Hey everybody, Danny here from TFG Radio to once more delve into my favorite Traitor Legion, The World Eaters. We are going to look over their new Warlord Traits, Artefacts, and finally a few lists to bring it all together. Be sure to check out the Tactics Corner for a huge collection of resources to help you #gitgud.
In previous articles, I went over the general special rules for World Eaters available to any formation/detachment, and then I went over the Butcherhorde, but to really get a full view of what the World Eaters can do, we need to see what else they bring to the table, and the answer is: Blood for the Blood God.
Warlord Traits:
- Arch-Slaughterer: Warlord gains Rampage
- Slaughterborn: Every time your Warlord rolls on the boon table, you can instead choose to increase his attacks by 1.
- Unrivaled Bloodlust: Your Warlord and his unit can charge an enemy unit currently engaged with another friendly unit. But wait, you get to do this at the end of your opponent’s charge subphase!
- Disciple of Khorne: In a challenge, your Warlord rerolls all To-Hit and To-Wound rolls.
- The Berserker: While locked in combat, your Warlord has Feel No Pain (FnP) and Eternal Warrior.
- Violent Urgency: All friendly Mark of Khorne units within 8 inches and your Warlord plus his unit roll 3d6 and take the two highest when charging.
Wow, there is a lot of awesome in there. I mean there isn’t a bad trait in the whole bunch. Yes, Rampage isn’t amazing, but it certainly isn’t bad, and that is arguably the weakest one. Slaughterborn is situational, but it also stops your Warlord from ever becoming a spawn. It would be better if you could plan to get it as I’d spend 10 points for a Gift of Mutation to up a Lord’s attack by 1. Unrivaled Bloodlust is just spectacular as out of activation movement can absolutely win your games (see Warmachine), so if you are canny with placement and timing, you can slingshot your Warlord and his unit into combat on your opponent’s turn. Rerolling everything in challenges is pretty great as a Chaos Lord loaded-for-bear is going to put the hurt on just about any other character, and getting your Warlord both FnP and Eternal Warrior for being stuck in combat is amazing and lets him tank a bit in a fight. Violent Urgency also synergizes so well with the army, ensuring that not only are you getting a reroll to charges, you get 3d6 and drop the lowest, pretty much ensuring you a 7 inch charge and radically upping the odds you start to hit 8 or 9 inch charges. Just wow.
Overall, you can roll on this chart and be pretty happy no matter what happens, but there are a few worth fishing for. I’d always take Violent Urgency over any other.
Artefacts:
- Talisman of Burning Blood: Bearer and unit add 3 inches to their moves, runs, and charges.
- The Berserker Glaive: +2 Strength, AP 3, Two-Handed, Specialist Weapon, Daemon Weapon. Also, the Bearer loses the Independent Character special rule but gains FnP and It Will Not Die.
- Brass Collar of Borghaster: Bearer and unit Deny the Witch on a 4+ (but never better than this). If a power was nullified, the caster suffers Perils of the Warp.
- Gorefather: +2 Strength, AP 2, Two-handed, Unwieldy, Armourbane, Murderous Strike (wound rolls of 6 are Instant Death).
- The Crimson Killer: Strength 7, AP 2, Soulblaze Pistol
- Blood Feeder: +1 Strength, AP 2, Specialist weapon, Unwieldy Power Axe. Also, you do not use your attack stat but rather roll 2d6 attacks each round of combat (you do get normal bonuses like charging, extra weapon). If you roll a 1, you do a wound to yourself with no armor save.
Ok, again, just a lot of wow in there, but with a bit more suck. First off, the pistol is junk. Sorry. The Brass Collar is interesting, and while it could come in handy, there are too many other options here. The obvious star is the Talisman of Burning Blood as you can build one hell of a super unit with it. While it specifies “in the movement phase”, so you don’t get to use it for your Butcherhorde move, you can still theoretically get 9 extra inches of movement in Turn 1 for 25 points. That’s insane. Put this on a Khorne Lord in a Bike squad or Raptor Squad, and on average, your opponent cannot be more than 4 inches from their table edge if they don’t want to get charged on the Top of 1. That’s just bananas with extra bananas with some Kill! Maim! Burn! thrown in for good measure.
