+ inload: Moss Engurth, Kin +

+ League of Norgyr +

+ inloadval{incerto}: MEMCASCADEFAIL +

Did I ever exload info about this Squat kinsman? He definitely turned up on The Ashes of Armageddon, in this article [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] – but perhaps I neglected to share him here. 

Well, whether I did or not, I'm sure he's not the type to bear a grudge, right?

+++

+ Moss Engurth +

A typical Kinsman of the Second Grand Clan Army Engurth was sent to fight for their Imperial allies during the Second War for Armageddon. Tagged to the Eorldom of Skalf, Hâr Drohn Hold, he represents the best hope of Armageddon Prime, whose armies were swiftly shattered by the Blood Axe and Snakebite tribes. Bound by oath, tradition and the scent of profit, the Squats of Golgotha and the broader Norgyr League answered the call for aid with four Clan Army groups, an elite 'Hearthguard' force, and a substantial caravan of specialist super-heavies.

Moss Engurth bears a reliable boltgun and excellent personal protection in the form of carapace plate armour over an atmospheric voidsuit. The former was frequently abandoned in-field, as the punishing heat and deleterious effects of the eternal dust kicked up by the Seasons of Storms often proved the armour more of a hindrance than a help.

+++

He's been lurking around as the sole painted member of my Squat army, and I'm scratching my cranio-orbitals trying to remember what I did as the scheme. It's definitely worked up from a dark green base, as I remember thinking that that would be a nice way to get the fatigues/undersuit done and provide a green basis for the face.

The red looks like a slightly purply base, so I'm wondering if it's a base coat of Gal Vorbak red. I would likely have done that for two reasons: to differentiate the Kin from my Blood Angels, and also to give a more cool burgundy than warm orange feel, to avoid the inevitable 'Christmas' appearance of red and green together. 

The scheme is, per usual for my Armageddon-related projects, a fond nod and update of the scheme that appeared on the 'Space Dwarf' plastic boxed set for Rogue Trader:

My version is a rather more desaturated version, but I hope the scheme remains recognisable, if not the finer details ... and speaking of details, I'm looking forward to putting details like the yellow helms and variety in colour on the rest of his gang.

They're lovely little models, and super-x-treem copyright protection spelling aside, these Hearthkyn Salvagers have some nice, characterful details like the carabiners on the belt, and wrist-computer thinigie. The Kill Team sprue offers some further variety in the heads and equipment, too. With that said, I think I'd like to see a bit more personality in future sculpts, but as basic infantry, they work nicely. 

+++

+ Kill Team plans +

I bought this kit second-hand a couple of years ago, and what was intended to be a quick job got derailed both by the hobby butterfly and having to quickly shift my painting station for some real-life reason. The rest of the squad has thus sat in hopeful anticipation on top of my painting bureau, and perhaps their time has come.

The PCRC hivemind has turned its thoughts once more to event gaming, and I need a new Kill Team.  (read: 'need to pull my autodigit out of my wastecycle-iris and finish off a side project'.)

I was tempted to bring out an Inquisition Kill Team for the event, but on looking at Unfortunus Veck's and Barbari Kills' respective gangs of acolytes and hangers-on, neither were a decent match for the Kill Team rules, so I had another think.

The event narrative is themed around Antona Australis in the wake of the Great Rift. We'll be playing a dual timeline set of games; the first in the wilds of the 31st Millennium, where a 'warp siphon' capable of stilling the warp is fought over; and the second in the current M42 setting, where scavengers and explorers stumble over the long-lost siphon once more. Putting two and two together, I'll scratch that Squat itch (ooh-er) and bring along something fittingly thematic to the event. 

Now... can I piece together the scheme above again?

