Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Kill Team(8E) Chaos

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Chaos Space Marines

Why Play Chaos Space Marines

• Pros
  • With access to both Chaos Marines and Chaos Cultists, you can be more flexible than the IG or Loyalist Marines and field Cheap Fodder CQC Cultists alongside Plasma Wielding Marines.
  • Just like the loyalist Marines, you get access to Transhuman Physiology, so that's nice.
  • Marks of Chaos and Icons are still in, and icons have the same relatively low costs of the vast majority of special items in kill team, even if the banner buffs are mostly within 6".
  • Excluding the Icon of Wrath, Icons can affect friendly models of different Marks to Icon bearer. Maybe not as intended, but allows for the potential of multi-God Kill-teams.
  • The new Khorne Berserkers are a (dark) godsend, their high number of attacks plus their ability to fight twice in a turn makes them a scary unit to face. Use the new chaos space marines box plus the axes and heads from the AoS Blood Warrior's kit if you don't want them to be hilariously short.
• Cons
  • A chunk of weapons from the basic Chaos Marine Arsenal have been stripped out from Kill Team. No Combi Weapons (outside of the Berzerker Champion, as of Elites) and no taking a Boltgun and Chainsword on the same model for you.
  • No cult troop soup for you. Berzerkers are all you get. Plague Marines and Rubrics are restricted to their own particular factions, while Noise Marines aren't in Kill Team at all (so far).

CSM Special Rules

• Death to the False Emperor: hit roll of 6+ against IMPERIUM keyword models allows you to make an additional attack. This additional attack cannot spawn more attacks. Also note, it you take two or more Flesh Wounds, you will be unable to trigger DttFE, due to the -1 or worse to hit.
• Transhuman Physiology: Ignore -1 penalty to hit from the first flesh wound suffered. Good, and allows you to keep using DttFE if you have just suffered one flesh wound.
• Mark of Chaos: You can choose to replace MARK OF CHAOS keyword with nothing (no mark), or one from NURGLE, TZEENTCH, KHORNE or SLAANESH.

CSM Faction Attributes

• Emperor's Children - Flawless Perfection: Only models with the SLAANESH keyword can be drawn from this legion. If a model is within 1" of an enemy model at the beginning of the Fight phase, your model is considered to have charged.
• Night Lords - Terror Tactics: When an opponent takes a nerve test for a model from their kill team, they must add 1 to the test for each of your models (other than shaken models) that is within 3" on that model.
• Iron Warriors - Siege Lords: Ignore penalty to Injury rolls from targets being obscured
• World Eaters - Butcher's Nails: Can make an additional attack in the fight phase with a model if it charged, was charged, or piled in with Heroic Intervention
• Black Legion - Black Crusaders: Add 1 to Leadership to all models. Rapid Fire weapons can be shot as though they were Assault weapons in the shooting phase if the model advanced (Rapid Fire 2 becomes Assault 2)
• Word Bearers - Profane Zeal: Reroll failed Nerve tests
• Alpha Legion - Hidden in Plain Sight: Considered obscured if more than 12" away from enemy models
• Renegade Chapters - Dark Raiders: Reroll failed charges

CSM Ranged Weapons

Chaos Space Marine

• Boltgun: The other classic weapon, this weapon has solid range, and a decent strength and not much else to say. Still will probably see them more in Chaos Space Marine Kill-teams compared to loyalists, due to the lack of other bolt weapon choice, and assuming you are not just filling out on cultists for your fire teams.
• Flamer: The standard flamer with all the auto-hitting goodness you have come to expect. Doesn't care about all your -1 to hit, and can be fired after advancing to help get it into range. Even better in the hands of a Demolition specialist.
• Meltagun: While there are no vehicles in Kill-team to melt with this thing, its short range is less of an issue when it comes to getting into range with it due to the small playing field. Will all but guarantee to take a model out of action (if it hits) with its high amount of damage, though be cautious when using it on Necrons. Can be shot after Advancing to get into short range and a more reliable D6 damage. Works well with a Heavy specialist
• Plasma Gun: The classic plasma weapon with high strength, AP and two firing modes: the 'safe' Str7 1 damage profile, and the 'overcharged' Str8 2 damage profile. Unmodified hit rolls of '1' will take the bearer out of action immediately. Though this actually makes it safer than in regular 40k, as only 'unmodified hit rolls of a 1' will slay the bearer, the -1s to hit that are so common in kill-team are not taken into account. Generally, the 'safe' mode should be enough for most targets, though 'overcharging' does give you the ability to take down Primaris, Sicaran's and Ork Nobs with one shot. Works well on a Sniper specialist for the sweet re-roll 1s.
• Heavy Bolter: At 36" range, this is the best long range gun we have. -1 AP with 3 shots at a high-ish strength makes this a good staple weapon. Which is good, because in kill team you have to have at least one if you want to arm both your Chaos Space Marine Gunners.
• Bolt Pistol: The classic bolt pistol, something all your Chaos Marines will come equipped with, regardless of load out. Useful to get a shot off during a prolonged close combat you get stuck into. Always remember them, they come in useful quite often.
• Plasma Pistol: All the versatility of a pistol, combined with the firepower to put a hole through anything. Like all plasma weapons, it has two modes: the 'safe' Str7 1 damage profile, and the 'overcharged' Str8 2 damage mode, though an unmodified roll of a '1' will take the bearer out of action immediately.
• Frag Grenade: As a grenade weapon, you ignore the -1 to hit long range penalty. Only one grenade can be thrown per phase. A good option if you need to clear a number of closely clustered low toughness targets, or to give you a greater chance of hitting in Overwatch. Other than that, your probably better off with your bolter if you have one.
• Krak Grenade: As a grenade weapon, you ignore the -1 to hit long range penalty. Only one grenade can be thrown per phase. A good option in a pinch to take down multi-wound models like Ork Nobs, Sicarans, Aberrants, Tyranids Warriors and the odd Primaris Marine.

Chaos Cultist

• Autogun: A lasgun by another name, don't expect these to do much, although be pleasantly surprised when they do. Rapid fire gives them a greater chance of doing something if they get into short range. Plus, no-one wants their 20pt+ model to die to a 4pt cultist, and some may blow their command re-roll to prevent just that.
• Shotgun: Exclusive to the Cultist Champion, the small gaming area of Kill-team makes this a much more realistic option. 12" range coupled with Assault 2 and plus +1 Str at short range can be surprisingly good against certain targets. You just have to get there...
• Flamer: The only upgrade that is not free (to Cultists), this thing is identical to those wielded by your Dark Masters, except on a squishy human. Being able to advance and shoot this thing at full effect can make such a model a good distraction model, forcing your opponent to choose between D6 auto hits on a squishy human, or focus fire on your power armoured models. Though this distraction does cost the same as two regular cultists, so it's up to you which is better.
• Heavy Stubber: Our 2nd (and only other) long range gun, the stubber can be thought of as a 3 shot bolter with Heavy. With a short range of 18" it can be surprisingly accurate, and weight of dice can get through armour where quality (or lack thereof) failed.
• Autopistol: A las pistol by another name, don't expect these to do much. In fact, you probably won't use this, as the short range generally means that the choice is usually shoot or charge. And in most cases, Combat is usually the better place to be. Still, if you find yourself locked in combat for more than one round, use them. You never know what might happen.

Terminator

• Heavy Flamer: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Reaper Autocannon: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Combi-Bolter:

CSM Melee Weapons

Chaos Space Marine

• Chainsword: The trusty reliable chainsword, +1 Attacks when used in combat and that's about it. Turns your marines into mini whirlwinds of attacks, especially on a Zealot or Combat specialist.
• Power Sword: Exclusive to Aspiring Champions (boo!), the AP on these swords pretty much guarantees that your opponent won't get a save against wounds caused, or a 6+ save at most. Can be a useful as a close combat deterrent, though as this model is most probably your Leader too, the positives will outweigh the negatives in such situations.
• Power Fist: Exclusive to Aspiring Champion (boo!), the weapon of choice when you want to wound on a 2+ against all models (excluding plague marines). Cuts through armour like the sword, but also does D3 damage with each wound. When you get hit by this, you stay down! The -1 to hit unfortunately prevents Death to the False Emperor, though this can be countered through the "Beseech the Gods" stratagem (though the +1 to wound will be wasted).

Chaos Cultist

• Brutal Assault Weapon: Mechanically the same as a chainsword, it can make an assault cultist a bit more of a threat through weight of attacks. Or at least more then a slight irritant, dependant on your target.

Terminator [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]

• Chainaxe: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Chainfist: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Power Axe: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Power Fist: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Power Maul: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Power Sword: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Lightning Claw: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Pair of Lightning Claws: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]

Khorne Berzerker

• Chainsword: The good ol' piecemaker, now with S5. Sub for the bolt pistol whenever possible to get more attacks and kill more stuff faster.
• Chainaxe: Your source of AP against most things with Berzerkers, and allows you to reach S6 base. For 1 points, it's something to consider against most things, as AP even denying a save to some factions and wounding better for 1 point is a pretty good thing.
• Lightning Claw(s): A single Lightning Claw for 1 point is a steal on your Berzerker Champion, enabling you to dish out S5 AP-2 attacks re-rolling to wound. You can take 2 Lightning Claws for 3 points for the cool factor and the extra attack with -2 AP against most things rerolling to wound. One of the main weapons.
• Power Fist: Remember how Aspiring Champions can't wound on a 2 Plague Marines, Custodes and such? Forget that, and put this on your zerker Champion if you want it to be killier against stuff with big armor. With 4 attacks if it's a combat or a zealot spec and attacking twice, not much will survive contact.
• Power sword: With the Lightning Claws around, not much of a reason to take the Power sword for -3 AP over -2 and lack the chance to re-roll failed wound rolls.
• Power Axe: Looks cool, but its profile really doesn't offer much improvement from the Lightning Claw.
• Power Maul: It looks really good on your models, but again, the Lightning Claw is strictly better.

Possessed

• Horrifying Mutations: It's not as if you really have a choice, but at least it's pretty decent as far as weapons go. S5 and AP -2 means you'll wound most things and they'll have a hard time saving against your 2 attacks on average.

CSM Psychic Powers

Dark Hereticus

Exclusive to the Sorcerer from Commanders and Sorcerer in Terminator Armor from Elites

• [Commander] Death Hex (Warp Charge 7): No invulnerable saves for a visible enemy within 12" until the next psychic phase.
• [Commander] Prescience (Warp Charge 6): +1 to hit rolls for a friendly model within 8" until the next psychic phase.
• [Commander] Diabolic Strength (Warp Charge 6): +2 to Strength and +1 to Attacks for a friendly model within 8" until the next psychic phase.
  • A Khorne Berzerker Champion Zealot with this has S8 and 5 attacks on the charge, and gets to Fight twice for a total of 10 attacks. Pair it with the Zealot 1 Tactic, and each of those 10 attacks has a 1/6 chance to generate another attack. Fun times.

Malefic

Exclusive to the Master of Possession.

• [Elites] Sacrifice (Warp Charge 4): Inflict a mortal wound on ANY model within 2", then remove all flesh wounds from a friendly DAEMON model within 12"
  • Can be used on your own troops to heal the important ones, but the low warp charge and the MoP 2 manifests also makes this+psybolt good emergency spam for when when you get charged by something big and nasty.
• [Elites] Cursed Earth (Warp Charge 7): Get a 6" aura that grants +1 to Invunls (to a max of 3++) for friendly DAEMON models within 6"
• [Elites] Infernal Power (Warp Charge 6): Get a 6" aura that grants rerolls for hit and wound rolls of 1 for friendly DAEMON models within 6"

Icons

• Icon of Wrath: KHORNE only, any KHORNE models within 6" of the icon bearer can re-roll charge rolls
• Icon of Flame: TZEENTCH only, at start of your turn in the psychic phase, roll 1d6 for each model equipped with an Icon of Flame. on a 6, you cause a mortal wound to the nearest enemy within 12" of the icon bearer.
• Icon of Despair: NURGLE only, subtract 1 from the Leadership characteristic of enemy models within 6" of the icon bearer.
• Icon of Excess: SLAANESH only, the Death to the False Emperor takes effect on a 5+ rather than a 6+ for any friendly models within 6" of the icon bearer. RAW, this means it also effects models with no Mark/different Marks to the icon bearer, though you still need to be SLAANESH to carry it.
• Icon of Vengeance: Models without the KHORNE, TZEENTCH, NURGLE or SLAANESH keyword. Add 1 to the Leadership characteristic of friendly models within 6" of the icon bearer

CSM Units

• Chaos Space Marine (Leader [Aspiring Champion only], Heavy [Gunner only],Combat, Demolitions, Sniper, Veteran, Zealot): With good stats and the versatility of being armed with either chainswords for Melee or bolters for Range, these guys can be kitted out to fulfill different rules, with the option to mix in both across the Kill-team. Which is good, as these are the only Power armored guys you're going to get (for now at least). With only 1 wound a piece, one bad roll is all it takes to be taken out of action, though Transhuman Physiology helps with countering the negative of Flesh Wounds on your own attacks. Using cover/cultists is, therefore, key to staying relevant in the first round or two as you move into position.
  • Chaos Space Marine Gunner (2): Additionally gain access to special and heavy weapons (though you can only have one of each, and for a heavy gun, your only option is the heavy bolter. No dual flamer/melta/plasma or heavy weapon like in regular 40k). Being the only Heretic Astartes that can have the Sniper specialism, they have access to reasonably safe overcharged plasma gun shots, which always have a use. A Heavy Bolter is great on a Heavy, specially if they successfully Beseech the Gods at the start of the game to wound most targets on a 2+. A Flamer armed Demolition specialist can also wound most obscured targets on a 2+ thanks to Custom Ammo. You can’t give them the missile launcher and autocannon you built with your entry-level CSM kits, because they weren’t available when Kill Team launched.
  • Aspiring Champion (1): The only one who can wield anything above a chainsword in close combat (except for the chainaxe and power maul you got in your entry-level CSM kits, because they weren’t available when Kill Team launched) and can take a plasma pistol. As he is 9/10 likely to be your Leader, whether you want him in danger close depends on the rest of your kill team. He can bring him in close to really wreak face in Melee/Pistol range, but then be potentially exposed to be assassinated. Or he can hold back and do very little. Or thirdly, make a Cultist Champion your Leader, make this guy your Zealot specialist, and go hunting.
• Chaos Cultist (Leader [Champion only], Heavy [Gunner only], Combat, Demolitions, Veteran, Zealot): What they lack in quality, they make up for in numbers. 3 of them cost the same as one Chaos marine, and you could easily fit 20+ models into a kill team at that price. But don't take that many, seriously. They are only regular humans, with a 6+ save and if they lose half their models and break, the nerve tests you will then have to take for each guy will just mean they'll stand around shivering in fear for the rest of the game (they are only Leadership 5, 6 for the champ). What you want to use them for is as living shields for your scarier and tougher Chaos marine masters, imposing -1 hit and -1 to injury rolls from whatever angle your opponent can shoot from. Or use them to block the movements of your opponents' models, isolating them from one another. Or surround them so your chaos space marines can finish them off. Or take overwatch (still only a 50/50 chance of a frag cannon taking a fresh cultist out of action). You get the idea, just be a nuisance to your opponents' efforts and you're doing your job right. And if by some miracle you do take a model out of action during all this, then praise be the Dark Gods! They are not the best specialists for this reason, save that for your Chaos space marines.
  • Cultist Gunner (2): Can take either a heavy stubber or a flamer, adding some stronger and/or more reliable ranged support for your Dark Masters (for free in the case of the stubber). The flamer in particular actually makes the Cultist Gunner much more threatening. When they can move, advance, and still fire D6 auto hits on a target within 8", that can threaten most of the board by turn 2, if not 1. That in turn forces your opponent to choose between D6 Str4 hits, and a potentially more dangerous target if left unchecked. Don't make them specialists though, it just puts a big target on their head, and it doesn't take much to take these guys out.
  • Cultist Champion (1): Can take an autogun, shotgun or the brutal assault weapon and autopistol combo the regular dudes have access to. While the shotgun can be good, the weight of three attacks in the close combat would potentially do better to bring down an unsuspecting enemy. If you do make this guy your Leader, it's probably best you hide him out of line of sight, as he will likely go down if exposed to even just one enemy model. Since the release of Elites, this is an even bigger worry, since deep striking units can wipe this guy out. During deployment, set him up out of your opponent's line of sight and don't touch him for the entire game. If your opponent forgets he's there, they can't kill him. You'll be surprised by how often this works.

