Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Kill Team(9E) Chaos

Tactics

Traitor Space Marines

Why Play Traitor Space Marines

Pros
- With access to both Chaos Marines and Chaos Cultists, you can be more flexible than the IG or Loyalist Marines and field Cheap Fodder CQC Cultists alongside bolter-toting Marines.
- Your CSM are more open to melee combat, which apparently the loyalists are no longer able to handle without assault intercessors or the Deathwatch.
Cons
- A chunk of weapons from the basic Chaos Marine Arsenal have been stripped out from Kill Team. Without Havocs, your weapon selection is especially slim, and you'll be stuck with what the heavy gunner for big fire. Your special weapons are similarly lacking without combi-bolters of any sort.
- No cult troop soup for you. Plague Marines and Rubrics are restricted to their own particular factions, while Noise Marines and Berzerker aren't in Kill Team at all (so far).
- Cultists remain ill-supported.

TSM Wargear

Belt Feed (2/3 EP): Pick a boltgun or heavy bolter the bearer has. This gun now has Ceaseless, making for even better fire. The heavy bolter costs 3 EP.
Malefic Rounds (2 EP): Pick a bolt pistol, boltgun or heavy bolter the bearer has. This gun gets P1 or AP1 if it already has P1. This makes heavy bolters especially more powerful for splattering infantry and makes the other guns a bit more powerful.
Dark Blessing (3 EP): The bearer adds +1 attack to one melee weapon they have. As one of the few upgrades the cultists can take, this can prove to be handy - but that chainsword or power sword can be so much more so.
Frag Grenade (2 EP): Basic frag grenade with limited range and Blast to cover groups. Available to cultists.
Krak Grenade (3 EP): Basic krak grenade with limited range but high damage and AP1. Available to cultists.
0-1 Grisly Trophy (3 EP): Grants the bearer a 3"/square aura that deals a penalty of 1 attack on any ranged or melee attacks on enemies inside this radius.
Suspensor System (3 EP): The bearer can move 3 circles/6" with a heavy weapon before firing, making it a welcome blessing for your heavy gunner.
0-1 Sacrificial Dagger (3 EP): Once per turn, the bearer can use this after killing an enemy in order to restore 4 wounds. Available on cultists.

TSM Units

This Kill-Team is composed of two fireteams

<tabs> <tab name="Chaos Space Marine Fireteam"> This Seek & Destroy/Security/Infiltration/Recon fireteam is composed of 3 of the following:

0-1 Chaos Space Marine Aspiring Champion (If there are no other leaders)
- 1-3 Chaos Space Marine Warrior
- 0-1 Chaos Space Marine Gunner or Chaos Space Marine Heavy Gunner
- 0-1 Chaos Space Marine Icon Bearer

Chaos Space Marine Aspiring Champion (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): A slightly stronger traitor with the improved WS/BS. While you can stick with the basic bolter, you're going to be disappointed with the lack of combi-weapons of any sort. Your main focus will likely be on going into melee.
- Going in melee gives you either only the bolt pistol or the more potent plasma pistol for shooting. For the fighting, you've got your base chainsword, but you can also take the power weapon for slightly better crits with Lethal 5+ or the power fist for serious damage with Brutal to crush enemy defenses.
Chaos Space Marine Warrior (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): Your basic heretic marine comes with more wounds than a tactical marine, proof of their many centuries of experience in the Long War. As the basic trooper, you can freely choose between the basic bolter or the chainsword+bolt pistol approach depending on what you intend on focusing on.
Chaos Space Marine Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): The gunner can't pick up a chainsword, but they do have some impressive guns. The flamer compensates for its low damage and short range with Torrent covering crowds. The plasma gun gives you AP1 and the chance to overcharge for AP2 at risk of exploding. The meltagun is similarly short-ranged, but carries a serious punch with crits dealing mortal wounds.
Chaos Space Marine Heavy Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): Your heavy gunner is easier to access, but your options are two and Heavy means this guy will likely be stuck on the back lines. The heavy bolter comes with Fusillade to split fire as you wish with P1 to possibly puncture armor on a crit. The missile launcher gives you a choice between either the frag missile's blast radius or the krak missile's direct heavy damage with AP1.
Chaos Space Marine Icon Bearer (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): The basic warrior comes strapped with the Icon of Vengeance. This allows the icon bearer to spend an AP to inspire fellow Heretic Astartes operatives within 3"/Square. When these operatives score a crit in shooting or melee can convert a miss into another hit.

</tab> <tab name="Chaos Cultist Fireteam (Max 1)"> This Infiltration/Recon fireteam is composed of 8 of the following (max 1 per kill team):

0-1 Chaos Cultist Champion (if there are no other leaders)
5-8 Chaos Cultist Warrior
0-2 Chaos Cultist Gunner

Chaos Cultist Champion (Combat, Marksman, Scout): The basic cultist with +1 wound and better WS/BS. While they can take the loadouts taken by the base cultist warrior, you can also replace their autopistol for a shotgun, upping the ranged power a smidge.
Chaos Cultist Warrior (Combat, Scout): Your cultists are about as unimpressive as a guardsman, with only a 5+ save and 7 wounds. While their autogun is equal to the lasgun, you can instead make your cultists take an autopistol and a brutal assault weapon. With the 4+ WS/BS in either case, do not expect them to accomplish much without any assistance.
Chaos Cultist Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): Your basic cultist comes with two guns with different weapons. The flamer remains as effective as it would in traitor hands. The heavy stubber will force the gunner to be immobilized with Heavy, but Ceaseless and Fusillade gives you plenty of covering fire.

</tab> </tabs>

TSM Ploys

Malicious Volleys (1 CP): Any Heretic Astartes operatives can shoot twice with any bolt weapons but cannot fight. This is especially dangerous for the heavy bolter, who has blanketing fire.
Hateful Assault (1 CP): Any Heretic Astartes operatives can fight twice but cannot shoot. This means considerably more for your traitors due to the extra accessibility of chainswords.
Let the Galaxy Burn! (1 CP): When a Heretic Astartes operative fights or shoots the closest target, they get to count a 5+ as a critical hit (Or a 4+ if the weapons has Lethal 5+). Expect to use this plenty if you want to run through the ranks of your enemy.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

Veteran of the Long War (1 CP): If a Heretic Astartes fights or shoots but misses every attack, they can fight/shoot once more.
Strike from Within (1 CP): When setting up your team, one Chaos Cultist operative can arrive with the Conceal order and within 1"/triangle of any heavy terrain so long as it's more than 6"/pentagon of any enemies or their drop zone. Likely to be used to get your gunner in perfect position to begin shooting immediately.
Warp Infused (1 CP): A Heretic Astartes operative will not count as injured and ignores all APL penalties for this activation. This is great for giving your traitor one last hurrah before going down.

</tab> </tabs>

TSM Strategies

CSM Strategies:

Generic Chaos in Kill Team is a bit of a mixed bag. While in theory access to both marines and cultists should give you enough flexibility to adapt to many threats, the lack of options on their wargear stops them from being trully great. At least in vanilla Kill Team, they got a lot of shinny new toys in Elites and Commanders, but let's talk about the base game first.

Starting with the traitor astartes, we have the aspiring champion, the toughest guy you could take in the basic game. With 2 attacks (3 against Imperium, 4 with the right speciality and 5 with the chainsword, but why would you give it that, though?) and access to a power sword or a power fist, this unit is your prime melee guy. This thing can do a lot of damage, especially good against heavy armoured units. Throwing this at GEQs is somewhat of an overkill, unless said unit is really dangerous, like a guardsman with a plasma or a melta. The Aspiring Champion cannot get boosted by the chaos marks, though, only the regular chaos marines and cultists can, so no more than 4 attacks. Though, to be fair, 4 should be enough to reliably kill most things, the power sword has AP3 and the power fist has Sx2, AP3 and D3 Damage. This makes it a lethal member of your team, with the drawback of it being a rather obvious target. Every unit that could realistically take it down will shoot at it, least it reach melee. And considering it only has one wound, you have to be careful on how you make it reach the enemy lines. They can at least be effective at ranged with the plasma pistol, though is bett for melee when someone charges him.

Chaos Marine Gunners rather basic: options range between heavy bolter, plasma rifle, flamer and meltagun. Meltagun is rather situational, considering it needs to be close to reliably hit (but when it does, it can turn into goop anything, D6 damage is great). Flamers are on the weak side, more for defending against charges than an offensive weapon due to their 8" range. So the choice is between plasma and heavy bolter. To take advantage of all of the specialisms, you want a plasma sniper and a heavy/demo heavy bolter. The plasma is self-explanatory, re-rolling ones means that you can overcharge the weapon safely. Heavy heavy bolter will be able to move around the map without the hit roll penalty, although considering it has a 36" range, you might rather let it stand still and add the demolition's +1 on the wound rolls. This combination makes it the best sniper of your team, though it is probably somewhat mediocre compared to the choices of other teams.

Regular Chaos Marines are your run of the mill marines. Either chainsword with bolt pistol or boltgun, with both frag and krack grenades for good measure. You know what these do, don't expect miracles from them. Sadly, unlike SotA Marines, they can't naturally boost the surrounding unit's leadership, they instead recquire a relic for that. The regular marines have one relic, and ONLY one relic on the team. The Undivided relic boosts surrounding unit's leadership, Khorne's makes everyone re-roll charge rolls (very good for melee focused teams, of course), Nurgle's hurts enemy leadership, Slaanesh's makes surrounding allies get a DEATH TO THE FALSE EMPEROR ar 5+, which is really good, probably better in melee than Khorne's relic, and Tzeench makes the bearer into a psyker that only attacks on a 6+ roll, but with no perils. Melee focused teams will go for Khorne's and Slaanesh's, while ranged teams will preffer the Undivided to boost the cultists. Tzeench's is nice but very unreliable, with 1/6 chances of actually doing something, and Nurgle's relic is simply not that good.

Once we finish with the superhumans of the team, we go to the squishy ones. Chaos cultists are close to Imperial Guardsmen in terms of stats, but have worse equipment overall. The regular cultists have access to the relics, but it's just not as good on them, considering the marines are much tougher and better armed. The cultist champion has access to a shotgun, which you're going to give to him considering that there's no point to it outside of it (maybe the extra leadership? It's still L6, it's going to be at risk at all times, and be terrified after a wound or two). Cultist Gunners have flamers or heavy stubbers. Flamers are good for kamikaze runs, heavy stubbers are too weak for the job. Though they are free, the moment there's cover and a wound, it will barely hit aything, plus if the enemy is going to shoot cultists, they will go for the gunners first. Also, you don't want to give the specialities to this guys, those are for the marines.

For team composition, avoid space-marine only teams. Seven marines can be strong, but you will always have the same team composition, and always be outgunned and outmatched by both loyalist and specific traitor counterparts. Loyalist have access to better weapons and primaris with W2, Death Guard have better toughness, Disgustingly Resilient and better weapons, and Thousand Sons have psykers. The only full marine chaos team worse than this would be the SotA, and even then they have access to boosted cultists, traitor electropriests and actual psykers, so they are NEVER going to go full marine. All-out cultists is more interesting, though considering how squishy they are and with their pathetic weak guns and low morale, their only numeric advantage is numbers. If you could have more than two cultist gunners, a massive horde of flamers would be quite scary, but as it is, it's just not worth it.

Mixed teams is going to be the best option. Give your leadership to one of the cultists and hide it from EVERYONE, to clear specialist slots. Combat/Zealot aspiring champion, sniper plasma, heavy/demo heavy bolter, marine with the icon you want. After that, you'll either pick a couple of extra marines, and two flamer cultists, and as many regular cultist as you can with the remaining points. This is pretty much the standard team, and people know this. This lack of flexibility is what makes this army difficult to be competitive with, though if competitive is what you want, you can check out the Elite slots.

Counterplay:

A team that can reliably take down marines while not sacrificing power against hordes is a good team against it. The guy who gets the Beseech the Gods stratagem has to become an instant target, especially if the aspiring champion, the plasma or the heavy bolter have it, though keep in mind that these are already high priority targets, it just changes the focus of the first attaks. Regular marines will have enough firepower to deal with the traitor scum, while the units with basic equipment will pretty much always kill the cultists. Same with Imperial Guard, plasma spam for the marines and attack spam for the grunts. AdMEch can use the infiltrators with the power sword to charge first and deny the enemy the chance of attacking first, the transuranic arquebus to obliterate whatever it sees, as well as the plasma guy (in fact let's just take this out of the way, PLASMA IS THE BEST COUNTER AGAINST MARINES OF ALL KIND, PERIOD), plus, ranger/vanguard spam is excellent against them. Other Chaos teams have ways to deal with astartes' high saves, though cultists will be able to give poxwalkers a run for their money, considering how weak they are without the disgustingly resilient rule. Tzaangors overpower cultists in melee pretty much every time, and rubric marines have enough toughness to just walk straight to them and roast them with magic flamers. Necrons will laugh at anyone who tries to kill them with autoguns, so once they've dealt with the big guys, the game is over. Orks might outnumber and overpower chaos marines, and once in melee, cultists are fucked. Eldar of all kinds will ignore most of the damage caused by the cultists (another reason to use the flamers with them, because something is eventually bound to get in). SotA will have problems with them, but that's where you want you negavolt cultists and your rogue psyker to carry your team, while the black legionnaires boost them and the rest deal with the cultists. Tau will have no problems dealing with regular chaos marines if they can keep them at a distance (a full mixed melee team with Khorne relic is great if you manage to reach the Tau lines with enough dudes, if you play Tau you'll prioritize the Aspiring Champion and the guy with the relic). A Lictor and Genestealer charge should be enough for tyranids to deal with the marines, but be wary of the counter-offensive if the astartes survives.

Overall, the strategy against heretic astartes is simple: Big guns focused on their big guys, cheap units on the rest.

TSM Example Teams

Legionaries (Nachmund)

Why Play Legionaries

Pros
- Full-on focus on the tanky APL3 CSM without any meddling cultists.
- Your CSM can actually take Chaos Marks.
- Quite a few specialists and heavy weapons.
- Easy to field a full team with either the Kill Team: Legionaries or a plain Chaos Space Marines box.
Cons
- Being full marines, you're going to lose out in the numbers game against anything except other marines.
- While a lot of your operatives have plenty of focus on melee, your shooting focus will pretty much be stuck at your heavy gunner and bolter warriors.

L Wargear

0-1 Aggression Stimulants (3 EP): Alignment-free combat drugs that let the bearer re-roll one attack die when they charge. Good thing is that a lot of your operatives have a preference towards melee.
Frag Grenade (2 EP): Basic frag grenade with limited range and Blast to cover groups.
Krak Grenade (3 EP): Basic krak grenade with limited range but high damage and AP1.
0-1 Warded Armour (3 EP): Grants a 2+ save, but like the Dark Eldar's shadowfields, the moment this pops your save decays back to a 3+. Pick this if you're really worried about guns that can punch past your armor, as that's the only place where your 2+ save applies.
Suspensor System (3 EP): The bearer can move 3 circles/6" with a heavy weapon before firing, making it a welcome blessing for your heavy gunner.
Malign Scripture (2 EP): Balefire Acolyte only. This allows your psyker to cast twice once per battle, though you can't guarantee that the second power will go off. If you do use it, you have to roll a d6, with a 1-2 causing 3 mortal wounds to themselves and wasting the power.
0-1 Tainted Rounds (3 EP): +1 to both damage profiles for one bolter or bolt pistol (standard or tainted). A basic but pretty strong upgrade for an operative that would like to focus on their guns.
0-1 Grisly Trophy (3 EP): Grants the bearer a 3"/square aura that deals a penalty of 1 attack on any ranged or melee attacks on enemies inside this radius. Great for overwhelming enemies, especially if you pair this with a Butcher or Chosen.
Malefic Blade (2 EP): An extra melee weapon that deals 3/5 damage, making it a bit better than punching the enemy on a crit.