+++

+ inload: Boom-bang-a-Badab +

+ Reports from the front +

+ Who dares disturb the Tyrant's slumber? +

+ Back from a glorious weekend of gaming with good friends, the PCRC was out near full force. In amongst some fun boardgames (a crystal-gathering one called Centruy: Golem edition was great) we also played some skirmish-level wargaming, with Omricon and Stuntwedge battling it out between the evil Darth Maul and the uh... not-yet-evil-but-showing-signs-of-going-full-Herod-in-a-few-months General Skywalker in Shatterpoint. Fun looking game – lovely (if fragile) models, and it seemed to capture the high adventure, low risk of death feel of Star Wars well.  +

+ Lord Blood the Hungry had painted up this fantastic team of Minotaurs in the Rogue Trader scheme – aren't they awesome? Note the unfortunate Mantis Warrior helm at the feet of the sergeant (centre front). +

+ The modern scheme is almost purely bronze, but the original scheme was an infamously complex and unusual combination of red and yellow:

+ As you can see, Lord Blood the Hungry has done a great job of reproducing the scheme, making a couple of tweaks (such as horizontal rather than diagonal banding on the leg) to better suit the modern models. I think the inclusion of included individual back banners to make it clear to the enemy who they're facing is a particularly brilliant touch. These are even magnetised, so they can be retracted into the backpacks – though I suspect even this concession to camouflage is unlikely to make them too well-suited to infiltration missions! +

+ Four years (yikes) after we first started our Badab War gaming, Killteam Clawthorn of the Astral Claws came out to defend their territory from the invading lackeys of the High Lords. +

+ Early in the battle +

+ A swift and brutal conflict (using the modern Kill Team rules) followed, with Clawthorn coming back from an early casualty to contest the centre. Alas for the Tyrant of Badab, the Minotaurs proved more determined. With just one battle brother remaining from the Minotaur's Kill Team (to the Astral Claws two), Lord Blood the Hungry clinched a well-deserved victory. +

+ Kill Team is a quick, fun game, and always seems to throw up fun little surprises, so even if you're on the back foot, there's still space to come back. +

+++

+ Warhammer 40,000: 10th edition +

+ And one other game that's worth noting was our first game of 10th edition 40k. Here, the Silver Stars defended a shipping port on Pao Fung from a Flesh Eaters' assault. + 

+ I'm working this into the narrative over on + Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten + [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], so keep an eye out for that over there. +

+ Without giving the game away, we played a 500pt patrol mission of securing objectives – Bob Hunk's amazing Flesh Eaters can be seen (along with the list) on his noospheric node here [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], while I took a simple list of three squads of five Pseudolegionaries (Interecessors) led by a Lieutenant and supported by a Predator Destructor. +

+ My take-aways from the game were:

• Overall, it's quick and simple – and more importantly, fun.
• The reference cards are a great idea – but since we didn't have them, there was lots of consulting of dataslates. Think I'll buy a set of cards for next time, once they're reprinted.
• Predator Destructors are having an edition in the sun – yikes, they're scary against Space Marine infantry!

+++

 

+ inload: Kill Team – Silver Stars take on the Sons of Medusa +

 + Battle Report: Spite Itself +

'Hypno-indoctrination,' murmured the Officio Sabatorum Agent. 'A wondrous thing.' He glanced over at his counterpart, dimly-lit in the bucking Rhino interior.

Attaché? Warder? He hadn't been able to quite put a word to how the green-plated giant saw their relationship, but – characteristically of the Chapter – he hadn't moved to respond to the Agent's musings.

He shrugged, internally. It mattered little. If the mission was successful, neither of them would remember anything. Hypno-indoctrination was a wonderful thing, and some truths were better left covered. 

+++

+ Game rules: Kill Team
+ Mission: Sieze Ground 
+ Combatants: Apologist, commanding the Silver Stars; vs Stuntwedge, commanding the Sons of Medusa.
+ Battleground: Thelanaxero, outskirts of the Myrean League.

Stuntwedge had built and painted a beautiful Sons of Medusa Killteam for the previous version of the game, but hadn't had a chance to take them out for a game. We played a short introductory mission, with his Sons of Medusa taking on the ill-favoured Silver Stars...

