Kill Team Reorg!

REORG!

Well... I was trying to not get sucked in by the HYPE-TRAIN, but I failed and an completely excited about the new Kill Team. Having read all the articles and reviews and watched the how-to-play videos I couldn't help get totally fired up. This new Kill Team looks like... well... everything I'd HOPED the previous version would be!

While the previous version WAS infinitely better than Shadow War: Armageddon and a step in the right direction away from the you-go-i-go of regular 40K... it was still a bit clunky and had a lot of problems and was a HUGE disappointment. I had hoped it would have been like the current Necromunda rules (which had been released a year or two before?)  with individual, alternating activation with action points. 

I debated for a long time about whether to just pick up the core box of just get the books... Ultimately I went ALL-IN and asked the guys at Dragons Den Games to get me the box... because... DEATH KORPS OF KREIG!? (and all that terrain - which I thought might equally find use in Necromunda - which I've started playing again as well!) 

A lot of the information from the Compendium has been posted online Like, there's a site that literally posted pictures of just about every freaking page of the book!? I'm still buying it, but it was nice to see the org charts to get things ready to hit the ground running when the game drops in just under two weeks. 

Along with reorganizing Kill Teams, I actually took some time to reorganize my workbench. 

Now, if you’ve seen pictures of my workbench before, this might come as a bit of a shock - I completely cleared it off! Normally there are hundreds of half-painted miniatures on it and… it was getting a bit overwhelming, even for me, who has worked like that for decades… I decided, going forward, I’m going to try to have just ONE project on the workbench at a time - ideally a unit of 5-12 models that I can complete in a few days to a week (We’ll se how long that lasts). I had to do a bit of a triage to decide what really is a priority and stuff that I will be working on were put in clear plastic boxes stacked nearby and rest were put into deep storage away in the basement (where I always fear they will be utterly forgotten).



So of course the first batch of miniatures I put back on the workbench.. 50+ miniatures for a massive Kill Team reorganization! To be fair, only about five of them are actually being PAINTED - the rest have just been rebased or need a touch up, or are just there because they’re part of the Kill Team so I could reference them while painting the new ones and I just wanted to keep them all together.

In this lot are Kill Teams of Tallarn, Valhallan, Necromundan Imperial Guard Kill Teams, a Fire Team of  Armageddon Steel Legion (HALF of a Kill Team) and a Harlequin Kill Team. (Need to track down a handful more Steel Legion to fill out a full Kill Team!) 

With the morale rules out the window, it looks like Imperial Guard might be a viable, fun to play Kill Team once again. In the previous version, if you took actual Imperial Guard. You'd have a HUGE Kill Team - but, on the first turn, your opponent would kill five of them, the Kill Team would break and that was the game. The only viable way to play Imperial Guard seemed to be take Tempestus Scions and spam Plasma guns... lame... 

I will have a PILE of other Kill Teams I can play with - Daemons, Craftworld Aeldari, Drukhari, Ecclisiarchy, Forge Worlds, Adeptus Astartes, Traitor Legions... probably more I can't think of off the top of my head... but I thought I'd start with preparing the Imperial Guard as that's what I'm most excited about.

These are the "On Deck" boxes of stuff I've decided are priority items to be worked on in the coming weeks and months... Teh plan is to focus on Warhammer Underworlds warbands, Necromunda gangs, Kill Teams, and assorted Warhammer Quest adventurers and adversaries - as these are the games I'm hoping to play most through the fall and winter. I have a feeling a few more boxes may be added when Kill Team comes out - for the models that get released with the box (Ork Kommandoes and Death Korps of Kreig), but also I have a feeling more 40K forces will need some reorganization to be added to the forces available to play! 

Armageddon Steel Legion, Necromundans, and an Imperial Fist

Clearing a few more things off the painting desk...



Four Armageddon Steel Legionnaires

The missiles come from the Departmento Munitorum like that. The forge world that produces them paints them so for to easily identify which is which (nothing is more embarrassing, not to mention wasteful of the Emperor's precious munitions, than blowing up a single dude in the middle of a large quad with a Krak missile, or having a Frag missile ping off the side of a tank...), but with little concern the intricacies of tactical stealth considerations. Normally a team of veterans, such as these, would repaint them in theatre immediately after issue, but with the rapidly changing situation of this deployment, they didn't have time (or perhaps paint!) to do so between rearming and heading out on the next mission!



The full squad of them. This would be a veteran squad - as it contains additional Special Weapons.

Initially I just picked up one or two of these guys because I like the models. I thought I'd put together a mixed team of assorted Guard from various regiments that could be used in Kill Team as a Dirty Dozen type unit or as a unit of Inquisitorial Acolytes in regular 40K. I've managed to scrounge up enough of these guys to field a full squad now, though. I could still see them being used as Inquisitorial acolytes or as a straight Veteran Guard Squad in an Inquisitors force.



Two plastic Guard I tried painting up in old school Necromundan regimental colours. These guys are from the 2nd Platoon of B Company, 5th Necromundan Regiment.

Not sure about that camouflage...

I have a handful of assorted plastic guard I thought I'd do in similar colours to use as a Kill Team... Or maybe to bring down to the Underhive when things get really crazy...



An old Rogue Trader era Marine I've painted up as an Imperial Fist.

The Imperial Fists maintain a fortress monastery on Necromunda, so that was my main inspiration for painting this marine in their colours. As I got painting him I started imagining a character for the figure. I imagined him being a denizen of the Underhive taking jobs as bounties. No one is quite sure why he's here. Some say he was sent on a secret mission by the chapter that has yet to be revealed. Others think he is a deserter - but such thoughts are spoken of in hushed tones and only to trusted compatriots. No one wants the Fists catching wind of this rumour, as everyone remembers the last time someone tried to rat out a renegade marine - a whole bloody Battle Company  descended on the Underhive and they utterly wrecked a half-dozen ancient domes, killing dozens and displacing hundreds more. No one wants that again. The rat didn't even get PAID!

Speaking of rats...



This is an old "pre-slotta" Citadel Giant Rat. They grow pretty big down in the Sump...



Not sure if it's going to be a "pet" for my ratskins, or just something that they hunt. Either way, a "wandering monster" for incursions into the deep caverns of the hive bottom


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog: 

Well... lots of stuff sitting on the workbench. But I've also FINALLY finished reading the actual RULES for Necromunda, so I'm going to try and get in a game before I forget them - or get them all jumbled in my head with all the other assorted 40k-ish rules (I mean, I've been looking them over and reading bits here and there to get a general sense of how things work and how gangs go together, but this past week I actually did a front to back read through and, in the process, picked up on a few things I wasn't quite sure about!)