CSM Elite Units

• Dark Disciple: If your team includes a Dark Apostle commander, you can take 2 of these guys. They don't seem very elite by normal standards, essentially slightly better cultists at the same 4pt - a 5+ save and Ld 6, but they do come with a free Power Maul and each provide a 1" boost to the range of the Apostle's aura if they're within 1" of him. If you're taking the Apostle and Cultists anyway, these are essentially a strict upgrade for melee combat.
• Khorne Berzerker (Leader [Champion only], Combat, demolitions, Veteran, Zealot): BLOOOD FOR THE BLOOOD GOOOOOODDDDD!!!!! For 16p, you get access to a melee focused unit with chainsword and bolt pistol with access to the icon of wrath and chainaxe. Between their two base attacks, Blood for the blood god, a chainsword, and zealot or combat specialisms, Berzerker's will be dishing out enough attacks to turn most things into shredded guts, especially IMPERIUM units. Run them with the Icon of Wrath and charge your cultists in to soak up overwatch. Don't forget to re-roll their charge distances too.
  • Berzerker Destroyer(2): Gets access to plasma pistols. That's it.
  • Berzerker Champion (1): Gets another attack and more Ld, as well as having access to lightning claws, plasma pistols, power axes, power fists, power mauls, or power swords, and being able to pick two, can duel-wield any of them. Or, they can just pick one of those weapons and additionally take a boltgun or combi-weapon instead. A World Eaters berzerker champion with a pair of lightning claws and the combat specialism can attack 12 times in a single round, which is pretty cool.
    • If set up right, a Berzerker Champion can get a total of 16 attacks in. give him a pair of lightning claws giving him an additional attack each time he fights. Then you make him your Combat specialist for another attack, giving him 5 attacks each time he fights. Take the World Eater's legion which gives him +1 attack on the round in which he charged, was charged, or piled in. Being a berzerker means he has Blood For the Blood God, which lets him attack a second time each fight phase. then you pay 2CP for the Fury of Khorne strategem. That's 16 attacks with a S5 AP -2 weapon. It doesn't matter what you point that thing at, it will die, it will be bloody, and khorne will be pleased. Also keep in mind, if you're going against an Imperium army 6's still explode.
    • However, dual lightning claws only only do 1 Damage, meaning that no matter how many armour saves the enemy model has to make, you will only make 1 Injury roll per activation. Lightning claws are fine if you're up against grouped hordes, but if you're trying to kill a tough opponent, power fist and chainsword are the way to go. This is a much more reliable way of taking down tough units like Death Guard and Custodes. The World Eater's legion trait is fantastic on this loadout. Give him the combat specialism for more attacks to try and overcome the power fist's -1 to Hit or go zealot if you want to smack someone with 4 Strength 12 attacks and then tap them with the chainsword for good measure.
• Possessed (Leader, Combat, Veteran, Zealot): Despite not having access to any ranged weapons, or any options at all beyond marks, Possessed give Berzerkers some stiff competition as the go-to melee unit of Chaos, and at the very least are yet another unit that shines much more in the close confines of Kill Team than on the open battlefields of 40k. Possessed are fast and tough, with two wounds and an invulnerable save, and the horrifying mutations they're armed with are basically lightning claws. Problem is, the base number of attacks Possessed have are decided by a D3 each phase, so they could end up hitting like a whirlwind or a fart depending entirely on luck, which makes them a rather poor candidate for Combat specialization. All in all, Possessed are decent, though Berzerkers are probably more reliable.
  • While Possessed are merely okay in regular games, they really come into their own in a Commanders game, running with a Master of Possession or Greater Possessed, where they can be buffed into near-unstoppable melee monsters.
  • The Greater Possessed and Possessed mush share a Mark of Chaos. If your Legion allows a Mark of Khorne, here’s no point choosing any of the others, as Khorne is the only one that gets a Tactic.
• Terminator (Leader [Champion only], Heavy [Gunner only], Combat, Comms, Demolitions, Veteran): On the face of it, Chaos Terminators don't seem as good as their Loyalist counterparts. They have the same stats and base cost, but are stuck with chainaxes by default and have to pay extra for power fists. They also don't have access to Zealot specialism, assault cannons, cyclone missile launchers, plasma cannons, or thunder hammers and storm shields. But, what they do have arguably makes up for it. They have Death to the False Emperor and Chaos marks. The reaper autocannon has higher range and more powerful (if 2 fewer) shots than the assault cannon. Any Chaos Terminator can take a combi-weapon, and they have access to a full range of melee wargear without faction restrictions.
  • Terminator Gunner (2): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
  • Terminator Champion (1): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]

CSM Commanders

• Exalted Champion (Commander) (Ferocity, Fortitude, Leadership, Logistic, Melee, Shooting, Stealth, Strategist, Strength): Probably the best duelist in Kill Team thanks to his ability For the Dark Gods that permits him to re-roll failed hit rolls against a Commander.
  • Plasma Pistol and Power First is probably the best combination if you're using him mainly to kill the Commander, because you have in both cases a rerollable 3+ to hit and at minimum a 3+ to wound.
  • Shooting is a waste on this character, you should take a Strategist (it's never a wrong choice), Melee (especially if using Axe instead of Fist, to deal with nearly every enemy in melee) or Strength (if you're using a Fist and you hate to remember how wound roll work, now you always roll 2+)
• Sorcerer (Fortitude, Melee, Psyker, Shooting, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Greater Possessed (Ferocity, Fortitude, Melee, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Master of Executions (Ferocity, Fortitude, Melee, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Dark Apostle (Ferocity, Fortitude, Leadership, Melee, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Master of Possession (Fortitude, Leadership, Melee, Psyker, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Sorceror in Terminator Armor (Fortitude, Melee, Psyker, Shooting, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor (Ferocity, Fortitude, Leadership, Logistics, Melee, Shooting, Strategist, Strength): What the Captain in Terminator Armor is to the loyalists, this guy is to Chaos- dead killy, infinitely versatile, and he has a Commander Tactic that lets allies re-roll 1s. You can't go wrong with him.

CSM Tactics

• [Core] Beseech the Gods (2CP): In true Chaos fashion, this can either turn a unit into a rape train with no brakes, or insta-gib them before the battle's even started. At the start of the first battle round, pick a unit and roll a D6. On a 1 the unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. On a 2+ add 1 to hit and wound rolls for that unit until the end of the battle. You can only use this once per battle. Amazing on the model you use it on, and pairs well with other stratagems/specialisms, but will leave you with no CP for the first turn, and again, will fuck you over if your roll is a dud. (You want this on a heavy bolter. Just do it.)
• [Core] Daemon Spirit (2CP): Pick an enemy unit within 1" of your leader at the end of the Movement phase and roll a D6. On a 4+ that unit suffers 1 mortal wound. Expensive, but good in a pinch when you need to clear away or wear down one of the models you charged (or charged you!)
• [Core] Fury of Khorne (2CP): Pick a KHORNE model from your kill-team that is within 1" of an enemy model at the end of the fight- it can immediately fight again. Enemy still standing? Have another go with this Strat!
  • There are no Tactics for the other gods.
• [Core/Elites] Veterans of the Long War (2CP): Use this tactic when you choose one of the Chaos Space Marines from your kill-team to attack in the Shooting or Fight phase. You can add 1 to the wound rolls for that models attacks that target IMPERIUM models until the end of the phase. Would be really good if not for the fact that it comes at 2CP, plus you have other ways of getting +1 wound, mostly via the Demolition specialism. Elites version updates this to include Terminators.
• [Elites] Teleport Strike (Reserve) (1CP): Use at the end of the movement phase, bring in up to 3 TERMINATOR models from reserves anywhere more than 5" from an enemy.

CSM Commander Tactics

• [Commanders] Aspire to Glory (Aura) (1CP): Use at the start of the shooting phase. Friendly models within 6" of your Exalted Champion can reroll wound rolls of 1
• [Elites] Locus of Power (Aura) (1CP): Use at the start of the Fight phase. Friendly DAEMON models within 6" of your Greater Possessed get +1S as long as they share the same Mark of Chaos keyword
• [Elites] Ritual Sacrifice (1CP): Use when your Master of Executions takes out an enemy during the Fight phase. Roll a D6, on a 2+ select either S,T,W, or A to gain +1. The MoE keeps this until the end of the mission. This can be used several times but you must choose a different characteristic each time.
• [Elites] Dark Zealotry (Aura) (1CP): Use at the start of the Fight phase. Friendly models within 6" of your Dark Apostle can reroll failed hit rolls.
  • Whilst your Dark Apostle has access to an armoury that’s not included in his kit or legal in 40K, his other Prayers are not represented.
• [Elites] Lord of Chaos (Aura) (1CP): Use at the start of the shooting phase. Friendly models within 6" of your Terminator Chaos Lord can reroll hit rolls of 1

CSM Strategies

CSM Strategies:

Generic Chaos in Kill Team is a bit of a mixed bag. While in theory access to both marines and cultists should give you enough flexibility to adapt to many threats, the lack of options on their wargear stops them from being trully great. At least in vanilla Kill Team, they got a lot of shinny new toys in Elites and Commanders, but let's talk about the base game first.

Starting with the traitor astartes, we have the aspiring champion, the toughest guy you could take in the basic game. With 2 attacks (3 against Imperium, 4 with the right speciality and 5 with the chainsword, but why would you give it that, though?) and access to a power sword or a power fist, this unit is your prime melee guy. This thing can do a lot of damage, especially good against heavy armoured units. Throwing this at GEQs is somewhat of an overkill, unless said unit is really dangerous, like a guardsman with a plasma or a melta. The Aspiring Champion cannot get boosted by the chaos marks, though, only the regular chaos marines and cultists can, so no more than 4 attacks. Though, to be fair, 4 should be enough to reliably kill most things, the power sword has AP3 and the power fist has Sx2, AP3 and D3 Damage. This makes it a lethal member of your team, with the drawback of it being a rather obvious target. Every unit that could realistically take it down will shoot at it, least it reach melee. And considering it only has one wound, you have to be careful on how you make it reach the enemy lines. They can at least be effective at ranged with the plasma pistol, though is bett for melee when someone charges him.

Chaos Marine Gunners rather basic: options range between heavy bolter, plasma rifle, flamer and meltagun. Meltagun is rather situational, considering it needs to be close to reliably hit (but when it does, it can turn into goop anything, D6 damage is great). Flamers are on the weak side, more for defending against charges than an offensive weapon due to their 8" range. So the choice is between plasma and heavy bolter. To take advantage of all of the specialisms, you want a plasma sniper and a heavy/demo heavy bolter. The plasma is self-explanatory, re-rolling ones means that you can overcharge the weapon safely. Heavy heavy bolter will be able to move around the map without the hit roll penalty, although considering it has a 36" range, you might rather let it stand still and add the demolition's +1 on the wound rolls. This combination makes it the best sniper of your team, though it is probably somewhat mediocre compared to the choices of other teams.

Regular Chaos Marines are your run of the mill marines. Either chainsword with bolt pistol or boltgun, with both frag and krack grenades for good measure. You know what these do, don't expect miracles from them. Sadly, unlike SotA Marines, they can't naturally boost the surrounding unit's leadership, they instead recquire a relic for that. The regular marines have one relic, and ONLY one relic on the team. The Undivided relic boosts surrounding unit's leadership, Khorne's makes everyone re-roll charge rolls (very good for melee focused teams, of course), Nurgle's hurts enemy leadership, Slaanesh's makes surrounding allies get a DEATH TO THE FALSE EMPEROR ar 5+, which is really good, probably better in melee than Khorne's relic, and Tzeench makes the bearer into a psyker that only attacks on a 6+ roll, but with no perils. Melee focused teams will go for Khorne's and Slaanesh's, while ranged teams will preffer the Undivided to boost the cultists. Tzeench's is nice but very unreliable, with 1/6 chances of actually doing something, and Nurgle's relic is simply not that good.

Once we finish with the superhumans of the team, we go to the squishy ones. Chaos cultists are close to Imperial Guardsmen in terms of stats, but have worse equipment overall. The regular cultists have access to the relics, but it's just not as good on them, considering the marines are much tougher and better armed. The cultist champion has access to a shotgun, which you're going to give to him considering that there's no point to it outside of it (maybe the extra leadership? It's still L6, it's going to be at risk at all times, and be terrified after a wound or two). Cultist Gunners have flamers or heavy stubbers. Flamers are good for kamikaze runs, heavy stubbers are too weak for the job. Though they are free, the moment there's cover and a wound, it will barely hit aything, plus if the enemy is going to shoot cultists, they will go for the gunners first. Also, you don't want to give the specialities to this guys, those are for the marines.

For team composition, avoid space-marine only teams. Seven marines can be strong, but you will always have the same team composition, and always be outgunned and outmatched by both loyalist and specific traitor counterparts. Loyalist have access to better weapons and primaris with W2, Death Guard have better toughness, Disgustingly Resilient and better weapons, and Thousand Sons have psykers. The only full marine chaos team worse than this would be the SotA, and even then they have access to boosted cultists, traitor electropriests and actual psykers, so they are NEVER going to go full marine. All-out cultists is more interesting, though considering how squishy they are and with their pathetic weak guns and low morale, their only numeric advantage is numbers. If you could have more than two cultist gunners, a massive horde of flamers would be quite scary, but as it is, it's just not worth it.

Mixed teams is going to be the best option. Give your leadership to one of the cultists and hide it from EVERYONE, to clear specialist slots. Combat/Zealot aspiring champion, sniper plasma, heavy/demo heavy bolter, marine with the icon you want. After that, you'll either pick a couple of extra marines, and two flamer cultists, and as many regular cultist as you can with the remaining points. This is pretty much the standard team, and people know this. This lack of flexibility is what makes this army difficult to be competitive with, though if competitive is what you want, you can check out the Elite slots.

Counterplay:

A team that can reliably take down marines while not sacrificing power against hordes is a good team against it. The guy who gets the Beseech the Gods stratagem has to become an instant target, especially if the aspiring champion, the plasma or the heavy bolter have it, though keep in mind that these are already high priority targets, it just changes the focus of the first attaks. Regular marines will have enough firepower to deal with the traitor scum, while the units with basic equipment will pretty much always kill the cultists. Same with Imperial Guard, plasma spam for the marines and attack spam for the grunts. AdMEch can use the infiltrators with the power sword to charge first and deny the enemy the chance of attacking first, the transuranic arquebus to obliterate whatever it sees, as well as the plasma guy (in fact let's just take this out of the way, PLASMA IS THE BEST COUNTER AGAINST MARINES OF ALL KIND, PERIOD), plus, ranger/vanguard spam is excellent against them. Other Chaos teams have ways to deal with astartes' high saves, though cultists will be able to give poxwalkers a run for their money, considering how weak they are without the disgustingly resilient rule. Tzaangors overpower cultists in melee pretty much every time, and rubric marines have enough toughness to just walk straight to them and roast them with magic flamers. Necrons will laugh at anyone who tries to kill them with autoguns, so once they've dealt with the big guys, the game is over. Orks might outnumber and overpower chaos marines, and once in melee, cultists are fucked. Eldar of all kinds will ignore most of the damage caused by the cultists (another reason to use the flamers with them, because something is eventually bound to get in). SotA will have problems with them, but that's where you want you negavolt cultists and your rogue psyker to carry your team, while the black legionnaires boost them and the rest deal with the cultists. Tau will have no problems dealing with regular chaos marines if they can keep them at a distance (a full mixed melee team with Khorne relic is great if you manage to reach the Tau lines with enough dudes, if you play Tau you'll prioritize the Aspiring Champion and the guy with the relic). A Lictor and Genestealer charge should be enough for tyranids to deal with the marines, but be wary of the counter-offensive if the astartes survives.

