What Kits could use the Kill Team upgrade sprue treatment.

[sitnam]

So for anyone following Kill Team releases, 3/4 of the first years sets came with one brand new team, and one team with an upgrade sprue. Now I think the 2/3 of the upgrade sprues we're pretty great, with the Phobos one being the weakest just because it hardly added anything new to the squad. But the Pathfinder sprue was pretty good, and the Chaos sprue was awesome. Given that a new year of kill Team is about to start, I suspect we'll get a similar pattern for the next boxes after Into the Dark.

This begs the question, what kits would make good candidates for upgrade sprues? First and foremost for me would be some of the Primaris kits. Intercessors in particular would be a great candidate, as Veteran Intercessors are a thing with little modelling support. An upgrade sprue that adds combi-weapons and some stylized bits would go over great imo.

The same could be done for a Deathwatch specific upgrade sprue for Intercessors, something up to par with the Firstborn Deathwatch kit

 

[WARMASTER_]

I’ve got to agree here the as the upgrade sprue gets added to the box after I think an intercessors / Veteran intercessor upgrade sprue would be amazing! the kit definitely feels lacking somewhat now with them being able to take weapons that aren’t in the box 

[Gamiel]

1 hour ago, sitnam said:

First and foremost for me would be some of the Primaris kits. Intercessors in particular would be a great candidate, as Veteran Intercessors are a thing with little modelling support. An upgrade sprue that adds combi-weapons and some stylized bits would go over great imo.

Something like this, for one of the 1th Founding chapters that have not been given a box of their own unique troops that gives them lots of stuff that can be used to give characters or just normal Marines personality (like the Grey Hunters, Ravenwing, or Death Company boxes). So a standard primaris box (intercessors or other) with a Black Templar sized upgrade kit.

 

Alternatively, instead of a new and larger upgrade kit for the WS, IF, IH, Um, Salamanders, or RG could it be a upgrade kit for a successor Chapter with their own style (either one of the ones that have appeared in the BL or FW books, or one of the name-n-colours-only chapters that is by the upgrade kit given a style). If the later would it be fun with a style inspired by African or Southern Asian cultures.

[sitnam]

@Gamiel

I had the same thought, but I shirked away from the idea a bit since KT has really shirked away from subfactions so far. If any faction was to get them however, first foundings and BT are the obvious choices

[Trysanna]

Genestealers feel like a natural choice, especially with the new setting. I'm not super up on my Tyranid biology, but adding a few variants and mutations would be a ton of fun from a design perspective, and there's already the Deathwing game to draw some inspiration from. Some mini crushing claws, weird sensory organs, the ones from DW that explode and cover you in acid, all good stuff.  

I think Necrons would be a lot of fun too, tho I'm not sure what kit would be the best choice to give the sprue to. Warriors aren't exactly top notch soldiers, but I don't know if a box of 5 Deathmarks/Immortals is worth it, exactly. 

[Evil Eye]

9 minutes ago, Trysanna said:

Genestealers feel like a natural choice, especially with the new setting. I'm not super up on my Tyranid biology, but adding a few variants and mutations would be a ton of fun from a design perspective, and there's already the Deathwing game to draw some inspiration from. Some mini crushing claws, weird sensory organs, the ones from DW that explode and cover you in acid, all good stuff.  

I think Necrons would be a lot of fun too, tho I'm not sure what kit would be the best choice to give the sprue to. Warriors aren't exactly top notch soldiers, but I don't know if a box of 5 Deathmarks/Immortals is worth it, exactly. 

Genestealers would be perfect candidates, especially given some of the weirder adaptations that the GSC can take. Also it'd extend the life of an old but IMO serviceable kit rather than replacing the entire thing. I'll be very sad when it's retired and I'm deprived of those sweet talons (AKA some of my favourite Tyranid conversion parts).

[twiglets]

Upgrade kits are cool, but purely doing upgrade kits would be a shame when there's an opportunity to explore xenos.

The Felinid or some of the ones we haven't seen from this would be cool, like the Zoat, Slaugth, Hrud, Jokaero etc

A Jokaero team in particular could look amazing with the Killteam design treatment. I believe they have only ever had one model, the same with the Ssylth. 

I've always thought these skirmish games are the best opportunity GW has to test the waters on how popular some of the stranger Xenos species might be as models.

Edited August 5, 2022 by twiglets

[Evil Eye]

Oh yeah, obscure Xenos like the Rak'Gol would be awesome to be "trialed" in Kill Team. Also as mentioned the Hrud, though honestly the fact they've been major factors in the fluff for so long and yet still don't even have any models at all is a crime.

