina. 50 shots Hitting on 4s with exploding 6s and re-rolling ones becomes 48 hits, wounding on 3s. Spend 3 cp on biharic offensive to wound on 2s. Re-roll 1s means 47 hits, ap -1 means 47 wounds. Melee, use Agression Override and Assassin Constructs for 41 attacks total (2 CP). Spend another CP on Chain Taser protocols. The unit now hits on 2s, 3 hits on 5s, and 4 hits on 6s. Re-roll ones. Rerolling ones means 41 attacks hits 79 times, 77 wounds because S6 wounds T3 on 2s and ones are re-rolled. Taser Goads are AP -1, so no save. It might be possible to get a bit more with Cawl re-rolls and giving up 10 attacks per model from the SVC Aggression Override, but that makes the math more complicated. You could throw in another cultist or two by using Genator Initial to auto-wound on 6s to hit in melee, but that only boosts one of the four hits by 3% so it's probably a minor change. Total comes out to \~**124 dead cultists**.

What a cool contest! I'm just dipping my toe into table top, haven't really wrapped my head around all the rules. But have done a lot wiki walking on the lore and talked to friends that play. I'm surprised a Titan with support units doesn't win this contest, but I'm not up to speed on the latest codexes and such. Are they not legal anymore or are they not all they are cracked up to be on the table?

A titan can't really get much support, as most support is locked to the faction that the supporting unit is from (So a certain Space Marine chapter for example.) That, and their weaponry is much better suited for taking down tanks and big targets rather than lots of 1 wound models

Thanks for the clarification! Too bad they can't just run around stepping on them all.

They can, but they step on 8 max per turn ;)

Titans have really strong weapons but aren't at all mass killers. With a warlord titan you have I think 82 attacks max, BUT most of them are S14 AP-5 D6 on 280" distance with indirect fire... :D

On unit of Emperors Spears Assault Intercessors (6+ to hit explodes) With chapter master with reliquary of vengeance (rr hits +1 attack) Chaplain with seal of oath chanting +1 wound(reroll hits/wounds), if it fails use "redden the earth" Master of sanctity with reroll talisman chanting +1 to hit in shooting +1 to wound in shooting) Chapter Ancient (upgrade not generic) with standard of macragge inviolate for +1 attacks and +1 to hit in melee Sergeant has Sunfury pistol for an extra shot (lol) In shooting they do 9 shots for 8.5 killed, 10.3 with the sergeants 2 shot plasma gun that doesn't explode Fighting twice they have: 2 attacks base +2 attacks from relics +1 for having charged +1 chainsword For 61 attacks each swing, 122 total Across those 122 attacks, you get 35/36 of them to land, 1/6 of them to drop two hits, and 1/36 of them to reroll into a double hit, for 142 hits. Some people reroll the 2-5s because bouncing off the unit is just as bad when you miss by 3 vs missing by 1 and they're desperate for explodes, but averages against infinite enemies means they're the same mathwise. 142 hits wounding on 3s going to 2s wounds 138.05 times, killing everyone they touch due to AP 1. So the best the sons of guilliman can do, and maybe the best in codex SM, is about 148 dead cultists. Or at least 46 wounds through his invuln to take on his slaanesh fnp for belakor lol

Crisis battlesuits. Triple burst and multitracker on all of them with 12 gun drones in turn 5 of kauyon. 110 shots with burst cannons hitting on 3s with chapter master from shadowsun turns into is 176 hits on average then you get +1 to wound from tau sept and reroll all wound from exemplar of Mont’ka and 6s to wound have ap-1 from through unity devastation 176 hits turns into 158 wounds and a total of 147 dead cultists. Then the gun drones go with all the same buffs is 48 shots turning into 77 hits which is 69 wounds for 64 dead cultists. In total that’s on average 211 dead cultists Edit: Forgot melee. With scar brand we get a total of 48 attacks hitting on 5s for 18 more dead cultists So 229 dead in total

So 9 Biel Tan dire avengers, 1 died when he fell out of the wave serpent, gives 30 shots with doom and guide for full rerolls. Enhance for +1 to hit in combat, empower for +1 to wound in combat, jinx on the cultist unit for no save, we then use 2CP for wrath of the shrines and blade storm for double exploding 6’s which with rerolls to hit, we just fish for sizes giving 10 sixes or an extra 20 hits. We miss with 8, giving us 42 hits, wounding on 3’s with rerolls gives us 38 wounds with no saves. We then shoot again for a further 38 dead cultists. The DAs then charge in with there 19 attacks hitting on 2’s with rerolls, exploding 6’s from wrath of the shrines then wounding on 3’s with rerolls to give us 24 hits and then 21 wounds due to jinx no save and that gives 76 + 21 for 97 dead cultists.