Overall, the strategy against heretic astartes is simple: Big guns focused on their big guys, cheap units on the rest.

CSM Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• 7 models, 99 points
  • Aspiring Champion with chainsword and plasma pistol, 14 pts (Leader)
  • Chaos Space Marine Gunner with heavy bolter, 16 pts (Heavy)
  • Chaos Space Marine Gunner with plasma gun, 16 pts (Sniper)
  • Chaos Space Marine with chainsword, 12pts (Zealot)
  • Chaos Space Marine with chainsword, 12 pts
  • Chaos Space Marine with chainsword, 12 pts
  • Chaos Space Marine with boltgun and Icon of Flame, 17 pts
• 10 models, 100 points
  • Aspiring Champion with power sword and plasma pistol, 15 pts (Leader)
  • Chaos Space Marine Gunner with heavy bolter, 16 pts (Heavy)
  • Chaos Space Marine Gunner with plasma gun, 16 pts (Sniper)
  • Chaos Space Marine with chainsword, 12pts (Combat)
  • Chaos Space Marine with chainsword and Icon of Wrath, 17 pts
  • Chaos Cultist Champion with brutal assault weapon, 5 pts
  • Chaos Cultist with brutal assault weapon, 4 pts
  • Chaos Cultist with brutal assault weapon, 4 pts
  • Chaos Cultist Gunner with heavy stubber, 5 pts
  • Chaos Cultist Gunner with heavy stubber, 5 pts
• 20 models, 100 points
  • Aspiring Champion with power sword, plasma pistol, and Icon of Vengeance 19 pts (Leader)
  • 8 Chaos Cultists with brutal assault weapons and autopistols, 32 pts
  • 9 Chaos Cultists with autoguns, 36 pts
  • Chaos Cultist Gunner with heavy stubber, 5 pts
  • Chaos Cultist Gunner with flamer, 8 pts

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Death Guard

Why Play Death Guard

• Pros
  • Poxwalkers can spawn more Poxwalkers by killing enemies.
  • Plague marines are disgustingly tough in every sense of the word, capable of eating small arms fire like popcorn. The Plague Marines are the only T5 unit in the game (outside of commanders and custodes)!
  • Poxwalkers are great soft cover units.
  • FLAIL OF CORRUPTION FTW
  • Flesh wounds are a thing, meaning that with your FNP you have three layers of saves, assuming anyone can hit and wound you in the first place.
  • Access to four commanders gives as many different choices as the other two Chaos Space Marine factions combined!
• Cons
  • The only reason you're not the best faction is that deathwatch have frag cannons.
  • Your best strategy is to use poxwalkers to give marines cover from heavier weapons. Expect everyone to know this and field one or two dedicated anti-infantry guns to mow them down first and fire accurate anti-armour into your gooey centre.
  • You'll easily become that guy if you bring these to friendly games against un-optimised opponents.
  • In a multi-person match, you'll be the first one focused down after the guy with four frag cannons.
  • You're expensive, you aren't fast, and you're geared towards getting in close. You are very good when you get there, and you got some tools to help you get there but never forget your team is centred around 3-5 very expensive one wound models. Getting mobbed, sustained fire, an unlucky roll, or a bad tactical decision can really hurt you.
  • The Commanders expansion effectively unlocked the psychic phase for just about every faction that has psykers, except you. Nurgle's Babies still don't have psykers in Kill Team, or a proper defense against psychic powers, and that's a fairly serious problem when use of the psychic phase has been expanded as much as it has, which will obviously mean that your opponent can easily bypass your high toughness and armour save, and put d3 wounds up against DR and flesh wounds.

DG Special Rules

• Disgustingly resilient: FnP5+ as an extra layer of protection even against multi-damage hits. And Kill Team's flesh wound mechanic means a single wound goes a long way.
• Death to the False Emperor: Nurgle's still chaos. Roll an additional melee attack on a 6+ to hit an Imperium model. This new attack has to be aimed at the same target, and cannot generate itself further DttFE attacks.
• Transhuman Physiology: Ignore the penalty to the model's hit rolls from the first flesh wound. Thus, the enemy has to go through your toughness, armour save and FNP twice to get an effect on you, meaning you can still DttFE on a flesh wound.
• Icon of Despair: -1Ld to enemies within 6". It is useful that it doesn't require essentially being in melee like other armies' debuffs.

DG Faction Attributes

• Inexorable Advance: Your dudes don't suffer the Hit Penalties from moving with a Heavy weapon and with advancing with an Assault weapon. In addition they can Rapid Fire out to 18".
  • Basically DG get to all be Heavies for free, completely invalidating a specialism. And then on top of that, as a bonus, they get something that is an entire subfaction for some of the other Factions. Good thing too, they absolutely needed the buff. Not like they were one of the best factions before or anything.

DG Ranged Weapons

• Boltgun: The standard 24" RF S4 gun everything compares to. Though with Gunner options and expensive models you may see only one. This isn't 40K, you don't rapid fire from 18" here.

Special weapons

• Blight launcher: 24" Assault 2 S6 AP-2 D3 dmg, re-rolls wounds of 1 for being a plague weapon. Pretty much a Frag cannon's standard profile, for all intents and purposes, but cheaper. It shines when used by a Demolitions specialist, wounding everyone obscure on re-rollable 2+, noticeably reducing armour and with a good chance for true kills. Its good rate of fire and mobility can be used by a Veteran employing Adaptive Tactics to get into a good starting position, and a Heavy can both advance without penalty and an even higher rof with More Bullets. Models with a Blight launcher also make great targets for the Grandfather's blessing stratagem, especially heavies. 3 shots with 2+ to hit and 2+ to wound, -2ap and d3 damage will put most things in kill team in the ground.
• Meltagun: Capable of overkill, but there's no such thing when facing Lictors, Primaris, Aberrants and the like. Useful on a Heavys hands to run and gun.
• Plague Belcher: S4 flamer that re-rolls wounds of 1. Powerful on a Demolitions specialist's hands.
• Plague Spewer: Better S5 AP-1 Plague Belcher, so a Demolitions wounds almost all obscured targets on re-rollable 2+. The catch? It's Heavy, so this is a 9"-flamer your movement-5" marine can't advance with, and a Heavy can't help you with it.
• Plasma Gun: Sadly we don't have a Sniper specialist to re-roll those 1s, but at least it's also available to our leader figure. The supercharge risks an automatic death, so it's less appealing in this Kill Team. Either use the Tactical re-roll or your other multi-damage guns.

Pistols: Sidearms exclusive to a dedicated melee Champion.

• Bolt Pistol: Useful. Really, it's there for when you'd rather spend the points on a melee weapon instead.
• Plasma Pistol: Pistol version of the plasma gun. One of the best things you can spend a point on if you have a melee Champ.

Grenades: Their short range means they're situational, especially given how slow Death Guard are. Fortunately, plague marines can survive the approach, and don't fear counter charges as much as other armies. You can use only one per phase.

• Blight grenade: Plague frag. Unlike other armies' frag grenades, however, D6 Str3 re-rolling 1s to wound is, on average, better than a rapid firing bolter. And your dudes have plague knives too. On an Icon bearer, there's the argument to keep going forward on and on. Something something inevitable death theme.
• Krak grenade: Grenade 1 S6 AP-1 D1d3, always better than the bolt pistol/gunshot it replaces.

DG Melee Weapons

• Flail of Corruption: JEEZ, NURGLE, this weapon really shows a middle finger to Khorne. On a Combat Specialist this gives 3D3 attacks at S6 AP-2 D2 while rerolling wound rolls of 1. Death To The False Emperor also triggers d3 extra attacks for every hit roll of 6 as well. The most dangerous melee weapon in Kill Team. It becomes even more deadly with the tactic "Grandfather's Blessing" (if it doesn't kill the bearer) for 2+ to hit, 2+ to wound, rerolling 1s, against most things (except GEQs, against which you have a 1+), along with D2 to really fuck with Primaris Marines and double the dice in the Flesh Wound rolls. Seriously, this guy can take on some of the best commanders in the game and come out on top. Obviously however, this is the equivalent of putting a giant "SHOOT ME" sign on the bearer. Even more so than usual, anyway. And the best part? You can field two of them (more if you bring some termies). Give a Plague Champion a Fist and enjoy your unstoppable Death Star.
  • Practically designed for killing GEQs. S6 ensures you’ll be wounding on 2s even before Grandfather gives you his blessing, AP -2 means they don’t get an armour save, and the high volume of attacks means you can easily take on more than one and emerge victorious.
  • It was slightly nerfed by the September 2018 errata, dropping the damage down to 1, so a slight performance dent. However, it is still awesome vs horde armies, and the high number of attacks mean he can still take out individual high-wound models like Primaris, Aberrants and Lictors wiht some luck, and put a MAJOR dent in them if not. Plus, he's a Plague AMrine, so he'll probably survive the revenge attack anyway! It also only generates more hit rolls against its target, and you can still only target as many models as you have Attacks (so, basically, don't charge four models at once). Splitting attacks on the Cleaver is more likely to successfully kill multi-wound units (like Primaris) than the Flail, even with the bonus hits.
• Bubotic Axe This weapon can be a nice cheap and quite strong option on a fighter. The high AP and +1str make it rather nice against single wound power armor, but you're probably better off with a flail.
• Mace of Contagion This instead is for when you need to crack open that pesky multi-wound Tyranid warrior, Primaris marine, aberrant etc. Hell, even rubric marines are going to regret lifting their dusty mugs from their also dusty books. Although, if you REALLY want to kill stuff on the spot you might like...
• Great Plague Cleaver Essentially a meltagun that you can use in Close Combat. If the flesh wounds build up you could have some trouble hitting with this but when you do, oh boy, the thing you strike is going to disappear. For some reason it costs the same as a power fist while having the potential to do double the damage. Don't give the bearer the Zealot specialty as the extra 2 strength is basically useless in Kill Team- the only thing you'll need the +2Str against are other plague marines! (Usually - remember a lvl 2 medic can give someone +2 toughness for a round) Again, consider Grandfather's Blessing to keep the 3 Attacks hitting at a 3+.
• Power fist You will probably want this on your leader if you expect him to see some CC action. Not too easy to hit with but will kill anything it connects with. Again, consider Grandfather's blessing if you want to mitigate this hit modifier and wound marines on a 1+ (well, still 2+ as unmodified 1's always fail. However, any -1 to wound modifiers you may come across will do nothing to you rolls as you'll still be wounding on 2s, even against T5 or higher). That is, of course, if you're willing to take the risk of losing your leader (and 1 extra CP per turn) before turn 1 actually begins.
• Plague Sword Ugh... I wish that a plague champion could get a Balesword or a Bubotic Axe. It's cool in that it's free, so there isn't really a reason not to take it. It does not do much damage outside of GEQ.
• Plague Knife Better than nothing. It makes base Plague Marines a bit better in Close combat than they would be but even a chainsword will put it to shame. MEH.
• Improvised Weapons Generic but come with poxwalkers so who cares.

DG Units

• Plague Marines (Leader [Champ only], Heavy [Gunner only], Zealot [Fighter only], Combat, Demolitions, Veteran): Dead strong at T5 with Disgustingly Resilient, practically immovable on objectives and within cover, although a bit slower than other MEQs. True all-rounders, they have bolter for standard firefights, but can also gut someone with their plague knife. Regular fighters at all ranges, they become truly scary when within 6", as their blight grenades can be put to use. One of them can take an Icon of Despair, which also works at 6".
  • Plague Marine Gunner (2): Great flexibility, whether you're going ranged or melee, a good idea is to make at least one of them either a Heavy or a Demolitions specialist.
  • Plague Marine Fighter (2): They will be your Zealot and Combat specialists. While they keep their grenades, at that range they'll be attempting charges rather than throwing grenades. But if a fool charges them, remember to use them to overwatch.
  • Plague Champion (1): Tactical in the extreme - he WILL have a plague sword to stab the little ones, can further take a power fist for the big ones without letting go of the sword, a pistol for melee OR a full sized Plasma gun, which is an excellent way to patch your lacking number of special weapons. Just remember he can't do everything at once, so don't bloat his cost.
• Poxwalkers (Combat, Zealot): Aka (un)living shields. Put some in front of your marines and enjoy open field cover. Despite being slower than Plague Marines, lacking guns they'll be advancing when not charging (and charges are 2d6" regardless of base movement stat), so they can still provide a much needed distraction from your expensive and outnumbered marines.

DG Elite Units

• Blightlord Terminator: As if the Plague Marines needed more of the two things they all have: toughness and slowness. They're Plague Marines in Terminator armor, which means they have an extra attack, wound, and point of leadership, plus a freakin' 2+ save, and a 4+ invuln, plus they keep Disgustingly Resilient. They come standard with combi-bolters, and either Bale Swords or Bubotic axes, and also come with the Aura of Rust ability, meaning unmodified wound rolls of 6 give a melee weapon 1 better AP. and considering they can take Bale Swords and Bubotic axes for free that's already pretty solid, but did I mention you can also switch their other weapons for a Flail of Corruption for free as well? Plus any Blightlord Termie can switch their combi-bolter for a combi-plas, flamer, or melta, and two of them can be gunners and take a Plague Spewer, Blight Launcher, or a Reaper Autocannon, and keep their swords or axes. However, Blightlords do have a couple major drawbacks, namely they cost 40 points each, minimum, and that their cataphractii armor halves all their advance rolls, which is really bad for them, considering they only have a 4" move. As far as Terminators go, these guys are a contender for "toughest bastards to wear termie armor" but sacrifice a some of their versatility and even more speed to get there. However, in my humble opinion (feel free to correct me if someone knows better) they are probably the best Terminators in kill team, as of the time of this writing, on the premise that they don't need to sacrifice any of their weapons to be the excessively durable Terminators they are, freeing them to take whatever weapons they need (and as a bonus they get a some of their weapon costs included in the price of the model, such as the plague spewer, and all of their melee weapons, including the flail) , and, in many situations, their low mobility won't hamper them too much, as A: for 1 CP you can teleport up to 3 of them in wherever you need them(how you have the points for 3 of them is up to you to figure out, though) and B: with your ranged termies, set them up where they need to be, and watch them hose your poor enemies with autocannons or blight launchers, and laugh as their return fire bounces of their armor, if they have a Flail of Corruption, all you need to do is get them in range to charge, say a prayer to nurgle, and let the dice do the rest, and his abysmal move speed won't matter. Not to say other Termies don't have their strengths, Rubrics have mind bullets, All is Dust, and crazy Thousand Sons weapons, standard Astartes Termies are much more versatile (and cheaper too!) and have a huge wargear list and can take storm shields to almost reach Blightlord levels of tough, if you accept the obligatory Thunder hammer, or are a Space Wolf.
  • Tl:Dr: They're real expensive, real tough, and have solid special weapons, but are slow as hell, and, especially when given dangerous weapons, are liable to be focused down quickly, leaving you with 40+ wasted points. But they'll laugh off a lot of incoming heat before they die (bar the dice hating you) and if they get the chance, can do some *serious* killing.

