Lonkelo dives into Kill Team

I completely forgot to update the project after I added some Vostroyan Cuirassiers to my Kill Team collection. Cuirassiers? Yes. This is me attempting to game along the gaps.

Since I built my Vostroyan Navy Breacher kill team to be a bit more generic, I was able to use most of them for a regular Imperial Guard kill team. This meant that I could either field two groups of seven guardsmen or two groups of Tempestus Scions, or a combination of the two. I went with the latter and decided I needed to make some minis that looked like how I’d imagine the Vostroyan counterparts of the Imperium’s Tempestus Scions.

I give you, the Кираси́ры, or Cuirassiers!

For these minis I again made heavy use of the fantastic Grognards from Wargames Atlantic, but with some parts also from the heavy weapons set, which allows you to have some of them kneeling down.

Tempestus scions are normally armed with hotshot lasguns, which I simulated by using old school GW Cadian arms, to which I added some bent paper clips as a power cable to their backpacks.

Like my other Vostroyans I used the following colours:

• Army Painter (AP) Speed Paints blood red for the coat
• AP Speed Paints gravelord grey for the fur hats
• AP Speed Paints hardened leather for…. well, the leather
• AP true copper
• GW leadbelcher
• GW nuln oil

To this I added some silver highlights to the crests on the helmets, to help them stand out more.

Sorry for the somewhat fuzzy photos. I only noticed just now… Anyway, from left to right: cuirassier gunner with grenade launcher, two regular cuirassiers and a comms cuirassier.

I’m especially happy with the cuirassier sergeant, however:

This was my first attempt at OSL and I’m not displeased with the end result. The lightning effect on the sword is somewhat disappointing, but the light effect worked out nicely.

Note that the arms I used for the sergeant are from the old GW Empire militia pack. I’ve used these arms on countless miniatures, both fantasy and scifi. They just work really well.

As a bonus, I remember @avernos saying I hadn’t managed to get the logo right on the bases in the past! Finally got one right! Can you find it?

Thank you very much OTT team for the Golden Button 😀

“VOSTROYAAA!!” A warcry pierced the air as Timohin launched himself unto the Deathwatch Warrior and brought down his mighty two-handed power axe. The shimmering blade sunk deep into the neck of the superhuman, who dropped to the floor wordlessly.

Lihachov, now covered in the blood of both his comrade and the space marine, let himself fall backwards against the wall. Timohin put his foot on the astartes’ back and with some difficulty managed to pull out the axe. He held up the bloodied weapon and said “When hunting angels, bring a big fly swatter, eh Lihachov?”

Back in the main hallway, the Deathwatch unleashed their deadly counterattack. They recognised that the reason that these navy rats were able to advance so quickly was the sharp eye and quick wit of Surveyor Lazarev. A brutal volley of bolter rounds was fired by Brother Quellus, ripping the Void Shrike to shreds.

Brother Luniel wasn’t going to sit idle after he had seen his Brother Terratis hacked down by the Navy Axejack. He aimed his missile launcher and fired a shot that only an astartes could have pulled off: the missile narrowly missed the edge of the hallway and the edge the door, roaring straight towards its target. Lihachov saw the projectile slam into the side of Timohin, who still held up his axe. He was blinded by a flash and before he knew it he was thrown backwards, sliding along the cold walls, shrapnel ripping into his uniform.

Quellus, who had witnessed the shot fired by Luniel, berated his comrade: “To wreak vengeance upon ants is unbecoming of you, brother. Make sure to speak to the Chaplain after battle.”

Lihachov coughed in the smoke-filled hallway. Of Timohin, nothing remained. The boisterous idiot should have sought cover, he thought grimly. The ringing in his hears didn’t seem to become less. In fact, it seemed to become louder. He then noticed that it was the sound of a melta gun being fired up. Karataev had entered the scene and unleashed the molten beam through the smoke tendrils at the silhouette of Brother Demetrius behind them. As unfathomable temperatures reached the tall Storm Shield, the mixing energies seemed to throw off purplish lightning, that scorched the walls. Suddenly the light was gone and the smell of ozone filled the air.