Chaos Blessings

Unusually, each operative here has the <Mark of Chaos> keyword on their statlines and you can pick whatever mark of the big four you want for each one (Or none at all!) and get a benefit for each. The only real restrictions here is that you can't include opposing marks (No Khorne and Slaanesh, no Nurgle and Tzeentch).

Favoured of the Dark Gods: Of note here is that once per turn you can use one strategic ploy that shares the same <Mark of Chaos> as one of your operatives with this rule (The chosen, aspiring champion, or icon bearer). For Undivided operatives, this allows you to use Hateful Assault or Malicious Volleys for free.

Khorne - Wrathful Onslaught: Whenever this operative fights in melee, they can turn one hit into a crit if they didn't already score a crit.
Nurgle - Disgusting Resilience: Allows this operative to turn one save into a critical save, turning them into a wall against bullets.
Slaanesh - Unnatural Agility: Adds +1"/triangle to this operative's movement.
Tzeentch - Empyreal Concordance: Whenever this operative shoots, they score crits on a 5+. The ideal pick for gunner legionaries, especially with the heavy bolter or autocannon.
Undivided - Vicious Reavers: Whenever this operative fights in melee or shoots an enemy within 6"/pentagon, you can re-roll one hit roll, providing more consistency in close quarters.

L Psychic Powers

Unlike most post-Compendium kill-teams, you can't actually cast twice per turn with your psykers without rolling. Instead, you auto-cast one power and have to roll a d6 if you try casting a second power, with a 1-2 triggering failure and 3 MWs.

Fireblast: Provides a magical grenade with decent damage on top of No Cover and Blast to negate any obstacles and Splash to give a few extra MWs on a crit.
Malign Influence: A pretty hefty buff, providing a visible ally with Lethal 5+, No Cover and Brutal to crush anything they come across.
Siphon Life: Another ranged attack that does decent damage, though it's now subject to cover. If you score 2+ hits with one of them being a crit, you can restore d3 wounds to an operative within 6"/pentagon of the caster.

L Campaign Additions

Sacrilegious Mutilation: Revealed the first time you kill an enemy. That enemy and any future dead enemies will transform into corpse tokens that become additional objectives that your operatives can spend an action to claim. You gain 1 VP for two and four uses of this special action each.
- While this is very thematic, the issue is that this will force your operatives to go out of their way to perform their rituals. For a crowded fight, this is even more problematic as this action won't work if there are nearby enemies so you might be racing enemies to claim this spot.
Dark Desecration: Mark one piece of Heavy terrain during your first turn. Whenever you kill two or more enemies within 1"/triangle of this operative, you gain 1 VP, and gain a second if you accomplish this and have enough operatives next to this terrain with a total APL that exceeds that of any nearby enemies.
Savage Butcher: Pick one operative. This operative scores you 1 VP when you kill 2+ enemies and another for killing 3+ operatives.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Send a Message"> Note - This counts as the Purge Order Spec Op for terms of repeating

Unclean Rites: Finish five games where you won VP by performing either the Sacrilegious Mutilation or Execution Tac Ops. Fortunately, both of these key off of murdering the enemy hard.
Message Delivered: Finish one last game where you managed to kill the enemy leader. You've got some of the scariest melee monsters, so you don't have much to worry about.

Completing this Spec Op scores 2 RP and increases your asset cap by one. In addition, the lucky operative who killed the leader for that last game gains an extra 5 VP for their badassery. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Tainted Journey"> Note - This counts as the Perform Ritual Spec Op for terms of repeating

Profane Violation: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Dark Desecration or Plant Banner Tac Ops. Both Tac Ops will require you to guard an important spot.
Dominance: Finish one last game where you score VP from the Seize Ground Tac Op.

Finishing this Spec Op scores you 1 RP and increases your asset cap by one. In addition, you get two pieces of Rare Equipment, which gives you quite the advantage. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

Apostle of Chaos: Grants Favoured of the Dark Gods. Useful for anyone that isn't a leader or the Icon Bearer, as they already have the rule.
Warp-Blessed: Improves this operative's save by +1. Considering that all your operatives are already 3+ space marines, a 2+ is pretty bonkers.
Devastating Assault: This operative's melee weapons gain Brutal. While absolutely bonkers on any weapon, special props go to the Butcher's chainaxe, who can use this to become an absolute nightmare to fight.
Servant of the Dark Gods: The first time this operative suffers a crit in the turn, you can downgrade that crit to a mundane hit.
Fuelled by Hate: This operative adds +1 to their APL when their wounds are below half their maximum. It's a bit of a compensation for the crippled movement the Injured condition inflicts, but it has uses in desperate drives for objectives or kills.
Vengeance Incarnate: Improve the WS/BS of one weapon this operative wields by +1 to a max of 2+. This is another really powerful buff for your non-leader operatives that usually hang at around 3+.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

Marked for Greatness (1 RP): Only usable on an Ace rank or higher operative. Once per game, this operative can turn one hit into a crit if they didn't score any other crits.
- While this looks like this ability is permanent, it actually lasts for as long as this operative has the most XP. The moment another operative gets more XP than your chosen operative, they lose the ability and you have to spend RP for that one to gain the ability.
Eye of the Gods (1 RP): Only available after a game where you killed an enemy Leader operative. The operative who killed the leader scores d3 XP and is cured of all Battle Scars, a very handy set of perks for this deed.
Cast Aside (0 RP): Whenever you roll for Battle Scars on an operative, you can instead shut down the power tied to their >Mark of Chaos> keyword for d3 games. While it's inconvenient to lose the mark benefits (and no, you won't even qualify for Undivided), you're keeping an operative alive at peak fighting shape.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

Unclean Shrine: Only available once you get an operative with the Ace rank or higher. When updating your operatives, the one who scored the most kills gets 1XP.
Relics of the Heresy: Grants two pieces of Rare Equipment, which is awesome. However, they only remain on your list as long as you actually have this asset and those items go away the moment you sell off this asset.
Sacrificial Altar: One operative can ignore a hit once per game.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

Brands of the Damned (3 EP): Allows the bearer to use a tactical ploy that shares the same >Mark of Chaos> keyword as he does (Or Veterans of the Long War if you're using Undivided). It's pretty much the same as the Favoured of the Dark Gods in application.
Gauntlets of Vengeance (2 EP): Operatives without a melee weapon besides their fists only. Their punches gain an additional attack and Relentless and Rending, making for a more reliable weapon, though still an emergency one.
Pages of Scabrius (3 EP): Legionary Balefire Acolyte only. This allows the bearer to cast a second power, but this does come at a potential risk.
Icon of Chaos (4 EP): Legionary Icon Bearer only. Bringing this on the field makes all allies immune to the Injured condition, a massive help at keeping your killing power up since it has infinite range and works on all marks.
Daemon Axe (3 EP): Legionary Butcher only. Their massive chainaxe now has an extra attack. Nice. Wicked. This thing is already a terrifying weapon.
Relic Bolt Pistol (2 EP): Upgrades a bolt pistol or tainted bolt pistol, adding +1 attack and Relentless for improved accuracy. This means more to a basic pistol, which won't have Balanced for at least one re-roll.

</tab> </tabs>

L Units

This Seek & Destroy/Security Kill-Team is composed of 6 of the following:

1 Legionary Chosen or Legionary Aspiring Champion
5 of the following:
- 0-5 Legionary Warriors
- 0-1 Legionary Gunner
- 0-1 Legionary Heavy Gunner
- 0-1 Legionary Icon Bearer
- 0-1 Legionary Anointed
- 0-1 Legionary Balefire Acolyte
- 0-1 Legionary Butcher
- 0-1 Legionary Shrivetalon

Legionary Aspiring Champion (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): A slightly stronger traitor with the improved WS/BS. Unlike the Compendium version, you're stuck with a melee focus with this guy and you have quite a few options for loadout. Alongside Favoured of the Dark Gods' free ploy usage, this guy gains a free action once per turn when he kills an enemy, making him the sort to lead from the front.
- Shooting provides you with only the bolt pistol (with balanced for a surprise re-roll) or the more potent plasma pistol for shooting. For the fighting, you've got quite a few options. Your base chainsword comes with the ability to turn basic parries into critical parries, shutting down anything with Brutal. The power weapon has slightly better crits than the chainsword with Lethal 5+ but taking the exclusive power maul gives Stun to overwhelm on crits. The power fist remains your last option, meant for serious damage with Brutal to crush enemy defenses.
Legionary Chosen (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): The opposite number of the aspiring champion with all the same stats and free ploy. While his gun options remain the same, his 3+ BS makes focusing on guns less than ideal. His lone melee option is a wicked daemon blade, with damage that outstrips all but a power fist and Lethal 5+ to ensure that those crits keep rolling. This guy thrives off being in combat, as scoring crits lets him restore 2 wounds each turn (though this won't help him cheat death) and he has an aura that severely hampers the fleeing distance of any enemies that dare try and fall back within engagement range.
Legionary Warrior (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): Your basic heretic marine comes with more wounds than a tactical marine, proof of their many centuries of experience in the Long War. As the basic trooper, you can freely choose between the basic bolter or the chainsword+bolt pistol approach depending on what you intend on focusing on.
Legionary Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): The gunner can't pick up a chainsword, but they do have some impressive guns. The flamer compensates for its low damage and short range with Torrent covering crowds. The plasma gun gives you AP1 and the chance to overcharge for AP2 at risk of exploding. The meltagun is similarly short-ranged, but carries a serious punch with crits dealing mortal wounds.
Legionary Heavy Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): Your heavy gunner has options for firepower but Heavy means this guy will likely be stuck on the back lines. The heavy bolter comes with Fusillade to split fire as you wish with P1 to possibly puncture armor on a crit. The missile launcher gives you a choice between either the frag missile's blast radius or the krak missile's direct heavy damage with AP1. The new addition to the armory is the reaper chaincannon, a mean sonuvagun with Ceaseless and Fusillade with plenty of shots to compensate for the rather average damage output.
Legionary Icon Bearer (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): The basic warrior comes strapped with an icon for the +1 to AP standard to many similar icon bearers. Instead of any unique action to bolster their allies, this icon bearer is more selfish and comes with the same free ploy usage as the leaders.
Chaos Space Marine Anointed (Combat, Staunch, Scout): A possessed marine in all but name. Their claw is about as powerful as a chainsword but with Rending for extra crits. Once per game, you can let the daemon take full control of their host, letting them become a literal melee monster in exchange for being able to anything else. This gift has some serious perks, like being able to fight twice in an activation without using Hateful Assault, a 5+++ save, and adding Ceaseless and Lethal 5+ to their claw for maximum nastiness.
Legionary Balefire Acolyte (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): Your resident Psyker, though only able to cast once compared to forces like the Warpcoven Sorcerers or Veil Dancer Shadowseers and forbidden from aligning with Khorne. While armed with what amounts to a Balanced bolt pistol and a free hand, their melee attacks deal extra mortal wounds each time they score crits. This can lead to the balefire acolyte being able to handle most enemies without needing to cast, but they will need their powers the moment enemy marines show up.
Legionary Butcher (Combat, Staunch): An absolute bruiser among brutes, touting a massive chainaxe with damage on par with a power fist and Reap. This chainaxe is built for taking initiative in fights, as it gains Ceaseless when this operative fights on their activation and gains Relentless if they charged. That doesn't mean that they have no defensive value though, as their axe negates supporting attackers (foiling mobs) and has an extended engagement range, turning them into a sizeable roadblock to any attempts to fight them.
Legionary Shrivetalon (Combat, Staunch, Scout): The resident Kurzeaboo of the team. Rather than a chainsword, this traitor carries a pair of knives with unassuming damage but Lethal 5+ to get in some easier crits. On top of that, they always fight first, even when defending, and can spook a nearby enemy operative (and robbing them of an AP) whenever they kill an enemy. This turns them into an assassin, meant to sweep in and clean up any wounded enemies and soften up future foes for your foes.
- Their other goal is objective denial. Once per game they can blow 2 AP into placing a spoopy sign. When enemies try to pick up an objective within 3"/square of this mark, the action costs an additional AP, while anyone capping an objective within 3"/square of this sign lowers their effective APL by 1. Considering that most enemies have an APL of 2, this can turn those objectives into lost causes, possibly foiling certain Tac Ops and missions that require that specific objective.

L Ploys

Malicious Volleys (1 CP): Any operatives can shoot twice with any bolt weapons but cannot fight. This is especially dangerous for the heavy bolter, which has blanketing fire.
Hateful Assault (1 CP): Any operatives can fight twice but cannot shoot. This means considerably more for your traitors due to the extra accessibility of chainswords.
Blood for the Blood God! (1 CP): When a Khorne operative charges, their attacks deal +1 extra damage. Note that this is after accounting for any other modifiers, meaning that this even applies on crits.
Perpetual Aggression (1 CP): When a Khorne finishes a fight action without being engaged with an enemy, they can walk up to 3"/square towards the nearest enemy, allowing them to get right back into combat without wasting an action on charging. This can even work after having moved, which means that charges are fair game.
Mutagenic (1 CP): When a Nurgle operative takes damage from a non-crit, that damage is reduced by 1 to a minimum of 2 damage. While useless against lasguns, this can reduce bolters into being as painful as lasguns and blunts the effectiveness of other guns.
Implacable (1 CP): Nurgle operatives won't count as injured and ignore penalties to their APL or their BS. This actually does quite well for your gunners, who'll want their full BS for overwatch while also having value for any melee marines.
Graceful Killer (1 CP): Add +1 to the crit damage for a Slaanesh operative's melee weapons.
Delicious Agony (1 CP): When a Slaanesh operative fights, they can resolve two hits at once if they score their first hit on an injured foe. This is made to guarantee killing blows against an enemy without needing to worry about parrying.
Protected by Fate (1 CP): When a Tzeentch is shot, they can turn a failed save into a pass if you have any critical saves. Considering that you lack any manner of invulns, you'll be wanting this against a bad round of shooting.
Aetheric Ward (1 CP): A Tzeentch operative gains a 4++ save. Proper for laughing at any high-AP weapons like meltas.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

Veteran of the Long War (1 CP): If an operative fights or shoots but misses every attack, they can fight/shoot once more.
Unending Bloodshed (1 CP): When a Khorne operative is killed in combat with an enemy, you can make one last desperate attack before going down like a bitch.
Mutability and Change (1 CP): A Tzeentch operative adds +1 to their APL for this activation.
Malignant Aura (1 CP): A Nurgle operative gains a 3"/square aura that reduces the defense of any enemy operatives inside it by 1. This won't mean much by itself, but it can make some easy pickings for a gunner. This is especially a worthwhile pick when stacked with the Chosen's aura of inescapability.
Sickening Captivation (1 CP): Mark an enemy within 3"/square of a Slaanesh operative. This enemy suffers -1 to their APL. For most, this essentially robs them of their ability to fall back, but even marines will be forced to either retreat and do nothing else or stay and fight another turn.