• Deathshroud Terminator: Deathshroud Termies are very similar to their Blightlord Bros, except a couple things: they have 1 more attack, are S5, which is cool, can only take Manreapers (melee weapon, S+3, AP-3, D3 Dmg, re-roll wound rolls of 1, ultimately, really good on them) and Plaguepurt Gauntlets (Pistol D6 S3 flamers, rerolling 1s to wound cause plague), and have a couple VERY niche abilities: Eyes of Mortarion (Commanders within 3" get +1 Attack) and Silent Bodygaurd (when a commander gets punched/shot on a 2+ they take the attack instead), and this is kind of a downside for them, and why I consider them niche units (to an extent) and as such not much better than a standard Blightlord, simply for their bloated points cost as they cost 50-58 points each (9 more minimum than a Blightlord with a Flail of Corruption), and their only unique abilities help Commanders, and nobody else. And aside from the Lord of Contagion, none of the other DG Commanders can really make use of their strengths, as their abilities buff melee commanders, and protect them as long as the DeathShrouds stay close, and the only DG commander punchy enough to really get into the thick of it with the Deathshrouds is the 114 point, minimum, Lord of Contagion. Meaning just for that combo, you'll pay a whopping 164 points minimum. With that said, together, those two become the toughest blender to ever butcher your friend's army... So, they aren't worthless, to say the least. But any cheaper Commander won't really be able to make good use of the Deathshroud, as none of them are the choppy, ultra tough beast the LoC is, meaning either you risk the death of both your Termie and commander by rushing in, or you waste the Termie's combat potential (and lots of his point value) by hanging back to protect your commander. However, with all that said, with his manreaper and plague hand flamer (two if you pay 8 extra points to get a champion +1 attack, and the extra plague flamer) is a monster in melee, even on his own, with the manreaper for anti-everything and his plaguespurt gauntlet(s) for anti-GEQ/pouring shots into tougher targets 'cause A. you can, its free and B. fishing for lucky rolls, which with 1 or 2 D6 shots, is pretty likely.However, he suffers from the same drawbacks as a Blightlord: Slow, expensive, and with a target on his back, because he carries a power weapon by default. So, to sum up, for 50-58 points you get a Blightlord termie, with all the same disadvantages, with the added power of a melee power weapon and 1-2 hand flamers, making him a monster in melee, and a couple neat abilities that make your Lord of Contagion an unstoppable blender, if you're willing to pay 164 points for the combo. Important side note: a Blightlord Termie Champion is similarly good as the Deathshroud, with what is still considered one of the best melee weapons in kill team (even after the nerf), but doesn't have hand-plague flamers. I'm not smart enough to do the math to see which is better, but keep in mind that the Blightlord with Flail is 9 points cheaper minimum.

DG Commanders

• Foul Blightspawn (Fortitude, Logistics, Melee, Strength): The Blightspawn's Plague Sprayer was nasty enough in vanilla 40k, but with the Logistics specialism at level 3 (which will coincidentally let him shrug off AP-1 attacks) he can boost it to a vicious 15" range. Don't forget about the Refractor Field tactic to make him even more unkillable!
• Biologus Putrifier (Fortitude, Logistics, Melee, Shooting, Strength): Grenade specialist.
• Tallyman (Fortitude, Leadership, Logistics, Melee, Shooting, Strategist, Strength): A CP Factory. Make him a strategist so you have more CP to potentially refund, or a Leadership specialist for a truly enormous Aura.
• Plague Surgeon (Fortitude, Leadership, Logistics, Melee, Shooting, Strength):
• Lord of Contagion (Ferocity, Fortitude, Leadership, Logistics, Melee, Strategist, Strength): A monster of a melee machine, sporting Terminator armor and either a PlagueReaper or a Manreaper. With 4 attacks, six wounds, and the Vector of Contagion tactic, he's truly a melee powerhouse. If you're willing to pay the points, pairs very well with the Deathshroud terminators... His own personal mini-me, who also makes him even better at smashing faces.

DG Tactics

• [Core] Nurgle's Gift (1CP): Roll a D6 after a Poxwalker takes an enemy unit out of action in the Fight phase. On a 4+ you can set up a new Poxwalker within 1" of the one that made the attack. However, the new Poxwalker is not part of a fire team and is not added to the command roster.
  • It is, however, useful as an expendable meatshield. Since you lose nothing when it dies it can act as a suicide unit. Well, you say nothing - every expendable dead is another +1 to nerve tests...
• [Core] Cloud of Flies (2CP): Pick a unit after the Movement phase. Until the end of the battle round, enemy units can only shoot it if it's the closest target visible to them. If you were wondering how to protect Grandaddy's favourite flail combat specialist, now you know. Put a pair of Poxwalkers in front of him, use this tactic and go and have fun out there, you little rascal you.
• [Core] Putrid Splatter (2CP): When something kills you in close combat you blow up. Id does a mortal wound on a 6 to every enemy within 1" of the guy that has died. Cool if you are fighing really massed infantry, if not then it is rather meh, expecially for 2 CP.
• [Core] Grandfather's Blessing (2CP): Oh boy. This basically makes one of your guys a miniature chaos lord, giving him a +1 to hit and wound in BOTH shooting and close combat. I have to specify though that this only works once at the start of the game and on a 2+. If you roll a 1, the guy you choose gets a one way ticket for the warp by taking D3 mortal wounds. Ouch. If you feel lucky pop this at the start of the game and watch the terror in either yours or the opponents eyes.
• [Core/Elites] Veterans of the Long War (2CP): Want to really fuck up that IMPERIUM enemy model? Pop this when you attack it either by shooting or smashing and you get a +1 to wound. Would be really good if not for the fact that it comes at 2CP and that "Grandfather's Blessing" exists. Alternatively, use on a model with Grandfather's Blessing and a Flail to up their wound rolls against the bad boy Lictors to 2+. Elites just updates this to include Terminators instead of just Plague Marines.
• [Elites] Teleport Strike (Reserve) (1CP): Use at the end of the movement phase, bring in up to 3 TERMINATOR models from reserves anywhere more than 5" from an enemy.

DG Commander Tactics

• [Commanders] Revolting Stench (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the Fight phase if your kill-team includes a non-shaken Foul Blightspawn. Enemy models within 3" of this model that charged this turn lose the benefits of charging, even if they have abilities that would normally let them fight as if they had charged.
• [Commanders] Festering Zealot (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the Fight phase if your kill-team includes a non-shaken Tallyman. Friendly models within 7" of the Tallyman can re-roll failed hits for that phase.
• [Commanders/Errata] Blight Racks (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the shooting phase if your kill-team includes a non-shaken Biologus Putrefier. All friendly models within 3" that have access to blight grenades get them upgraded with +1 S and the ability to cause a mortal wound on a wound roll of 6.
• [Commanders] Tainted Narthecium (1 CP): Use at the start of the fight phase if your kill-team includes a non-shaken Plague Surgeon. Friendly models within 3" of the Plague Surgeon can re-roll 1s for their Disgustingly Resilient roll.
• [Elites] Vector of Contagion (2 CP): Use at the start of the battle round. Roll a dice for every enemy within 1" of an a friendly model that is within 3" of your Lord of Contagion (yup, within 1" of a model within 3"). On a 4+ the enemy model suffers a mortal wound.

DG Strategies

DG Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

DG Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• Plague Marine Champion with Power Fist, Plague Sword, and Plasma Gun. Leader Specialist, obviously.
• Plague Marine Fighter with Flail. Combat Specialist to up his attacks to 3d3, or Zealot to help him wipe out anything on the charge. Prime candidate for Grandfather's Blessing. Additionally, in Narrative Play games where the opponent has a higher point Kill Team, remember the fact that you get an additional 1 CP per turn, and use this as insurance against Grandfather's Blessing going wrong.
• 2 Plague Marine Gunners, each with Blight Launchers. Heavy specialists for advancing and firing without the -1 to hit modifier. Use together as a single unit and focus fire to make sure that your target joins Papa Nurgle in his Garden.
• Bog-standard Plague Marine. Use as more durable mobile cover for your Flail or Leader.
• 3 Poxwalkers, to make up the numbers. Use as mobile cover and be very suprised if they actually kill anything.

Total: 100 points.

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

• Level 3 Foul Blightspawn. Logistics or Fortitude. (120 points)
• Plague Marine Champion with Power Fist, Plague Sword, and Plasma Gun. Leader Specialist, obviously.
• Plague Marine Fighter with Flail. Combat Specialist to up his attacks to 3d3, or Zealot to help him wipe out anything on the charge. With Grandfather's Blessing, this guy can even take on Commanders and emerge victorious.
• 2 Plague Marine Gunners, each with Blight Launchers. Heavy specialists for advancing and firing without the -1 to hit modifier. Use together as a single unit and focus fire to make sure that your target joins Papa Nurgle in his Garden.
• Total: 200 points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

• Poxwalker Party:
  • Level 4 Tallyman.
  • Everything else: poxwalkers.
• Get stuff up the field as fast as possible as use tallyman's melee bonus to use your grisly horde to wipe out everything. Slowly does it!

Thousand Sons

Why Play Thousand Sons

• Pros
  • One of only three (four if you count the CSM Icon of Flame) factions in the game that can make use of Kill Team's psychic phase without Commanders.
  • Despite all other units with a 2+ save being barred from kill team, Rubrics can boost their save to a 2+ against attacks that deal only 1 damage.
  • -2 AP on all the Rubric Marine's standard ranged weapons will eviscerate GEQ opponents and seriously threaten other MEQ targets almost as severely.
  • The 1CP Hungering Warp Flame tactic makes Warp Flamers OP as fuck. Allowing you to advance in the movement phase with no penalty and guaranteeing any charge within 8” will be shredded by overwatch (still watch out for harlequins).
  • The only Chaos faction with access to the Comm specialism, via Tzaangors with a brayhorn/megaphone of all things. This can make your Soulreaper armed Rubric surprisingly accurate.
• Cons
  • Limited weapon selection, literally two guns and a heavy for Rubricae.
  • Unlike all other space marines, your Rubric Marines do not have Transhuman Physiology, meaning if they do take (flesh) wounds, or if you have to patch them up with a Medic, their accuracy will start to drop noticeably.
  • All your (non-commander) models lean heavy towards melee or shooting. If a rubricae gets punched or a Tzaangor shot then they can’t do much back.
  • A very limited model roster, fine for 100 points but with commanders you’ll find it tough against other armies such as SM who suddenly have loads of different models and lots of utility.

TS Special Rules

• Death to the False Emperor: You've seen it, you know. Any roll of a 6+ in close combat against an IMPERIUM model generates another attack roll against the same target with the same weapon. These bonus attacks cannot generate further bonus attacks. Also note, it you take two or more Flesh Wounds, you will be unable to trigger DttFE, due to the -1 or worse to hit. But considering your lack of close combat weapon options, you should avoid close combat wherever possible.
• All is Dust: Unique to Rubric Marines and Rubric Marine Gunners, you +1 to saving throws against weapons with a damage characteristic of 1. Additionally the Rubric Marine Gunner ignores the -1 to hit penalty for moving and firing Heavy weapons.
• Favoured of Tzeentch: Gives the model a 5+ invulnerable save. A good fall back save if your Rubric marines get hammered with meltaguns and overcharged plasma guns (because of All is Dust, see above). Not the most reliable save, but as one of the few factions that have them, it's better than nothing.
• Aura of Dark Glory: Favoured of Tzeentch, but for your Tzaangors. +5 invulnerable save. Basically guardsmen armour, but one that you can take regardless, be it a lasgun or a meltagun.
• Transhuman Physiology: Unique to the Aspiring Sorcerer only, this allows him to ignore the first flesh wound suffered for to hit penalties (won't stop the +1 to injury rolls though. Useful, but situational, as you don't necessarily want your sorcerer too close to the action in order to shoot/fight, since he can just smite instead.

TS Faction Attributes

• Brotherhood of Sorcerers: 2 psykers in your team can manifest per psychic phase instead of 1, and range of your psychic powers is increase by 3"
  • This looks great! You get the same buff that GK get and it was a big buff to them! Except to actually benefit from it you have to have 2 psykers in your team. And unlike GK only select TS models are psykers. So to actually use this ability you HAVE to take the drastically overpriced Scarab Occult Terminator, further reducing the size of a relatively elite faction and basically nerfing your team's effectiveness. The range benefit is also mediocre compared to the GK's +1 to Psychic tests, as the only psychic power your regular psykers have access to is Psybolt and 18" is already plenty of range on KTs small boards. Elites gives TS basically nothing.
    • The one exception to the above is Commanders. Both of your commanders are Psykers, you will already have 2 psykers on the board. And better yet, while GKs +1 would still be better, the range bonus can actually come into play with the 12" ranges on the Disciplines of Tzeench. Now if only anyone actually played Commanders...

TS Ranged Weapons

• Inferno boltgun: A boltgun, but with -2 AP. With a 24 inch range, very little will be able to stay out of range of -2 shots. You may not have many of them, but each of them that gets through is most likely going to hurt. Getting into Rapid Fire range boosts their effectiveness considerably, but also gets them within Melee threat range. Somewhere your definitely don't want to be!
• Warpflamer: Identical to a flamer, but with -2 AP, this thing is scary, especially as you can Advance and still shoot with this thing!

Heavy Weapons

• Soulreaper Cannon: A up-gunned Heavy Bolter, it trades a third of the range for an additional shot and -3 AP, leaving most opponents with at best a 6+ Armour save (with the exception of, hilariously, other Rubric marines). Rubric Marines already can move without getting a -1 to hit when wielding heavy weapons. Pairs well with a Brayhorn Comm specialist and the level 1 heavy tactic.

Pistols

• Inferno bolt pistol: Like a bolt pistol, but better. Unfortunately you pay for that with the cost of the model, but in exchange you get -2 AP. That's going to leave most targets with a 6+ save if any, 5+ if your a space marine or it's not going to affect them if they're Harlequins. Still, you will more likely get your wound through if you manage to wound it. And you can use it is subsequent rounds of close combat.
• Warpflame pistol: Similar in some ways to the hand flamer, this baby instead gets D6 shots at -2 AP, increasing the chances that one will at least wound. Should be seriously considered if you plan to run a rubric-heavy team, where you'll really need that second flamer to help ward off anything getting too close to your spooky-scary dudes.
• Autopistol: A las pistol by another name, don't expect these to do much. In fact, you probably won't use this, as the short range generally means that the choice is usually shoot or charge. And in most cases, Combat is usually the better place to be, especially with Str4. Still, if you find yourself locked in combat for more than one round, use them. You never know what might happen.

Terminator Weapons

• Heavy Warpflamer: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Hellfyre Missile Rack: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Inferno Combi-Bolter: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]

TS Melee Weapons

• Chainsword: The trusty reliable chainsword, +1 Attack when used in combat and that's about it. Turns your Tzaangor's into decent CC combatants but not as good as Tzaangor blades.
• Force Stave: The default weapon of both brands of Sorcerer. +2 str, -1 ap and Dd3 make it reasonable for primaris removal.
• Tzaangor blades: -1 AP and +1 attacks makes these a nice default choice for Tzaangor, who probably wouldn't hit anything with their autopistols anyway.
• Power Sword: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]

TS Psychic Powers

• [Commanders] Gaze of Fate (Warp Charge 6): Gives you one free re-roll of any one roll until your next psychic phase. Better than the standard stratagem, without dipping into your CPs.
• [Commanders] Treason of Tzeentch (Warp Charge 8): Beat an enemy model's Ld on a 2d6 and they become part of your kill team until the end of the fight phase.
  • with the overall lowered leadership in kill team and the ability to target normal mooks this becomes much better than its 40k counterpart.
  • Bonus points for killing 2 or more enemy models with overcharged plasma.
• [Commanders] Bolt of Change (Warp Charge 9): The closest visible enemy model within 12" of the psyker takes d3 mortal wounds.

Other Wargear

• Brayhorn: Unique to the Tzaangors, It allows friendly Tzaangors within 6" to add 1 to their Advance & Charge rolls. Also allows the model to become a Comm specialist. Because blowing through a horn is an effective way to direct the firepower of a suit of power armour filled with dust... Consider converting your comm specialist 'gor with psychic radio antenna antlers or something if a literal musical instrument seems a little too silly.
• Icon of Flame: At the start of your turn in the psychic phase, roll 1d6 for each model equipped with an Icon of Flame. On a 6, you cause a mortal wound to the closest enemy model within 12". Your 2nd psychic phase. Don't rely on it going off, but if it does, it's unlikely that your opponent has thought to keep a disposable body between the icon bearer and a more important target.