The weapons are also pretty decent with the most dependable and solid being Gorefather. This is a great weapon for barely more than a Powerfist, and being able to get Instant Death or tear through armor with ease is legit. If you expect to run into a Knight-heavy meta, giving Gorefather to a Daemon Prince pretty much makes him a Titan-Killer. I really like the Blood Feeder on any character where you have rerolls to hit, so maybe as a companion to Kharn or with a Dark Apostle. While it is swingy with the dice, the chance for just some absolute blender of death action is too sweet to pass up. Finally, the Berserker Glaive is actually pretty interesting. Putting it on a Daemon Prince gives him S9 on the charge, AP 2, 5+D6 attacks at initiative 8!. Oh, and it gives him Feel No Pain. Since he’s already going to be solo, there is no real downside here. Another interesting way is to run this on a Lord from the Raptor Talon formation. He may ride alone, but you can send him at anything without a 2+ save and watch him get to work, and while his charge out of Deep Strike is Disordered, he’s still Strength 6, AP3 with 3+D6 attacks. Of course, if he lives after the drop and charges again, he comes in at Strength 7, AP 3, with 5+D6 attacks. You could also do a suicide Jugger-Lord with it, but the Daemon Prince is probably better at that although to be fair, the Jugger-Lord is cheaper,
So yah, there is a lot of solid wargear here, and let’s face it, Talisman is easily one of the best pieces of equipment in the entire Traitor Legions book. You can (and maybe should) build an army around it as with the right unit like Bikers or Raptors, you can almost guarantee a first turn charge with it. That’s insane. It’s also the World Eaters’ greatest meta-shift; it is not just “corner-case” to get a first turn charge with them; it is almost inevitable.
Ok, with all of this in mind, let’s build some funky, funky lists, all 1850 mind you.
List 1: The Red Tide!
Detachment: Butcherhorde
Core: Warband
- Chaos Lord. Bike. Sigil of Corruption. Powerfist. Talisman of Burning Blood. MoK
- 15x Chaos Space Marines. Pistol/CCW. MoK
- 15x Chaos Space Marines. Pistol/CCW. MoK
- 3x Chaos Terminators. MoK. 3x Combi-Melta
- 3x Chaos Bikers. 2x Meltagun. MoK
- 3x Chaos Bikers. 2x Meltagun. MoK
- 5x Havocs. Pistol/CCW. MoK
Auxiliary: Lost and the Damned
- Dark Apostle. MoK. Blood Feeder.
- 35x Cultists. MoK. Pistol/CCW
- 15x Cultists. MoK. Pistol/CCW
- 15x Cultists. MoK. Pistol/CCW
- 10x Cultists. MoK. Pistol/CCW
Command: Lords of the Legion
- Kharn
So this list is all about bringing bodies to the table and drowning your opponent in a sea of blood. The massive cultist unit is home to all the characters, making it a scary proposition to fight. On it’s own, it is pumping out 140 attacks on the charge, and while it can’t hurt anything T7 or above, most things aren’t T7, and the unit gets to reroll their attacks. With the reroll, the Apostle with the Blood Feeder is far less likely to kill himself, and Kharn himself hits everything on a 2+, meaning he can even do damage to the inevitable invisible deathstar. With the Talisman, this unit also moves 2d6 before the game, up to 9 inches in the movement phase, and either runs d6+3 or charges 2d6+3. All dice being average, if your opponent has a unit less than 8 inches away from their deployment line, you can get them on the top of 1. Imagine your opponent’s face when on Top of 1 you wipe his Deathstar before it has the chance to power up or even just severely cripple it.
Of course, it also brings another wave of 30 CSM to help out, and with the Obsec Terminators and Bikers, they can steal objectives late game or do a bit of tank hunting with the meltas. Of course, once the cultist die, they have the chance to just come back, so this list is all about attrition after turn 2. One super fast, early game push followed by 4 or 5 turns of grind. Not a bad combo, yah?
List 2: What hell is that?