</tab> </tabs>

L Strategies

CSM Strategies:

Generic Chaos in Kill Team is a bit of a mixed bag. While in theory access to both marines and cultists should give you enough flexibility to adapt to many threats, the lack of options on their wargear stops them from being trully great. At least in vanilla Kill Team, they got a lot of shinny new toys in Elites and Commanders, but let's talk about the base game first.

Starting with the traitor astartes, we have the aspiring champion, the toughest guy you could take in the basic game. With 2 attacks (3 against Imperium, 4 with the right speciality and 5 with the chainsword, but why would you give it that, though?) and access to a power sword or a power fist, this unit is your prime melee guy. This thing can do a lot of damage, especially good against heavy armoured units. Throwing this at GEQs is somewhat of an overkill, unless said unit is really dangerous, like a guardsman with a plasma or a melta. The Aspiring Champion cannot get boosted by the chaos marks, though, only the regular chaos marines and cultists can, so no more than 4 attacks. Though, to be fair, 4 should be enough to reliably kill most things, the power sword has AP3 and the power fist has Sx2, AP3 and D3 Damage. This makes it a lethal member of your team, with the drawback of it being a rather obvious target. Every unit that could realistically take it down will shoot at it, least it reach melee. And considering it only has one wound, you have to be careful on how you make it reach the enemy lines. They can at least be effective at ranged with the plasma pistol, though is bett for melee when someone charges him.

Chaos Marine Gunners rather basic: options range between heavy bolter, plasma rifle, flamer and meltagun. Meltagun is rather situational, considering it needs to be close to reliably hit (but when it does, it can turn into goop anything, D6 damage is great). Flamers are on the weak side, more for defending against charges than an offensive weapon due to their 8" range. So the choice is between plasma and heavy bolter. To take advantage of all of the specialisms, you want a plasma sniper and a heavy/demo heavy bolter. The plasma is self-explanatory, re-rolling ones means that you can overcharge the weapon safely. Heavy heavy bolter will be able to move around the map without the hit roll penalty, although considering it has a 36" range, you might rather let it stand still and add the demolition's +1 on the wound rolls. This combination makes it the best sniper of your team, though it is probably somewhat mediocre compared to the choices of other teams.

Regular Chaos Marines are your run of the mill marines. Either chainsword with bolt pistol or boltgun, with both frag and krack grenades for good measure. You know what these do, don't expect miracles from them. Sadly, unlike SotA Marines, they can't naturally boost the surrounding unit's leadership, they instead recquire a relic for that. The regular marines have one relic, and ONLY one relic on the team. The Undivided relic boosts surrounding unit's leadership, Khorne's makes everyone re-roll charge rolls (very good for melee focused teams, of course), Nurgle's hurts enemy leadership, Slaanesh's makes surrounding allies get a DEATH TO THE FALSE EMPEROR ar 5+, which is really good, probably better in melee than Khorne's relic, and Tzeench makes the bearer into a psyker that only attacks on a 6+ roll, but with no perils. Melee focused teams will go for Khorne's and Slaanesh's, while ranged teams will preffer the Undivided to boost the cultists. Tzeench's is nice but very unreliable, with 1/6 chances of actually doing something, and Nurgle's relic is simply not that good.

Counterplay:

A team that can reliably take down marines while not sacrificing power against hordes is a good team against it. The guy who gets the Beseech the Gods stratagem has to become an instant target, especially if the aspiring champion, the plasma or the heavy bolter have it, though keep in mind that these are already high priority targets, it just changes the focus of the first attaks. Regular marines will have enough firepower to deal with the traitor scum, while the units with basic equipment will pretty much always kill the cultists. Same with Imperial Guard, plasma spam for the marines and attack spam for the grunts. AdMEch can use the infiltrators with the power sword to charge first and deny the enemy the chance of attacking first, the transuranic arquebus to obliterate whatever it sees, as well as the plasma guy (in fact let's just take this out of the way, PLASMA IS THE BEST COUNTER AGAINST MARINES OF ALL KIND, PERIOD), plus, ranger/vanguard spam is excellent against them. Other Chaos teams have ways to deal with astartes' high saves, though cultists will be able to give poxwalkers a run for their money, considering how weak they are without the disgustingly resilient rule. Tzaangors overpower cultists in melee pretty much every time, and rubric marines have enough toughness to just walk straight to them and roast them with magic flamers. Necrons will laugh at anyone who tries to kill them with autoguns, so once they've dealt with the big guys, the game is over. Orks might outnumber and overpower chaos marines, and once in melee, cultists are fucked. Eldar of all kinds will ignore most of the damage caused by the cultists (another reason to use the flamers with them, because something is eventually bound to get in). SotA will have problems with them, but that's where you want you negavolt cultists and your rogue psyker to carry your team, while the black legionnaires boost them and the rest deal with the cultists. Tau will have no problems dealing with regular chaos marines if they can keep them at a distance (a full mixed melee team with Khorne relic is great if you manage to reach the Tau lines with enough dudes, if you play Tau you'll prioritize the Aspiring Champion and the guy with the relic). A Lictor and Genestealer charge should be enough for tyranids to deal with the marines, but be wary of the counter-offensive if the astartes survives.

Overall, the strategy against heretic astartes is simple: Big guns focused on their big guys, cheap units on the rest.

L Example Teams

Death Guard

Why Play Death Guard

Pros
- Plague marines are disgustingly tough in every sense of the word, capable of eating small arms fire like popcorn.
- Plague marines are equally as capable at range as they are in close combat with bolters and knives as normal gear where most loyalists and even fellow traitors will focus more on one or the other.
- Poxwalkers get GA2 to let them absolutely heckle anyone trying to distract your big boys.
Cons
- You're few in number, you aren't fast, and you're geared towards getting in close. You are very good when you get there, but never forget your team is centered around two-four models. Getting mobbed, sustained fire, an unlucky roll, or a bad tactical decision can really hurt you.
- Poxwalkers are used for only one thing - chaff. Using them for anything else is foolishness.

DG Wargear

0-1 Nurgling (3 EP): Once per battle, when a visible enemy is within 3"/Square of the bearer, this can inflict -1 APL. Very handy if you plan on stealing an objective or want to guarantee that an enemy is cornered in regards to action.
0-1 Plague Bell (3 EP): Gain a 2 AP action to add one 2"/Circle to movement for friendly Bubonic Astartes operativesthat activate within 6"/pentagon for the Turning Point. Pretty much the only way to guarantee that they can pursue any enemies rather than being constantly outrun.
Blight Grenade (2 EP): Single-use Frag Grenade with Ceaseless to guarantee your hits.
Krak Grenade (3 EP): Basic krak grenade made to pop armor.
0-1 Filth Censer (3 EP): When the bearer uses the Contagion ploy, its range is increased to 2 circles/4".
Virulent Rounds (1 EP): +1 Crit damage for one Boltgun or Bolt Pistol the bearer uses.
Mephitic Toxin (2 EP): Add +1 base damage to the bearer's Plague Knife.

DG Units

All operatives have Disgustingly Resilient, Granting an FNP 5+++ while cannot take injuries except for battle scars. makes the marines tankier, and chaff zombies more chaffy. The downside is slow, moving 4".

The kill team is composed of two Fire teams <tabs> <tab name="Plague Marine Fireteam"> This Seek & Destroy/Security fireteam is composed of 3 of the following:

0-1 Plague Marine Champion (If you have no other leaders)
0-3 Plague Marine Warriors
0-1 Plague Marine Gunner or Plague Marine Heavy Gunner or Plague Marine Fighter
0-1 Plague Marine Icon Bearer

Plague Marine Champion (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): As a plague marine, they are very flexible between melee or shooting, and gain a few tools to make them stand above the rest.
- Shooting isn't restricted by loadout like with other heretics. The bolter, of course, remains an ever-reliable tool but you can use the bolt pistol if you just want close-quarters shooting. The plasma pistol is also powerful up close, but overcharging might be a bad idea depending on your rolls.
- The plague knife remains a decent enough weapon, but you have other options. The plague sword gives you a power sword that lacks Lethal. The power fist gives you absolute stopping power with Brutal, but it impacts your WS.
Plague Marine Warrior (Staunch, Marksman): Bulky being a traitor marine and more so with Disgustingly Resilient. However, they're incredibly slow with only 4"/two circles worth of movement. With 4 shots at a 3+ BS, they can easily gun down a weaker enemy and ding up anything close to their level of tankiness, and their knife can do the same, if not better depending on how many crits you score. The only reason You'd want to include him is if you're going a pure marine kill-team, in which you are practically required to take at least one.
Plague Marine Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): A footslogging marine who comes with some impressive guns. The Plague Belcher compensates for its low damage and short-range with Torrent covering crowds and +1 crit damage over other flamers. The meltagun is similarly short-ranged, but carries a serious punch with crits dealing mortal wounds. The plasma gun gives you AP1 and the chance to overcharge for AP2 at risk of exploding.
Plague Marine Heavy Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): The only reason you'd want to take this guy over the Gunner is because you see explicit need for their guns. The plague spewer is essentially a plague belcher that fires one additional time, which...makes it not so impressive. The blight launcher deals some decent damage above a bolter and has AP1 to pop armor.
Plague Marine Fighter (Combat, Staunch): the plague marine in the squad with the big sword. These are the only plague marines with a bolt pistol to keep them from the kiting game.
- Plague knives get 2 more attacks than on the knife then Warrior's and has Relentless for crit fishing. The flail of corruption is +1 normal damage over knifes and has Reap 2 to deal 2MW to all other enemies within triangle/1", countering mobs. The greater plague cleaver hits like a power fist but has Rending to make crits absolute murder. Pairing the bubotic axe & mace of contagion provides the most flexible options with a choice of dealing more damage and Rending or inflicting Stun on crits.
Plague Marine Icon Bearer (Staunch): An upgrade on the Warrior, Getting a +1 APL for Objective control, and can plant the Icon of Decay as an action to grant other Bubonic Astartes within 3"/square can re-roll 1s or 2s on Disgustingly Resilient. This icon should be used in order to weather the absolute worst of the fire because your numbers can tank a good bit.

</tab> <tab name="Poxwalker Fireteam (Max 1)"> This Security/Infiltration fireteam is composed of 8 Poxwalkers.

Poxwalkers (Combat, Scout): These aren't here to accomplish objectives. Simply put, their purpose is to be annoying, with GA2 to let them catch up with opponents that would normally outrun the plague marines. Expecting anything more than tying up enemies and occasionally nailing a guardsman is to be courting disappointment.

</tab> </tabs>

DG Ploys

Malicious Volleys (1 CP): All Bubonic Astartes operatives during the Turning point may take two shoot actions with a bolt weapon instead of fighting.
Hatful Assault (1 CP): All Bubonic Astartes operatives during the Turning point may take two Fight actions instead of Shooting.
Contagion (1 CP): All enemies within 2"/circle of your operatives are treated as injured. This is absolutely useful for keeping them in place so your fighter or plaguewalkers can come to swarm the menace.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

Effluent Demise (1 CP): Upon death, a Bubonic Astartes operative can inflict D3 MW to each enemy within circle/2".
Revolting Durability (1 CP): When the enemy attempts to resolve any damage dealt to a Bubonic Astartes operative, this ploy degrades one of your opponent's crits into a normal hit. This is absolutely necessary in regards to something with Stun or MW.
Dig In (1 CP): A Bubonic Astartes operatives gain the action to boost his defence stat by 1. This is pretty big since most units have no way of doing this, even with cover.

</tab> </tabs>

DG Strategies

DG Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

DG Example Teams

Thousand Sons

As of the Q1 2022 Dataslate, this team has been effectively superseded by the Warpcover Kill-Team below.

Why Play Thousand Sons

Pros
- One of only two factions in the Compendium that can make use of Kill Team's psychic phase.
- Despite all other units with a 2+ save (except Custodes) being barred from Kill Team, Rubrics can boost their save to a 2+ against attacks that deal 3 damage or less.
- AP1 on all the Rubric Marine's guns will eviscerate GEQ opponents and seriously threaten other MEQ targets almost as severely.
- A universal 5++ save on all your guys.
Cons
- Limited weapon selection, literally two guns for your rubricae gunner.
- Your psychic powers are all focused on ONE model. If he dies, there goes your psykery.
- All your models are focused on either shooting or punching. Rubricae are only passable in melee while tzaangors lack any long-ranged guns.
- Extremely limited model counts, especially for pure rubric fire teams.
- Despite being space marines, your basic dustbins all have the human standard APL of 2. Needless to say that this is unimpressive.

TS Wargear

0-1 All-seeing Eye (2 EP): Once per game, you can activate the bearer before or after another operative on your side. This gives you a turn's worth of GA2, a massive help for your otherwise limited forces.
0-1 Runic Ward (2 EP): Gives the bearer a once-per-game ability to convert one failed save into a pass or one successful save into a critical save. Note that this ONLY works in shooting, so melee remains up in the air.
Gargoyle Bayonet (2 EP): WS 3+ D4/4 melee weapon, making melee for a rubricae slightly less miserable. The beastmen will see more use out of this, as it also boosts their WS.
0-1 Mythic Scroll (2 EP): Aspiring Sorcerer operatives only. Allows the bearer to cast a free power once per game.
Treasure Trinket (3 EP): Tzaangor operatives only. Adds +1 to the beastman's APL, which can make for a super-efficient slave. Especially true if you make use of the Treasure Hunter ploy.
Gilded Horns (1 EP): Tzaangor operatives only. Whenever the operative charges, any attacks they make will count as a crit on a 5+.
Ensorcelled Rounds (2 EP): Tzaangor operatives only. The bearer's autopistol adds +1 to their damage stats.

TS Psychic Powers

The aspiring sorcerer can manifest two psychic powers each turn but will take 3 MW on a roll of a 1 or 2

Doombolt: Provides a free ranged attack that provides a moderate damage but Lethal 5+ lets it crit and therefore deal MW2 far easier.
Firestorm: Provides a magical grenade with Indirect and Barrage to counteract most cover. While its damage is lacking, it has a small blast range to flush out mobs.
Immaterial Surge: Provides a friendly operative +1 APL for their next activation.
Twist of fate: Mark one visible enemy operative. Any operatives that attack this enemy can re-roll one attack die for this turn. If you double this up with Malicious Volleys, you might even be able to eradicate the target.

TS Units

As a note, all units here come with a 5++ Invulnerable save to protect them from guns.

The kill team is composed of two fireteams.

