Soulstorm

In the beginning, you have nothing but your fortress and a lone heretic.
The key to chaos is getting your forces out quickly. More so than any other race does *every second you waste is an advantage to your opponent* so true.

in the beginning we have heretics and cultists.

Heretics.
THE squidgiest thing you will have to deal with, and in t0, and the most squidgy builder there is. (Typically they will be at around 30-40 hp a piece if going gen bo), only the de being more soft if undamaged.
Forced labour is the selling point here. With x2 heretics on forced labour, it isnt unreasonable to get a rax down in 00:20.

Typically, i recommend using this as much as possible, with 100% heretics being Fl'ed to make gens and LP's for example. DO NOT RISK LOSING THEM. especially in the early game. This means Fl'ing whilst on low health, sending them into warzones (don't ask) and shuttling them away to the safer (...) regions of the map. However, most high level opponents will note this easy target and do a capper-unit rush, to kill them.

Therefore, i have the following tips, tricks and tactics (TTT)

• After building rax (assuming no gen) send them away from each other. One maybe deep into your base, the other maybe to a far off point being capped. That way, a harassing unit will need to spend more time looking/killing them, or better yet, not killing them at all as your units steadily force them out of your territory.
• Stronger heretic on the front lines, weaker heretics in the base. This is logic.
• If hes being attacked, dance him like any other unit, assuming you have ranged support of some kind. If not, keep running. thats one capper unit obsessed with your builder, and not harassing you.
• remember you don't have to go in a straight line. If your pushing his harassers out of your territory, run your heretic the other way. That way, either your ranged units get more damaging shots in, or he ignores your heretic.
• If all else fails, and your absolutely sure he will rush you, turrets work wonders in butchering early-tier infantry.
• note you can force labour heretics to repair buildings in an emergency too. This can mean the difference between getting that precious squad out or losing the game. Knowing when and where to use this is critical.

Cultists.
Cheap, effective. These beat all other capping units in CC apart from drakes and GM. (sounds stupid i know. but remember, gm are humans in paper armour, your cultists are humans with rags.) at 20 req each with no squad tax, they are also cheap as chips. and about as durable as them. (no, not the one your hated aunt make which give you indigestion)

TTT:

• cultist nades are currently verging on being IMBA. or, imbalanced, or in mortal terms, very very powerful for their cost. If going down this route, be prepared to suffer collateral damage as you should not hesitate to shoot the units CC'ing your other cultist squads, as long as that cultist squad in question isn't in danger of being killed.
• If going for nades, typically get 5 cultists, but always get 2 generators before the armoury is built. FORCE BUILD THE GENERATORS FIRST I cannot believe how many players force build the armoury when it isn't being used yet, yet do not force labour their generators.
• Cultist's are cheap. a large squad of 8 is a very big pain for ranged units to get rid of effectively without support if they aren't general purpose. However, even if their ranged units can rip them apart in CC, (cough tacs cough), they typically would do more harm if firing then if they were in melee.
• Invisibility at tier 2 makes them more useful. Aspiring champs with Purge the weak makes them almost twice as durable. I do not recommend going for plasma, as cultists by this stage should be your support troops. Even if they are your front line troops, the disruption they cause will be more useful than the extra damage output from plasma guns in this writers opinion.
• If all else fails, a cloaked cultist squad in ceasefire stance make excellent sentries.
• resources permitting, or if you intend to use them as your main army for t2, i recommend getting the aspiring champion. he does not get the plasma pistol or power sword upgrade . So why build him i hear you cry? the answer is his durability. For example, unupgraded, smite will liquidate your squad of cultists in one blow. With the champion, he alone will survive, and you can rebuild later. Cultist champions do not gain personal benefits from PtW. in fact, they aren't affected by upgrades at all except furious charge. AFAIK
• on the same token, he gives the squad the ability to use berserk fury, (+40% damage dealt/+20% damage received) and PtW. (adding 150 hp to cultists)
• Remember that units locked in cc with infiltrated units will not fire, and will not retaliate! Handy if your opponent neglects to get detection.

starting build orders:

build orders
General build orders at this stage are heretic, followed by two or three cultists. i recommend using familiar keys to speed this up and gain precious seconds. For example, in a raptor harass, it can mean the difference between scoring a decap and facing a Lp on a point that if you had just got there that little bit sooner wouldn't have been a problem. This is generally, by default, H(eretic), C(ultist),C.