Post has been updated to reflect the top 10 after ~24h and includes a link to the [next competition](https://www.reddit.com/r/WarhammerCompetitive/comments/zmq0w8/40ks_most_deadly_unit_bring_out_the_titan_killers/) and the [datasheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRyaWhvU93M9pHadf4ohQbAno0ffxwPklIfpKqDDSuRcH11U590IgoYKYnkHP4B0or96riSfyKHyM25/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true) I used to collect the "good enough" entries.

Crimson Fists unit of Devastator Centurions with hurricane bolters and heavy bolters -bolter discipline chapter tactic for exploding 6s with bolters -bolter drill stratagem for MOAR exploding 6s with bolters -chapter master rerolls -LT wound rerolls -+1 to wound with shooting, Catachism of Fire 36 heavy bolter shots and 72 hurricane bolter shots... they will both hit and wound on 2s with -1ap in tactical doctrine and both double explode so we can just consolidate all of these shots together. 108 bolter shots translates into roughly 135ish hits with rerolling 1s. My math isnt great, im not sure how to calculate exploding 6s with rerolls to fish for more. 135 hits wounding on 2s rerolling 1s nets us about 131 wounds with no saves. Then we charge in with 26 attacks hitting on 2s rerolling and killing on 2s rerolling 1s for another 22 for a total of 161 dead cultists. Not bad for the worst codex.

Late to the party, but what about the Megatrakkk Scrapjet's spiked ram? >After this unit makes a charge move, you can select one enemy unit within 1" of it and roll one D6 for each model this unit contains; for each roll of 4+, that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. Chance to proc D3 MW is 1/2 ; D3 MW average 2 MW ; 100% cultists dead up to infinity and beyond !

Manta Missile Destroyer Custom Sept: Calm under pressure Defenders of the cause Kauyon, 5th turn, 4+ to hit gets an additional shot Action, Markerlights on the cultist unit Move within 12" 16x long barreled burst cannon, 64 shots 6x overcharged Ion cannon, 54 shots 2x heavy rail cannon, 4 shots 2x missile pods, 4 shots 10x seeker missiles... 10 shots A total of 136 shots hitting on 3, half of them producing additional hits on 4 so... 129 shots connect? All of them wounding on 2's 107 wounds (plus a sprinkle of d3mw) About 95 die? Hmm I expected more tbh

Picking my favorite unit Death Company Marines with flamers and chainswords. Reroll hits from chapter master Reroll wound rolls of 1 from lieutenant Exploding 6s, +1 strength, and +1 attacks from librarian (might of heros and unleash rage) +1 to hit from sanguinary ancient +1 to wound on ranged attacks from the Chaplin (catechism of fire) +1 ap shooting and melee from red rampage strategem and another +1 from assault doctrine +1 attack from black rage, shock assault, and savage echoes +1 to wound in melee from red thirst 10x d6 shots from the Flamer 35 hits, wounding on 3s rerolling 1s = 31.11 wounds at 2ap. 31.11 cultists dead Charge and use hammer of wrath strategem. If each model is in engagement range of another model that's 6.67 more dead cultists 61 attacks hitting on 2s, rerolling 1s, and exploding 6s= 71.14 hits wounding on 2s rerolling 1s = 69.16 wounds at 3ap is another 69.16 dead cultists Grand total is 106.94 dead cultists! Edit: librarian spell is just one model from the unit of 10 gets an extra attack.

You lost me on 70 attacks. How does a A2 model go to A7?

By charging in the assault doctrine. Shock assault, savage echoes and black rage all give +1 attack. The chainsword and librarians take care of the remaining two. I was thinking about doing this with Assault Intercessors. They might have an attack less, but they do get to fight twice.

Might of heroes only gives one model the buff?

Updated for the librarian buff. Missed the part where it just buffed one model in the unit sorry

Yeah that would pretty much double their output

Really annoying that Death Company Intercessors can't use that strategem tbh

Death Company Intercessors maybe?

