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

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Eldar

Why Play Eldar

• Pros
  • You are sneaky enough to bring a heavy weapons platform on a stealth mission.
  • You like to run fast and still hit your targets.
  • You want a reasonable balance between infantry quality and quantity.
  • You have hard-hitting special weaponry, with the occasional AP-3 "crit" on the basic shuriken guns, meaning even a lowly Guardian can dish out the pain.
  • Your Dire Avenger, Howling Banshee and Striking Scorpion Exarchs are excellent candidates to be your Leader. All of them have rather flexible loadouts (for Eldar, at least) so that they can either shore up your weaker areas or double down on your Kill Team's focus.
  • Your Wraithblades, Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions are very strong choices for a melee-focused list and can even go toe-to-toe with formerly untouchable combat armies.
  • Three of your four commanders are psykers, all of which offer a wide array of support powers to further enhance your specialists beyond the norm. This is particularly notable in a game where most factions have maybe one or two (if they're lucky) available psyker units at all.
• Cons
  • Pretty brittle. Your "standard" Guardians have a measly T3 with a 5+, which is only a slightly better 4+ on your Dire Avengers. Staying obscured is crucial for survival. Your Wraith units are a unique exception, but they have their share of drawbacks to compensate.
  • Atrocious average range on their standard weaponry, arguably the worst in the game. The Heavy Weapon Platform and Ranger Long Rifles offset this a little, though your standard Shuriken guns have an effective half-range of only 6". Dire Avengers get a slightly better 9" on their guns, though that's still easily in charge/rapidfire range for most other armies.
  • Though your wraith units are built like trucks and hit like them too, they suffer the same subpar range the eldar are known for without the benefit of their signature mobility. They also lack Battle Focus, making them rather inaccurate if they must advance to get in range. Wraithblades on the otherhand are completely helpless at range and will likely need to tank a few hits before they can make it into combat.
  • Almost all of your heavy/special weapon choices suffer one major drawback that hinders how effective they are compared to other armies. While your Wraithguard/blades can still be specialists, they can't gain any experience past the initial level nor can they really benefit from being in a Fireteam. Your Heavy Weapon Platform on the other hand cannot become a specialist or part of a fireteam at all and also require a Guardian Defender babysitter to do anything.

ELD Special Rules

• Battle Focus: Like in vanilla 40k, the Eldar ignore any to-hit penalties incurred when firing their weapons after moving and/or advancing (Heavy weapons are excluded from this rule). Since almost all of your weapons will be assault-class, there is almost no reason to not advance your troops every single turn to maximize your Guardian Defenders' and Dire Avengers' threat range.
• Ancient Doom: Re-roll failed hit rolls in the Fight phase if charging or being charged by a model with the Slaanesh keyword. However, being within 3" of one adds 1 to Nerve tests. This is primarily a fluff rule, since currently there's only one faction that can be Slaanesh; specifically Chaos Space Marines choosing Slaneesh for their Mark of Chaos. Seeing as how ideally, you wouldn't willingly engage MEQ targets in hand-to-hand combat with Storm Guardians, it's unlikely this rule will really come into play.
• Crewed Weapon: Heavy Weapons Platforms can only take actions (move, shoot, etc.) if a non-shaken Guardian Defender is within 3" of it. If it shoots, one such Guardian Defender is unable to shoot that phase. Heavy Weapons Platforms cannot charge, do not gain experience, and can never be specialists or join a Fire Team. This is something of a handicap for any Asuryani looking for advanced long-ranged firepower, since other factions have access to Heavy/Demolition Specialists who don't have to effectively pay for two models shooting only one gun between them and can actually benefit from Specialist status.
• Ghost Warrior: Applied to your Wraithguard and Wraithblades, this rule prevents them from gaining experience. For one-and-done games, not an issue. For campaigns, however, this sucks pretty bad. Thankfully your Wraith units are strong enough on their own that they can still contend against the other factions in spite of this handicap.

ELD Faction Attributes

• Alaitoc - Fieldcraft: Your units are considered obscured if targeted by enemies further than 12" away from them.
  • On one hand, this is very useful for your dudes on the approach; your squishier Guardians need all the help they can get to slip into range without getting shot off the board. Rangers of course benefit from this immensely, as they are able to set up in more exposed areas without being penalized for doing so. Once your Guardians and Wraithguard are in range, however, this attribute won't keep them any safer than usual. This rings especially true for your melee focused units like your Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions.
    • But how often are more than 12" away and aren't obscured by something anyway? Even when it is in play, its barely a benefit. Take something else.
• Biel-Tan - Swordwind: Your Dire Avengers, Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions gain +1 to their Leadership and all Shuriken weapons re-roll hit rolls of 1.
  • A great choice for fluffy Aspect Warrior focused lists where individual leadership matters so much more. Dire Avengers and Guardian Defenders love the free re-roll support on their main weapons in particular.
• Iyanden - Stoic Endurance: Roll a D3 for Nerve Tests instead of a D6.
  • A decent defensive perk, this'll help keep your dudes in the fight if your opponent's backing you into a corner. Guardian units, being your most cowardly, definitely appreciate this perk more than your braver Aspect Warriors and Wraith units do.
• Saim-Hann - Wild Rider: All units can re-roll failed charge rolls.
  • For melee focused lists involving lots of Storm Guardians, Striking Scorpions, Wraithblades, Combat Exarchs and Autarchs, this is fantastic for them. Sadly, Howling Banshees gain nothing from this list since their reworked Acrobatics rule grants them re-rollable charges anyways.
• Ulthwé - Foresight of the Damned: Grants all of your units a 6+ FNP.
  • Situational, but also arguably the best perk for more general lists. Nothing can argue with the benefit of potentially ignoring a wound, especially since each one matters so much more in a game like kill teams.

ELD Ranged Weapons

• Aeldari Missile Launcher: The biggest boom with the most range that points can buy, the AML can either really ruin someone's day with one hell of a hit (Heavy 1 S8 AP-2 D6) or a flurry of hits (Heavy D6 S4 AP-1 1D). At 48" either way, it's the single longest ranged weapon you can bring, though bringing it will effectively take up a fifth of your team (20p between the AML, HWP and Guardian Defender crewing it).
• Avenger Shuriken Catapult: Standard stock for the average Dire Avenger. Functionally the exact same as a Shuriken Catapult, but with slightly further range (18" Assault 2 S4 AP0, AP-3 on a 6+ 1D). The Dire Avenger Exarch is allowed to take two of these, which seeing as they're free, should always be done by the ranged Exarchs out there.
• Brightlance: A long ranged murder machine, Brightlances fire S8 AP-4 shots 36" down wind for D6 damage a pop. This can be quite fantastic for dealing with heavily armored characters, or ensuring that you take that target out of action.
• Flamer: Really basic at 8" Assault D6 S4 AP0 1D, flamers make up for their subpar range by autohitting their targets regardless of the countless to-hit penalties that can debuff your dudes. Pretty handy on your super-mobile Storm Guardian Gunners, who can advance up to 13", torch an enemy, then possibly Fire and Fade 7" back to cover.
  • Counterpoint: in a game as combat focused as KT, camping an objective and being able to overwatch at 8" against units like Orks can completely ruin their day.
• Fusion Gun: Where the Flamer does its work through volume of saves, the Fusion Gun simply ensures that whatever shot lands hurts. A lot. At S8 and AP-4, pretty much any standard squaddie isn't getting a save and is all but guaranteed a few wounds (particularly if they're within half range!). As an Assault Weapon, your Storm Guardian Gunners can take full advantage of Battle Focus to make every shot hit as hard and accurately as possible.
  • Fusion Pistol: Same deal as the main gun, only exclusive to your Autarch with half the effective range. In melee, this thing is nightmarish. Outside of melee, not so much.
• Ranger Long Rifle: Exclusive to your Rangers, these let them bip enemy models at maximum range for no additional penalties (so long as they're not obscured), and can plant a Mortal Wound on a wound roll of 6+ on top of any other damage. Reliable, but their Heavy typing means your Rangers can't take advantage of Battle Focus if they need to move anywhere.
• Scatter Laser: A satisfying source of dakka, the Scatter Laser churns out 4 respectably long ranged shots at S6, easily ensuring a at least a few wounds get planted on an enemy model. Reasonably priced, this may be the go-to weapon for more flexibly inclined teams.
• Shuriken Cannon: The default gun on your Heavy Weapon Platform, it makes up for its slightly shorter 24" range with the Assault 3 profile at S6, letting Guardians stay accurate and fast as needed. The AP-3 on 6+ wound rolls can potentially make short work of MEQ targets, though you shouldn't rely on that alone
• Shuriken Catapult: The basic gun given out to your Guardian Defenders, this Assault 2 S4 AP0, AP-3 on a 6+ 1D gun is pretty much the golden standard for Craftworld weaponry.
  • Shuriken Pistol: Identical to the Catapult, only having an Assault 1 profile instead. Your Rangers, Farseer and Warlock can sidearm these if the situation calls for it, though ideally they won't ever be using them. This is also the ranged weapon on your standard Storm Guardians, Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions, where it is moderately more useful since it can contribute to melee combat as well.
• Starcannon: A reliable in-between gun that fires 2 S6 AP-3 shots doing D3 a bip. This makes them excellent anti-MEQ guns that can be quite effective mid-field.
• Plasma Grenade: Dire Avengers also come stock with some S4 AP-1 grenades, which are extremely handy both on the offense or countering enemy charges (Dire Avengers overwatch on a 5+, take advantage of this!).
• Wraithcannon: Choice one of two for your Wraithguard, fires one S10(!) shot at AP-4 that does D6 damage. Almost everything in the game is going to be wounded on a 2+, bar a select few exceptions, and only invulnerable saves offer any real resistance. It's major shortcoming is pretty much the usual; at a max range of 12", your Wraithguard is going to have to get especially close to their target to reliably hit. This task is made harder by their slower movement speed and lack of Battle Focus.
  • D-Scythe: Choice two of two. Sharing the same absurd S10 AP-4 as the Wraithcannon, this flamer trades 4" of maximum range and D6 damage for a D3 shot auto-hitting flamer that only does a single point of damage per hit. More expensive, but arguably worth it; advancing no longer penalizes your accuracy and against most targets the D6 damage the Wraithcannon does is a bit too much overkill.

ELD Melee Weapons

• Aeldari Blade: A user-strength butterknife with no AP. Relatively unimpressive, given the S3 Storm Guardians waving it around, but since it re-rolls misses, it's at least all but guaranteed to hit. Now, whether or not that hit actually hurts them...
• Chainsword: S User (S3) AP0 chainsword, which grants an additional attack. A little better than the Aeldari Blade, but the Storm Guardian using it will still need to pray to Khaine that it'll do more than scuff up that Space Marine's paint job.
• Diresword: While it's only S User (S3), the AP-2 helps it punch through any armor that might resist the hit. Additionally, if you crit on the wound roll (Roll a 6+), the defending model takes an additional Mortal Wound along with any other damage dealt. Slightly more expensive and less reliable than the Glaive, but that extra damage could possibly make a hell of a difference.
• Power Glaive: A surprisingly solid choice for your Exarch, S+1 (S4) with AP -2 means he stands a solid chance at slicing up MEQs, and can easily deal with GEQs tryin' to mess up his sweet hat. Aside its statline, it doesn't have anything else special about it, though you can either take it with a Shuriken Pistol for more of an offensive loadout, or a Shimmershield to help keep his fighty buddies safe.
  • Shimmershield: This is more of an accessory to the Power Glaive (an expensive one at that), but if you plan to have a couple Dire Avengers posse up with your Exarch, it can ensure that your Dire Avengers always get a save from anything bar Mortal Wounds. While this sounds nice, keep in mind that most standard weapons have little to no AP, making your Avengers' natural armor saves better (4+ vs a 5++). The Shimmershield also only applies this effect to strictly Dire Avengers within 2" of the Exarch. This means if you're going for diversity, or planning on splitting up your forces, the Shimmershield provides absolutely no benefit. Long and short, if you're taking the Shimmershield, you'll need to effectively build your list to take advantage of it. Otherwise, you're wasting points on a useless upgrade.
• Power Sword: For Autarchs and Howling Banshees. While you're still swinging this around at a sad S3, the AP-3 virtually erases any armor saves your opponents might get if you hurt them with this.
• Mirror Swords: Howling Banshee Exarch option B, sacrifice a point of AP for an extra attack and re-rolls to hit. Unless you're hurting for heavy hitting attacks, this should be your lady's go to choice.
• Executioner: Option C for your HB Exarch, this is what she brings when she wants to put down MEQ targets. A very attractive choice if you want a fairly hard-hitting melee specialist but don't want to pay Wraithblade prices for one.
• Scorpion Chainsword: S+1 AP0 chainsword, standard issue for your Striking Scorpions. In kill teams this is actually very useful since many (if not most) of your targets are T3, the extra point of strength makes your Scorpions quite potent against them and enables them to more easily go toe-to-toe against MEQs. Comes with a Shuriken Pistol for a bit of ranged firepower.
• Scorpion's Claw: A hybrid ranged/melee weapon for your Striking Scorpion Exarch that uses the profile for a Shuriken Catapult for ranged attacks and a Sx2 (S6) AP-3 DD3 melee profile. You will almost exclusively be using this in melee over the regular chainsword for obvious reasons. A special note is that this weapon also benefits from Biel-Tan's Swordwind attribute.
• Biting Blade: An upscaled Scorpion Chainsword that grants S+2 at AP-1 and a flat D2 per swing. The only real reason to use this over the Scorpion's Claw is the slightly more consistent damage output compared to the variable D3 the claw brings. Outside that aspect, the Claw's effective S6 and good armor penetration lets your Exarch engage foes that would otherwise be very challenging to deal with in melee (like Death Guard or many MEQ armies in general).
  • Alternate take: Its four(4!) points cheaper than a Scorpions Claw and not that much worse (you'll still be wounding MEQs on 3+s), and with so many attacks your getting a few swings are bound to get through most saves.
• Ghost Swords: A S+1 (S6) AP-2 dual-wield weapon that grants your Wraithblades an extra attack. Very nice, as it gives your undead statues 4 heavy hitting attacks on the charge, more than enough to slaughter most foes in short order.
• Ghost Axe: This singular blade is a S+2 (S7) AP-2 DD3 beatstick that sacrifices a touch of accuracy (-1 to hit enemies) to deliver hard-hitting spanks against virtually everything in the game. Bumps up the price of the Wraithblade by a fair penny and is objectively worse than just sticking with the cheaper ghost swords since it'll be wounding everything under T6 with the exact same 2+/3+ rolls anyways. But you're not taking this for its killing power, you're taking this for the accessory it comes with.
  • Forceshield: Complimentary to the ghost axe Wraithblades, this gives them a 4++ save and makes them one of the most durable units in the game. This can be further enhanced with the Protect power to an unholy 3++ save usually reserved for Storm Shield terminators, but even they don't have T6 under that shield. That said, due to this Wraithblade variant's price point, you'll probably only want to bring this against armies such as the Custodes or Grey Knights where they might be able to take them down if they manage to charge them first. Anything softer than that can arguably be dealt with more easily with your ghost sword variants.
• Witchblade: Exclusive to your Farseer and Warlock Commanders, these blades are extremely handy in that they always wound on a 2+, making up for the otherwise pitiful S3 your dudes have. With the relatively low average armor on most models involved in Kill Teams, these are actually really handy combat weapons. Still less than advised against MEQ targets given their lack of AP.
  • Singing Spear: An upgraded Witchblade that, aside an additional 12" Assault 1 shooting profile, does exactly the same thing as its free counterpart. If you have the points to spare, it's definitely recommended.
• Star Glaive: The Autarch's default weapon, this beaut hits at a juicy S6 with AP-3 and D3 damage, making it exceptional at gimping GEQ and even MEQ targets with relative ease. Its only downside is the -1 to hit it imposes on the Autarch, though swinging at a 3+ is still pretty reliable.

ELD Psychic Powers

Runes of Fate

Exclusive to the Farseer

• [Commanders] Guide (Warp Charge 6): A friendly model within 12" can reroll failed hits for their ranged weapons until the next psychic phase. There are two main advantages this has over the other re-roll options you have; as a psychic power, this costs no CP, letting you spam it every turn without affecting your Stratagem availability. Additionally, you may re-roll all misses, not just hit rolls of 1. And yes, this applies to all shots, including Overwatch. This is extremely useful on specialists or HWPs with Flesh Wounds, due to their drastically reduced accuracy.
• [Commanders] Fortune (Warp Charge 6): When cast on a friendly model within 12", it gives them a 5+ FNP. Can be a helpful bit of insurance on someone like a Combat Exarch or other Specialist who you're a bit concerned about getting focused down.
• [Commanders] Will of Asuryan (Warp Charge 5): When cast on a friendly unit within 6" of your Farseer, they auto-pass nerve tests. Additionally, this adds 1 to any Deny the Witch tests until your next Psychic Phase. A very useful defensive buff if you're getting backed into a corner, or fighting enemy psykers and need the extra help making sure they don't cast anything particularly damning.

Runes of Battle

Exclusive to the Warlock and the Spiritseer

• [Commanders] Conceal/Reveal (Warp Charge 5): Use on a model within 12" of the Warlock. If the target is friendly, enemies trying to attack it with ranged weapons subtract 1 from their hit rolls until the next psychic phase. If the target is an enemy, it loses any bonuses it might have from being obscured until the next psychic phase. Conceal's usefulness compared to its standard 40k counterpart is a bit more conditional, given that 6's always hit in Kill Teams, but can still be quite handy in close quarters. Keep in mind flamer-type weapons and melee units don't give a damn about these sort of debuffs, however. Reveal is actually quite handy, especially against units like Rangers or Lictors who gain multiple to-hit debuffs from being in cover.
• [Commanders] Protect/Jinx (Warp Charge 6): A buffed friendly model adds 1 to their save, a debuffed enemy model subtracts 1 from theirs. This is particularly fantastic, as it one of the few ways to lower enemy Invulnerable saves! Alternatively, a buffed Exarch gets a fairly reliable 3++.
• [Commanders] Empower/Enervate (Warp Charge 5): Buffed Friendly models add 1 to any wound rolls in melee, while enemies subtract 1 from theirs. The buff side of this is a bit more conditional; the only one who'd really appreciate the buff would be a Combat-oriented Exarch. Wounding MEQ targets on a 3+ at AP-2 is actually quite reliable. Buffing basic Storm Guardians can help them against GEQ targets, but with their pitiful melee statline and armor saves, buffing them or debuffing their targets is kind of an... inefficient use of your Warlock's one cast per turn. Enervating any S3 target who engages your Wraithblades can make them immune to any and all damage received in combat. This is also a potential recommended power to use against Custodes; if you tie them up with a ghost axe Wraithblade, reducing incoming wound rolls may help your statues hold the line.

ELD Units

• Guardian Defenders (Leader, Comms, Medic, Scout, Veteran): Your basic cheap as chips guardians are simple, but effective. You aren't the toughest, you aren't shiny, you ain't special, but you are fast, reliably accurate and at 7 points a dude, they're excellent for filling out infantry-heavy lists. Take a bunch with a souped up Dire Avenger Exarch as your leader, and go to town with a horde of citizen soldiers trying to be a professional army.
  • Heavy Weapon Platform (1): Unlike many other armies, who'll often just carry their special weapons themselves, Guardian Defenders need to plant them on a separate model and babysit them if they want to actually use it. This makes them somewhat expensive and inefficient as vectors for heavy firepower compared to everyone else. This is exacerbated by the fact that you can only take one, it can't be a specialist, gain experience or be part of a fireteam. This doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, though. Shuricannons and Scatter Lasers can rinse through GEQ models reliably enough, while Starcannons and Bright Lances can tear through MEQ and multi-wound models fairly easily. Plus, its higher wound count and better armor save means that it'll take a modest amount of firepower to bring it down. Plant your Comms specialist behind it to ensure you get the most out of your shots.
• Storm Guardians : Your melee skirmishers, armed with Shuriken Pistols and some rather pitiful beatsticks. They are your cheapest choice, but they'll likely struggle against armored enemies, anything particularly shooty or anything that actually knows how to make a fist. What they can do is ideally swarm a specialist/leader and try to bury them in melee saves. They can perform decently enough against units like Tau, Guardsman, or even other flavors of Eldar (within reason), though regular Guardian Defenders will likely outperform them against almost everybody else.
  • Storm Guardian Gunners (2): These guys are your special weapons bearers. Fusion guns are a nice counterpart to the Shuriken spam, and with battle focus you can run up and blast apart models at full BS. Bonus points if you make them comm specialists for a speedy +2 to hit delete button. If you'd rather try to drown your opponent in saves, you can also equip them with a flamer to auto-toast peeps before you go in for the charge.
• Rangers (Leader, Comms, Medic, Scout, Sniper): Just like in the full 40k game, Rangers serve as your snipers. They don't suffer any penalties for firing at their weapon's full range, and can plant a Mortal Wound on any unlucky sop on a wound roll of 6+. Dealing with these cloaked bastards at range can be particularly daunting as well; they get an additional -1 to-hit modifier if they're obscured. This makes them fantastically durable, as anyone shooting at them from half-range or further could be dealing with a frustrating -3 modifier! At 11 points a model, they're your most expensive standard unit. All that said, they're still reasonably priced support units, though as they don't really benefit from Battle Focus (Ranger Long Rifles are Heavy Weapons) and are practically helpless at melee, they are not ideal for contesting mid or cross field objectives. And while 11 points per dude isn't terribly expensive, they start to eat into your maximum body count quite quickly. Use a few of them to harrass/assassinate key enemy units or to heavily discourage enemies from entering certain areas of the map.
• Dire Avengers (Leader (Exarch only), Combat, Comms, Medic, Sniper, Veteran) : A Dire Avenger may be three points more than a Guardian Defender, but for that you get an extra six inches of range (Wouldn't you pay 3 points for an extra six inches wink wink), a slightly better armor save, better overwatch (5+), grenades and better leadership. Depending on what specialists you wish to take, these guys can serve fantastically, though they'll definitely be a premium compared to your other options.
  • Dire Avenger Exarch (1): A Dire Avenger Exarch makes a fantastic leader for any kill team, and is flexible enough to accommodate any kind of focus you're gearing your team for. Shooty Exarchs can take one or two Avenger Shuriken Catapults (since they're free, you should always take two) for run-and-gun teams. Fighty Exarchs can be kitted out with a Power Glaive or Dire Sword for glorious combat, each of which can take a Shuriken Pistol for little potshots here and there. Exarchs have a built in 4++ Invuln covering 2 wounds, making them slightly harder to drop than the rest of the dudes he's leading. That said, Power Glaive Exarchs can support fellow Dire Avengers by using the Shimmershield to confer a 5++ Invuln to any of other Dire Avengers within 2". Respectably cheap, an Exarch's all but required for your kill team and makes for a good centerpiece to base your composition around.
• Striking Scorpion (Leader (Exarch Only), Combat, Demolitions, Scout, Veteran, Zealot): The most flexible of your elite choices, your Scorpions are your strongest standard, non-wraith unit. An effective S4 courtesy of their Scorpion Chainswords lets them punch down GEQ targets moderately well. While the standard Scorpion lacks any real way to punch through armor directly, each one is equipped with Mandiblasters that can potentially put a Mortal Wound on a foe just before the combat phase begins. One of the main selling points of the Striking Scorpions, however, is their bonus to hit targets currently in cover in the fight phase. In a game where being obscured is such a major defensive aspect for many of the factions, this makes it fairly easy for your Scorpions to force players out into the open lest they give your elf ninjas the advantage in a fist fight. Take caution though, even though your Striking Scorpions are your only non-Wraith/Commander units to have a 3+ save, they're still a measly T3 elf. Don't get reckless with their positioning.
  • Striking Scorpion Exarch (1): For when you want to tear apart those pesky power armored mon-keigh but can't afford a wraithblade. On top of all of the standard Striking Scorpion rules, your Exarch gains extra attacks in the fight phase whenever he hits on a 6+, potentially giving him a ludicrous number of swings. Apart from the standard Scorpion gear, your Exarch can take either a Biting Blade (for when you're strapped for points but feel like -1 AP is better than zero) or a Scorpions Claw (for when you don't want your enemies to walk away from a CQC encounter with you while being decently shooty). While both options have their place, even a bare-bones Exarch can still potentially bury MEQ/TEQ under saves.
• Howling Banshee (Leader (Exarch Only), Combat, Comms, Veteran, Zealot): Your sword-swinging ladies serve as your anti-armor melee specialists. A minimum movement speed of 8" makes it very easy for them to close the distance to their targets, especially when combined with their ability to re-roll charges. If that in itself wasn't enough, their Banshee Masks disable all enemy reactions to the charge (no overwatch, no falling back), letting them truly get the jump on exposed enemies. Even though their Power Swords don't particularly care too much about armor saves, the Banshees lackluster strength stat makes it somewhat challenging for them to deal with MEQ or TEQ targets outside of swarming them with models.
  • Howling Banshee Exarch (1): A touch more durable than the regular Banshees, your Exarch has a couple things going for her that make her very appealing to take. Unlike her basic underlings, your Exarch defensively benefits from a -1 to-hit debuff hindering enemies from retaliating against her in combat in addition to the natural Acrobatics and Banshee Mask available to her kin. Offensively, she has access to a couple of extra tools perfect for carving up the MEQ/TEQ targets in the form of the Executioner, or she can opt to maximize her attack output through the Mirrorswords she can take. Second option sadly sacrifices her Shuriken Pistol, but it's a small price to pay.
• Wraithguard (Demolitions, Heavy, Veteran): Your heavy hitters and the only unit you have that can be a Heavy or Demolition specialist. Wraithguard have access to two of the strongest ranged weapons in the game, both hitting at a (frankly sickening) S10 AP-4. Yep, these will wound even Death Guard and Custodes on a 2+. They themselves have resilience to rival those two factions: T6 with 3 wounds apiece means that it will require a concentrated effort on your opponent's part to down one of these. The bad news? Wraithguard are slow, expensive (indeed, you can purchase 5-6 Guardians for one of these) and have terrible range for their guns. Faster armies, like other space elves for example, can generally outpace your Wraithguard and prevent them from reliably landing any shots on them. The Heavy and Demolitions specializations can help offset this problem, though keep in mind that they cannot level up in extended campaigns.
• Wraithblade (Combat, Veteran, Zealot): Your choppy wraiths, as their name implies. Exclusively melee units, Wraithblades can find it somewhat difficult to engage faster armies such as other flavors of Eldar or Tyranids, but they are terrifying to behold once they get into combat. Hitting at a minimum of 2 attacks at S6 and AP-2, GEQ armies are effortless prey to the Wraithblades. In turn, at the same T6 and 3 wounds as their ranged variants, they are nigh indestructible against many of the standard S3 melee attacks they would receive in turn. If you so desire, an Empower/Enervate Warlock/Spiritseer may make it literally impossible for any melee attacks at S3 to wound them at all.

ELD Commanders

• Autarch (Ferocity, Leadership, Logistics, Melee, Shooting, Stealth, Strategist): Your all-rounder Commander at 55p base, Autarchs can serve as excellent close quarter combat commanders. With their 3+/4++ string of saves, access to a Power Sword, Fusion Pistol, Mandi-Blasters and Swooping Hawk wings, Autarchs can put Harlequins to shame with their frankly disgusting melee potential. Their unique Path of Command stratagem can help support nearby troops with re-roll support on their shots, though clumping up your units to abuse it can make them vulnerable to multi-hitting weapons such as Flamers or Grenades. As far as the Autarch's specializations go, it is the most flexible of your commanders and can fill a variety of roles the rest of your army might be lacking.
• Farseer (Leadership, Logistics, Psyker, Strategist): Arguably the most reliable Psyker in the entirety of Kill Teams, not only are Farseers able to freely re-roll any number of dice used for manifesting powers once per phase, but can avoid Perils of the Warp on an effective 2+ (Regular Mortal Wounds on a 5+). They can also know 2 of the 3 powers available to them and cast both of them in the same turn, making them very effective buff vectors for the rest of your army. While Farseers can indeed participate in melee/shooting to a modest degree (WS/BS of a 2+ with melee weapons that always wound on a 2+ is pretty damn good after all), they lack the specializations and skills to excel at it like your Autarch can. As such, Farseers should primarily be regulated to supporting your specialists or primary forces.
• Warlock (Logistics, Melee, Psyker, Shooting): The "poor man's" Commander starting at 20p baseline, the Warlock is the cheapest and weakest commander available to you. With only 2 wounds to his name, you'll definitely want to keep this guy out of line of sight at all costs if you want to keep his Psychic buffs/debuffs in play. Additionally, you'll want to keep at least one CP in your pocket for any accidental Perils you may cast with him; it's quite possible for your Warlock to just blow himself up trying to protect your dudes. However, his psychic versatility is unmatched among other commanders, making him ideal for flexible lists.
• Spiritseer (Elites) (Leadership, Melee, Psyker, Stealth, Strategist): Your Spiritseer appropriately makes his entrance onto the kill teams scene alongside your wraith units. It should come as no surprise that he offers his unique brand of exclusive support to them through his Spirit Mark stratagem in addition to the Runes of Battle support he can provide to your army as a whole. With twice the number of wounds as your Warlock, he's not remotely as afraid of being up close and personal as the Warlock is; kind of a necessary aspect if you plan to use him to support Wraith units. A WS/BS of 2+ combined with his Witchstaff makes him shockingly effective in melee, though his T3 and 4++ makes him somewhat easy to retaliate against both in combat and at range.
  • At first blush he comes of poorly in comparison to the otherwise comparable Farseer. An almost identical statline, but with worse weapons, fewer wounds, only 1 psychic manifestation per round, only 1 deny the witch, no Ghosthelm and no psychic reroll. All while being 6pts MORE expensive. The question you have to ask is "Are the Stealth or Melee specialisms, trading access to Runes of Fate for Runes of Battle or his Aura tactic really worth all you lose?".
• Amallyn Shadowguide (Stealth): Now available as a Commander! Starting at 30 points base, Amallyn has a reasonable price point for what she offers; a Ballistic Skill of 2+ coupled with her great range means she can pick off enemy models down field while remaining a frustrating target herself due to her innate -1 to hit modifiers and buffed saves while obscured. What's more, is that her ability to ignore terrain and models for her movement means that she can be extremely challenging to pin down, with her power blade making her significantly more dangerous to engage in Melee than any of your Rangers would be. While Amallyn is unfortunately limited strictly to the Stealth specialization, it does actually compliment her skill set rather well, both for defensive and offensive purposes. She does suffer from two major shortcomings worth noting, however. Amallyn only comes stock with 3 base wounds at the same GEQ statline as her kin, making her the second frailest commander available to you. Additionally, Amallyn doesn't really offer any real support for the rest of her team, making her something of a "lone wolf" commander. While this means that your overall team won't really suffer if you lose her, it's not really gaining anything from taking her over a Farseer or Warlock either.
• Illic Nightspear (Elites) (Level 3 Legendary Hunter): Your famous Alaitoc-born ranger is a genuine force to be feared in a gametype as infantry focused as Kill Teams. His unique rifle is absurdly strong; a 48" range weapon that ignores range-based penalties that always wounds on a 2+ is good on its own. But the AP-3 and flat 3 damage? This runs a very real chance of straight up killing many of the standard units most armies can field with a single shot. Even enemy commanders with 4 or more wounds can't afford to be caught downwind of this guy. He also rerolls 1s to hit and to wound against Necrons, which is situational but useful.
  • With the new Dev Commentary he's now not an option in Matched Play at all, as they've made it mandatory that all commanders be taken at Level 1 going against their own rules in the Commanders book.

ELD Tactics

• [Core] Phantasm (2 CP): At the beginning of the first battle round, pick a unit and set it up again anywhere in the deployment zone. The usefulness of this tactic is questionable; it's rather high cost and limit to one model can possibly cripple your kill team early in the game, though it can serve as an emergency get-away for your leader or a specialist caught with their pants down during deployment.
• [Core] Asurmen's Blessing (1 CP): When a Dire Avenger shoots in the Shooting phase, re-roll failed hit rolls until the end of the phase.
  • On a twin-Avenger Shuriken Catapult Exarch, this is fantastic. Given the penalties for firing at range, this can significantly improve your chances of scoring a hit. Of course, regular Dire Avengers can take advantage of this as well, it's just literally half as useful comparatively.
• [Core] Feigned Retreat (1 CP): After a model in your Kill-Team falls back, it can still shoot in the following shooting phase.
  • On an Exarch or Specialist, this can come quite in handy; particularly if said specialist happens to be wielding a flamer/fusion gun. That said, aside your Exarch and maybe your Storm Guardians, you ideally won't be in melee combat all that much (willingly, at least).
• [Core] Matchless Agility (1 CP): Instead of rolling for advance distance, a model simply adds 6" to its movement for a phase. Combined with Battle Focus, this can be particularly nasty with a Fusion Gun Storm Guardian. Alternatively, a great way to get out of dodge.
• [Core] Fire and Fade (1 CP): After a model in your kill-team shoots in the shooting phase, it can make a normal move up to 7" as if it was the movement phase. This is again, quite fantastic for your eldar, as all your weapons have garbage range, and the units holding them have garbage armor. Suffice to say, they'll need all the help they can get to keep distance between them and whatever they just shot at.
• [Core] Rune of Ynnead (2 CP): When a model in your kill-team is taken out of action, roll a d6; on a 4+ that model takes a flesh wound instead. Expensive, but a potential life-saver for a specialist or Exarch you really don't want to lose.
• [Elites] Masters of Stealth (Reserve) (1 CP): Take up to 3 Striking Scorpion models out of reserve and set them up anywhere more than 5" from an enemy.
• [Elites] Appear Unbidden (Reserve) (1 CP): Take up to 3 Ranger models out of reserve and set them up anywhere more than 9" from an enemy.
• [Annual2019] Bring Forth the Torch (1 CP): Use this at the start of the Shooting Phase. When rolling the number of shots for any flamer that phase, results of 1 or 2 are instead treated as 3.
• [Annual2019] Celestial Shield (2 CP): Give a guardian defender a 4++ for the shooting phase, starting from when he is first chosen as a target.
• [Annual2019] Warriors of the Webway (Reserve) (2 CP): Set up 3 models from Reserves anywhere that is more than 5" away from enemy models. All models must also be within 2" of the first model you set up.
• [Annual2019] The Great Enemy (1 CP): Reroll wound rolls for attacks against enemies with the Slaannesh keyword in the Fight phase.
• [Annual2019] Supreme Disdain (1 CP): +1 attack for every UNMODIFIED hit roll of 6 in the fight phase. These attacks cannot generate any further attacks and must target the same enemy with the same weapon.
  • Note that depending on circumstances this could be either a superior or inferior version of the very similar Lvl 1 Zealot tactic Killing Frenzy. If you have any penalties to hit but no bonuses, then the Zealot tactic will never proc. But if you do have bonuses, then the Zealot tactic is more likely to hit. They are the same price, so something to keep in mind as you use either.
• [Annual2019] Our Time of Need (1 CP): A Heavy Weapon Platform can reroll Hit rolls for the shooting phase.