Detachment: Butcherhorde
Core: Warband
- Chaos Lord. Bike. Sigil of Corruption. Powerfist. Talisman of Burning Blood. MoK
- 5x Chaos Space Marines. Pistol/CCW. MoK
- 5x Chaos Space Marines. Pistol/CCW. MoK
- 3x Chaos Terminators. MoK. 3x Combi-melta
- 10x Chaos Bikers. MoK
- 5x Havocs. Pistol/CCW. MoK
Auxiliary: Raptor Talon
- Chaos Lord. Jump pack (free). Sigil of Corruption. Gorefather. (Warlord)
- 5x Raptors. MoK
- 5x Raptors. MoK
- 5x Raptors. MoK
Auxiliary: Favoured of Chaos
- Daemon Prince. Wings. Armor. Daemon of Khorne. Berserker’s Glaive
- 5x Possessed
- 5x Possessed
- 5x Possessed
So this is more of an oddball list designed to use models that you almost never see in a competitive environment, but it has some trickiness to it, and it also hits far harder than it may appear. You have a big bike unit that moves 2d6 before the game, 15 in the movement phase, and then charges 2d6+3. That’s damn fast, and while it doesn’t fight all that hard, it does bring 41 WS4, Strength 5 attacks on the charge and then 5 WS6 Strength 9, AP 2 attacks. This is more than enough to pick up a Riptide on the top of 1. This is not a deathstar but rather a concentrated strike, so don’t expect it to take on any super units. The Daemon Prince also gets to fly across the table, and with the Glaive, he is T5, 3+ armor, 5++, and FnP with IWND. Oh, he also strikes at Strength 9, AP2, with 6+D6 attacks on the charge, all at initiative 8. Great googamooga, that’s a beatstick. The 3 small units of Possessed also hit like champs when they are near him, and overall, it is easy to ignore these units until they are in your teeth on turn 1.
The second (or third) wave is the Raptor talon where you have a Lord with Gorefather charging from Deepstrike with a unit of meatshields, and these little squads can respond anywhere on the table. They are best at picking up small, objective grabbing squads that may have outflanked you or come in from reserve on their own (like Warp Spiders). So this list really does through a 3 punch combo: An early big hit with the bikes, a second cross with the Daemons and Possessed, and the last parting shot of the Raptors.
List 3: Flying World Eaters
Detachment: Butcherhorde
Core: Warband
- Chaos Lord. Bike. Sigil of Corruption. Powerfist. Talisman of Burning Blood. MoK. (Warlord)
- 10x Chaos Space Marines. Pistol/CCW. MoK. Dreadclaw.
- 10x Chaos Space Marines. Pistol/CCW. MoK. Dreadclaw.
- 5x Chosen. 4x Meltaguns. MoK. Dreadclaw
- 10x Chaos Bikers. 2x Flamers. MoK
- 5x Havocs. Pistol/CCW. MoK
Auxiliary: Heldrake Terror Pack
- Heldrake. Baleflamer
- Heldrake. Baleflamer
Command: Lords of the Legion
- Chaos Lord. Juggernaught. Sigil of Corruption. MoK. Gorefather.
So this is another odd take that utilizes the best transport that CSM have: The Dreadclaw. Flying Obsec is a huge win, and it gives you a lot of moves to win a mission. Let’s not forget that they are also assault vehicles and that the squads do not have to disembark like Drop pods (but don’t forget they can mishap and die far easier than Drop pods). You can drop in, sit there, and either take off to fly and Heat Blast enemies or stay in Hover mode and drop off 10 screaming lunatics into your opponent. You also have the Biker unit of punch things on Turn 1 with a bit more heat as you have the Talisman Lord and a Gorefather Lord, so now this unit can do real damage to anything other than a dedicated Deathstar, and hell, if you can get them Top of 1, you can possibly cut the legs out of the unit before it powers up if they position their characters poorly.
The other big addition here are the Heldrakes, which add some much needed ranged support as well as Anti-Flyer tek. Heldrakes are amazing at burning out entrenched objective campers, and with a Strength 7 vector strike, they can do real damage to other flyers. For some Anti-Tank, you have a squad of suicide Chosen with 4 meltaguns that can pop out of the Dreadclaw and get to work.
This list could be a solid tournament build primarily because it rewards generalship. With the flying Obsec, you can always sneak away with a win even if Khorne abandons you.
So there you go folks, a few list ideas to get you started (and there are hundreds more, so experiment). I fully admit I might try a Possessed-star just to see how it goes. Let us know how the World Eaters have been treating you, and hopefully soon you can check out TFG Radio to see how my World Eaters do on the table top. Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!
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I would have to disagree pretty strongly on the warlord traits- I think most of them are garbage, and even with the reroll I don’t see many WE players wanting to use that table. Comparing it to the Strategic or Command tables, or even to the CSM table, there are simply too many results that give a very small bonus to your warlord and no one else- I mean, FNP and Eternal Warrior when locked in combat? That’s it? Violent Urgency is great because it both applies to multiple units and speeds you up at the thing you want to do, and Unrivaled Bloodlost is middling but not terrible, but the rest are just super trashy.