<tabs> <tab name="Rubric Marine Fireteam"> This Seek & Destroy/Security fireteam is composed of 2 of the following:

0-1 Aspiring Sorcerer (if there are no other leaders)
0-2 Rubric Marine Warrior
0-1 Rubric Marine Gunner
0-1 Rubric Marine Icon Bearer

Aspiring Sorcerer (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): Your lone psyker. While he lacks the improved defenses of your soldiers, he does have 3 APL like a proper marine. The lone melee weapon he gets is the force stave, a power weapon equivalent that inflicts Stun on a crit.
- The sorcerer carries three pistol options, all of them predictably short-ranged. The inferno bolt pistol offers some direct AP1 while the plasma pistol offers that with higher damage and the chance to risk overheating for AP2. The warpflame pistol provides a small Torrent to manage clusters with AP1 to cook hordes.
- RAW there's no stipulations that require you to replace one of your marines for an Aspiring Sorcerer. Considering the disadvantage of numbers you'll need to contend with, this is something you'll damn well want to exploit.
Rubric Marine Warrior (Staunch, Marksman): Your basic dustbin is rather durable against small arms fire, having a 2+ save against any attacks with a base damage of 3 or less so it can shrug off anything below a bolter while any guns with AP will need to contend with the 5+ Invuln. The fact that it comes with a boltgun with AP1 means that it can rather easily rip through lighter infantry and threaten other MEQs. That said, combat is the rubricae's best role, as the 2 APL limits what it can do for objectives.
Rubric Marine Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): The rubric marines have only two options for special weapons. The warplamer is short-ranged, but it has +1 damage on crits, Torrent lets it cover mobs and AP1 will melt what armor they have. The soulreaper cannon is like a lighter heavy bolter, firing a tons of shots with the same damage as a bolter but with AP1 and Fusillade in order to spread the love.
Rubric Marine Icon Bearer (Staunch, Marksman): The basic rubricae bearing an icon and thus carrying a +1 to APL for capping. Unlike other icon bearers, this one merely lets an Aspiring Sorcerer operative within 3"/square of it cast a second time without needing to roll in order to manifest it. This makes the icon bearer a useful bodyguard for your leader.

</tab> <tab name="Tzaangor Fireteam"> This Seek & Destroy/Recon fire team is composed of 6 of the following:

0-1 Twistbray (if there are no other leaders)
3-6 Tzaangor Fighters
0-1 Tzaangor Icon Bearer
0-1 Tzaangor Horn Bearer

Twistbray (Combat, Scout): The twistbray is essentially a stronger fighter, granted +1 wound and an improved WS/BS. That said, it's not going to be chosen considering that it offers so little in comparison to your uber-powerful and uber-important aspiring sorcerer.
Tzaangor Fighter (Combat, Scout): The basic tzaangor is a little tougher than a cultist and has a 5+ invuln to keep it safe for a little bit. The main purpose of these lads is to take the fight to the enemy, whereas the rubricae are meant to shoot them to death with their warp-infused guns.
- The fighter has two loadouts. The autopistol provides some modicum of short-ranged fire support and comes with a chainsword that deals impressive damage for an otherwise unimpressive body. The paired tzaangor blades hits as hard as a chainsword but also has Relentless to guarantee your blows.
Tzaangor Icon Bearer (Combat, Scout): Unlike the fighter, this one's stuck with a rather basic dagger that hits as hard as a rubricae's fist. Its purpose lays solely in its icon, which provides the standard +1 APL for capping. Planting the icon allows friendly Tzaangor operatives within square/3" to improve their invuln saves by +1, a very important boost to keep them standing.
Tzaangor Horn Blower (Combat, Scout): Another tzaangor with a meager dagger. Its lone purpose is in blowing its horn as an action, letting friendly Tzaangor operatives add +1"/triangle to their basic moves and charges for this turn.

</tab> </tabs>

TS Ploy

Malicious Volleys (1 CP): Your Arcana Astartes operatives can shoot twice but can't shoot for this turn.
Sorcerous Automata (1 CP): Until the end of the turn, any Arcana Astartes operatives activated within 3"/square of a Arcana Astartes Aspiring Sorcerer operative add +1 to their APL.
Inhuman Savagery (1 CP): Whenever any Tzaangor operative charges and scores at least two hits in combat, they can also convert a miss into yet another hit.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

Treasure Hunter(1 CP): A Tzaangor operative can perform mission-related actions like Pick Up at a 1 CP discount. This helps make the beastmen more useful for carrying out the more delicate rules so your rubricae can focus on shooting.
Sorcerous Focus (1 CP): When a Aspiring Sorcerer operative rolls to channel a second psychic power, that roll automatically counts as a 6.
Infernal Fusillade (1 CP): When a Arcana Astartes operative that isn't the Aspiring Sorcerer shoots at an enemy but misses all their shots, they can fire again. Considering that this is their entire reason for being, you'll be considering this often.

</tab> </tabs>

TS Strategies

TS Strategies:

Since Psybolts target the nearest visible enemy model, control your lines of sight for some truly fantastic psybolt aiming.

Counterplay:

Invuln saves are great against TS Shooting, but terrible against Psybolts. Cheap and disposable units are great against Psybolts but die in droves against TS Shooting and melee.

Mix the two, have your disposable units soak up psybolts (that have to target the nearest visible enemy model), and enjoy your Storm Shields surviving into the shooting/fight phases.

TS Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

Warp Coven (WD 469)

Why Play Warp Coven?

Pros
- The combination of Tzaangors and marines in whatever fashion you wish.
- Your psyker powers are actually diverse as opposed to just three powers.
  - On top of that, you can actually cast without worrying about any failures.
- You can grab multiple sorcerers.
Cons
- Limited weapon selection, with literally two guns for your rubricae gunner.
- All your models are focused on either shooting or punching. Rubricae are only passable in melee while tzaangors lack any long-ranged guns.
- Despite being space marines, your basic dustbins all have the human standard APL of 2. Needless to say that this is unimpressive.
  - While your sorcerers can off-set that liability, they've become much bigger targets for your enemy to snipe.

WC Wargear

Gargoyle Bayonet (2 EP): Rubric Marine operatives only. WS 3+ D4/4 melee weapon, making melee for a rubricae slightly less miserable.
High-Capacity Magazine (1/3 EP): Pick one autopistol, inferno boltgun, or inferno bolt pistol the bearer has. That gun has the Ceaseless rule, making for a more effective gun.
- This is especially useful for the Rubric Warriors who live and die by their guns. That said, the cost is quite extreme for anyone that doesn't have an autopistol, meaning that your one rubric marine now cost you 3 EP.
Occult Talisman (2 EP): Grants the unit a 5+++ FNP save against any mortal wounds, which can also help blunt snipers.
0-1 Sorcerous Scroll (4 EP): Sorcerer operatives only. Allows the bearer to cast a power from a discipline they did not learn once per game.
Arcane Robes (2 EP): Sorcerer operatives only. Once per game, the bearer can convert one critical damage they suffer into normal damage, however, it doesn't affect crit effects. In most cases it translates to the Sorcerer having 1 to 2 additional wounds.
Ensorcelled Rounds (2 EP): Tzaangor Fighter operatives only. The bearer's autopistol adds +1 to their damage stats.
Gilded Horns (1 EP): Tzaangor operatives only. Whenever the operative charges, one hit of 5+ is considered a critical hit instead.

Boons of Tzeentch

The exclusive rule for the Warpcoven. While each sorcerer picks out one mutation by merely being a warp-dabbler, certain Spec Ops also allow you to gift Tzaangors a boon from the Mutation table. That said, you can only pick each boon once and you can't have different operatives sharing the same one.

Immaterial Flight: The operative flies. An interesting gift if only because there aren't many operatives that can fly at the moment.
Crystalline: The operative improves their save by 1. For a sorcerer, this is a pretty big deal because now you're effectively a terminator without any of the drawbacks.
Empyric Ward: The operative gets a 4++ Invuln. Why yes, Lord Tzeentch, I do want to tank more guns to the face!

</tab> <tab name="Fate">

Patron of Destiny: Once per turn, the operative gains a free use of the Command Re-roll Ploy when fighting, shooting, or defending from shooting. While this sounds broken as hell, it comes with a draw: every time it's used, you need to roll a 4+ in order to keep this ability in effect.
Incorporeal Sight: Any guns the operative has (meaning spells don't count) gain the No Cover and Lethal 5+ rules. This pretty much invalidates the last obstacle the hand flamer has while the bolt pistol is now just a good bit deadlier with more crits. However, it's useless for a sorcerer carrying the khopesh.
Time-Walker: The operative gains +1"/triangle to their movement and adds +1 to the attacks given by all melee weapons. The ideal choice for a khopesh-wielding sorcerer.

</tab> <tab name="Mutation">

Warp Swell: Improve the normal damage of any melee weapons the operative carries by 1. Perfectly useful for anyone, but especially for Tzaangor champions and sorcerers.
Mutant Appendage: The operative can make one free objective action or Pick Up action for 0 AP each turn.
Avian Talons: If the operative charges and doesn't score any crits, you can convert one of your hits into a critical hit. Sorcerers will especially love this as they can always use Stun to overpower an enemy's parry.

</tab> </tabs>

WC Psychic Powers

Each Sorcerer learns one discipline and can cast any of the powers from there. To prevent overlap, each sorcerer has to pick a different discipline. Unlike with the base Thousand Sons, there is no test needed to manifest these powers.

Weave Fate: Pick one friendly operative. When shot by the enemy, this operative can re-roll any of their defense dice. Definitely useful if you need to rely on that invuln, like the Tzaangors.
Twist Destiny: Pick an enemy operative. This operative can never re-roll their hit rolls and can never improve their APL in any way. This action is particularly useful for messing over the guardsmen with their comms or the like.
Doombolt: Provides a free ranged attack that provides a moderate damage but Lethal 5+ lets it crit and therefore deal MW2 far easier. Pretty much a holdover from the Compendium.

</tab> <tab name="Tempyric Discipline">

Ephemeral Instability: A power that covers EVERYONE in the enemy team. This makes enemy operatives lose 2"/circle in movement and bars them from the Dash or Charge actions. While this inconveniences everyone in Kill Team, this is especially helpful for screwing over any Nurglite pusbags who are already slow like molasses.
Temporal Manipulation: One friendly operative within 6"/pentagon recovers 2d3 wounds.
Fluxblast: Provides a free ranged attack with the stopping power of a bolter and Blast to cover crowds. It also has Rending to make crits deal some extra damage.

</tab> <tab name="Warpfire Discipline">

Warp Portal: One friendly operative within 3"/square of the sorcerer that hadn't moved during their activation can immediately teleport to another spot within 6"/pentagon of the sorcerer. While they can't move again after this, you can easily move a rubric marine out of harm's way or toss a Tzaangor into becoming a roadblock.
Infernal Fire: Mark one visible enemy operative. Any operatives that attack this enemy can re-roll any attack dice for this turn. That's right, they turned Compendium's Twist of Fate up to 11.
Firestorm: Provides a magical grenade with Indirect and Barrage to counteract most cover. While its damage is lacking, it has a small blast range to flush out mobs.

</tab> </tabs>

WC Campaign Additions

Scry Secret: Revealed during the first turn, letting your opponent pick one priority target for you. Your Sorcerer operatives gain a new action that lets them mark that enemy when they're within 6"/pentagon and score 1VP. You gain the other VP if that sorcerer survives until the end of the game.
Sorcerous Ritual: All your Sorcerer operatives gain a new action, letting them mark the center of the table or one objective over 6"/pentagon from your DZ as the ritual site. Any further attempts to perform this action MUST be at this spot, so you'll need to be exceedingly careful where you decide to perform this ritual. You score 1 VP if you manage to perform this action during 2 different turns, with another VP if you perform it during a third turn.
- While this fortunately doesn't cripple the entire utility of your sorcerers, using up one action in order to perform this action is still an action you could have used to cast another spell or shoot at something that could potentially be in the way. Fortunately, this only gets revealed the moment you use this action, meaning you can play mind games on that un-revealed Tac Op and what your enemy might think you'll try to do.
Grand Plan: Revealed during the start of the game, allowing your enemy to pick one objective over 6"/pentagon from their table edge and one of their operatives. You score one VP by killing the operative and another for taking the objective.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Labyrinthine Plans"> Note - This counts as the Perform Rituals Spec Op for terms of repeating

Strands: Finish five games where you won VP by performing either the Sorcerous Ritual, Triangulate, or Plant Signal Beacon Tac Ops. All of these will require you to protect your operatives, whether it's the very vulnerable sorcerer or a mere Tzaangor.
Destiny's Moment: Finish one last game where you win VP through a randomly assigned Tac Op you picked from the top of your deck of Tac Ops.

Completing this Spec Op scores 2 RP and 5 XP to share among all of your operatives. In addition, you gain one free use of the Beseech the Changer of Ways Requisition, allowing you to bestow one free Boon for a lucky operative. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Arcane Artefact"> Note - This counts as the Recover Archaeotech Spec Op for terms of repeating

Discern Location: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Scry Secrets, Rob & Ransack or Interloper Tac Ops. Incidentally, all of these require one operative to perform some dirty deed before escaping, requiring you to keep them protected from enemy aggression.
Extract Artefact: Finish one last game where you score VP from the Sorcerous Ritual Tac Op.

Finishing this Spec Op scores you 1 RP and a piece of rare equipment. In addition, the sorcerer who scored VP from performing the Sorcerous Ritual Tac Op scores an additional 5 XP and can automatically pass any recovery checks they need to make. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors"> Unlike any other faction, your Battle Honors are split between three smaller lists - One for Sorcerers, one for Rubric Marines, and one for Tzaangors

Sorcerers

Boon: Congratulations! Gain one Boon of Tzeentch.
Studious: This sorcerer knows one power from a psychic discipline they aren't using, which can lend to some fun synergies based on what you cast.
Rubric Affinity: This sorcerer claims one Rubric Marine operative as their pet. Their Rubric Command ability no longer has any range restrictions when used on their pet, which is quite handy.
- While this is awesome, this only adds one more reason on top of many others for enemies to snipe out this chosen sorcerer lest they feel the full anger of the pet tin can.

Rubric Marines

Warded: The first time this operative suffers damage in the game, that incoming damage is halved.
Unwavering: This operative now has a 4++ invuln to make guns even less of a hassle.
Automata: This operative ignores both Stun and all APL penalties. Since your Rubricae suffer the most with AP, this is a very useful way to guarantee that they won't be shafted by any interference.

Tzaangors

Avian Mobility: This operative ignores all penalties to their movement. In addition, they gat a 2"/circle discount on any climbs or drops they perform, giving them a minor edge on vertical mobility.
Mutation: Congratulations! Gain one Boon of Tzeentch.
Savage: This operative's weapons gain the Rending trait, making for a

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

Beseech the Changer of Ways (1 RP): Your singular way of scoring Boons of Tzeentch. Expect to use it at least once for your Tzaangors.
Lore Study (1 RP): Allows one Sorcerer operative to switch psychic disciplines. Note that this also affects the power provided by the Studious Battle Honour.
Pursuit of the Arcane (1 RP): Whenever you score a piece of Rare Equipment or increase your asset cap, (meaning any time you finish the appropriate Spec Op) you can grant 2 XP to any non-Rubric Marine operative. While a small perk, this is still helpful in nudging one up a rank by that smidgen.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

Rebinding Altar: Whenever you roll for battle scars on a Rubric Marine operative, this can let you treat any result short of death into Cerebral Affliction, ensuring that your biggest tanks remain at peak effectiveness.
Divine Orrery: Pick a certain turn after your first turn. On that turn, you can roll d3 and add it to your initiative to guarantee you go first. If you ever re-roll that initiative, you're also re-rolling your d3, so keep an eye on that.
Herdstone: One Tzaangor operative without a boon gains a temporary one for the battle, which can give you a momentary boost when you haven't yet scored one out. It can also help give you a test drive of certain mutation and battle honour combinations.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

Oculus (1/2 EP): One autopistol or inferno pistol now has infinite range. Costs 2 EP for the inferno pistol.
Animate Avians (3 EP): When engaged with the bearer, enemies lose out on one attack, making them more of a roadblock for duelists and some mobs.
Witchfire Mantle (3 EP): Sorcerer operatives only. Whenever they cast an offensive spell, they can re-roll one hit die to score a guaranteed hit.
Aeonglass (3 EP): Grants your operative a +1 to their APL once per game. This means the same to both your Rubricae and Tzaangors due to being APL2 while the Sorcerer might just enjoy being able to pop out to cast some evil things before slipping back into cover.
Fluxhelm (3 EP): Sorcerer operatives only. Grants the bearer a random Boon for the battle. Unfortunately, this MUST be rolled so this can potentially throw things off for you.
Changeblade (3 EP): Grants a new action that you can use to bless a nearby Tzaangor operative within 1"/triangle and roll a d6. On a 1-2, the unlucky birdman just eats a mortal wound, on a 3-4 the birdman gains +1 to WS/BS, and a 5+, on a 5+ the birdman gains 3 wounds, potentially bringing them over their max wounds. While both benefits sound pretty good to equip, you can only use it once per operative so you'll need to figure out which ones you want to risk the roll for.