+++

+ident: Sons of Medusa [REDACTED]{:commsvox report} +

+ They were searching for something. That much was clear. The raddled city had long been depleted of its inhabitants and defenders. Perhaps they'd left something behind? +

+ There had been a great battle here – the mission briefing had given frustratingly little data, but we knew at least of the fate of the Golden Hands. Intel was valuable, but some knowledge is best unknown. Uncertainty breeds inaction. +

+ [REDACTED] leads the [REDACTED] against the Penarchy of Blood some days earlier. The debris and casualties still lay unclaimed amidst the ruins. +

+ Regardless, the details didn't warrant speculation. If they were searching for it, by implication we needed to find – or destroy – it first. +

+++

+ In the opening turns, each Killteam claimed an objective each, and crept up on each other through the dense terrain. +

+ We had been advancing through what had been the theatre district. The Others had been playing cat-and-mouse with auspex baffles and noospheric pings; but few knew how to ply the machine-spirits like the Sons of Medusa. They were cunningly hidden, but by identifying chordal lacunae, they appeared; one-by-one, to us. Six in total. I cautiously waved my men forward, and we claimed one of the likely locations. +

+ Nothing. +

+ We found nothing, saw nothing. +

+ Which is not to say we were blind... +

+ The Others were moving out to the flanks. We played a dangerous game in allowing them to think we were unaware of their movements – but the briefing reports of them wearing Mark II plate gave us reassurance that they could not interdict our close-bead comms. +

+ Surreptitiously, we moved into cover, spreading out and moving upwards. Little did we realise that the Others were doing much the same... until the first shots rang out.  +

+ Built for a previous version of the game, the Terminator simply counted as the squad Sergeant +

+ Boltgun fire. Nothing heavier. We'd brought a plasma gun to cut through their antiquated plate, but they were still using tactics that had been outdated for millennia. It rang from Mark VII plate – and I berated my brethren for being caught out. +

+ Our return fire clipped one of the Others. Commendable. +

+ I was right about the armour, at least. A flurry of shots knocked one of the Others from his perch. Judging by the heavy thud, he had been dead before he hit the ground. +

+ We were clustered – better able to support each other than the Others were – and their attempt to kettle us simply meant that they were now unable to respond on the right flank. A number of the objectives would be beyond their reach in the immediate term. +

+ They didn't give up, however – and while I hadn't expected them to be caught by surprise, I hadn't expected them to respond so quickly. It was like punching a wave: as one was driven back, it forced the others forward. +

+ The shots coming in on our firebase – our plasma gunner and an attendant Tactical marine – forced them to displace, with little but minor wounds. I pressed on, keen to sack the pre-marked objectives and deny whatever value they had to the Others while it was still possible. +

+ Midpoint of the engagement. One Silver Star down, one wounded, and the Sons of Medusa sporting minor wounds. Each side had claimed three objectives – but the Sons of Medusa had occupied the one by the abandoned Predator. Could they activate it before the Stars could drive him off? +

+ Tit-for-tat fire characterised the remainder of the engagement – and I felt that simple arithmetic would find in our favour. Two of their were down, and while we had sustained wounds, we were still fighting fit. The Others were out of position, too. I expected them to fall back. +

+ ...and yet they surprised us. Throne forgive me, but one of them had got past us. While the three remaining Others scurried down back-alleys to emerge on the left, one emerged on the right and gunned down my Brother by the ruined Predator. +

+ We responded admirably, and repositioned to bracket him, but the odds were suddenly evening. +

+ Frantic close-range fire erupted – and as I dropped a frag grenade to spoil the final objective, they charged. Another of my brethren was felled; his position outflanked and his securely-chosen position proving his undoing. Their Sergeant gutted him with a power blade, and none of us were able to respond. +

+ Grim-faced, both teams withdrew. Both of us had sustained casualties, but the day was ours. We had learned nothing, but more importantly, had ruined whatever they came for. +

+ This victory was spite itself. +

+++

+ Result: Sons of Medusa victory! +

+ A fun little game, we used just the basic rules and mirror-Kill Teams (with the exception that the Sons of Medusa had a plasma gun) to work through the mechanics together. +

+ Apologies for the rather vague pictures – Kill Team is great to play, but the density of terrain doesn't make for the clearest reports! +

+ I hope I'll be able to show more of Stuntwedge's awesome Sons of Medusa (and other PCRC Killteams) sometime soon. +