TS Units

• Aspiring Sorcerer (1) (Leader, Combat, Demolitions, Veteran) With a stat line identical to most space marine sergeants (including a 6" move compared to his Rubric marines) this guy is pretty reasonable, and as one of only two options when it comes to choosing a Leader, he is probably the standout winner. He is very limited choices for wargear; only being able to swap his inferno bolt pistol for a warpflame pistol. His only other weapon is a force staff, which while only -1AP, does deal D3 damage per wound, so can really deal out the pain in close combat. Being the only member of the kill-team with Transhuman Physiology helps him to keep hit accurately. He is no Melee monster though, with only a 3+ save (but also a 5+ invulnerable) to keep him going, so keep him out of bigger scraps unless he is well supported by Tzaangors. As the only psyker played exactly as set out in the book (Grey Knights were nuffed slightly), he gives a pretty reliable mortal wound factory, crippling and killing a single 1 wound model a turn. Occasionally he might roll high enough for D3 mortal wounds on the target, though this is only useful against targets with 2 or 3 wounds. Keep a CP handy though, as a dreaded Perils of the Warp has a good chance of killing him, and dealing damage to your seemingly untouchable automaton bodyguard.
• Rubric Marines (Combat, Demolitions, Veteran): In comparison to the other space marines, Rubrics lost out Transhuman Physiology and dropped to a 5" Movement. In return, they gained a 5+ invulnerable save and the All is Dust ability. This means you will get a 2+ save against most small arms fire, and a 5+ invulnerable against anything with a half decent AP. And even against a meltagun, at least you get a 5+ save. At 5" move, you are slower then most marines, though on the small area of kill team, this isn't so much of an issue unless you need to get off the other side of the board. Can take inferno boltguns for longer range -2AP shooting, or warpflamers to Advance up the board and unleash a torrent of -2AP fire right into your opponents grouped together models (this works especially well with the Demolition specialism. Stay out of combat where possible, it is a waste of your abilities and you don't have pistols. Though an over watching flamer is still nasty.
  • Rubric Marine Gunner (1) (Heavy, Combat, Demolitions, Veteran): Limited to one per kill team, and thus only 1 Soulreaper cannon, this is still a good weapon and a good firing platform. Everything this apples to basic Rubrics applies here, but with the added benefit of being able to take the Heavy specialism, and the fact you ignore the -1 to moving and firing heavy weapons already.
• Tzaangors (Combat, Medic, Veteran, Zealot): Your source of cheaper but still surprisingly tough bodies. With Str and toughness 4, and WS 3+ they are akin more to Ork boyz then to the cultists and pox walkers of other chaos kill teams. Cost about the same too, which means you will not be able to flood the battlefield in quite the same numbers as the other chaos kill teams. They do have a 5+ invulnerable save however, so they at least have a chance of stopping a meltagun from one-shooting them. They also move 1" faster than your Rubric marines, which is always handy. For options, they can either take chainswords and autopistols, or drop shooting altogether for tzaangor blades, giving you a respectable -1 AP in Melee. This synergises quite well with the passive effect of the brayhorn, and the Medic stratagem 'Stimm-shot', meaning that Tzaangors can cross the field into combat surprisingly quickly, which is where they do there best work. Whether that is taking out key enemy models, or holding them back from your Rubric marines so they can spend their time shooting.
  • Bizarrely enough these guys are one of the only SM or CSM kill team units which can be Medics. While this will not have much effect in the first few games, as you gain experience your Medic will be able to help keep your expensive marines in the fight, and even revive them if they go down (or twice in the same turn, if you have the CP to spend on this AND 'Immovable Automaton'). In regular matched play games, though, you'll have to settle for just combining Stimm-shot with the speed boosts of a brayhorn to make your 'gors, particularly a Combat specialist Twistbray, move fast and hit hard.
  • Tzaangor with brayhorn (Comm, Combat, Medic, Veteran, Zealot): Identical to a normal tzaangor, but with a big ass warhorn! And damn is it an effective (considering some of your kill team are empty suits of power armour). A Comm Specialist brayhorn pairs particularly well with a Soulreaper cannon armed Gunner, meaning in most cases, half your shots will hit their target, which is more than enough to wound and force an injury roll, with the cannons built in str5 and -3 AP meaning most wounds will stick. Outside of boosting Rubric shooting, the guy can really boost the speed of a tzaangor heavy kill team (as previously mentioned). Basically, in most cases, you want this guy in your kill team, for one or both reasons. This is also probably the 'gor you'll want to equip with a chainsword and autopistol, as whether he's giving his fellow 'gors a speed boost or directing soulreaper fire, he's probably going to end up hanging back a bit, so you might as well give him something to do in the shooting phase, for what little it's worth.
  • Twistbray (1)(Leader, Combat, Medic, Veteran, Zealot): Your tzaangor boss, and also you second choice for Kill team Leader. Has exactly the same options as his subordinates, but with +1 attack and leadership. While he maybe more fragile then a Aspiring Sorcerer, the extra attack he gets over him (regardless of weapon load out) makes him a pretty good Combat specialist. 4 attacks with -1 AP is not something you can easily ignore. He will leave a mark if left alone, so use this to your advantage to keep shit away from your Rubric marine fire support.

TS Elite Units

• Scarab Occult Sorcerer (1) (Leader, Combat, Demolitions, Veteran) Basically an a more expensive Aspiring Sorcerer. Moves at 5", but his 2+ save is solid. Runs around with an Inferno Combi-Bolter and a Force Stave. You can swap out the Bolter for a Power Sword, but why anyone would ever do that is beyond me. Unfortunately brutally overcosted, but in non-commander games he's your only option for getting that second Psybolt off.
• Scarab Occult Terminator (Combat, Demolitions, Veteran) Your heavy hitters, coming stock with T4, 2A, 2W and a 2+ 5++. They retain their All Is Dust rule but are the prime targets for 2D weapons so don't count on them tanking too may hits as they are giant fire magnets. Stock equipment is a power sword and an Inferno Combi-Bolter. Up to two of these or their Gunner equivalent (see below) can stick Hellfyre Missile Racks on their backs for some sweet Strength 8 anti-Elite weaponry.
  • Scarab Occult Gunner (2) (Heavy, Combat, Demolitions, Veteran) These Gunners can swap out their combi-bolters out for a Heavy Warpflamer or a Soulreaper cannon, and aren't affected by moving and shooting for Heavy weapons. However, if you make one a Heavy specialist, you can use the MORE BULLETS heavy tactic to get +1 attack to EACH ranged weapon. If you give your Gunner a Soulreaper and a Hellfyre Missile Rack, probably two models are gonna have a pretty bad day as they take 5 S5 AP-3 1 Damage shots and 3 S8 AP-2 D3 Damage shots. Since you resolve all the attacks with one weapon before declaring your second set of shots, you can choose to hammer down a single target if it's somehow still standing or split them up between two models if the first set killed something.

TS Commanders

• Exalted Sorcerer (Commander):
• Tzaangor Shaman (Commander):

TS Tactics

• [Core] Sorcerous Focus (2CP): Use this at the start of your Pschic phase. Pick a PSYKER model from your kill team that is within 2" of at least two other models from the kill team. Add 6" to the range of this model's Psybolt psychic power until the end of the phase. Good if you prefer to keep your enemy at arms length for the first and second battle round, but still want to get in those mortal wounds!
• [Core] Immovable Automation (2CP): If a Rubric Marine or Rubric Marine Gunner is taken out of action, roll a D6. On a 4+ the unit suffers a flesh wound instead.
• [Core] Cycle of Slaughter (2CP): Use at the end of the Fight phase. Select a TZAANGOR from your kill team- that model can immediately fight a second time.
• [Core] Malicious Familiar (1CP): Use at the end of the Movement phase. Pick an enemy model with 1" of your Leader and roll a D6. On a 4+ that enemy model suffers 1 mortal wound. Identical in operation to the Heretic Astartes and Death Guard stratagem, except this one, only cost 1CP rather than 2.
• [Core] Hungering Warpflame (1CP): Use this when a model in your kill team with a warpflamer or warpflame pistol is about to shoot in the Shooting Phase. Until the end of the phase, you can roll two dice when determining the number of attacks made by that weapon and pick the highest. This is insane on a demolitions specialist. Elites version updates this to include Terminators.
• [Cor/Elitese] Immovable Automation (2CP): If a Rubric Marine or Rubric Marine Gunner is taken out of action, roll a D6. On a 4+ the unit suffers a flesh wound instead.
• [Core/Elites] Veterans of The Long War (2CP): Use this when a RUBRIC MARINE model from your kill team is chosen to attack in the Shooting or Fight phase. You can add 1 to wound rolls for the models attacks against IMPERIUM models until the end of the phase. Elites version updates this to include Terminators.
• [Elites] Teleport Strike (Reserve) (1CP): Use at the end of the movement phase, bring in up to 3 TERMINATOR models from reserves anywhere more than 5" from an enemy.

TS Commander Tactics

This is where we'd put Commander Tactics of TSons... if they had any.

TS Strategies

TS Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

TS Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• 7 models, 100 points
  • Aspiring Sorcerer with warpflame pistol (Leader), 18 pts
  • Rubric Marine with Icon of Flame, 17 pts
  • Rubric Marine with warpflamer (Demolitions), 20 pts
  • Rubric Marine Gunner with soulreaper cannon (Heavy), 20 pts
  • Tzaangor with Brayhorn (Comm), 10 pts
  • Tzaangor, 7 pts
  • Twistbray, 8 pts
• 6 models, 100 points
  • Aspiring Sorcerer with warpflame pistol (Leader), 18 pts
  • 2 Rubric Marines, 32 pts
  • Rubric Marine with warpflamer (Demolitions), 20 pts
  • Rubric Marine Gunner with soulreaper cannon (Heavy), 20 pts
  • Tzaangor with Brayhorn (Comm), 10 pts

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Gellerpox Infected (Rogue Trader)

Why play Gellerpox Infected

• Pros
  • All the Nurgly toughness you've come to expect - high Toughness values and wound counts, and Disgustingly Resilient.
  • Options to focus either on a small group of extremely tough mutants or a horde of weaker beasts.
  • Vulgrar Thrice-Cursed is a Commander, which means he can gain the benefits of various Traits and can set his own level!
  • Access to several very powerful Stratagems.
• Cons
  • Virtually no Shooting game beyond Vulgrar's belly flamer and the Sludge-Grubs' spit.
  • Stratagems are REALLY expensive.
  • Apart from the Mutoid Vermin, your units are slow as hell. We're talking 5" of movement at most here.
  • Running high model teams above 14 will make it impossible not to have the faction fall apart to morale.
  • One of the "fun" factions, mostly for fluffy and friendly games. Being particularly limited in your choice of units, options, and abilities generally means you're outclassed as soon as any of the main factions get serious and start optimizing, particularly once commanders and elites get involved.
    • GI did take 4th at LVO. They're lackluster outside of their native Arena, but inside that format with tough bodies to hold points and cheap models to hold objectives they are still viable. Be prepared to never get more support from GW again though.

GI Special Rules

• Disgustingly Resilient: Just the same as it is with Death Guard.
• Vermin: Add one to injury rolls. Makes your weak trash even trashier.
• Mindless: Cannot gain experience, be a part of a fire team, or be a specialist. Hammers in the point that the Mutoid Vermin are expendable meatshields.

GI Ranged Weapon

• Acid Spit: Sludge-Grub's ranged attack. Technically a pistol, but weirdly uses the User's strength, but given its only used on 1 model its effectively always a Laspistol with AP-1 and -4" of range.
• Belly Flamer: Vulgar's ranged attack. Flamer statline.
• Frag Grenades: Same frag grenades AM get. They're terrible but a terrible attack is better than no attack.

GI Melee Weapons

• Bloodsucking Proboscis: S2, AP0 and D1. The only thing that "saves" this (i.e. brings it into neck and neck competition with a lasgun) is the fact it scores 2 hits when you roll a natural 6 on the hit roll. But then, this weapon isn't really why you're using Cursemites anyway, is it?
• Diseased Claws and Fangs: Gets the Nurgle-y reroll for 1s on the Wound Roll, but otherwise its the default close combat weapon everyone gets.
• Fanged Maw and Stinger: See above except its AP-1.
• Fleshripper Claws: The nasty claws of Vulgar himself. S+1, AP-2 and D2 on his chassis make for a seriously deadly melee combatant.
• Hideous Mutations: S5, AP-1 and D2 makes your Nightmare Hulks some the heaviest hitters (no pun intended) you can field.
• Mutated limbs and Improvised Weapons: Confusingly named but just AP-1 again. As the arms of your flailing zombie horde they benefit from the whopping S4 of your Mutants, unfortunatley making these your best weapon after the Hulks/Gnashers.
• Plague Cleaver: The addition of rerolling 1's on the Wound roll makes this a straight upgrade to the Hideous Mutations for your Gnasher-Screamers, despite them having both. If this is an option, always use it.
• Spawning Barb: Default melee except you have get to autopass the wound roll on a hit roll 6. Not bad compared to the other little guys but thats not saying much.

GI Units

• Nightmare Hulks (Leader (Gnasher-Screamer only), Combat, Veteran, Zealot): Large, slow dudes with paper armor and butchers. Gnasher-Screamer is almost as tough as Vulgrar so he makes a good choice for a Leader.
• Gellerpox Mutants (Leader, Combat, Demolitions, Veteran, Scout, Zealot): Your basic fighters, with Disgustingly resilient and a 5+ invuln that deals a mortal wound to the attacker on a 6. They also have grenades so they have something to do in the shooting phase.
• Eyestinger Swarms: The fastest of the little bugs with 10" of movement, and while its attack stat of d3 is unreliable it auto-wounds on a hit roll of 6. Good thing too, since S2 doesn't do it any favors with its wound rolls. Don't be deceived by its 7+ save, +1 to injury rolls taken, and poor toughness: its complete immunity to flesh wounds and -1 hit penalty against all attacks targeting them makes the Eyestinger Swarm surprisingly tough to kill.
• Cursemites: The cheapest model in the faction. It can reroll failed charges and pile in 6" and has 2 attacks that scores 2 hits on a 6.
• Sludge-Grubs: Slow moving, but the only ranged normal model equipped with something other than grenades and has AP-1 on its attacks. Can roll a D6 when its taken out of action to deal a mortal wound to its attacker but it needs a 6.
• Glitchlings (Combat, Scout, Zealot): Currently the only Daemon in Kill-Team, with Disgustingly resilient (albeit reduced in effectiveness because of Squishable, like Nurglings in vanilla 40k), and a 5+ invuln. Also causes a -1 penalty to hit them when targeted by ranged attacks.

GI Commander

• Vulgrar Thrice-Cursed (Combat, Demolitions, Strength, Veteran, Zealot): Armed with a flamer and the equivalent of a damage 2 power axe, Vulgrar is a melee monster even when compared to the other melee monsters among the Gellarpox Infected. His armor save is rather low, but since it's the same as his invulnerable save you won't care about it. And with 5 wounds and Disgustingly Resilient, he won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Just one level in the Strength specialism will pump his melee attacks up to an impressive S7, and with Devastating Power his attacks can one-hit kill even Aberrants and Warriors. If you can afford the points, give him Generalist as well so he can get the level 1 ability for Zealot or Combat to further increase his beatstick potential. Vulgrar also imposes a -1 Ld penalty to all enemy models within 6" of him, which isn't spectacular but still has its uses.
  • With the Commanders Commentary restricting commanders to Level 1, Strength becomes basically pointless. Few, if any, enemies are T6 and going from S6 attacks to S7 doesn't help any other wound rolls. By extension, taking Zealot when Combat is available is also pointless as only the extra attack matters and Combat gives it to you all the time rather than only on the charge.

GI Tactics

• [Rogue] Gellershift (2 CP): A Deep Strike Stratagem in Kill Team? You'd better believe it! Works just like similar Stratagems in 40K, only you cannot place the Deep Striking model within 4" of an enemy model. Yes, 4". This means in addition to moving a model to contest a last minute objective, you could also use it to set up a Charge the next turn. The only real downside asides it's cost is that it only works on Gellerpox Mutants, so this rules out the big guys.
• [Rogue] Verminoid Infestation (3 CP):This one allows you to place a Mutoid Vermin model within 6" of a member of your Kill Team but it must be placed 6" from any enemy models. The summoned Model is ignored for determining if your Kill Team is broken and it is removed at the end of the game, before determining who won the mission. Really, the important thing is that you get to call in reinforcements at any time and don't get penalized if they die.
• [Rogue] Twisted Blessings (2 CP): At the end of the movement phase, choose a Nightmare Hulk with at least 1 flesh wound and roll a d6. On a 4+, it loses a flesh wound. You know, because they weren't tough enough already.
• [Rogue] Rancid Vomit (2 CP): At the start of the shooting phase, pick an enemy model within 6” of a friendly Nightmare Hulk. Roll 3 dice - for every 5+, deal a mortal wound to that enemy unit.
• [Rogue] Corruption and Decay (2 CP): At the start of the fight phase, pick an enemy model within 1” of a friendly Gellerpox model and reduce that enemy’s toughness by 1 for that phase.
• [Rogue] Machine Glitch (1 CP): When an enemy tries to open or close a door and you have a glitchling within 1” of that door to contest the door opening or closing, add 3 to your die in the roll-off to prevent the door from opening or closing.