The after image of the flashes had seared itself into Lihachovs vision, but he could see enough to recognise that Karataev had managed to burn a hole through the storm shield. His aim had been off, however, and whereas some of the armour on the astartes’ torso had been eaten away, it seemed that only the marine’s shieldarm had been wounded seriously. Demetrius’ sword arm was still fine, which he proved when he stepped over Lihachov and split Karataev in twain.

As Lihachov checked his shotgun, he hoped the others in the main hall were faring better on their end and that he and his comrades had bought them enough time. As the hulking space marine turned his attention to him, Lihachov wondered whether today was a good day to die.

The Deathwatch had now also reached the engine room and secured the objective on their end. Grenadier Alpatich knew extraction time was approaching fast, so now was time to swallow his fear and do what Void Shrikes do best. As his sergeant-in-arms came up next to him he asked: “Permission to do something stupid, sir!” Lovaisky sighed. “My dedushka always said: ‘the Emperor requires both heroes and fools in his court. Some to make him proud and others to make him laugh.’ Find out which one you are, Grenadier.” Alpatich smiled and rushed forward. As soon as the Deathwatch marines noticed his approach he had already taken out the demolition pack. The astartes raised their weapons just as he threw down the small package at their feet. He pressed the detonator and dove backwards. A flash lit up the room, temporarily illuminating all present, which was followed by a shockwave that carried him backwards. His landing was all but graceful and he slammed onto the floor multiple times before he slid to a halt.

Sergeant Lovaisky had braced himself and shielded his eyes just in time. He was as mad as a hatter, but Alpatich was the kind of soldier you were thankful for in your squad. He was about to promise to buy Alpatich good bottle of wodka when they got back, when the dissipating smoke revealed the two astartes still standing. Curse them. Just how tough are these beasts? It was clear however that they had indeed suffered from the explosion and especially the one with the plasma gun seemed to be close to kicking the bucket.

You can bring someone to death’s door, but sometimes they need you to hold it open for them and shove them through. Always the gentleman, he decided he should show the poor man the way and he pulled out his heirloom autopistol and fired it into the marine as he walked towards him. The bullets pierced the shredded remains of the power armour and the space marine sank to the ground. He turned to the second astartes when he heard Alpatich shout something. Before he knew it, life was burned out of him by scorching plasma fire.

Brother Numenis dropped to his knees. He could feel life slipping away from him. He tried to aim his plasma gun at the grenadier in front of him, but could not feel his arms anymore. Darkness came over him and brother Numenis was no more.

—–

And that is where it ends. The scenario was three rounds long, but we weren’t able to finish the last one because I had to catch a train. My friend suggested it was a draw since we had technically achieved the same number of victory points. I do wonder, however, whether his Deathwatch marines might have been able to contest one of my objectives before the end of the turn. I wouldn’t have made it easy, though!

Short game review

The game was fun and full of watercooler moments for us. The alternate activation meant that we were engaged in the battle and never found ourselves being bored, waiting for the moment to finally push our own minis accross the table.

This was our first game of Kill Team and that of course means that we had to look things up every now and then. The game is also quite granular and whereas this adds a lot of flavour, it can bog a game down because you have to look up even more. This meant that in between taking turns, most time was spent with our noses in the books and rosters we’d brought. We took about four hours to play almost three turns…

I think that you definitely get more accustomed to the core rules once you play the game more often. However, for people like me who cannot play games very often, we will have to re-learn the game to a degree every time we play it.

I wasn’t too sure about the tokens on the battlefield. Using the actual GW terrain with our own painted minis looked awesome, but then you have all these little counters signifying this or that strewn over the battlefield like confetti. Meh.

Let me end with a good point of the game, to turn this review into a compliment sandwich. Even if the rules were somewhat dense, they really got the feeling of the respective killteams down to a T. The Navy Breachers really felt like soldiers who were specialised in naval combat. The space marines were clearly big, mean and brutally perfect (ugh so boring!), but luckily not impossible to take down once you threw enough C4 on top of them.

All in all, I had a great time playing Kill Team.

Meanwhile, Armsmen Komarov and Lihachov raced through the northern hallway, feeling secured by Timohin and Glinka, who were keeping an eye on the door. Of all the enemies that could have been waiting on the other side of the door, they didn’t expect two battle brothers from the fabled Deathwatch standing but a few feet from them. How thin the door must have felt if they’d known…

Astartes cannot be called prideful. They just know that they are superhuman. Whereas lesser men could worry about the quick advance of their feeble peers, they knew that their faith, weaponry and the skill with which they wielded both, would bring glory and victory to the Emperor.