+++

+ inload: The Farstalker Kinband kit review +

+ Nuggets of Kroot +

+ Kit review: The Farstalker Kinband +

+ It won't have escaped your notice that the Death of a Rubricist inloads have been quite kroot-focussed recently; and I'm pleased to say that the Kill Team: Into the Gallowdark box arrived late last week. It is enormous – absolutely packed to the gunnels with terrain and two new kits: the Kroot Farstalker Kinband and Imperial Navy Breachers. There are lots of in-depth reviews of the box as a whole, so I thought I'd dial in the mens-iris and subject you to just my thoughts on the new kroot kit. +

+ First impressions are always coloured by the previews we've seen, and in the case, I'm happy to say that the sprues themselves really live up to expectations. GW's own sprue shots are much clearer than mine, so if you want to see the raw components on the three large sprues, go check 'em out there [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. +

+++

+ Snap fire: key points +

+ For those inloaders on a time-budget, or who have stumbled over this noospheric node for the first time, I'll get to the key takeaways for this kit, and answer the questions I had:

• The new models are well-scaled to the older Carnivore kit, and broadly speaking, can be kitbashed with little to no conversion work
• There is a great deal of variety in the poses. To my taste, GW have struck a good balance between dynamism and flexibility, allowing for characterful poses when built as stock, but allowing for relatively easy conversion work.
• As with most of the new Kill Team kits, this kit can be built to replace the existing Kroot Carnivore kit. and used in 40k There are sufficient regular rifles and components to build it perfectly legally for its entry in the Tau Codex. I'd grab one of the older kits if you fancy it, just in case its delisted.
• ...and likewise with most other Kill Team kits, there are a huge amount of spare components left over. Combine this with some spare Kroot bodies and torsos, and you can really revitalise the older kit. 

+ Polished off older kroot, ready to welcome their new kindred +

+++

+ Into the meat of the review +

+ In exploring a new kit like this, where I was keen to try out different options, I started by doing sub-assemblies of the bodies. Below you'll see a selection of bodies from the new kit alongside a handful of bodies from the older Carnivore kit (handily in a lighter grey plastic, so you can see the difference). I mentioned above that the new kit has lots of options – and you can see the in action with the body on the left, in the middle. It's an old body with one of the options – a bionic leg from the Cold-blood – attached. This required a little bit of cutting, but as the figures are so gracile and skinny, it was very easy. It's a good demonstration of how compatible the kits are. +

+ Relating to this interchangeability, the connection points are very similar to the older Carnivore kit: the old heads are completely interchangeable; and some of the arms marry the old bodies perfectly, though some require a bit of work. Given the ponchos the models are wearing, I had been anticipating this, but I was delighted to find that a number of the poncho-wearing bodies had been cleverly designed to leave a recess at the shoulder – and so in a number of cases, you can slide in the old kit arms without modification. +

+ This isn't, however, universally true: some arms are designed to fit specific bodies, so do test-fit before you get gluey. Likewise, if you want to use the spares from the new kit to add some variety to the older kit, be aware that you might need to rebuild the shoulder in a few cases. You can do this with a spot of greenstuff, or by attaching an old arm, allowing the glue to set, then cutting it away to leave a flat edge to which to attach a similarly modified new arm. +

+ The sole picture of the new Shaper Kill-broker that I took. Largely built stock, I decided to go for the Kroot rifle. He has options for a pulse rifle, held up triumphantly in the now-traditional style for Shapers (don't these guys ever shoot the things?), and a pulse carbine, held as for the rifle above. +

+ Below you can see the specific choices that I made for my figures, along with some build notes; but to provide a quick summary, I'd thoroughly recommend this kit – absolutely stellar, so three mechadendrites up from me!