ELD Commander Tactics

• [Commanders] The Path of Command (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the battle round if you have a non-shaken Autarch in your Kill-Team. All models within 6" of the Autarch re-roll 1s to hit until the next round. This ability has two primary advantages over just using the Guide psychic power; it works for both ranged and melee attacks, and as stated, can include any and all friendly models within range. This can be particularly helpful if you're running a large number of Storm Guardians with Chainswords, though you'll need to beware multi-shot profile weapons before you clump up too much.
• [Elites] Spirit Mark (Aura) (1 CP): All of your Spirit Host (i.e. Wraith) units may re-roll hit rolls of 1 when targeting all enemy units within 6" of the Spiritseer who used this. A little risky for your Spiritseer; 6" is in normal striking distance even for other eldar and getting charged is a very real possibility. But, if you keep a screen of Wraith units with you, they will appreciate the extra help in murdering those targets who get too close.
• [Elites] Wayforger (2 CP): At the start of your shooting phase, assuming Illic Nightspear isn't shaken, he is immediately readied and considered to have not moved during his movement phase. Yikes. Though somewhat expensive, this gives Illic a disgusting amount of mobility.
• [Annual2019] Psychic Bond (1 CP): +1 to Psychic Tests made by your Commander for each non-shaken friendly model within 3".
• [Annual2019] Divine the Future (3 CP): Enemies within 6" of your non-shaken FARSEER cannot be chosen to fight in the Hammer of Wrath section of the fight phase. They can be chosen in the Fight for your Lives section though.
• [Annual2019] Forewarned (3 CP): Ready all friendly models that didn't advance, charge or fall back and that are within 6" of your non-shaken FARSEER at the end of the Movement phase.

ELD Strategies

Specialist Recommendations:

• Leader: The Dire Avenger Exarch is tailor made for this position. Even though technically any unit qualifies for the Leader specialization, none of them offer the flexibility or durability that your Exarch can bring to the table. Unless you are explicitly trying to shave points to maximize your body count, or wanting to spec your Exarch under a different specialization, there's really no reason not to stick with the Exarch. The Howling Banshee Exarch and Striking Scorpion Exarch are also perfect in this role, though they are considerably more specialized in what they can do than your Dire Avenger Exarch is. Otherwise, a Ranger camping in the back of your deployment zone can be extremely frustrating to bring down, and is a good way to ensure you generate CP every turn.
• Combat: Your best choice for this specialization is by far your Wraithblades. The extra attack they gain works wonders on them while the ability to interrupt an enemy during the fight phase can prove invaluable against more dangerous melee targets like the Custodes or Grey Knights. Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions are also fantastic for this job and are much cheaper than your wraith units are, for lists that want the extra bodies. For vanilla kill teams, Storm Guardians technically can be this specialization. They hardly offer anything to really take advantage of it, but it is an option. Dire Avengers and their Exarch can also fill this niche, the Exarch in particular being fairly potent in his own right at it. That said, for any kill teams involving elites, he is pretty outclassed by his fellow aspect warriors and wraith units.
• Comms: Guardian Defenders or Dire Avengers make ideal Comms specialists; they typically will be in fairly close proximity with other friendly models (particularly if you are bringing a Heavy Weapons Platform into play), and while their range is still relatively crap, they'll still be encouraged to keep a safer distance between themselves and enemies trying to hunt them down. Storm Guardian Gunners can also use the +1 to-hit buff on themselves, letting them operate more independently and all but ensuring their Fusion Gun hits their target.
• Demolitions: Striking Scorpions honestly have the most synergy with this specialization of the two units who can take it. It stacks rather well with their innate ability to bully targets attempting to abuse cover, though a fair number of the more advanced perks are useless to them. Wraithguard technically can be Demolitions specialists, but as they cannot level up, there is literally no reason to take them as one since they wound almost every target in the game on a 2+ with either of their weapons anyways.
• Heavy: Wraithguard exclusive, and arguably the best choice for them. This helps mitigate their mobility issues since they effectively gain Battle Focus with their Wraithcannons and the extra shot provided by their level 1 stratagem can make a massive difference against priority targets. The D-Scythe also somewhat from the increased volume of shots, though the ability to advance without penalty is fairly meaningless since the weapon auto-hits regardless.
• Medic: Honestly, Guardian Defenders probably benefit the most from being a Medic. Dire Avengers have slightly higher leadership, and are encouraged to stay close to their Exarch (assuming it's a Shimmershield Exarch), so this can be an effective way to keep your slightly more cowardly citizens in check. Alternatively, a Dire Avenger Medic can improve a Combat Exarch by giving them an additional attack during the fight phase, and will benefit from said Shimmershield due to his proximity.
• Scout: A Storm Guardian Gunner with a Fusion Gun (for all but guaranteeing the removal of practically any one model) can be particularly devastating. With re-rollable advances, the Scout can spend either a Command Point to boost their standard move by 2", or to trigger the "Fire and Fade" Stratagem to get in close, hit hard, then duck out of any possible retaliation. For someone literally overflowing with CP, one could spend 3 in one turn; Boost the Scout's movement to 9", auto-advance an additional 6", blow something fancy up then retreat 7" behind cover. Expensive and impractical? Maybe. Spectacular and hilarious results? Real likely.
• Sniper: Literally only your Ranger is eligible for this spec, so whether or not you even want a ranger is the question. That said, it isn't really that hard a question to answer. Given the abysmal range on almost everyone else's weaponry, having at least one Ranger on your kill team is advised to deal with enemy units camping in their deployment zone, or to help take down a particular threat to your team as a whole. Making said Ranger a Sniper helps them do that a little better.
• Veteran: This one is a bit more flexible than the others. Having a Storm Guardian Gunner or Guardian Defender HWP Baby-Sitter Veteran can come in handy if they come under fire often, as it'll help shore up their mediocre leadership so that they can keep doing their jobs effectively. Campaigns that let you level up your Veterans can be particularly useful for your SGGs, letting you move up and get the jump on enemy specialists with heavy-hitting weaponry. Dire Avengers, Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions if nothing else, can also make use of the spec decently enough, though they don't really offer anything quite as significant as the prior two. Wraithguard and Wraithblades only gain any use from the one-time movement stratagem at the beginning of the game and nothing else.
• Zealot: Wraithblades in particular are fantastic choices for this specialization. Their Fires of Wrath stacks very nicely with the attack and charge bonus this spec provides and the level 1 stratagem can let them deliver a truly staggering number of high strength attacks on an enemy model. Howling Banshees and their Exarch are great discount options for this role as well. They won't offer the sheer brute force your Wraithblades do, but they'll be much more likely to make it into combat on their own and can perform very admirably if provided with enough support.

Faction Strategies:

• Space Marines: When fighting a kill team of the Imperium's mascots, it's generally advised to avoid close combat like the plague; only a melee oriented Exarch will perform adequately against them, while even an unspecialized Space Marine can simply flick your average Storm Guardian's head to remove it from existence. Let's not even mention the things Primaris Marines will do to your Guardians if they get close enough. Reliably, one or two Storm Guardian Gunners with Fusion Guns can rush any average MEQ target and incinerate even their Primaris battle-brothers with one all-consuming shot. A Bright Lance fitted HWP can perform much the same role on the field with much less of a ride-or-die attitude compared to your S.G Gunners. In a pinch, you can swarm Marines with basic Guardian Defenders; Shuriken Catapults might have garbage range, but their penchant for AP-3 crits makes them quite effective.

• Grey Knights: A particularly daunting foe, Close Combat is a death sentence for most of your units hapless enough to get caught in with any of these tanks. What's worse, is that with Storm Bolters, you're always going to be getting pelted by an unholy number of shots at even the maximum range on your Guardian's Shuriken Catapults. They're also one of two factions in the entirety of Kill Teams whose vanilla units have access to the Psyker phase, so there's that to consider as well. Thankfully, you do have a few advantages. You are guaranteed to outnumber your foe, and where the loss of one or two Guardians might sting a bit, the loss of a single Grey Knight can very likely throw your opponent's plans into disarray. Utilize high AP weaponry such as the Bright Lance and Fusion Gun to your advantage, with the Starcannon striking a nice medium for volume of fire, strength, damage and AP for the cautious player. A few Rangers can also go a long way; the potential mortal wounds they provide isn't something to under-estimate on a faction with as few models as the Grey Knights. With the elites expansion adding Wraithguard and Wraithblades, you do have some options that can potentially handle them in close quarters, but this cuts into your body count quite drastically.

• Adeptus Custodes: The good news is that virtually any list you take will outnumber whatever list the Custodes player is bringing. The bad news is that they are the single most durable models in the game, bar a couple commanders. Melee is a death sentence for virtually all of your units, though your Wraithblades can potentially hold their own if they're equipped with Scattershields and supported appropriately. Ideally, you'll endeavor to overwhelm them in volume of fire. Custodes are limited to the number of dudes they can kill a turn and if you play your cards right, you can field a good number of bodies. Dance in and out of cover with your superior mobility whenever possible and focus down one model at a time. You can opt to attempt to run a Bright Lance/AML HWP, Fusion Gunner Storm Guardians or wraithcannon Wraithguard to simply annihilate them with one or two all consuming shots from their powerful guns, but such units rather drastically cut into your available points and you have among the fewest field-able carriers for these guns. This is also disregarding how much luck plays a factor in your damage rolls. Games involving commanders can attempt to use Jinx to tip the odds a bit more in your favor, but keep in mind that the Custodes have a pocket Deny the Witch they can use if they have the CP for it (any sane Custodes player will keep it on standby if they see you fielding a psyker). Farseers higher number of casts can let them guarantee at least one power does go off and can potentially exploit the Custodes general weakness to Mortal Wounds by abusing Psybolt.

• Imperial Guard: One of the precious few factions your standard Storm Guardians might perform decently enough against, a CC Exarch will have a field day against the average guardsman. While your units may indeed be more accurate than the Imperial's finest in a firefight, your range is extraordinarily pathetic compared even to their flashlights; weapons that actually pose a significant threat due to your pitiful toughness and armor. Taking advantage of cover and rushing in for melee combat with Storm Guardians against the average Guardsman may ultimately be more reliable than attempting to trade fire. Rangers in your backline would also be advised; their hit modifiers can make them extraordinarily frustrating to hit, while they conversely are reliably accurate and can snipe priority targets that may threaten your Storm Guardians on the approach. The addition of Howling Banshees, Striking Scorpions and Wraithblades lets you truly take advantage of their weakness to melee, with Howling Banshees in particular being ideal due to their cost, speed and ability to shut down reactions on the charge.

• Adeptus Mechanicus: Due to their weird cobble of flexible units, playing against Adeptus Mechanicus can be a bit tricky, depending on what they're bringing. While Storm Guardians can put up a good fight against their rangers, you generally don't want to be in melee combat with their Vanguard, and you really don't want to be in combat with their Infiltrators or Ruststalkers. Their guns are also a nasty combination of accurate and shooty with particularly brutal special weapons available to them (their sniper can practically one-shot any of your dudes if the shot lands true). You'll want to out-maneuver their infantry and focus down any specialists/special guns that they've brought to the table; Storm Guardians can reliably tie down anyone with the sniper if you can sneak them close enough. Depending on your formation primarily, you also might be able to secure a slight numerical advantage on them as well.

• Death Guard: These veritable bricks of pus and puke will be particularly daunting to take down due to their toughness and armor, making the only reliable means of taking them down heavy weapons fire. Fusion Guns, Bright Lance/Star Cannon HWP and massed Shuriken Volleys.

• Thousand Sons: The other Psychic faction, and the only one with access to an effective 2+ armor save. Multi-wound weapons will be your friend against Rubric Marines, but beware the hell out of their Inferno Bolters; they'll insta-gib your Guardians and very likely your Dire Avengers as well.

• Asuryani: Aside the obvious "anything you can do, they can do" stchick, it really comes down to outmaneuvering your foe. Don't bog down your points by bringing expensive heavy weapons, even a standard Shuriken shot stands a solid chance at dropping Dire Avengers, much less any Guardian pedestrians holding said Avenger's tailcoats. If you know what kind of build your opponent is going for, try to tailor your list to counter it. Rangers will be borderline untouchable for a fair few turns in a Guardian heavy list, though Ranger Heavy lists can only drop so many targets a turn. If your opponent fields a HWP for some reason, you can easily ensure it turns into dead weight by sniping any Defenders who try to make use of it. Though in all honesty, match-ups like this can often end up boiling down to a literal coin toss.

• Drukhari: Your less than ethical kin have two advantages on you; they have a slightly better average range on their slightly shootier weapons, and they're more proficient at melee combat compared to you. Fortunately, they're also just as, if not more brittle than you are (if you can believe it), and you are slightly more accurate when on the move comparatively. Dire Avengers will match their Shard Carbine range, and are slightly more durable than the rest of your army, making it easier to tank shots on them (though you shouldn't attempt to tank, if possible). Alternatively, Rangers will be a chore and a half to deal with due to the D. Eldar's own mediocre range, and stand pretty good odds on planting normal wounds on them due to their equally garbage armor. For Dark Eldar lists running kabalites, avoid taking wraith units if possible; poison weaponry takes away a significant portion of their durability and they absolutely will overwhelm them with volume of fire.

• Harlequins: I'll be frank, you're at a significant disadvantage with these guys. Their ability to simply pass through intervening terrain and models and their particularly terrifying melee prowess means there's precious little you can do to slow down their advance, and with your terrible range on your weapons, keeping them at a safe distance simply isn't an option. In the early game, Rangers can attempt to pick one or two of them off before they barrel down on your side of the field. Weapons that rely on volume of fire will prove more useful, so a dual-ASC Exarch, Scatter lasers and a large clump of Guardians will prove modestly effective at picking off Harlequins on the approach. Special mention goes to flamer-wielding Storm Guardian Gunners, who will be significantly less tempting to charge due to their nasty auto-hitting overwatches. Dire Avengers, while more expensive, can out range your Guardians (and the Harlequin's effective pistol range) and between their better overwatches and grenades, will also be more of a challenge to take down. For the suicidal eldar, mobbing a single Harlequin Player with several Storm Guardians can actually stand a decent enough chance to down it; you will have a numbers advantage after all, and Harlequins are still T3 underneath that invuln save. This isn't necessarily advised though, because should that or a nearby Player survive the assault, they will eviscerate your S.Guardians in such laughably short order that you'll wonder what the hell you were thinking would happen.

• Orks: Yet another faction where close combat is to be avoided at all costs, Orks can be reliably kited using your superior movement and accuracy. Their average accuracy is pretty bad, so barring any fielded Burna's, keeping your distance is the best way to avoid taking any losses.

• Necrons: Treat these guys in a manner similar to Space Marines; AP heavy weapons will breach their armor easily enough, though you'll need to watch out for their potential Reanimation Protocols rolls. Thankfully, this is another army you can outnumber if you play your cards right, so don't be afraid to focus fire as needed. Wraithguard (namely D-Scythe variants) and Wraithblades are ideal for carving through their toughness and armor without maximizing their Reanimation Protocols the way your other heavy weapons do.

• T'au: Probably the best faction to use Storm Guardians against, in an ideal world. Don't even try to one-up the T'au's shooting game, it will result in a pretty quick and painful match. That said, Rangers are certainly a welcome asset against Firewarriors and Pathfinders; making use of a few of them can potentially pin down the enemy while you advance a CQC Exarch and his Storm Guardian buddies downfield. Flamers and Shuriken weaponry should more than suffice against most of their units, though a Fusion Gun would be recommended if the forecast calls for Stealth Battlesuits in the field. Howling Banshees excel against the T'au due to their ability to cross the field and shut down their gunlines with startling speed, though take a care if there are Crisis Battlesuits on the field; use Wraithguard to destroy them whenever possible.

• Tyranids: A likely much swarmier army than yours (unless your opponent is going for the "four-lictor" or warrior heavy lists), their unit selection allows Tyranids a high degree of build flexibility that can be challenging to plan for. Thankfully, no matter their build, volume of fire can prove quite reliable at dealing with most of their units, with multi-wound weapons such as the Fusion Gun, Starcannon and Bright Lance being particularly effective against Warriors and Lictors. Melee combat is arguably the biggest mistake you could make (by electing to participate in it, or allowing it to happen), because be it through numbers of units or attacks, Tyranids and their Genestealer buddies will outperform you in every regard. This is not as much of a problem for games involving your elite units, though even your Wraithblades mustn't charge in recklessly against them. Obviously, focus down any Synapse units you can before turning your attention towards any of the smaller gibblies.

• Genestealer Cult: These guys will behave in a similar manner to Imp. Guard, but just because Storm Guardians work against the Emperor's faithful doesn't mean using them against the Genestealer Cultists is a good idea. Again, close combat is probably the worst approach you can take when combating them, though Guardian Defenders and Dire Avengers will perform quite admirably against them in the ranged game. Rangers are also quite effective early game, though like with many fighty armies, their effectiveness wanes when the distance between them and their target dissipates.

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

ELD Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• Balanced Ranged Team (11 Models, 100pts): A fairly versatile team with an emphasis on flexibility, this particular team I personally found to strike a nice balance for engaging both GEQ and MEQ targets. With the Comms specialist supporting the HWP, it becomes a shockingly accurate infantry gibber that can become a borderline DISTRACTION CARNIFEX for your enemies. It is also quite effective at locking down particular zones on the map with its impressive range, letting you discourage foes from recklessly charging any objectives down its sights. The veteran SGG with the Flamer can make excellent use of the post-deployment move to take a forward position to also discourage the enemy from advancing too quickly in a given area. Campaigns that allow you to level them up can also let them Ready after moving, potentially letting you get the drop on an unsuspecting backline unit with D6 auto-hits. The Scout SGG offers an extremely speedy unit who can very quickly cross the battlefield and easily pile wounds on even the sturdiest of models, though using it in this way can be quite CP intensive (Level 1 Scout tactic, Matchless Agility, Fire and Fade as well as a potential CP re-roll for hitting/wounding). Lastly, Dire Avengers are decently durable (for GEQ standards, anyways) with workable range on their base weapons, letting them engage targets at safer distances compared to their Guardian kin. This list does have a general aversion to melee-based opponents, so do what you can to kite your opponent using your (likely) superior mobility. With Battle Focus, there's almost no reason not to advance any and all of your units to keep them just outside charging range.
  • Leader: Dire Avenger Exarch with two Avenger Shuriken Catapults
  • Comms: Guardian Defender
  • Veteran: Storm Guardian Gunner with Flamer
  • Scout: Storm Guardian Gunner with Fusion Gun
  • Fireteam: Dire Avengers (x6)
  • Misc: Heavy Weapon Platform with Starcannon

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

• Balanced Ranged Team (13 Models, 200pts): Virtually identical to the standard version, the only difference in this set up is a level 3 Farseer. I personally take him as a Strategist; Many of the Leadership abilities are relatively useless, given Farseers lack aura based abilities, or are conditional at best for a Farseer. The Logistics and Psyker specializations can be useful, if specced offensively, though many abilities between the two aren't particularly appealing for Farseer use. Strategists allow you to gain more CP per round while simultaneously reducing CP cost for all of your tactics (Asuryani or general), allowing you to get extremely tactical with your engagements. The powers recommended are Guide and Fortune, Guide being particularly handy on your HWP and Fortune can serve as a decent insurance policy for any of your specialists in particular. Outside campaigns, this arrangement is recommended:
  • Commander: Level 3 Strategist Farseer with Singing Spear
  • Leader: Dire Avenger Exarch with two Avenger Shuriken Catapults
  • Comms: Guardian Defender
  • Veteran: Storm Guardian Gunner with Flamer
  • Scout: Storm Guardian Gunner with Fusion Gun
  • Fireteam: Dire Avengers (x7)
  • Misc: Heavy Weapon Platform with Starcannon

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Dark Eldar

Why Play Dark Eldar

• Pros
  • No vehicles in kill team means that poison weapons will always be wounding on a 4+, making them incredibly reliable. Fast & spooky GEQ that wound Plague Marines on 4+? Yes, please.
  • Power From Pain and Combat Drugs are still in.
  • You can shoot and you can melee, unlike other armies who either do one thing or the other.
• Cons
  • S3 melee is awful for a melee orientated army when you can expect many people to be fielding one or more T4/5 unit that also has a decent save and will obliterate your paper men in return. Even GEQs will only be wounded half the time!
  • Only TWO Gunners! Oh but what nice guns they are, really. But that still means only two guns in your team can wound GEQ on something better than half the time.
  • With T3 and a 5+/6+ save against shooting your models will drop like flies to even autoguns. And a FnP6+ is too low to rely on.
  • Power From Pain takes time to reach its full potential, so you're vulnerable in early battle rounds.
  • Few ways to deal with obscured enemies that doesn't involve melee combat (other than Headshot on snipers, which you unlock at tier 2).
  • Mixed Wych/Kabalite/Haem unit kill teams do not receive subfaction bonus.

DE Special Rules

• Power from Pain: Each Battle Round each Model in your Kill Team gains a bonus depending upon which round it is. Each bonus is cumulative with the previous rounds:
  • 1 - Inured to Suffering: Roll a D6 each time this model loses a wound; on a 6 that wound is not lost. Decent, but not a lifesaver with how many bullets or blades will be flying your way.
  • 2 - Eager to Flay: You can re-roll the dice when determining how far this model moves when it Advances or Charges.
  • 3 - Flensing Fury: Add 1 to Hit rolls for this model in the Fight phase.
  • 4 - Emboldened by Bloodshed: Re-roll failed Nerve tests for this model.
  • 5 - Mantle of Agony: Subtract 1 from the Leadership characteristic of enemy modes that are within 6" of any models from your Kill Team with this bonus.

• Combat Drugs: Models with this ability gain a bonus during the battle depending on the drugs they have taken. Before the battle, roll on the table below to see which combat drug your killteam is using. This bonus applies to all models in your kill team with the Combat Drugs ability.
  • 1 - Adrenalight: +1 to Attacks characteristic
  • 2 - Grave Lotus: +1 to Strength characteristic
  • 3 - Hypex: +2 to Move characteristic
  • 4 - Painbringer: +1 to Toughness characteristic
  • 5 - Serpentin: +1 to Weapon Skill characteristic (e.g. WS 3+ becomes WS 2+)
  • 6 - Splintermind: +2 to Leadership characteristic

DE Faction Attributes

Drukhari are divided in the following subfactions: Kabals, Wych Cults and Haemonculus Covens. All of the models you use on a Kill team must have the same subfaction keyword for gaining the bonus of a Drukhari Obsession (for example if your kill team has all wyches but a kabalite warrior, you cannot choose a Drukhari obsession. It would have to be only wyches). However, there are models like Incubus or Mandrakes that don't have a subfaction keyword. You can include these models on a kill team without preventing other models from gaining the bonus of a Drukhari Obsession, but they don't benefit from the bonus (for example if your kill team has 8 wyches, an Incubus and/or a Mandrake, you can choose a Drukhari obsession in the same way but will only affect to the wyches).

• Kabal of the Black Heart - Thirst for Power: Models treat Power for Pain table as it were 1 battle round higher. Models that have not the Power from Pain ability, gain Inured to Suffering bonus from Power from Pain table.
• Kabal of the Flayed Skull - Inescapable Slayers: Models don't suffer penalties to hit rolls for the target being obscured or because of intervening terrain.
• Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue - The Serpent's Kiss: Re roll 1s to wound for melee weapons or poisoned weapons. A poisoned weapon is considered any weapon that wounds on a particular roll (such as splinter rifles at 4+)
• Kabal of the Obsidian Rose - Flawless Workmanship: No penalty for To Hit rolls for attacks that target enemy models at long range.
• Cult of Strife - The Spectacle of Murder: +1 attack for any model that charged, was charged or made a pile in move granted by the Heroic Intervention tactic in that battle round.
• Cult of the Cursed Blade - Only the Strong will Thrive: +1 to Strength to all models. In addition, subtract 1 from nerve tests.
• Cult of the Red Grief - Speed of the Kill: You can re roll charge rolls.
• The Prophets of Flesh - Connoisseurs of Pain: Models with Insensible to Pain ability increase their invulnerable save to 4+.
• The Dark Creed - Distillers of Fear: Enemy models must add 1 to their nerve tests for each model of your kill team at 3".
• Coven of Twelve - Butchers of Flesh: Improve the AP of all melee weapons used by a model in your kill team by 1.

DE Ranged Weapons

• Splinter Rifle: 24" Rapid Fire 1. It wounds 50% no matter the toughness of your opponent. Brilliant for usage against high toughness units such as death guard and wraith models as you can theoretically attempt to drown them in saves before they bring the pain to your squishy bois.

Pistols: Bring guns to a knife fight.

• Splinter Pistol: Same as its rifle cousin but 12" range and 1 shot.
• Blast Pistol: S8 AP-4, D6 dmg. With 6" range, melee is pretty much the only time you'll fire it without penalty.
• Phantasm Grenade Launcher: Not Grenade type, you were fooled. 18" Assault D3 to inflict -1Ld to whatever it hits. That's its main use, but it's also Str1. Roll for it, it'll be fun.
• Plasma Grenade: 6" Grenade D6 S4 AP-1. Sometimes your Wyches won't have a gun, but they'll still have this. Better than most other armies' frags.

Gunner's choices (2): (1) Either a Dark Lance or a Splinter Cannon + (1) either Blaster or Shredder. They're all good, choosing one is the real torture.

• Dark Lance: 36" Heavy 1 S8 AP-4 Dd6 will kill anything you hit with it. Kill Team's accuracy rules means you'll need a nearby Comms or the Sniper Gunner's own Careful Aim to use it to its full potential. A bit cumbersome, but rewarding when its D6 dmg manages to delete even a Primaris or Plague marine in a single shot. This will remove a single enemy a turn if it gets any buffs, or a high lvl specialist, but you need to make sure you put yourself in a position where you can either A) see enough of the main objectives or B) reposition to harass enemies, otherwise you can be beaten out by null-deploying opponents. It's also a good idea to make sure any back routes to your hidey hole are guarded by supporting infantry, so you don't suffer from a nasty charge to the back.
• Splinter Cannon: 36" Rapid Fire 3. Very useful with 6 splinter shots within 18". Use a Veteran's Adaptive Tactics to close the range early. A powerful tool against swarming enemies (like Tyranids), with enough dakka to deal with them all and it outranges them to boot. Even a Harlequin charging from 18" away will be forced to brave 6 shots in overwatch! Good at dealing with most opponents, but keep in mind you only wound on a 4+, so you will need kabalites to support you if your target(s) come out alive.
• Blaster: 18" Dark Lance profile but Assault 1, making it less cumbersome. While the Shredder is more powerful, you could boost its chance to hit the same way as you would with a Dark Lance to avoid having to get your Gunner uncomfortably close to the enemy. This will be more powerful in lists that have problems with engaging bunkered-down marines, while the Shredder is a strong deterrent against melee-oriented forces. Consider what faction you are fighting before picking your weapons.
• Shredder: 12" Assault D6 AP-1. Reroll all failed wounds. Lots of dakka, lots of wounds, useful AP, only held back by it short range. Dark Eldar's speed makes it easy to get within range but your opponents will be shooting at you without penalty when you're just entering your maximum range. Great otherwise. A strong deterrent against chargers, as any hits have a 35/36 or 8/9 chance to wound depending on the target. Even Painkillered marines are still wounded by 75% of shots. Don't expect to rack up kills with this weapon, instead place it in a position during your shooting phase which zones out enemies and forces them to reposition (for fear of a decisive shot or by comboing Adaptive tactics with a Ready in the movement phase). If an opponent does not move when they are in a readied shredder's sights, they deserve what's coming.

DE Melee Weapons

• Agoniser: -2AP and 4+ wounding makes this a reliable choice with the low Str of the Kill Team.
• Hekatarii blade: Wych weapon that grants an additional attack
• Hydra Gauntlets: -1AP granting an extra attack, and re-rolling failed wounds.
• Power Sword: The best option in a fight to pierce armor with -3AP, but needs a Zealot charging, Grave Lotus combat drug, or the Cult of the Cursed Blade to make the most out of it.
• Razorflails: -1AP with a bonus attack, and re-rolling failed to hit rolls.
• Shardnet and Impaler: Keeping the theme of -1AP and attack bonus, this weapon inflicts Damage 2 and if it takes the last wound off a model it will roll 2 Injury rolls taking the higher result.

DE Units

• Kabalite Warrior (Leader [Sybarite only], Sniper [Gunner only], Comms, Scout, Veteran, Zealot): Your basic ranged option, splinter rifles wound even Death Guard on a 4+ and with 2 shots within 12" they provide good output for their points. They're also tough by Dark Eldar standards having a guard rather than a cultist statline.
  • Kabalite Gunner (2): Your option for ranged dakka, you can take one shredder or blaster and one dark lance or splinter cannon. The shredder and splinter cannon win out mathematically against everything but multiwound models in KT so they make the best defaults. Veterans make good Darklance/Blaster wielders since at lvl 2 you get to reroll a single hit or wound per turn, Snipers make good shredders at high lvl surprisingly, since they can give the shredder a 50% expanded range, and use CP to fire twice, hit more accurately, and ignore cover. It’s sad we don’t get demo or heavy specialists, who make up the backbone of most long range killteams. Keep a Comms specialist near Darklight (especially veterans) since the free +1 is invaluable.
  • Sybarite (1): Your Kabalite leader, he has the same options as a Hekatrix but one less attack. Not a bad option for your leader. Give him a phantasm launcher and hide him in the back.
• Wyches (Leader [Hekatrix only], Combat, Scout, Veteran, Zealot): Melee warriors for your fire team, with a high volume of attacks but are cultist easy to kill. They have 3 accurate but weak chainsword-equivalent attacks and nice pistol. Their "No Escape" rule prevents enemy infantry from falling back if you win a roll-off - this is an incredibly strong ability against shooting heavy armies with fly or similar effects. Unless you are running an all Wych Cult team to get an obsession, it's better to limit your number of regular Wyches and take only Wych Fighters and/or a Hekatrix.
  • Wych Fighter (3): Your melee special weapons drops. Out of the weapons options (gauntlets, flail and shardnet) the Gauntlets are going to be your best option for reliable hitting power given their low Str but high accuracy. If you have a Str buff from Grave Lotus or The Cult of the Cursed Blade then the Shardnet & Impaler are better due to the 2 dmg it inflicts.
  • Hekatrix (1): Your Wych leader option. She can take all sorts of goodies. A blast pistol provides much needed high str and armor cracking and an agonizer makes up for her low str by wounding on a 4. You should consider making her your zealot or combat specialist to drown opponents in a volume of high quality attacks.
• Wrack (Leader [Acothyst only], Heavy [Gunner only], Combat, Demolitions, Medic, Veteran, Zealot): due to print mistake now T3 S4 untill Faq,they are the new "basic troop" alternative to kabalites and wyches,and while in common killzone battlefiend they can have an hard life,they are perfect for Arena,in particular a 10 wyches/10 wracks rooster in arena can handle mostly all situation/missions. Standard wrack smash with 2 poisoned 4+ attack so better than any wyches for the same cost,5++ not limited to melee that can be improved to 4+ with coven,or -1 Ap from coven too.
  • Wrack Gunner (2): Beloved Frankenstein with guns,they can take:
    • Ossefactor:assault1,24",poisoned 2+,-3Ap, D1 that make people explode on 5+ dealing mortal wounds on 5+
    • Liquifier: S3 Flamer,-D3Ap,considered great from many and crap from others,strong in Arena.
  • Acothyst (1): better to not make this guy leader,there is nightfiend for leader role,becouse he can hit like a truck. The guns he can take are a poisoned 2+ 12" pistol or a liquifier,both decent,but where he shine is in melee with the ELECTROCORROSIVE whip,aka an agonizer on steroids that deal 2 Damage,and with 4 attacks he will be a pain
• Incubus (Leader [Klaivex only], Combat, Veteran, Zealot): Power Armoured Space Ninja Elves with a giant 2 hand sword,not great not bad,they smash 3 S4 -3Ap attacks a turn,every roll to wound of 6 make each attack D1+2,they can incapacitate/shaken low Ld injured models due to -1 malus from incubi mask
  • Klaivex (1): The true pearl,is time to remove the dust from your old converted demi klaivex and let it spill some blood. He is a 4A 2W incubus,that a lot for 16pts and this make great psiker killer,he can survive the mindbullet and after wreck the big brain. You wanna make if combat/veteran or zealot for absolute rapefest,keep a specialism for him,too expensive to be leader.
• Mandrake (Leader [Nightfiend only], Combat, Scout, Veteran, Zealot): Naked ninja space elves with S4 -1Ap 3 attacks in melee,great against GeQ,but they can also shoot assault 2 18" S4 -1 AP HADOUKEN that deal mortal on 6 to wound,3 can be teleported and rape almost anything with 6 of theese hits,great for killing marine/deathwatch leader and source of CP in army based ones. NIghtfiend is the new leader for excellend,being -1to be hit always and with a 5++ is always better than the useless kabalite leader,and this let hekatrix and Axolist free to go around and wreck faces.
• Grotesque (Combat, Demolitions, Zealot): Your minotaur from BB,he will give the same feeling by rolling many dice and wreck almost everything,but without the brain damage of BB. Point wise is not competive,as he is at least 8 pts too expensive for what he can do,but is very fun and a great DISTRACTION CARNIFEX for the enemy,also as the cheaper klaivex,he is good to kill psikers due to being multiwound.