</tab> </tabs>

WC Units

As with the Compendium Thousand Sons, your army comes with a base 5++ Invulnerable save.

This Security or Recon (The actual classification depends on the team's balance between Tzaangors and Marines) kill-team is composed of 11 of the following:

1 Sorcerer
11 of the following (Any Arcana Astartes operatives count as two models)
- 0-2 Sorcerers
- 0-5 Rubric Marine Warriors
- 0-1 Rubric Marine Gunner (0-2 if you have at least four Rubric Marine operatives)
- 0-1 Rubric Marine Icon Bearer
- 0-11 Tzaangor Fighters
- 0-1 Tzaangor Champion
- 0-1 Tzaangor Horn Bearer
- 0-1 Tzaangor Icon Bearer

Sorcerer (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): Your lone psyker, now available with backup. While he lacks the improved defenses of your soldiers, he does have 3 APL like a proper marine. The default melee weapon he gets is the force stave, a power weapon equivalent that inflicts Stun on a crit. However, a melee-focused sorcerer could instead swap their pistol for a Prosperine Khopesh, providing another set of attacks with a proper power weapon with the Lethal 5+ rule and both weapons gain Relentless to emphasize the whirlwind of magical violence you are.
- The sorcerer carries two pistol options, all of them predictably short-ranged. The inferno bolt pistol offers some direct AP1 while the warpflame pistol provides a small Torrent to manage clusters with AP1 to cook hordes. However, only ONE of your sorcerers can pick up the warpflame pistol, likely to limit this power on an already powerful model. Curiously, this version lacks the Compendium's plasma pistol and can instead buy the khopesh mentioned above.
- Unique to this sorcerer is the ability to provide one visible Rubric Marine operative within square/3" +1 to their APL each turn, which can help mitigate their slowness in activations. This also makes taking multiple sorcerers a good idea if you plan on taking a full team of dustbins. The Q3 2022 Dataslate improved this by upping the range to 6"/pentagon, so it doesn't feel like your dustbins aren't glued to your sorcerers.
Rubric Marine Warrior (Staunch, Marksman): Your basic dustbin is rather durable against small arms fire, having a 2+ save against any attacks with a base damage of 3 or less so it can shrug off anything below a bolter while any guns with AP will need to contend with the 5+ Invuln. The fact that it comes with a boltgun with AP1 means that it can rather easily rip through lighter infantry and threaten other MEQs. That said, combat is the rubricae's best role, as the 2 APL limits what it can do for objectives without a supporting sorcerer.
- Interestingly, this version of the rubric marine actually suffers, as they cannot gain any additional movement from something like dashing or charging. While these guys should never be in a fight, this will also affect their ability to fall back.
Rubric Marine Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): The rubric marines have only two options for special weapons. The warplamer is short-ranged, but it has +1 damage on crits, Torrent lets it cover mobs and AP1 will melt what armor they have. The soulreaper cannon is like a lighter heavy bolter, firing a tons of shots with the same damage as a bolter but with AP1 and Fusillade in order to spread the love.
Rubric Marine Icon Bearer (Staunch, Marksman): The basic rubricae bearing an icon and thus carrying a +1 to APL for capping. Unlike other icon bearers, this one merely lets one Aspiring Sorcerer operative within 6"/pentagon of it cast one additional time each turn. This can make for a psychic amp for your forces.
Tzaangor Fighter (Combat, Scout): The basic tzaangor is a little tougher than a cultist and has a 5+ invuln to keep it safe for a little bit. The main purpose of these lads is to take the fight to the enemy, whereas the rubricae are meant to shoot them to death with their warp-infused guns.
- The fighter has two loadouts. The autopistol provides some modicum of short-ranged fire support and comes with a chainsword that deals impressive damage for an otherwise unimpressive body. The paired tzaangor blades hits as hard as a chainsword but also has Relentless to guarantee your blows.
Tzaangor Champion (Combat, Scout): Gone is the Twistbray, replaced with a Tzaangor carrying a greatweapon of some sort as well as a special action to let it fight again. Both weapons do the same amount of damage and have Lethal 5+ to make crits more likely, but the difference comes with other rules; The greataxe has Brutal to overcome parrying, making it better for solo fights. The greatsword comes with Reap, allowing those crits to spread some extra damage to nearby foes.
Tzaangor Icon Bearer (Combat, Scout): Unlike the fighter, this one's stuck with a rather basic dagger that hits as hard as a rubricae's fist. Its purpose lays solely in its icon, which provides the standard +1 APL for capping. Planting the icon allows friendly Tzaangor operatives within square/3" to improve their invuln saves by +1, a very important boost to keep them standing.
Tzaangor Horn Bearer (Combat, Scout): Another tzaangor with a meager dagger. Its lone purpose is in blowing its horn as an action, letting friendly Tzaangor operatives add +1"/triangle to their basic moves and charges for this turn.

WC Ploy

Exalted Astartes (1 CP): Your Sorcerer operatives gain a combination of Malicious Volleys and Hateful Assault from the classic traitors. The operatives can choose to either fight twice but not shoot or shoot twice but not fight (and psychic attacks count to this!).
- Your Rubric Marines can only shoot twice but are unable to fight, which is well enough considering their limited prowess, but the Q3 2022 Dataslate forces that any gunners you take must spend an additional AP for their second round of shooting, which will bite into your plans of Soulreaper spammage.
Psychic Dominion (1 CP): Your Sorcerer operatives can cast twice this turn rather than once.
Slow and Purposeful (1 CP): Until the end of the turn, any Rubric Marines operatives that do not move in any way can re-roll to hit with their guns. Especially handy for your base bolters, which will compose most of your gunline if not all of it.
Savage Herd (1 CP): Whenever any Tzaangor operative fights in combat, they score an automatic hit. If they're supported by another Tzaangor operative, that turns into a critical hit, which is quite vicious - especially for the champion.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

Capricious Plan (1 CP): A Sorcerer operative can immediately dash and change their order at the end of their activation, letting them slip into cover just as soon as you lay down some magic on the fools.
Mutant Herd (1 CP): When Tzaangor operative is activated, they can pick one fellow Tzaangor operative within 3"/square of them. After their activation ends, this fellow operative can immediately move like they have GA2.
Psychic Cabal (1 CP): When a Sorcerer operative decides to manifest a power, he can instead co-opt a power from a fellow Sorcerer operative within 6"/pentagon of him. If you bring multiple sorcerers, then you owe it to yourself to make sure they can take use of whatever powers are on hand.
Schemes of Change (1 CP): When an operative is activated, you can dispose of one Tac Op you're using and then pull out another one.

</tab> </tabs>

WC Strategies

TS Strategies:

Since Psybolts target the nearest visible enemy model, control your lines of sight for some truly fantastic psybolt aiming.

Counterplay:

Invuln saves are great against TS Shooting, but terrible against Psybolts. Cheap and disposable units are great against Psybolts but die in droves against TS Shooting and melee.

Mix the two, have your disposable units soak up psybolts (that have to target the nearest visible enemy model), and enjoy your Storm Shields surviving into the shooting/fight phases.

TS Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

Chaos Daemons

Why Play Chaos Daemons

Pros
- Daemons
- Have Great Protection against shooting attacks and the majority also have Great Melee offense/defense.
- Pink horrors may be one of the best objective catchers in the game
- All units may prove useful depending on opponent and mission
Cons
- Most operatives lack ranged weapons unless you spend EP.
- Utterly simplistic which means utterly predictable. Each unit does exactly one thing well.
- Despite being 'Chaos' you may have the least team variety in the game.

CD Wargear

Brass Horns (1EP): Khorne operatives only. The bearer can reroll one attack die in combat if they performed a charge action.
Scorched Skull (3EP): Khorne operatives only. Gives a ranged weapon equivalent to a SM Bolt rifle.
Rancid Vomit (3EP): Nurgle operatives only. You basically get a flamer with a shorter Torrent range but better crit damage.
Death's Heads (1EP): Nurgle operatives Only. Grants a close-range attack to extend the limited threat range of plaguebearers.
Alluring Musk (3EP): Slaanesh operatives only. Grants a ranged attack in the loosest sense of the word. While it has a 2+ BS, the damage is absolutely pitiful so you'd best hope you score a crit for Stun to take effect.
Piercing Claws (2EP): Slaanesh only. Gains +1 damage and Rending on crits.
Ritual Dagger (2EP): Blue Horror or Pink Horror operatives only. Essentially a pink horror's default fist with the Balanced rule and a surprising 6 damage on a crit.
Trinket of Flux (2EP): Blue Horror or Pink Horror operatives only. +1 damage to the Horror's ranged flame attack.

CD Units

Several things are repeated on sheets, so to save space. The majority have 5++ invl save, so getting a reliable defense save against shooting attacks for operatives in this wound tier also never carrying about the strong AP weapon property. The icon Bearer is used to claim priority on objectives and can be planted as an action to grant better invl save (4++). The hornblower grants their respective colleagues +circle/1" when they take a normal move or charge action for the rest of the turning point, first operative you activate is to let your Daemons cover lots of ground to reach melee or objectives.

the Kill-team consists of two fire teams.

<tabs> <tab name="Bloodletter Fireteam"> This Seek & Destroy fireteam is composed of 6 of the following:

0-1 Bloodreaper (if there are no other leaders)
3-6 Bloodletter Fighter
0-1 Bloodletter Icon Bearer
0-1 Bloodletter Horn Bearer

Bloodreaper (Combat): Gets +1 to hit and an extra wound compared to the Fighters. Likely the ones to lead any charges.
Bloodletter Fighter (Combat): A remarkably brutal melee operative. Each one comes with a hellblade, a sword with the damage of a power weapon and Lethal 5+ for extra crits. Each is also reasonably protected with 8 wounds and a 5++ invuln native to this entire team.
Bloodletter Icon Bearer (Combat): Objective claimer and Defense buffer, no reason not to have one.
Bloodletter Hornblower (Combat): Speeds up your boys reaching melee, no reason not to have one.

</tab> <tab name="Daemonette Fireteam"> This Seek & Destroy/Recon fireteam is composed of 6 of the following:

0-1 Alluress (if there are no other leaders)
3-6 Daemonette Fighter
0-1 Daemonette Icon Bearer
0-1 Daemonette Horn Bearer

Alluress (Combat, Scout): Gets +1 to hit and an extra wound compared to the Fighters.
Daemonette Fighter (Combat, Scout): The infantry butcher and speed freaks when the Horn and their ploy gets used. Their Claws come with Relentless, meaning that you don't have to work hard to get every hit to deal damage.
Daemonette Icon Bearer (Combat, Scout): The objective claimer and defense buffer. with their unique ploy makes Daemonette the better deamon at claim and holding objective early game or mincing up enemies.
Daemonette Hornblower (Combat, Scout): needed to turn average move distance into quickly crossing the board

</tab> <tab name="Plaguebearer Fireteam"> This Security fireteam is composed of 6 of the following:

0-1 Plagueridden (if there are no other leaders)
3-6 Plaguebearer Fighter
0-1 Plaguebearer Icon Bearer
0-1 Plaguebearer Horn Bearer

Plagueridden (Staunch): Gets +1 to hit and an extra wound compared to the Fighters.
Plaguebearer Fighter (Staunch): A slower (2 circles/4") but tanky operative given his 5+++ feel no pain. Even better is that they are immune to the Injured condition, which would otherwise absolutely cripple them. Their plagueswords are as dangerous as the other melee-centric daemons though these lack any fun rules. If they do get close they can use the Contagion ploy to make it harder for an enemy to fight back or run away, so pair with another fighter to overwhelm.
Plaguebearer Icon Bearer (Staunch): Banner to boost defense.
Plaguebearer Hornblower (Staunch): Horn blower, lets Plaguebearers move at a more bearable 5"/8" if dashing.

</tab> <tab name="Pink Horror Fireteam"> This Security fireteam is composed of 6 of the following:

0-1 Iridescent (if there are no other leaders)
3-6 Pink Horror Fighter
0-1 Pink Horror Icon Bearer
0-1 Pink Horror Horn Bearer

Iridescent (Marksman): Gets +1 to hit with Flames and an extra wound compared to the Fighters.
Fighter (Marksman): Your gunners, shooting flames equivalent to a bolter for free where other daemons need to spend EP for some form of shooting. They only hit only as hard as a Guardmen in combat so like a Sister of battle, stay out of melee.
Icon Bearer (Marksman): Boost your saves in case you need the extra protection.
Hornblower (Marksman): Boost your speed. As your horrors are gunners, they're most likely to hide behind cover.

</tab> <tab name="Blue Horror Fireteam (Max 1)"> This Security/Recon fireteam is composed of 8 Blue Horrors (Max 1 per kill team)

Blue Horror (Marksman, Scout): Pink Horror but weak and spammable. These horrors have GA2 for better mobility but only a 6++ Invuln save instead of the normal 5++ Daemons get. Not helping things is that their shooting has degraded to being as powerful as a laspistol with a range of pentagon/6".
Brimstone Horrors: Chaff if there was ever a need to use the word. Only present if a blue horror uses Split, but these guys have become nothing more than distractions. At this point they not only lose more wounds, but they now only have their fists to save them and a 6++ invuln without any saves in melee. Even worse is that all mission objectives cost an additional AP, making them practically useless for the job. If you do narrative play, these things won't even stick around after the game, so you're stuck grabbing another blue horror.

</tab> </tabs>

CD Ploys

Unstable Ferocity (1 CP): All Khorne operatives gain +1 attack on their hellblades.
Quickness Swiftness (1 CP): All Slaanesh operatives get a free Dash action when activated.
Glistening Barrage (1 CP): All Tzeentch operatives' ranged weapons gain Ceaseless for spammable fire.
Contagion (1 CP): All enemies within 2" of a Nurgle operative are treated as injured, tying them up for fellow plaguebearers to rip them to bits.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

Warp Surge (1 CP): When an operative is shot at, for the end of the turning point, they can reroll all defense dice.
Ephemeral Regeneration (1 CP): An activated operative regains 2D3 wounds. Excellent.
Split (1/2 CP): Horror spilt. A Pink Horror operative spends 2 CP to become two Blue Horror operatives while a Blue Horror operative spends 1 CP to turn into two Brimstone Horrors operatives. If used in narrative play, this split means that you've lost your operative forever, so you'll need to buy them back.