[Xenith]

Nids would be thematic, but would require a whole new kit as opposed to an upgrade. GSC cultists to upgrade to sealed environment suits, or CC oriented units/specialists maybe? However there's already plenty of variation in that unit. 

Mechanicum vanguard are probably a target - a 6-7+ year old kit now.

Love the idea of additional xenos. Maybe a court of the archon plastic set with one of each of the old models and some new xenos?

[strongbow]

1 hour ago, twiglets said:

Upgrade kits are cool, but purely doing upgrade kits would be a shame when there's an opportunity to explore xenos.

The Felinid or some of the ones we haven't seen from this would be cool, like the Zoat, Slaugth, Hrud, Jokaero etc

A Jokaero team in particular could look amazing with the Killteam design treatment. I believe they have only ever had one model, the same with the Ssylth. 

I've always thought these skirmish games are the best opportunity GW has to test the waters on how popular some of the stranger Xenos species might be as models.

 This is interesting. Is all the imagery official GW? Where did the Barghesi one come from?

[Noserenda]

If they keep the current scheme there is plenty of chance for random xenos in the other half of the kits that could be literally anything, i suspect the upgrade sprues are at least partially a production issue as well as a nice upgrade to older kits.

Id definitely prefer a whole new kit for Anathema Psykana because we only really have one but an upgrade sprue could also have broad potential for a paramilitary force like them, bringing in some focused psyker snatching/black ops kit :)  

[ThePenitentOne]

Oh yes- SoS are excellent candidates for an upgrade sprue- they actually have an HQ now, so part of the upgrade sprue could be bits to make that HQ model out of a normal SoS. Also, if I remember correctly, unit upgrades (special and heavy weapons) aren't available on current data cards for ANY of the 3 unit types, so all three of those units could use upgrade options, and you could design the upgrade sprue to contain 2 upgrades for each 40k unit type + the HQ. Seven upgrades on the sprue.

That's a brilliant idea, and would improve stand-alone SoS forces (which are FINALLY possible) by orders of magnitude compared to what little impact we'd get to 40k for providing upgrades to units from armies that are already spoiled for options.

[Canadian_F_H]

4 hours ago, strongbow said:

 This is interesting. Is all the imagery official GW? Where did the Barghesi one come from?

I'm not 100% certain, but fairly certain it's all official and official adjacent.  I think some of those artworks are from really old 40k stuff (as far back as rogue trader and 2nd edition eras) and a lot of the art is from the Licensed RPG games made Fantasy Flight Games.  Inquisition, deathwatch, rogue trader, only war etc.

I do concur that kill team is an excellent opportunity to hit on elements of 40k that would be difficult to justify and risk the effort and investment inherent to a full new army launch.  Which we've seen a bit of already with minor imperial factions/organizations/military-units such as rogue traders and navy breachers etc.

They absolute could do this with Xenos. We are seeing a hint of it with this Kroot team, but could have easily been something less common like they did with the Zoat in WQ:BSF and I hope they do delve more deeply into these things.

Also, this could lead to something else I've often wanted to see; a catchall xenos coalition faction of "xenos agents" (akin to agents of the Imperium) which would probably be best compared to ye Olde WFB army "dogs of war" (aka regiments of reknown) which could form an army, or be taken as allies to other armies.

So a Xenos Coalition faction could be cobbled together out of disperate xenos species introduced via Killteam (and also via Warhammer Quest: Black Stone Fortress, or any future WQ(X) games we might see)

As for what I believe is closer to the original post.  What units could benefit from the treatment: "existing kit plus an upgrade spru"

Well, most of them honestly.

The chaos marines got options they had in the codex previously but not in the kit before.  But they also got some altogether new stuff like the squad embedded sorcerer.

What follows, I admit, are not the most imaginative ideas, but demonstrative enough, and fairly simple.

Intercessors could get embedded special and heavy weapons like tactical squads get via a single spru. Largelt As simple as guns that exchange with bolt rifles, and entire limb swaps for some heavy weapons. (Kind of like the upgrade sprus for new hours heresy mk6 marines, but 1x of each weapon, not 10x of each weapon)

Assault intercessors could become more assault marine like with a single spru of jump packs (admittedly I have already test fit the current jump packs and they look great on assault intercessors imo, and the jump packs on their own spru are still available for order direct from GW...)

 

Wilder ideas?