DE Commanders

• Archon (Commander):[ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Succubus (Commander):[ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
  • Vysa Kharavyxis: Interesting for a campaign (although just go logistics) but shit for matched play, you’re welcome for wasting £15 so you may known the horrible truth.
    • Succubus Specalism:
      • Level 1: Dancing With Death +1 Atk for each flesh wound: okay but by the time you have flesh wounds things are quite rough and won’t take effect for some time given she has 5 W.
      • Level 2: Back From the Dead Re-roll casualty rolls: kinda useful but not in the actual game
      • Level 3: Gladiatrix When you use Duel for Honour tactic on a 2+ (D6) +1 CP: very good, but doesn't make up for lvls 2 and 4 being useless on the actual battlefield.
      • Level 4: Talent Scout If after the game the model is decided to be dead you D6 for every specialist this model took out of action, on a 5+ +1 morale: FUCKING GARBAGE, useless until your dead and then its not even +1 resource of your choice (although that wouldn’t make much sense), what if I have lots of morale. It is quite possible this ability will do nothing for your campaign.
• Haemonculus (Commander): The only thing that makes him worth it is his tactic Master of Pain, an aura that gives +1 to toughness for all friendly models within 6". It would be better if he had the strategist specialism for that CP that the tactic costs. Probably the better choice is giving him Fortitude, if you make him level 3 with +1 toughness, halving damage and 6+++ (rerolling 1s) plus the tactics, he can be a good support commander with Toughness 6(!) -each time you use the tactic- on the front surrounded by wyches (in fact if you get +1 Toughness cause the Combat Drugs you're having hyperdoped Toughness 5 Wyches). However, I don't know if 50pts (55pts with the ichor inyector) for a commander that needs 1CP for turn and with 5+/6+++(rerolling 1s) save is worth it, as he's nothing special on melee and shooting, although you can let him at level 2 for having 15 more pts. Also, instead of sending him to the front you can keep him among your shooters for protecting them (the -1 to injury rolls for a friendly model tactic is tasty).

DE Tactics

• [Core] Fire and Fade (1CP): A unit can immediately move up to 7" after they've fired in the Shooting phase. Positioning is key in Kill Team. You can use it as an equivalent to a consolidation move in the shooting phase after killing an enemy, or to redeploy to safety after having exposed yourself for shooting, like when using the short-ranged Shredder.
• [Core] Cruel Deception (1CP): Use this after one of your models fall back so it can still shoot in this battle round.

• You have to take you enemy's actions into consideration. Remember falling back doesn't specify a direction - you can fall back forwards, towards the enemy, and get them in your crosshairs from cover, while the rest of your team handles the guy you fell back from.

• If you have the initiative...
  • ...and the enemy lacks a gun, you'll shoot them the next phase, unless they successfully charge back at you and you don't kill them in overwatch (if you are allowed to overwatch, as models that fell back can't react, but this enables your model to "shoot in the battle round", not necessarily just in the shooting phase - it's not yet a 100% clear). So nothing changed and you lost both CP and the initiative.
  • ...and the enemy has a gun, they might ready themselves, so you better also have a Readied model that can kill this enemy would-be-shooter before it kills the model you just moved.
  • ...and the enemy moves away from your fall back move, it'll be very easy for it to get out of range of a grenade or blast pistol, so this isn't a good way to use those.
• If you go second...
  • ...and the enemy both stays and lacks a gun, then you fall back and shoot it with yours. Preferably fall back in a position where the rest of the enemy team can't easily kill you, because you'll shoot second.
  • ...and the enemy both stays and has a gun, then you better also have a Readied model that can kill this now-open enemy before it kills the model you just retreated.

• [Core] Torment Grenade (2CP): If a unit hits an enemy with a phantasm grenade launcher, roll a 3D6 in addition to the -1Ld. If the result is higher than their Leadership stat, they suffer 1 mortal wound.
• [Core] Pray they Don't take you Alive (2CP): -1 Ld for the enemy team after you kill their leader. Some Kill Teams depend heavily on their Leader, like IG and Tyranids. Twist the knife! Some teams have ways to lessen Nerve tests, so you'll need to supplement it with Phantasm launchers to shaken as many enemies as possible.
• [Noose] Bloodied Grace (1 CP): Use when a Wych is consolidating in the fight phase. She can consolidate up to 6".
• [Noose] Architect of Pain (1 CP): At the start of the round, a selected unit treats the round count as 1 higher for the purposes of determining Power from Pain bonuses.
• [Noose] Lightning-Fast Reactions (1 CP): Use when an enemy targets one of your models in the Shooting or Fight phase. Until the end of the phase, enemies subtract 1 from hit rolls targeting that model.
• [Noose] Hyperstimm (1 CP): At the start of the round, select a unit with the Combat Drugs rule. The bonus received from Combat Drugs is doubled, but at the end of the round, roll a d6- that model takes a mortal wound on a 1.
• [Noose] Murderous Rivalry (2 CP): At the start of the Fight Phase, choose 2 models from your kill-team that ended their charges within 4" of each other. You may resolve their attacks before any other player selects a model to fight with. Wyches are mean in melee as it is, and being able to activate two at once before anyone else gets to fight is a big deal.
• [Noose] Hunt From the Shadows (1 CP): If a model from your Kill-Team is targeted in the shooting phase and that model is obscured, it adds 1 to its saving throws.
• [Noose] Profane the Ruins (1 CP, Death World Forest Killzone): At the start of the round, choose an Eldrich Ruin. Any model from your Kill-Team within 1" of the ruin treats the round as being 1 higher for the purposes of Power From Pain.
• [Elites] From Out of the Shadows (Reserve) (1CP): Use at the end of the movement phase, bring in up to 3 Mandrake models from reserves anywhere more than 5" from an enemy
• [Annual] The Taste of Pain (1CP): Use thisTactic when a model from your kill team suffers a flesh wound. Until the end of that phase, add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of that model, and ignore the penalty to that model’s hit rolls from any flesh wounds it has suffered

DE Commander Tactics

• [Commanders] Master of Pain (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the round if you have a non-Shaken Haemonculus. Gains an aura that adds 1 to the toughness of all allied models within 6" of this model, which lasts until the start of the next round.
• [Commanders] Overlord (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the Shooting phase if you have an Archon. Until the end of the battle round, as long as the model is not shaken. Friendly models within 6" of this model can reroll hit rolls of 1.
• [Commanders] Bride of Death (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the Fight phase if you have a Succubus. Until the end of the battle round, as long as the model is not shaken. Friendly models within 6" of this model can reroll hit rolls of 1.
• [Vysa] Acrobatic Leap (1 CP): Use the tactic when you choose a Succubus to move in the movement phase. For the duration of the phase, that model can move as if it could Fly. (Included in Drukhari Commander Box)
• [Vysa] Dark Majesty (Aura) (1 CP): Use the tactic at the start of a battle round if you have a commander. Commander gains this aura until the end of the battle round: as long as this model is not shaken, models from your kill team within 6” of this model ignore the penalty to their hit rolls from one flesh wound they have suffered. (Included in Drukhari Commander Box)

DE Strategies

DE Strategies:

• Leadership:* If you are playing League/campaign games, you'll be getting access to a plethora of leadership-nerfing potential. To start with, between Phantasm Grenades, Pray they dont Take You Alive and Mantle of Agony you will be forcing enemies to a -3 on round 5, which will reduce most enemies to 4Ld. In a League, you also get Vox ghost on your coms, which aplies a flat -1 to all models, as well as tactics on both your Veteran and Leader, allowing you to push this a further -3. putting space marines on 1 leadership means you're guaranteed to break them, which is a win by default in Sweep and Clear as well as Terror Tactics. You're not likely to get this scale of penalties in most games, but keep all of your ressources in mind, because breaking an enemy on turn 2 or 3 usually guarantees a victory. To this end, you'll want to snipe out enemy leaders, and keep your comms alive and hidden, and put your Sybarite/Hekatrix in a position to put Phantasm grenades on enemies every turn. If you have a chance to kill an enemy leader in combat (Especially Guard, Tau, or other Eldar who don't have strong T/Sv) then make sure you save the 2 CP you need to pull this off. In a Wych-centered Kill team this is the one big advantage you need to press if you want to beat strong opponents, since you don't have the high-ap weapons to take out hard targets.
• Shooting Denial:* Your toughest elves have a 5+/6+++ in shooting or a 6+/4++/6++ in melee, so you need to be keenly aware of 2 things at the start of every game: The blindspots of your heavy weapons, and those of your opponent. Against Heavy Bolters, Hotshot Vollyguns, and other rate of fire weapons you are going to be mowed down if you end in their path without having (multiple) solutions to taking them out first. Against High-damage High-AP weapons you should expect to lose model a turn if you stay in their line of sight. There are several solutions to this.
  • if the opponent is reliant on CPs to keep their heavy weapons fed with tactics, keep your troops out of LOS as much as you can, and try to force them to use other tactics before they use them on their HW (Forcing an opponent to move troops out of position and take Decisive shots, for example). **You can either take a long push around the HW's killzones, and harass or kill them, while the rest of your forces are fully concealed, or keep your forces fully concealed until they would need to push out of cover (right before end of the game, or when you have enough troops left that losing a few troops wouldn't prevent you from holding objectives).
  • If the enemy HW is in a position too entrenched to flank, and can still see your forces, ignore it entirely and focus on taking out secondary targets I.E. That heavy bolter might be a problem, but the flamer/plasmagun that is trying to flank me is easier prey so, so I'll put everyone in cover and deal with the other threat until the HB is vulnerable or isolated.
  • The fourth option is to see the Leadership section above, Heavy Weapons and Snipers tend to be the first targets to break, since they like to be isolated in the back far from much support, breaking the forward section of an enemy kill-team will usually result in the heavies running.
• Area Denial:* Darklight Weapons and Shredders are some of the scariest weapons in the game, due either to their high Str+AP combo, or high number of shots with decent AP/Str. Some of the best uses for them are keeping enemies out of regions of the board you need to control, or "flushing" enemies out of entrenched positions. Dark Lances are great for keeping enemy infantry from moving up exposed terrain, and have the impeccable ability to instant-kill most targets that they can hit, which makes veteran players nervous about moving their specialists into windows and streets where they can be hit. Taking Decisive shots first turn to keep enemy special weapons out of windows gives you great control over the rest of the game, especially against killteams that rely on static gunline tactics. The Shredder is excellent tool for forcing enemies to move, especially when the user has the initiative, or uses adaptive tactics or decisive shot. Pushing a shredder into an occupied building forces the opponent to either ready all the models inside, in which case a decisive shot can eliminate an important enemy (or a cluster of lighter enemies) or for the occupiers to leave the building. If you don't have the initiative, Shredders are best used to punish unreadied enemies, since the 12-inch threat range can be expanded quickly due to deldar's faster than average movement. Again, the shredder is a good target for decisive shots, or any of the veteran's tactics in this situation. TL;DR Darklances are terrifying, so use them to keep enemies out of annoying places, and Shredders are excellent at punishing unprepared targets, or forcing enemies to relocate.

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

DE Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• Example one:10 models, 100 pts
  • Sybarite with Splinter Rifle (Leader), 8 pts
  • Hekatrix with Blast Pistol, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Power Sword (Zealot), 14 pts
  • Kabalite Gunner with Dark Lance (Sniper), 12 pts
  • Kabalite Gunner with Shredder (Comms), 9 pts
  • 3x Wych Fighers, with 1 each of Hydra Gauntlets, Razorflails, Shardnet & Impaler, 33 pts
    • NB: Razorflails and Hydra Gauntlets are almost identical mechanically, but the Wych box only gives you one of each, so if you've got more than one box, feel free to swap for whatever's the coolest in your opinion
  • 3x Wych, 24 pts

The Sybarite should sit in the back with the two Kabalite Gunners and play a ranged game. Your Hekatrix should use your mob of Wychs as mobile, stabby cover as it advances on your opponent's VIPs (e.g. Rail Rifles or other "delete button" units)

• Example two anti-marine list:10 models, 100 pts
  • Sybarite with Splinter Rifle (Leader), 8 pts
  • Hekatrix with Blast Pistol, Agonizer, 13 pts
  • Kabalite Gunner with Dark Lance (Sniper), 12 pts
  • Kabalite Gunner with Blaster, 11 pts
  • 3x Wych Fighers,each with Hydra Gauntlets, one can be Specialist (Zealot) or (Combat) 33 pts
    • NB: Shardnet & Impaler-Zealot-Fighter theoretically is better against Marines,one can be swapped,.
  • 2x Wych, 16 pts
  • Kabalite with Splinter Rifle (Comms), 7 pts

The leader sit in the back taking points and generating CP,Blaster mid Field keeping safe wyches from tactical fall back and trying to harass enemy Specialist/VIPs,Comm should stay in range(7+6=13") of both blaster and dark lance to help when needed. Always remember to charge your targhets with 2-3 wyches to be sure to kill em,personally i usually move em in 2 small groups, first one hekatryx and 2 wych,while second one the 3 Fighter wyches.

• Example three anti-GeQ list:10 models, 97 pts
  • Sybarite with Splinter Rifle (Leader), 8 pts
  • Hekatrix with Splinter Pistol, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Power Sword (Zealot), 12 pts
  • Kabalite Gunner with Splinter Cannon (Sniper), 11 pts
  • Kabalite Gunner with Shredder, 9 pts
  • 3x Wych Fighers,each with Hydra Gauntlets, one can be (Combat) 33 pts
    • NB: Shardnet & Impaler theoretically can be better against Geq,but you dont reroll wound,it is a risk.
  • 3x Wych, 24 pts

3pts left, you can add a nice power sword to your leader,or blast pistol,you choose.

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Harlequins

Why Play Harlequins

• Pros
  • One of the most mobile factions in the game, moving fast and ignoring terrain and models.
  • Hit like an absolute truck in melee.
  • Harlequins may be a one-trick pony in Kill Team, but they do that one trick very well. Knowing what you're going to do doesn't do your opponent much good if he still can't hit or otherwise stop your murder clowns from the closing the distance, and certain factions will be scared shitless of that.
  • You have a 3d6 charge. This is Very Important.
  • Plenty of commanders to choose from.
  • They're clowns.
• Cons
  • Ironically, the mercurial and unpredictable Harlequins are one of the most predictable factions in Kill Team. With only one unit choice and one with very limited options, Harlequin teams will inevitably all look and play pretty much the same, dashing through cover to get into close combat. Most opponents will know what you're about (and how to counter you) as soon as your murder clowns hit the table.
  • No long-range weapons on any standard units. In fact, no ranged weapons at all on standard units except pistols. The Death Jester is the only unit you have with halfway decent range, and you can't use one on missions that don't allow the use of Commanders.
  • Harlequins may be ridiculously hard to hit but will fall apart under any kind of concentrated fire that does manage to connect. If they can't hit first and hit hard things will go poorly.
  • They're clowns.

HAR Special Rules

• Flip Belt: Models with this rule can move across other models as if they were not there, and can climb all vertical distances (up or down) without penalty -do not measure the distance moved in this way. In addition, they never suffer falling damage, and never fall on another model. If it would, instead place the model as close as possible to the point where it would have landed. This can bring it within 1" of an enemy model. Different to the Revier Graphnel launcher, this allows Harlequins to ignore vertical distances at ALL times, not just when moving normally. Now who's batman!?
• Holo-suit: This model has a 4+ invulnerable save. Amazing against kill teams packed with -AP 1 or higher weapons, or a few high damage attacks (meltaguns, power fists etc), 50% of attacks will just bounce off. Weight of firepower, and Smites, will still ruin your day however.
• Rising Crescendo: Can roll 3D6 instead of 2D6 for the model when making a charge roll, and may choose an enemy model within 18" of this model as the target of a charge, rather than 12". Those frag cannons and flamers can't overwatch you if you start your charge out of range, and with this ability you can do that AND still make that charge!

HAR Faction Attributes

• Midnight Sorrow - The Art of Death: Fall back an additional D6". Consolidate up to 6"
• Veiled Path - Riddle-Smiths: At the start of each Fight phase, roll 2 dice and discard the highest die. Any time an opponent rolls a hit roll that matches the remaining die (before any modifiers) the hit roll fails.
• Frozen Stars - Hysterical Fury: You can make one additional attack in the fight phase with a model in your kill team if it charged, was charged, or made a pile-in move granted by the Heroic Intervention Commander Tactic in that battle round.
• Soaring Spite - Serpent's Brood: Models in your kill team treat all pistol weapons as Assault 1 during a battle round in which they advanced. They also don't suffer a penalty to their hit rolls for shooting assault weapons during a battle round in which they advanced.
• Dreaming Shadow - Sombre Sentinels: -1 from nerve tests and when a model is taken out of action, roll a d6. On a 4+ they can make a shooting with 1 weapon or make a single melee attack.
• Silent Shroud - Dance of Nightmares Made Flesh: -1 to Ld of enemies within 3". In addition, whenver an enemy with 3" takes a nerve test, they must roll 2 dice and discard the lowest.

HAR Ranged Weapons

• Fusion Pistol: The infamous meltagun in 6" pistol form, the fusion pistol will make sure whatever it is aimed at goes out of action. This short range however, coupled with your 3D6 charge distance means you will most likely find yourself having charged into combat, which means you will be shooting your pistol into combat as well (unless you get counter-charged). And most people are unlikely to want to go another round with you. It does have it uses in conjunction with "Cegorach's Jest".
• Neuro Disruptor: A pistol with -3 AP and D3 damage, and now Str 4 once again, so it can wound fairly reliably now. It has a better range than the fusion pistol, but then again you're charging 9/10. And if you do end up in Melee able to shoot, a fusion pistol is more reliable.
• Shuriken Pistol: Free and none the worse for it, the shuriken pistol is a good cheap option if you get stuck in Melee, with a chance to cause -3 on a wound roll of a 6+. Don't expect to use it much beyond this, unless you really need to hold onto an objective away from the action.
• Plasma Grenade: Free to all Players, though limited to one being thrown per phase, the Str 4 and -1 AP makes these grenades much better than the Shuriken pistol, but unusable in Melee. They can however, be quite useful if you ever need to Overwatch, and because they do not suffer the penalty for Long range like all grenades, they are more reliable to shoot with too.

HAR Melee Weapons

• Harlequin's Blade: Standard Free Melee weapon, does not add anything to a Player, just helps keep them cheap. Str 3 will struggle to wound anything though, even with 4 attacks, so probably best to upgrade if you have the points
• Harlequin's Embrace: +1 Str and -3 AP, this will let you do work on the battlefield, ignoring most armour on the battlefield or reducing it to a 6+. Whether this is better or worse that a Caress depends on your local meta. It is however the cheapest of the upgraded Melee weapons
• Harlequin's Caress: +2 Str and -2 AP, means most people will still get some sort of save, but the trade off is you will wound most targets on a 3+. (Or 4+ against Plague Marines). More expensive then the Embrace, it is better in certain circumstances.
• Harlequin's Kiss: At +1 and -1, but with Damage D3, this weapon is the Harlequins only combat option when taking on multi-wound models like Primaris and Tyranid Warriors. As the most expensive Melee weapon, it can be hard to justify, but with how multiple damage works vs the injury chart, it can guarantee whoever you stick with it stays down.
• Power Sword: Exclusive to the Troupe Master, inferior to the Embrace but a couple of points cheaper.

HAR Psychic Powers

• Fog of Dream (Warp Charge 5): Grants enemy model within 12" -1 to hit.
• Webway Dance (Warp Charge 7): Grants friendly models within 6" FnP on a 6+. If they already have FnP, they can re-roll FnP rolls of 1.
• Mirror of Minds (Warp Charge 7): Choose an enemy model within 12" and you and your opponent roll a D6. If you win (or if you tie) the enemy model suffers a mortal wound. Repeat until you fail or the enemy model dies.

HAR Unit

• Player (Leader, Combat, Medic, Scout, Veteran or Zealot): The only model available to Harlequins, the Player is still very impressive, with a 4+ invulnerable, 8" movement, and a massive 4 Attacks! At 12 points per model, it is expensive, and with a Strength and Toughness 3, you're going to struggle to wound and be taking a lot of wounds yourself. An upgraded Melee weapon is almost a must, to allow the model to wound on 4+, if not 3+ most of the time.

HAR Commanders

• Troupe Master (Ferocity, Leadership, Melee, Shooting, Psyker, Stealth, Strategist): A Player but more so. 2+ WS/BS, 5 wounds, an additional attack and can take a powersword. Other than that it is a Player in every way down to wargear and abilities. Tactic is an aura allowing rerolls of failed wound rolls in 6"
• Shadowseer (Ferocity, Melee, Shooting, Psyker, Stealth): Only psyker in the army a decent melee weapon if you want to charge your enemies for some reason.
• Death Jester (Ferocity, Melee, Shooting, Stealth): His gun has good range and strength on both profiles, and it debuffs enemy Nerve tests if it takes someone out on top of ignoring bonuses for being obscured. Give him the Shooting or Stealth Specialisms, the others are useless since be shouldn't be in melee in the first place.

HAR Tactics

• [Core/Annual2019] Prismatic Blur (1CP): When one of your units Advances during the Movement phase, this gives them a 3+ invulnerable save until the start of the next battle round.
• [Core/Annual2019] Cegorach's Jest (2CP): If an enemy unit Falls Back from one of yours, so long as no other enemies are within 1", your unit can shoot at the fleeing enemy as if it was the Shooting phase.
• [Core/Annual2019] Warrior Acrobats (1CP): When one of your units Advances during the Movement phase, add 6" to the models Move characteristic for that Movement phase instead of rolling a dice.
• [Core/Annual2019] War Dancers (2CP): At the end of the Fight phase, pick a model from your kill-team who has already fought this phase. This model can immediately fight an additional time.
• [Core/Annual2019] Fire and Fade (1CP): Use after a model from your kill-team shoots in the Shooting phase. This model can immediately make a normal move of up to 7" as if it were the Movement phase. Identical to the Eldar & Dark Eldar stratagem of the same name.
• [Core/Annual2019] Mirthless Hatred (1CP): When one of your models is chosen to fight, use this to re-roll failed hit rolls and wound rolls for the model if its target is a SLAANESH model.
• [Annual2019] Blades of Cegorach (1CP): If you make a charge roll of 10+ for a model (62.5% chance on a 3d6), use this tactic get +2A for the rest of the round.
• [Annual2019] Trickery and Deception (1CP): Use this Tactic at the end of the Movement phase. Choose two models from your kill team (other than shaken models) that are within 8" of each other. Mark each model’s position with a counter, then remove each model from the battlefield and place each model in the exact position the other previously occupied. If either of those models are no longer within 1" of any enemy models, they are considered to have Fallen Back (even if they did not start the phase within 1" of an enemy model). If either of those models are within 1" of any enemy models, they are considered to have charged all enemy models within 1"
• [Annual2019] The Joy of Lament (1CP): Used when an enemy model fails a nerve test in the in the Morale Phase. Any of your models within 6" of that enemy model do to take Nerve tests for that phase.
• [Annual2019] Ghosts of the Webway (Reserve)(2CP): Set up 3 models from Reserves anywhere that is more than 5" (8"?) away from enemy models. All models must also be within 2" of the first model you set up.
• [Annual2019] Point Blank Strike (2CP): Use this Tactic in the Fire at Will section of the Shooting phase, you can chose a model to shoot even if it made a charge move this battle round, but it must use a pistol.
  • The obvious use for this, by the name, is to get in an extra sucker punch with a fusion pistol against a hardy or dangerous target and it is devastating doing that. But being able to shoot on a failed charge is not to be snuffed at either.
  • Between this, Soaring Spite, Cegorach's Jest and Fire and Fade, pistols are starting to become a solid investment for Harlies.
• [Annual2019] Dance of Death (2CP): In the movement phase, pick a non-shaken model that hasn't moved and is within 1" of an enemy model. Move that model up to 2" so that it is more than 1" from any enemy models. You can then declare a charge with that model, as if it was not within 1" of an enemy model at the start of the phase. Subtract 2 from the charge roll.
  • Notably doesn't have any restriction on when you can use this ability, meaning its one of the few ways to prevent tarpits, waste an enemy's charge, escape Nid's Kraken ability, or using your opponents own move to let a more valuable target move into range.

HAR Commander Tactics

• [Commanders] Choreographer of War (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the fight phase if you have a non-Shaken Troupe Master. Until the end of the round, it gains an aura that allows friendly models within 6" of it to re-roll failed wounds.
• [Commanders] The Art of the Kill (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the shooting phase if you have a non-Shaken Death Jester. Until the end of the phase, all friendly models within 6" of it re-roll failed wounds.
• [Annual2019] Theatre of War (1CP): Use this Tactic when a COMMANDER from your kill team is reduced to 0 wounds by an attack. Only one dice is rolled for the subsequent Injury roll, regardless of the Damage characteristic of the weapon that made the attack.
• [Annual2019] Staged Illusion (1CP): Use this Tactic in the Psychic phase when you choose a SHADOWSEER from your kill team to manifest psychic powers. Instead of attempting to manifest any psychic powers, remove that model from the battlefield and place it in Reserve.

HAR Strategies

HAR Strategies:

Harlequins are one of the three Eldar lists for Kill Team. Out of the three of them, the Harlequins have the most direct and straightforward game style. They are fast and good in melee, so to melee they'll go. They'll cross any obstacle, any cover and any height to get there, and once they're there, overwhelm the opponent with a flurry of attacks. After the enemy is reduced to bits, they could run away to regroup or consolidate against the next target. However, the harlequins have to deal with the WORST UNIT VARIETY IN THE GAME. Seriously. With the player as the single unit for leader, specialism and regulars, the clowns will be pretty much bracketed into one single playstyle and that's it. At least the Grey Knights got more stuff in Elites, at least the Custodes are strong enough to just ignore their lack of unit variety. The clowns cannot do that, and as such, we need to make a really detailed analysis on their single unit.

The player is a strong and agile unit. At 8" per turn, it's one of the fastest basic units in the game. Combine that with the flip belt that allows you to ignore all obstacles and heights (and I mean ALL obstacles and heights, for the followers of the Laughing God everything is a straight line, which is amazing to take advantage of cover spots most teams can only dream of) and jump over enemy units with impunity, and you are pretty much the fastest team to close the distance between your guys and the enemy. And it gets better. The Rising Crescendo allows you to roll 3D6 instead of 2D6 for the model when making a charge roll, which means you can charge units that are at a maximum of 18". That is just ridiculously good against units designed to counter charges. Flames won't ever be able to counter them in overwatch, and with such a strike range, no unit is really safe from a charge from a blind spot. This is even better when you realize 3D6 makes regular 12" almost a guaranteed deal. Once in melee, their general A4 will really scare whatever they are charging against. Combine that with the zealot or the combat specialism to take that to ridiculous levels. You want better? Use the War Dancers tactic to repeat an attack with a unit at the end of the Fighting phase. If you didn't kill that pesky enemy before, you surely can do it now. With that said, their general S3 is not that great, but they usually compensate their mediocre strength with their melee arsenal. BS3+ and WS3+ means that in close combat they are very reliable to hit their targets, but because they don't have access to a single gun that isn't a pistol, their shooting range is limited to 12" at best. Any team will outrange them, even orks. Once they have to defend themselves, their mediocre T3 and W1 make them a glass cannon, until you look at their invulnerable saves. General 4++ is an amazing save, and will always be used over their natural save (and it can be improved with the Prismatic Blur to a 3+, though it's for advance only). This gives all attacks thrown against them a 50/50 chance of getting in, amazing to deal with single shot heavy weapons like meltas or transuranic Arquebuses. All that stopping power and it dissipates at the flip of a coin. However, this shows one of the big weaknesses of the harlequins: while they can deal damage in melee, they can't take it back. And considering a 100p team will usually have around 5-6 units, each death counts.

The melee weapons available for the players are there to take advantage of the massive amount of attacks the harlequins can do each turn:

• The Harlequin's Blade is the standard and the one you get for free. Not a particularly good weapon considering it depends on the user's strength and has no AP, but hey, it's free. Maybe you could fit another player with this if you have extra points. Otherwise pick something else.
• The Harlequin's Caress is S+2 AP-2, which is really good. This will hurt a lot tougher units like marines.
• The Harlequin's Embrace is S+1 AP-3, which is, again, really decent.
• The Harlequin's Kiss is there if you like to take risks. Really, S+1 and AP-1 while costing more points that all of the above might sound silly until you realize it's D3 damage. And with the amount of attacks a harlequin can throw at a unit, something is bound to get in. This means that it will do massive damage against units with multiple wounds, but otherwise it's better to rely on the other, safer weapons.

Now, the strategy with this is simple. The guy with the Harlequin's Kiss is there to try and kill the leader and/or commander (or any other multiple wound unit) while the harlequin's embrace and caress deal with the other guys. Give the guy with the kiss the combat or zealot specialism to get an extra chance of getting pass heavy saves, and once the wounds get in, laugh as the damage start to amount. Now, the caress is the better GEQ killer, especially if they have an invulnerable save that makes your AP pointless. But what about MEQs? Let's do a quick calculation, shall we? Assuming they don't have the zealot specialism:

• Harlequin's Caress vs Tactical Marine
  • WS3+ means it will hit 4/6 times, or 2/3 times.
  • S5 (3+2) against T4 means it will wound at 3+, or 4/6 times, or 2/3 times.
  • AP-2 against 3+ armour save means the marine will save at 5+, giving the harlequin 4/6 chances of wounding.
  • This basically means that an attack will have 64/216 chance of wounding, or 8/27 (16/54).

• Harlequin's Embrace vs Tactical Marine
  • WS3+ means it will hit 4/6 times, or 2/3 times.
  • WS4 (3+1) against T4 mens it will wound at 4+, or 3/6 times, or 1/2 times.
  • AP-3 against + armour save means the marine will save at 6+, giving the harlequin 5/6 chances of wounding.
  • This basically means that an attack will have 60/216 chance of wounding, or 15/54.

• • Overall, this means the Caress will hurt 16/54, whereas the Embrace will hurt 15/54. That is a very small difference, so you will be the judge of whether or not it's worth the extra point.

With that out of the way, let's go to the pistols. Again, the harlequins are not there to use their pistols at range, they are there to use them at CQC whenever possible. But hey, every bit of power counts, and who knows, maybe you're lucky and actually manage to hit something in overwatch when sitting at the receiving end of a charge. All of the harlequin's pistols are Pistol 1, so a single attack each. They all pack a punch, but even at their best, a single shot is not that reliable. Also, the harlequins have plasma grenades, which are great, D6 attacks with S4 and AP-1, they could do a lot of damage if for some reason you'd rather attack from a distance than charge (maybe you're too close to a flamer and don't want to take the risk?).

Analyzing the harlequin's pistols:

• The Shuriken pistol is the standard gun of the harlequins. S4 Ap0 and every wound roll of 6+ gains an AP-3. Not bad for a free weapon.
• The Neuro Disruptor is S4 AP-3 D3 damage for 2 points. Much better than the shuriken.
• The Fusion Pistol is a brutal gun that will do an incredible amount of damage if it hits. Seriously, this is basically a melta. S8, AP-4 D6 damage. If it hits, it can turn its target into goop. That for 3 points, it's a steal. Be careful, however, as this weapon is 6" compared to the other pistols' 12". In theory you won't ever notice the difference, but it's important to point it out.

In general, you want the Fusion Pistol, but keep in mind that the harlequin's advantage is melee, not shooting. Even if it's just a matter of accuracy, you can fail a single pistol shot, but it's very difficult to miss 4 attacks of WS3+. If you run short of points and you have to prioritize a melee or a pistol upgrade, always choose melee.

The Harlequins have access to three different commanders, which helps them a bit with their lack of unit variety.

The Troupe Master is a buff player. That's it. For 50p you get a 5W A5 BS2 WS2+ Ld9 player that has access to the same weapons and gear the rest of your grunts have. It's decent, especially considering the extra wounds will make him able to take a pounding, but it will crumble fast against units that make multiple damages per attack. The idea here is to boost him with the best gear and throw him to put a smile on the face of your enemies. He has access to a power sword, but it's worse than the embrace. Ignore it.

The Death Jester is your only unit with some kind of range. The Shrieker Cannon is a weapon with two modes, both with 24" range.

• Assault 1 mode is S6 AP-1, with the extra ability of each time an infantry unit is slain by an attack made with this weapon, you can roll a D6 for each enemy model within 2" of said unit. On a roll of 4+ the model being rolled for suffers a mortal wound. If you want to deal with units that are close to each other to boost one another, this is your mode. This means the Jester can kill multiple units on a single attack, making this fucker extremely good against armies that need to stick close to each other.
• Assault 3 mode is S6 AP0. And that's it. Honestly, the Assault 1 is better in every way, but sometimes you have to shoot a single target, so what are you gonna do?

Also, give this fucker the shooting specialism. BS2+ re-rolling ones pretty much guarantees he will never fail a shot. Add to that the ability to ignore enemy cover and the ability to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies with the Death Is Not Enough rule, and you have a winner here. Oddly enough, you want this one OUTSIDE of melee, he has no special weapon to defend himself on CQC.

Finally, we have the Shadowseer. The psyker of the group, it's a mixed unit that could go either close combats or medium range. It's miststave is good, I suppose, but you usually want the psyker out of melee, just in case the enemy can punch you back. Still, S5 (3+2) AP-1 D3 damage with A3 is okay. The weird gun is the Hallucinogen grenade launcher. At 18", its effect is that, if a model is hit by this weapon (and with BS2+ it's difficult not being hit), roll 2D6, and if the result is equal or higher than the enemy's morale, it gets an instant mortal wound. That is really good, though not as useful as you may think. Units with low morale like orks, cultists, guardsmen... are rather squishy as they are, so shooting them or going against them in melee should be enough. Trying to do this against a marine (or worse, a necron) is going to be rather difficult at the best of times. Still, a chance of a mortal wound is always nice, and it only needs to hit, which saves you the trouble of wounding and saving said wound. It could be particularly effective against tyranids, though, considering their reliance on synapse creatures makes their morale very low. It has the option of getting a neuro disruptor, but it's 6p and you might not want this unit in melee, so you do you.