</tab> </tabs>

CD Strategies

CD Strategies:

Your Daemons are extremely powerful and very good at what they do, but remember you can and will need to shift things up to maintain presence. That's difficult given how little you have to work with but basically it amounts to remembering your strengths and planning ahead, possibly even to a meta level. You are obvious. A horde of Bloodletters will do one thing and your opponent knows what it is; but you know that they know that, so think ahead to where they might try to counter and beat them to the punch.

Your defenses and resilience are phenomenal at range so you can risk movement that others would be wary to take in the open. Don't rely on this too much but it offers you a lot of aggressive options.

Your four units (five if you count blue horrors) absolutely should overlap to make up for their weaknesses. Plaguebearers can shield anything. Daemonettes can rush ahead of the pack or flank quickly. Bloodletters can't be ignored as distractions. Horrors can take objectives and whittle down targets afar. Use them together.

Alternatively, if you really want to do one thing well, you can double down on the same faction and take two Units of one type; this makes each Icon and Horn twice as valuable and your Strategic Ploys affect your whole team instead of half; but your weaknesses will be even more pronounced and you won't be as reactive.

Counterplay:

Daemons of Chaos of a powerful warband but a plain one. Each unit does exactly one thing well and you can predict what they'll do just by looking at them; Khornates will get close, Nurglites will tarpit, etc. If you see where they are you can easily counter them and deny them their strengths. They have few means to change up their gear and their commands are extremely limited as well, so if you can remember four things at once you've more or less got their entire stratagem down at a glance.

They always have four buff units and taking them out can really hamper their efforts - just remember to prioritize based on what units you're facing. Removing a defense buff from Plaguebearers is good but they're still tanky as hell by default - hamstringing them may be better so they never get close. Likewise taking speed out of Slaaneshi sails may be a moot point if they're still faster than you anyway.

Blooded (Moroch)

Why Play Blooded?

Pros
- Because you still have the traitor guard from Blackstone Fortress.
- Because you're still salty as fuck that Forge World squatted Renegades & Heretics
- You want that Ogryn.
- You have a mountain of bodies to throw at the enemy.
Cons
- Most operatives will be stuck with their piddly lasguns, if they have guns at all.
- Static loadouts.
- Blooded tokens will require setup and necessary sacrifices in order to get your forces blessed and getting the gods to watch will likely only happen once.

B Wargear

Frag Grenade (2 EP): Rather useless for your gunners with a grenade launcher, but this does give your other guardsmen the ability to toss out a Blast to cover some enemies.
Krak Grenade (2 EP): Another weapon for your other guardsmen, though this one is better suited for popping armor with high damage and AP1.
Armour Plates (2 EP): Lets the bearer to re-roll saving throw rolls of 1.
Chem-Breather (1 EP): Allows the bearer to ignore Stun as well as any other APL penalties, which is vital for keeping them viable at capping objectives.
0-1 Sinister Trophy (3 EP): Enemies engaged with this model lose an attack when fighting them in melee.
Incendiary Shells (2 EP): Traitor Trench Sweeper only. This gives a secondary firing mode to their shotgun, reducing their base damage but giving it Blast in order to handle small clusters of foes.
Beast Pelt (1 EP): The bearer can re-roll one save against a Blast or Torrent weapon. Fortunately, this is cheap enough to equip several troops with.
Wicked Blades (1 EP): Adds +1 damage to a bayonet or improvised blade. Costs 2 EP if used on a shield+bayonet, which only the trench sweeper has.

Blooded

Your unique rule is a growing tally of tokens. You gain one at the start of each turn as well as another for one enemy kill and one for when a friendly operative dies within 6"/pentagon of the enemy. Fortunately, you have plenty of bodies to throw about for this.

During your Strategy phase, you can bestow a token to each of your operatives, each one allowing an operative to auto-hit an enemy. If you give one to at least four models, you can then mark one as being under the Eye of the Gods, letting them spend their token to score an auto-crit.

B Campaign Additions

Worthy Champion: Score 1 VP for each turn an operative under the Gaze of the Gods kills enemies within 6"/pentagon of either the board's center or the enemy's DZ.
Malign Command: Score 1 VP for each turn where you control over half of the objectives while each controlling operative has a Blooded token.
Bloodbath: Revealed at the end of the game. Score 1 VP if you kill at least half of the enemy Kill Team and another if you kill over three quarters of the team.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Turncoats"> Note - This counts as the Demolition Spec Op for terms of repeating

Marauders: Finish five games where you won VP from the Rob & Ransack, Rout or Sabotage Tac Ops.
Escape Vengeance: Finish one last game where you won VP from either the Behind Enemy Lines or Interlopers Tac Ops. You've done your job, now pray that your troops can run fast enough to avoid the enemy.

Completing this Spec Op scores 2 RP and can either increase your asset cap by one or gain a piece of Rare Equipment. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Draw the Gaze of the Gods"> Note - This counts as the Purge Order Spec Op for terms of repeating

Recognition Through Destruction: Finish five games where you scored VP from either the Bloodbath or Execution Tac Ops. Both Tac Ops will require you to murder your enemies, so you're going to need all the guarantees that they can actually kill.
A Champion Emerges: Finish one last game where you score VP from the A Worthy Champion Tac Op.

Finishing this Spec Op scores you 1 RP and 5 XP to spread across your operatives. In addition, the one objective that scored you that last Tac Op gets 5 XP to themselves, making a hefty advance towards a rank-up. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

Ardent on the Trigger: When this operative shoots at an enemy within 6"/pentagon, you can re-roll all hit rolls of one number (meaning you can re-roll all 1s, 2s, etc).
Motivation for Violence: +1"/Triangle to charge distance, edging your operative a little closer to the enemy.
Bitter Resolve: If this operative lost any wounds, they can re-roll one defense die whenever the enemy shoots them.
Marauder: Once per turn, this operative can perform a mission action at a 1 AP discount. Very handy considering that your entire force is APL2.

- Does not work on Ogryns, but they were never meant for this anyways.

Zealous: If this operative dies while carrying a Blooded token and has killed someone during the game, their token gets returned to the pool.
Audacious: Whenever this operative lacks a Blooded token and is within 6"/pentagon of the enemy DZ, they count as if they had a token for the sake of benefits. Note that this isn't the same as actually having it, meaning this won't help for the Gaze of the Gods.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

Only the Strong Prosper (0 RP): Only usable after scoring 2 VP from the Bloodbath, Execution, or Rob and Ransack Tac Ops. This scores you an extra point of RP to spend however.
Rival Aspirants (1 RP): You can hire three Renegade Troopers to field, but each of them can only score a max of 1 XP when they are first fielded.
Ruthless Advancement (1 RP): Whenever you remove an operative from the roster, you can have another operative take their place, retaining their XP and Battle Honours where appropriate. Note that this doesn't work for the Ogryns because there's no dark power that can make you into a towering braindead brute.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

Defiled Trophies: You can start the game with one Blooded token.
Malign Influence: You can re-roll one Casualty or Recovery check for one operative of Veteran rank or higher. If they were under the Gaze of the Gods during the game, then they can either re-roll or add +1 to their roll.
Unholy Altar: One operative that was under the Gaze of the Gods and scored XP during the game can score another 2 XP.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

Alchemyk Bomb (3 EP): Traitor Brimstone Grenadier only. This grenade's got a pretty large Blast radius and No Cover, meaning nobody can escape the damage.
Unholy Sigil (2 EP): The bearer now counts as if they have a Blooded token. If they have a token, then they're now under the Gaze of the Gods. However, they must be attacking with every turn. If they ever go a turn without having dealt damage to someone, they suffer d3 wounds.
Dark Orator (3 EP): Traitor Commsman or Traitor Chieftain only. The bearer's ranged ability can now affect anyone on the board instead of just those close to them.
Cursed Rounds (3 EP): Traitor Chieftain only. Improves a bolt pistol or bolter by adding +1 critical damage and AP1, making it far more dangerous a weapon.
Diabolic Icon (3 EP): Provides a new action that activates an aura. Anyone within 3"/square of the bearer that also has a Blooded token can make one attack an auto-hit on top of the re-roll the token provides.
Baleflame (2 EP): Traitor Gunner with flamer only. The flamer gains +1 to crit damage and AP1, meaning that this weapon is now more dangerous against anything with a good armor save.

</tab> </tabs>

B Units

This Seek & Destroy Fireteam is composed of the following:

1 Traitor Chieftain
9 of the following:
- 0-1 Traitor Brimstone Grenadier
- 0-1 Traitor Butcher
- 0-1 Traitor Commsman
- 0-1 Traitor Corpseman
- 0-1 Traitor Flenser
- 0-2 Traitor Gunners, with each taking a different gun
- 0-1 Traitor Sharpshooter
- 0-1 Traitor Thug
- 0-1 Traitor Trench Sweeper
- 0-9 Traitor Troopers
4 of the following
- 0-1 Traitor Enforcer (Counts as two models)
- 0-1 Traitor Ogryn (Counts as two models)
- 0-4 Traitor Troopers

Traitor Chieftain (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): Your leader comes with the most diverse number of loadouts, but their value remains the same. They are not your strongest, but they have the ability to collect Blooded Tokens if your troops die near this guy before they could spend their tokens and can count as if he's under the Eye of the Gods if he has a Token and is over 6"/pentagon from your DZ.
- The autopistol and laspistol are both puny, but at least the laspistol has a ploy to make it a bit more potent. In addition, it gives you the option between either chainsword or power weapon, your deadliest melee weapons by far. In addition, you can take a bolt pistol for a better pistol, but you're locked to the chainsword if you do.
- The bolter gives you your only source of long-range shooting, but it traps you with the rather ineffective bayonet.
- The plasma pistol is by far your strongest gun, with an even stronger form if you risk overheating, but you're also set back by a flimsy melee weapon.

Traitor Brimstone Grenadier (Staunch, Scout): Your explosives expert comes strapped with a free Frag and Krak grenade on top of their own special bomb that's not so much focused on damage as it is on covering everyone between Blast and Splash. While they still have a lasgun to fight normally, you'll likely be seeing his kamikaze ability in any case, allowing him to potentially self-destruct and deal d3 mortal wounds to enemies within circle/2" of him.
Traitor Butcher (Combat, Staunch): A melee monster made to overpower with his weapons. Not only do they have Lethal 5+ for extra damage, they also give you a token if he scores a crit. With their weapons, they can murder weaker operatives with ease, letting them recover lost wounds for each kill. While he has an extra wound over the base trooper, you're still a guardsman wearing cardboard, so you still need cover.
Traitor Commsman (Staunch, Scout): Your comms operative works a lot with supporting his fellows and will likely hide in the middle of the lines. Not only can he spend an action in order to feed an operative within 6"/pentagon, he can also spend an action so transfer a Blooded Token from one operative to another, guaranteeing that nothing goes to waste.
Traitor Corpseman (Staunch, Scout): While qualifying as your medic, your uses for him are radically different than most. For one, you can only heal each operative once, and with a lack of revival tools, your losses will cost you in manpower despite gaining tokens. Instead, you're relying on stimms, which (alongside the aforementioned heal of 2d3 wounds) provide either a 6+++ FNP or adds Relentless to melee weapons. While all of these are permanent, they're also limited to only once per operative, so you're best off focusing on bouncing between operatives to give your candy to the heretics. Even better, you can inject one on an operative before the game even begins to cut out some early work.
Traitor Enforcer (Combat, Staunch): While you have an evil Commissar, he's not exactly the sort to go *BLAM* in KT2021. Instead, he comes with a support aura that lets operatives activated within 3"/square to ignore the Injured condition so they can make the most out of their remaining life before becoming tokens. He also has an action that lets him goad a non-readied operative forward, letting them either Dash or fire overwatch regardless of circumstances. This combined with the bolt pistol+power fist combo makes the enforcer a powerful leader-type.
Traitor Flenser (Combat, Scout): The sneaky assassin to the Butcher's blunt instrument. This guy's so sneaky that he can charge while under the Conceal order and gains Lethal 5+ when within 2"/circle of any terrain - something you can cheese out with Relentless. In addition, they have their own last-stand move, letting them attack one more time before dying in combat.
Traitor Gunner (Marksman, Scout): Your special weapons guy, you can only take one of each gun in a kill team, but each has vital uses.
- The flamer is held back by its range and poor damage, but Torrent means that it can hit multiple targets and hit multiple times. The grenade launcher essentially gives you infinite grenades, but these fire directly rather than indirectly in a short range - The frag grenade compensates its damage with Blast while the krak grenade deals AP1 with plenty of damage. The meltagun is short-ranged but provides lots of damage with AP2 and crits deal lots of mortal wounds. The plasma gun deals plenty of damage with AP1, with an option for overcharging to get AP2 - just remember that while overheating won't kill you outright, it will hurt you pretty bad.
Traitor Ogryn (Combat, Staunch): Your absolutely hulking mountain of muscle with a staggering 16 WOUNDS and an immunity to Stun and any APL modifiers. While useless for objectives, they're an absolute monster when fighting. Not only are they toting devastating weapons, but charging lets them deal an additional d3 mortal wounds to whoever it charges.
Traitor Sharpshooter (Marksman, Scout): Your long-las isn't much more dangerous than a basic lasgun, dealing a consistent 3 damage and only scoring MW1 on a crit. Fortunately, it has Silent so you can shoot while hidden and the camo cloak helps protect them from any stray shots.
Traitor Thug (Combat, Staunch): An evil Bruiser Veteran, toting only a wicked club with Brutal to shatter things. Fortunately, they reduce all incoming damage from regular hits by one point, letting them tank lasguns and bolters more reliably.
Traitor Trench Sweeper (Staunch): A guardsman with a riot shield and shotgun. While the shotgun is short-ranged, the shield not only provides a 4+ save but it also lets any parries block two hits in melee. In addition, you can set up the shield to slow him down by circle/2" but letting you re-roll all saves so you can walk through the field without worrying.
Traitor Trooper (Marksman, Scout): Your basic grunt is about on tier with a guardsman. Their lasgun is fairly ineffective, but you get GA2 so you can fire more of them at the same time and you have a ploy to give it AP1. Their 7 wounds means that they can take a few shots from a bolter or lasgun before dying, and you'll have plenty of troops to sacrifice for your tokens.

B Ploys

Overcharge Lasguns (1 CP): All lasguns and laspistols (no long-lases) can be overcharged for AP1 and the risk of Gets Hot. JOY.
Glory Kill (1 CP): Mark one visible enemy. All your operatives can re-roll one hit roll when attacking this enemy.
Reckless Aspirants (1 CP): Operatives without a Blooded Token within 6"/pentagon of the drop zone will count as having one, though this won't count for anything requiring the token, such as the Eye of the Gods.
Dirty Fighters (1 CP): When an operative fights in melee, a supporting operative can make you turn a regular hit into a crit, which is especially helpful for the fancy crit effects.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

Callous Disregard (1 CP): An operative can shoot at an enemy in combat, though missing will instead cause friendly fire as it instead hits your guy instead.
Moment of Repute (1 CP): When an operative is activated while under the Eye of the Gods, they gain +1 to their APL for the turn. Time to make them proud.
Reward Earned (1 CP): When an operative kills an enemy within 3"/square of them, you gain a Blooded Token, regardless of any existing stipulations.
Dark Favour (1 CP): If an enemy shoots at an operative with a Blooded Token, they can instead redirect that fire towards a nearby operative without a token. Vital in protecting your more valuable operatives with disposable grunts.