With grim determination they advanced into the main hallway. As Brother Numeris laid down covering fire with the already feared plasma gun, Brother Eziraphel – his power claws crackling in the dark – was able to secure their first objective.

“By the Emperor’s gilded balls, it’s the Deathwatch!” Gerasim shouted hoarsely into the comms, as he recognised his foes in the light of plasma fire. The Endurant wasn’t a fearful man, but the presence of multiple Space Marines at the other side of the room, who could break his reinforced shield like an egg shell, was enough for him to press himself as far into his small corner as he could. He hoped it would cover him.

The crunching of Durak’s fried remains beneath his feet snapped him out of his shock, however, and he carefully opened the hatch towards the main generator room, all the while keeping his position and his eyes on the dark far side of the room.

Surveyor Lazarev was able to recognise this tiniest of lulls in the fire lain down by their enemies, and in that moment sent Grenadier Alpatich racing across the room, through the hatch door. “Second objective secured!” he shouted to his fellow navy breachers.

There was no time to celebrate, for at that moment, the Deathwatch broke through the Northern hallway door. The Void Shrikes wouldn’t have believed that such a tall and broad warrior could move so swiftly, if the Deathwatch Sergeant Demetrius hadn’t dashed past them and cut down Gunner Glinka with a fell swipe of his xenophase blade, before they could even blink.

In the dark doorway another pair of eyes lit up. Armsman Lihachov was the first to move into action. He shouted to his companion Komarov: “are you waiting for him to pour us a drink? Shoot, damnit, SHOOT!”. With deft hands, trained through years of service, he changed his ammunition of his shotgun for dirty close-range fighting, snapped it shut and opened fire into the door opening. The sharp cracks of navy shotgun fire echoed off the iron walls, lighting up the mighty silhouet of their opponent. The combined rounds fired by the two armsmen had hit home and would have ripped an ork to shreds.

Indeed, they had pierced the Deathwatch Veteran’s armour and even wounded the ancient warrior monk. Brother Terratis felt annoyance at this: he would have to miss the regular after-mission service to visit the Apothecary, who would have to tend to his wounds. He sighed as he strode through the doorway and brought down his powered blade on Komarov. He split the man in twain as if lazily dropping a hot knife through butter. Splattered by the blood of his comrade, Lihachov tried to move his bayonet between this angel of vengeance and himself.

Every day countless battles are fought in some nameless part of the void. All but few of the citizens of the Imperium remain ignorant of these, which does not diminish the importance of the men and women laying down their lives to protect the Imperium from enemies without and within.

The scene is an Imperial Cruiser, which had been lost in the Warp for centuries, before reappearing suddenly as little more than a wreck, devoid of life. The Vostroyan 1054th regiment, the “Void Shrikes”, have been sent to secure the vessel. Unbeknownst to them, a small detachment of the Deathwatch also boarded the vessel, who, for reasons known only to themselves, attacked the Imperial Navy soldiers and seemed to want to take the vessel for themselves. Bloody battle ensued in the cold, dark husk of the once proud Navy vessel, which would become a claustrophobic tomb to many.

The mission we played was Subsidence from the Into the Dark box. Both killteams had to rush towards the subsidence edge of the killzone, where both Killteams have to secure the generators on board the ship. The ones marked three and four confer 2 victory points each, whereas one and two in the closed room at the back of the killzone confer 6 victory points each. Deployment was only allowed in the corners of the respective rooms we started in.

1054th Vostroyan First Born “the Void Shrikes” (as Imperial Navy Breachers)

• Navis Sergeant-at-Arms – Lovaisky
• Navis Armsmen (armed with slugs) – Komarov, Lihachov, Shtcherbatov & Shapovalov
• Navis Axejack – Timohin
• Navis Endurant – Gerasim
• Navis Grenadier – Alpatich
• Navis Surveyor – Lazarev
• Navis C.A.T. Unit – CR-845 “Durak”
• Navis Gunners (melta gun and plasma gun) – Karataev & Glinka

Deathwatch Veteran Fireteam

• Brother Demetrius (leader): storm shield and xenophase blade
• Brother Eziraphel: lightning claws
• Brother Terratis: bolter and power sword
• Brother Numenis: plasma gun
• Brother Quellus: bolter
• Brother Luniel: Missile launcher

The battle report got a bit out of hand, so I’ll have to post it over multiple entires.

