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The Core Book for the 2024 edition of the Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team game provides players with six different non-player operatives for the Joint Ops Mission Pack. These are relatively generic, giving 3 varieties each for brawlers (melee specialists) and marksmen (shooting specialists). Each of those types has a basic variety (trooper), an "elite" variety (tough for the brawlers, warrior for the marksmen), and a heavy variety. Those generic NPOs are sufficient as generic options. However, the Core Book also provides the following: This provides us with an interesting opportunity as a community - developing each of the existing factions into NPOs. We could use the datacard templates to create cards that members of the community might download. This is facilitated by the fact that the rules for all of the existing teams are freely available for download from the Warhammer Community website, giving us a basic starting point. I think, though, that I need to modify the datacards a little so that the team can be clearly identified. That is my project for today. I'm not sure if anyone is interested in helping out with this, or if it will be a solo effort on my part, but just in case, here's a list of the existing teams. If anyone commits to working on any of these teams, I'll list their name next to the team name. Angels of Death Blades of Khaine Blooded Brood Brothers Chaos Cult Corsair Voidscarred Death Korps Elucidian Starstriders Exaction Squad Farstalker Kinband Fellgor Ravagers Gellerpox Infected Hand of the Archon Hearthkyn Salvagers Hernkyn Yaegirs Hierotek Circle Hunter Clade Imperial Navy Breachers Inquisitorial Agents Kasrkin Kommandos Legionaries Mandrakes Nemesis Claw Novitiates Pathfinders Phobos Strike Team Scout Squad Tempestus Aquilons Vespid Stingwings Void-Dancer Troupe Wyrmblade Warpcoven If you want to spearhead developing any of these factions, please reply here with the name(s) of the faction(s) you wish to cover and I'll add you to the list. You can then post your initial recommendations in a separate topic that has the tag "NPO Project" used as the prefix, along with the name of the team/faction as the topic title. We can then debate and refine until we have a finished set of NPOs, at which point we can upload the finished version to the Downloads section under the Kill Team category.

This is part of the NPO Project. The images below represent my first real attempt at creating NPOs for the Asuryani. In the spirit of NPOs being "regular soldiers," I left this as purely Guardians, based on the Guardian Defender and Storm Guardian units presented in the codex. While I briefly considered creating a type of leader that might be on par with an Aspect Warrior (but not an Exarch), I felt that was a step beyond what this project is trying to achieve. I also considered including a Warlock and a Pathfinder. Warlocks are known to lead Guardians into battle, but since they're not part of the unit entry, I felt it was appropriate to leave them out. Similarly, Games Workshop has given us rules for snipers and Pathfinders are the natural representative for that role in the Asuryani armies, but I didn't think it was necessary. I may develop a Pathfinder [Sniper] datasheet later, but that seems like something that is too specific to missions and mission packs that use the sniper rules, so they're not necessary in the general use NPO roster. While I originally conceived of this as the "Asuryani" faction, I later changed it to "Asuryani Guardian" to allow for the possibility of other NPO team options from the Asuryani (I don't personally plan any, but I could easily see where other players might want to take things). Each NPO is presented on two datasheets. The version on the left is the standard version, which I prefer. The version on the right omits the keywords, APL, and Move entries because mission packs often present mission special rules that dictate NPO force composition and NPO movement, rendering these entries irrelevant. The version on the right also leaves out NPO force composition notes, where applicable. For example, Storm Guardian Gunners are limited based on the number of total Storm Guardians, which is shown in the version on the left but not that on the right (since it would be dictated in the mission pack). (click the images to see full size versions) I tried to keep things as close as possible to the composition of each type of squad (Guardian Defender/Storm Guardian) as found in the codex. This required a little creativity which I hope doesn't create confusion. The stats for the flamer and fusion weapon were derived from similar weapons found in various other kill team faction rules (the fusion gun being a meltagun). Both platforms use rules similar to those used for servo skulls (i.e., don't participate in Fights, reduced APL when determining control of a marker, effect of having a Conceal order). I don't know that these are the "right" rules to give them, but they're a starting point. Something I did with both was require that some Asuryani Guardian NPO be within 1" of these platforms for them to perform behaviours (though the Serpent's Scale Platform is supposed to provide its defensive benefits regardless). I based the shuriken cannon rules (Heavy Weapon Platform) on the Voidscarred Corsairs, and the defensive rules for the Serpent's Scale Platform on the shimmershield of the Blades of Khaine (though the range was modified to be in line with the Warhammer 40,000 counterpart). You may see some inconsistencies in the left/right versions, in which case I'll provide the intended rules in replies here. Something I found is that developing the behaviours of each NPO is much more challenging than I first thought it would be. It requires going through a logical sequence and developing correct descriptions, where applicable. I don't know that the versions I've presented here are necessarily the right ones, but they provide a decent starting point. I imagine that discussion here will refine things so that we can improve upon these. While I have begun working on ideas for NPOs from other factions (I'm starting with the other Aeldari sub-factions), each will be covered in their own discussion so that each discussion can remain focused. The intent is to finalize these (only after the other NPO factions have been developed and finalized so that there can be some level of consistency and balance) and present each faction as a downloadable file.