New to Killteam, please help with Legionaries!

[Kaldoth]

Hey all! I recently made an international move and had to leave all of my armies back in the U.S. I've been getting the itch to play again, and a buddy of mine here is just now getting into the hobby, so we both decided to try out Kill Team as a way to get into/ back into the hobby. I want to run the Legionnaires Kill Team, and I had a few questions on what kind of team to run. (I'm aware they're phased out and not allowed for tournament play, but its just gonna be at home games for us, so no worries there!)

 

First, out of the two "HQ" options, which seems to perform better between the Aspiring Champion and the Chosen? I have zero experience with play, so I'm not sure how impactful adding 1 to APL is vs preventing fall back actions/self healing. I'm leaning towards the Chosen just because the combination of the self healing and a Nurgle mark sounds like it'll make him a pain to remove.

 

Second, I love kitbashing and sculpting, so I'll be using the Possessed kit as a base for my team. A lot of small options aren't native to the kit that the Kill Team has access to (grenades, pistols, etc), so in regards to that, how important is WYSIWYG? In casual games at your FLGS, would you care of these options aren't on the model? I think big things like heavy weapons and the like should be obvious to anyone looking at the team, but as an example, would something like the massive fist/claw on the Greater Possessed fly as the 2 handed chainaxe for the Butcher? 

 

Last, how does my team selection thus far look? As I only have one box of Possessed and the Greater Possessed model, I'm stuck building the maximum of 6 operatives without any wiggle room for swapping for the time being. I wanted to build something that leans melee but is still an all comers team that can handle both elite teams and more horde style ones.

 

Chosen - Mark of Nurgle: Seems tanky and hard to move.
Butcher - Mark of Undivided: I like the idea of a big hard hitting dude. I thought the rerolls from Undivided here would be handy with him hitting on 4+. 
Icon Bearer - Mark of Undivided: Undivided seems like the best mark to take for standard bolter wielders. 
Legionary Balefire Acolyte - Mark of Tzneetch or Mark of Undivided... kind of unsure which would synergize with his abilities better.

Legionary Heavy Gunner- Mark of Tzneetch - Not really sure where to go here between Heavy Bolter and Reaper Chaincannon. Which is the better all comers choice? 
 

My last slot is still undecided. Not sure if I want to go with a Khorne Anointed or Tzneetch Gunner with plasma. Thoughts there? Also on the Butcher, how does he compare to the Shrivetalon? Out of all the operatives he would be the one I'd most readily want to swap for something else. Even with the rerolls, that 4+ isn't the best. The Shrivetalon looks like he would be fun as Undivided or Slaanesh. 

 

Thanks for any help!

[zulu.tango]

Welcome to the game! Kill team is a blast, for my money it's the best game in the setting. 

Generally speaking WYSIWYG isn't a hard and fast rule for KT, so long as your operatives are easily discernable from one another, have the correct base size, and are the same general silhouette as their "official" model the sky is the limit for kitbashes/proxies. The general rule of thumb is no modelling for advantage, meaning you can go bigger in silhouette size, but never smaller since line of sight is such a big deal in the game. As you mentioned, having your gunner's actually have guns is gonna be helpful for your opponent to discern between other operatives. 

As for your list, your marks fortunately don't have to be set, by which I mean you can pick them ahead of each game based on what you think will be most appropriate, and you can try different combos in different matches.

That being said long-term you'll probably get more milage out of the Aspiring rather than Chosen. The chosen special rules rely on your opponent performing actions where Aspiring proc's off of actions you chose (you chose to shoot/fight, vs your opponent choosing to fall back or fight). 4APL means you can Shoot ->Charge ->Fight ->Score/Fight/Shoot. There are places for both for sure, but I think the Aspiring is a better "take all comers" choice

Butcher is a fun operative, undivided for the balanced is nice, especially into teams you can't reliably one or two shot. As a general rule for all melee operatives Slaanesh's move speed is HUGE for setting up asymmetrical charges (you can charge them, they cant charge you). The strat ploy (quicksilver speed) also makes them MUCH harder to get shot off the board once things go hot. Shriveltalon occupies the same kind of space on the list (melee powerhouse) but  has a bit more versatility. Shrivetalon's ability to reduce APL means that into 2APL teams he can charge in and they can't fall-back, allowing you to hide in melee against ready (unactivated) models. Generally I think Sheivetalon has more play, but both are solid operatives. Butcher with khorne can be an absolute MENACE into hordes though, he one-shots basically anything on their team and can chain charges between operatives. 

Icon Bearer is an auto-take and usually gonna be rocking Nurgle. This is a bulwark character that's going to spend most of his time contesting objectives as he generates you CP each time he taints one. The 5+ damage reduction from nurgle gives him staying power on points, where you will either be on conceal or hiding in melee (charging without killing, meaning your opponent can't shoot you) meaning the balanced doesn't get as much play. 

Balefire will _typically_ be tzeentch as severe ensures your best stuff procs (ensuring crit-heals, procing devastating on your blast). With the strat-ploy up your severe means if you score a single normal, it rolls into a crit, which also lets you change a miss into a hit. 

Heavy gunner - Tzeentch is the standard. You go Heavy Bolter (or missile launcher) into elites, Reaper into anything else. Heavy gunner sometimes gets left at home due to the heavy (reposition) rule limiting mobility. On long maps he just gets left behind sometimes, as opponents can hide from sightlines and he can't move->dash->shoot, or pop-tart (reposition out of cover, shoot, dash back into cover). If you still want him on a long-board consider Slaanesh to help him get into better shooting positions. 

Gunner - Almost always plasma, almost always tzeentch, almost always taken. 

Special note for your warriors - these guys are surprisingly versatile. Being able to change the mark means you can rapidly advance with slannesh, then pop over to another god to capitalize on a different strat ploy.