Obligatory Clutch joke goes here.

In all seriousness, I’m actually going to talk about why I think Cultists are such great models for the Cult and show off the second one that I’ve painted. This was the point when I realized that I can actually accomplish my goal of getting enough models painted to a high-enough standard that I wouldn’t be constantly apologizing to my demo participants about the quality of the painting. Self-confidence is a thing I faked for a very, very long time and getting that quality back in a healthy, sustainable way is part of why I’m writing so much on this blog: while people in general are pretty great and accepting, I’ve had enough uncomfortable encounters in the wargaming space with men who believe I can’t possibly understand what I’m talking about when discussing old-school metal models and gaming that I tend to go a bit overboard in preparation.

Cultist Number 2, In Living Color!

So here’s the second Cultist, from the original Cult starter set produced by Freebooter Miniatures.

Similar to the other Cultist, he’s got some nice faded clothing. I think this was where I started really appreciating how much using VMC’s Pale Sand and Khaki paints helped to create a very dirty, worn-down appearance. There’s also a lot of little red details in here to add splashes of color and tie him in with the rest of my Cult crew, which I think really helps sell the “unified but not quite organized” vibe they have going for them.

The NMM is once again a bit tragic, but that’s only to be expected as I had so much fun with the earth tones that I kinda just wanted to get him done with by that stage. I know, it’s a bad habit, but I can always refine it again once I’ve accomplished the goal of “having painted, playable demo crews”. After all, I’m not doing this to show off skills but rather to grow as a hobbyist and improve my own ability to finish projects.

A quirk of this site is that whenever I upload a picture using my current theme, it initially shows up as a duotone image thanks to my theme using the aesthetics of old computing. This is an incredibly helpful thing for me in my review of my own painting, because it shows how the model’s values look without the color. Just for general information, here’s a picture that I haven’t fixed:

It’s still readable and the bits that I wanted light and shadows in work, so I think that’s a good sign!

Also, for those who might not know: he’s got a knife in one hand and a broken agricultural flail in the other. Strangely enough, it’s probably one of the only miniatures I own that has a proper agricultural flail, rather than the war flails that are so common on miniatures. It’s weird to see, isn’t it?

So What’s So Great About Cultists?

Cultists are Deckhand models for the Cult, as their name implies. They’re cheap, which is fantastic since the Cult needs to hire two Deckands for each Specialist they bring, and they come with some great traits for the Cult’s playstyle – Mob and Mystical Choir. They also come with Cowardly, which explains their somewhat lower morale values and also boosts their morale when they’re close to other models with that trait, which is giving you the hint that you’d like a few of these Cultists around to help form an angry mob that won’t run away as easily.

Mob is such a fun skill – each model with it grants a bonus to each other model with that skill that they’re assisting in close combat. There are a lot of models in the Cult with Mob, as well as a few who also have the wonderfully synergistic Hunting Instinct, so having this on a cheap Deckhand means they can get some surprisingly dangerous melee presence if you move them right.

Mystical Choir is the real reason you’ll be happy you brought Cultists to the board, however. By having at least two of them near your Mystic, they grant +1 A to any invocations, which is a really big deal because there aren’t a lot of ways to freely boost invocations like that. You also need to bring at least a couple of Deckhands if you want any Specialists, so grabbing two is a cheap way to help your Mystics bring their Loas into play faster and more reliably.

Unfortunately, they aren’t all upsides, because that would make them too good for their role. They’re not exactly threatening alone, they have poor morale (which most Leaders/Mystics in the Cult do not help with thanks to having No Authority), and they’ve got no ranged options, but that’s what Specialists and some of your other Deckhands are for.

Overall verdict is that they’re a playstyle-defining Deckhand – it is immediately clear how you build your crew when hiring Cultists. I’m a big fan, plus there’s quite a few sculpts available for them and (I believe) an incoming resculpt.

Hobby Progress

Some painting today – I got a lot done on the remaining Deckhands for the Cult (that’s right, there’s more yet to come – I promise that this is somehow a 300 doubloon crew despite all the models I’m prepping for it!) and I wrote down some stuff for the next few crews I’ll be working on.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll have more fun stuff tomorrow as I finish up the remaining members of this Cult crew.