Preparing For New 40K With Kill Team - Adeptus Astartes Edition

The new edition of Warhammer 40,000 is on the way and to prepare for it, we've put together 3 guides looking at each of the New 40K Featured Factions. Each guide will show you how to prepare for your new army, starting with a small force for the 40K skirmish game, Kill Team. We'll show you how to create a force for use in Kill Team games, which you can then expand into full armies for the new edition when it's released.

So if you've always wanted to play Warhammer 40K, this new edition is your chance to start, or if you just want to start a new army, or you simply want to know how to get into Kill Team, then these guides are for you.

We've got a full guide to all Kill Team products, and this guide supplements that. We'll repeat a little bit, with some information on what you need to play Kill Team, but for more detailed information on all the products, check out our full guide here.

New 40K has 3 Featured Factions, and we're going to start this series with the Warhammer 40,000 poster force, the Adeptus Astartes.

What Do You Need To Play Kill Team

Before you build your Kill Team force, you'll need some Kill Team Essentials. The minimum required to play is:

• Kill Team Rulebook
• Kill Team Annual 2019 (Has updates for new Adeptus Astartes units)
• Dice (D6s and D10s - now available in a cool Dice and Cards pack)
• Measuring Tool

You will also hear about some other Kill Team products, and these aren't essential for getting in to Kill Team but can be purchased to expand your games if you want, but for the purposes of building up a Kill Team force for entry into 40K later, all you need is the above essentials.

If you want an easy way into Kill Team, there is a starter set available that comes with the rulebook, dice, a measuring stick, a Kill Team board, scenery, 2 factions (Tau and Adeptus Astartes) along with tactics cards and tokens. It is a very reasonable cost to get you gaming straight away and all you would need to add is the Kill Team Annual 2019 to expand to the full Adeptus Astartes rules.

Adeptus Astartes Kill Teams

Adeptus Astartes kill teams are filled with expensive, elite units. The current edition of Warhammer 40K introduced a new breed of Adeptus Astartes, the Primaris. These Adeptus Astartes are larger and tougher than there already capable cousins. Because of their introduction this edition, it looks like the Primaris are going to be very prominent as part of the Featured Factions in New 40K. As a result, we're going to focus on the Primaris Marines in our kill team, as we'll be building it out into a full 40K force later.

If you want to play competitive Kill Team, you will need to add in the original Adeptus Astartes types, and we'll cover that in later articles. We're also only be looking at Kill Team units from the Core Rulebook and Annual and won't be including any other supplements.

Adeptus Astartes Units

All the Adeptus Astartes units are hard to kill, the Primaris especially with their 2 wounds as standard. They do suffer against hordes forces, where their enemies can swarm objectives. The Space Marines are extremely accurate and can lay some very effective fire and are also well above average in close combat. Because of their low unit count, durability, and accuracy, they are an extremely beginner-friendly faction to play.

• Intercessor - The core line troop of the Primaris force. They have a lot of customization options including 3 different bolt rifle options for the Intercessor, an auxiliary grenade launch option for an upgraded gunner and the Seargent can swap his loadout for a hand-flamer and powerfist, power-sword or chainsword (alternative melee weapons will need conversion or an upgrade pack).
• Reiver - The extremely mobile shock troops. They can take options that improve their movement across all-terrain, making them great for taking objectives.
• Incursor - An aggressive front-line troop. Stat wise they are the same as the Intercessors, but for an extra point, get access to a bolt-weapon that is better-suited targeting units in cover.
• Infiltrator - As the name suggests, they are infiltration experts. They can deploy almost anywhere on the battlefield to start controlling the field from the start of the game.
• Eliminator - Expensive units, but extremely effective at removing targets. They have a choice of either a sniper rifle or a costly Last fusil, which is essentially an anti-tank weapon.

What to buy

The quickest way into an Adeptus Astartes kill team is to buy an Easy To Build Primaris Intercessors and Reivers box. This will give you 6 Primaris to use for your first few games. The Easy to Build miniatures are limited in their build options and won't expand very well into a full 40K force. We mention it here as simply the quickest and easiest way to build a Space Marine kill team.

Instead, what we recommend is that you buy the boxes in the following order, adding 1 or 2 a month until you have all 4.

• Primaris Intercessors (build as 2, 5-unit squads, each with a Sergent and auxiliary grenade launcher. Mixing up the weapons between the 3 choices if you want options, but all of them taking Bolt Rifles is the safe choice for Kill Team).
• Primaris Eliminators (for Kill Team build them with Sniper Rifles, you can always buy a second box if you want Las fusil options in Kill Team and later 40K)
• Primaris Infiltrators (build 5 as Infiltrators and 5 as Incursors)
• Primaris Reivers (build as 2, 5-unit squads, each with a Sergeant. 5 with bolt carbines and holstered heavy bolt pistols and 5 with heavy bolt pistols and combat knives. We added both the Grapnel Launcher and Grav-chutes to all ours, just for mobility options)

This will give you 33 troops, which is more than you will ever need for Kill Team, but it will give you options for your build, and provide the core of your force for expanding out into New 40K when it's released. You don't even need to build them all at the moment either, instead, you can leave them on the sprues, building as required and then finishing them off when New 40K is released.

Beginner Adeptus Astartes Lists

Using only 1 box of Intercessors, a beginner Kill Team list:

• Intercessor Sergeant (Leader)
• Intercessor Gunner with Aux Grenade Launcher (Communications)
• Intercessor Gunner with Aux Grenade Launcher (Demolitions)
• Intercessor (Sniper)
• Intercessor
• Intercessor

If you want to buy one of the Primaris upgrade packs available, you still have enough points to give your Sergeant a Power Sword, Power Fist, or Chainsword if you wish.

Using all 4 of the above boxes, a beginner Kill Team list:

• Eliminator Sergeant (Leader)
• Reiver (Combat)
• Intercessor Gunner with Aux Grenade Launcher (Communications)
• Intercessor Gunner with Aux Grenade Launcher (Demolitions)
• Infiltrator
• Intercessor

Kill Team forces are built from a command roster of 20, usually around scenarios and knowing your opponent's faction, so these lists aren't optimized Adeptus Astartes lists, but they will give you a feel for how Space Marine kill teams work and a great base to build up your future Warhammer 40,000 force from.

We're going to follow up this article will a specialized optimized Kill Team guide and when the next edition of Warhammer 40,000 is released, a guide to taking this force of Primaris Marines, into the new edition of 40K.

The Primaris and Kill Team products used to produce this guide were provided by Firestorm Games.