(A small disclaimer before we kick off: I realise that this battle report is mostly from the point of view of the Void Shrikes and therefore not really an objective account of the battle 😉 )

The Deathwatch had managed to take the initiative in this battle as the Void Shrikes didn’t have any intel on enemy forces also boarding the vessel. Let alone them also being agents of the Imperium! Both forces split their kill teams to approach the objectives from two avenues.

Even though the Deathwatch made the first move, the Void Shrikes immediately showed that this was their turf: they had tapped into the system opening the main room door towards the first objective and were able to send out the C.A.T. Durak to mark its location.

Just as Durak relayed the images of the objective and its surroundings, its feed was overwhelmed by a high heat signature: Durak had been fried to a crisp by a well-aimed plasma shot.

“We’ve got contact!” Surveyor Lazarev shouted across the comms. Years of experience had taught the Void Shrikes that danger may lurk around any badly-lit corner corner. Often the hard way. Quickly Axejack Timohin and Gunner Glinka with his melta gun took up defensive positions around the closed hatch door in the northern hallway.

They rightly suspected that their enemy was waiting for them on the other side.

Lazarev felt annoyed at the early loss of yet another Durak: he would have to do this on his own. Again. The coast seemed clear for now and he steered Gerasim the Endurant across the hallway. Just as the latter took up defensive positions and secured the first objective, again plasma seared the stale air and burned into Gerasim’s shield. He felt the heat of the plasma burning through his shield, but managed to hold his position.

If you read my previous posts, you may remember me being a bit nervous about how the Axejack’s gloves would turn out. Well, I’m actually quite happy with the result!

The pose for this one feels very dramatic. The backpack really shows how nicely the Speedpaints pick out details.

These are the chaps with the big guns. I’m not sure what the guns represent, but for now the big one is a plasma gun and the smaller a melta gun. Note how bad I am with lighting effects: I really need to get into that at some point in the future.

They may not carry any special weaponry or gear, but they are just plain cool and in-game you are allowed to activate two at a time!

So, what’s up next? Well, a game for starters, which is planned for tomorrow (27 September 2023). I will try to take as many pictures as possible and hopefully turn them into a battle report of sorts!

<self-congratulatory-rant>
YAAAAAS! I’ve done it! I set the deadline and I got it done!
Last year has been a happy but difficult one in the private life with very little time for the hobby. To be honest, finding time was still difficult. So I did a half an hour here and there. I even tried painting in bed (not recommended: pain in the neck and lighting is horrible). I know the end result is not at the level of what many of you hobby wizards conjure up, but it looks decent, has character and is actually done. Hah!
</self-congratulatory-rant>

So, without further ado, here is the magnificent band of the 1054st Void Shrike regiment of the Vostroyan Firstborn:

The sergeant is simple and maybe the least interesting model to me. I had to look up the markings of a sergeant in the Grande Armée (different Emperor, same oomph), I hope I found the right one!

I think the cat and the surveyor turned out nicely. I feel the bot still needs a name, but I haven’t thought of one yet.

I love how this guy turned out with his mighty shield. For the ‘1054’ text I used the old Cadian transfer sheet (I don’t know whether it is still packed in newer sets). Note that ‘1054’ is not on there, so what you see is actually a loose 1, 05 and 4 carefully positioned together.

(I’ve reached the limit for the number of sections in this entry, see part 2!)

So, I returned to the bases, had a look at them and agreed with past self who said that they might be too simple. But since the game they are for was only two days away, I again went for quick and experimental. So, after trying some different washes, I went with a Sepia wash. This made the bases not as crisp and clear, which would clash too much with the grimdark look of the Killteam I was painting. To finish it off, I added some scatter to three of the bases, made from odd bits and bobs. There is a toothpaste cap in there for example. I painted these bits simple leadbelcher with some Nuln oil on top. To finish it off I used the Speedpainter blood red to spatter on some blood.

To be honest, I’m happily surprised by the result!