So an interesting thing in my hobby universe happened the other day. I was poking about on various forums for what folks were doing in terms of Heretic Astartes kill teams. I have various cultists lying about from past boxed sets and since I don't run non-Imperium forces generally, I've had no use for them. So I thought, why not cook up a new Kill Team on a lark? My investigations led me to a few posts from folks looking at the opportunity to run the Fallen in kill team using the Heretic Astartes team.
And it hit me.
I have boxes and bins of Dark Angles and 30K marine kits and bits lying about. What not combine them an make my own Fallen Kill team to compliment my Dark Angels. The Fallen are known to stir up cults and instigate rebellion to achieve their own ends. So this would be a great opportunity. Assemble a fluffy kill team of Cultists being "assisted" by a team of Fallen Angels. The leader would be a cult champion accompanied by a force of his brothers. But all the specialists would be Fallen marines. After going over a few options, I decided to run a full squad of five marines along side the cultists. A longer term goal will be to use the opportunity to paint up Cypher as the grand architect of the team's machinations. He won't play in the game, but He'll stand proudly along side his brother marines in the display case. :) Maybe he'll even hit the table in a 40K game down the road now that the Fallen have official rules in the game.
Building the marines was a thing of beauty. I have Mark II and Mark IV armor and weapons from two prior boxed sets plus all the forge work Dark Angels bits. They are waiting for the day they get turned into a proper 30K 1st Legion force. Certainly I wouldn't miss a handful of bits. I also had the robed DA bodies lying in the bits box. Why not marry the two??
So I set about gathering up what I needed to built the team as I had mapped it out on BattleScribe. The only 40K bits are the robbed bodies and the Sector Mechanicus bases. The rest all come from the Mark III and Mark IV Heresy armor sprues. I was originally going all mark IV to use the Forge World heads. But I though it would be more interesting to mix the old armor marks, and I had the Mark III "Iron Armor" shoulder pads already. After all, the Fallen have been around a while...that whole warp thing and what not.
The Zealot with a mark of Khorn (he might have been a bit too zealous) was born. He is the "sergeant" of the Fallen squad sent to stir up and direct the team's cult elements.
The Sniper with his ancient plasma gun. I'll play with an angry red or purple plasma effect to represent the angry, heretic machine spirit caged within. As a personal point of humor, I was sure choose a mark III helm that did not have any vents or holes on the right cheek. One doesn't want to get scorched by their finicky plasma gun!
The Heavy with an equally ancient heavy bolter. What a great use for the cool looking 30K underslung weapon in 40K. Clearly reads as a heavy bolter but should len and "out-of-time" air to the Fallen brother. I hope the mark III armor helps these veteran gunner specialists stand out on the team.
A brother with a gun. I chose to use the Phobos pattern bolters from the mark III armor kit with the mark IV armor here. They have an old, iconic look and further indicate the out-of-time, out-of-place nature of these heretics.
The final brother of the five, also with an old Phobos pattern bolter. To keep momentum, I also banged together a few of the cultists I already had on hand, a cult champion to lead the band and three of his thugs.
Now I just need to acquire two cultists with heavy stubbers and I'll be set. I might even go with one heavy stubber and one flamer. I'm also going to name the Fallen, at the very least. I'll post follow up pics once the team is complete. Six cultists and five Astartes make up the team. Hopefully a reasonable mix of capabilities to make for good, if not seriously competitive, games of Kill Team. This brings me to six teams on hand for any pick up games I manage with my friends. I don't expect they will make the time to form teams of their own. We're all grey beards with careers and families now.
I don't run chaos. So I look forward to painting something new here, even if they aren't really all that chaotic (I'm looking at you here, Nurgle). I especially look forward to painting up some Fallen to display alongside (ok, not RIGHT along side) my Dark Angels for the fluff's sake. The plastic Cypher model is very cool and I look forward to painting him up as a bonus.
I hope to post up regular Kill Team articles as I work through the hobby season along with the normal work bench and other project articles. Heck, I might even play some games, too!
Cheers and Happy Gaming!
