As I write there are now only three weeks remaining before Adepticon kicks off and my excitement is about to boil over, IT’S ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT! Shortly after I declared my painting goals for the convention I significantly altered my plans based on the release of the rules packets for both Necromunda and Kill Team Events.
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
Basically, I became nervous that I would not be able to finish my Van Saar in time for the convention because I had forgotten one key element of painting, a display board! With this in mind I decided to run my Genestealer Cults in both Necromunda and Kill Team, and use my remaining time leading up to the convention to paint them a display board.
In addition, I immediately switched from painting my Van Saar mid-stream to the Locus and Sanctus to complete my Wyrmblade Operatives. A task I can say I am very pleased with.
THE GANG…err KILL TEAM IS ALL HERE!
Now that I have the models and the rules, it is time to go over the lists, and my general strategies.
When Games Workshop originally announced that unit selections in Kill Team would be largely fixed I was initially unsure if I liked the reduction in options and customization. This fear was only reinforced upon the official release of the Compendium with its often very bland and mono-unit teams. Then Games Workshop began releasing Kill Teams via White Dwarf magazine that were drastically more dynamic and interesting than their Compendium cousins. It was only by sheer luck that the Wyrmblade Operatives were released just prior to event sign-up for Adepticon, and even further coincidence that I had painted 12 of the 14 operatives back at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. To further emphasize the level of coincidence, Ultramarines are the only other painted models I own, and that almost all of my near decade of playing the game has been dedicated to them.
To make things even easier the folks at Games Workshop designed the Wyrmblade Kill Team to have enough operatives and weapon options to fit very neatly into the 20 man roster that matched play uses. Basically, this means I have to do very little list building, and only make small adjustments on who/what to bring prior to each match after seeing which faction I am up against. The two main choices being between what special operatives I want to bring in the form of a Sanctus, Locus, or Kellermorph, and what weapons to arm my neophytes with, the big difference being shotguns or autoguns on the brood adepts. The Kill Team functions primarily as a shooting based horde force that can be deceptively hard to damage when using cover, and has numerous methods to buff it’s deadlier weapons and operatives on the Turning Point that they move from Conceal to Engage (something they can do on TP1), and additionally has methods by which it can return operatives back to Conceal after they Shoot or Fight, with the Sanctus variants being able to Shoot and Fight, respectively, while concealed.
THE GANG IS ALL HERE!
With my Kill Team largely decided for me it came down to determining my gang for the single day Dark Uprising campaign, basically a series of three missions very similar to a tournament format. In this regard much of the campaign elements, such as injuries, and recruiting new gang members and purchasing weapons, will not be in effect. The rules packet outlined the following:
- Gangs will consist of 1250 Credits
- The following restrictions apply to each gang:
- Must contain 1 leader (and only 1)
- May contain up to 3 Champions
- May contain up to 1 Brute
- May contain up to 1 Bounty Hunter
- May contain up to 3 Hive Scum
- No Hangers-on
- A Gang will consist of 6-15 models, half of which must be gangers.
- Trading Posts: Gangs can spend up to a total of 40 Rarity
- Up to 2 of your gangers may be Specialists
- In addition to starting skills for Leaders and Champions, 5 Primary
Skills may be distributed to your gang.
- 2 models may be given 1 characteristic increase of your choice.
I have to say I was immediately intrigued by these options. Unlike Kill Team I have spent a good deal of the pandemic playing Necromunda with my Genestealer Cultists, and felt I had firmly grasped how the gang is best played.
Despite only having rules in the Book of Ruin I’ve found them to be a very solid gang, especially at creation, with most of their weaknesses being something that only comes into play during longer campaigns. Fortunately for me this won’t be an issue during the event, and in addition many of the gang creation changes do a great deal to shore up any starting weaknesses I might have been worried about. The biggest ones being the allowing of specialist gangers who can have access to skills, allowing me to have abberrants with access to Nerves of Steel, something that can be difficult to get in a normal campaign. Additionally, allowing for 40 Rarity in starting equipment gives quick access to more advanced weapons, something genestealer cultists don’t get from their house equipment. I promptly used this to give 3 plasma pistols to my Alpha, which allows him to put even the nastiest Van Saar Champion to shame.
All in all, I decided to go with 10 gangers: An Alpha (played by the Kelermorph), 2 Champions (played by Acolyte Hybrids), 2 Abberrants, and 5 Neophytes.
WHAT A RELIEF
I have to say I am very happy about my decision to change what I am bringing to Adepticon, not only does it reduce the number of late night paint sessions I need to suffer, but it also frees up more time for me to practice as the last few weeks countdown to the event.
In my next article I will cover final preparation and packing for the event along with my planned play by play for the weekend.
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