GI Commander Tactics

• [Rogue] Insane Gibbering (1 CP): Use at the start of the psychic phase. Vulgrar imposes a -1 penalty to psychic tests for psykers within 18" of him.
• [Rogue] Lord of Resentment (1 CP): At the start of the movement phase, Vulgrar gains an aura that allows all Gellarpox Infected within 6" of him to re-roll hit rolls of 1. This effect ends at the start of the next battle round.

GI Commander Traits

• Twisted Brilliance (10 pts): If Vulgrar is in the Kill-Team, gain 1 extra CP that can only be used for Gellarpox Infected Tactics.
• Master of Vermin (15 pts): As long as Vulgrar is not shaken, all Mutoid Vermin within 6" of him re-roll failed hits.

GI Strategies

GI Strategies:

The Gellerpox Infected are one of the special factions in Kill Team, alongside the Elucidian Starstriders, the Servants of the Abyss and the Kroot. Twisted and deformed due to a warp disease that got into a spaceship after a Geller Field failure, the Gellerpox Infected are designed to work in small and compact maps, like those provided by Arena games. They generally work as Nurgle units with a general Disgustingly Resilient rule, which makes them quite tough on their own, but they also have a decent amount of gimmicks to play with. And let's emphasize the word "gimmick" here. The Gellerpox Infected have a lot of small units that could do a lot of damage by their side-effects, but when it comes to regular, reliable combat, they have way less options. As such, knowing what they can do is vital to their gameplay, otherwise no amount of Nurgle resilience is going to save you.

First, let's make one thing very clear. This team is very CP expensive. A team that loses his Leader is a team crippled beyond saving. Most of the actually worthwile tactics will cost you 2CP at best, and some even more than that. And sadly, if you're playing Commanders/Elites, your commander won't be able to choose the "strategist" specialism, so no extra CP for you. Use your CP wisely, or you won't be able to push your way through many of the other teams.

Also important. The Gellerpox Infected are pretty much MELEE ONLY. They have TWO units capable of shooting, one grunt and the commander. And none of them have a reach beyond 8". This, combined to their slow movement, means they are going to eat fire like noone. Better pray to Grandaddy Nurgle that your disgustingly resilience carries you until melee, otherwise the battle will be over before it begins.

Now, let's look at the units. First, the Gellerpox Mutant. An improved version of a Poxwalker, these are your basic grunts. Well, or they would be if they didn't have a unit limitation of 3. They are surprisingly decent for mindless zombies. 5++, Disgustingly Resilient, the ability of reflecting damage (in the form of a mortal wound) on a save throw of 6+, grenades to do something during the shooting phase, S4 T4, A2... Death Guard wishes it could have this fuckers. To be fair, they are 8p per unit in comparison to the 3p per unit of the poxwalkers, but still, a save roll of 6+ pretty much pays for itself, considering how difficult can it be for the poxwalkers to prove their worth on the field. The Mutated Limbs are also an S(user) and AP-1, so it can be decent in case of melee against GEQs. With all of this said, they are not that tough, 5++ could be improved, and offensively, grenades and their melee limbs are quite poor. Also, they are slow, so don't try to run races with them. They are made to hold objectives and to soak up damage meant for others. Also, the Gellershift allows it to deep strike at 4" of an enemy unit, perfect for contesting objective points and to be a decent distraction before the big units come in. You can't charge the turn you use it, though.

The Glitching is also a small unit, cheaper than the Gellerpox Mutant and with a maximum of 4 units. With a pathetic S2 T2, even Fire Warriors are going to beat them in melee. And even their disgustingly resilient is not that effective: the Squishable ability means that the Disgustingly Resilient rule only applies against attacks of D1. Add more than that, and the attack goes through. This means bad news for the glitching, although considering how bad this thing is at melee, it's a bit pointless to have it around (re-rolling hit rolls of one is not that good when nothing is going to wound anyway). It also substracts one on the hit rolls targeting it during the shooting phase, so it's something?

The Nightmare Hulks are the heavy hitters of the team. Slow behemots with W4, they are the units focused on actually dealing damage directly, rather than through unorthodox ways. It's also REALLY EXPENSIVE. 31p means almost 1/3 of a 100p list, so you better take care of it. They are also limited to a maximum of 2, plus a Gnasher Screamer. The Gnasher Screamer is identical to the Nightmare Hulk, but with a weapon of S(user) AP-2 D2 that re-rolls wound rolls of 1. Also, they have some crazy tactics. Rancid Vomit makes them attack a unit at 6" or less of the model: throw 3D6, and for each 5+, you make a mortal wound. Great to compensate for the lack of shooting your units have, plus it can be used while your hulk is in melee, so you could deal with two units at once. Twisted Blessings means that it could heal one flesh wound at a time on a roll of 4+ on a D6, making them tougher and eliminating penalties for wounds. General S5 T5 A4 and with weapons of S(user) AP-2 D2, you want this guy to go with the Zealot specialism. Charging will compensate for its slow speed, and an extra attack and strength is going to be wonderful against pretty much everything. With that said, they are going to be targeted quite a lot, so avoid throwing them wildly at the enemy, plus they could break with morale, due to how weak the rest of the team is.

The cursemite is one of those units that can't be any specialism or gain experience. With a terrible S2 T2, its only strategy is to swarm with numbers and speed and hope for a hit roll of 6+ (which counts as two hits). To be fair, it can re-roll its charges and consolidate 6", so it's great for blocking units in melee while the hulks actually hurt the targets. Just don't expect them to hurt something. Ever. Also, no disgustingly resilient, so the damage it gets, it will hurt. Also, 4 models at most.

The Eyestinger Swarm is... interesting. On one hand, it's a much better version of the cursemite. On the other hand, it's not as useful as a unit blocker as the cursemite. 10" AD3 is decent as fast moving troops, Buzzing Swarm means it automatically passes falling tests (granting it insane movement) and offering -1 penalties to the hit rolls targeting it, and it can't have flesh wounds (at the cost of adding 1 to Injury rolls made for it). While it has S2, its weapon makes it pointless, considering each hit roll of 6+ results in a wound that does not need a wound roll. This means that if it hits a marine with a 6+, a 5p unit can kill the marine on the spot. This is a fantastic ability, and almost borderline broken. No wonder you can only have 4 of them. Sadly, the inability to consolidate 6" like the cursemite means it can't just go from unit to unit throwing mortal wounds. Sad, but hey, balance and all.

The Sludge Bomb is bad. The only regular unit with a ranged attack (a Pistol 1 with 8", how dangerous), the Caustic Blood ability means that, once it's killed, you roll a D6, and if you get 6+, the killer gets a mortal wound. Also, it adds 1 to the injury rolls to the model. Meh. Pretty much there to die, and even then it doesn't do a good job of it.

Finally, the Commander, Vulgrar Thrice-cursed. It's allright, but there are many better. It has a flamer equivalent (Assault D6 S4 AP0) with a 6++ save (the regular mutants have better invuilnerable, lol), disgustingly resilience and a leadership penalty to closer enemies. Also, its melee weapon does A4 of D6 (5+1) AP-1 D2, which is pretty good. Also, the Lord of Resentment tactic makes every GI unit around it re-roll 1, though this starts its effect the turn after using it. And for 10p, Twisted Brilliance gains you the ability of an extra CP that you can only use on GI tactics, a godsend for a team so relying on tactics.

Overall, this team is rather unorthodox, but you can pretty much figure out how to play it once you read all the units. The hulks and the flies are the key. Make a mutant leader to free points and specialism. Get two hulks for stopping power. Get as many cursemites and eyestinger swarms as possible. Then, you move the insects as fast as possible against the enemy units in melee. Once they're there, they can just stop the enemy from shooting until the hulks arrive and wreck them one by one. Hell, considering the eyestinger's abilities, they probably could kill a marine or two alone. Also, keep in mind that you'll have to do this FAST. Your insects have no disgustingly resilient, so if they die before arriving, the morale penalties are going to start to accumulate.

Counterplay:

The Gellerpox barely have any shooting. This means that anything that could stop them from arriving to their objectives is good. Shoot them back to death. Don't worry about low AP, their saves are either pathetic or invulnerable, so it's not going to matter much. Flamers will be great here, though you have to account for charges way beyond the flamer's range. Don't forget to target the hulks as well, though if you manage to break the team's morale before they start arriving, it's all over. Also, beware of the flies. Don't get cocky because they only have S2 T2, they are not there to kill you, they are there to stall you. Also, if you can kill the leader, the better, considering the GI's need for CP. Multiple attacks against the flies, something will enter, kill them before they arrive, cause general panick. Against the hulks, the same, but tenfold, considering they have W4 and can heal flesh wounds. Once they are wounded, you could charge them to try and get as many wounds as possible. Killing a hulk is killing 1/3 of the team, the question is doing it without the fucking flies getting in the way.

With that said, a couple of examples.

• SM and Co. have access to a plethora of weapons, but here going for generics may be the best. Storm Bolters, Bolt Rifles, Missile Launcher, Frag Cannon... All of them do enough attacks to deal with the insect swarm. Things like auspex and sniper specialism may help to counter the accuracy penalties here. And in melee, take your pick. Again, go for number of attacks instead of AP.
• Imperial Guard can have a decent amount of units to deal with the flies. A full tempestus team with a couple of plasmas to deal with the hulks should be enough. Keep the flies away, and if you can't, fall back and burn them with emergency flamers.
• AdMech have the Radium Carbines for this, and their toughness of 4+/6++ can pretty much tank most of the attacks done here. The infiltrator's flechette can also be great against flies, plus its W2 can help it survive the odd mortal wound. Against the hulks, plasma, ruststalkers, or infiltrators with taser goad. Beware of the arquebus here, this is one team where you don't want it. Otherwise, the enemy will teleport a mutant right behind it and kill it in melee or through grenades. Movement is key, and the arquebus has none.
• The Rogue Traders are going to have a bad time, which is weird considering they are the de facto counterpart to the GI. The Assassin should deal with the hulks, and never, EVER, be stuck with the flies. Take the initiative, go on the offensive. Use the triumvirate to generate as big of a firewall as possible. Deal with the small ones first to break morale, but let the heavy shoot the hulks.
• Grey Knights are going to need all of their anti-daemonic experience to deal with them. Seriously, once they are stuck in melee, the eyestingers and the hulks can deal with them easily enough, so you better make use of your psyquic abilities as soon and as frequently as possible. Otherwise you'll be overrun.
• Death Guard are tougher than the GI, and with better choices. A Plague Marine with plasma should be enough to deal with the hulks, while regular plage marines deal with the flies.
• CSM will use massive amounts of cultists to deal with the flies. There can be way more cultists than flies, after all. After that, the hulks should be dealt with with plasma and or heavy weaponry from marines/cultists.
• SotA need to charge first. They can deal a ton of damage here, considering the negavolts have their own access to mortal weapons and melee spam. However, once their number starts to go down, they will lose if the hulks are still in the game.
• Necrons can deal with them by just spamming necron warriors. No need to overcomplicate things. Maybe a Flayed One for emergency melee, but that's kind of it.
• Harlequins should go for the kill as soon as possible. Go to get the hulks early, get two clowns on each, and see them crumble and fall. Ironically it's the regular mutants and the eyeswarms what should worry you, their frequent access to mortal wounds will make your invulnerable save pointless. And they will always outnumber you.
• Tau need to shoot them all as soon as possible. Have a big unit to deal with the hulks, maybe a stealth suit so the hulk's melee gets less accurate. The rest need to bring the flies down before they arrive to melee. To be fair, the fire warriors actually have a decent chance in melee here (they are killing flies, after all, how hard is it to swat them?), but the mortal wounds are no joke.
• Kroot have a decent shot of winning against GI. The kroot hounds and krootox should go to deal with the leader first, then the hulks. The rest of the carnivores will throw volley after volley against the flies, while not being that bad in melee themselves.

GI Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

"Insect Swarm", 9 units, 100p

• • Leader: Gellerpox Mutant
  • Demolitions: Gellerpox Mutant
  • Combat: Nightmare Hulk
  • Zealot: Gnasher Screamer
  • Regulars: 3x Cursemites, 2x Eyestinger Swarms

Take the flies and get into melee as soon as possible. Send cursemites against GEQs and eyeswarms against MEQs (careful to avoid to fight something with more than W2 for longer than necessary). Once in melee, the hulks should come and squash them one by one. The enemy will get a mortal wound or two, and you will lose some of your flies, but he should get the worse end of the deal. Remember to always run with the hulks, otherwise they'll never reach their destination. Also, the demo mutant is there in case of the enemy leader/key unit being hidden in the back. Teleport there, get him unaware, and take him down so its team loses whatever effect it had there. Also, remember to use your tactics, they could be essential to break tougher teams.

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

"Insect Swarm 2, now with more hulks", 12 units, 199p

• • Commander: Vulgrar Thrice-cursed (Zealot)
  • Leader: Gellerpox Mutant
  • Demolitions: Gellerpox Mutant
  • Combat: Gnasher Screamer
  • Veteran: Nightmare Hulk
  • Regulars: 3x Cursemites, 3x Eyestinger Swarms, 1 Nightmare Hulk

The same as before, but with more hulks.

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Chaos Daemons (White Dwarf July 2019)

Why Play Chaos Daemons

• Pros
  • Daemons
  • Spam a lot of cheap units
  • Pink horrors may be one of the best objective catchers in the game
  • Cheap Psykers
  • All units may prove useful depending on opponent and mission
• Cons
  • Undersupported
  • Units will die under fire
  • Pathetic shooting phase
  • No multiwound heavy bosses

CD Faction Attributes

Despite coming out after Elites and a God-specific subfaction for each of the 4 being a perfect fit, you get nothing. Remember what we said about undersupported?

CD Ranged Weapons

• Coruscating Flames: Your only ranged weapon, and exclusive to the Horrors. But don't get too excited given its an 18" flashlight that trades Rapid Fire 1 for Assault 2.

CD Melee

• Hellblade: For your Bloodletters. Your best/most reliable source of AP and only source of Multidamage - doing D2 on a 6+ wound roll, and an additional point of damage with the tactic.
• Piercing Claws: For your Daemonettes. AP-4 on a wound roll of 6. Not exactly reliable, you're definitely not taking Daemonettes for access to this weapon.
• Plaguesword: For your Plaguebeares. The only thing separating it from his fists is rerolling hit rolls of 1.

Icons

Taken by an Icon Bearer of the Dark God's daemon type - Khorne by Bloodletters, Nurgle by Plaguebearers etc.

• Icon of Nurgle: Same as the CSM Icon of Despair. -1 to the Ld of enemies withing 6" of the Icon.
• Icon of Tzeench: Same as the CSM Icon of Flame. At start of your turn in the psychic phase, roll 1d6 for each model equipped with an Icon of Flame. on a 6, you cause a mortal wound to the nearest enemy within 12" of the icon bearer.
• Icon of Khorne: Basically the same as the Icon of Wrath. Any BLOODLETTER models within 6" of the icon bearer can re-roll charge rolls
• Icon of Slanesh: The only one that's not a copy of a CSM icon. If a DAEMONETTE within 6" of the icon rolls a 6+ on a wound roll, they also inflict a mortal wound in addition to normal damage.