</tab> </tabs>

B Strategies

B Strategies:

Counterplay:

Chaos Cult (Ashes of Faith)

Why Play Chaos Cult?

Pros
- You want more cultists than power-armored mary sues
- You want to mutate your bums into monstrosities

Cons
- Your cultists are still wearing t-shirts.

CC Wargear

Mutations

The big focus of the Chaos Cult is the ability to mutate your cultists. While your Cult Demagogue lets you mutate someone as an action, you can also pass up using a ploy to mutate a number of cultists equal to the turn number and your Devotee can mutate every turn they get to hit someone without dying.

These mutations are claimed from the following list:

Winged: The operative removes any modifiers to movement and lets them skip a circle/2" when climbing or leaping.
Chitinous: Improves the operative's save by 1.
Barbed: The operative's melee weapon gains Reap 1, while Torments gain Reap 2.

CC Campaign Additions

Rampant Nightmare: Count a tally for every wound your Nightmare Hulk operatives inflict in melee. Score 1 VP for 30 wounds, and another for 40+ wounds.
Pestilent Hosts: Revealed the first time an enemy dies. That enemy turns into a special token that stays on the board. Score 1 VP if you kill at least a third of the enemy's roster and another VP if you kill over two-thirds of the enemy's roster.
Tech Infection: Your operatives gain a new action that lets them infect objectives. You gain 1 VP for three objectives, and another if you corrupt any beyond that.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Spread the Pox"> Note - This counts as the Perform Ritual Spec Op for terms of repeating

Propogate Infection: Finish five games where you won VP from the Pestilent Hosts or Tech Infection Tac Ops.
Infection Unleashed: Finish one last game where you won VP from the Rout Tac Op. Now that your minions have done their work, now your monsters can go to town!

Completing this Spec Op scores 5 XP for the operative that finished the last Tac Op and can either increase your asset cap by one or gain a piece of Rare Equipment. In addition, you gain two free uses of the Equipment Drop Requisition. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Pestilence Ex Machina"> Note - This counts as the Demolition Spec Op for terms of repeating

The Incision: Finish five games where you scored VP from either the Rampant Nightmare, Rout or Execution Tac Ops. All of these Tac Ops will require you to murder your enemies, so you're going to need all the guarantees that they can actually kill.
The Seeding: Finish one last game where you score VP from the Upload Viral Code or Plant Signal Beacon Tac Op.

Finishing this Spec Op scores you 2 RP and 5 XP to spread across your operatives. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

Repulsive Resilience: This operative can reroll Disgustingly Resilient rolls of 1.
Obstinate Gifts: This operative ignores all APL and movement penalties, which you'll need because you don't have a whole lot.
Twisted Talons: Melee weapons gain Brutal. If this operative is a Glitchling, they instead gain Lethal 5+ on their melee weapons.
Fly Swarm: When enemies from beyond 6"/pentagon shoot at this operative, they can reroll save rolls of 1
Repugnant Stench: Enemies within 3"/square of this operative count their movement as if they were Injured. Great for trapping your enemies within charging range, and especially locks them within Techno-Curse range.
Freakish Follower: This operative can be activated by anything for the sake of Group Activation, meaning it can be activated by anything with a higher GA despite being a different type (such as a Glitchling following a mutant) or having GA1 (like Vulgrar following a pack of vermin).

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

Communion with the Entity (1 RP): After a game, you can make one operative that rested that game automatically roll a 6 for their Recovery check.
Benediction of Chaos (1 RP): One Nightmare Hulk operative of Veteran rank or higher can swap out one Battle Honour for another it can access. As your top bruisers, you'll need them to be at their best builds.
Techno-Viral Shockwave (1 RP): Lets you straight-up shut down an enemy's asset. Sucks to be them, huh?

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

Vermin Nest: Pick one Mutoid Vermin type. You now have infinite quantities of that vermin in your inventory. Prepare to flood the board with the fuckers.
Possessed Cogitator: Nightmare Hulk operatives gain 2 XP for murdering victims. What better way is there for rewarding something for doing what it does best?
Pulsating Plaguenode: When an enemy attacks one non-Mutoid Vermin operative, you can automatically make one Disgustingly Resilient roll a 6.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

Vermin Infestation (3 EP): Lets you resurrect one dead base of Mutoid Vermin as an action once per game, placing them within 3"/square of the bearer.
Toxic Pus (1 EP): Whenever the bearer is wounded, all engaged enemies take a mortal wound on a 6+.
Unreal Aura (1/2 EP): Grants a 5++ Invuln save, which is a lot for a band of zombies and bugs wearing mere tatters, if that. Costs 2 EP for Nightmare Hulk Operatives.
Scrapcode Emanator (2 EP): Gain a 6"/circle aura that forces enemies within it to re-roll one crit they score when they fight or shoot. Great security policy for those who manage to make do with the Techno-Curse if they don't outright ignore it.
Flesh Hunger (1/3 EP): Lest you forget that you're running a bunch of mutant zombies. Any time the bearer kills an enemy in melee, they recover d3 wounds. Costs 3 EP for Nightmare Hulk operatives.
Mutoid Pheromones (1 EP): Gain a 3"/square aura that lets Mutoid Vermin inside it improve their WS and BS by 1. Not like they'll be much better, but it's the thought that counts.

</tab> </tabs>

CC Units

This Security/Seek & Destroy Fireteam is composed of the following:

Cult Demagogue: Your leader. Central in that they have a special action that lets them mutate your cutists.

CC Ploys

Blessings of Pox (1 CP): When any operative is shot at, keep a tally of the results of any failed saves. If the total of these failed saves is above 7, then one of those failed saves is considered a pass.
Blessings of Infection (1 CP): When your operatives fight, keep a tally on the results of any failed attacks. If the total of these failed attacks is above 3, then one of those failed attacks is considered a hit.
Drawn to the Hum (1+ CP): Mark an objective. All operatives within 6"/pentagon of this operative immediately dash towards it for some speed boosts. While very handy for your shambling zombies, it costs more CP the more you use it.
Rust Emanations (1 CP): When an enemy is engaged with an operative that isn't a Mutoid Vermin, they automatically count as though they are Injured. Best used to overwhelm an enemy fighting your hulks.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

Barge (1 CP): One Nightmare Hulk operative can move or charge through terrain or other models for their activation. This move can even break lines of engagement without triggering any attacks.
Frightening Onslaught (1 CP): One Nightmare Hulk operative can immediately fight again, whether against an enemy that's still alive or another engaged foe.
Pollute Stockpile (1 CP): Whoops! You just shat on your enemy's gear! Now all equipment your enemy takes cost 1 extra EP and each piece of equipment can only be taken once. Way to piss that fucker off!
Putrescent Demise (1 CP): If an operative that isn't a Mutoid Vermin dies, any enemies within 3"/circle takes a mortal wound (d3 MW if the operative was a Nightmare Hulk).

</tab> </tabs>

FR Strategies

FR Strategies:

Counterplay:

Gellerpox Infected (Annual 2022)

Why Play Gellerpox Infected?

Pros
- Because you still have the Rogue Trader stuff from last edition.
- You want plague zombies that can actually do shit.
- You have FNP everywhere.
- Widespread GA2 allows for easier coordination among your zombies and critters.

Cons
- Your team comp is static save for the optional vermin, and those cost EP.
- Your ability to accomplish objectives are ideally limited to your mutants and glitchlings. Your bugs can't score and your hulks need extra AP in order to accomplish objective actions.
- Your massive brutes are very visible targets.
- Don't like how your mutants only have one grenade? Hate how your critters can't shoot worth shit? Well, you're not gonna have much else in terms of shooting.

GI Wargear

Unusually, your team has no equipment - not that they have any need to anyways, they're a bunch of shambling zombies. However, you can instead buy Mutoid Vermin operatives to add to your team. Each type costs one amount to take your first vermin, but a second price for each vermin afterward.

Cursemites (3/2 EP): Allows you to buy Cursemites into your roster.
Eyestinger Swarm (3/2 EP): Allows you to buy Eyestinger Swarms into your roster.
Sludge-Grub (3/2 EP): Allows you to buy Sludge-Grubs into your roster.

GI Special Rules

Mutoid Vermin: Your optional critters are absolutely useless for objectives. However, they can always fall back for 1 AP and make it easier for friendly operatives to fall back if the enemy is engaged with these critters. None of them are really valuable anyways, as they gain no XP and aren't considered part of the roster like the rest of the team.
Revoltingly Resilient: Your entire army has a 5+ FNP save. All of it. Expect to use it a lot, especially on your hulks.
- The Q4 2022 Balance Dataslate nerfed this to 6+ for your glitchlings and normal mutants, making them more likely.
Techno-Curse: Enemies within 3"/square of your operatives or those within 6"/pentagon of your Glitchlings suffer -1 to hit when shooting. With how crappy your armor is and how your Nightmare Hulks and Vulgrar can't even use cover, this can give you a modicum of protection when played properly. The Q4 2022 Balance Dataslate stepped these ranges to 3"/square for the Glitchlings and 2"/circle for everything else.

GI Campaign Additions

Rampant Nightmare: Count a tally for every wound your Nightmare Hulk operatives inflict in melee. Score 1 VP for 30 wounds, and another for 40+ wounds.
Pestilent Hosts: Revealed the first time an enemy dies. That enemy turns into a special token that stays on the board. Score 1 VP if you kill at least a third of the enemy's roster and another VP if you kill over two-thirds of the enemy's roster.
Tech Infection: Your operatives gain a new action that lets them infect objectives. You gain 1 VP for three objectives, and another if you corrupt any beyond that.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Spread the Pox"> Note - This counts as the Perform Ritual Spec Op for terms of repeating

Propogate Infection: Finish five games where you won VP from the Pestilent Hosts or Tech Infection Tac Ops.
Infection Unleashed: Finish one last game where you won VP from the Rout Tac Op. Now that your minions have done their work, now your monsters can go to town!

Completing this Spec Op scores 5 XP for the operative that finished the last Tac Op and can either increase your asset cap by one or gain a piece of Rare Equipment. In addition, you gain two free uses of the Equipment Drop Requisition. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Pestilence Ex Machina"> Note - This counts as the Demolition Spec Op for terms of repeating

The Incision: Finish five games where you scored VP from either the Rampant Nightmare, Rout or Execution Tac Ops. All of these Tac Ops will require you to murder your enemies, so you're going to need all the guarantees that they can actually kill.
The Seeding: Finish one last game where you score VP from the Upload Viral Code or Plant Signal Beacon Tac Op.

Finishing this Spec Op scores you 2 RP and 5 XP to spread across your operatives. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

Repulsive Resilience: This operative can reroll Disgustingly Resilient rolls of 1.
Obstinate Gifts: This operative ignores all APL and movement penalties, which you'll need because you don't have a whole lot.
Twisted Talons: Melee weapons gain Brutal. If this operative is a Glitchling, they instead gain Lethal 5+ on their melee weapons.
Fly Swarm: When enemies from beyond 6"/pentagon shoot at this operative, they can reroll save rolls of 1
Repugnant Stench: Enemies within 3"/square of this operative count their movement as if they were Injured. Great for trapping your enemies within charging range, and especially locks them within Techno-Curse range.
Freakish Follower: This operative can be activated by anything for the sake of Group Activation, meaning it can be activated by anything with a higher GA despite being a different type (such as a Glitchling following a mutant) or having GA1 (like Vulgrar following a pack of vermin).

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

Communion with the Entity (1 RP): After a game, you can make one operative that rested that game automatically roll a 6 for their Recovery check.
Benediction of Chaos (1 RP): One Nightmare Hulk operative of Veteran rank or higher can swap out one Battle Honour for another it can access. As your top bruisers, you'll need them to be at their best builds.
Techno-Viral Shockwave (1 RP): Lets you straight-up shut down an enemy's asset. Sucks to be them, huh?

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

Vermin Nest: Pick one Mutoid Vermin type. You now have infinite quantities of that vermin in your inventory. Prepare to flood the board with the fuckers.
Possessed Cogitator: Nightmare Hulk operatives gain 2 XP for murdering victims. What better way is there for rewarding something for doing what it does best?
Pulsating Plaguenode: When an enemy attacks one non-Mutoid Vermin operative, you can automatically make one Disgustingly Resilient roll a 6.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

Vermin Infestation (3 EP): Lets you resurrect one dead base of Mutoid Vermin as an action once per game, placing them within 3"/square of the bearer.
Toxic Pus (1 EP): Whenever the bearer is wounded, all engaged enemies take a mortal wound on a 6+.
Unreal Aura (1/2 EP): Grants a 5++ Invuln save, which is a lot for a band of zombies and bugs wearing mere tatters, if that. Costs 2 EP for Nightmare Hulk Operatives.
Scrapcode Emanator (2 EP): Gain a 6"/circle aura that forces enemies within it to re-roll one crit they score when they fight or shoot. Great security policy for those who manage to make do with the Techno-Curse if they don't outright ignore it.
Flesh Hunger (1/3 EP): Lest you forget that you're running a bunch of mutant zombies. Any time the bearer kills an enemy in melee, they recover d3 wounds. Costs 3 EP for Nightmare Hulk operatives.
Mutoid Pheromones (1 EP): Gain a 3"/square aura that lets Mutoid Vermin inside it improve their WS and BS by 1. Not like they'll be much better, but it's the thought that counts.

</tab> </tabs>

GI Units

This Security/Seek & Destroy Fireteam is composed of the following:

1 Vulgrar Thrice-Cursed
1 Bloatspawn
1 Fleshscreamer
1 Lumberghasts
3 Gellerpox Mutants, two with improvised weapons, one with a heavy axe
4 Glitchlings

Vulgrar Thrice-Cursed (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): Your leader is a hulking behemoth of a monster, swollen with a monstrous NINETEEN WOUNDS and some devastating attacks to follow. Their Pyregut gives them a beefed-up flamer while their melee attack can be customized quite a bit to fit the enemy you're going up against. On top of that, Vulgrar can corrupt nearby objectives for more CP. If there's a glaring weakness on this guy, it's that massive bulk - A monster with nineteen wounds sounds keen, but light cover is now useless and they can't hide behind anyone unless they're equally bulky. With only a 5+ save, expect wounds to fly off in short order unless this bastard hides good.

Bloatspawn (Combat, Staunch): A tentacled monstrosity among the Nightmare Hulks, this gives a very short-ranged shooting attack with Fusillade as well as a bundle of melee attacks they can either use to overwhelm one enemy or split between two. This hulk is especially good at tying down enemies as it can stop them from falling back on a 4+ (+1 if the enemy has less than 8 wounds).