+++

+ From left to right: a cut-skin; cold-blood; warrior and kroothound. I had a lot of fun doing bits swaps and some minor conversion work to get a unique set of models. The cut-skin, for example, uses the spare blade left over from the Broker – added with a diagonal cut across the wrist/forearm. +

+ The cold-blood is probably the most in-depth conversion, using a set of legs and torso from the old Kroot carnivore kit. Likewise, the warrior is a combination of spares from the new kit with a body and legs from the old. While some parts require a little conversion work – typically building up or resculpting a shoulder – a lot of them work with no conversion necessary. +

+ Some of the figures are less well-suited to conversion – or the poses they’re in are already ideal to my eye . The pistolier is one such figure. Really has that alien cowboy swagger down. Also here is the second kroothound, another warrior – perhaps my favourite pose in the box – and the bow-hunter. +

+ Of course, if you convert one model from a set like this, you’re forced to convert another if you want to retain the specialist. In this case, the bow-hunter’s body was used elsewhere, so I used the left-over cold-blood body (with the supplied natural leg, rather than the bionic) for the bow-hunter. This nicely shows that there are options for interchanging bits and bobs here and there, even where a flat shoulder joint is not immediately obvious. +

+ The kroot warrior with scattergun (far left) uses the default body for the aforementioned bow-hunter. I think each specialist (or certainly the vast majority) can be assembled as a standard kroot warrior – and sometimes going the road less travelled is simply a case of building the model you like the look of best, rather than what has an in-game special rule. Here also is another warrior using the old kit as a basis – and given the number of cool spare parts, I’d thoroughly recommend mixing the old and new together – an alternative pose or head swap will go a long way to rejuvenating the (still wonderful) old kit. +

+ Third from the left here is a heavy gunner with what I’m assuming is the Londaxi tribalest, based purely on the three vanes and ‘tri’ element of the name. The new heavy guns look fun and add a nice sci-fi element to the kit. It’s worth noting, for lorehounds, that the ‘Into the dark’ booklet has lots of cool hints about other minor xenos. It also gives some more info on the kroot’s own culture. +

+ Finally here, the sharpshooter is furthest right. He’s another figure that I liked so much I left him (her?) unaltered and built stock. +

+ The last picture shows the other heavy gunner – made with the braced legs from another specialist, and a left arm donated by a regular kroot from the old kit (this required a little cut at the elbow for the correct angle). The next one along is another warrior, this one reloading his rifle. It’s the subtle poses like this that I think really add character and value to the kit as an expansion of the older kit. Here also is a demonstration of how the shoulder joints could be hidden by a shoulder pad from the old kit, if you’re not confident with building up or converting. +

+ Third from left is the Tracker. This is the only figure in the kit, I believe, that builds two of the specialists (the other is the Stalker), so you either need to decide or to convert. As I’d used some of the Stalker bits elsewhere, my kinband doesn’t have one (yet). The Tracker model is lovely as it stands, so the only change here was the use of my favourite head from the old kit. It’s this specialist that gives me my only (very) minor complaint about the kit, and that’s the lack of a Pech’ra in flight. +

+ Last here is a final kroot warrior with scattergun, rounding off a very, very fun building session. This kit is absolutely fabulous – I haven’t been as impressed with a kit since the release of the Adeptus Titanicus Warlord Titan, which I regard as the best kit GW have ever made. +

+++

+ inload: Catachan Spotter for Kill Team +

+ 'Get me fire support – now!' +

+ Another of the Ever-Readies finished up on the painting block last night. I was working the remaining half-dozen, and now have just the skin and details to do on the others. I didn't want to end the night with nothing finished, so worked this one up to completion. +

+ He'll be used as a Spotter specialist in Kill Team, so I wanted this role to be clear from the pose. The downside of single-piece metal models is that conversions are considerably more involved. Choice of figure is thus important. +

+ The sculpt is a loader from a lascannon team, so he's (appropriately enough) already pointing out a target to his team mate. +

+ One of the nice things about the Perry sculpts is that they're always well thought-through. This figure works well from any angle, and despite being taken from a two-part mould, has a very naturalistic and convincing pose. +

+ The face was fun to paint; you'll notice that it's worked up to a greater degree than the rest of the figure, in order to draw the eye. +

+ I also added 'Property of 634th' as a bit of kit graffiti. Large areas like the backs of jackets give nice opportunities for details like this that hint at the figure's character. +