The psychic powers are decent, especially with the psyker specialism. I would ignore the ones that boost the psyker's melee capabilities unless it's already in combat. The only exception is the one that grants it 3++ saves, which are always nice and turns it into a decent Distraction Carnifex, due to its ability of making a lot of mortal wounds per turn. Misfortune is also nice, a great boost for the harlequin's kill of the zealot or for emergency attacks against something you want dead. Psybolt is your classic smite-like attack, you know what it does already. Out of them all, Mirror of Minds has the potential of being devastating, though it's quite random. With a warp charge of 7, you cans elect an enemy unit within 12" of the Shadowseer. Both players throw a D6, and if the harlequin's player rolls equal or higher than the opponent, the target gets a mortal wound. You can repeat the process until the target is taken out of action or the other player gets a higher roll. This is just ridiculously effective if done right, but it depends a lot on luck, so be wary of that. Still, the chance of getting 1-3 mortal wounds in one go is impressive. Great to deal with units with 2-3 wounds, but don't expect killing commanders with this, sooner or later you'll botch the rolls.

Overall, while the Harlequins are very limited in their strategies, what they do they do really well. A good harlequin player will divide and conquer the enemy with their units. An enemy that survives melee and falls back immediately gives the rest of his squad the chance of blasting the clown to smithereens, something bad considering you'll only have around 5-6 units on a vanilla Kill Team. If you start losing units, the enemy might get you through morale, so be wary of that. Against low model teams, harlequines have a decent advantage of hitting fast and hitting like a truck, but beware of necrons. The more attacks they get, the more chances of getting that dreaded 6+. High count teams will try to bait you leaving one particular unit in the open for you to charge, while the rest waits to either survive or for you to forget to consolidate. Remember you are faster than most teams, use it to your advantage. If you can, consolidate by getting yourself close either another enemy unit or getting out of dodge (usually climbing a wall hidden from the enemy). Also, don't get cocky with your 4++ save. Outside of that, your unit is pretty feeble, so spam teams will take advantage of that by getting low AP high attacks on you. Something will enter one way or another, and they will outnumber you.

Counterplay:

The followers of Cegorrah will always follow the same strategy: get up close fast, strike hard in melee, and then run away. Don't let them do that. Stop them in their tracks. Unlike most armies, their general 4++ means that plasma spam and more specialized weaponry is pointless. Either you go for maximizing the amount of shots you can do for each unit, or you go for mortal wounds. AdMech's Radium Carbines are great for this, considering they have 3 attacks of BS3+ on them, which can be boosted easily enough with the comms' help. While you can't do anything about that pesky invulnerable save, something will get in sooner or later, and considering the harlequin's knack for CQC, they will frequently be outside of cover. If the vanguards somehow survive melee, their radiation effect will make the harlequins T2, so you better take advantage of that. The guard could take advantage of their plethora of rapid fire options to lit them on fire after they get close. They won't be able to swarm you, but tey can impair you by getting into melee against your bet dudes. Other units that could spam the clowns out of existence are SM's Missile Launchers, AM's Grenade Launcher, DeathWatch's Frag Cannon, GK's Psylencer, TS's Soulreaper Cannon... Though keep in mind that the Harlequins will try to go through harsh or difficult to see terrain to get to you. Units that could booby trap pieces of terrain are probably effective against them, especially if said trap deals mortal wounds that ignore the 4++.

Also, grenades. Usually they don't do much, but if you have a clown close enough and you only have one shot weapons, it's worth a shot.

Flamers are an interesting proposition, but mostly as support. Remember that the harlequins can charge you from longer distances than your flamer's range, so the best way to hit them with that is falling back with a unit and burning the clown while it's unprotected.

If you want to beat them in melee, CHARGE FIRST. If you're expecting to survive a round first and then hit back you're not thinking straight. At best, they will fail most of the hits and only take one out of your many wounds. At worst, they will kill you and then consolidate on another of your troops. The most frequent scenario is a flesh wound that impedes combat performance. In this cases, charging first with something that can deal with a ton of attacks makes sense. Negavolt Cultists are very good in this case, as not only they can throw a flurry of attacks against the enemy, but also gain a chance of a mortal wound after charging (not to mention they have their own 5++ save, so they are quite protected). Something similar could happen with the Sicarians, especially the Ruststalker. Again, you throw as many attacks as you can, then try to get the mortal wound in. Marines are good in this, considering their performance is not impaired with a single mortal wound, so they can hit back like a truck if they're not down.

Tau have serious problems against the harlequins. The best shooting team in the game will struggle against the best CQC team, on the basis that their invulnerable saves and their fast movement eliminates the biggest advantages the Tau have: range and firepower. The Rail Rifle is too expensive and too slow to be effective, even with the chance of a mortal wound. And their grenades make no damage. And if you're expecting to beat them in melee... A good use of your drones here is mandatory, as well as using the terrain smartly. Consider that you have no prayer of challenging their mobility and their melee prowess, so shoot them whenever possible. You need to maximize your collective overwatch. Get your units un groups of 2-3, so as to not risk one massive overwatch volley and leave the rest unprotected. Get camouflage wherever possible. Use the 6++ your drones give you wisely. Also, the smart missile system is probably the best gun you get against them. Heavy 4 30" with the ability of hitting unseen units, you could wound the clowns very soon. S5 means they will wound at 3+, and their AP0 is irrelevant against the invulnerable. Boost them with markerlights whenever possible, repeating rolls of one is the best here.

HAR Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

With one Harlequin Troupe box, you can put together the following:
2 Players with Fusion Pistol and Harlequin's Embrace
2 Players with Neuro Disruptor and Harlequin's Caress
2 Players with Shuriken Pistol and Harlequin's Kiss
Of course, you can switch around the weapons to your liking, but this combination allows you to bring a full variety of Harlequin weapons for exactly 100 points.

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Necrons

Why Play Necrons

• Pros
  • Necrons will be particularly rage-inducing to fight for factions that depend on taking enemies down fast, since every time Necrons make an Injury Roll to see if a unit goes out of action, there’s a chance that they’ll just be fully restored instead. This ability is even crazier when obscured, and within 1" of a model/terrain that is obscuring. This is a -1 to injury rolls against shooting and psychic powers (c.f. core rulebook p.32). This means the only way to kill an obscured Necron without flesh wounds via shooting or psychic attacks is to roll an unmodified 5.
    • The Resurrection Orb commander tactic raises this durability to near-That Guy levels. Have your troll face ready.
  • With an Ld of 10 Necrons are virtually invulnerable to nerve tests.
  • No bogus restrictions on model counts. Want 6 Immortals? Go for it.
• Cons
  • A Dearth of bodies. Most Necron kill teams will be 6-7 models.
  • With the exception of Flayed Ones, your team is largely mediocre in hand to hand combat, possessing no dedicated Melee Weapons outside of Flayer Claws. While you hit on a 3+ and have a Strength of 4 on most of your zombie robots, dedicated Melee Units (like the above Killer Clowns) will demolish you in hand to hand.
  • While Reanimation Protocols make Necrons stupidly resistant to high damage attacks,we have absolutely zero access to any 2+ damage weapons of our own without commanders (or one extremely chancy stratagem),not anymore,now that lychguard are a thing for the price of 2 Flayed Ones we have one of the hardest hitter of KT,with 2W 2A and S5+2 -4AP 2D they cant be ignored by enemy in any way,they just have to be combat/zealot to stack 3A and maim everything.
  • Don't expect to rack up an impressive bodycount with your killbots fleshwoundbots.

NEC Special Rules

• Reanimation Protocol: Rolling an unmodified 6 on your Injury Rolls makes you all shiny and new. Your guy goes back to 1 wound remaining and ditches all flesh wounds that they may have.
  • Note that high-damage injury rolls have to use the highest result rolled, so you're actually more resistant to high damage attacks: If that d3 attack rolls a 1, a 5, and a 6 on the injury table, the other player must use the 6 result and heal you.

NEC Faction Attributes

• Sautekh - Relentless Advance: If they advance, your models may shoot as if their weapons were Assault weapons (eg. Rapid Fire 1 becomes Assault 1).
• Mephrit - Solar Fury: When shooting an enemy that isn't at long range, the weapon's AP improves by 1.
• Novokh - Awakened by Murder: You can re-roll failed hit rolls in the fight phase for attacks made with a model in your kill team if it charged, was charged, or made a pile-in move granted by the Heroic Intervention Commander Tactic in that battle round.
• Nihilakh - Aggressively Territorial: Re-roll unmodified hit rolls of 1 in the shooting phase if the model has not moved this battle round.
• Nephrekh - Translocation Beams: If a model in your kill team advances, you can re-roll the D6 to determine the increase to that model's movement. If a model advances, it can move across models and terrain as if they're not there.

NEC Ranged Weapons

• Gauss Blaster: 24" S5 AP-2 Rapid Fire 1. Very nice against MEQ and Plague Marines
• Gauss Flayer: 24" S4 AP-1 Rapid Fire 1.
• Synaptic Disintegrator: 24" S4 AP0 Rapid Fire 1. Ignores range penalties and deals a mortal wound on a modified 6+ to wound. Potentially useful for sniping models but needs buffs like the Sniper specialization and a supporting Comms specialist.
  • Alternate take: Don't get sucked in by the "ignores range penalties" note; these are not your sniping weapons. At 24" vs an obscured target, the Synaptic Disintegrator has a 50% chance to land one hit, and a 0% chance to land two. For one point more, the Tesla Carbine is S5 and has a 56% chance to land a hit on the same target, and a 31% chance to land three or more. The only reason to take a this over a Tesla Immortal is to run a Scout or Sniper specialist and even then you should be pushing them forward, not hanging back and sniping. Without access to Demolitions or any other way to modify wound rolls, the only way to trigger those mortal wounds more often is to get in rapid fire range and shoot more often. You paid for your Deathmarks' big boy armor, get in there and use it.
• Tesla Carbine: 24" S5 AP0 Assault 2. Does 3 hits for every unmodified 6 to hit.
• Particle caster: 12" S6 AP0 Pistol 1. Taken with Voidblades.
• Rod of covenant: 12" S5 AP-3 Assault 1.
• Gauss Reaper: Currently only announced, but presumably has the same stats as its bighammer counterpart.,

NEC Melee Weapons

• Flayer Claws: Allows you to re-roll failed wound rolls
• Warscythe: Lychguard and Overlord exclusive. S+2 AP-4 D2 (only multi-damage weapon Necrons get). Lychguard zealots will wound MEQs on 2s when charging with this weapon.
• Hyperphase sword: Taken with dispersion shield on Lychguard. S+1 AP-3
• Voidblade: Power sword with extra attack on Praetorians.
• Rod of covenant: Power sword for with shooting attack. Comes basic on Praetorians.

NEC Units

• Necron Warriors (Leader, Comms, Veteran): Basic troops that come with (only) a s4 -1ap bolter. They're nice for filling out your fire team but not much else.
• Immortals (Leader, Comms, Veteran, Zealot): Elite troop that can take either a gauss blaster or tesla carbine. The gauss blaster is better for taking out armor but a few lucky rolls with the tesla will clear out hordes. High Level Zealot Immortals in cover are some of the toughest bastards in kill team, needing to be fleshwounded before even being vulnerable to death
  • Pariah gave them an extra point of Toughness and an extra attack in exchange for now costing 17pts instead of 16. The full extent to how this changes their value proposition isn't yet known.
• Deathmarks (Leader, Comms, Scout, Sniper, Veteran): Mortal wound sniper plinkers. Synaptic disintegrators don't suffer the range modifiers and do a mortal wound if you roll 6+ to wound. Might have been nice with Demolitions specialist to trigger more often, instead they can take Scout to.... advance faster with their rapid fire sniper weapons.
  • Pariah bumped their T up to 5 and their BS down to 2+ and their points up to 16 - whether this is enough to make them useful isn't yet known but they couldn't be much worse.
• Flayed Ones (Leader, Combat, Veteran, Zealot): Your only choppy boys, these guys have 3 chainsword equivalent attacks (4 with the Combat or Zealot specializations). Useful for objective holding or missions when you *must* kill something in combat.
• Lychguard (Leader, Combat, Comms, Veteran, Zealot): At a cost of 20 points and with a glorious stat line of WS/BS 3+ S5 T5 W2 A2 Sv 3+ these guys are the true killer robots. Their default weapon costs nothing and gives them S +2 Ap -4 and D2 meaning these guys will rip through power armored units, primaris or otherwise wise, like a knife through butter. Run Zealot on one for that sweet strength 8 on the charge so you can hit Primaris on 3+ wound on 2+ and deny armor saves, ripping through both their wounds, all for 20 points. Grab a second one with combat for fun and have them run around the board threatening charges on anyone standing on an objective. You'll have no ability to shoot so position yourself to charge from cover, preferably without line of sight. They will either have to back off, letting you take the objective, or get stomped in melee. If. If you're only bringing 1 (though honestly 5 warriors and 2 lychguard is a great list, distract with the melee lads, while you're warriors shoot everything to death, run the -1 ap dynasty to deal with power armor targets) consider the strength of your enemy, strength 3 go combat, 4+ go zealot, Sisters will love a combat with 3 attacks wounding on 2+ and dealing D2 a piece. As the cheapest T5 model in the game (as far as I know) and with a solid 3+ and W2 your fairly robust and your opponent is going to throw special weapons at you. If you end up in melee you're probably safe, most stuff is going to be strength 4, wounding on 5+, up against scarier weapons you might see this drop to 4+ or maybe 3+ but by this point you will being tying up enemy units that cost more than you, so job well done as a distraction. By the time anyone is wounding on 2+ they're doubling your model cost and you've ruined their day. With the necessity of big scary models with equally scary weapons to get the needed strength and mulidamage, you're likely to kill your opponent through an aneurysm when they have to roll multiple fleshwound die and end up restoring you to full health (queue Trazyn trollface). Like all full metal skeletons you have one major enemy, plasma. While the overcharged plasma won't be as deadly to you as it is to your S4 warriors or to marines, it will still hurt. Plasma is actually scarier than melta to some degree because it's D2. Some more statistically inclined individuals have found that 2 dice is the optimal amount for killing Necrons when rolling fleshwounds, any more and you increase the risk of Reanimation Protical past the point of benefit. In other words if you want to fight guard with your space Tomb Kings, swap out your 20 point Lychguard for 2 10 point Flayed ones, you D2 attacks are sorta wasted on the puny humans anyway.

• Triarch Praetorian (Leader, Combat, Comms, Veteran, Zealot): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]

NEC Commanders

• Necron Overlord (Commander): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
  • Ankra the Colossus: An Overlord with a fancy unique specialism and a voidscythe. Still only has 3 attacks, and the voidscythe brings you down to WS 3+, but by the Silent King, what attacks they are! Sx2 means you are wounding Plague Marines on a 2+, AP-4 means armor saves are basically cancelled, and 3 damage means lots of injury dice to roll.
    • Overlord Specialism: A unique specialty to Ankra, the grab bag of bonuses are focused on making him even more of a terror in melee. Points costs are for the Commander and its wargear, but not Commander Traits:
      • Impenetrable (Lv1, 86 pts): Add 1 to this model's Toughness characteristic. That's T6 for an Overlord. You laughed at boltguns already, now even anti-MEQ weapons will have some trouble scoring wounds. Lasguns and other S3 weapons are now completely beneath your concern. Don't forget you still have Living Metal and Phase Shifter, too.
      • Bloodthirsty (Lv2, 106 pts): Re-roll failed charges for this model. Ankra has no ranged capability and 5" movement, so anything that can get him stuck in faster is a good thing. The combination of two very strong traits from disparate specialism trees will usually make this the ideal level to field Ankra at.
      • Vengeful (Lv3, 126 pts): Add 1 to Ankra's wound rolls for attacks in the Fight phase if he suffered any wounds earlier in the round. It's very fitting for the character, and a great way to punish gutsy pistol users, but with how easily you wound things already, it's overkill against anything with less than toughness 5, and still probably worse than re-rolling 1s to hit and wound a level 2 Melee Specialist would have gotten against those models.
      • Ancient Strategist (Lv4, 151 pts): When you're on the battlefield and not shaken, you can roll a D6 each time an opponent uses a tactic, and get a Command Point on a 5+. Definitively solid, but with only 49 points to protect Ankra with, you'd better spend these extra CP to good effect.
• Cryptek (Commander): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Royal Warden (Pariah) (Fortitude, Leadership, Logistics, Shooting, Strategist): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Technomancer (Pariah) (Fortitude, Logistics, Melee, Shooting, Strategist, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Plasmancer (Pariah) (Fortitude, Logistics, Melee, Shooting, Strategist, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Psychomancer (Pariah) (Fortitude, Logistics, Melee, Shooting, Strategist, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Chronomancer (Pariah) (Fortitude, Logistics, Melee, Shooting, Strategist, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]

NEC Tactics

• [Core] Mindshackle Scarabs (2CP): During the Shooting phase, pick an enemy unit within 6" of one your units and roll 2D6. If the result is higher than the enemy's leadership stat, you can immediately make a shooting attack with that unit as if it were one of yours. Always funny with Plasma Guns. Even funnier with Terminators or Crisis Battlesuits, if you're playing with Elites.
• [Core] Overcharged Disintegration (2CP): If one of your units shoots a gauss flayer or gauss blaster, this improves the AP of the weapon by 1 until the end of the phase. A waste compared to Superior Inheritance, but if you're drowning in CP, it could be funny to combine the two.
• [Core] Prime Reanimation Protocols (2CP): Lets you roll 2 dice for injury rolls and pick the lowest. Ironically, it makes you less likely to trigger regular Reanimation Protocols, and more likely to get Flesh Wounds (which will debilitate your Necrons, which while they're not dead might as well be with enough of them). Complete waste of CP in it's current state - wait for an FAQ. (A way to fix this would be by making it so that if one of the results is a 6, you choose it instead)
• [Core] Targeting Routines (1CP): Adds 1 to to hit rolls against obscured models. Used to be able to trigger Tesla of 4+, now the FAQ has made it so they always trigger on unmodified 6.
• [Core] Flensing Fury (1CP): For every modified 6+ to wound do one more point of damage. Useful against Tyranids.
• [Core] Disruption Fields (1CP): Increase the strength of any model by one. Useful for killing MEQ and Death Guard with Flayed Ones.
• [Scythe] Superior Inheritance (1CP): Use this tactic after a model from your kill team shoots with a gauss flayer or gauss blaster. That model can immediately shoot again with the same weapon. Far superior to a tactical re-roll when shooting a Gauss Weapon.
• [Scythe/Elites] Resurrection Protocols (2CP): Use this tactic when your leader is slain. Instead of removing the model, place it on its side. At the end of the phase, roll a D6. On a 4+, the model is no longer slain: stand the model up again as close as possible to its previous position but more than 1" away from enemy model with 1 wound remaining. If a model is still on the battlefield at the end of the battle after having been resurrected in this way, it is not considered to have been taken out of action for victory points purposes. You can only use this tactic once per battle.
• [Scythe/Elites] Deathless Ire (2CP): Use this tactic when a model from your kill team suffers a flesh wound as the result of an injury roll. It is shaken instead.
• [Scythe/Elites] Assured Disintegration (1CP): Use this tactic before a DEATHMARK shoots. Until the end of the phase you may re-roll the dice to hit with that model.
• [Scythe/Elites] Tireless Advance (1CP): Use this tactic at the start of the shooting phase. One model of your choice from your kill team becomes readied (even if it moved in the previous movement phase) and may shoot in this phase as if they had not moved in the movement phase. This tactic may not be used on a model that is within 1" of an enemy model.
• [Scythe/Elites] Entropic Strike (1CP): Use this tactic when you choose a model in your kill team to fight in the fight phase. until the end of the phase, if this model's attacks reduce a target to 0 wounds, add 1 to the injury roll you make for that target. Horrifying with a Voidscythe. The target's 1-in-8 chance of surviving with a flesh wound drops to a despair-inducing 1-in-27! Watch as your Overlord deletes every model that lacks an invulnerable save.
• [Elites] Hunters from Hyperspace (Reserve) (1CP): Use at the end of the movement phase, bring in up to 3 Deathmark models from reserves anywhere more than 5" from an enemy.
• [Elites] Haunting Horrors (Reserve) (1CP): Use at the end of the movement phase, bring in up to 3 Flayed One models from reserves anywhere more than 5" from an enemy.
• [Scythe] Grisly Trophies (2CP, Sector Imperialis): If your models are the only models on an Imperial Defence Line during the Morale Phase, all opponents with 4" of that IDL must add +1 to Nerve Tests.

NEC Commander Tactics

• [Ankra] Enduring Will (2 CP): Use at the start of the round if your Commander isn't shaken. Until the end of the round, it takes one less damage from each attack (minimum of 1, obviously).
• [Ankra] Vendetta (1 CP): When you first add an Overlord to your team/command roster, you can pick a faction keyword. Then, use this tactic in the Fight phase to re-roll hit and wound rolls of 1 against enemies from that faction for that Overlord. Since your Overlord already has WS 2+ and will be wounding most things on a 3+ or better anyways, this makes for a handy "This thing dies NOW!" button.
• [Commanders] My Will Be Done (Aura) (2 CP): Use at the start of the round if you have a non-Shaken Overlord. It gains an aura that allows friendly models within 6" to add 1 to their advance, charge, and hit rolls.
• [Commanders] Resurrection Orb (3 CP): Use at the end of the Morale phase if you have a non-Shaken Overlord. Select a friendly model that is Out of Action and roll a d6; on a 2+ it is revived with 1 wound and no flesh wounds and placed within 3" of the Overlord but no closer than 1" away from enemy models.
• [Commanders] Technomancer (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the round if you have a Cryptek. It gets an aura that lets friendly models within 6" ignore the hit penalty for one flesh wound.
• [Commanders] Chronometron (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the round if you have a Cryptek. If it's not shaken, it gets an aura that gives friendly models within 3" a 5++ invuln.

NEC Strategies

NEC Strategies:

Why won't you die!?? REANIMATION PROTOCOLS, SON!!

Ehem. The necrons are one of the most infuriating teams to fight against in Kill Team. They don't have the sheer firepower and long range of the Tau, the flexibility of the SM, AM and DE, the melee prowess of the Harlequin and the Orks. What they have, though, is resilience. They are pretty much the best defensive team in the game, in my opinion beating handily Death Guard in that regard. Why?

Because they just won't die.

Ever.

Their Reanimation Protocols means that if they roll a flesh wound dice of 6+, they get restored to full power. This means that, if the unit has been soaking damage and has 3 flesh wounds already, one lucky roll of 6+ will restore it to full efficiency. Even better if your unit is in cover, giving the enemy only 1/6 chance to kill the unit, the same exact chance of restoring it to full health. Those turns and attacks you used to try and kill it? Completely wasted. That mortal wound you managed to inflict? Sucks to be you. Your psyker got an 11+ on their smite roll with 3 wounds? Yawn, better luck next time. This means a necron could suddenly be at full strength at the end of the match, when the enemy's remaining units are wounded or out of commission, giving you a massive advantage. Unlike the Disgustingly resilient rule, it's only 6+ in comparison to the nurglelite's 5+, but restoring a unit from the brink of death is a dick move that will stress the fuck out of your opponents. Also the necron's general leadership is 10, so forget about demoralizing them, they just won't back down unless they are really fucked up or most of your team is dead.

In this analysis I'll talk about the necrons in vanilla Kill Team. If someone wants to update this with the commanders/elites stuff later, please do so.

Offensively, the necrons have a lot of drawbacks. They have a lot of units to choose from, but their gear is extremely limited (no gunners here), and every model is expensive. It's possible to have a necron team of 5-7 units in a regular 100p match, and have your enemy outnumber you by a lot. This means you will need to know your units very well, and also try to analyze the enemy's list to make every unit of yours count.

First, a bit more on the reanimation protocols. Your units don't have an invulnerable save, so with general 4+ save, they are slightly weaker than marines. Try to avoid plasma and anything with AP-3 or more, because that will send you immediately to the reanimation phase. Also, use and abuse covers as much as possible, that will double your chances of surviving. There's also the Prime Reanimation Protocols stratagem, which allows you to throw an additional dice roll for your injuries, applying the lowest result. While this can save you from a dreaded 5 or 4, this could mean that it will fuck up a perfectly valid 6, with the potential of killing you if both of your rolls are too high (can someone confirm this?) (if you roll a 4 and a 5 then yes, you're going to die. It's not the stratagem's fault, per se, but it didn't help you).

Also, the Mindshackle Scarabs stratagem. It's really good. USE IT. Picking an enemy unit and making it shoot against their own team if fantastic. Pick the melta guy and evaporate their commander, or overcharge their plasma and have the chance of killing two units in one swipe. Though you won't be able to use it reliably against high leadership units.

And now, let's analyze the units. First, there's the Necron Warrior. The basic grunt, the Necron Warrior is a rather decent unit, albeit somewhat overcosted in my opinion. Its Rapid Fire 1 gun is 24" S4 AP-1, better than a lasgun by a decent margin, and even better with BS3+, but it's otherwise overshadowed by the rest of the units. Only pick it up if you want a shooty team and you have leftover points, otherwise you'll choose the flayed one.

The Immortal is your better infantry goon. The only one with actual gear choices, they are stat-wise identical to the Necron Warriors (they also have a 3+ armour save rather than 4+, bear that in mind). You are paying for the gun, keep in mind that. The Gauss Blaster is 24" Rapid Fire 1 S5 AP-2, which is good, but nothing spectacular. Tesla Carbines are 24" Assault 2 S5 AP0 with each hit roll of 6+ counting as 3 attacks. In my opinion, the Tesla are the better choice, but the Gauss Blaster should be considered against heavy armored units. The Overcharged Disintegration adds an extra AP to both of them, making them quite decent, but the stratagem is quite expensive. Considering the general lack of shooting power of the necrons, you are going to need them for regular engagements.

The flayed one is your melee specialist, and your cheapest unit at 10p. A team of 10 flayed ones is a scary thought considering how tough they are. Though they are slow, so always run and charge whenever possible. The claws are a decent weapon, with A3 WS3+ S4 (or more if boosted) with the chance of re-rolling the failed hit rolls. The lack of AP hurts them quite a lot, and the strength boost of the Flensing Fury and Disruption Fields stratagems is something, but not too much (it's already S4 and it will pretty much always boosted with the Zealot specialism, so why bother another extra strength). I like to compare them to genestealers, because their function is basically the same: charge the enemy, throw as many attacks as possible at it, kill it, move on. The genestealer is better in this regard by being much faster and having access to multiple melee options, a 5++ save and the scout specialism. The flayed one has over it more reliable attacks thanks to the re-rolls and the chance of tanking pretty much everything through reanimation protocols, plus they can be zealots while the genestealers can't. Genestealers are MUCH better against MEQs considering their AP-3 option the Flayed One desperately wants. Also, keep in mind the Flayed One will be the most fragile unit in your team, on the basis that it always goes into melee, so no chance of avoiding its death on a 4 flesh wound roll. The point of this unit is to scare other units. Two flayed ones will annoy the enemy enough to focus fire upon them, leaving your other slow units to move closer to the objectives and blast them without danger. Alternatively, you could do it the other way around, using your shooting units to bait the enemy and attack them from behind with the Flayed Ones, but beware of flamers and units that can take a flesh wound and hit back, like marines. They are also great to blocking units that you don't want to perform at 100% performance: it won't shoot due to being in melee and will get a wound if you're lucky, so its performance will be compromised. Something that can be very annoying if you are lucky with the flesh rolls.

Finally, the Deathmark, the sniper of the lot. And it's pretty much the worst sniper unit in the game that fits that role. A maximum of 24" for a sniper is ridiculously short, considering there are guns that outclass it for quite a lot of difference. The SM and AM's Sniper Rifle, the AdMech's Arquebus... Hell, you'll have the same range of many plasma users, and the sniper stratagem is considerably more useful on them than on you. With BS3+, you'll probably be shooting at units beyond half of your range, plus cover, so expect many BS5+ rolls. Rapid Fire is nice, especially with the chance of a mortal wound on 6+, but it's just not that good. Add to that it has S4 AP0 and you are struggling to hurt most things that are not guardsmen and orks. Skitarii have 4+ save, Marines have 3+, anti-sniper nids like genestealers have 5+(4+ with extended carapace)/5++, harlequins have 4++... So most of the time you're going to rely on that mortal wound more than you should.

Overall, the toughness of the necrons are balanced by a severe lack of firepower, both in strength and in number of attacks. The enemy will probably outnumber you, so your best strategy is to get close to cover, slowly advance to the objectives, and focus your fire on one at a time. Slowly but surely you'll be able to wither them down, while your units suddenly get back up again. Don't get cocky, though, as accumulating wounds will weaken your units as well.

Counterplay:

Necrons are slow as molasses and don't pack as quite a punch as it seems, so don't be afraid of them. You'll probably be faster than them, use that speed to outmaneuver them. Units with decent saves or invulnerables will have a decent chance of surviving their attacks considering the general lack of AP in their weaponry. Marines, Skitarii, Harlequines, SotA... Pick weapons of 1-2 attacks with high AP to reduce the chance of extra flesh rolls that could give you a 6. Also, about that pesky 6+. Use your superior mobility to attack them from the rear. Eliminate their cover advantage. Use the weapons that ignore obscuring. ATTACK THEM IN MELEE. Whatever in takes, that basically doubles the risk of death by 2. Also, while their general strength is 4, they can only hope to kill something in melee with the flayed one. Take advantage of that. A charge with something heavy will hurt them, having to either back off or counter with their basic attack. Weapons like power sword, power fists, harlequin melee stuff... If it is 3+ or more the better. Against the Flayed One, keep them running and shoot them, and they will fall eventually.

A couple of specific suggestions:

• Space Marines and Co. will use plasma and regular bolters. Bolters are cheap and shoot twice, while the plasma goes through their saves like butter. And in melee, pick your choice, really. Reivers are a good choice for melee due to their mobility and melee focus, plus the W2, something that could be nice in case of an emergency.
• Imperial Guard will use the Plasma Spam, no doubt. They will have to be careful, though, as their low toughness and bad saves means they can't really take that much damage. And keep an eye on the Flayed One, you have nothing outside of Elites that can take a decent attack from one, even without AP attacks. You could also pick long range attacks, especially Reim. You just have to protect him from the flayed one.
• Admech can choose the rangers for the Galvanic Rifle, though they should really go for plasma spam here. Plus, a Galvanic Rifle against particularly annoying units might be useful, considering it outranges the necroms by a lot. They are 4+/6++ so they could take quite a lot of damage and survive. Also, the Sicarians are great to deal with the Flayed ones, especially the Infiltrator power sword variety. Be wary of the counteratack, though, as T3 is not much, and even W2 are not enough against the flurry of attacks one Flayed One can throw at you. My suggestion? Get a Vanguard Alpha, charge with it first, and once they are locked, send the Infiltrator, the -1 penalty to toughness will be appreciated.
• Custodes can take the punishment, really. Necrons may take longer than most to fall, but they will fall, especially in melee. Their lack of AP is their doom here.
• Orks have to move fast and hide behind their cover or their gretchins. Reach melee, use high AP attacks, and watch as the most advanced species in the galaxy gets stomped by dumb mushrooms. But until then, hide and be fast, your toughness is laughable. Burnas may be a decent as well, considering they have less attacks than other flamers.
• Harlequins are in their element here. Their clear CQC superiority and 4++ means they will have no problem getting into melee. Though the reanimation protocols can be annoying, considering how many attacks they can do.
• Tau will just stay in their base and sit there shooting the metallic undead until they're down, necrons can't simply get to them. Maybe combine the list with something that could survive CQC for a while to try and stop the Flayed Ones. Also, don't be lazy, you'll have to move to get to the objectives as well, so something will have to come close to the necrons. Maybe combining their list with the Krootox, to stop the necrons in melee right on their tracks.
• SotA will be able to just walk on a straight line and throw themselves in melee. The problem will be the negavolt's multiple attacks. Their lack of AP will stop most of them, though, so you won't have to worry much against having to throw many flesh wound dice. Plus, the mortal wound they have on the charge is nice.

NEC Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• 7 models, 98 points
  • 3 Gauss Immortals, one Leader and one Comms
  • 2 Deathmarks, one Sniper
  • 2 Flayed Ones, one Zealot

The Comms Immortal supports your Deathmarks, especially your Sniper, so that it's easier for you to inflict those mortal wounds. The Flayed Ones assault anything that comes too close and shred it to pieces, thanks to that +1 to Strength and Attacks.

• 8 models, 100 points
  • 1 Tessla Immortal, Leader
  • 1 Gauss Immortal, Comms
  • 2 Flayed Ones, one Combat and one Zealot
  • 4 Warriors

The Tessla Immortal's only job is to sit on an objective in the back and be a 3+ save - being the only model in your army that can throw two shots downrange at 24", and with Tessla triggering on an unmodified 6 per the errata, he ends up doing better at this job than your dedicated sniping units. As for the Flayed Ones, don'e expect them to rack up a body count against MEQs - between our lack of close combat AP, lack of multi-damage attacks, and the other guy's tactical re-rolls, there's just nothing we can do to get through 3+ armor. Focus instead on using those CP defensively to keep his guys tied up while the rest of your Warriors shamble 5" at a time towards objectives. Finally, if you're playing a campaign consider replacing one of the Immortals with a Scout Deathmark. Scout's nearly useless with a Rapid Fire weapon, and the MWs just aren't reliable enough to make the Synaptic Disintegrator worth trading in either a Gauss Blaster or a Tessla Carbine. But a level 2 Scout with Pathfinder can save you from losing before deployment - if you roll up a Terror Tactics mission against the Eldar without him, you'd be better off just forfeiting on the spot and spending the next two hours in a bar instead.