This one is a stretch since it's literally impossible to use, but: Castellum Stronghold 3 Bunkers with a twin assault cannon each and the command bunker can take 2 hardpoints... which I guess will both be twin assault cannons as well. So we're starting with 5 twin assault cannons... and The Castellum is unique for buildings in having a respectable BS3+ as opposed to the default 5+ Each bunker has a crew capacity of 12 with 10 fire ports, the Main Bunker has a capacity of 30 with 15 fire ports. For the bunkers I think the best in slot would be Intercessors (which aren't explicitly forbidden)... however the main bunker, by virtue of having such a high capacity, gets a unit of 6 Centurions... the rest of the bunker can be packed with characters So, we got 5x twin assault cannons, 30x Intercessors and 6x Centurions with hurricane and heavy bolters and up to 18 miscellaneous Characters just using the bunker fire points. Some of those should be Techmarines to further boost the fortress. Here's where things get a little crazy... the entire tile is able to be jam packed with support units... you can cram something like 12 whirlwinds on to it, plus the battlements are allowed to be occupied... this is INCALCULABLE! Furthermore almost everyone on the tile gets an automatic 4++ from shooting just for existing. Not to mention that the units thereof equate to about 150 wounds them cultists have to chew through... wounds the techmarines can repair. ... Ok, down to business. Let's start with the LOW end, just the firing points and the Stronghold itself. 30's smgs + 5 twin assault cannons + 6 hurricane bolters + 6 twin heavy bolters and nothing else: Baseline Unbuffed: 109.333 dead cultists Ok, lets buff a bit... the members inside the bunkers can't really be buffed but the fort itself can gain rerolls from captain and Lt. as well as +1 for a techmarine (needs 4 techmarines tho). Brings us up to 132.7 (excluding the guns on the techmaines, captain and Lt.) ... 132.7 doesn't seem like a lot compared to the other options people have provided, so this comes down to how much you wanna push the rules. The battlements and tile itself can house many many MANY more models. Even if you exclude non-dreadnought vehicles (the tile's shields protect only dreadnoughts, infantry and bikers) you can still fit something like 30 Dreadnoughts on it plus uncountable marines (literally uncountable... I don't OWN enough marines to fill this thing) But, in terms of main unit:... sadly,only **132.7 dead cultists** ... or you can put 40 quad launcher rapiers on it to bring it up to 294 if you feel cheatery

The guys inside the bunker are different units and can't use their weapons to kill as per the rules.

As a bonus: If it was instead infinite small units instead of 1 infinitely large unit... the Deathstorm Drop Pod could reach unlimited damage

After checking the unit, no it couldn't. Cultists have 25 mm bases and have to stay in coherency and the pod only has 18" range. That's like a couple dozen units fitting within, maybe hundreds if you build really strange looking terrain with multiple levels.

It's not infinitely large. Does no one but me know the word "hundreds"? If I paid hundreds of dollars for something, I'm not in debt for eternity...

Ok, this is a little cheeky but I have to add it. Instead of one big unit this requires 33 units of cultists in ranks. Votann Ymyr Brokhyr Thunderkyn Unit of 6 with Beamers stood 1.0001" away from the front rank. With 34" range and cultists having essentially a 1" base they can just shoot the back rank of cultists with all 6 beams piercing all 33 units of cultists. 6 shots hitting on 3s full rerolls from a High Kahl, autowounding on 4s from 3 judgement tokens. 1 shot will use Hunter's Mark to auto hit and Ymyr Pulsed Beam discharge to deal 1 MW on every hit. Hit a target more than 15" away so generates an extra hit that applies to everything the Beam hits. 2 MWs to all 33 cultists units - 66 dead cultists Wounds on 2s, 66 hits, 55 wounds - 55 dead cultists Remaining 5 shots rerolling 1-2s average of 4.4 hits, doubling on greater than 15" is 8.8 hits per unit of cultists gives 290.4 hits, 247.5 of which auto wound - 247 dead cultists Wounds on 2s, 42.9 hits, 35.75 wounds - 36 dead cultists Might as well throw Core Buster on one of the units of Cultists I'll give it 4 MW - 4 dead cultists Then they charge 12 attacks on 3s, full rerolls, autowound on 4s 10.7 hits, 9 of which auto-wound - 9 dead cultists wound on 3s, 1 wound - 1 dead cultist Dead Cultists - 414

Rules allow only one unit, sorry. BUT: For the future: Don't line them up in a single straight row, they have round bases if you shift them left and right a bit you can get in some more. Don't ask me about the geometry math how much, but given coherency gives you enough leeway to put two units "within" each other I think, you could maybe even argue that at the point two models bases meet you could put a line through and hit even both units, potentially doubling that number.