The relics are definitely better; Talisman of Burning Blood is easily the best of them and has a lot of people excited about it (although you mention using it to gain an extra 9″ of movement in the first turn… how? Move + Run or Move + Charge still only net you 6″ from either, and I’m not aware of any ways to let a Khorne unit Move + Run + Charge on turn 1.) Berserker Glaive on a Demon Prince is definitely interesting and something I hadn’t thought of- it solves the issues of losing IC and being only AP3 quite nicely (though if we’re honest Khorne already had the Axe of Blind Fury, the best of the demon weapons.) I think you’re underestimating the Brass Collar- if you’ve got a slot for an artefact on a character who isn’t aiming for something else, it’s actually pretty alright. Crimson Killer is just a tad overpriced, it would’ve been okayish at 15pts but at 20pts it doesn’t impress. I don’t really like Gorefather or Bloodfeeder, though the idea of the latter on a Dark Apostle is pretty amusing.
Why are you using Dreadclaws in a Butcherhorde in that last list? You can’t make use of the Butcherhorde’s free move if you embark on them, and they can’t come down turn 1 to do anything aggressive- you’re looking at turn 3 assaults at best, and even only that if you manage to pass your reserve rolls. Yeah, you have some moderately-survivable ObSec vehicles flying around, but if the other guy just sorta surrounds the objectives than you don’t really have the firepower or bodies to force him off them.
I like the warlord traits as I can see utility in each. The 3d6 drop the lowest really fixes the odds in your favor (having played Warmachine competitively, trust me, being able to swing the distribution to your side is super clutch), and even reroll challenges means that your Khorne Lord has a legitimate chance to kill most other characters save for like an Iron Hands Captain with Chain. FnP and EW in combat, where the Lord needs to be, gives a character a chance to tank or survive if your model placement wasn’t on point and he is suddenly eating S8 AP2 attacks. Also being able to charge out of sequence makes opponent’s have to think how they respond to a chaff unit that is ahead of the Lord’s unit.
Yes, Talisman is great, and theoretically, if you put it on to a unit that can run and charge in the same turn like Khorne Berserkers in the Abbadon formation, the unit gets the bonus even if the Lord has to stay still in the run. I think Gorefather is great for the armourbane as S8 or even 9 without it runs into the chance of just doing nothing to a Knight, but with armourbane, you are pretty much getting punches on even below average dice. Bloodfeeder is definitely the worst melee weapon, but for 25 points on a disposable character, as long as there is a re-roll, it can do work. I don’t like the collar since I want my characters to fight, and there are a lot of weapons to use, but that’s just me.
Dreadclaws can come in turn 1 like Droppods, so you can still turn 2 charge out as you land, have to be hover for it, and then you can move 6 in hover and let unit out. The ignore cover hits from the Dreadclaw also give you some range game and being able to flush out units that got around you, so it opens up a lot of tactical play in the mid to late game turns. I feel like they offer a lot of plays in the game, and from my experiences, flying Obsec is easily a game winner. WE like to fight and punch things to death, but having the mobility to outplay deathstars is a necessary component of a list these days.
Thanks for all the feedback!
Yeah, the 3d6 for charges is great- if the others were that good, I’d absolutely be agreeing with you on the overall relevancy of the table. The problem with the others is that they almost exclusively affect a single model and are usually only situational bonuses- compared to something like Stealth/MTC(Ruins) or rerolling all 1s to hit in close combat within 12″, the traits just look really shabby.
FNP and EW in close combat, to take one example, is great if you get into close combat… but your danger with an army like this is that you are gonna get shot to death before getting there. And even if you _do_ make it in, the bonus is still mostly going to be a pretty small thing- maybe you shrug off a wound or two with it, maybe not. Only S10 attacks should be killing your Lord anyways (Juggernaut), so it’s a very situational bonus that still won’t help you take on a “real” heavy hitter such as SM character with 3++/FNP 4+ or the likes.
Armorbane is a nice rule, but with Unwieldy I am pretty skeptical of its actual chances of bringing down a Knight successfully. Khorne has so many better options for things, and Meltabombs are cheap and can be spread across the army so you aren’t stuck with your one good weapon getting killed/etc before it can do anything.