Select builder, hit B(uild) and E(mple). (more commonly known as a RAX (short for barracks, where the large proportion of rank-and-file infantry in this game are built)
Force labour ONLY WHEN HERETIC IS NEXT TO THE TEMPLE.
Common error here is to FL after you've ordered it to be built, which only wastes the hp of your heretic.

Select your fortress and queue rally point on the temple, so the next heretic immediately goes to build it too, repeating FL.
I have seen killer put down a rax in 00:20 with both heretics at 113hp, but only have a vague idea as to how. its a brilliant example of starting extremely quickly, yet retaining heretics.
For the mere mortals that you rabble are however, i recommend switching FL off at around 50-60 hp (this has command lag taken into account) for the first heretic, and fl'ing the other until the rax is finished.

Now, we have two options. Gen, or no gen?

Gen:

• Stronger starting economy
• faster tech speed
• earlier lp2's
  
  No gen:
• more req available for lp's and units, resulting in a better position to fight a harass
• If your opponent goes for a gen, you wil have the military advantage, giving you MC.
• less likely hood of turtling, and forces you to fight harder.

Generally, if you want to go for the early aggression do not go for a gen. Spend more on your forces, and push harder to secure more MC. If your opponent builds a generator, he will have less forces then you do. Attack where there are no Lp2's or turrets, murder his cappers and builders and bash his gens. Force him to react. since he has inferior forces, knock down those Lp2's. Attach your commander to a squad, and melee the Lp2. This is particularly effective if you feint an attack in one area, diverting his forces, and then suddenly appear with a commander near his Lp2.

note: The key here is knowing when to attack an Lp2', and when not to. Another skill is learning exactly how much firepower is raining down on you. It is NOT worth it to lose a squad just to take down an lp2. (cultistsnotwithstanding)

However, you can play the defensive route. either by eco booming, or by fast-teching. Cap the most hotly contested points ASAP (I.e, northern most points on OR) and set up lp2's immediately. Failing that, in the event of a heavy harass lp2 all your points so it is nigh-impregnable to the early forces.
Nothing will bother a lp2 in the early game save a commander, but in almost all cases you will have something to counter this.

The other route is for a delayed aggression route. Feint here and there, harass where you can and keep him occupied. Do NOT waste your forces in a pitched battle if he has the advantage. you cannot afford to lose troops when you are this vulnerable. do everything you can to force your opponent to be pre-occupied with what you want him to be pre-occupied with. (raptors/csm/cultists chasing cappers/builders/harassingthatoh-so-tasty-generator). Most of the time, if he figures out what you're trying to do, he will simply ignore your annoyances and push hard.
This is where you use that power to build a lp2 near the scene of a fight (middle or north in the case of OR, for example) and lure him to it. Until this point, you are very vulnerable, and for a while after, as he has the military advantage.

Both strategies have their glaring risks, but then again, playing chaos is one huge risk. It is your mission to deceive, delude, and out-right violate your opponents plans and perceptions to further your aims

i am afraid only experience on the battlefield will result in you fully understanding when and where to use which build outside of the build orders i will be presenting later.
However, as a rule of thumb some gen-nogen decisions can be made easier with which cap order you will be choosing

Cap orders:

excluding the weird and wonderful cap orders i have seen in my days, i genuinely believe there are only two types of capping order, if we were to be strict.

Cap orders are opponent and map centric. For example, it is generally unwise to cap both outer strat points first on SoE, whilst this is a viable order in MoM.

Defensive:

• Start from the outermost Strat points (Sp's) ( AND ONLY THE SP'S YOU BLITHERING *censored*), working inwards, before going to cap relics/crits
• results in a less harassable cap order, as your Lp's will be up and early in areas before their raiders will show up
• however, also results in a slower starting econ as it isn't the most optimised route.
• Therefore increases security of Economy as compared to having a fast, robust, but vulnerable one.

Economic boom

• starting from the closest strat points and moving out.
• Stronger economy due to faster capping, but vulnerable to decaps.
• Linear cap order ensures maximum capping speed, but if decaps occur the extra journey time is troublesome.
• Use this if you are sure your rush will keep them occupied, or you can make them pay dearly for any rush of their own.

Golden rule of thumbs here is this: If your playing defensive, play defensive completely. Take as few chances as possible, and thus minimize the damage caused by harassers.
If you are going to take the fight to the enemy, or know that if he will score decaps it will cost him heavily, then by all means go the aggressive route. War isn't cheap. Your units are pricey, and the more money you have to spend on them, the stronger your attack will be. (cultistsnotwithstanding)