The NEW Kill team

So, I haven't really said much about this so far and there are several reason for this. The main reason is that I just haven't had the time to keep up to date with all of the releases that were occurring, both in the build up to the actual games release and also since then. The second reason is that I have been waiting to get my hands on one of the rule books and give it a good read through and the third reason is that there are going to be a lot of changes to my hobby life in the next couple of months, which I will detail in there own post shortly but lets just say that I think 40k as a 2000 pint game system is, for the foreseeable future not going to be a viable option for me and kill team hopefully will become the main stay of my hobby and gaming.

That being said, lets take a look at Kill Team and as always it will be slanted heavily towards the various imperial factions that I collect.

I have always loved the idea of kill team and when I first heard about it I was very excited, the idea of taking a small group of models on a mission and really getting in to the squad level tactics sounded great, although I never got a game at that time. When I did play a few games it was after they had re-released it for 6th, now if memory serves me right, they changed the rules at this point and instead of just taking individual models to form a kill team, you now had to take squads out of the codex and arm them as per the codex too. While this wasn't that bad in the overall scheme of things, it did take some of the flavour away and could be quite restrictive. However, it was still a fun and quick game to play and I never got more than a handful of games in, despite always wanting to play more. Now however, they have re-re-released the game and they have gone back to individual models again! Ok, so its still restricted to the list in the book but I think its fairly obvious that this will change in the future as more units will be made available (just look at the Grey Knights Daemon rule and the Deathwatch weapons list)

For the moment though were restricted to the unit in the book, which for me is not a bad list, yes there seems some obvious omissions, such as Veterans for Guard and Primaris units for deathwatch (again, check out the weapons list) and not to mention anything specific factions rules for Blood Angels and Dark Angles and then there are the Space Wolves. Space Wolf Tactical Squad anyone? Despite these glitches I am really looking forward to playing games of Kill Team and as such I already have lots of lists floating around my head, all with back stories and plans. What are they I hear you ask? Well, seeing as you asked nicely, here they are;

The Guard squad will as always be my primary squad and will probably see the most battles (hopefully) and will be based around a group of veterans pulled from all over the battle group and thrown together to perform long range infiltration raids and such, deep behind enemy lines. To this end, they will all be modelled up with back packs and as many pouches and bits of kit as I can get on them without them looking to sill. They will also mostly be Cadian style bodies, with a few Catachan thrown in for good measure, this is mostly due to the fact that I have several Cadian bodies floating around that I'm not really using. They will also all be painted differently, I say all, what I mean is there will only ever be a two or three models painted in the same uniform, there will be a lot of variety in the colours, all in an aim to make it look more like they are a collection of guards men from lots of regiments rather than a specific squad from one regiment. I plan on maxing out on the Gunners, with at least one of each special weapon modelled up, although I might skip the melta for the moment as I don't really see the need for it, seeing as there are no vehicles in this edition. that might mean 2 plasma gunners, as one is very likely to kill himself at some point. This would give me 5 guardsmen plus my Sgt, with power sword and plasma pistol and would actually only come in at about 44 points! in a 100 point list this leaves me space for 11 other guardsmen, bringing the squad to a total of 17 men. But as I can only field a max of 4 gunners per game, I will actually need at least 18 men on my roster but I will jack it up to the max of 20. Somewhere in there will also be a Vox-caster and a model done out to be a scout type unit.  So this will form my biggest force for kill team, mostly due to the fact that in order to fill a 100 point list I have to have lots of bodies. It may not be the most efficient and people will probably advise that I mix it up with scions but I am planning on keeping them separate for the moment.

Talking of scions, what about my Scion list, as you know I will have one. Well, these boys are not going to be actual scions and I won't be using the models for them. What I will be using are some old RT plastic and early 2nd  metal models alongside a few later plastic models, armed with 7th edition hotshot lasguns and the like, to form a units of Inquisition stormtroopers, sent in to follow the guard squad above, in secret, to hunt down high priority targets. They will as such be armed to the teeth with special weapons, the Sgt having a power fist and plasma pistol and the gunners being armed with at least 2 hotshot volley guns, 2 plasma guns, a grenade launcher and a flamer. I will also have a medic and a vox-caster in there. As I can only take 4 gunners at a time, I will also need a number of regular scions, so I will fill out the list with half a dozen or so regular guys. In a 100 point list though I am looking at only being ably to take a maximum of 10 with no upgrades or about 8 with upgrades, so I will only need about 15 scions on the list. Unlike the guard team, all of these guys will be pained the same and have a very unformal look to them, as they are all servants of the same inquisitor and as such wear his colours and uniform.

Now, me being me, cant just stop at two teams, oh no, so I have a couple more that I'm planning on. The first should be fairly obvious, this is Kill Team after all and if there is one unit in the game that really shots Kill Team more than any other its the Deathwatch. Now, I don't own any Deathwatch models, oh, wait, yes, yes I do. A friend was recently looking to down size his collection and so I picked up half of the Deathwatch Death Masque box and with it the Deathwatch Kill Team Sprue. So now the plan is to build all the options out of the box using the team included as well as models from my Betrayal at Calth boxset that is still sitting around. This will, in my calculations give me 15 to 17 models plus Captain Artimus, so 18 for the kill team. Seeing as I could never field more than 7 models, all in basic format and very few of mine will be in there basic format, I will have plenty of options to take. Yes I don't need to build them all and having things like two heavy thunder hammers will probably be completely useless but I've the models to spare, so why the hell not. Each individual model will have a chapter badge, thanks to the boxset, and most will have the deathwatch should pad, as I have 15 of them and as such each member will have an individual back story and personality.

In addition to the Deathwatch kill team, I will able be putting together a force from my Stone Dragons, which will form the only build for these guys as it means I can have a force of them without building the full force like I was planning and still have a very usable force. Its a shame that they don't have specific Space Wolf rules but I think we may see that during the Space Wolf codex release alongside a specific Kill Team Force box, even though, technically the current marine one is also a SW force. Although it's a shame that you can't take grey hunters or blood claws in the game at the moment, I will still be forming a team out of tactical marines that will be decorated in all sorts of wolf like accessories. At the moment I plan on having a force with just marines, as I don't own any scouts or primaris marines. The force will be plasma heavy with sgt and gunner having plasma and the heavy having a heavy bolter, I will also model up a flamer amd a missile launcher so i have the options and the rest will just be basic marines with bolters, although as I said, they will be fully decked out with all sorts of bits and pieces of wargrear and stuff. The fluff for these guys is pretty much written but will need some minor amendments to bring it it to line with killl team and the new set up.

I will probably put together a killteam list for.my blood angles, although I would prefer to wait until i can use some other units, maybe death company, to form a different type of kill team as at the moment, having multiple marine kill teams wouldn't make much sense as they are all the same.

I really like the new kill team and I think that it will be a really good and fun game to play. There are some minor quibbles already, the main one I stated above, in that there are not rules for space wolves. Ok I can understand why blood angles and dark angles don't have there own rule set, as they are pretty much codex compliant with these units at this level. It's only the specialist units and higher up the command structure that things change. Space wolves though are very different and as they have done rules for death guard and thousand sons, rather then lump them in with chaos, I find it hard to understand why they did it for the wolves. It would not have been hard to just switch out scouts and tactiacals for blood claws and grey hunters.

Hopefully, I will get a game or two in fairly soon and be able to try out a couple of the lists and see how they perform.