I think the Collar has a place for the 2nd or 3rd Lord (or other character) you’re running in an army- I would never take it before the Talisman. But with Magnus and a lot of other good witchfires around these days, I think the chances of it being used are much higher.
You are correct on Dreadclaws, I was thinking of their old rules. I’m still puzzled as to why you would use them in a Butcherhorde, though, since they have negative interaction with the formation’s special rule. ObSec is great when it’s attached to units that are also doing a job- but spending 400+ pts to get it (and not get anything else) seems like a raw deal to me.
Gorefather, I can only see on a Daemon Prince, where he gets to ignore Unwieldy. Other than that, it’s pretty much garbage.
Yeah I really don’t understand why you would put it on anything but a daemon prince. Everyone seems to forget that Lords can take chainfists without having to be in terminator armour! That way you get the S8 of a fist and the armourbane of gorefather, and it isn’t two-handed so you can also take a lightning claw if you really want the versatility and extra attack.
I might be wrong about the terminator armour thing…
If so I would still just take it on a Prince to remove unwieldy.
Actually dread claws have drop pod assault so half will come down turn one.
Also I would say now that the axe of blind fury is far from the best daemon weapon now that legions is out. That -1 WS/BS sucks for a Daemon prince but it was the only daemon weapon with +2 strength now that isn’t the case. Still a good relic for a juggerlord because of ap2 but a prince prefers the glaive by a mile.
Yeah, the Glaive is better for a Prince because he ignores the disadvantage and gains an advantage from it, though it’s worth noting that he does give up the bonus attack from Rage compared to the Blinding Axe. I don’t find the -1WS/BS to be much of a problem on Princes, since they usually are destroying any MEQs they touch, but the penalties are more relevant for a Lord or the like.
Reason why the axe of blind fury makes me sad when used on a DP is because you go from WS9 to 8 which means WS4 guys are hitting you on 4s instead of 5s.
For some reason I often find that I fail to kill the whole squad and the extra weapon skill helps mitigate the retribution from the very angry squad.
WE definitely have alot to work with in this book. I think waaay more flexibility than DG who are just going to be doing the usual footslog to objectives while wielding heavy/special weapons, then tarpit. I love the idea of the DP with berserker glaive but I feel he will be targeted and killed turn 1.
I think I like msu marines, bikes, and then hordes of cultists. Talisman of blood on a dark apostle in a 35 man unit of cultists, then have them do a multicharge to tie up as much shooting as possible. I am going to figure out the best way to ally in a gorepack to look to add a later game buff. I am thinking put a juggerlord WL with AoBF with the hounds and they will just do a turn 2 charge (I know the WL would lose his pregame move). Blood for the Blood God!
Re-rolls to-Hit don’t help with BloodFeeder. It does a Wound on each roll of a 1 in the 2d6 to determine how many Attacks you get, not for each 1 you roll to-Hit. I’m gonna have to keep it in mind for the next time I go to an event (like the ToyHammer one I went to last weekend) where we get re-roll tokens for whatever reason.
Hmmm, I guess I was reading it the other way. That would make it a lot better, though, since you don’t have nearly as many chances to take a wound at that point (and can still roll invulns against them.)
It’s not as clear as it could be, but it reads to me like it’s referring back to the previous sentence, and that would be a callback to how it worked in the 4th-5th Ed Dex.
Yeah, I was reading it as a callback too, just a poorly-designed one. Your version would make more sense, though.
Great write up. Gorefather I think would be amazing on Daemon Prince. Blood Feeder seems meh to me. Talisman is obviously amazing.
I think the Warlord Traits are very characterful of the Legion. Unrivaled Bloodlust sounds good on paper, but rarely would it ever come up I think. Unless as maybe a counter to something like GSC cult ambush assault on turn 1 or skyhammer. Slaughterborn I like a lot especially in a Chaos Warband. Not sure I’d ever choose to roll on the table, however as traits that buff just the Warlord tend to be meh in my experience. Still some cool options if you want to go that route though.