Scions could get a bump.

Sisters of Battle too.

All the major marine subfactions would benefit from a spru on par with the extra killteam CSM spru.  Basically a much more useful variation on a chapter upgrade spru.  We gained various power weapons for intercessors that way already.

Edited August 5, 2022 by Canadian_F_H

[Slave to Darkness]

If GW is riding the nostalgia train and dipping back into old minis to update then Orks could do with a Khorne Stormboy or Genestealer Hybrid sprue... 

[ThePenitentOne]

Also liked the earlier suggestion of a Zoat KT. 

My zoat is lonely. Kyria Draxus visits every now and again- she is a radical after all- but she's more of a fair weather friend than a bestie. 

[sitnam]

@twiglets I mean new kits would be cool, but the whole point is that the pattern established with last season of KT is one new kit and one upgrade sprue.

@ThePenitentOne SoS are a great choice. The current sprue comes with three weapon options, a single upgrade sprue just for various specialist SoS would be great. A sister throwing a psyk-put grenade, perhaps?

@Slave to Darkness An Ork GSC team would be sooo cool, though given the age of the current Boys kit I could see a Ork GSC team being a brand new kit too

Edited August 5, 2022 by sitnam

[Slave to Darkness]

45 minutes ago, sitnam said:

 

@Slave to Darkness An Ork GSC team would be sooo cool, though given the age of the current Boys kit I could see a Ork GSC team being a brand new kit too

If they dropped a whole ass Ork GSC kit I would literally poop myself with excitement and nostalgia overload. I LOVED them back in 1st ed and when 2nd ed hit they were some of the first conversions I ever did as a kid, I had a ton of plastic Orks in the box and stealers left over from Space Hulk, Space Crusade and Tyranid Attack. Thinking back they were pretty cringe and I totally ruined those minis, if I could go back in time Id slap my younger self for such heresy, but it did put me on the path of a lifetime of kitbashing and converting all my armies so they are unique so I guess it wasnt all bad. I might actually get a box of Boys and some gribbly bits and convert a squad just for the sake of it, it might be good for the soul to do a project that isnt restricted to a certain aesthetic or theme like all my armies, modelling a cool unit just for the sake of modelling it. 

[Noserenda]

So as its been paying on my mind... Anathema upgrade sprue concept, working on the assumption of not making wholly new units but adding some specialists from each squad type and upgrading the standard sprues so 5 bodies.

1. A Knight Centura, Leader Archetype. Whole body included with Sword or Flamer option
2. Stealth Archetype, using sword or maybe capture net? Halfway to Culexus stealth by denial
3. Pistolier archetype, pair of modded up bolt pistols
4. Sniper archetype, Sniper boltgun
5. Demolition archetype, Hucking a Psyk out grenade, include fire bombs and demo charges? 
6. Heavy weapon archetype, Time to break out the legendary heavy webber :D 

So roughly 2 each for the melee, shooting and carnage/special weapon niches of the existing units and dooable mostly with just heads and/or arms as the sister kit isnt super friendly to backpacks! 

[Trysanna]

2 hours ago, ThePenitentOne said:

Also liked the earlier suggestion of a Zoat KT. 

My zoat is lonely. Kyria Draxus visits every now and again- she is a radical after all- but she's more of a fair weather friend than a bestie. 

I would kill for GW to rerelease some of the Blackstone Fortress stuff for this expansion. Please, I just want the Dreaded Ambull.

8 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

Genestealers would be perfect candidates, especially given some of the weirder adaptations that the GSC can take. Also it'd extend the life of an old but IMO serviceable kit rather than replacing the entire thing. I'll be very sad when it's retired and I'm deprived of those sweet talons (AKA some of my favourite Tyranid conversion parts).

The nice part of these upgrade sprues is that they can give certain kits the boost they need, without having to redo the whole thing. I'd love to see something for Bloodletters, some weapon variety, a strange esoteric blood gun, a skull flail. Cadians just got an upgrade sprue, but I'd like to see them get the variety of the Death Korps, though I think they're getting a revamp soon enough, if the World Eater leaks are anything to go by.

[twiglets]

51 minutes ago, Trysanna said:

I would kill for GW to rerelease some of the Blackstone Fortress stuff for this expansion. Please, I just want the Dreaded Ambull.

That would be amazing, the Ambull has to be one of their coolest xenos designs in recent years. A part of a team would be cool, but a whole squad of them? hell yes.