+++

+ Catachan Devils +

+ The old Codex: Catachan had the regiments' veterans called 'Catachan Devils' in honour of the ferocious predator of their homeworld. I'm really hoping we see a dedicated Catachan Devils kit for Kill Team. In the meantime, I'll make my own! I'm a little limited by available figures, but I'm aiming to field:

• Sergeant Veteran* with plasma pistol and power sword
• Confidant Veteran with boltgun
• Comms Veteran
• Demolition Veteran
• Hardened Veteran
• Sniper Veteran*
• Spotter Veteran
• Gunner Veteran* with flamer
• Trooper Veteran
• Trooper Veteran

+ That's a bare bones list, with the unfinished figures picked out with asterisks. I'm confident that I'll get at least those done, in which case the Team will be ready to field alongside Tactical Assets (which I was tempted by anyway, as the idea of calling in off-table support seems quite fitting for the pulp Vietnam War-inspired Catachans). + 

+ If I manage to get them done, then the stretch goal will be to replace the Tactical Assets with:

• Bruiser Veteran
• Medic Veteran
• Trooper Veteran
• Trooper Veteran

+ But even these specialists will be counts-as figures (e.g. the bruiser will be armed with a chainsword, not a trench club), until I can spend some time sourcing some more appropriate models or convert them. +

+ Finally, I'd really like to build a Catachan-themed ogryn for friendly games. Ogryns are a favourite of mine, and they seem very fitting for a Kill Team-style narrative. It'd have to use homebrew rules for the moment, unless I swap over to using the new Kill Team Moroch Traitor Guard rules, which include an ogryn. +

+++

'No, over there!'

+ inload: Kill the False Primarch – Killteam event +

 + Kill the False Primarch! +

+ Kill Team +

+ The new edition of Kill Team is out! And it's fun! Owning what's teetering on the notorious 'too much' terrain, and with a to-do pile longer than my principal servo-arm, I opted to pick up the books rather than the big box, but I got my first game in yesterday and it's a treat. +

+ My friend H and I played what amounted to a mirror match to learn the rules, with five of my Silver Stars marines raiding a Red Talons base (not owning any Red Talons, their part was sportingly played by some surprisingly well-behaved Word Bearers, accompanied by an agent of the Ordo Astartes' Vigilants – Brother Olybrius of the Patriarchs of Ulixis Chapter. +

+ A quick, smooth and enjoyable game followed, and I'm very keen to play more.  I'm aiming to do a battle report or two, and a review of the mechanics from the point of view of a narrative/open play gamer. Keep those occulobes peeled! +

+++

+ Event – Kill the False Primarch +

+ So enthused, in fact, am I about Kill Team that I thought it'd give me a great chance to encourage people to build a paint a few new figures. I've posted repeatedly here about the fun to be had in painting for painting's sake; rather than with an end in mind, and how a little bit of lore can offer inspiration [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] if you want to paint but don't know where to start. +

+ Those who've been following this blog for a while will likely know that I've been running a sister blog + Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten +, which is themed around the War of the False Primarch. That's been ticking over very nicely – and if it's not on your radar yet, I thoroughly recommend it; it's full of wonderfully imaginative and grimly gothic models, lore and ideas from hobbyists of all stripes. +

+ I wanted to tie these ideas together, and invite you (yes, you) to create a Kill Team themed around The War of the False Primarch. There's a lot to take in – so if you want a quick summary, here's the skinny: The War occurs in the thirty-fourth Millennium. Five Chapters (the Pentarchy of Blood) are sent by the High Lords of Terra to destroy a being claiming to be a Primarch and the eleven Chapters (the Partisans) that followed him. Shenanigans ensue. +

+ Despite the marine-centric nature of the top level War, the background that's been developed on this Imperial civil war has huge depth, breadth and complexity, allowing you to explore the  hidden side of the Imperium from Inquisitors to the Ecclesiarchy, and the Adeptus Mechanicus to the Imperial Guard. (There are even lots of minor xenos, should you have an aversion to squishy hu-mans.) +