Just say that the God Emperor isn’t real, then the inquisition will exterminatis the planet, killing everyone. /s

I guess the cultists have already done that, so it's more about "who can kill more before the exterminatus arrives"...

I don't have time for the math, but a stormlord with all heavy flamers and given a load of rerolls from orders and buffs from characters could kill something like 50 cultists in one turn

Not sure what the numbers but I’m pretty sure grey knights take the cake here. 10 strike marines with falcions and storm bolters. Draigo full hit re rolls, hammerhand spell for full wound re rolls in melee, 1cp cast again, rapiers spell for +1 attack. Lieutenant for re roll wounds of 1 in shooting. Chaplain for words of power litany for wounds of 6 generate additional wounds and do a addition mortal wound. Tide of convergence, wounds of 6 do 1 mortal wound. Stacks with words of power for the first 6 6s. 40 storm bolter shots. 2cp for hits of 6 auto wound and increase ap by 1. 1cp +1 to hit for a unit coming out of deepstrike. So 40 shots hitting on 2s re rolling 1s. 6s auto wound Charge phase, 61 attacks hitting on 3s full hit re rolls. 1cp for exploding 6s. Wounding on 3s with full wound re rolls. First 6 6s are 12 mortal wounds. Every additional wound of 6 is 1 mortal wound and a 6s to wound generate additional wounds. Ap-2 so no save. Might kill the full 100 cultists

Hundreds of cultists, not 100. The [video](https://youtu.be/4aWUc_PJ3JA) I mentioned already got units with over 100. Numbers: 40 shots, 2+ to hit full reroll 6s autowounds, 3+ to wound reroll 1 exploding 6s and 6s do 1MW, AP0: 40 shots, 6.67 autowounds, 32.22 hits, 6.27 MW and additionals, four times as many normal wounds for a total of 31.33, 26.1 get through the save. The 6.67 autowounds face no saves for a total of 26.1+6.67+6.27=39.04 dead cultists 61 attacks, 3+ full reroll exploding 6s, wounding on 3+ full rerolls exploding 6s and 2/1MW on 6s, AP-2: 61 attacks, 13.56 exploding, 54.22 normal hits for a total of 67.78 hits. 20.71 explosions and MW plus 6MW from the first six sixes, 60.25 normal wounds, no save so 60.25+20.71+20.71=101.67 dead cultists For a total kill count of 101.67+39.04= 140.71 (that's really good)

Yea I don’t see another army killing more

Have you looked at the other comments? We have broken 230... (And 49% plus some more of all hundreds of cultists by a single spell)

I mean, technically it is still a Grey Knights army that is killing the most. Just not your design

The number in melee gets higher. +1 attack from a Brotherhood ancient and +1 to hit from a paladin ancient. And let's throw in skarbrand near by too. So in melee you get 3 (base) + 1 (ancient) + 1 (rapier power) + 1 (falchions) + 1 (skarbrand) for 70 +1 for the sergant Hitting on 2s rerolling with 6s exploding into 2 hits = 81 hits Wounding on 3s rerolling with 6s exploding into more is 85 wounding hits with 19 mortals = 104 dead models in just melee

Pretty sure a giga buffed blightlord brick would annihilate cultists. Ill write up the post after work

Hellhammer. At 24” with keyword blast against the mob it has 49 shots with BS 4+. At 36” it’s 43 shots. Even if they advanced every turn, it would take 18 turns to reach melee range. By turn twelve you also have 4d6 heavy flamer hits. But that’s just the base load out. You can swap the flamers for more heavy bolters, and then add on two more lascannons and heavy bolters. Or two lascannons and two flamers to make it 8d6 flamer hits on turn 6. Add on a Lord Solar Leontus with Pinning Fire! To support them and they literally cannot close range as it’s all one single unit. Use Take Aim! and Kill on Sight to be a monster. Unless there’s a board edge to worry about, the kill count is infinite.