[Trysanna]

17 minutes ago, twiglets said:

That would be amazing, the Ambull has to be one of their coolest xenos designs in recent years. A part of a team would be cool, but a whole squad of them? hell yes.

I'm still mad I missed out on the Ambull at the time. I didn't think they'd just stop supporting the game but here we are. I would love to see some kill teams not themed around a specific faction, but groups of dangerous aliens that inhabit a Hulk, like badass dungeon encounters. Just get weird with it! Two Ambulls and a small hoard of baby Ambulls. Ambabies. Babybulls. Whatever. Some Ork genestealers, more Zoats, space Skaven, human mercs/treasure hunters/shipbreakers, etc. Just do Blackstone Fortress but call it kill team, I guess. 

[TheMawr]

I actually think ( apart from spacemarines ) we are running out of kits they'd give this upgrade sprue treatment ( though I think Im repeating something I already said somewhere now.) and its possible this season will introduce only new kits.

so far they have all been "modern" layout 10man kits that already carry alot of options for individual operatives to begin with, while the classic layout kits are actively being replaced by new kits ( eldar guardians, necron warriors, khorne berzerkers.. possibly the kroot KT replaces the old kit as well but we dont know yet )
 

--- Kabalite warriors
Basically; equipment to make trueborn viable as a datasheet again, maybe add an haywire cannon, some close combat kabalites is mandatory. adding bare heads that are darker and eviller. Obviously needs a combat drug "medic" specialist, a "navigator" holding a hellraiserish artifact, someone with poisons and some sort of painspecialist.
Would be fun if the upgrade also builds a medusae and an operative with a small khymerae on a leech or something similar but it might be stretching the format.
Either way unless they are planning to update it, of all kits I think this one could use a bit of upgrade treatment most of all.
 

--- Wyches
With this one I go very wychlisty. Id say make it an Ynnari wyches upgrade sprue.. leaving original wyches untouched but giving ynnari their own wych datasheet. And from there fill in interesting operatives. Turning the hekatrix into a semi warlock hybrid including a witchblade and singing spear option. as for other possible accesoires/weapons; Triskele, Starbolas, Neuro/Fusion/Shuriken pistols, Gloomfield, powerswords, harlequin weapons, deathspinner.. maybe even a spectre prism rifle, as long as its not drukhari in origin, but at least one of them should be running with a dual handed scythe. The current kit even allows the option to include a leg or two that would change a running pose to a standing (on rock) pose.
 

--- Ork nobz* ( this is cheating a bit, but pricewise doubling them up and adding an upgrade sprue still fits the rest.)
As the kit already covers alot of general operatives, they could really go all in on adding freebooter elements.
 

--- Tzaangor
I know people dont like too much focus on tzaangor, but, this is one kit that could REALLY use the upgrade sprue treatment (despite it being unlikely as it would be an upgrade sprue over an upgrade sprue.) with besides some more scifi elements also adds some more mutations, so tzaangor can also embrace that element of tzeentch more that Rubric cannot.
 

--- Rubric marines
A kill team is counter to what the rubric stand for, they arent individuals anymore.. obviously some close combat options makes sense though. Another possibility is that the upgrade/KT is also another unit entirely, a questing sorcerer (and his rubrics) that collect arcane artifacts, and most of the operatives are represented by the artefact.. not the "individual"

--- Skitari rangers
While viable, and likely, there isnt much to add the kit doesnt already has; like the rubric more close combat options is all I can think of.

--- the Daemon troop kits, GSC neophytes, Battlesisters, Tau firewarriors, Grey kights striketeam, Eldar guardians ( I could be missing one or two )
While applicable kits, I dont see happening for various reasons, nor do they really need it.

 

However, all that is when just looking at kits that fit the previous type of kits included..
 

[sitnam]

12 minutes ago, TheMawr said:

--- Ork nobz* ( this is cheating a bit, but pricewise doubling them up and adding an upgrade sprue still fits the rest.)
As the kit already covers alot of general operatives, they could really go all in on adding freebooter elements.

 I think Ork Nobz could make for a sick version of an elite Ork kill Team. Less horde then Commandos, but maybe a few more models then Marines. Looking at the sprues, it looks like a ripe kit for an upgrade sprue

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

Not for the space hulk season, but Catachan veterans.

[Wrath of Bruinen]

I'd be curious to see what they could do with custodes. Other than eyes of the emperor, no specialists really jump to mind. Maybe a cool way to add solarite gauntlets etc?

Wishlist territory would be a new talons kit with a mix of custodes and SoS