+++

+ Okay, I'm in; what next? Guidelines +

+ 'Marines do the glory work; the Guard clear up their [+SCRAPSHUNTERRORABORT+]'. +

• Create a Kill Team for the new edition of the Kill Team game, themed around the Sorrowful Years of The War of the False Primarch:
• 'With the Chapters of the Pentarchy of Blood turned inwards, primary defence of the region fell to the Extinction Armada and the forces of individual planets. While garrison forces of the Pentarchy continued to resist the gradual advance of the Partisans, a low-grade war of small probing advances, espionage, strike and counter-strike began between small groups of Marines and special forces erupted across both sectors as each side sought to undermine the other's efforts to rebuild.'
• You can build and paint your Kill team as any Partisan or Pentarchy Chapter, or one of the many, many other forces present, such as a Killteam of Vigilants, Maniple of Marines Mendicant, Squad of Imperial Guard (Orthodox or Partisan), Ecclesiarchy, Skitarii, Inquisition, Annulus Umbra Chapter etc. If it's present in the war, it's fair game.
• Creativity is king! While I encourage you to make your Kill Team game-legal, don't compromise your vision for it. A bit of counts-as is perfectly acceptable.
• Post a picture of – and any lore you've written for – your finished Kill Team to:
• Instagram, using the tags #KilltheFalsePrimarch #somethingsarebestleftforgotten and/or #iwanttoknow
• The +Death of a Rubricist+ and/or +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ Facebook groups.
• Yes, you can use existing models.
• The challenge begins on the 1st September at 11:02am GMT, and ends on 11th October at 02:11pm GMT.
• I'll feature any Kill Teams that are created on the +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ blog in a special Warzone article; and there will probably be a couple of prizes for the ones I think best fit the theme.

+++

+ A bit of inspiration +

+ Dennis K (Instagram: @the_iron_within) has made these awesome Carcharadon Destroyer Kill Team – proving that just because you're the 'goodies', it doesn't mean you don't get to play with the fun toys. +

[Pict credit: dennis k/@the_iron_within]

+ ...and on the Partisan side (that is, followers of the definitely-a-genuine-Primarch), we get a sneaky preview ahead of their Index Astartes article, of the Wormwood Sons of Nick T (Instagram: @kordhal). +

+ These atmoic-soured bad-asses are just one of the wonderfully varied and developed 'homebrew' Chapters that you're invited to build and paint examples of. +

[pict credit: Nick T/@k0rdhal]

+ And since I've always thought if you're encouraging other people to give something a go, you should be prepared to do it yourself, here's a Kill Team of my own Silver Stars – the Pacific region-themed curious pseudolegion that the False(?) Primarch himself leads. +

[pict credit: er... me – Edd R/@death_of_a_rubricist]

+ There's also no reason that you have to do it alone – as Killteam Starfall ably demonstrates [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. If you feel that you've only got one model in you, that why not get some mates to join in and create a collaborative force? +

+++

+ GOTO: 10 +

+ Okay, it's over to you! I hope that you join in, that you find it fun and that the event results in you having a kick-ass and highly thematic Kill Team to explore the War of the False Primarch with us. +

+ Good luck – whether you’re fighting for the Orthodoxy or in the name of the Last True Son. +

+ Please do comment below of on the Facebook groups if you’ve any questions; (or just want to enthuse) and please do share as widely as you feel appropriate – everyone is welcome! +

+ inload: WIP Kill Teams of the PCRC Badab War +

+ PCRC Kill Team: Badab +

+ Nmamde Kain takes point, while Brother Acast provides covering fire during a skirmish on Galen. +

+ Fuelled by a few synthales last year, the PCRC (our gaming group) fell to talking about those campaigns that we never got round to, and – championed by Bob Hunk – we ended up mooting a Badab War Kill Team campaign. Spool the chronoscape forwards a few months, and we've got stuck into it, with the Kill Teams complete or nearly ready, and our first game played. +

+ In addition to building Kill Team Clawthorn, my own Astral Claws Kill Team [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], I've been enjoying watching the progress of the rest of the gang – and they've very kindly agreed to let me share their work here:

+ Omricon's Salamanders: Phoenix Team +

[+ScreedAuth=OMRICON+]
A PCRC Badab campaign was always going to be an exciting prospect for me and it let me scratch several itches at once. My armies of preference are the footsloggers usually: orks and the Imperial guard, for example. On this occasion, however, the theme of the campaign meant I could start playing around with space marines, while the scale of Kill Team meant avoiding the pressure of committing to a full army. Secondly, it allowed me to experiment with the new contrast paint range.

