Kill Team – Genestealer Cult: The Creeping Death
With the recent release of Kill Team (unboxing video here), we’ve been more than a little excited about constructing our own Kill Teams and getting some games going. I’ve already got a work in progress Genestealer Cult army for Warhammer 40k – there’s a few early posts about them on here – and so the GSC army within the Kill Team box fitted in nicely. As it only contains 3rd and 4th generation hybrids the points are lower than the 100 you need for a Kill Team, so at the end, I’ve bolstered their numbers with some of my 40k army GSC miniatures.
The GSC sprues in the Kill Team box are full of useful bits and pieces, a load of arms with different weapons, so you can mix up 3rd and 4th generation Neophytes. Want a few pretty much human Neophytes? go for the standard arms. Want a few 3rd generations with claws, give them a clawed hand in to support their weapon. All in all, the kit is great.
As an aside, the Genestealer Cults Upgrade Frame from Games Workshop works well here, as you can add a few details to give them all a little variety – different heads, equipment, etc.
Before deciding on anything, I glued all the bodies and legs together. With a previous Neophytes box, I’d become carried away putting them together, and hadn’t realised that certain bodies will only work with certain legs. For this reason, it’s best to follow the instructions – duh – and get them all in place so you don’t get to the last few miniatures and find the torsos don’t fit properly.
The first member of the Kill Team I wanted to build was the Neophyte Leader, Xandus Drevender (Leader). Thinking back to the old Necromunda days, where the gang leader always had a boltgun, I decided to arm him with a bolt pistol, and what better way to keep people in line than with a power maul. I liked the pose with Xandus, as he looks like he’s pointing the way for his xenos brothers to attack.
Next came the Neophyte Gunners, the first was Crasker Drevender (Heavy), Xandus’s brother – these dice appear to like rolling sixes… – who I armed with a heavy stubber. Although the heavy stubber isn’t the most powerful, again it gave me flashbacks to Necromunda (and looks like the old 40cal) so I had to use it. A theme I tried to use through out, is to have the hybrids masked in some way, so their faces are never fully exposed.
The next Neophyte Gunner was Vyrion Kheiser (Heavy) who was armed with the seismic cannon. Although there’s no specific reason to have the heavy weapons carried by someone with the Heavy specialisation, it does give bonuses which will aid this squishy Kill Team in the long run.
Initially I wasn’t sure about taking a Cult Icon. I was thinking that sneaking round in an elite team could be hampered by a guy with a massive standard getting in the way. Turns out they have decent benefits – re-roll hit rolls of a 1 in the fight phase if you’re within 6″. With my penchant for rolling 1s at irritating moments, I thought this could be handy. Jerec Gardlinger is the icon bearer, and will forever be remembered as the guy everyone hissed “Watch what you’re doing with that thing!” at.
The fourth and final specialist is Basc ‘Basic’ Helm (Comms). For this miniature I used one of the hands from an Imperial Guard heavy weapons team, and cut a GSC arm at the elbow so that move his arm so that it went up at the right angle. The head was one of the heads from the GSC Upgrade Frame mentioned earlier.
With fond memories of webber from Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader, I couldn’t resist taking one with Judh Varnway, who is the first of two special weapons neophytes.
Skir Calvora is the second special weapons chap who is armed with a flamer, ideal for landing hits on a closely packed group of enemies.
Judh Varnway’s younger brother wasn’t like all the other kids when he was born, but he was almost obsessively loved by the Creeping Death. The Aberrant, Jacobiah Varnway adds some much needed whump to the Kill Team and was one of the miniatures from the Death Watch Overkill game.
The remaining acolytes are armed with shotguns or autoguns, and have had a few extra bits added to them, such as backpacks, grenades, scopes, pouches, etc – mainly parts from an acolytes box, the upgrade frame, or spares from a space marine scout box.
And with that the Kill Team is complete. The Creeping Death genestealer cult has its specialists, and they’re ready to go.
In the next post about The Creeping Death, I’ll be painting them up using common themes throughout the team, but giving them enough detail to make the look individual.
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