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Orks

Why Play Orks

• Pros
  • "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
    
  • Recreate the glory days of Gorkamorka!
  • A lot of the things that give Orks trouble in 40K are absent from Kill Team (vehicles, expensive heavy weapons and characters, footslogging distances)
  • Still able to drown low model count armies in CC attacks.
  • Due to the existence of flesh wounds, their low profile and low point cost, Grots are solid troops for contesting, capping, providing soft cover to more valuable units and pouring massed fire into soft targets. For added usefulness, they also double as literal meat-shields that will take wounds meant for more important models.
  • Gretchin Kill Teams.
• Cons
  • Orks probably have the worst accuracy in the game. Be prepared to spend whole battles shooting at everything and hitting nothing, or just take burnas- which are still weaker than most flamer equivalents. A Spanner Comms Specialist or the Pyromaniak Tactic can fix this for a fairly reasonable price, but even then you're better off getting into melee most of the time.
  • Still have terrible saves, even when considering Kill Team cover mechanics.

Ork Special Rules

• ‘Ere We Go: Just like in Big Boy 40K, lets all Orks (no grots [except Ammo Runts]) reroll failed charge rolls.
• Keepin' Order: Automatically pass nerve tests on an unmodified 6 for any model within 3" of a friendly model with this ability.

Ork Faction Attributes

• Goffs - No Mukkin' About: Each time you make an unmodified hit roll of 6 for an attack with a melee weapon made by a model in your kill team, immediately make an additional hit roll against the same target with the same weapon. These additional hit rolls cannot generate any further hit rolls.
• Bad Moons - Armed to da Teef: Re-roll unmodified hit rolls of 1 for attacks made in the shooting phase.
• Evil Suns - Red Ones Go Fasta: Add 1 to the Move characteristic of models in your kill team, and add 1 to the Advance and Charge rolls made for them. In addition, these models do not suffer the penalty to their hit rolls for shooting Assault weapons during a battle round in which they advanced.
• Deathskulls - Lucky Blue Gitz: Models in your kill team have a 6+ invulnerable save. In addition, you can re-roll a single failed hit roll and a single failed wound rollin each phase, as long as the attack was made by a model in your kill team.
• Snakebites - Da Old Ways: Roll a dice each time a model in your kill team loses a wound. On a 6 the wound is not lost. If a model already has a similar ability, choose which effect applies, and re-roll 1s when making these rolls.
• Blood Axes - Taktiks: Models in your kill team are considered to be obscured to enemy models that target them if they are more than 18" away from those models. In addition, models in your kill team can shoot even if they Fell Back in the same battle round.
• Freebooterz - Competative Streak: Add 1 to hit rolls for attacks made by models in your kill team for each other model in your kill team that has taken an enemy model out of action with an attack in this phase.

Ork Ranged Weapons

• Big Shootas: free upgrade but with Orky BS 5+ you get what you pay for.
• Burna: free on Burna Boys and auto-hits. A model holding one should definitely be a Demolitions Specialist focusing on the flamer branch.
• Deffgun: Free on Lootas, but again, it’s twice the cost of a Boy. Keep near a comms specialist, and if you're willing to spend 2 CP, a heavy loota can output 2d3+2 shots a turn.
• Grot Blasta: pfft haha but at least it comes with a 4+ BS
• Kombi- weapon w/ Rokkit Launcha: 3 points that would likely be better spent on half a Boy or a grot shield. Only allowed once per kill team as it’s only usable by the one Boyz Boss Nob you can take.
• Kombi-weapon w/ Skorcha: 4 points, and you can only get 1 per kill team as a Boyz Nob upgrade, but might be worth it if you have a lot of Burnas in yours. Quite literally the best weapon the orks have- perhaps with the exception of a buffed deffgun. With Dakka Dakka, capable of outputting 2d6 autohitting + 4 shots that'll hit on 6's. Being a heavy or demo isn't a bad idea here, since the abilities of either can benefit. Unfortunately, this means one of the two best melee units in your force is now locked into a ranged speciality.
• Kustom Mega Blasta: Orky Plasma gun, only available to Spanners; you love it, you want it.. It’s free, so if you’re running a few Lootas, give this to their Spanner Comms specialist. You have a higher chance of killing yourself than the enemy under common kill team circumstances. It's a one shot weapon, you have BS5+ and you'll usually be hitting on sixes. On average this means assuming that your hit leads to a wound and failed flesh wound rolls, you might kill one enemy a game- assuming you don't die first.
• Rokkit Launcha: 3 points for up to two Boyz or any Spanners. OK if given to a Demolitions Specialist. A demo specialist does almost nothing with this. In fact, unfortunately, while a rokkit launcher has a very high chance of instagibbing nearly any model should it hit, this is contingent on it hitting, bringing up the same, one hit per game average of the mega blasta.
• Shoota: Free with 18” range and Assault 2, but that Orky BS means it’s still best to keep your Boyz with choppas/sluggas.
• Slugga: A Boy’s best friend, this grants an extra CC attack (because it’s paired with a choppa) and comes standard. 12” range isn’t that much worse than a Shoota when your battlefield is only twice that distance.
• Stikkbomb: Free grenades for all! The only Ork Kill-Team models that can’t take/don’t get them standard is Grots.

Ork Melee Weapons

• Big Choppa: These come into their own in Kill Team; they’re cheaper than a PK and more versatile than in regular 40K when you know you’re only going up against infantry. 3 S7 3+ attacks are much more threatening in a small scale game.
• Choppa: Free and gives a model equipped with one an extra attack. When your opponent only has 5-10 models and you’re pumping out several dozen S4 attacks in melee you’ll appreciate the extra attack per model. Also viable on Boss Nobz as 4 S5 3+ attacks are still pretty brutal.
• Power Klaw: Classic wound-stripper still keeps its appeal in Kill Team, even if it’s not as much of an auto take vs a big Choppa. For double the cost, you have a weapon that essentially hits on 4s, has S 10 Ap-3 D3d. Is more likely to put an MQU down than a Big Choppa if it hits.

Ork Wargear

• Cybork Body: Gives you a 1 in 6 chance of avoiding a wound, for 5 points. Can only go on two models in a team anyway.
• Kustom Force Field:

Ork Units

• Ork Boyz (Leader[Boss Nob Only], Heavy[Gunner only], Combat, Demolitions, Veteran): More or less the same as in regular 40K, they’re cheap and tough. Likely to be the core of most Ork kill teams. Paying 8 more points for a PK Nob (12 if you want to give him the Inspiring Specialist Leader trait, which you probably do) is a little rough points-wise but keeping some grots nearby to act as cheap meatshields will help.
  • Ork Boy Gunners (2): Don't bother. If you want firepower, take a Loota.
    • Alternative Opinion: Two gunners w/ Big Shootas is only 2 more points than a single loota and generates over triple the shoots on average (therefore making it more likely to actually hit something), and while this can be nullified through stratagems, this can prove costly consideringhow hard it is for your Kill Team to generate CP in the first place. If your opponent is bringing targets with a lower armour save, you may actually find yourself doing more damage with these guys rather than the Loota build. However, this only applies under circumstances, and as such should only be taken if the Loota option seems too costly or redundant.
  • Boss Nob (1): Cheaper but less customizable than the Nobs taken from the Nob sheet, and he still gets the all important Power Klaw. Even if you skip the Klaw, he can pull his weight pretty well with the standard slugga/choppa. He's strong, he's got two wounds, and he's cheap; never leave home without one.
• Kommandos (Leader[Kommando Boss Nob Only], Combat, Demolitions, Scout, Veteran): Getting an improved cover save in a 40K system where cover matters again are decent for 2 points more than a Boy, with the ability to take a PK Nob that gets the same benefit. The extra inch of movement is a nice bonus as well. A Kommando Nob would be a good choice for the Scout specialist role: a level 3 Scout tactic gives you essentially a deepstriking PK that can set up 3” from an enemy model. Need to assassinate a Specialist? He still gets that good cover sav and is also our most durable character so maybe invest in a gretchin or two to take and hold an objective.
  • Kommando Boss Nob (1): Unfortunately the most limited Nob in terms of wargear options, but as mentioned above his better movement and improved cover save make him your most reliable PK delivery system.
• Burna Boyz (Comms[Spanner only], Leader, Combat, Demolitions, Veteran, Zealot): Auto-hitting flamers in a game of close quarters makes them more desirable than in regular 40K. Your opponents will want to keep out of their range so sticking them in cover makes for a dangerous objective holder, especially if one is a Demolitions Specialist with Pyromaniac. Plus, upgrading one to a Spanner gives you the option of making him a Comms specialist. Twice the cost of a Boy, though. On top of that, with paper armor and a flamer that only has 1d3 hits, their effectiveness is questionable at best. Adding insult to injury, these boyz are the only ones among your force that qualify to be zealots. While the extra strength and attack (on charge) is a welcome option, it would be nicer on a nob.
  • This said tho a Zealot Burna Boy is actually a pretty nice Melee model, multiple strength 5 attacks w/ -2 AP is never anything to sneeze at.
• Lootas (Comms[Spanner only], Leader, Combat, Demolitions, Heavy, Veteran): Probably not worth building a kill team around, but likely worth taking one as they get the same Spanner option as Burna Boyz. A Spanner with the Comms Specialist tree essentially gives one Loota per turn a 4+ BS. Making your Loota a Heavy specialist, use a Heavy strategem to add one to his shots for the round and then use Dakka Dakka for 2d3+2 4+ BS shots. This is the Orks’ best-ranged option by a fair margin, but an expensive weapons platform at 22pts.
• Gretchin (Leader, Scout): Gretchin may be the weakest unit in all of Kill Team, but they are also the smallest in a game with big emphasis on terrain and cover, are dirt cheap, and can even be the team leader (they mentioned the Gretchin Revolutionary Committee by name in the previews, so they knew what they were doing). But their main role is to be a literal meat-shield; every attack that's redirected to a Gretchin via Grot Shield is one that doesn't hit your Nob Boss, and they're as cheap as they are expendable. In actual fact, because the models themselves provide cover, you don't need to use the strategy to gain the benefits- simply place grots between your boyz and the enemy, and you become significantly less likely to die. As a side note, tactically, designating a grot as a leader is not necessarily a terrible idea for an ordinary kill team. This is almost entirely due to the fact that they are small and easy to hide and that boy nobz who are more suitable leader designate die embarrassingly fast when they try to do their job.
• Ammo Runt: This lil' bugger will let one model within 2" reroll a single hit roll for a shooting attack per round. Due to a quirk of how the data sheet is formatted, they also get the 'Ere We Go and Keepin' Order that the Nob gets. Hilarious, useful but probably will be FAQ'd away very quickly. Armed with stikkbombs and nothing else. Also gets +1T and +1S over a regular Gretchin. Always take one of these guys: they cost the same as a normal grot except with better strength, toughness, and a better weapon. They are better with stikkbombs then anyone in your team except Flash Gitz, and those guys have better things to do in the shooting phase anyway.
• Nob (Leader [Boss Nob only],Combat, Comms, Demolitions, Veteran): With the inclusion of normal non-boss Nobz in Elites you now have access to as many fun stabby bits as you have points. That maxes out at 5 Nobs with power klaws, however. And with limited options to protect them you probably want to save room for some Gretchin shields at least. Cybork body will also make them harder to take out but further limits the number of models you can take and an elite army is not what Orks do best. A power stabba costs one point for these guys so you'll almost certainly want the stabbas extra AP value. Also, the Kombi-Weapon is a bonus item that a Nob can take in addition to his normal weaponry; a demolitions nob with a kombi-skorcha, a power stabba, and a choppa runs you 23 points for an extremely versatile model that can roast enemies in the shooting phase and rip them apart in melee, essentially becoming an extra large Burna Boy.
  • Boss Nob: This guy is not all that useful compared to a normal Nob; while he can be a leader, he's no tougher than the average Nob and will most likely die while fighting in melee. If you do take one, you'll want to grab the kombi-skorcha and keep him a few steps back from combat. The Cybork body is probably not worth taking; 5 points is a steep cost for a 1 in 6 chance to avoid a wound. You'd be better off just taking another grot and having it stand in front of him instead.
• Meganob: 42 points base (with gear) is a pretty steep cost for such a slow model, but if you want the last word in Ork toughness, the meganob delivers. While the lack of any invulnerable save makes the meganob seem vulnerable, keep in mind that it takes an AP of -5 to completely nullify his armor save, and he's functionally got the same save as a terminator against ap-3 or lower. With 3 wounds each, a meganob can soak a whole team's worth of small arms fire and come out standing; just keep him away from plasma and melta. And once he manages to drag his heavy ass into combat, he can wreck pretty much anyone in the game with 3 s10 attacks. If you do take a meganob, be sure to spend the extra 2 points to upgrade his weapons to a pair of killsaws, and consider giving him the combat specialty to really get the most out of his melee skill. And for Gork's sake, keep a couple of grots nearby to intercept enemy plasma.
  • Boss Meganob: Even harder to justify than the standard meganob. For +4 points you get 1 extra point of leadership and the option of making him your Leader. You can reach ld 7 with the cheaper boyz or kommando nobz, and a meganob is enough of a fire-magnet without also being your leader.
• Flash Git: These guys really come to their own in the confines of kill team; they punch like a space marine and shoot like a guardsman with a heavy bolter, but with +1 strength in both cases. If you want the best Ork shooting this is the guy to do it, and he's pretty useful in melee to boot. You can take a choppa on one (generally a good investment if you have a spare point) and a slugga on another (it's free, so might as well go for it if you've already given the choppa to a different Flash Git). If your feeling lucky you can take a Heavy specialist to stack Dakka Dakka Dakka, Gun Crazy Show-Offs, and More Bullets all on the same turn for 12 S6 D2 shots in a single turn from a single model!
  • Flash Git Kaptain: A modest increase of +1 point buys a flash git the option of being team leader, which isn't a terrible idea considering his ranged prowess allows him to stay out of danger when needed. The kaptain can also buy a gitfinda squig to increase his ballistic skill to a very respectable 3+, in case he happens upon a space marine apothecary.

Ork Commanders

• Warboss (Ferocity, Fortitude, Leadership, Melee, Strategist, Strength): The Power Klaw is not as mandatory here as it is in normal play; the big choppa's S8 and 2 damage make it a reliable tool for wrecking anything short of Plague Marines. More importantly, keeping the default gear gives you more points for levels, which can greatly compensate for this guys shortcomings. A level 4 Warboss with Fortitude can get a 6+ FNP, 6 Toughness, 7 Wounds and the ability to halve all damage dealt to him. With that kind of staying power, you won't mind that he doesn't have an invulnerable save. Also, an attack squig costs as much as an Ork Boy, and delivers fewer attacks while being stuck to the warboss. Pass.
  • Gitzog Wurldkilla: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
    • Warboss specialism: Gitzog Wurldkilla's unique skill tree, with the following skills.
      • Level 1: Dead 'Ard: +1 to Toughness, built into the statline.
      • Level 2: Redfangz Smellz Yer!: No penalties to hit from target being obscured.
      • Level 3: Krumpin' Time: +1 Attack in rounds in which it charged.
      • Level 4: Loota: If he survives a battle, roll a D6. 5+ and you get a free Materiel.
• Big Mek (Ferocity, Fortitude, Logistics, Melee, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Painboy (Ferocity, Fortitude, Logistics, Melee, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Boss Snikrot (Level 3 Legendary Hunter): Boss Snikrot is the only legendary hunter who combines a hard-hitting statline with a force multiplier ability, and a cunning player needs to take advantage of both to use him to his full potential. A whopping 6 s6 d2 attacks all but guarantee that anything Snikrot hits is going to stay down, and when using the Legendary Skill tactic he really lives up to his reputation as a terrifying killer. The combination of 'ere We Go! and Sudden Ambush ensures that he'll show up exactly where you need him and kill exactly who needs killing. But with only a 6+ armor save and toughness 4, he needs to make sure he kills the enemy before they get a chance to hit back. Deploy him with a few kommandos right in the heart of the enemy team before popping the Red Skull Kommandos tactic and rushing into melee. The amount of carnage a strike like this can cause can potentially break the enemy team in one blow, especially with Snikrots Terrifying Killer ability. Snikrot requires a coordinated effort and a team built to specifically capitalize on his strengths, if you're just looking for a punchy commander, you'd be much better of with a generic Warboss.
  • With the new Dev Commentary he's now not an option in Matched Play at all, as they've made it mandatory that all commanders be taken at Level 1 going against their own rules in the Commanders book.
• Da Red Gobbo (WDDec2019) (Leadership): Limited to Open and Narrative Play Games. If played in a Gretchin-only army, everyone gets +1 to hit rolls and -1 to Nerve tests. At the beginning of every Movement phase he can give stikkbombs to a Gretchin within 3" on a dice roll: if you roll a 1 the Gretchin takes a mortal wound, otherwise he keeps the stikkbombs for the remainder of the game.

Ork Tactics

• [Core] Dakka Dakka Dakka (1 CP):: A unit that's already fired in the Shooting phase can fire again.
  • An absolute steal for what it does. Use on a tooled-up loota or flash git for "Ork Sniping" at it's best.
• [Core] Grot Shield (2 CP): If a unit is within 2" of a gretchin, they can deflect any shooting attacks made against them onto the gretchin instead until the end of the Shooting phase, so always keep your grots close to your important boyz.
• [Core] Krump 'Em (1 CP): When a unit in the kill-team fights, it gains +1 Strength until the end of the fight phase.
• [Core] Just A Flesh Wound (2 CP): When a model in the Kill-Team is taken out of action, roll a d6; on a 4+ that model takes a flesh wound instead.
• [Core] Gnasher Squig (2 CP): At the start of the fight phase, pick an enemy model that is within 1" of any of your models and roll a D6. On a 4+, that enemy model suffers 1 mortal wound.
  • A bit overkill for your more choppier models, this tactic is actually best suited for Grots as it essentially makes them mortal-wound landmines. Use it to potentially get a gretchin out of a bad position, or even just throw the bugger at a reckless enemy model.
• [Core] Mek's Special Stikkbomb (2 CP): When choosing a model to attack with a stikkbomb, the stikkbomb becomes Grenade d3 and adds 1 to its Strength and Damage.
  • An almost complete waste of CP. You trade half your possible hits for a slight boost in S&D on something that is arguably never even going to land a single hit. It also lacks any AP, meaning that if you happen to actually hit and wound your target, it is very likely that it'll just shrug off the damage anyways. ( Can be useful on a demolitions specialist in Arena. )
• [Krogskull] Joyride (1 CP, Sector Imperialis Killzone): When choosing a model that is within 1" of a Galvanic Servohauler, the Servohauler moves with the model as if it was a friendly model. Both models are treated as having 2d6" movement (rolling once for both), may not advance, cannot move vertically, and must end their moves within 1" of each other.

• [Krogskull\Elites] Pyromaniak (1 CP): Use when shooting with a burna; it deals d6 hits instead of d3 hits.
• [Krogskull\Elites] Itchin' For a Fight (2 CP): When selecting a model to fight in the fight phase, gain 1 attack for each enemy model within 1" of the selected model.
• [Krogskull\Elites] Dead 'Ard (1 CP): When a model suffers a mortal wound, roll a d6 for it and all future mortal wounds received. They are ignored on a 5+.
• [Krogskull\Elites] 'Ere We Go, 'Ere We Go! (1 CP): Re-roll one of the charge dice when charging.
• [Krogskull\Elites] Indiscriminate Dakka (1 CP): A selected unit can fire twice for Overwatch.
• [Krogskull\Elites] WAAAAGH! (2 CP): Use on your turn in the Movement Phase. If your Leader is on the battlefield and is not shaken, the whole Kill-Team gets 1" of extra movement and adds 1 to all advance and charge rolls.
• [Elites] Kunnin' Infiltrators (Reserve) (1 CP):: Take up to 3 Kommandos out of reserve and set them up anywhere more than 5" from an enemy.
• [Toofrippa] Shattered Stone (1 CP, Sector Imperials or Sanctoris): If an a model on your kill team shoots in the Shooting Phase, and misses with every shot, choose one of the targets that is within 1" of terrain and roll a d6 for each attack that targeted that model. On a 6, they suffer a mortal wound.

Ork Commander Tactics

• [Commanders] Mega-Waaagh! (Aura) (2 CP): Use at the start of the battle round if your Kill-Team includes a non-Shaken Warboss. For the rest of the round, it gains an aura that allows friendly models within 6" of it to roll 3d6 on charges instead of 2d6, discarding the lowest result.
• [Commanders] Dok's Tools (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the battle round if your Kill-Team includes a non-Shaken Painboy. For the rest of the round, it gains an aura that grants friendly models within 3" a FnP on a 6+ (if they already have FnP, they can reroll FnP rolls of 1). Additionally, at the end of that round's Movement Phase, you can remove a flesh wound for a friendly model within 3".
• [Commanders] Kustom Force Field (Aura) (2 CP): If you Big Mek has a Kustom Force Field, use this at the start of a round. Friendly models within 6" gain a 5++ against shooting saves.
• [Wurldkilla] Duff 'Em Up (Aura)(1 CP): +1 Strength to models within 3" of your Commander
• [Wurldkilla] Breakin' Heads (1 CP): Inflict a mortal wound on a friendly model within 3" of your Warboss, and models within 6" are no longer shaken.
• [Elites] Red Skull Commandos (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the Fight phase. Kommandos within 6" of Boss Snikrot can reroll 1's on hit rolls.
• [Da Red Gobbo] Raise da Icon! (Aura) (1CP): Use at the start of the Shooting phase. Gretchins within 6" from Da Red Gobbo ignore the penalty to their hit rolls for one of their flesh wounds, unless Da Red Gobbo is shaken.

Ork Strategies

Ork Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

Ork Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• Melee Horde (15 Models, 100pts): A straightforward team focused on board presence and melee combat. Keep your hard hitters (the three nobs) surrounded by grots and boyz to soak up shooting while advancing of the enemy. Making a grot as your leader allows you to put your nobs in riskier situations, while the leader-grot can find a small corner of terrain to tuck himself into (preferably with one or two additional grots or a boy nearby to protect him). Any of the grotz (and the ammo runt) can be swapped out for more boyz or vice versa depending on your play style. The ammo runt is mostly there as an accurate grenade-thrower, as you don't really have any guns that can benefit from his re-roll, but he costs the same as a grot and hits harder, so there isn't much reason not to include him. The only Clan Kulture that doesn't work with this team is Bad Moons, but the best would be Goffs capitalize on the melee focus of the team. Evil Suns could be useful, but this team is dependant on using grots as cover for the orks, so you don't want your boyz rushing to far ahead of them. Snakebites, Blood Axes, and Deathskulls all provide defensive buffs for your Orks, but with good placement of your grots the orks shouldn't be getting hit enough to justify the loss of melee damage you can get from Goffs.
  • Leader: (3 pts) Grot
  • Combat: (12 pts) Boss Nob [from the boyz sheet] with Big Choppa
  • Veteran: (16 pts) Kommando Nob with Power Klaw
  • Demolitions: (24 pts) Nob with Power-Stabba, Choppa, and Kombi-Skorcha
  • Da Orks: (24 pts) Ork Boyz (x4)
  • Da Grotz: (18 pts) Grotz (x6)
  • Da Runt: (3 pts) Ammo Runt (x1)

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

T'au Empire

Why Play T’au Empire

• Pros
  • Long-range weapons make the range penalty less of an issue.
  • They can still fire overwatch for each other.
  • Strength 5 shooting as standard across the board means you hit like a cast iron skillet against the head of an abusive husband, and the easier time wounding helps mitigate guardsman level accuracy.
  • You're the only faction in the game with standard units that can fly. (Excluding units introduced in expansions such as Commanders or Elites)
  • You get Kroot via the Kroot Mercenaries faction.
  • Pulse Pistols are now kinda useful in melee and EVERY Fire Warrior & Breacher can take them for free. So as long as they survive the initial charge, they might actually be able to give those ork boyz up in their face a rude surprise. It's a slim chance, but as Ciaphas Cain would say, a slim chance is better than none.
  • Rail Rifles

• Cons
  • Tau are just as squishy in melee here as they are in 40k, and on a small battlefield that's an even bigger problem for them than usual. Fast moving melee units like Sicarians, Wyches, Harlequins, Reivers, Genestealers and especially Lictors will wreck your shit if you don't make maximum use of terrain and fire lanes to keep them far, far away.
  • With one shot that suffers from range penalties with the Tau BS of 4+, markerlights are nearly useless and cannot be relied on to help you hit things most of the time. Additionally, the benefits of markerlights can be replicated by many faction tactics, specialisms and commander aura effects.

T'au Special Rules

• For the Greater Good: The same as 40K, anyone within 6" of a charged friend can Overwatch, models cannot fire Overwatch again, nor Retreat, that phase once they use this ability however. This can be really dangerous because it's relatively easy to have 2 or 3 people at that distance without even trying. Specially dangerous if one of them is a Gun Drone or a Stealthsuit.
• Bonding Knife Ritual: -1 to Nerve tests if another warrior of the same type with this rule is within 3" (save drones). Best used with Fireteams. After the first FAQ, it has now been limited to T'au of the same type (i.e. Firewarriors only bond with Firewarriors, Breachers with Breachers, Pathfinders with Pathfinders and Stealth with Stealth ... that's caste society for you).
• DS8 Tactical Support Turret (Fire Warriors and also Breachers, but the Designers commentary clarified that you still only get one): Not only the Craftworlders can bring turrets. This baby is equipped with either a Missile Pod or a Smart Missile System and is taken as an additional piece of equipment for one of your Fire Warriors. When the Shas'la deploys, the turret does so too at 2" of him, but if their gunner is over 2" for any reason, the turret is lost. Note that the turret is an independent model and shoots as such.
• Camouflage Fields (Stealth Battlesuits only): -1 to hit against models with this. If you combine this with XV25 armor, T4 and cover, Stealthsuits are surprisingly tough.
• Markerlights: A "weapon" carried by many of your units, it can be fired instead of any other weapons the model has in the shooting phase. It does no damage, instead you get buffs when targeting that model in that phase.
  • 1 Markerlight: Reroll hit rolls of 1
  • 2 Markerlights: +1 to hit if target is obscured.
  • 3 Markerlights: Ignore penalties for moving with Heavy Weapons or Advancing with Assault Weapons
  • 4+ Markerlights: +1 to hit.

T'au Faction Attributes

Every model have to be from the same sept for gaining the benefit of a Sept Tenet. The exception to this are the Kroots, that can be added to any Kill Team, but they don't benefit from the bonus.

• T'au Sept - Coordinated Fire Arcs: When a model uses the For The Greater Good ability, or when they fire Overwatch while they are within 6" of a friendly model, they successfully hit on a roll of 5 or 6.
• Vior'la Sept - Strike Fast: Models can treat Rapid Fire weapons as Assault weapons when they advance. In addition they don't suffer the penalty for shooting assault weapons after advancing.
• Bork'an Sept - Superior Craftsmanship: Models do not suffer the penalty for long range.
• Dal'yth Sept - Adaptive Camouflage: If a model doesn't move, it is considered obscured for all enemy units.
• Sa'cea Sept - Calm Discipline: Add 1 to leadership for all models. In addition, you can reroll hit rolls of 1 for shooting attacks.
• Farsight Enclaves - Devastating Counter-Strike: Re-roll wound and hit rolls of 1 for shooting attacks that target an enemy model within 6".

T'au Ranged Weapons

• Burst Cannon: Stealthsuits and Crisis basic weapon. 18" Assault 4 S5 AP0 D1. Classic Dakka option, take 3 on a heavy crisis suit to laugh as you need to find more dice.
• Fusion Blaster: 18" Assault 1 S8 AP-4 Dd6 with fusion shenanigans, basically a Tau meltagun with a bit more range. If you're able to get into 9" of someone, (and with Stealthsuits it's not that difficult) you can one-shot everything. Even Lictors. Remember that for each point of damage it's an additional roll for injury.
• Ion Rifle: Either 30" Rapid Fire 1 S7 AP-1 D1 or 30" Heavy d3 S8 AP-1 D2 if overcharged, but kills you on 1's to hit. Not a bad weapon that relies on its versatility.
• Markerlight: Our dear 36" Heavy 1 laser pointer. Take into account that, due of how shooting works in KT, it's reccomended to use it with Ready men.
• Missile Pod: One of the two options for the DS8 turret. 36" Assault 2 S7 AP-1 Dd3.
• Photon Grenade: Remember that you have them and that only one of your team can shoot it each phase. That -1 to hit on combat is great when they'll get to you. Remember that you can use them in FtGG-induced Overwatch to support those who doesn't have them, like Stealthsuits or Drones.
• Pulse Blaster: 15"/10"/5" Assault 2 S4/5/6 AP0/-1/-2 D1. Having to be within 2.5 inches to use close range without penalty means this gun SCREAMS for you to use Borkan.
• Pulse Carbine: 18" Assault 2 S5 AP0 D1
• Pulse Pistol: Free for Fire Warriors & Breachers, so always take them. It may not give you a good fighting chance when the bad guys get up in your face, but it will give you a fighting chance. Assuming you survive the initial charge. Possibly hilarious if you do manage to score a lucky pistol shot and drop that nasty combat specialist that thought a Tau would be an easy kill. 12" Pistol 1 S5 AP0 D1
• Pulse Rifle: 30" Rapid Fire 1 S5 AP0 D1
• Rail Rifle: 30" Rapid Fire 1 S6 AP-4 Dd3 Each 6+ to wound roll causes a mortal wound in addition to the normal damage. This can occur even on 5+ in the hands of a Demolition specialist (or 4+ if the target is obscured). The tricky part is connecting the shots but thats where Comm specialist and recon drones come in...
• Smart Missile System: The other option for the turret. 30" Heavy 4 S5 AP0 D1. You can fire without sight at 6s to hit.
• Kroot Rifle: The default and only for Kroot Carnivores. Basically a bolt gun with a bayonet to give a +1S in melee. Before errata, could be taken on Battlesuits also.
• Flamer: 'Nuff said.
• Plasma Rifle: 24" Rapid Fire 1 S 6 AP-3 D1. As usual, worse than other races with the changes to 8th ed, but still has some value as an armoured GEQ hunter.
• Cyclic Ion Blaster: 18" Assault 3 S7/8 AP-1 D1/1d3. The tau "I can't believe its not plasma" is one of the more expensive kill team weapons, costing more than a Pathfinder, but hits substantially harder. Combine with ATS and laugh at primaris marines as they get wounded on 2+ with -2 to their armor save.

T'au Melee Weapons

We don't do that here. Shower thought: Cadre Fireblade can order teammates to fire Pulse Pistols twice. This must be tested.

Kroot Rifle: Gives the Kroot +1 S in combat.

T'au Support Systems

Support systems for your XV8 and XV85 battlesuits

• Advanced Targeting System: Increases the AP of your guns by one (AP0 becomes AP-1 and so).
• Counterfire Defence System: Lets you re-roll those sweet overwatch rolls. Is it more valuable than adding another gun? Maybe. But flying units like your battlesuit bros can also Retreat and then still fire in the shooting phase (where you’ll need a 4+ to hit as opposed to just 6s for Overwatch), so maybe not.
• Drone Controller: Drones hitting on 4's is pretty scary. When you have enough enough of them this is an auto take.
• Early Warning Override: Lets you shoot at an enemy model which is placed 12" away on any phase, but with a -1 to hit. Cheap way to prevent some nasty Terminator teleports near your super expensive battlesuit.
• Multi-tracker: Re-roll ones when shooting at lots of boys. With all the ways to do that already, less exciting than it could have been.
• Shield Generator: The classic 4++ save. Same cost as the iridium upgrade, combine for your own terminator!
• Target Lock: Same as the XV25 version, you can advance and fire assault weapons without penalties.
• Velocity Tracker: +1 to hit flying models. Amazing in mirror matches, useless against footsloggers.
• XV8-02 Crisis Iridium Battlesuit: Not technically a subsystem and only available on the XV8 but similar. The classic 2+ save. Really obnoxious on a leveled veteran, making the shield generator obsolete against everything except meltas

T'au Units

• Fire Warrior (Leader [Shas'Ui], Comms, Medic, Scout, Sniper, Veteran) Your regular bluie. Able to equip the Pulse Rifle for long distance or the Pulse Carbine for closing in. Of both choices, the Rifle is somewhat better because the Pathfinders are a cheaper choice for carbines, and the drones bring two for less points. And don't forget the Stealthsuits and their burst cannons. Also, take into account that they're still Fire Warriors and their stats are not impressive. Sooo... no, they're better far and high if you can and supported either in fireteams and/or in FtGG! distance. Also, Close Range at 15" with S5 Rapid Fire 1 it's not something that should be ignored. It's also recommended to be the ones to have the DS8 turret because they're the most likely to not to move much.

• Fire Warrior Breacher:(Leader [Shas'Ui], Demolitions, Comms, Medic, Scout, Veteran) Breachers are a very powerful Moderate Risk/High Reward option for T'au. Their pulse blasters normally hit just like a bolter, it self not a bad if average gun, but when within five inches hit like a freight train, hence moderate risk with a higher payoff. With some brainpower you can run around the battlefield as a mini distraction carnifex for your T'au snipers while at the same time delivering some very respectable ordinance. But due to how long range shooting rules works, you'll be -1 to hit at Close Range setting unless they're within 3" (Or you're using the Bork'an Sept).

• Pathfinder (Leader[Shas'Ui], Sniper [Gunner], Comms, Demolitions, Medic, Scout, Veteran) A pathfinder with a rail rifle, though expensive, can become a terrifying threat when mixed with the sniper specialization. Set him in the back to cover your more aggressive units like Breachers, or to simply block off firing lanes. However if you just need bodies Pathfinders are also your best best. Cheaper than a Fire Warrior and comes free with a markerlight its your best option for filling out a roster.
  • A level 2B Sniper spec Pathfinder with a rail rifle, when readied and using the level 1 sniper stratagem can shoot two S6 AP-4 damage D3 shots at 15" while hitting on two's rerolling ones. This is T'au shooting at it's very finest and can take out any model in the game provided the shots connect.
  • Something to consider in Matched Play over Campaigns is a Pathfinder Gunner with the Rail Rifle and the Demolitions specialization. Only Death Guard get a FNP without some sort of janky stratagem, so being able to pump out Mortal Wounds on a to-wound roll of 5+ (or 4+ if the target is obscured) isn't something to ignore. Pair him with a Recon Drone and a Comms specialist Pathfinder and you're set to remove units across the whole board.