Lovely conversion work here, and fantastic choice of bits really help to get
the ancient character of this storied First Founding Chapter across.

When it came to chapter choice, the noble Salamanders leapt out at me not just for their rich background, or the fact that they the nearest thing to the good guys of the 41st millennium, but also because of their ancient heritage. In particular, their attitudes towards their armour and weapons let me experiment with something that apologist also does, namely mixing and matching different armour marks on a single marine. 

In terms of armament, I nodded to the general theme of 'fire' and went so far as to include a Infernus heavy bolter which the PCRC have allowed me to use in our games. It’s been a lot of fun seeing the PCRC kill teams evolve and I am looking forward to seeing – and facing! – them on the battlefield.
[+/SPOOL+]

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+ Bob_Hunk's Lamenters: Kill-Team Lugeo +

Bob Hunk's signature LED-enhancements really give this team impact, but the underlying conversion and painting work is top-notch. More are underway, and the full team is promising to be really striking.

[+ScreedAuth=BOB HUNK+]

Kill Team Lugeo are an under strength tactical squad depleted by early actions in the Badab War, such as the raid on Hallows Point and the Helbron Incursion. Sergeant Lugeo and his squad gained bitter experience in void ship boarding actions and other close quarters ‘Zona Mortalis’ operations that characterised much of this Astartes conflict, reforging them as a close-knit team of veteran survivors.

Brother Heamis (left) is armed typically for Lamenters of that period with an Umbra pattern bolter - favoured for its comparatively low maintenance requirements for a bolt weapon - and an Astartes pattern combat blade.

I knew from the outset that I wanted my kill team to be both ‘true scale’ and to have a retro vibe. Not only is the Badab War set in 40K’s “past”, but the original campaign narrative was first conceived in the early 1990s. [...] 

Of course I had to add my customary LED helmet eye lenses. My tutorial is here if you’re interested and haven’t seen it already. As an experiment I applied a thin coat of Spiritstone red technical paint to the eye lenses. This doesn’t do anything to hinder the light when the LED is on, but makes the eye lenses look red when it is off. [...]

[+/SPOOL+]

+ The text for Kill Team Lugeo is excerpted from chrisbuxeypaints, Bob Hunk's blog [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] Go check out the rest of the article, where he goes into his plans in more depth – then stick around and drink in the rest of the lovely blog! +

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+ apologist's Astral Claws: Kill-Team Clawthorn +

+ Regular readers will be sick to the back teeth of looking at these chaps, I'm sure, but I wanted to included them here for completeness. The Astral Claws proved fun to build and paint. In terms of the immediate future, I've got some markers underway for injured figures, and we've recently clubbed together to buy some new scenery – expect to see some more on that soon, and for it to turn up quite a bit for Badab. Depending on how enthusiasms fall, I may also return to add a few new members to Clawthorn, too. +

+ As mentioned above, we played our first game – a skirmish on Galen between Clawthorn and Phoenix – last night. I believe Bob Hunk is writing up an illustrated battle report, so I shan't spoil the ending. For the moment, here's a picture of the battlefield. +

+ A post-game discussion over a steaming cup of recaf got us talking about plans for the campaign. We agreed that a big part of the appeal of Kill Team is its limited size – no pressure to have giant armies – but it also allows for lots of narrative twists on the basic structure. That got our minds turning over on ideas – everything from Zona Mortalis missions and terrain, recreating scenes from famous war films, to one-off special scenarios like trying to take down a Dreadnought à la the computer game Space Marine. +

+ There were murmurings of Executioners making an appearance, and I hope to be able to share Stuntwedge's Sons of Medusa and Mantis Warriors soon. +