Those lists look very suboptimal to me, especially with all the rather odd bike choices…
For the Chaos Lords “ride” go with a Juggernaut as +1A and +1W is well worth the +15points (especially if you already paid for a DW)
For his retinue go with Chaos Spawns as they are far better in CC and offer more ablative wounds per point in comparison to Bikes
Instead of buying 1 unit of Bikes in the Warband and an additional Raptor Talon Formation on top of that just buy 3 Raptor squads in the Warband… Bonus movement + ObSec is so much better than a disordered charge (which nullifies all of your MoK/VoTL boni) after deep striking
My WE list would look more or less like this:
Core: Warband
Chaos Lord, MoK, Juggernaut, AoBF
5 Chosen, MoK, 5 Meltaguns
5 CSM, MoK, BP&CCW, 1 Meltagun
5 CSM, MoK, BP&CCW, 1 Meltagun
5 Raptors, MoK, 2 Meltaguns
5 Raptors, MoK, 2 Meltaguns
5 Raptors, MoK, 2 Meltaguns
5 Havoks, MoK, BP&CCW, 4 Autocannons
Aux: Spawns
4 Spawns, MoK
Aux: Helldrake Terrorpack
2 Helldrakes, Baleflamer
Command: Lord of the Legion
Chaos Lord, MoK, Juggernaut, Power Axe, ToBB
Command: Lord of the Legion
Daemon Prince of Khone, Wings, Berserker Glaive
Thats about 1800points (so you could still buy some upgrades for the HQs as you prefer). Spawns and both Chaos Lords form a single unit which will prolly be able to charge first turn and inflict heavy damage on most enemy high value units.
The Raptors and the DP have a decent chance on first turn charges aswell, depending on your rolls and enemy deployment.
CSMs can go for objectives and melee enemy ObSec Troops, Havoks go for enemy Armour, Chosen can do both.
Helldrakes are obvious.
Too bad Apostels neither have Access to Bikes nor Juggernauts… Replacing the Lord wearing the Talisman with an Apostel for Zealot, would be a nice buff to the unit.
Disordered charges don’t negate the bonus of Hatred, for reference. You lose Furious Charge, Rage, and Rampage (as well as the normal bonus attack), but Hatred still works normally.
Raptor Talon vs. buying units in the Warband I think is arguable- if you’re going second, there is a lot of value to leaving the Raptors in reserve so they can drop in and make assaults unopposed. There are plenty of armies that can easily deal with some guys on foot running towards them (even at good speed) but struggle significantly with assaults out of Deep Strike.
Four Spawn and a Lord is a pretty fragile accompaniment at 1850pts- that’s just a couple of Scatter Bike squads away from being two Lords on their own. I also think the Talisman is wasted on a unit that is already paying to move 12″; you’re a lot better off going with something that has more/tougher ablative wounds.
While Hatred works normally on disordered charges, this article is specifically about World Eaters tactics and neither Hatred (only vs SM btw) nor Raptor Talon is in any way special or particularly rewarding to WE specifically…
WE benefits are pre-game bonus movement, Rage and Furious Charge, all which do NOT give ANY bonus to a deep striking Raptor Talon!
I never said that 4 Spawns and 2 (not 1) Chaos Lord on Juggernaut is NOT fragile to massed Scatter Bike fire (what in the 40k universe isnt?)
I just said that 4 Spawns and 2 Juggernaut Lords is far superior to the 10 Bikes and 2 Bike Lords from the article lists above because they cost significantly less points, offer more ablative wounds and are much better in melee combat (5 Spawns with MoK is 30% less points for 50% more wounds in comparison to 10 MoK Bikes). They do need cover if the enemy has the first turn but that shouldnt be a problem for beast unit type on normal table with a pre game bonus move.
The Talisman on a 12″ moving unit together with the formations bonus movement is just what makes sure you can charge first turn with a quite capable CC. It also greatly increases your chance to catch other fast shooting units later in game (for example Scatter Bikes) which would otherwise just play catch the mouse with you…
I am curious which WE units you speak of when you state considerably tougher/more ablative wounds? 5 Spawns is 15 wounds on T5 for reasonable 160p and without any further “formation tax”… Bikes do not compare (see above), Cultist while offering up to 35 ablative wounds are only T3 and come with a huge formation tax, anything else which can be taken in units with atleast 15 wounds (CSM, Berserker, Possessed) is ridiculous expensive.
Number of Wounds is not the only relevant factor in durability. Against most firepower, 160 Points worth of Bikes will be substantially more durable than 160 Points worth of Spawn, just because of their Armour Save. 5+ Cover is easy to find for the Spawn, but that only makes up half the gap. 9 ScatBikes will more than wipe the Spawn, but leave 3 Bikes standing from equal value 160 Point Units.