• XV25 Stealth Battlesuit (Leader [Shas'Vre], Comms, Heavy, Scout, Veteran): Stealth suits have one of the most expensive base cost in the game at 20 points, only surpassed by the Lictor itself. However they're full of goodies: 8" movement, 2 wounds, 3+ save, Fly, Burst cannon by default and always -1 to hit aganist them. They have mobility, endurance, firepower and only lacking in combat and options, but that's the T'au for you. Take one or two.

• Drones (None): One may wonder why take one of these instead of more troops. Simplest answer is as a source of 7 point flying ablative wounds for your leader and specialists. Beyond that, it depends on which drone you're looking at.
  • MV1 Gun Drone: 2 Pulse Carbines shooting 4 S5 shots a round. Since 6s are auto hit in KT, you gain no further penalty from being both at long range and obscured than you would for either. The second gun makes it strictly better than a Burst Cannon since you can roll on the injury chart twice (two different weapons). All-all-all a 7 point gun drone is an incredibly cost effective source of Fly (which is very powerful in Kill Teams) and 4 S5 shots which can potentially roll twice on the injury chart.
  • MV4 Shield Drone: While shield drones might be central to many strategies in full size 40k, their usefulness is greatly reduced in the smaller scale of Kill Team, where points are at a premium. 7 points for a unit whose only purpose is to get shot for someone else is rather hard to justify, especially when every other drone can do that too, in addition to shooting and/or other special abilities. The only thing the shield drone has going for it here is a save that makes it more likely to handle being shot more than once.
  • MV7 Marker Drone: It might seem appealing to have a source of markerlights that doesn't come from a unit fighting for their life. However, markerlights, since they require hit rolls and you'll be hitting on 5's against most models in cover, are a mugs game. Adding insult to injury, in order to receive benefit from a markerlight, you will need to have shot it first in the phase, which means you'll have needed to ready the model with the markerlight as well, which means you'll be letting the enemy take consecutive turns in the shooting round before you fire real guns back at them- therefore increasing the chance that you'll have less models to return fire. In summary, rail rifles are good, but you have to be rather careful, since being at 15 inches, means you'll be in range of multiple factions that can kill you in a single round of shooting. Splinter cannon sniper dark eldar, Scion's with volley guns and more, all of whom will be perfectly happy to take you out with a decisive shot, let alone return fire during the readied shooting phase.
  • MV36 Guardian Drone: Bringing a Guardian drone is worth serious consideration. A 6+ invuln save might not be worth much, but Tau aren't terribly tough to begin with so any extra save roll you can make for your blue boyz helps, and 7 points for giving everyone in a 6" radius that extra save is a steal. Particularly useful for a team of Breachers.
  • MV33 Grav-Inhibitor Drone: You need at least one pathfinder to bring one of these. Reduces charge distance of enemies within 12" by D3.
  • MV31 Pulse Accelerator Drone: You need at least one pathfinder to bring one of these. Ups the range of pulse pistols, carbines, and rifles by 6", but only for units within 3" of the drone.
  • MB3 Recon Drone: You need at least one pathfinder to bring one of these. On top of packing a burst cannon, it lets a nearby pathfinder ignore hit and injury penalties due to an enemy being obscured. Partner up with a rail rifle armed pathfinder to snipe cover-campers.

• Kroot Carnivores: Behold your one close combat unit! Despite this Kroot aren't really worth it as they will break quickly and they're the same price as Gun Drones and unless Kroot sprout wings they get outclassed
• XV8 Crisis Battlesuit(Demolition, Heavy, Sniper, Veteran, Comms): expensive big ol gundam, NOW CAN OPEN DOORS and be shielded by drones, very fun to play but not a competitive masterpiece; gun options are expensive as hell and easily skyrocket his point value.
  • Following the FAQ, he can become a glasscannon deathstar: giving him sniper specialism, and buffed from a comms, he can potentially be hitting on 2+ rerolling 1s with 3 rocket pod/cyclic ion blaster/plasma/etc....
  • Or can be used in the poorman’s option to save points/cp and give him 3 flamers and demo specialism.
  • The flamers may not seem like much, but on tiny killteam tables you can reliably delete 1-2 models per turn with triple flamer suits because of the immunity to hit modifiers and d6 shots per flamer, as well as the free advance every turn because flamers are assault.
  • Tau plasma have become shit with new edition, but a sniper crisis for 42 points can dish 6 hits teleporting in front of the enemy; not a cheap suicide model, but effective nonetheless.
  • Iridium is a very expensive option, drones are 3pts cheaper but per faq now you can transfer wound NOT SAVED, so an iridium crisis with near a shield drone is hard as a deathshroud terminator

T'au Commanders

• Cadre Fireblade (Leadership, Logistics, Shooting, Stealth, Strategist): An improved Fire Warrior in every respect, most notably his BS2. He's got FtGG like the regular Fire Warriors as well. Note his aura tactic, allows any unit to fire an extra shot with pulse weapons at 1/2 range. Can anyone say 6 S5 shots each from a wall of gun drones?
  • Fireblade Twinflame: A unique Cadre Fireblade (Who'd have guessed). In addition to the extra shot aura the regular Fireblade gets, Twinflame gets a 1CP Aura Tactic lets units around him use his Ld and a 0CP tactic that gives you D3 CP when he dies.
    • Level 1: Overwatch on 5+, applies to FTGG
    • Level 2: Enemies re-roll 6s rolled against Twinflame in Fight phase.
    • Level 3: Friendly models within 3" get a 6+++.
    • Level 4: Can force a reroll when determining whether or not a mission ends.
  • With his BS2+, packing only a Pulse Rifle and exclusive to a game mode with plenty of hard-to-kill targets, the Cadre Fireblade (and his Variants) might actually represent something completely unique in Kill Team: A decent use-case for Markerlights.
• Dahyak Grekh (Blackstone Fortress) (Stealth): He has a good distance and offers plenty of S4 shooting between his pistol and rifle which doubles as an S+1 melee weapon (Which with his S3 still leads to S4). He doesn't give a fuck about concealment obscuring his aim while also making enemies take -1 if they shoot at him while in cover. If you set up booby traps at the start of the game, you can add another one.
• Ethereal (Leadership, Logistics, Strategist): He may be able to take Equalizers for a low cost, but he's not Aun'Shi and should very much lead from the back. You're taking him for his numerous Aura Tactics, so make him a Leadership specialist and take all the advancements that improve those. Hover Drone isn't necessary, but it's there if you need him to quickly move to wherever his buffs are needed most.
• Commander in XV85 Enforcer Battlesuit (Elites) (Fortitude, Leadership, Logistics, Shooting, Strategist, Strength): At 90-100 point value and with an exaggerated profile for kill team, the ability to be shielded by drones, and guns that can kill a Custard per turn, the XV85 is a a god among mortals. Use him however you like. As a hammer in a deathmatch, or to sit on objectives with impugnity or using his Fly and 8" move to clear keep enemies off all of them. He can do it all.
• Darkstrider (Elites) (Legendary Hunter Level 2 Only): Essentially a Cadre Fireblade with a unique Specialism and some slight tweaks. Swaps his Rifle for a Carbine, drops to a 5+ save but gets an extra inch of movement. His unique auras lend themselves to buffing your Railfinders rather than Drones like the Fireblade.
  • Like the Cadre Fireblade, has a BS2+ and a markerlight and might be actually have a use for it, unlike the regular rank and file T'au.

T'au Tactics

• [Core] Uplinked Markerlights (2CP): If an enemy unit gets hit with a markerlight, you stack D3+1 markerlight counters on them instead of just 1.
• [Core] Breach and Clear (1CP): If a Fire Warrior Breacher shoots at an obscured enemy unit, re-roll failed wound rolls against that unit until the end of the shooting phase.
• [Core] Recon Sweep (1CP): Pick a Pathfinder to move 2D6” in the shooting phase instead of shooting.
• [Core] Stimulant Injector (1CP): If a unit (no drones) loses a wound, roll a d6 for that wound and all wounds after that in this phase. On a 5+ that wound is not lost.
• [Starpulse/Annual] The Baited Trap (2CP): Use when charged. Model hits his Overwatch shots on a 4+ instead of a 6+, for the remainder of the phase.
• [Starpulse/Annual] Tandem Hunting Pattern (2CP): Two Readied models within 4" of each other may both fire during the Ready Fire! step, before any other player may choose a model to shoot!
• [Starpulse/Annual] Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite (1CP): Use when shooting with a model. Enemy target gains no benefit for being obscured. (Mimics Recon Drone Ability)
• [Starpulse/Annual] Inheritors of the Galaxy (1CP): During the Moral Phase, if you are standing inside a defense line (wall of martyrs terrain) You may subtract 1 from Nerve Tests. 1 CP covers every qualifying model in the Morale Phase. This is also labeled a Sector Imperialis Tactic.
• [Starpulse/Elites] Neuroweb System Jammer (1CP): Pick an enemy model within 12" That model must subtract 1 from 'to hit' rolls made during the shooting phase.
• [Starpulse/Elites] Focused Fire (1CP): After inflicting an unsaved wound, for the rest of the phase you can add 1 to wound rolls for models that target the same enemy and are within 2" of the model that inflicted the original wound.
• [Starpulse/Elites] Support Turret Replacement (2CP): Respawn your DS8 Tactical Support Turret, if it has been removed from the battlefield. Has to be placed 2" of its original owner.
• [Elites] Manta Strike (Reserve) (1CP): At the end of the movement phase, choose up to three models that are any combination of Battlesuits that are not Infantry but can Fly, MV1 Gun Drones, Mv4 Shield Drones, or MV7 Marker Drones that were set up in Reserve and put them anywhere on the battlefield 5" away from any enemy models
• [Elites] Stealthy Hunters (Reserve) (1CP): At the beginning of the first battle round, choose up to three Kroot Carnivores that were set up in Reserve and place them anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" away from any enemy deployment zones
• [Elites] Stealth Fields (Reserve) (1CP): At the beginning of the first battle round, choose up to three XV25 stealth battlesuits that were set up in reserve and place them anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" away from any enemy deployment zones
• [Annual] Prudent Retreat (1CP): Use this Tactic after a model from your kill team has fired Overwatch. The model Retreats (even if it has already moved in this phase)

T'au Commander Tactics

• [Commanders] Volley Fire (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the battle round if you have a non-shaken Cadre Fireblade. Friendly models within 6" can fire an extra shot with their pulse pistols, pulse rifles, and pulse carbines when firing at someone within half the weapon's range. 4 pulse shots per rifle/carbine, anybody? 'an extra' meaning +1 NOT changing the profile from RF1 to RF2. 3 shots total; think how +strength abilities and power fists interact.
• [Commanders] Failure is Not an Option (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the movement phase if you have a non-shaken Ethereal. Friendly units within 6" can use this model's Ld instead of their own until the end of the round.
• [Commanders] Sense of Stone (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the movement phase if you have a non-shaken Ethereal. Grants FnP on a 6+ to models within 6" of the user until the end of the round.
• [Commanders] Zephyr's Grace (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the movement phase if you have a non-shaken Ethereal. Models within 6" of the user can re-roll advance or charge rolls until the end of the phase.
• [Commanders] Storm of Fire (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the shooting phase if you have a non-shaken Ethereal. Models within 6" of the user can re-roll 1s to hit until the end of the phase.
• [Twinflame] Voice of the Greater Good (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the movement phase if you have a non-shaken Cadre Fireblade. Friendly units within 6" can use this model's Ld instead of their own until the end of the round.
• [Twinflame] Inspiring Sacrifice (0 CP): : Use this tactic when a T'au commander dies. You gain 1D3 CP.
• [Elites] Master of War (Aura) (2CP): This tactic can only be used once per battle. Use this at the start of a battle round. Pick one of the 2 following auras to be applied to your XV85 Commander for the rest of the battle round:
  • Kauyon: Friendly models within 3" cannot move for any reason but get to rereoll failed hitrolls.
    • The ultimate gunline
  • Mont'ka: Friendly models within 3" are treated as if they had not moved in the preceding Movement phase, and get an +1 to hit rolls for shooting attacks
    • Advance with impunity and hope for a decisive strike, but risk getting wrecked because you got too close.
• [Elites] Fighting Retreat (Aura) (2CP): Use this at the start of the shooting phase. Models with 3" of Darkstrider may shoot this phase even if they fell back or retreated this battle round.
• [Elites] Structural Analyser (Aura) (1CP): Use this at the start of the shooting phase. Pick an enemy model visible to Darkstrider. All friendly models within 6" of Darkstrider get +1 to wound for shooting attacks against that enemy model.

T'au Strategies

T'au Strategies:

A lot of people view T'au as a faction that likes to hang back and dish out volley after volley of shots, but this is Kill Team baby. Think of the T'au as fat eldar who can't fight or run for shit and you'll have a slightly better time of shooting your opponents off the board.

Markerlights aren't so next to useless, but still shouldn't be used as often as they are in 40k proper. Consider using them when your opponent doesn't have much to do in the shooting phase to try and delete choice units off of the board; like their leaders, specialists, or units that are getting too close.

Their biggest strength comes from trying to shore up weaknesses by utilizing drones. Need more wounds? Take a shield drone! Need to spam bullets? Take a couple gun drones! The two most useless drones are the markerlight drone (with BS 5+, it's pretty much only hitting on 6's due to cover or long range) and grav-inhibitor drones (but only because they are kind of a niche use thing, too much of a unitasker).

Formations of units are probably your biggest thing to consider when playing T'au, because postioning for extra shots in overwatch and extra wounds from drones is really important to try and stay alive in the fight phase. Nothing sucks worse for a gaunt or guardsman to sit between your blueberry and a drone and pop both in the same combat step. So try to consider how you're going to position stuff to survive the fight phase as best as you possibly can. And remember that your little roombas can fly, so falling back and then spamming gunfire into the fool who charged you is pretty decent. Especially since you get to overwatch again! You can also use the fact that Drones can fall back and still shoot to your advantage by charging a drone into a particularly scary model that has decent shooting capabilities but lacks the necessary oomph to get you in the fight phase. Then on the next movement phase, if they go first then they will fall back and be unable to shoot, you can then charge the same drone into them again to try and tie that potentially more expensive model up. But if you go first, then charge another drone into that model and fall back with your drone. Creating a 7 pt stunlock.

The Pathfinders are a really great investment. The standard unit is pretty weak, with their poor save, but make up for it by being cheap and still being able to wound most all things on a 3+ due to their S5 guns. The real reason to take them is to grab the Rail Rifles and the Recon Drone. 3 rail rifles can be devastating for your opponent to deal with and is coincidentally the number of specialists you can take (excluding your leader of course), so by al means make them all a sniper, a demo, and a comms specialist. If you aren't one to put your eggs in one basket, make the comms specialist a Sha'sui of some kind. Fire Warriors are a good choice for this, especially with the pulse rifle since you can choose to set down a turret and hunker down with your rail rifle bros and take pot shots at weaker units in range of rail rifles that you don't want to waste shots on. The recon drone is almost like giving your pathfinders a second comms specialist to play with, but just be sure that you use the bonus on a readied model since declaration of the bonus is at the start of the shooting phase and you don't want that guy to have to wait through a whole round of shooting before he gets a chance to shoot, because there'll be a good chance he'll be dead. The recon drone is also great because they have 2 wounds! Which translates to one of your models taking a free hit off of a multi-damage weapon- since it just turns the wound into a mortal wound and two whole wounds means you don't have to continue seeing if the drone dies or takes a flesh wound (somehow). So only use the recon drone's Savior Protocols to tank that one really devastating hit.

Speaking of Drones, their BS is shit so don't be afraid to fire at models behind cover and at long range. Any of your models (typically) will be shooting at 6's against those targets anyway, so quantity is its own quality here. If your drones have nothing better to do then just take potshots at some idiot that is bothering you but you don't necessarily want to waste better shots on (Like a rail rifle).

Stealth suits are big and scary and hard to hit, so consider making one of them your leader so that you can actually do something with him instead of hiding him to farm command points. With a retinue of drones, a Stealth suit can lead from the front and bring the fusion cannon to melt faces off of people. If you're doing so then remember that that is going to cost you in the points department as a single drone with a stealth suit/fusion cannon combo will cost you 32 points, but boy howdy are those points worth it for a mobile fortress of death. Just remember to try and keep some drones hidden so that your opponent doesn't take those out first and makes your leader a sitting duck. If you plan on taking stealth suits for any reason the burst cannon is probably the way to go for most match ups, but going up against factions with good saves necessitates the AP of the fusion cannon. Also remember that your stealth suit can fly, AND the Shas'Vre can get three good old fashioned T'au Punches in before running away like a coward and shooting you in the face. This can result in hilariously lucky kills in melee, but please don't make this your main strategy. This is more of a thing your opponent will be unpleasantly surprised by because they chose to charge a unit that you put in harms way. The combination of multiple wounds, flying and -1 to hit them makes them a little more hearty than one would think in Kill Team.

Last but not least is the humble Fire Warriors. If you plan on taking Pulse Carbines, then just down grade to a pathfinder. Otherwise, take the pulse rifle or shotgun. If you take both, then please find the room to get two turrets since they are both really good options to use. If you take the rifles then be sure to put the one with the turret drone in a well defended place that is hard to charge or at least protect it with the other guys. Just don't get stuck in the mentality of sitting still, the weapons are rapid fire and not heavy so you can still move and shoot. This means finding sight-lines and getting within 15" in order to double tap you enemies. If you plan on taking the shotguns then consider taking some shield drones with groups of them and wrecking ball your enemy with your silly distraction Breachers. If your opponent ignores the Breachers they'll get chewed up by shotgun fire. If they don't then you'll probably be able to save those wounds with your 4+ save. But Breachers are a high-risk, high-reward unit choice. Just don't forget those pulse pistols for both unit choices as they are totally free.

Please do not forget to throw away your drones to protect your better models, that's kind of what they were designed for. Just be sure that you aren't throwing them away for no reason. If you think you can reasonably make a save (due to cover or some bullshit making your save roll not complete horse shit) then don't throw it on the drone and risk losing the poor sucker.

Counterplay:

The T'au are paper thin and their saves suck. Any amount of AP is fairly devastating on you local space-fish-communist, but be sure to note which units have which saves, because AP-2 on a pathfinder spells and autofail on the little guy. Just be sure that your high priority targets don't have drones with them because otherwise your shots will just kill a drone (or maybe not if they have a shield drone). Try to force your opponent into moving their wounds to drones to kill them off by using multi wound weapons, or just outright shoot the drones out the sky before shooting your main target. This is when pumping you start pumping the main target with whatever gun fire or knives you're using.

Remember that they can fire overwatch for each other, but once they do so they can't fire overwatch for themselves. So if you're a melee faction with a trash unit that can take the first couple rounds of fire then I suggest sending those in first to try and bait the shots out. That or just stand behind full cover before leaping out and tearing their poor faces off. Just don't get too cocky and take on a whole blob of them, because there will be a small chance they get lucky and hit you with a t'au punch and that'd just be about the most embarrassing way to die. Piling into their on the ground units after each combat with some units behind ready to charge into them again is a good way to only get shot in overwatch, just try to remember that drones and stealth suits fly.

T'au Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• 9 models, 96 points
  • Shas'vre Stealthsuit [20pts] with Fusion Blaster [+4pts]/Markerlight [+0pts]/Targetlock [+1pt], 25 pts
  • 3 Pathfinder Gunners [7pts ea]with Rail Rifles [5pts ea] as Sniper/Demo/Comms, 36 pts
  • Recon Drone, 7 pts
  • 4x Gun Drones [7pts ea] (flex), 28pts

Anything the Rail Rifles wound will probably die. Recon and comms to boost hit rolls to make sure they hit. Rest of Drones as flying wounds to accompany aggressive leader, or soak for sniper nest. Burst cannon may be preferred for hordes, as well as grav-inhibitor drone. Guardian drone may be considered if you need the 6++ saves.

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Kroot Mercenaries (White Dwarf January 2019)

Why Play Kroot Mercenaries

• Pros
  • Shoot like Tau with bolters.
  • Move and hit like Eldar.
  • Bird/lizard alien doggos.
  • Space Harambe
  • Kroot Carnivores can have either Kroot or T’au Empire as their faction keyword, allowing them to supplement Tau Kill Teams.
• Cons
  • Die like Guardsmen cultists.
  • No wargear options whatsoever. What your kroot have is all they get.
  • Despite every Kroot unit having the T’au Empire keyword, Kroot Carnivores are the only unit that can have T’au Empire as a faction keyword for use in matched play.
  • Mediocre shooting. Bog-standard Kroot Rifle boltguns are nothing special, other than you'll be bringing them in guardsmen-level numbers. The only truly dangerous ranged weapon Kroot have is the Kroot Gun on the Krootox, a unit that is limited to 1 per team.
  • 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.

Kroot Special Rules

• Agile Brute: Add 6" to [a Krootox Rider's] Move characteristic in the Movement phase in which it Advances, instead of rolling a dice
  • It means you can move your Rider a whopping 13", but it also means that that is a round you're not shooting (the Kroot Gun is Rapid Fire) or charging.
• Voracious Predator: Add 1 to hit rolls for attacks made by [Kroot Hounds] that target a model that has any flesh wounds
  • A nice passive buff. Hitting on 2's is nice, but ultimately its still only 2 S3 AP-1 attacks. Don't forget it, but also don't expect wonders.

Kroot Ranged Weapons

• Kroot Rifle (shooting): A boltgun for Kroot.
• Kroot Gun: Basically a Krak Missile Launcher.

Kroot Melee Weapons

• Kroot Rifle (melee): +1 S
• Ripping Fangs: -1 AP
• Krootox Fists: 2 D.

Kroot Units

• Kroot Carnivore (Leader, Combat, Scout, Sniper, Veteran, Zealot): Unlike in a T'au team, Carnivores are essential here as this is the only model that can become your leader, and your other unit choices are limited in number, so even if you're loaded up with Hounds and a Krootox a full team will always have at least 8 Carnivores. Decent in both shooting and melee, and are quite fast.
• Kroot Hound (Combat, Scout): Fluffy Kroot Doggos! In comparison with Carnivores, Hounds are almost twice as fast, have an extra attack, their Ripping Fangs have -1 AP rather than the +1 S of the Carnivore's rifle, and Hounds have a much lower profile to make better use of cover. However, Hounds (naturally) have no shooting, and have a limit of 4. Bring at least two, to provide your Combat (if you don't have a Krootox Rider, or your Rider is being used as a Heavy) and Scout specialists if nothing else.
• Krootox Rider (Combat, Veteran): Space Harambe is one of the most expensive units in Kill Team at 27 points, and you can only have one of him, but for that price you get a brute that few will be willing to tangle with, or be able to escape. A 6+ save isn't worth much, but he's got 4 wounds, Plague Marine toughness, and the ability to move an extra 6" when advancing to make up for it. Also, between the Kroot Gun and Krootox Fists, a Krootox has a choice of some fairly mean shooting and melee, so the choice between Combat and Heavy specialization depends entirely on how you prefer to use him.
  • Downside of being the single most threatening unit in a Kroot team (or really the only truly threatening unit) is that Space Harambe can and will be focused on hard by your enemy, and those 4 wounds won't last long when everyone and their squig is shooting at him. Whatever plan you got in mind for the Krootox should probably account for the high likelihood that he won't live to see the end of the match, win or lose.

Kroot Commanders

• Dahyak Grekh (Blackstone Fortress) (Stealth): He has a good distance and offers plenty of S4 shooting between his pistol and rifle which doubles as an S+1 melee weapon (Which with his S3 still leads to S4). He doesn't give a fuck about concealment obscuring his aim while also making enemies take -1 if they shoot at him while in cover. If you set up booby traps at the start of the game, you can add another one.

Kroot Tactics

• [White Dwarf Jan'19] Unfettered Agression (1 CP): Gives a model an additional attack
• [White Dwarf Jan'19] Hyper-Evolution (2 CP):When one of your models kills an enemy model and there are no other models within 1' they gain +1 S and +1 inch to their movement that lasts the rest of the battle, model may not move in consolidate move.
• [White Dwarf Jan'19] Primal Savagery (1 CP): Allows Space Harambe to fight again if he has already, for 1 CP this can be really good if you were using him as a combat specialist.
• [White Dwarf Jan'19] Prestigious Trophy (1 CP): When a Kroot Carnivore kills an enemy leader in close combat he does not take have to take nerve tests. (lasts entire battle) Situational as against any melee kill teams good luck killing the leader, however against T'au, Necrons etc it could work still situational however.
• [White Dwarf Jan'19] Agile Hunter (1 CP): Lets your Kroot jump gaps of 4" instead of the usual 2". Very situational, and depends on the board being fairly thick with the just the right kind of terrain.
• [White Dwarf Jan'19] Tearing Jaws (1 CP): When a Kroot Hound takes an enemy model down to 0 wounds roll two dice for injury and apply the highest result. Can work if the Kroot Hound is charging down a defenseless shooter who you really want dead.

Kroot Commander Tactics

• N/A

Kroot Strategies

Kroot Strategies:

Really? You want to make a kroot army? Not just boost your tau team?

Really?

Oh, well, fortune favours the brave I suppose. The kroot are one of the four "special" kill teams, alongside the Servants of the Abyss, the Rogue Traders and the Gellerpox Infected. But unlike them, the Kroot's options for units and gear are subpar. Seriously, out of the whole Kill Team roster, the kroot appear as the weakest list of them all. The SotA have great melee and synergy between units, the Rogue Traders have a lot of units to choose from, the Gellerpox Infected have Disgustingly Resilient, the kroot have... good stratagems. And are kind of fast. That's kind of it. The stratagems are actually great, and if another army had them they would become a top tier threat, but as it is, the kroot don't have the units to take advantage of them. They will be able to pretty much be able to outnumber the enemies every match (unless playing against particular ork, tyranid, Imperial Guard or CSM lists, and even then they will be able to make more competitive lists).

First, let's start with the vanilla KT units. The kroot carnivore is your basic unit, and the only one that can become the leader. Basically a regular guardsman with better melee. Now, think about it, the leader, the most important unit for a stratagem-heavy team, is as weak as a regular guardsman. T3, 6+/0++. This is not threatening, pretty much anything can reliably take it down. To be fair, hiding your leader in the back is a normal strategy, but when the backbone of your army is as weak as that, you will have trouble the moment the oponent has something akin to high toughness, invuilnerable saves, long range weaponry... every army can reliably take them down. The only advantage they bring to the table is unit saturation, but you will pretty much lose 3-4 units each turn. They are slightly better than guardsmen in melee, with WS3+ and S4 (3+1) kroot rifles, but you have to reach melee first. But is melee the best chance of killing something heavy, like marines? Using a regular tactical marine as an example ans using the best case scenario for each:

• Kroot shooting a marine.
  • Rapid Fire 1 BS4+ means that each shot will hit 3/6 times. So around 50/50.
  • Tactical marines have T4. Against the kroot rifle's S4, wounding is, again, 50/50.
  • After that, whatever enters needs to pass the 3+, so it will only kill 1/3 times.
  • So, with all that taken into account, each shot will have 18/216 chances of hitting, or around 1/12 chances of wounding. Taking the two shots into consideration, it will kill 1/6 times. Not great considering the enemy won't certainly miss the chance of hitting back.

• Kroot (zealot) hitting a marine.
  • One attack and WS3+ means that it will have 4/6 chances of hitting, or 2/3.
  • After that, S5 (3+1+1) against the marine's T4 means that it will hit at 3+ or 4/6 times.
  • And without any AP, the shot will have 2/6 chances of actually wounding it.
  • So, with all that taken into account, each shot will have 32/216 chances of getting the wound in, or around 4/27. With two attacks, the chances are 8/27.
    • However, take into account this is a carnivore wit zealot, and you can have only one of those. In a normal fight each attack will have 12/216 chances of getting the wound in, or around 1/18. Way worse than shooting.

So yeah, if you want to kill marines, keep enough space to avoid charges but enough to get the rapid fire effect. it will shoot back, no doubt, but you can always count on marines having less units by far. 3 or 4 kroots on a single marine should be enough to get quick results. GEQs should be far easier. And once you get the wound, you send the hounds.

The kroot hounds are the quick melee chargers of the team. Strikingly fast at 12" movement, they are especially designed to take down wounded units. The striking fangs add one extra attack if the unit at the receiving end has a flesh wound, and this has actually some punch against armour. AP-1, to be precise, it definitively won't take down Custodes with this, but it's a start. Even though its attack is not much, the real advantage of the hounds is its striking range. With 12" movement plus whatever you get in the charge, they can attack units that cannot shoot overwatch back easy enough, so it has a chance of getting a clean kill without many risks. You get only four of this, sadly, so be careful how you use them. It has access to the Tearing Jaws ability to make sure that, whether it kills a healthy or a wounded unit, has better chances of actually taking it out of combat.

Out of the basic units, the real deal is the Krootox Rider, and the one your strategy will be based on. A huge monster with W4, a 48" rapid gun 1 Kroot gun of S7, AP-1 and D3, with the hability of moving 13" per turn without charging, this is one of the best units in vanilla kill team, period. It has to be, considering it has to carry the rest of the team. Strong from afar AND up close, this thing is the answer for taking down most enemy heavies. Doing the same calculations against a marine:

• Krootox Rider shooting a marine.
  • Rapid Fire 1 BS4+ means that each shot will hit 3/6 times. So around 50/50.
  • Tactical marines have T4. Against the kroot rifle's S7, it will wound on 3+, or around 2/3 of the time.
  • After that, the AP-1 will weaken the armour, wounding 50% of the time.
  • So, with all that taken into account, each shot will have 48/216 chances of hitting, or around 2/9 chances of wounding. Taking the two shots into consideration, it will kill 4/9 times, and deal a fuckton of damage if the unit is already wounded.

• Krootox Rider (with combat specialism) punching a marine.
  • 3 Attacks (2+1) WS3+ means that each punch will hit 4/6 times. So around 2/3.
  • Tactical marines have T4. Against the krootox's S6, it will wound 4/6 times.
  • After that, whatever enters needs to pass the 3+, so it will only kill 1/3 times.
  • So, with all that taken into account, each shot will have 32/216 chances of hitting, or around 4/27 chances of wounding. While the lack of AP hurts the numbers, considering the three attacks and you pretty much guarantee a hit at 12/27, or around 4/9 times. Not bad at all considering each hit is 2 damage. Units with worse toughness and saves will be mulched.

With that said, everyone in the world will see the single krootox in the table and think "huh, a unit so big in an army so numerous must be important. I better take it down fast". And they will, focusing on it every time they can, both in melee and at range. The krootox' best strategy is to move from one side to the other with its blinding speed and long range, while charging at the ocasional unit, all without being too exposed to enemy fire. Playing well with this unit will mean you can break units that usually are hidden away, like snipers (who will be hilariously outmached against the super-chicken), weak leaders hidden, weaker units protecting Objective Points... Combine this sucker with the Primal Salvagery/Unfettered Agression and Hyper-Evolution trait, and will become a nightmare to take down, becoming faster and stronger quick enough to have pretty much uncontested melee control of the map. With that said, it's a single unit, it can't win the game alone. Do not forget that leadership will affect it, so once it gets a wound in, the weakness of the rest of the team will set in, and probably leave it paralysed. The combat specialism will give it the extra attack it needs, while the heavy will improve the shooting with the More Bullets tactic.

Outside of them, you have Dahyak Grekh, kroot hunter extraordinaire from the Blackstone Fortress box. And... it's pretty much a buff kroot carnivore. Really, the weapons are the same, though it gets a kroot pistol and BS3+. However, it has access to some neat habilities, like not suffering the penalty to hit rolls when aiming for an obscured target, being able to booby trap a decent chunk of area, and getting enemies targeting it extra hit penalty if obscured. Also, this model always counts as Readied in the Shooting phase provided that it remained stationary or made a normal move of no more than half of its movement beforehand. Not bad, but definitively on the weaker side of the commanders spectrum, considering other teams have absolute beasts for commanders, and not just an elite mook.

Overall, you want this team for friendly vanilla games. Overrun and outgun the enemies one by one, while the hounds appear out of nowhere to deal with the wounded. And meanwhile, the krootox should strike and move against the big targets or the targets that have little to no mobility. Kill the leader with it from afar or take the enemy by surprise by putting it right next to him in one turn. However, expect heavy resistance, and if the dice are not in your favour, your team will be wiped out rather easily.

Also, never play this team in elites. Ever. Not because it's bad, it's because it can't be done. The unit limitation of KT means that a 20 unit team will only spend around 160p, so points-wise, you will be pretty much ad a severe disadvantage. Only play this on friendly matches that allow you to ignore this rule.

Counterplay:

Countering kroot is rather easy. Basically, keeping enough pressure against the mooks to get them into general shock fast is a viable strategy. High unit count will have access to enough dakka to take them unit by unit, while lower units teams will be tanky enough to deal with it. More unorthodox units on the hunt for the leader, krootox and the commander, and you're good to go. With that said, a few examples for vanilla KT:

• Space Marines can just rely on their brute strenght and toughness to keep the carnivores busy, while more mobile units like reivers hunt down the krootox. Melee charges against them would work as well to take the advantage away from them and to disrupt their lines. With that said, they are a low unit army, so they should be careful to not be picked out by the krootox one by one, take it down as soon as you can. Deathwatch is similar, but considering their better gear and stratagem bonuses, it should be even easier.
• Grey Knits find themselves in a weird spot against the kroot. Each knight will OBLITERATE a kroot each time they attack, but they will be so outnumbered the kroot only needs to keep everyone in melee, and then once they can't shoot, just get the hounds and the krootox to end them one by one. They are fast enough to do so. The sollution? Psyquic attacks. If you are fast enough, you will deal so much damage in the psyquic phase that the kroot won't be able to pile up on you.
• Imperial Guard can match the kroot in numbers and firepower, while also having much better choices overall. Regular scions will hurt kroot reliably, but oddly enough you don't want too many gunners, as they are point expensive and you need the numbers to avoid being overrun. While Catching the krootox will be a problem, consider that the krootox will either attack from the maximum distance, the middle distance and full melee. Out of these, the maximum distance is discouraged due to a single shot with pretty bad BS5+ (or BS6+ when in cover). So plasmas, hotshot volleys and grenade launchers should reach it and hurt it. Rein is an interesting choice, but it can only make one attack, so it's better for dealing with the grunts. It can be a decent bait, though.
• Adeptus Mechanicus is fantastic against kroot. General 4+/6++ means that the kroot rifle is not as effective as it is against other horde armies. They also have the marvelous Radium Carbines, which does 3 attacks constanly at 18", perfect against hordes. The arquebus will be able to snipe everyone from a distance, but the enemy might just release the hounds against it. The krootox is a problem, but the sicarians should be rather effective against it. The krootox is not particularly tough defensively, so a zealot infiltrator will wipe it out when charging. Plasma is good too, considering it's Assault 2.
• Custodes... Real talk, if you bring CUSTODES to deal with the chickens, you are that guy. Don't be an asshat, we are all here to play and have fun. Even 13 to 3, it's not a fair fight.
  • Though here's an interesting counterargument. There are only three custodes on a kill team. This means there are more than 4 kroots for each golden banana, even more if you discard the rider for more kroot carnivores. This means that, while winning by killing them seems to be completely unattainable, if you manage to charge at them early on, you can still keep half of your team to cover objectives. If you can keep 1 carnivore in melee range per round (split attacks + custodes melee power means piling more bodies on them at once just gives them more kills), you'll lose two kroots on average per turn, but by the time your kill team is broken, you should have more than enough points to make up for the lost points.
• Chaos Space Marines can match pound by pound the kroot's numbers through the cultists. Marine gunners to keep the big chicken at bay, and you're good to go.
• Death Guard is too tough for the kroots, fair and simple. With the disgustingly resillient rule, all units have something akin to a 5++, so they will be overrun by zombies before they can take them down. They will try to hit and run, but if you stand your ground, they won't be able to defend or take the Objectives.
• Tau can just sit on their base and shoot them from there. Even the krootox' melee power will be pointless when they can easily rail rifle him from range.
• Necrons are too tough. Just imagine an all-lasgun team against them: even if it hits, at 6+ it will be completely ignored. Just like the Death Guard, advance without fear and they won't be able to push you back (unless you suck with the dice rolls).
• SotA are a melee team. Charge at them, just advance straightforward through the map, cooking every chicken too slow to run away.

Kroot Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• 13 models, 99 points
  • 1 Kroot Carnivore, Leader 6 pts
  • 7 Kroot Carnivores, 49 pts
  • 1 Kroot Hound, Scout 6 pts
  • 1 Kroot Hound, Combat 6 pts
  • 2 Kroot Hounds, 12 pts
  • 1 Krootox Rider, Heavy 27 pts

Commanders Kill Teams

With an unit cap of 20 units, a kroot team won't ever have a maximized team. The only possible team with them is this:

• 20 models, 160 points

• • Commander: Dahyak Grekh
  • Leader: Kroot Carnivore
  • Scout/Combat: Kroot Hound
  • Heavy/Combat: Krootox Rider
  • Scout/Combat: Kroot Carnivores
  • Regulars: 2x Kroot Hounds and 13x Kroot Carnivores

Not enough to deal with an elite/commanders KT at the same points, honestly. 2-3 terminators should be enough to wipe them out one by one.

Tyranids

Why Play Tyranids

• Pros
  • Flexible army composition, with 8 unit types where other factions have only 2 choices. If you want to fill the table with a tide of unbreakable critters or 10 ft tall alien aberrations, you are in the right place.
    • Genestealers can also be used for GSC, so you can have two factions without having to spend that much.
  • Your models have a lot of attacks. Once you get into a fight, you can often take out more than 1 enemy unit in the fight phase.
  • Despite having low armor saves, you have a lot of wounds. 3 wounds on warriors, Raveners, Guards & 4 wounds on lictors!
  • While not psykers themselves, Tyranids have psychic protection, so they debuff the very skill other elite factions pay a premium to get.
  • You can run four lictors and reenact the movie Alien while scaring the shit out of your friends.
  • You can run all Genestealers and play Space Hulk.
  • You move faster than almost any other team, and with some units, almost clear the entire board on turn 1.
• Cons
  • Stronger units get really expensive really fast.
  • Heavy hitting Tyrant Guard are expensive and hard to cover, and can die easy to focused fire.
  • Small critters are hard to deal with but rather ineffective at actually hurting the enemy if he doesn't allow you to surround his models.
  • Genestealers, and Raveners, while fast as fuck and relatively hurty, are quite squishy and expensive.
  • Most of your units have a low armor save.
  • Most of your weapons have low AP.
  • If the enemy manages to put out your synapse, you are in for a brief but painful couple of minutes.
  • Your army is comprised of mostly big monsters, with lots of sticky outty parts. They are hard to keep in cover, and reliably get shot to pieces before they can fight.

NID Special Rules

• Instinctive Behavior: Gaunts, Guards, and Raveners are affected. Keeping a Warrior around to babysit is a must, unless you enjoy missing your attacks.
• Shadow in the Warp: Unique to warriors, this rule does exactly the same thing as in main 40k: -1 to the Psychic tests of all non-Tyranid PSYKERS with 18". Good defence again the only two factions who have Psykers, both reducing the chance of the power going off AND the chance of it causing D3 mortal wounds instead of 1, something that will matter considering your 2 scary multi-wound model options.
• Synapse: Although not really a special army rule you are pretty much almost always going to have it and in the remanent cases, it is not really going to matter that much since lictors and genestealers have Ld9. It makes guys affected by it immune to nerve tests, wich is rather amazing.
• Adrenal Glands: +1" to advance and charge distance. All your models either use short ranged Assault guns or want to be in melee, so it's got value.
• Toxin Sacs: Wounds rolls of 6+ in the fight phase cause +1 damage. Band aids your severe lack of multi-damage weapons.

NID Faction Attributes

• Behemoth - Hyper-Aggression: Re-roll charge rolls.
• Jormungandr - Tunnel Networks: Models in your kill team, except models that can fly (even though there are no Tyranid units in Kill Team that can fly....yet?), are considered to be obscured to enemy models that target them. If the model advances or charges, however, it loses this benefit until the end of the battle round.
• Kraken - Questing Tendrils: When a model in your killteam Advances, roll 3D6 instead of one and pick the highest. In addition, if a model in your kill team started the Movement phase within 1" of an enemy model,but when you pick it to move there are no enemy models within 1", that model can make a charge attempt instead of Falling Back or remaining stationary.
  • Stop reading here folks. This is the best subfaction for Nids and single handedly shifts them into S-Tier. White Scars might get something similar but while they can bully GEQs in melee, they aren't really a melee team. Nids are. And now you can't escape them. Shooting models can be disabled for the entire game by 1 hormie making the charge. Once you get into combat with a lictor or genestealer, you're there essentially until one of you dies and Nids do melee better than almost anyone else. This has a very good chance to just completely break the game in their favor.
• Leviathan - Synaptic Imperative: All models gain a 6+FNP and ignore the hit penalty from 1 flesh wound when within 6" of a Synapse model
• Gorgon - Adaptive Toxins: Reroll wound rolls of 1 in the fight phase
• Hydra - Swarming Instincts: Reroll hit rolls in the Fight phase when the enemy is also within 1" of another of your models
• Kronos - Bio-Barrage: Reroll unmodified hit rolls of 1 in the shooting phase if they have not moved this round.

NID Ranged Weapons

• Barbed Strangler: 36" Assault D6 S5 AP-1. Better range and slightly more shots than a Deathspitter, but you have to give up a Venom Cannon for this.
• Deathspitter: 24" Assault 3 S5 AP-1. Pretty damn cost-effective. You can spam it on your Warriors, giving them a rather nice mid ranged weapon to use in addition to your flesh hooks before you get close and personal with the enemy.
• Devourer: 18" Assault 3 bolter, free for Warriors. Quite good if you don't feel like taking can't afford a Deathspitter on them. Termagants can have it too but it almost costs as much as they do and makes them more appealing targets, even if they triple their dakka for less than double the points.
• Flesh Hooks: 6" Assault 2 Str(User) that can shoot both within 1" of the enemy and target enemies within 1" of your units, which not even Pistols can do. It's free and replaces nothing, so it's not a choice - you're bringing it. Available to Warriors, Lictors and 1 Genestealer. While Warriors can shoot it alongside their other guns, its range means that's only happening if you advance up to 6" of a model when setting up a next turn charge; that's akin to 2 bolt shots that hit on a 6+. So, a half-range pistol for most intents and purposes. (Something to keep in mind, Because of how being charged and shooting works this is the only weapon that can be fired if you were CHARGED due to pistol wording being specific to pistols alone. Perticularly useful if you are fighting another nid team, or some scary clowns)
• Fleshborer: 12" Assault bolter that comes stock with Termagants. Meh, it's free, and the whole point of Termagants is being disposable anyway.
• Spine Fists: 12" S3 Pistol that shoots as many times as you attack. Debatable at best on termagants. Terrible even on Combat Warriors (4 shots) who not only have Flesh hooks, but most importantly have to give up their gun for these.
• Venom Cannon: 36" Assault D3 S8 AP-2 D3, making it your only multi damage gun. If you have any Warriors in your Kill Team, this is the first thing you buy. Give it to a Heavy.

NID Melee Weapons

• Acid Maw: What if I didn't need to roll a 6 to rend? Only one available per kill team, worth putting on a genestealer specialist.
• Boneswords: AP-2, +1A, Warriors only. An auto-include unless you want to try something specific.
• Lash whip and Bonesword: AP-2, Warriors only, allows them to fight before dying (potentially with hit penalties from flesh wounds). It allows a Warrior to be a hazard even in death, but that pair of arms has better things to hold. Like guns to be a hazard from afar.
• Grasping Talons: The lictor answer to multi wounds enemies. At S6, -1AP and 2 damage, these are going to hurt. Also more likely to cause flesh wounds than rending claws, since it's multi damage - attack with this against astartes - see lictor section.
• Rending Claws: AP-1, AP-4 on a wound of 6+. Better than you bare hands. When combined with Toxin Sacs, 6+ to wound are AP-4 2D - it's a gamble, but this is a dice game. Available to Genestealers, Lictors and Warriors, though warriors have better things to chop people up with, and on genestealers and lictors it will depend on the target's defense profile. "Kills terminators like the armour wasn't there" my ass.
• Scything Talons: Your bare hands re-roll 1s to hit, having two pairs gives the user +1A. Available to Hormagaunts, Genestealers and Warriors, who are the only ones that can get the extra attack - useful when fighting something with no armour save/a better invul save (Harlequins, Wyches, genestealers, poxwalkers), otherwise you're better off using other weapon options.

NID Psychic Powers

Hive Mind

Exclusive to the Broodlord.

• [Commanders] Dominion (Warp Charge 4): Give Synapse to a single model within 18" (doesn't have to be visible) until the next Psychic phase.
• [Commanders] Catalyst (Warp Charge 5): Grants a friendly model within 18" FnP on a 5+. If it already has FnP, it can choose which FnP value it wishes to use and may re-roll 1s for it.
• [Commanders] The Horror (Warp Charge 5): -1 to hit rolls and Ld to a single visible enemy model within 18" until the next Psychic phase.

NID Units

• Termagants (Scout, Veteran): The shooty tide. In high numbers they can quite overwhelm a light armored enemy force, but they need a Warrior around to keep them accurate. The most valuable thing about these pests is that the enemy has to commit an effort to kill them; have someone in your team who can take advantage of the annoying barbed meatshield gaunts are. They are disposable models, as such they should never be made specialists.
• Hormagaunts (Combat, Scout, Veteran): The slashy tide. Same goes for them as for the Termagants but in melee. The are also quite useful to tie up shooty armies with their staggering 8" movement and 6" consolidation. Keep them in cover and even outside of line of sight to further annoy your enemy, as they screen their Warrior babysitter. Buy the Adrenal Glands, they'll still be cheap enough for you to bring a dozen or so.
• Warriors (Leader, Heavy [Gunner only], Combat, Comms, Veteran): Now we are talking big. Like, really fucking big. The only things bigger than them are Lictors and (arguably) Aberrants, and they are not even half as versatile as them. Though they have a lot of options, Bone Swords + Deathspitter + Flesh hooks is the best loadout hands down, allowing them to be good at everything. You'll only make them keep their Devourer if you can't afford the Deathspitter, which is the only thing from that loadout that actually costs, and 2pts at that. Unless you're going Lictor or Genestealer heavy, this is where you get your specialists from. A Combat specialist could make use of a Lash whip alongside the bone swords, but giving up a gun for an effect on death isn't all that good. A must-take if you want to get an actual use out of gaunts, as they are the only source of the much needed Synapse.
  • Warrior Gunner (1): Venom Cannon + Flesh Hooks + Bone Swords bearer.
• Genestealers (Leader, Combat, Scout, Veteran): Fast. Lots of attacks. Half the cost of a warrior (after wargear). These guys are glass cannons, a way of delivering Warrior-like melee sacrificing resiliency for numbers and speed - Metabolic boost works wonders on a model that moves 8" and re-rolls charges, even better than for Lictors (?!). While they can get a 4+ save, that comes at the expense of losing the charge re-roll, and a 5++ is a nice way to disregard AP. One of them can take an Acid Maw and another one the Flesh Hooks, consider putting them on specialists. Toxin sacs are great, giving extra damage synergising with your rending claws - which you should always use unless you're fighting models that depend on invulns/lack an armour save.
• Lictors (Leader, Combat, Comms, Scout, Veteran): This guy is possibly the scariest thing in the game. In Kill Team the Lictor is every bit the stalking movie monster it was always meant to be. While it's got poor armour, thanks to its 9" movement it can reliably keep in cover, and gets an additional -1 to be hit when it does so. Good luck shooting it down with its 4 wounds. But watch out for demo specialists with flamers, which heavily counter it. In close combat it is downright terrifying, being the only model in Kill Team with a natural WS2+, and with a base Str6 also wounding most of the models on a 2+ as well, benefitting its Flesh Hooks. Against astartes, a single flesh wound is less important, and you should aim for "out of action" results, not just wounds. Because of this, you should always use the Grasping Talons against them, or against other models where you'd rather increase out of action chance than wound chance. Against other single wound models, or against astartes who already have a flesh wound, just use rending claws (unless the extra ap isn't useful against the target).
  • Being your most expensive model you'll only be able to bring up to 4, but that's the same number of specialists you can have, so your "Aliens" movie cast can each have a personality: Leader, Combat, Scout and Veteran. Comms lvl2 and lvl3 advancements are useful as well, but they won't be available in matched play or when you used up all your points on 4 Lictors.
• Tyrant Guard (Combat, Veteran, Zealot): A cqc monster but attracts firepower likes flies to rotten fruit. Makes a great distraction for your smaller units to get into combat. Watch out for supercharged plasma though, as one of these on a sniper specialist will melt your EXPENSIVE monster into mush in round 1. Don't waste it with Scything talons, be sure to take whip and sword, or them powerful snipping clawz!
• Hive Guard (Heavy, Sniper, Veteran): A tough gun beast, T5 3W and 4+ Sv. If using the Impaler Cannon, Sniper is the way to go. It can shoot models it can not see, but hits on 6's no matter modifiers, with sniper the Hive Guard can move with the heavy weapon and still hit on 6's and re-roll 1's to hit.
• Ravener (Combat, Scout, Veteran): Almost as good as a Lictor - one less wound and no chameleonic skin -1 debuff but this dude only cost 15(!) points. Ranged weapons add some points, but could be very viable when paired with their 1CP reserves strat. S5 1 1 for 5 extra points gets your opponent a nasty surprise when you can drop out of nowhere at the end of the movement phase. Chuck some rending claws on if you're going up against armored targets. This thing has a 12 (yep) inch move stat though, and you can make it a veteran specialist too for the before game tactic OR you can use the tactic to drop up to 3 of them anywhere on the map in cover later in the game. With the Predatory Leap tactic too, nothing can hide from these things. You MUST bring a warrior babysitter on this team, or your leadership 5 Raveners will shake quickly!

NID Commanders

• Tyranid Prime (Commander) (Ferocity, Fortitude, Leadership, Melee, Strategist, Strength): A Swool warrior good for the point cost and cheap.
• Broodlord (Commander) (Ferocity, Fortitude, Leadership, Melee, Psyker, Stealth, Strategist, Strength): BOI this dude is strong: S5 T5 6W 6A mean you have a quite strong and resiliant melee fighter. Add a 2+ WS and a melee weapon S5 AP-3 Dd3 (which became a really useless AP-6 and a not-so-useless D3 with a 6+ wound roll) that re-roll failed saves and you have a killing machine. BUT, THERE'S MORE, IT'S A PSYKER! You could problably using it alone and, with a not too much numerous enemy team and some clever positioning, still have some possibility to win. Pay attention to enemy fire, though.
  • If you are going to pick a Level 1 Broodlord, problably your best choice are Melee (against everything) or Strength (against GEQ if you really want to kill them or against Plague Marines or Custodes to have a rerollable 3+)
  • If you are going to play like a hero and pick a level 4 Broolord (and that's it, because it cost 196 points), consider to choose Psyker, especially the ability that permits you to choose your target for Smite: in this way you could stay in melee with the enemy (preventing it from shooting you) and still be able to deliver some damage in the Psychic Phase
  • Ferocity and Stealth are evergreen choices:
    • Ferocity makes you always fight as you have charged (a Bloodlord may kill every enemies that dare to stay on its way, preventing them to attack you first is a nice option) and high lever option are still good
    • Stealth gives you a Veteran-like tactic to move before round-one (helping you to reach melee) and, at higher lever, bonus that makes you harder to shoot (or negates to your enemy the possibility to Overwatch, which is awesome).
    • Melee is your go-to choice for facing the Custodes - at level 3 you get 7 WS 2+ S5 attacks rerolling hit and wound rolls of 1 and (this is the clincher) do 3 mortal wounds on a wound roll of 6+, allowing you to bypass their invulns and instakill Custodes.
  • Nemesis 9 Tyrantis: named Commander for the Tyranids. Funny choice if you pick it at level 3 against elitè army or Elucidian Starstriders, otherwise, meh:
    • (Level 1, 131): Add one to Attack characteristic, already built in the statline (a Melee specialist does the same at the same level)
    • (Level 2: 151): You can add or subtract 1 from any roll (yours or of the other players) to determine wether or not the mission ends. Circumstantial, but useful if you have a slightly advantage at the first roll of this type.
    • (Level 3, 171): Gain 1 CP every time this model puts Out of Action an enemy specialist IN THE FIGHT PHASE (no Psychic, just punching). Fluffy ability similar to Feeder Tendrils, but for this point cost it will be hard to have more than 3 models (unless you're taking only Gaunts and the Bloodlord, but it sounds stupid, doesn't it?)
    • (Level 4, 196): If this model is in your kill team and it's not Out of Action, roll a D6 for each enemy player that participate in this mission. With a 5+ that enemy lose 1 Morale. Useful ability, because if you use this skill tree you'll never tempted to choose it as a Level 4 Commander, saving points for useful things.
• Deathleaper (Elites) (Legendary Hunter Level 4):
  • With the new Dev Commentary he's now not an option in Matched Play at all, as they've made it mandatory that all commanders be taken at Level 1 going against their own rules in the Commanders book.

NID Tactics

• [Core] Feeder Tendrils (1 CP): Gives you D3 CP if a Genestealer or Lictor takes an enemy leader out of action in the Fight phase. Strong and pays for itself, remember to use this.
• [Core] Lurk (1 CP): If a unit hasn't moved in the Movement phase, this prevents them from moving for the rest of the phase, but so long as they're obscured, shooting attacks against them suffer an additional -1 penalty to their hit rolls for the rest of the battle round. With this you can give a lictor a -3 to be hit, just saying.
• [Core] Scorch Bugs (1 CP): Gives +1 to wound to ONE termagant fleshborer for a phase. Lackluster.
• [Core/Shadow/Errata] Metabolic Overdrive (2 CP): ‘Use this Tactic in the Movement phase, after makinga normal move with a model from your kill team. You can make a second normal move with that model, but if you do, the model cannot shoot this battle round. In addition, roll a D6; on a 1 the model suffers 1 mortal wound.
  • This thing has had 4 different versions in this game. But the Errata provides the final definitive version...until another version comes along.
• [Core] Hunting Roar (2 CP): When a warrior make a successful charge, you can pop this to give all your guys within 6" from him free reroll to hit. I do not need to tell you how strong this can be in a close combat army.
• [Core] Caustic Blood (1 CP): When something kills you in close combat you blow up. It does a mortal wound on a 6 to every enemy within 1" of the guy that died. Cool if you are fighting massed infantry.
• [Shadow] Dragged into the Darkness (2 CP, Sector Imperialis Killzone): When choosing a model to shoot with in the shooting phase, if that model's target is within 1" of any Munitorum Crates or Munitorum Barrels, a wound roll of 6+ will inflict an extra mortal wound.
• [Shadow/Elites] Predatory Leap (1 CP): Before making a Charge roll, pick a model from your Kill-Team. When it charges, it counts as having the Fly keyword, which is frankly freaking amazing on your speediest beasts.
• [Shadow/Elites] Implant Attack (2 CP): When an injury roll is made for an enemy model that lost its last wound to one of your models in the Fight phase, add 2 to the injury roll.
• [Shadow/Elites] Rapid Regeneration (2 CP): When a model is taken out of action, roll a d6; on a 4+ it takes a flesh wound instead.
• [Shadow/Elites] Legacy of Ymgarl (1 CP): When a Genestealer is selected to fight, it re-rolls all failed wound rolls.
• [Shadow/Elites] Single-Minded Annihilation (1-2 CP): A selected model can shoot twice in the shooting phase. This costs 2 CP if used on a Warrior, 1 CP otherwise.
• [Shadow/Elites] Adrenaline Surge (2 CP): A selected model can fight twice in the Fight phase.
• [Elites] Death From Below (1 CP):Use at the end of the movement phase, bring in up to 3 Ravener models from reserves anywhere more than 5" from an enemy

NID Commander Tactics

• [Commanders] Alpha Warrior (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the Shooting phase if you have a non-Shaken Tyranid Prime. Friendly models within 6" gain +1 to hit until the end of the battle round.
• [Tyrantis] Terrifying Reputation (Aura) (1 CP): Use at the start of the Shooting phase if you have a non-Shaken Broodlord. Enemy models within 6" take -1 to Leadership until the end of the battle round.
• [Tyrantis] Voracious Appetite (2 CP): Commander rerolls failed wounds in the fight phase.
• [Elites] Melt into the Shadows (1CP): Use at the beginning of the battle round. Deathleaper cannot make any charge attempts, but opponents take -1 to hit against him.

NID Strategies

NID Strategies:

Alright, I'm not a super experienced player but nobody else tackled this so here goes nothing. Also, I've never actually played Tyranids so I'm gonna broad stroke it and hope someone else comes along who knows what they're doing to fix it.

You're playing THE premiere melee faction. So, spoiler, you want to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be punching things. As such, you probably want to play as Hive Fleet Kraken for the mobility and the ability to chase down that pesky grunt that fell back from your hormagaunt. Also, seeing as you have really solid Horde capability, it wouldn't be a terrible plan to take a big team (i mean you can take 10 hormagaunts for 40 points so...) with that said, 'nids have won a BUNCH of tournaments in the past year by doing that so people are starting to take hard counters to that list. Luckily for the bugs though, even with a hard counter its still pretty good. Plus, this is 'nids we're talking about, so if your local meta has horde counter, bring some shooty warriors, or better yet, some shooty warriors who also have melee weapons. Seriously for the premiere MELEE faction, Tyranids are pretty damn versatile.

Now we can only hope someone who knows more than me will edit this...

Counterplay:

Alright, I'm not a super experienced player but nobody else tackled this so here goes nothing.

If you're dealing with Tyranids, you're probably dealing with some form of hormagaunt/termaguant spam with a couple warriors or other big bugs mixed in. These lists will likely depend on one or both of two things: Tying you up in Melee while scoring the objective, and killing you in melee. Not to say they CAN'T shoot though, seeing as Warriors and Hive Guard can take some pretty solid ranged weaponry. But you didn't come here to hear about why Tyranids are killing you, you came here to learn how to stop them. Unfortunately, this isn't an easy feat, and will likely require a specialized team. The three big things to keep in mind are these: 1. There are only a handful of (pricey) Tyranid units with better than a 5+ save, so volume of shots is usually substantially better than AP. 2. Tyranids are monsters in melee, but are usually pretty fragile (the 5+ saves might have clue'd you in) so if you can survive their charge (spoiler, unlikely) or hit them reliably in overwatch, you can get shit done. As such, flamers are worth their weight (err points) in gold. RELIABLY Torching a Hormagaunt before it can tie you up in melee so that Warrior behind it can nom on your face? yes please. 3. They DO have some multi wound models that are pretty rough, luckily, even those tend to have bad saves, but they DO have a couple (Tyrant Guard, for example) who have decent saves and 3 wounds apiece, which can get ugly fast, So unless you have a decent balance of AP and mass fire options, something big like that can cause you issues if you can't focus it down first. To compound the issue, most of their big multi-wound bugs also have decent weapons to blast you with if they cant nom you instead. Sadly this is where countering them becomes an issue, because if you're running a smaller team (like space marines) having long range high AP weaponry AND enough short range firepower to deal with massed hormagaunts can be difficult. Something like Guards who can take 8 specialist weapons can do pretty well, with the ability to take a bunch of flamers AND a couple plasma guns, and/or extra bodies to help fight the tide of bugs can do pretty well.

Remember what can fly. Charge them with an assault marine, Stealthsuit, or something of the likes, then force us to either walk back, or try to kill it, all while you get to gun us down with the rest of your army thanks to your heroic sacrifice.

One last thing to remember, is that in objective based games (especially arena matches) elite teams will be at a severe disadvantage against tyranids, for the simple reason that they can tarpit you for 4 turns without even breaking a sweat.

NID Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

• Heavy Warrior Leader with venom cannon, boneswords, and fleshhooks
• Comms Warrior with devourer, boneswords, fleshhooks to make your venom cannon more reliable.
• Combat Warrior equipped same as comms (or additional boneswords if you want that extra attack though being able to shoot is a better option)

Having a fourth Warrior is optional (if you aren't already fully into Nids no need to buy another box for one model) so at this point you should just start filling you lists with gaunts depending on what you want.

• Termagants for shooting(your choice of devourer or fleshborer depending on your points)
• Hormagaunts for combat(with adrenal glands if you want the extra speed, although I would only do this with spare points that can't fit another hormagaunt)

Hormagaunts are generally superior to termagants as they are far better at punching then termagants are at shooting, however a hormagaunt sitting on an objective does nothing else while a termagant can still take pot shots so having at least some termagants on the roster is nice.

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Genestealer Cults

Why Play Genestealer Cults

• Pros
  • The close-quarters design of kill team allows you to use Neophyte shotguns and Metamorph hand-flamers to their maximum potential.
  • Tons of potential choices for your neophyte models. Imperial Guardsmen, Chaos Cultists, Necromunda Hive Gangers, Skitarii (if you want to play the Cult of the Bladed Cog), just about anything is viable if it can wield a lasgun or autogun.
  • You can use the same Genestealer models as the Tyranids
  • You have access to abberants, who at base level they have 2 strength 5 ap-2 DD3 attacks, which will eat their way through every model in kill team.
  • Strength Of Faith can make your squishy cultists surprisingly resilient against psykers.
  • If you don't mind leaving out the more alien stuff, GC can be neatly used to represent a more irregular, close-combat flavored Imperial guard force. You could even use Ogryn as count-as Aberrants.
  • Since you're getting your Kill Team genestealers from the Tyranids list, they get access to wargear options that they wouldn't have in 40k.
  • A minimum of Ld 7 across the board means your hybrids will hold their ground like Space Marines despite having otherwise Guardsmen-level stats.
• Cons
  • For obvious balance reasons, the Cult Ambush ability is severely neutered. Now only triggering on a 5+, it allows you to take a full-distance move with that model before the game starts.
  • Most of your units are only strength and toughness 3 (actually, only neophites are S 3), so despite your relatively high attack count per model you will struggle to wound toughness 4 and above without using tactics like the Metamorph's toxin sacs.
  • Your units will die like Guardsmen, so despite their rather decent Ld morale becomes an issue, especially if you play larger counts of bodies.
  • No Veteran Acolytes for you, unless you buy the Kill Team box which has him.

GSC Special Rules

• Cult Ambush: After Deployment but before the first battle round, roll a D6 for each model with Cult Ambush. On a 5+, you may immediately move it up to 6".
• Unquestioning Loyalty: Shared by the Commander units. If the Look Out, Sir! Tactic is used on them, roll a d6; on a 2+ you gain a CP.

GSC Faction Attributes

GSC subfactions are called Cult Creeds. Genestealers can't benefit from them, but also don't prevent them from being applied either.

• Cult of the Four Armed Emperor: Subterranean Ambushers: +1 to Cult Ambush rolls.
• The Twisted Helix - Experimental Subjects: Add 1 Strength to models in your kill team. When a model advances, add an additional 2" to the distance.
• The Bladed Cog - Cyborgized Hybrids: Models in your kill team have a 6+ invulnerable save. Models that already have an invulnerable save instead improve their save by 1 (to a max of 3). Models do not suffer a penalty to hit rolls for moving and shooting heavy weapons.
• Rusted Claw - Nomadic Survivalists: Treat AP-1 as AP0 when an enemy attacks you.
• The Hivecult - Disciplined Militants: Roll a D3 on Nerve tests instead of a D6. Your units can also shoot in rounds they retreated or fell back but require an unmodified 6 on the hit roll.
• The Pauper Princes - Devoted Zealots: Reroll failed hit rolls in the Fight phase if you charged, were charged, or made a pile-in move granted by Heroic Intervention in that battle round.

GSC Ranged Weapons

• Autogun: Free with 24" range Rapid Fire 1
• Autopistol: Default S3 pistol for all Hybrid models.
• Blasting Charge: Comes free with each Hybrid model. Only 1 can be thrown a Battle Round but ignores long range penalty.
• Bolt Pistol: Free S4 upgrade to your Neophyte Leader's Autopistol.
• Demolition Charge: Special Wargear for your Acolyte Hybrids. S8 AP-3 D3 D. Each demolition charge can only be used once per game.
• 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.
• Grenade Launcher: A assault Weapon that fires Krak and Frag Grenades
• Hand Flamer: A flamer in pistol form, albeit at 1 point less strength. Still useful for softening up enemies in melee, and it autohits.
• Heavy Stubber: A 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.
• Mining Laser: Heavy 1 S9 AP-3 D6 damage. Only one shot with it, but it's still enough to reliably wound a Plague Marine.
• Seismic Cannon: Two firing modes: Long-wave, which is Heavy 4 24" S3 AP0 1 D, and Short-wave, which is Heavy 2 12" S6 AP-1 2 1 D. Both of them become AP-4 on a wound roll of 6.
• Shotgun: Free with 12" range Assault 2. Goes from S3 to S4 when 6" away from your target.
• Web Pistol: The other pistol upgrade for your Neophyte Leader. Offers D3 shots at S3, against the target's Strength or Toughness (whichever is lowest).
• Webber: A S4 D3 Assault weapon that has an 18 " range. Available as an upgrade to your Neophyte gunners. Wounds in the same manner as the Web Pistol above.

GSC Melee Weapons

• Bonesword: A -2AP weapon, considering your high attack count per model the ap -2 of this weapon can allow you to do a surprising amount of damage.
• Chainsword: Free +1 attack, a free way to bring your Neophyte leader up to 3 attacks, but often you're better served by the Maul which is one point more for 2 attacks at s5 ap-1
• Cultist Knife: Same as the Chainsword.
• Heavy Rock Cutter: Sx2 AP-4 2 D. Has a -1 penalty to hit, but has a nasty extra effect. Whenever a model takes damage from this, you roll a d6; if the result is higher than the model's remaining number of wounds, it immediately goes out of action. This roll is made before an injury roll, and bypasses the injury roll system, sending the victim straight out of action. Extremely useful against Marines, Necrons, and anyone else who can manipulate injury rolls, and generally good as an anti-everything weapon.
• Heavy Rock Drill: Sx2 AP-3 1 D. Each time a model takes damage from this weapon, roll a d6; on a 2+ it takes a mortal wound and you can roll again for a chance at another mortal wound, adding 1 to the required roll. Repeat until you either fail a roll or the target is out of action, whichever comes first.
• Heavy Rock Saw: Sx2 AP-4 2 D. Costs the same as the heavy rock cutter, so decide whether you want accuracy or the chance to instantly kill enemies. Decent at cutting through commanders, but without the ability to chop straight through injury rolls it sort of pales in comparison to the cutter.
• Lash Whip and Bonesword: Do you want to troll your opponent when he triumphantly supposes to have slain you warrior and having thus saved his models from an untimely death just to watch his confidence be shattered by a literally weaponized overgrown dick? Then look no further because this weapon is a bonesword that allows you to fight even if you die in close combat. It is quite sad that you don't get the usual +1 attack but nothing is perfect.
• Metamorph Claw: +2 S so strength 6 with 3 attacks, downside is that you have no ap with this weapon.
• Metamorph Talon: Free +1 to hit so your metamorphs will be hitting on 2's, add in a cult icon for a 35/36 chance of each attack hitting its target.
• Metamorph Whip: Same as the Lashwhip and bonesword, but with AP0.
• Power Hammer: The aberrant's double strength (10) ap-3 damage 3 weapon, but at minus 1 to hit. The be all and end all melee weapon in kill team, with a few buffs from the cult icon and specializations this weapon will chew through even death guard (if you can afford the base cost of 19 points for the weapon and its carrier).
• Power Maul: Gets a neophyte leader up to S5 -1 AP, turning it into a reasonable CC option.
• Power Pick: Strength user ap -2 Dd3, a respectable weapon on whoever has it, and on aberrant's its downright scary as their base strength is 5.
• Rending Claw: AP-1 weapons that on a 6+ to wound get a -4AP, with the high attack count of the models that can take these you can do some serious damage, even with only ap -1. Especially good on genestealers who go up to -4AP and D2 on 6s if you give them toxin sacs.

GSC Psychic Powers

Broodmind

Exclusive to the Magus

• [Commanders] Paralyzing Hypnosis (Warp Charge 6): Pick a visible enemy within 18". They can't fire overwatch, cannot be chosen to fight until all other models have fought in the Fight phase (even if it charged), and takes -1 to all hit rolls. Lasts until the next Psychic Phase.
  • A 72% chance to completely nerf every counter measure to your charging Rockoylte? Yes please.
• [Commanders] Mind Control (Warp Charge 6): Pick a enemy within 12", and roll 3D6. If the result is higher than the enemy's Ld, it can either immediately shoot at another enemy model as if it were the Shooting phase, or immediate make a single close combat attack as if were the fight phase.
  • Mindshakle Scarabs. Except now it costs no CP, is Sequence Breaking, and is much more likely to affect high Ld models without sacrificing much against low Ld models.
• [Commanders] Might from Beyond (Warp Charge 6): +1 S and +1 Attack to a friendly model with 18". Lasts until the next Psychic Phase.

GSC Units

• Neophyte Hybrids (Leader [Leader only], Heavy [Heavy only], Demolitions, Medic, Scout, Zealot): Your “totally not guardsmen” units, cheap, expendable, but like guardsmen they are surprisingly dangerous, especially in numbers. They cost the same as normal guardsmen but are slightly better in melee (unless you include orders) as they also come with autopistols/laspistols as standard as well as having the usual lasgun and blasting charges (aka grenades) but they also have the option of replace their autoguns/peashooters with shotguns if you really want to specialize them to melee/close quarters fighting. Other than that one of your Neophyte hybrids may take a cult icon, giving re-rolls to one's for friendly units within 6" in the fight phase, a must take if you intend your not guardsmen to get into melee as then you take need to spend any points one specializing them.
  • Neophyte Gunner: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
  • Neophyte Leader: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Acolyte Hybrids (Leader [Leader only], Demolitions [Fighter only], Combat, Comms, Zealot) Your melee flavor “not guardsmen”, having an extra attack and melee weapons, with the trade off being a lack of long ranges firepower. However, they make up for it in close combat accuracy and absolutely vicious short-range weaponry.
  • Acolyte Fighter: Some of the deadliest models in the game. Thats not hyperbole - a charging Zealot Fighter with a Heavy Rock Cutter is more likely to kill almost every model in the game than a PATRIARCH is. But they still have the guardsman statline making them the epitome of Glass Cannon. Shield them, charge with your more disposable models to protect them from overwatch, and be prepared to spend that extra CP to ensure they get to fight first any time they don't get the charge and they'll kill anything they can close with.
    • Groust Gorl (Veteran Only): Gorl is an Acolyte Fighter with a Heavy Rock Saw from one of the datacards from Starn's Disciples. The result of GW not knowing their own rules, you might notice that he's a Veteran, which is not an option for normal Acolyte Fighters. Based on the precedent set by the Commanders Sets released for almost every faction in the game, his datacard must be considered an addition to the rules so long as you use him exactly as written (wargear, specialism, name, etc.). So if you want an otherwise normal Rock Sawcolyte that happens to be a Veteran, he's your man. Hybrid. Thing. At least until he's errata'd out of existence.
  • Acolyte Leader: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Hybrid Metamorph (Leader [Leader only], Combat, Comms, Demolitions or Zealot): Metamorphs are interesting because they provide the closest thing to a cheap counterpunch unit in GSC. The whips allow them to still get off attacks when they die, which can be huge against MEQ or close combat monsters like Harlequins.
  • Metamorph Leader: [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Aberrants (Leader, Combat, Demolitions, Zealot): At strength 5 base, two attacks and the choice of either a S5 ap-2 DD3 pick or a S10 ap-3 D3 hammer aberrants are your true heavy hitters in an army which otherwise struggles with high toughness targets, as with their hammers they can wound even death guard on 2's. They also come with rending claws as standard, but there's no point using them unless you take the hammer over the pick and are fighting lots of small, weak targets where the hammers -1 to hit would be a detriment. This combined with toughness 4, two wounds and an ability which reduces all damage received by 1 (to a minimum of 1) makes aberrants one of the toughest models in the whole of kill team, and their short comings (only two attacks and relatively low accuracy when using the hammer)can be shored up using specializations, the most notable of which being the combat specialism, but they can also take the leader specialism, something which is worth considering as (unlike the rest of your army) an aberrant will not die at the first sign of a stiff breeze.
• Genestealers (Leader, Combat, Scout, Veteran): Your vanilla tyranid genestealers, they do not benefit from cult ambush but they're plenty fast and they're the toughest GSC unit outside of Aberrants. Being able to reroll charges also allows them to charge earlier and longer than Hybrids. Use them to lead the way and tie up targets, then move your Acolytes in to cut your victims' throats.

GSC Commanders

• Acolyte Iconward (Ferocity, Fortitude, Leadership, Melee, Stealth): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
  • Crasker Matterzhek: A carbon copy of the default Iconward except for his specialism, down to his price. The question you ask is "Is +1W and a 12" nerve reroll that keeps him away from the fighting worth giving up what real specialisms offer?". The answer is almost always no.
    • Acolyte Iconward specialism: Crasker Matterzhek's unique skill tree, with the following skills.
      • Level 1: Sacred Duty: +1 to Wounds, built into the statline.
      • Level 2: Fearless Dedication: Can't be shaken. Ever.
      • Level 3: Scale the Heights: Acts exactly like the Steath specialism "Climber". Not all that useful by itself but obviously meant to synergize with...
      • Level 4: Raise the Standard High: Increases the range of the Sacred Cult Banner to 12", so long as Crasker is 1" above the surface of the battlefield. Fluffy.
• Patriarch (Ferocity, Fortitude, Melee, Psyker, Stealth, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Magus (Leadership, Logistics, Psyker, Stealth): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Primus (Ferocity, Fortitude, Leadership, Logistics, Melee, Shooting, Strategist, Strength): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Kelermorph (Starn's Disciples)(Fortitude, Leadership, Stealth, Shooting): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
  • Ghyrson Starn (Starn's Disciples): The eponymous kelermorph from the Starn's Disciples box. Costing the same as the default Kelermorph he might be the first unique commander actually worth taking, if only because the shooting specialism doesn't mesh well with multiple weapons.
    • Kelermorph specialism: Ghyrson Starn's unique skill tree, with the following skills.
      • Level 1: Hybrid Agility: +1" to Move, built into the statline.
      • Level 2: Preternatural Skill: No hit penalties for targets being obscured. Similar to Trick-shooter from the Shooting Specialism.
      • Level 3: Swift Reflexes: Overwatch on 4+.
      • Level 4: Trick Shooter: 1/Round when you pick Starn to shoot, you can make a shot as if he were standing in the place of another model within 6". Use that model for LOS and measuring range but use Starn's stats and wargear.
• Sanctus (Melee, Shooting, Stealth): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Nexos (Logistics, Strategist): The only way to access a multiunit Reserve tactic for GSC (which is ridiculous) and also has a 1 in 6 chance to net you 1CP any time any player uses a tactic, including yourself. As his specialism choices and autopistol-only loadout suggest, he is definitely not a combat Commander but he's not useless. Like most GSC commanders, he's relatively cheap and his abilities stack and synergize with Strategist making for a nice CP farm to fuel many great tactics.
• Biophagus (Logistics, Strategist): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
  • Alchemicus Familiar (Logistics, Strategist): Costing only 4pts when taking a Biophagus, this guy is armed only with the "Close Combat Weapon" every model automatically has. He doesn't cause penalties to nerve tests upon death. And yes you read those specialisms right. As a quirk of Elites' bad formatting, by RAW, the Familiar can be given those Commander specialisms. By virtue of not being an actual Keyworded COMMANDER, he can only be level 1, only take specialisms that aren't already in the team, and cut into your normal 3 specialists but he can take them. Expect this to be Errata'd out if GW ever gets around to fixing the mistakes in Elites.
• Locus (Ferocity, Melee, Stealth): [ADD YOUR OPINION HERE]
• Clamavus (Leadership, Strategist): He prevents Reserves coming in within 7" of him. Thats all he does without CP or specialisms. He can't even fight with his crappy little Autopistol. And he's not even the cheapest GSC commander. His Aura tactic is nice but not amazing.

GSC Tactics

• [Core] Density Analysis Lenses (2CP): Adds 1 to hit rolls for a shooting unit against targets that are obscured. Not particularly useful for genestealer cults as your not particularly good at shooting and far better in melee. This can get the mining laser or the seismic cannon up to 3+ to hit against obscured targets with a comms specialist. Nobody likes losing their expensive Reiver to a readied neophyte half its cost with a mining laser first turn.
• [Core] Industrial Brutality (1CP): Attacks from a model with Heavy Rock Drill, Heavy Rock Saw or Heavy Rock Cutter, on a 4+ can immediately fight again.
• [Core] Inhuman Reflexes (1CP): When a model fails a falling test it doesn't take falling damage and won't fall on other models. If it would have fallen on another model, place it within 1" of that model.
• [Core] Frenzied Hammering (2CP): Aberrant armed with power hammer increases it's Attack by D3 until end of phase. Subtract 1 from Hit rolls until end of phase. Yes, you are obligated to declare "hammer time!" when using this tactic, but unless you have some positive hit modifiers these extra attacks will only hit on a 5+. You also only get 2 attacks base so to make the most of this stratagem you’ll need to buff your attack count as well.
• [Core] Strength Of Faith (1CP): when a model suffers a mortal wound in the Psychic phase, roll a D6 for each model wounded in that phase. On a 5+ that wound is ignored and has no effect. Not as good as it sounds since you can only cast 1 psychic power per phase so only going to be rolling for that 1 wound
• [Core] Unnatural Senses (1CP): A charged unit can fire overwatch at charging enemies even if they're not visible, treating them as obscured instead.
• [Kill Team Starter Set/Starn/Elites] I Like To Keep This Handy... (1CP): A unit armed with a shotgun changes the shotgun's type to Pistol 2 until end of the phase.
• [Kill Team Starter Set/Starn/Elites] Raise The Icon ((1CP): Cult Icon's ability becomes 12" instead of 6"
• [Kill Team Starter Set/Starn/Elites] Acidic Spit (1CP): Model within 1" suffers 1 mortal wound on a 5+
• [Kill Team Starter Set/Starn/Elites] Toxin Gland (1CP): Hybrid Metamorph's Rending Claw or Metamorph Talon gains 1 to wound rolls
• [Kill Team Starter Set/Starn/Elites] Mesmerizing Gaze (1CP): Enemy model within 1" loses 1 to Attack on a 4+
• [Kill Team Starter Set/Starn/Elites] Seismic Blast (2CP): Choose a model in your killteam with short-wave profile of a Seismic Cannon, if an attack for the weapon hits roll for each other model within 2" of target model. On a 5+ that model is Shaken
• [Starn] The Cult Innumerable (3CP): Use it when a model of your kill team es taken out of action (other than a specialist). You can set that model again in your deployment zone and more than 9" than enemy models. It is still treated as a casualty at the end of the battle.
• [Starn] Blinding Acid Spit (1CP): Use it when a model of your kill team is chosen as the target of an attack in the fight phase. Roll a dice; on a 4+, the attacking model substracts 1 from its hit rolls until the end of the phase.
• [Starn] Corrosive Fuel (2CP): Use it when your are gonna shoot a hand flamer. Improve its AP to -1 and its damage to 2 until the end of the phase.
• [Starn] Messy Demise (2CP): Use it when a model from your Kill team takes an enemy model out of action with a heavy rock saw. Roll a dice for each enemy model within 3" of the model that made the attack. On a 5+ the model you are rolling for is shaken.
• [Starn] Plant the Flag (1CP): Use it when a model from your kill team equippedwith a cult icon takes an enemy model out of action in the fight phase. Frindly models withn 6" of that model doesn't need to take nerve tests until the end of the battle round.
• [Starn] Ensnaring Strike (1CP): Use it when you pick a model to fight un the fight phase equipped with a lash whip and bonesword. Until the end of the phase, if the model scores any hits, you can pick one melee weapon their target is armed with. The target model may not use that weapon in that phase.

GSC Killzone Tactics

• Secret Lair (Sector Fronteris) (1CP): Take a model off the board near a hatch off the board at the start of a Movement Phase. Put it back on the board at the end of the next anywhere within 3" of a hatch, and without 9" of an enemy. If nowhere satisfies this condition, it stays in hiding until it can. If its still hiding at the end of the mission, it counts as out of action.

GSC Commander Tactics

• [Commanders] Cult Demagogue (Aura) (1CP): +1 to hit in the Fight phase within 8" of your Primus. Ends if he's shaken.
• [Commanders] Meticulous Planning (2CP): Only if you have a Primus, essentially lets your reroll failed Cult Ambushes, but oddly isn't technically a reroll.
• [Commanders] Nexus of Devotion (Aura) (1CP): FnP5+ within 6" of your Iconward. Ends if he's shaken.
• [Matterzhek] Rabble Rouser (Aura) (1CP): Friendlies within 6" uses the Iconward's leadership. Ends if he's shaken.
• [Matterzhek] Unsettling Presence (Aura) (1CP): Enemies within 6" of your Commander take -1 to leadership. Ends if he's shaken.
• [Starn/Elites] Blaze of Glory (1CP): Your Kelermorph shoots a single time (regardless of number of attacks) with a single one of his weapons against every target within 8", instead of shooting this phase.
• [Elites] Cult Nexos (Reserve) (1CP): Use at the end of the movement phase, if a Nexos is on the battlefield. Choose any 3 models in Reserve and set them up anywhere within 1" of the board edge and 5" from an enemy.
• [Elites] Cult Assassin (2CP): Use this at the beginning of the first battle round. Your Sanctus immediately makes a ranged attack as if it were the shooting phase.
  • Given the explosive nature of Psykers killed by the Sanctus' Silencer Sniper Rifle, if your enemy deploys poorly and you get lucky, you can literally table entire kill team before the first battle round starts. Fun.
• [Elites] Genomic Enhancement (1CP): Pick a friendly Abberant within 2" of your Biophagus. Its Strength, Toughness or Attacks increase by 1 until the end of teh mission. You cannot use this more than once on the same Abberant
• [Elites] Sudden Strike (1CP): If your locus only made a Normal Move and ended up within 6" of an enemy and is not within 1" of an enemy, he can pile in 6" to the nearest enemy. Essentially granting an un-overwatchable charge thats guaranteed to be 12", at the cost of not technically being a charge (so no triggering Abilities that rely on a charge etc). You do still get to go first in the Fight phase, but only because of the Locus' special rules.
• [Elites] Proclamator Hailer (Aura) (1CP): Use at the start of the battle round. +1 to "run" (presumably a typo meant to be Advance) and charge rolls as well as -1 to nerve tests for frinedly units within 6".

GSC Strategies

GSC Strategies:

The result of mixing humanity with the tyranid menace, the genestealer cults are a shadowy threat to the whole galaxy, paving the way for their "gods" to come and feast on the planet they are established in. They will take whatever resources they can find and mix them with their alien heritage to make quite a deadly army. However, they are not invincible, and their low toughness, saves and invulnerable saves means that they will fall fast against heavy armoured units. They do have the numbers to compensate this, however, and they need them too, since this army is most effective at close range, and especially in melee.

First off, the general Cult Ambush ability means that they will have a decent chance of closing distances to the enemy fast. On a 5+ on a D6, and the unit will move 6" extra before even starting the game. If you have good move rolls, you could pretty much run around 18" on the best possible scenario with most unit, or shoot without the disadvantage of long range shooting, making the opponent rather nervious from the get go. Try to get into cover soon, and if the enemy hasn't played against GSC previously, you might even reach charging distance from turn 1. With that said, this ability does need a 5+, so you might find yourself with a lonely unit that might eat lead because is the closest one to their guns.

Units-wise, they are rather varied, but in general, imagine imperial guard focused on melee prowess and speed, and you'll have an idea of what you're dealing with. The neophytes are the cheapest units, comparable with guardsmen stats wise. S3, T3, A1, BS4+, WS4+, Sv 5+ /0++... pretty basic stuff. They are 5 points not counting the gunner, the leader or the extra equipment. It can have a cult icon, which allows you to re-roll the 1 for friendly units at 6" of it, which is nice, considering how dependant the GSC are to melee. Put it closer to your guys with higher number of attacks. Weapon-wise, you can have the autogun or the shotgun. If it's going to go closer to the enemy, better go with the shotgun to get the extra strength. The gunner has access to a wide array of options. I'll focus on the unique GSC weapons, as the heavy stubber, the flamer and the grenade launcher work the same way they do with everyone else. The mining laser is a fucking monster, S9, AP-3 DD6, the only thing going against this beauty is the fact that 1) it's a heavy weapon, so make it heavy to give it movement, and 2) the guy is BS4+. You could make it so it's the Sniper and gets the Comms bonus, but even then it may not be that good, considering it has to be at 12" to avoid long range penalty. Scary as hell, and in adequate hands, deadly, but it has poor synergy with the rest of the team. The Seismic Cannon is interesting, as it has the long and short setings, with the shorter range one being quite deadly as support for the close quarters units. The webber is... situational. It uses either the strength or the toughness stat to wound. Good to deal with some particular units, but considering how many units have the same toughness and strength, and the webber itself is oly S4... Again, situational. The leader can have a good array of melee stuff, with the power pick and power maul being especially interesting.

The metamorphs are more interesting. WS3+ S4 is looking more decent up close, and with A4, it's packing quite a punch. Its weaponry is rather mixed. The metamorph talon adds 1 to the hit rolls, which is nice, but without the AP, better to save it for GEQs. The rending claw does AP-4 for every 6+ wound roll, which can do a lot of damage if one enters. The metamorph whip allows you to get an extra fight turn if it's killed before actually attacking, but you shouldn't rely on the enemy killing you to do stuff. The metamorph claw is a S+2 weapon, that's not much. The best way to use it is to keep the rending claw and metamorph talon, which are free and can wield both at once, and save points for the hand flamer, which at least is a D3 automatic hit. Against GEQs, use the metamorph talon to try and accumulate attacks against the enemy, and against MEQs, the rending claw against MEQs to try and get that sweet 6+ to send marines without invulnerable saves to oblivion. And the hand flamer just in case. The regular neophyte can also carry the icon, which is a thing.

The acolytes are really interesting. The basic acolyte and the acolyte leader are almost identical to their neophytes' counterparts, but with A2 instead of A3 and less impressive melee weapons. The acolyte fighter, on the other hand, has some of the best melee weapons in the game. Period. First, the cultist knife and the rending claw for free, though if you're going to get those weapons, might as well choose a regular acolyte. The demolition charges are a really powerful grenade. D6 attacks, S8 AP-3 DD3, though the fact that it takes the weapons' slot and YOU CAN ONLY USE IT ONCE it's rather sad. It could ruin the day of teams like Custodes, though, their lower numbers reducing the effect of the single bomb. The Heavy Rock Cutter is a beast, with Sx2, AP-4 and D2, with the special bonus of its effect: If you damage an enemy unit with this weapon, roll a D6. If your result is higher than the remaining number of wounds of the enemy (which, let's face it, it's probably zero after receiving the fuck-off cutter) it will be taken out of action, instantly. Even if you have to substract one from the hit roll, the risk are well worth the rewards (and besides, there's always the chance of giving it the zealot specialism and having the relic guy close by). And if you think it can't get better, say hello to the Heavy Rock Drill, the drill that will pierce the heavens, and whoever is stupid enough to get into melee with it. Sx2, AP-3, D1 is great by itself, but it's effect is borderline broken. Roll a D6 each time a model wounds another, and on a 2+ the enemy suffers a mortal wound, then do the same, and on a 3+ the enemy gets another wound. And so on until the enemy is litteraly cut in half. All of this without losing accuracy. And finally, the Heavy Rock Saw, Sx2, AP-4 D2. It's not as impressive as the previous two, but other teams would kill for a melee weapon with those stats. Ah, and they can have a hand flamer, but after the rest of the weapons we've seen, who cares?

Needless to say, the acolyte gunners are vital for your team. And because of that, they are going to be shot by EVERYONE. Noone wants to dance with them, and as such, they will be targeted as much as possible. This means they could be excellent distraction carnifexes, but only if they're in cover. Remember, no invulnerable and 5+ saves. If they're hit, they will fall. You'll have to sacrifice them, but if the rest of your army reaches the enemy line, it might spell doom for him.

Moving on, the aberrants are the hulking heavies of the lot. While they can't do as much damage as the fuck of drill and fuck off cutter, they are still tough as nails units. The ability Bestial Vigour means that all damage taken in one attack is reduced by one, meaning that, if someone wants to one-shot it, they'll have to deal damage of 3+ on a single attack. Good to deal with guns of D2, but it still can be taken down. Its weapons are really strong, but oddly enough they have only A2, instead of the acolyte's A3. You'd think this fuckers would be the ones with most attacks, but nope. The power hammer does what a power hammer does, and the power pick is a S User AP-2 DD3. Which one has more chances of killing a MEQ:

• Aberrant with power hammer:
  • WS of 3+ minus one due to the hammer, hitting at 4+. So chances of 3/6 of hitting.
  • Strength x2 means that it will reach at least S10. More than enough to wound at 2+. So chances of 5/6 of wounding.
  • An AP-3 means the marine will save the hit at 6+, so 5/6 chances of wounding it.
  • All of this gives us a 75/216 chances of killing it, 25/72 chances, or around 0,34...% chances.

• Aberrant with power pick:
  • WS of 3+, chances of 4/6 of hitting
  • Strength User means S5, wounding at 3+. So chances of 4/6 of wounding.
  • An AP-2 means the marine will save the hit at 5+, so 4/6 chances of wounding it.
  • All of this gives us a 64/216 chances of killing it, 8/27 chances, or around 0,30...% chances.

Honestly, both are pretty similar, but the D3 damage of the hammer might just put it over the edge for me. You could try to improve the odds of the attack with the "Frenzied Hammering", which substracts 1 to the hit rolls in exchange of D3 more attacks. Honestly, if you have the hammer, don't bother, a hit on 5+ is too low, even for 5-6 attacks, might as well save the CP. This is a stratagem for the pick, extra attacks on a 4+ is not as bad, and it still does D3 damage, so a hit will probably take down a unit anyway. Too bad the stratagem only works on aberrants armed with a hammer.

And of course, how could we do the Genestealer Cult without the Genestealers? 5++, repeating charge rolls, A3 of scything talons and rending claws, toxic sacs that cause 1 additional damage for any wound rolls of 6+... You know them, you love them. You don't have the "Feeding Tendrils" stratagem due to it being attached to they tyranid list, but whatever, they're still good.

Finally, there's the commanders. The GSC have ten possible commanders, which is a lot.

Overall, the genestealer cult is a melee team, with a decent amount of unorthodox weaponry, and with the chance of getting IG guard numbers if you don't overload your dudes. It's surprisingly balanced, having a lot of tools for most cases, though it does have problems agains weapons with some AP and the lack of non-commander psykers. The idea of this team is basic: Using your cover, advance as fast as possible and charge. Have some middle range guns watching your back just in case and you'll be fine.

Counterplay:

The GSC teams have at their disposal a wide array of tools at their disposal, which makes planning against them difficult. However, you can rely on a couple of constant weak spots: their low saves and lack of invulnerables, low toughness, overreliance on melee and lack of long ranged weaponry. Those are the basis of your strategy, so better use it wisely. AP-2 weapons will be enough to throw most units straight out of the game, so plasma will be abound. Hell, guns with lots of attacks will do the trick, seeing that saving throws of 5+ is rather difficult if you need to save multiple wounds. If you're a melee team, CHARGE FIRST, you want to kill or wound as soon as possible. Throw psyquic attacks at your leisure, but protect the psyker at all costs. With that said, a couple of more specific examples:

• Space Marines and Co. will try to kill from afar, they have the loadout to do it. Veterans can move faster than most GSC, so keep moving until they are all pulps. Reivers could give the GSC a run for their money if there is high enough terrain as well. If you charge before the enemy, taking them down in melee shouldn't be a problem, considering the amount of CQC weapons the SM have.
• Imperial Guard will have a close match against the GSC. Hot volley lasguns and volley guns, plasmas, snipers... all of that gives the AM the advantage on the long-middle range, but the GSC will wreck them in close combat. You could gett bullgryns with the shield for the 3++, but be careful with the drill and the cutter. Avoid melee at all costs.
• AdMech is... interesting. Most of their spam weapons, the radium carbine in particular, will be rather pointless due to their short range. The AdMech are not made for melee, their toughness is too low, and even with general 6++, it's still too risky. Maybe the galvanic rifle is better, considering the 30" range it has. The transuranic arquebus will be great, considering it has just enough AP to deal with most things, but keep in mind the sniper is a sitting duck. The electropriest and the sicarians will be needed up close.
• Custodes need to prioritize the drill and cutter, those can do serious damage. You can kill three GSC per turn rather easily, though, so once you've dealt with the ones of automatic mortal wounds, you can relax. Also, careful with charges, if they charge you 2-3 units at once, the wound of automatic death might enter...
• Orks are even more agressive than you, and they don't need that many overcosted units. A full team of burnas and bois might be enough to counter them at middle-low range.
• Necrons should focus on the one with the cutter, reanimation protocols can't protect them from the cutter. Be careful with being drowned in bodies.
• Harlequins are screwed here, though their invulnerable might make the situation a walk in the park. Take just enough AP weaponry to try and increase the numbers of the bodies on the tabletop.
• Tau will just stay in their base and sit there shooting the cult wondering how did they miss that. Drone spam might be a decent enough strategy, though you might want to have someome else to deal with the rest.
• SotA will do what they always do, charge head on in battle. The negavolts are good to deal with the grunts, and the energy field means they have a disgustingly resilient-like trait, plus the chance of good mortal wounds. PROTECT THE ROGUE PSYKER, those psybolts will be fundamental.

GSC Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

Roster is created to have an answers to biggest outlier factions: Tau's overwatch, Harlequins Invul, Death Guard's T5, GEQ, MEQ, and horde Orc/Chaos

• 20 Models, 196 points, Command Roster

Death Guard (T5 3+Save, Resilient), 8 Models (100 points):

• Leader
  • Neophyte Leader with Autogun/Autopistol (Keep cheap & Hidden)
• Specialists:
  • Combat: Aberrant with Power Hammer (Wounds everything on 2+, even Death Guard)
  • Zealot: Acolyte Fighter with Rock Saw (Wounds everything on 2+, even Death Guard)
  • Heavy: Neophyte Gunner with Seismic Cannon (Good for Pox walkers or if close enough short wave)
• Non-Specialists:
  • Abberant Power Hammer
  • Acolyte Fighter with Rock Saw
  • Acolyte Fighter with Rock Cutter
  • Acolyte Fighter with Rock Cutter

MEQ/Necrons (T4, 3+Save), 9 Models (100 Points):

• Leader
  • Neophyte Leader with Autogun/Autopistol (Keep cheap & Hidden)
• Specialists:
  • Combat: Aberrant with Power Hammer (Wounds everything on 2+)
  • Zealot: Acolyte Fighter with Rock Saw (Wounds everything on 2+)
  • Veteran: Genestealer with AcidMaw & Scything Talons (Early charge, careful of their melee units)
• Non-Specialists:
  • Acolyte Fighter with Rock Saw
  • Acolyte Fighter with Rock Cutter
  • Acolyte Fighter with Rock Cutter
  • Metamorph Leader with Bonesword
  • Neophyte Gunner with Heavy Stubber

Orcs (T4, 6+Save), 12 Models (100 Points):

• Leader
  • Neophyte Leader with Autogun/Autopistol (Keep cheap & Hidden)
• Specialists:
  • Comms: Acolyte Hybrid base, help Stubber or Hybrid and get in melee if foes are too close
  • Veteran: Genestealer with AcidMaw & Scything Talons (Early charge, careful of their melee units)
  • Zealot: Acolyte Fighter with Rock Saw (Wounds everything on 2+)
• Non-Specialists:
  • Acolyte Leader Bonesword
  • Genestealer with Flesh hooks & Scything Talons
  • Metamorph Leader Bonesword
  • Neophyte Gunner Heavy Stubber
  • Neophyte Gunner Flamer
  • Neophyte Gunner Flamer
  • Neophyte Hybrid Shotgun
  • Neophyte Hybrid Autogun

Harlequins/Tau/GEQ (T3, 5+ or 4++), 13 Models (100 Points):

• Leader
  • Neophyte Leader with Autogun/Autopistol (Keep cheap & Hidden)
• Specialists:
  • Comms: Acolyte Hybrid base, help Seismic cannon or Stubber and get in melee if foes are too close
  • Veteran: Genestealer with AcidMaw & Scything Talons (Early charge, careful of their melee units)
  • Heavy: Neophyte Gunner Seismic Cannon
• Non-Specialists:
  • Acolyte Leader Bonesword
  • Metamorph Leader Bonesword
  • Neophyte Gunner Heavy Stubber
  • Neophyte Gunner Flamer
  • Neophyte Gunner Flamer
  • Neophyte Hybrid Shotgun
  • Neophyte Hybrid Shotgun, Cult Icon
  • Neophyte Hybrid Autogun
  • Neophyte Hybrid Autogun

Melee Squad: Acolyte Leader, Metamorph Leader, Genestealer, Neophyte Shotgun Cult Icon

Commanders Kill Teams

For When Commanders Cost Points

For When Commanders Cost Nothing

Ambull

Why Play with The Ambull

Not a true faction in that its not player-controlled, but rather a mission modifier that is handled in-game like an additional AI or procedurally controlled kill-team opposed to everyone else. If you choose to play with the Ambull, each round theres an ever increasing chance it might turn up. When it does, it pops out of the ground at a semi-random spot and then proceeds to move towards, charge and then absolutely wreck whichever model happens to be closest, regardless of allegiance.

• Pros
  • Test your skills against one of the most beastly models to ever grace a KT board
  • Adds some variety to commonly played missions
  • Can totally swing the outcome of a mission, largely based on random chance
• Cons
  • Can utterly destroy the unprepared player.
  • Relatively dumb and perfectly predictable AI
  • No in-game incentive to fight it unless its happens to be near you.
  • Can totally swing the outcome of a mission, largely based on random chance.

Ambull Special Rules

How it works in missions, how it deploys, how its ai works goes here.

Ambull Melee Weapons

• Enormous Claws: Default weapon for the Ambull. An S-User powerfist with no hit penalty. Don't get too excited by that S-User though - that is still a solid S6 on the Ambull.
• Vicious Jaws: Default weapon for the Borewyrms. AP-2 on a wound roll of 6+, but otherwise identical to the Close Combat Weapon everyone has by default. Not particularly dangerous at WS4+ S3 A3

Ambull Units

• Ambull (None): T6. Sv3+. W7 and regenerating D3 W/round. A durable chassis that will potentially require an entire turn of focused fire from your team to kill. And on top of that 4 WS3+ attacks at S6, AP-3, Dd3 making him a melee combatant on par with a Custodian Guard, but one that always wins initiative. Ouch.
• Borewyrm Infestation (None): Up to 2 of these baby ambulls can accompany their mama. As melee only creatures with a 4" move and only T4 4+, they're relying on their W2 and intrinsic -1 to hit when targeted by ranged weapons to help them survive closing to the enemy. Once they get there, a WS4+ and a lackluster weapon keep their 3 attacks from doing much, but the fact that it always gets to charge before you can move away, and that charges are always 2d6, even with the shorter movement distance can make this quite annoying just by tarpitting your models. Not to mention wherever it goes the mother is not far behind, and it still represents a 1/4 chance to lose your GEQ, or 1/9 chance to lose your MEQ while your opponent sits back and risks nothing.

Ambull Strategies

Ambull Strategies:

Strategies for both fighting against this faction and trying to using this faction against your enemy go here

Zoat

Why Play with The Archivist

Not a true faction in that its not player-controlled, but rather a mission modifier that is handled in-game like an additional AI or procedurally controlled kill-team opposed to everyone else. If you choose to play with the The Archivist, the model is placed at a semi-random position before play starts, and then it proceeds to move towards an objective and then absolutely wreck whichever model happens to get close, regardless of allegiance.

• Pros
  • Test your skills against a monster with powerful attacks, a durable chassis and exploitable mind control abilities.
  • Adds some variety to commonly played missions
  • A significantly more interesting AI than the Ambull, targeting models near objectives and allowing players to mind control their opponents.
  • Its a motherfucking zoat!
• Cons
  • Can utterly destroy the unprepared player.
  • Relatively dumb and perfectly predictable AI
  • No in-game incentive to fight it unless its happens to be near you.

Zoat Special Rules

How it works in missions, how it deploys, how its ai works goes here.

Zoat Ranged Weapons

• Atomic Disassembler: An 18" Fusion Pistol that completely ignores obscurity (hit roll AND injury roll) in exchange for dropping a single point of AP. Combined with the Zoat's BS3+, this makes him a significant ranged danger with a 40% chance to kill a MEQ within 9".

Zoat Melee Weapons

• Eradicator Glove: A powerfist with a flat 3 damage. He might be dangerous at range, but don't think charging him will save you. With WS3+, 4 attacks and S5 this thing lives up to its name. It will eradicate almost anything in the game, with a better than even chance to straight up kill a Custard in a single round and 70+% chance to splat almost anything else.

Zoat Units

• The Archivist (None):

Zoat Strategies

Zoat Strategies:

Strategies for both fighting against this faction and trying to using this faction against your enemy go here