Instruments

Taken by an Hornblower of the Dark God's daemon type - Khorne by Bloodletters, Nurgle by Plaguebearers etc. They all grant the same effect. +1 to charge and advance rolls for their model type within 6".

CD Units

• Bloodletter (Combat, Veteran): Your anti MEQ melee infantry. +1 attack on charge means basically any Bloodletter is a Zealot. Wounding on 6 means dealing multidamage. Combo it with the Cleaving Blow tactic and watch your opponent rage as you take down his expensive Intercessor in one fight phase with a 7pts model.
  • Bloodletter Icon Bearer (Combat, Comms, Veteran): Fights just like a normal Bloodletter plus it makes sure your melee blob reaches that fight as soon as possible instead of dying under enemy fire.
  • Bloodletter Hornblower (Combat, Comms, Veteran): Add +1 to charge and advance and start spilling blood for the blood God ASAP.
  • Bloodreaper (Leader, Comms, Veteran): For an additional 1 pt you get 1 attack more. You do want that.
• Daemonette (Scout, Combat, Veteran): Your anti horde melee infantry. 2 attacks each with Quicksilver meaning it attacks in the Hammer of Wrath phase, regardless if it charged or not. On a wound roll of 6 your AP is -4 so deny that pesky scion any save whatsoever. You are fast with M7 so you should be in melee most times already from round 2.
  • Daemonette Icon Bearer (Scout, Combat, Comms, Veteran): Give your melee blob a fighting chance with an additional mortal wound handed out to on a wound roll of 6.
  • Daemonette Hornblower (Scout, Combat, Comms, Veteran): Just like all hornblowers, this one makes sure you reach your opponent as soon as possible.
  • Alluress (Leader, Scout, Combat, Veteran):1 more attack for 1 point.
• Horrors:
  • Pink Horror (Demolitions, Veteran): Oh, so this is the reason why everybody is loosing their minds. It shoots (poorly but does), it is psyker, it has 4+ invuln AND when it loses that 1 wound it does not take a flesh wound but disappears right away leaving behind two Blue Horrors on the spot. Watch your opponent try to kill it, get mortal wounds from psybolt in return, run to contest the objective and kill the Pink one just to lose control of objective due to two Blue Horrors appearing there instead and chuckle merrily in Tzeentch.
  • Pink Horrors Icon Bearer (Comms, Demolitions, Veteran): Hands out mortal wounds to the nearest enemy in 12" range on a 6. Experience the sweet feeling of payback when that Deathwatch model with a storm shield and 4+ invuln dies. Expensive though, so take depending on opponent.
  • Pink Horrors Hornblower (Comms, Demolitions, Veteran): +1 to charge and advance. Since you do not want to charge with horrors anyway and use them to secure objectives in the back it is pretty useless, really.
  • Iridescent Horror (Leader, Demolitions, Veteran): Your potential leader to sit in the back, shoot and psybolt.
  • Blue Horror (Demolitions, Veteran): Loses shooting, 1S, 1 invuln (is now 5++) and any specialty your Pink Horror might have had. Silver lining: still counts for controlling objectives and retains Psyker.
  • Pair of Brimstone Horrors (Demolitions, Veteran): No shooting, just 1S, save 6++. Your last ditch of hope for that objective. Still a psyker though.
• Plaguebearer (Combat, Veteran): Only T4 model in the faction. Rerollable 5++ save (5+ invuln combined with 5+ Disgusting Resilience). Potential tarpit.
  • Plaguebearer Icon Bearer (Comms, Combat, Veteran): Add +1 to enemy Nerve rolls.
  • Plaguebearer Hornblower (Comms, Combat, Veteran): Once again, get your slow walkers into the fight faster.
  • Plagueridden (Leader, Combat, Veteran): +1 attack for 1 pt and a good material for a resilient leader sitting in the back and farming CP's.

CD Commanders

Another fuck you after waiting so long. No commanders for you. Not even thematically correct ones from other factions.

CD Tactics

• [WD2019July] Reality Blinks (3 CP): Roll a 4+ on a d6 and your non-Horror Daemon isn't taken out of action and is instead restored to 1W.
• [WD2019July] Warp-Spawned Terror (2 CP): +1 to enemy nerve tests within 3" of your models.
  • Pricey and niche but at least you only use it in the morale phase, so its unlikely to be wasted.
• [WD2019July] Pestilential Aura (1 CP): Used at the start of the round and lasts all round. If the PLAGUEBEARER model (any variant) you choose is already obscured, enemies take an additional -1 penalty to hit.
• [WD2019July] Cleaving Blow (1 CP): When you pick a Bloodletter (any variant) to fight, add +1D to his Hellblade until the end of the phase.
• [WD2019July] Mutating Fire (1 CP): When you pick a Horror (any variant) to shoot, its AP is not -3 until the end of the phase.
• [WD2019July] Deadly Dance (1 CP): When you pick a Daemonette (any variant) to charge, roll 3D6 for the charge roll and pick the 2 you want to use.

CD Strategies:

Strats for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strats for playing against this faction go here.

CD Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• The Virgin Mono-god Team:

Rather than type out the same list 4 times, its 1 of the respective leader unit, iconbearer and hornblower and then filling out the rest with however many normal models you can take. Only exception is maybe ditching the Horror Hornblower because it doesn't do much for them. Don't take this. Its fluffy but its making a bad thing worse.

• The Chad Undivided Team: 11 models 100pts:
  • 1 Iridescent Horror 13pts (leader)
  • 1 Horror Icon Bearer with Icon of Tzeentch 16pts (comms)
  • 1 Bloodletter Icon Bearer with Icon of Khorne 11pts
  • 1 Bloodletter Hornblower with Instrument of Khorne 10pts
  • 1 Bloodreaper 8pts
  • 1 Bloodletter 7pts (Combat)
  • 1 Bloodletter 7pts (Veteran)
  • 4 Bloodletters 4*7=28pts

The 2 Horrors provide some shooting for an otherwise melee-only faction. Having 2 doubles up on psykers when you can only use one at a time, but it also allows you to keep your CP gen out of the grinder while also having the Icon's psychic damage and a target to use the Comms buff on. Your Bloodletters provide the bodies. With the +1 to charges and rerolls from the Instrument and Icon, they should get good use out of their Unstoppable Ferocity rule. The Bloodreaper gets you an extra attack for a single point and putting the Combat spec on the other means theres no one target for the enemy to focus on. You have room on your roster to swap all the Bloodletters for Daemonettes one for one, for when you want mobility, such as when facing melee-weak glass cannons like Guard and Tau. In that case, a Scout might be worth taking as well just to lock down those gunners even faster.

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Servants of the Abyss (Blackstone Fortress)

Why Play Servants of the Abyss

• Pros
  • Beastmen, Dark Mechanicus, and Rogue Psykers
  • You might gain a perverse sense of glee in drowning your enemies with MELEE attacks
  • Unlike vanilla CSM, your marines can actually buff your mook horde and use them as literal meat shields.
  • Servants of the Abyss are an excellent way to represent the Tyrant's Legion or Lost and Damned for some old school Badab War and Siege of Vraks Kill Team goodness.
  • Servants of the Abyss are one of only two factions, the other being Grey Knights, that can bring an entire team of psykers if you so choose.
  • Negavolts are surprisingly tough by combining invuilnerables and fanatical devotion.
  • Actually got support after release unlike literally every other non-Core faction. Might even get more as new BSF expansions are written and/or converted. Even ESS and GI which came in an honest-to-Emperor Official Manual, and the earliest of all expansions, can't claim the same.
• Cons
  • No Chaos marks or icons.
  • Obsidius is your only reliable heavy-hitter. the only other option you have is krak grenades to crack harder targets.
  • These guys cannot supplement an existing Chaos Marines force. Not even your beastmen and guardsmen have the CSM keywords to be of use.
  • With even fewer special and heavy weapon options than vanilla CSM, Servants of the Abyss are sorely lacking in ranged firepower. CQB is where they need to be, what shooting they have is mostly just to keep the enemy's heads down while they get there.
  • Servants of the Abyss probably would've been far better served as an expansion to CSM rather than standing alone as their own faction. Warp knows, the CSM really could've used what the Servants bring to the table.
  • One of the "fun" factions, mostly for fluffy and friendly games. Being particularly limited in your choice of units, options, and abilities generally means you're outclassed as soon as any of the main factions get serious and start optimizing, particularly once commanders and elites get involved.

SotA Special Rules

• Servants of the Abyss: If any model with this rule are within 6" of a HERETIC ASTARTES model, they can re-roll nerve tests.

SotA Ranged Weapons

• Plasma Pistol: Exclusive to the Chaos Lord Obsidius Mallex, this is a really good weapon, considering the BS2+ of its owner and its pistol status (so it could be used in melee). Unless it explodes in your hands, this will make a dent on everything. The only limiting factor is range, but considering you want Mallex in CQC always, that's not much of an issue.
• Bolt Pistol: The pistol version of the boltgun. Not much else to say.
• Boltgun: A Traitor Astartes Bolter, one of the best ranged weapons of the team, which says a lot about how poorly they perform at shooting distances.
• Lasgun: Traitor guardsmen love their lasgun as much as their loyalist counterparts.
• Laspistol: They're functionally identical to Autopistols. Grab one to make sure your boys can actually shoot something, but don't rely on it to amount to anything.
• Autopistol: They're functionally identical to laspistols. Grab one to make sure your boys can actually shoot something, but don't rely on it to amount to anything.
• Flamer: Your typical flamethrower, just like the one the Guard has. The tendency of SotA to go full CQC makes this a decent option, but you have to consider the traitor guardsmen are very squishy, so whether the point investment is worth it or not is up to you.
• Frag Grenade:
• Krak Grenade:
• Heavy Stubber: Might not be great but for 2pts, its a good upgrade over the Autogun for your cultist.
• Grenade Launcher: Might not be great but for 2pts, its a good upgrade over the Autogun for your cultist. Long Range Krak Grenades will be much appreciated
• Stubcarbine: A heavy stubber that trades 1/2 its range to swap Heavy 3 for Pistol 3. A solid addition for your Cult Champ for the low low price of Free.
• Hellfire Torch: Picture a heavy flamer. But now its Assault for all your Advancing needs and it does D2 to punch through those Injury rolls. Exclusive to the Cultist Firebrand.

SotA Melee Weapons

• Thunder Hammer: Exclusive to the Chaos Lord Obsidius Mallex, the best melee weapon in the SotA arsenal by far, especially considering the WS2+ of its owner. S x2, AP -3 and 3 Damage, it will wreck whatever gets a hit.
• Chainsword: Your run of the mill chainsword. It would be great on the beastmen, but as it is, is not that special.
• Brutal Assault Weapon: What could have just been left as a basic CCW was instead made into an equivalent to a chainsword. Thank Chaos for that.
• Electro-goads: The fucking stick of death, now chaosified. Each hit roll of 6 adds 3 extra attacks. Very useful against units with low toughness due to having no AP. For tougher units, you could rely on the voltageist field, but it needs to get a 6 after throwing a D6, and only after charging, so rather risky.
• Chaos Stave: The weapon of the rogue psyker, has -1 AP and D3 if it hits, but it's only S3 for a WS4+ unit. Very situational, considering you want the psykers far away from melee danger to maximize psybolt damage.

SotA Units

• Traitor Guardsmen (Leader [Sergeant Only], Heavy [Gunner Only], Demolitions, Scout, Sniper, Veteran): You have guardsmen. Now give them spikes. They lose out on most special weapons for their heresy, but now each of them can grab melee weapons and pistols. Be sure to have a marine or two tag along to keep them in line.
  • Traitor Guardsmen Gunner (2): This is your lone way of grabbing flamers or krak grenades.
  • Traitor Guardsman Sergeant (1): Has the usual extra attack and better Ld of a sergeant/leader/champion, but costs the same as a regular dude, so there really isn't any reason not to bring him along.
• Cultists of the Abyss (WD2019Sept) (Leader [Champion Only], Heavy [Gunner Only], Demolitions [Gunner Only], Combat, Veteran, Zealot): Squishier Guardsman with only a 6+ save, but they do offer something much needed by SotA, namely another source of AP offered by the fact that they come standard with Krak Grenades as well as their Autoguns and Frags.
  • Cultists of the Abyss Gunner (WD2019Sept) (2): One gets a grenade launcher, one gets a heavy stubber and they keep their grenades.
  • Cultists of the Abyss Champion (WD2019Sept) (1): Swapping his Autogun for the superior Stubcarbine and Chainsword, this is your Sergeant equivalent Cultist, complete with +1A and +1Ld. If you're not taking him as your Leader or for his Shooting, you're probably better off not taking him at all and taking Chaos Beastmen and their better statline for only 1pt more.
• Chaos Beastmen (Leader, Combat, Demolitions, Veteran, Zealot): They're 2 points more than a guardsman, and they get quite a bit: +1 S/T and WS 3+. On top of that, they add +1 S/A whenever they charge. They're still strapped with chainswords and pistols, so they're best used as a frontline.
• Negavolt Cultists (Leader, Combat, Veteran, Zealot): Your not-Electropriests are probably the most expensive chaff you can net. Their lone weapons hit on 3+ on S+2, but scoring a 6+ on the hit makes it 3 hits, which is neat. They have two means of real protection (as in nothing with a 6+) from a 5+ Feel No Pain and a 5+ invul from the Voltagheist field, which can also deal a mortal wound when charging.
• Rogue Psykers (Leader, Comms, Veteran, Zealot): Having access to a psyker as a basic unit may sound cool, but for what they have and what they do, Rogue Psykers are ridiculously overcosted, especially when compared to Grey Knights, which are two points cheaper. With W4 and a melee weapon at S3 AP-1 Dd3 they can at least stand up to carapace, and their one unique rule lets them re-roll 1's on a psychic test, but they have a guardsmen's toughness and save, and suffer perils on any doubles. Honestly, a Rogue Psyker's space on a team would probably be better filled with more guardsmen, cultists, beastmen, or space marines.
• Black Legionnaire (Leader, Combat, Sniper, Veteran, Zealot): Here are your big men. Unfortunately, they lack all the bells and whistles that marines from the core CSM list have, and are the only unit in the faction that doesn't have access to a melee weapon (ironic considering they can take Combat specialization), which limits their usefulness in combat. Instead, they're used as runtherds for your squishy humie (and abhumie) hordes so that they don't try legging it when shit goes bad. If you take more than just what you need to keep your team covered and controlled, you might as well just play vanilla CSM.

SotA Commander

• Obsidius Mallex (Fortitude): Your lone commander is pretty damn loaded for his lot. W5, a Sigil of Corruption for a 4+ invuln, a plasma pistol, and a thunder hammer makes him your premier assault unit. He's best suited for smashing opposing commanders and other heavy units.
• Cultist Firebrand (WD2019Sept) (Ferocity, Strength): A Scout Marine statline with W3 and A3 might not seem like much compared to Mallex but he is 55-65pts cheaper and his Hellfire Torch hits like a truck, especially against GEQ. His suicide-bomber like ability on death is probably not something you generally want to exploit, as Commanders tend to be important to Commander Missions and a 5+ to deal 1 mortal wound to everything in 3" is not a reliable source of damage. Keep it in mind when he's near your own models though, as friendly fire does exist. Also with no Melee weapon and only S4 neither Specialism really synergizes.

SotA Tactics

• [BSF] Blackstone Trinket (2CP): You can nullify the psychic powers of anyone casting within 6" when you roll a 4+ on a d6. Since only the Thousand Sons and Grey Knights would have more than a single psyker to worry about, this is best used when you don't bring the psykers or you've got a lot of psykers to worry about.
• [BSF] Expendable Minions (1CP): Use this tactic whenever a HERETIC ASTARTES model's about to get shot. Select any other non-marine model to instead take the blow, prolonging the lives of your big black boys at the expense of your goons.
• [BSF] Fully Charged (2CP): Pick two Negavolt Cultists within 1" of each other at the start of the shooting phase. They now get +1 to their invulns for the turn. Sadly, you can't go on and daisy-chain the Voltagheist fields together for a wall of 4++/5+++.
• [BSF] Veterans of the Long War (2CP): Use this tactic when you choose one of the HERETIC ASTARTES models from your kill-team to attack in the Shooting or Fight phase. You can add 1 to the wound rolls for that models attacks that target IMPERIUM models until the end of the phase. Would be really good if not for the fact that it comes at 2CP, plus you have other ways of getting +1 wound, mostly via the Demolition specialism.

SotA Strategies

SotA Strategies:

The Servants of the Abyss are one of the unorthodox teams in Kill Team, alongside the Gellerpox Infected, the Elucidian Starstriders and the Kroot. This means they will have access to way less units than the rest of the teams, considering they can drink from a massive pool of models and you have only exclusive boxed ones (and few kroot boxes). This will be especially bad in Commanders and Elite battles, where you will be outmanouvered to hell and back with little to no efford. That and they will have more stratagems and faction atributes, whereas you are still waiting for an update. So we're going to focus on vanilla first, and then a quick view of the commander.

First off, we have the Black Legionnaire, a fancier way to say Chaos Space Marine. It's the basic marine in everything, with the exact same stats the vanilla marines get, Death to the False Emperor, and that's it. The Black Legionnaire has an ummovable weapon loadout, boltgun, boltpistol and grenades. This immediately makes it the worst marines in the whole game, considering we don't have Legionnaire Gunners or access to dark relics. No invuilnerable saves, no extra wounds, no alternatives for weaponry... The bare bones is what you get. Their strenghts come from the bonuses they offer and gain from the grunts they have around them. All non-astartes units in this team gets the Servants of the Abyss ability, re-rolling morale if they are at 6" from a marine. You also have the Expendable Minions stratagem, making you use a meatshield at 1" of the marine to take a wound for him, perfect for that plasma that would cripple and/or kill the marine. With that said, SotA units are not gretchins, they are considerably more expensive. The best units to do this are the regular traitor guardsmen at 5p each, but with negavolt cultists and especially the psykers it won't be worth it. To be fair, this is pretty there to save the leader from an early death, and from avoiding massive panics and morale fails during the latter parts of the game.

Negavolt Cultist are traitor electropriests. Melee only, this is the best melee unit in your team, and pretty much the best in the whole list (Chaos Lord notwithstanding). A constant 5++ will cover a decent amount of damage, and acces to 3A with the electrogoads (S+2, each 6+ hit roll gets two extra attacks) could hurt even heavily armoured units due to sheer amount of attacks, especially with the zealot/combat especiality, and with the possibility of a mortal wound after charging with the Voltageist Field, you want this guys to charge as much as possible. With that said, you have to keep them alive before that. 5++ aside, they are not particularly tough, T3 W1 is not particularly impressive. Using the Fully Charged stratagem will improve their invuilnerable saves in one, so moving them in groups is a good idea. Spam attacks are dangerous for them, so try to choose wisely their objectives and movement patterns. Also, try to not throw them at units that can tank a lot of wounds, because they will pretty much be able to hit back hard (unless you get really lucky and manage to make 4-5 wounds in one attack.

Rogue Psykers are the more expensive units of the bunch. A strong unit overall, a SotA list should have one and no more, considering a single Rogue Psyker will take 20/100 points on a vanilla list. Once again, one single loadout, the chaos stave and a laspistol. The laspistol is an afterthought, so let's focus on the stave. Two base attacks of S3 AP-1 D3 damage, if it hits, it will be rather strong. Even considering how squishy it is, W4 means it could actually do an emergency charge if it needs to, and have a decent chance of killing something big. But where you want this guy is at a distance, throwing psybolts to units with high armour saves. Now, this psyker works differently than regular psykers. This suffers perils of the warp at doubles, so instead of risking head explosion at 2D6 rolls of 2 or 12, it has much bigger chances of hurting itself, around 6/21 times (2/7 times). You can always re-roll ones, so at least you'll have a decent chance of always reaching the 5+ needed for the psybolt. A specialist rogue psyker should be veteran, so it never gets affected by either wounds or leadership tests (because really, what else? Zealot is too risky for it, considering the enemy will shoot at it frequently, and there are no really poweful shooting weapons at all that needs the Communications speciality). Keep Jimmy Neutron protected and in a cover position that allows it to see one or two big priority targers, but hidden from most spam units.

Now with the regular humans. Traitor guardsmen are pretty much what you expect from regular GEQ, minus loadout variety. Much better at melee and close range than long distances, they have little to no answer to weapons like the AdMech's Galvanic Rifle or something with more than 30" range. The best gun with +20" they have is the lasgun, and everyone knows that shooting them at the longest possible setting is inviting trouble. Seriously, at Rapid Fire 1, BS4+ of the guardsmen, and -1 penalties for distance and another posssible -1 for cover, and you pretty much fail every time. And considering it's a single S3 AP0 shot, there will be times when all the lasguns in the world do nothing. So put them to run, preferibly close to the Black Legionnaires in case of them needing a quick meatshield. The Traitor Sargent gets extra leadership and a chainsword, but what you really want in melee are the goats. Chaos Beastman are frightening against GEQ in melee due to their sheer amount of attacks. On charge, they make 3 attacks of S5, though no AP due to them having just a regular chainsword. Still, in terms of melee potential, this takes backstage to the negavolt guys, considering they have by default 3 Attacks, plus the other effects (5/4++, extra attacks with hit roll of 6+, 1/6 mortal wound after charging...). Only there if you can't fit anything else in your team. Lastly, the guardsmen gunners are there for the flamers. That's it. The other option is lasgun + grenades, and if you're close enough for the grenades, you are close enough to use the flamer. Regular flamer, D6 attacks, 4S AP0, you know what it does. Only there to support melee units in case they are charged first or they charge at the flamers as the tiniest distraction carnifex ever.

Finally, we reach the commander: Obsidius Mallex, the Chaos Lord. By far the tankiest, strongest unit in the whole army, this won't be able to be played outside of Elites/Commanders games, costing around 125p. This is a monster in both short range combat and CQC, with BS2+ and WS2+. The plasma pistol alone will do a lot of damage without overcharging (be ABSOLUTELY CAREFUL with the overcharge, you don't want a 125p unit to kill itself!!) but the real beauty is the thunder hammer. 4 attacks plus the extra ones from Death to the False Emperor of BS3+ (BS2-1) Sx2 AP-3 and 3D per hit, this fucker was made to kill other commanders, especially considering it can reroll failed hits when targetting a commander. Combine that with 3+/4++ and hardy constitutions (if it gets a wound, rolla D6, and ignores the wound when 6+), and ignoring the first flesh wound thanks to it being an astartes. Seriously, this guy could give CUSTODES a run for their money. In fact, let's do a quick comparison: Obsidius Mallex vs Shield Captain with Melee-focused Storm Shield and Guardian Spear!

• If Mallex attacks first:
  • Using the hammer, 4 attacks of BS3+, rerolling the failures. Only 2/6 chances of missing, and out of them, you repeat them, so pretty much you have 3 attacks guaranteed. Also, Death to the false emperor offers extra attacks at 6+, so chances of getting at least one 6+ are 4/6.
  • The attacks that enter are S8 (S4x2), so the attacks will enter at 3+ (2+ if you use the veterans of the long war stratagem). Wounding at 2+ to a Custodes is really freaking good.
  • After that, the Custodes will always ignore AP-3 due to its own invuilnerable of 3+ with the shield. So with a bit of luck, at least one attack enters.
  • With two that enter, automatic 3 wounds per hit is amazing, killing it instantly (if it doesn't get a lucky flesh wound roll).
    • A Shield Captain with Fortitude will save successful wounds with 6+, so that might make it extra chuncky. Still, Leaving the Captain with 1-2 wounds after a single attack is amazing.

• If the melee Custodes attacks first:
  • 6 attacks of WS2+ means that there is 5/6 chances of all dice getting in.
  • S5 vs T4 means that the attacks will wound at 3/6.
  • The AP-3 will be ignoured in favour of the 4++ of Mallex, giving each attack 1/2 chances of wounding. Considering all that, an attack will have a 10/36 chances of getting in, so a bit less than 1/3. So let's say 2/3 will surely get in.
  • After that, each wound will do a D3 damage. If you're lucky, you won't have to deal with more than 4 wounds.
  • After that, the toughness specialism means that it will ignore a wound on a 6+, giving it plenty of chances of actually surviving a fighting round with a Custodes.

For a random Chaos Lord, the match is pretty good, and if it is that good against Custodes, imagine how it will be against lesser units. This also means that any other army will focus on it. Badly. Which turns him into an excellent distraction carnifex, that could strike fear into the enemy by stomping one terminator or two on the way. While most of them are shooting at the monster with the hammer, the rest can just run and reach melee in a turn or two. However, considering how squishy the rest are, they might just try to kill everyone else to leave the commander alone and win by occupying more space in the map.

Overall, the list is not designed for competitive play. Outside of the monster that is the Chaos Lord, the units are simply too weak and inflexible to be reliable. They work better in tight and close spaces, which makes sense seeing that they are meant to be in a Blackstone Fortress. Still, as an alternative to the CSM team, I feel this should be better. I understand the list has to adapt to the Blackstone Fortress box, but now that most of those units are being released separately, GW should re-work this. Also, i haven't tried them on Arena, but they are probably slightly better there.

Counterplay:

Honestly, the best way to deal with them is to just spam from a distance. Most armies have enough long range weaponry to deal with them, and considering the overal low toughness of the team, it's not difficult to wipe them out. Dark Legionnaires are just basic marines, so everyone will have had developed a way to deal with them, either in melee or at a distance. Teams like AdMech, Imperial Guard, Space Marines, DeathWatch, Grey Knights, Necrons... Pretty much all of them have enough firepower to deal with the marines first and just shoot at the rest until they fall back. Units like the negavolts and the psyker are priority targets. If you see a line of cultists charging at you, shoot as many spam as possible to break it before it reaches you. That is dangerous if it ever reaches melee. Everything that has at least 3-5 attacks should at least wound them. After that, take into account that their melee is mostly high attacks with low AP, so sturdier units can take the damage and fight back. Also, against a smart Tau player, they pretty much won't ever EVER win. Unless it gets really lucky with the invul saves.

In Commanders/Elites, though, the strategy changes. Mortal wounds should focus on Malleux as soon as possible, so first send the snipers to deal with the psyker covering it, then full focus on malleux. maybe leave one or two heavies to distract the big guy, while everyone else deals with the rest of the mob. Don't fall for the carnifex in the room. Keep the commander away from melee against it, use to clean the rest of the team first and take it out through demoralizing everyone. Again, pretty much everyone can do this effectively now, but some teams will have harder times than others. Admech and IG will need to spam tons of plasma against it, whereas everyone else will have bigger and tougher units to keep Malleux distracted long enough. In an ironic twist, Tau can find themselves steamrolled by one of the weakest teams in the game if they forget to bring enough rail rifles. And if those fail...

SotA Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

"Electric Spam", 10 units, 100p

• • Leader: Negavolt Custist
  • Comms: Rogue Psyker
  • Combat: Negavolt Custist
  • Zealot: Negavolt Custist
  • Regulars: 2x Negavolt Custist, 2x Traitor Guardsmen and 2 Black Legionnaires

The idea is simple. Make a straight line with everyone: negavolts at the front, legionnaires, rogue pkyker and traitor guardsmen behind to use the leadership and meatshield bonuses). Use the stratagem to increase the invuilnerable save of the negavolts. Run towards the enemy team to reach melee as fast as possible, psyker keeping the other psykers and annoying to hit units at bay. Their invuilnerable save boosted with the stratagem will make a team of thunder heretics surprisingly tough. Once in melee, you can pilerush 2-3 negavolt cultists against heavier units with tougher saves to try and fry it trough electric attacks and mortal wounds, while the psyker keep other heavies at bay. Their invuilnerable save boosted with the stratagem will make a team of thunder heretics surprisingly tough.

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

"Electric Spam 2. Electric Boogaloo", 9 units, 200p

• • Commander: Obsidius Mallex
  • Leader: Negavolt Custist
  • Comms: Rogue Psyker
  • Combat: Negavolt Custist
  • Zealot: Negavolt Custist
  • Regulars: 2x Negavolt Custist and 2x Traitor Guardsmen

Once again, make a straight line with everyone: negavolts and Malleux at the front, cultist and traitor guardsmen behind Malleux to use the leadership and meatshield bonuses). Use the stratagem to increase the invuilnerable save of the negavolts. Run towards the enemy team to reach melee as fast as possible, psyker keeping the other psykers and annoying to hit units at bay. Once you reach melee, send Malleux against the Commander, and the negavolt cultists against the ones protecting it. If you can, once Malleux is in melee and you still have the guardsmen, use them to occupy space and take objectives. If not, just focus on wiping most of the enemy team in one swipe. Keep in mind that the stratagem that increases the invulnerables costs 2p, so you have to keep an eye on their consumption, use it when you are at a close striking force of the enemy.

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

SotA Modelling/Kitbashing

Don't they come in a box?

Yes, the Servants of the Abyss Kill Team is designed to be made with the units from the Blackstone Fortress Box Set, and with one of them you can pretty much have enough. However, sometimes it's not going to be enough. Maybe you want to play an Elite match and you don't have enough minis, maybe you want to focus on spamming a particular unit, maybe you don't have the box and don't want to go through online sellers to get the stuff. Either way, here are a few suggestions to get the team up and running.

Also, this is taking into account that most of the units listed here have not been released separately as of yet. Units like Malleux is now on sale separately as a generic chaos lord, big hammer and all, and the Black Legionnaires are out in the latest update of the Chaos Marines.

The easiest to kitbash are the traitor guardsmen. Using the basic cadian units, you could add more chaotic elements to them following the many examples of Lost and the Damned out there (spikes in the back, a cut head on their belt, skulls and bones attached to them, bandanas and masks, evil looking scars...). You could even take some of the basic chaos cultists and just use them. After all, their stats are the same and noone is going to bat an eye for seeing cultists with chaos marines instead of traitor guardsmen. The beastmen will be more complicated, but if you combine the body of a cultist and the head and legs of gors/ungors, it should work well enough. Hell, they could work well with basically the whole mini being from the AoS Gors/Ungors pack so long as you give them a chainsword and a stubber with a couple of sci-fi and chaotic bits here and there.

The Rogue Psyker is difficult. You could always pick a sorcerer and just make it count as one, but where's the fun in that? The original BSF mini has a very particular look, with the body chained to the ground due to his excessive psykic power making him float, all with a massive and shinny mutant head. Now, while the stave and the body shouldn't be that hard to get right (any cultist or ragged body should do the trick) the problem is in the head and the chains. You could forego the chains by adding something for the model to stand up on, like a pile of bones, a recently deceased enemy, a pile of evil-looking ruines... If you want the chains, you'll have to search for someone selling some rigid chains or add one of those transparent supports to get the unit to simulate the floating effect. The Jimmy Neutron head is the most complicated part of it all, as there is nothing really similar within GW range. You can always forego that and just greenstuff the head growths, taking a particularly evil looking head but and just adding a small cover of greenstuff to simulate the massive psyker head. And while things like horns and protrusions are easy to make, the veins might not be. Something that small will need a ton of detail there, so unless you are really good at that, try to choose some other effect.

Lastly, we have the negavolt cultists. Out of all of the minis of this range, this one is the hardest to really kitbash from zero, considering the pieces it may use are rather rare. Both the Electropriest and the AoS Flagellants work well enough for the body (and the Mandrakes as well, but those are more problematic to work with, considering the machine bits you'll have to add later), and you can give each units two taser goads, one on each hand. The problem is the head and the electric generator on the back. The flagellant's heads are great if you like evil but goofy grins, but if you want something more scary-looking and visceral, you'll have to go to Dark Eldar masks. Units like the Wracks and Wyches have great heads for that. You might have to greenstuff them a bit, but it can be done. If you want the head with the mecha-tendrills... For now you'll have to resort to the original model, I can't think of something even close, even from 3rd party modellers, sorry. Same for the back generator.

Nevermind all that, GW is releasing a standalone version of the SoTA units. [1] Looks like it will come with the exact same number of minis that the original Blackstone Fortress came with, so if you need more than four negavolts, you will need both.