Fleshscreamer (Combat, Staunch): The executioner of the Nightmare Hulks, with either a set of dangerous attacks or a single blow that can kill anything that isn't a space marine. This gives you some instant kills, but you should know that your enemy will likely fire upon this fatass faster than they will Vulgrar if they see it.
- The "Scream" part of "Fleshscreamer" comes from its special trait. Enemies within 2"/square of them must spend an additional AP when performing objective actions and enemies within range count their APL as one less when capping points. As with the other Nightmare Hulks, they're not much good at objective actions themselves, as they must spend an additional AP to do so

Gellerpox Mutant (Combat, Staunch): Your basic zombies are only as strong as Guardsmen. However, they're not only blessed with a 5+ FNP save, but any crits they suffer will only deal the reduced normal damage rather than the actual crit damage. That said, any extra effects are still very much in play.
- Each mutant comes with a frag grenade, giving them a very precious single shot at hitting crowds of enemies. The two mutants with improvised weapons have pretty poor damage, but Relentless at least makes sure that their hits actually make their mark. The heavy axe is the better weapon though, with good damage and Brutal.

Glitchling (Scout): Evil little techno-Nurglings, these are especially useful for their extended Techno-Curse range. They're not much good for anything else, as they can't take equipment, but they at least get a 5++ Invuln and always count as under the Conceal order so enemies can't shoot them so easily.

Lumberghast (Combat, Staunch): The basic brute among the Nightmare Hulks. Though they don't have any special tricks or rules, their melee weapons are still plenty dangerous with Brutal swiping aside most parries. Their special action lets them charge and deal d3 MW to any enemies they're engaged with, making them a capable battering ram to throw at the opposition before they can shoot at your other hulks. Like the others, this is where they're best at, since they undertake special penalties for objective actions.

Mutoid Vermin

Cursemite: The only pests without shooting. However, they have a passable melee attack with Rending. In addition, if attacking an enemy that's already lost wounds, you can give either an extra attack or make your attacks Lethal 5+ so you can make even more crits. In either case, they absolutely need protection in order to avoid getting blasted to bits.

Eyestinger Swarm: A cloud of flies. These are the least dangerous of the lot with negligible damage and miserable WS/BS, but all of their attacks come stacked with Stun. This can make them better distractions than most.

Sludge-Grub: Very much nuisances, these are not for scoring. They're for annoying the enemy as you spit AP1 acid on them and bank on Splash going off to annoy others. Don't worry if they die, they can't do much else aside from explode on nearby enemies when they inevitably get smooshed.

GI Ploys

Blessings of Pox (1 CP): When any operative is shot at, keep a tally of the results of any failed saves. If the total of these failed saves is above 7, then one of those failed saves is considered a pass.
Blessings of Infection (1 CP): When your operatives fight, keep a tally on the results of any failed attacks. If the total of these failed attacks is above 3, then one of those failed attacks is considered a hit.
Drawn to the Hum (1+ CP): Mark an objective. All operatives within 6"/pentagon of this operative immediately dash towards it for some speed boosts. While very handy for your shambling zombies, it costs more CP the more you use it.
Rust Emanations (1 CP): When an enemy is engaged with an operative that isn't a Mutoid Vermin, they automatically count as though they are Injured. Best used to overwhelm an enemy fighting your hulks.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

Barge (1 CP): One Nightmare Hulk operative can move or charge through terrain or other models for their activation. This move can even break lines of engagement without triggering any attacks.
Frightening Onslaught (1 CP): One Nightmare Hulk operative can immediately fight again, whether against an enemy that's still alive or another engaged foe.
Pollute Stockpile (1 CP): Whoops! You just shat on your enemy's gear! Now all equipment your enemy takes cost 1 extra EP and each piece of equipment can only be taken once. Way to piss that fucker off!
Putrescent Demise (1 CP): If an operative that isn't a Mutoid Vermin dies, any enemies within 3"/circle takes a mortal wound (d3 MW if the operative was a Nightmare Hulk).

</tab> </tabs>

GI Strategies

GI Strategies:

Counterplay:

Fellgor Ravagers (Gallowfall)

Why Play Fellgor Ravagers?

Pros
- Very strong melee forces
- Frenzy lets them prolong death for a little bit so you can take down your killer with you.
- Plenty beefy with 10 Wounds on an operative.

Cons
- Get used to Autopistols. Only one other unit has anything beyond that, and they're still pistols.
- Defense is very limited with only 5+ saves to protect them. Use cover to survive.

FR Wargear

Frag Grenade (2 EP): Gives your beastmen the ability to toss out a Blast to cover some enemies.
Krak Grenade (3 EP): Another weapon for your other beastmen, though this one is better suited for popping armor with high damage and AP1.
Corrupted Rounds (1 EP): One autopistol gains Rending. A nice enough gift, at least - Especially on the Gnarlscar as theyuse their gun the most.
Corrupted Weapon (2 EP): Upgrades a Cleaver or Bludgeon (and ONLY those weapons and nothing else) to get Rending. Definitely sees more use since this army focuses on melee.
Unholy Talisman (2 EP): Grants a 5++ Invuln, which is very rare to find in this edition.
War Paint (1 EP): The bearer ignores all modifiers to APL, which you'll need since fighting is such a necessity that anything that compromises that is a death sentence.

Frenzy

Your central Beastmen rule essentially gives them a chance to last a little bit on death's door. Upon losing their last wound, your operatives can enter a state of rage, being treated as injured and out of the Conceal order, but unable to do anything other than kill.

This isn't really cheating death though, as it can run out. The simplest way is for the operative's activation to end, but they can die for real if they suffer either a crit or two regular hits.

FR Campaign Additions

Fellgor Champion: Revealed when you kill an enemy. You gain VP for each additional enemy this operative kills.
Relentless Aggression: Revealed at the end of a turn. You gain 1 VP for each turn you have 5+ onperatives within 6"/pentagon of an enemy or the enemy DZ.
Scorn Their Ways: During the first turn, find the one enemy with a weapon who's attacks * damage equals or exceeds 17. You get 1 VP for having an operative within 6"/pentagon kill that enemy, gaining a second if this is in melee.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Spread the Pox"> Note - This counts as the Perform Ritual Spec Op for terms of repeating

Propogate Infection: Finish five games where you won VP from the Pestilent Hosts or Tech Infection Tac Ops.
Infection Unleashed: Finish one last game where you won VP from the Rout Tac Op. Now that your minions have done their work, now your monsters can go to town!

Completing this Spec Op scores 5 XP for the operative that finished the last Tac Op and can either increase your asset cap by one or gain a piece of Rare Equipment. In addition, you gain two free uses of the Equipment Drop Requisition. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Pestilence Ex Machina"> Note - This counts as the Demolition Spec Op for terms of repeating

The Incision: Finish five games where you scored VP from either the Rampant Nightmare, Rout or Execution Tac Ops. All of these Tac Ops will require you to murder your enemies, so you're going to need all the guarantees that they can actually kill.
The Seeding: Finish one last game where you score VP from the Upload Viral Code or Plant Signal Beacon Tac Op.

Finishing this Spec Op scores you 2 RP and 5 XP to spread across your operatives. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

Wild: When this operative has lost wounds, their melee weapons gain Relentless.
Savage Fortitude: IF this operative kills anyone, they can re-roll any recovery checks they need to make for the game.
Fervent: This operative gains free War Paint.
Primal Mark: When an enemy attacks this operative, keep an eye on any hits that land just at their WS/BS. Those hits deal half damage.
Ruthless: When this operative fights, any 1s the enemy rolls deal a mortal wound to the enemy.
Sustained by Conflict: When an enemy within 6"/pentagon of this operative shoots them, the operative can re-roll one save.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

Plunder (1 RP): After winning a battle, you get two free uses of the Supply Drop Requisition.
Ruinous Gift (1 RP): One operative that isn't a Fluxbray, Gorehorn, Herd-Goad, Shaman or Toxhorn becomes one of those. While they don't lose any ranks, they will lose any XP that puts them over that rank and they retain any Battle Scars.
The Strong Prosper (1 RP): When an operative kills an enemy, they can cure themselves of a Battle Scar, even if it's one they just got from the same fight.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

Corrupted Hollow: Lets one operative gain a piece of CRB Rare Equipment to attach to their melee weapon.
Fellgor Herdstone: Lets you gain additional CP during the first turn.
Fighting Pit: Before a game, you can have two of your operatives fight it out and roll a d6.
1. Both operatives lose and must take Casualty checks.
2. The challenger wins d3 XP and the champion must take a Casualty check.
3. The challenger wins 1 XP.
4. The champion wins 1 XP.
5. The champion wins d3 XP and the challenger must take a Casualty check.
6. Both operatives win 1 XP.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

Crown of Horns (2 EP): Using the Animalistic Fury ploy on this operative is free.
Brass Hooves (2 EP): Using the Wild Rage ploy on this operative is free.
Mighty Trophy (4 EP): Once per game, you can use this item to give the bearer +1 to their APL.
Dark Talisman (3 EP): Fellgor Shaman only. This lets the shaman cast two spells each turn.
Goremark (2 EP): A pretty wild buff. Not only do they ignore all stat modifiers, but they also ignore the injured condition and can auto-pass any recovery tests.
Infernal Vambraces (2 EP): Improve the WS of all melee weapons by 1 to a max of 2+.

</tab> </tabs>

FR Units

This Recon/Seek & Destroy Fireteam is composed of 10 of the following:

1 Fellgor Ironhorn
9 of the following:
- 0-9 Fellgor Warriors
- 0-1 Fellgor Deathknell
- 0-1 Fellgor Fluxbray
- 0-1 Fellgor Gorehorn
- 0-1 Fellgor Gnarlscar
- 0-1 Fellgor Herd-Goad
- 0-1 Fellgor Mangler
- 0-1 Fellgor Shaman
- 0-1 Fellgor Toxhorn
- 0-1 Fellgor Vandal

Fellgor Ironhorn (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): As the pack alpha, your Ironhorn has the ability to pass up on Strategic Ploys in order to mark one friendly operative and let them and anyone within 2"/circle of them make a free Dash action so they can rush towards the enemy. Their two loadouts let them alternate between stronger melee or stronger shooting - The Corrupted Pistol is a bit basic but has Balanced and Rending for some effectiveness and the Corrupted Chainsword is pretty fierce with Rending. On the other hand, the Plasma Pistol is a very potent firearm while your Bludgeon is stuck with 4/4 damage with Brutal backing it up.

Fellgor Warrior (Combat, Scout): Your big angry goatmen turn out to be comparable to Orks with 10 wounds and a 5+ save, and with Frenzy they have a chance to fight a little longer beyond death. The Cleaver has slightly better crits, but you can also grab a Bludgeon, locking your damage to 4/4 but granting Brutal if you're worried about any enemies with shields.

Fellgor Deathknell (Staunch): Carries a Bludgeon and a massive gong that can boost its save like a shield. While it has the APL boost usually seen on standard bearers, they also have a 3"/square aura that degrades any crits friendly operatives suffer into basic hits - very handy to protect your lines before they reach charging range. On top of that, they have a special action to gain a 3++ save.

Fellgor Fluxbray (Combat, Scout): A beastman that mutated a third arm for three knives. Depending on how you play it, you can either get Relentless for re-rolls or use it to make one hit instantly count as a parry. As they have no guns, you get a special 2 AP action that lets the Fluxbray march forward (moving as normal with an additional +2"/circle in distance) with the ability to walk past any enemy's engagement range to deal d3+1 mortal wounds.

Fellgor Gnarlscar (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): Battle-damaged beastman that lucked out with an augmetic arm, wedding the best parts of the Cleaver and Bludgeon. Even better, they can spend an AP to both punch and shoot someone they're engaged with for double the firepower at once. To top it all off, they can switch Orders after activating, letting you hide behind cover after rushing someone.

Fellgor Gorehorn (Combat): A big bruiser with a vicious axe with Lethal 5+. They can fight twice each turn (and you need to since that axe is wicked) and every time they kill an enemy outside of Frenzy, they can roll a d3 to recover that many wounds and deal that much on your next crit. As such, you'll be needing a some extra protection so your enemy won't consider sniping them out before they can make a kill.

Fellgor Herd-Goad (Combat, Scout): The literal slave-driver, complete with a whip that's not powerful but has a bit of reach, Lethal 4+ and Stun. For allies, you can spend an option to feed an AP to a friendly operative within 3"/square of them that isn't the Shaman or Ironhorn. While within range of one enemy, you can cripple them further by robbing them of an attack with a melee weapon and forcing any attempts to Fall Back to spend an additional AP. As such, they're best at picking off key targets while your dedicated fighters keep the heat off.

Fellgor Mangler (Combat, Staunch): Do NOT ask why his hands are so big. Just accept that they are big, they are dangerous, and they are Relentless. Those claws can also score one free crit on an unreadied foe. Fighting is all they can do, as they can't shoot and objective actions require them to spend an extra AP. Good for you that they can fight twice at the cost of 1 AP.

Fellgor Toxhorn: Totes around Pox Bombs, which they can deploy and can potentially make anyone within 2"/circle of the bomb suffer -1 to APL and potentially even 3 mortal wounds. As this isn't considered a piece of wargear, you can use this as many times as you want to infuriate crowds. This gives them a bit of a defensive edge as well, as they're immune to Stun and other APL modifiers as well as gain a 6+ FNP.

Fellgor Shaman (Staunch, Scout): Your lone psyker of the lot. Fortunately, you get three different spells you can make use of. Mantle of Darkness lets friendly operatives within 3"/square count as always being Concealed to enemies beyond 6"/pentagon away, Apoplectic Rejuvenation heals 2d3 wounds (maxed out if they killed someone) to a friendly non-frenzied operative within 6", and Curse Weapon makes an enemy's gun take Hot for their activation, making each roll of 1 to hit deal an additional MW.

Fellgor Vandal (Combat, Staunch): Carries a massive fucking axe, getting Brutal and Rend 2 as well as gaining Ceaseless if you're attacking and Relentless if they charged. As such, they're best suited to going one on one with an enemy so they can be mow down the big threats. On top of this, they have a sweep attack that deals d3+1 MWs to all operatives within 2"/circle.

FR Ploys

Ambush (1 CP): A non-frenzied operative counts as ambushing if they change orders from Conceal to Engage when activated. Ambushing operatives get to turn one regular hit into a crit.
Pelting Fire (1 CP): Your pistols get to mark whoever they hit. Any further shots against a marked foe add +1 to both damage stats before adding another mark.
- This is your consolation prize for being a melee-focused army. You have a way of boosting your guns' damage, but it requires everyone to focus fire on one or two enemies.
Reckless Determination (1 CP): When an enemy shoots at your operatives, they get to automatically make one save.
Violent Temperament (1 CP): When an operative fights, they can trigger this to re-roll all attack dice. Note that this does mean re-rolling everything, not just re-rolling the bad dice - use with caution!

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

Animalistic Fury (1 CP): When one operative scores a crit in melee, they can add +1 to the crit damage they just dealt.
Bloodsense (1 CP): When you kill an enemy, you can immediately activate another readied operative within 3"/square of the victim.
Ruthless Rampage (1 CP): Lets an operative that fights immediately charge afterwards, though the range of this charge is only 3"/square. Since you can't use this while engaged, this will only see a use to let someone charge right after killing someone
Wild Rage (1 CP): When one operative is activated, their movement is increased by +1"/triangle.

</tab> </tabs>

FR Strategies

FR Strategies:

Counterplay: