I've very fond memories of reading and re-reading the section of the Warhammer 40,000 4th Edition Rulebook which introduced Kill Team for the first time and I remember being enthralled with the possibilities it presented both from the perspective of building a unique team of operatives and the 'do or die' situations that they could then be flung into - in fact a good chunk of the material devoted to Kill Team in the 4th Edition Rulebook was focused around potential scenarios that such a team might find themselves in, many of them inspired by classic war and spy movies.
While I never actually played that version of the game, or any of the other iterations that were released prior to 2021, I was quite excited when the 'new' version of Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team was announced. As a narrative driven 'skirmish' sized game it had a big appeal in terms of not requiring a huge amount of models, space or time to play, but also because the Spec Ops campaigns sounded pretty cool.
As with most of the core games GW produce these days, Kill Team can be played in three ways - Open, Matched and Narrative. 'Spec Ops' is the narrative play mode not only allowing you to create a team of operatives establish a customisable base of operations for them and then lead them through a narrative campaign to death of glory, it also takes a leaf out of the Age Of Sigmar: Warcry rulebook in not requiring your opponent to be taking part in the same campaign, which instantly makes it more flexible and accessible for folks to dive into I think and it's something that I'm really glad Games Workshop's Design Studio have incorporated into both games.
Every faction in Warhammer 40,000 got rules at launch (except Imperial and Chaos Knights, ill-suited to small scale, covert operations as superheavy vehicles are) through a 'Compendium', which I think was a very smart move, though unfortunately these Kill Teams were a bit one dimensional compared to the options available to the new Ork Kommandos and Death Korps of Krieg both in terms of miniatures and the narrative campaign content they could utilise.
Following the launch of Kill Team with Octarius there have now been three other box sets: Chalnath, Nachmund and Moroch which have introduced new Kill Teams of Adepta Sororitas Novitiates, Tau Pathfinders, Aeldari Corsairs and Traitor Space Marines, and Traitor Guard and Vanguard Space Marines respectively. The pattern established with these sets has been that they would introduce one brand new set of models and one 'upgraded' set of models which seems like a great way to keep expanding the range of teams available to players.
All of this is to say that the release of Moroch and the rules it brings for fielding a Phobos Strike Team that can be comprised of Reivers, Infiltrators and Incursos has persuaded me to finally get a Kill Team together and give the game a go. I've had a few Phobos armoured Primaris Marines stashed away for some time now as I really like the lighter weight look of mkX Phobos armour and how it both harks back to the design of 'Imperial Space Marine' armour and ties in with the rest of the mkX variants, so rather than picking up the sprues from the Moroch set, I decided to make use of them along with a couple of other bits and pieces I've picked up to put together a set of operatives.
Strike Team Vyrtuumnus
In assembling my team of operatives, I considered both the roster available to the Phobos Strike Team and the models I had at my disposal, settling on eight which I thought sounded cool and could be useful on the tabletop.
Up next is an Incursor Minelayer, though I wasn't keen on the oversized scope the Incursors bolters are meant to have, so I built it using the more compact option from the Infiltrators ones. This operative seems like he could be handy for setting traps for the enemy, but also I think the mini looks really cool.
Most Kill Teams have a medic of some variety to help keep them in the fight, with the Phobos Strike Team being able to take a Helix Adept, this one has been built "stock" from the sprue available in the Space Marines Combat Patrol set
An Infiltrator Commsman seems pretty handy to have around as he can help squeeze more action economy from the other operatives on the team, plus what kind of Kill Team doesn't have a radioman...?
The Infiltrator Saboteur is the team's demo specialist. This model is one of my favourite of the entire range of Phobos armoured minis as the pose is super-characterful. To help better show this Astartes specialism, I added a demolition charge from the Orlock Wreckers kit to the back of his belt.
The Incursor Marksman sounds like an absolutely lethal sharpshooter, able to track and engage a target in their own turn. I liked the idea of him being as proficient with his sidearm for close up work as with his bolter, so kitbashed one of the Start Collecting Space Marines Infiltrators using a silenced pistol from the Eliminators kit. To represent the Divinator class Auspex he's equipped with, I used one of the backpack mounted targeting arrays from the Incursors sprue.
Last but by no means least is the Infiltrator Veteran, and this was a bit of a happy accident as the mini was almost completely assembled before the Phobos Strike Team rules were available, but the pose just looked right for suggesting an operative with more than a few missions under his belt - confident, self assured and ready for anything.
A Phobos Strike Team can only use six operatives in a mission, so I have a couple more models than I need initially, but as they proceed through their Spec Ops campaigns, they can add more and even change operatives specialisms using one of their Strategems, so I've not lost anything in building everything already.
I recently painted up some barricades to use with the Strike Team Vyrtuumnus as well, which was both a nice wee palate cleanser and fairly quick and easy to do.
I have my first game of Kill Team coming up this evening and I'm looking forward to getting Strike Team Vyrtuumnus on the table and starting them on their narrative journey - I'll be sure to update on their progress in a future post. In the meantime though, thanks for reading and hope to see you again soon.
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