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So, I am a bit of a Warhammer hobbying addict. Love to build and paint. But, I don't really have the time to spend playing 2000 point games. So, I want to play some Kill Team. But, I can't seem to keep my focus as I keep jumping from one to the other based on reading this thread or seeing that batrep. I'm really getting nowhere with my painting. Here are the Kill Teams I am considering (assume I have all possible choices for Kill Team unless otherwise noted):

Adeptus Astartes - Only Primaris Marines are from Dark Imperium
Adeptus Mechanicus - Only Rangers/Vanguards
Astra Militarum
Asuryani
Death Guard - Only Dark Imperium models
Deatwatch - No Primaris
Drukhari
Genestealer Cults - Only models that came with Deathwatch Overkill
Grey Knights
Heretic Astartes
Necrons - No Deathmarks
T'au
Thousand Sons

Which have you had the most luck with? Which would you recommend to a friend? Which do you have the most fun with regardless of the outcome?

Thanks in advance!

SG

Much as I hate to say it, Craftworld Eldar (Asuryani) are absolute trash in kill team. They're limited to Guardians, Rangers and Dire Avengers, while having to face down much higher quality units that they simply don't have the tools to handle. Combine with their pitiful range and the way Kill Team accuracy rules work, they're just terrible.

Deathwatch are the ones I have the most fun with and they can have a lot of personality and are quite strong

So far I've played only with AdMech, and plan to try Drukhari tomorrow. I've seen numerous games and fought various teams too, so here's my comments for the factions I observed:

ADEPTUS ASTARTES: I've been beaten soundly by a team of 6 Intercessors with the heavy bolter rifle (the -2 AP ones) and one grenade launcher. Also by a team full of Sniper Scouts and two ML Scouts, they were hard to hit with the cloaks and the mortal wounds were annoying. Overall, I believe Intercessors to be really good by themselves with their resilience and bolter rifles, Scouts to be almost must-have and a Reaver Zealot with grapnel can be a nice mobile threat.

ADEPTUS MECHANICUS: Average resilience with T3/4+/6++ for the whole roster, 2W for the Sicarians. They are excellent shooters and have a weapon for every situation, they particularly shine with the number of shots they can make, especially with the Sicarians. For CC they can pull their weight but only with Sicarians, and I strongly recommend Infiltrators as their pistols are terrifying, and they have a debuff aura. I usually play 3 Infiltrators and 5 Skitarii and I've been doing pretty well with them.

ASTRA MILITARUM: Their strength is the amount of special weapons they can bring, lots of people play with up to 6 plasma rifles and it looks successful. They can field a lot of bodies too, so in some missions this can be nice to cover terrain efficiently. Beware of Nerve tests when you start losing lots of guys, though, your team can quickly be Shaken or Broken.

ASURYANI: Never saw them in use here.

DEATH GUARD: Played a few times against them, twice against a Poxwalker horde and three PM, which are all frustratingly resilient sometimes. However, like AM, if you start making a carnage in the Poxs you'll quickly Break the enemy team or Shake them. The one time I lost against them he had 4 buffed up dudes in the Take No Prisoners mission (score points by killing within 1") with some Specialist level upgrades and I got wrecked in two turns. The flail dude is TERRIFYING.

DEATHWATCH: A few nice special weapons, the frag cannon is really good but need good manoeuvring. The regular bolters with SIA can prove effective too, and the Black Shield can be easily buffed up to be a good CC asset. I've won against them every time but always interesting and sometimes tight games.

DRUKHARI: Only observed a couple of games from afar but I'll try them tomorrow. They're meant to play lots of Wyches with support from Kabalite gunners in my opinion, their faction boni (PFP and Drugs) being very CC-orientated. From what I read in the core manual it's a fast-moving army that needs to cleverly manoeuver to maximise their impact. The whole team is T3/6+++ with either 5+ or 6+, the Wyches getting a 4++ only in CC, so you'd want them in CC most of the time. They don't have a lot of options for AP or multi-dmg weaponry though, mostly ranged, hence the Kabalite gunner support. They have really interesting stratagems (I listed them in the Drukhari tactica here) but overall look less busted than in 8th.

GSC: I have no idea how to build good lists with this faction, I won twice against them and always fairly easily. I think they're supposed to play like a horde with a few hard-hitting models, but so far I believe they're average in everything and excellent in nothing. I'll leave a GSC player comment on this faction because I don't know it well.

GK: Never saw them in use here.

HERETIC ASTARTES: They look kinda weak from what I can tell, they don't have the special guys Imperium Astartes have and don't have access to a lot of options. I've read people saying Cultist spam working well but I don't know. I've won against a team of only SM and suffered like one or two casualties.

NECRONS: Never played against them, they can be resilient against multi-dmg weapons thanks to their RP but otherwise don't want to be in CC at all. They also don't have multi-dmg weapons themselves if I'm not mistaken. From what I've read playing a full Deathmark team looks doable.

T'AU: In my opinion they're one of the most complicated teams, but are really strong when mastered. Stealth suits are bustedly resilient (native -1 to hit them, can Fly, T4) and they have the same OP multiple overwatch stuff as in 8th.

THOUSAND SONS: Really really resilient, have a psyker, powerful weapons. I've never seen them played around here but it would be a tense game if I had to face them.

Tyranids are missing from your list.

My group has played a few games now, but most of us are brand new to playing any tabletop games. Myself and one other have previous experience. I'm in a similar position to the OP in either having models to use, or building them specifically for Kill Teams from numerous factions.

Here's what I've seen from our games so far:

Primaris vs Imperial Guard - despite numbers the IG were no match for the Reivers and Intercessors (3 of watch vs 12ish Guardsmen/Scions) all either dying or getting shaken, except for 2 brave souls who passed their Nerve tests and managed to capture the objective at the last second with no Marines in position to counter.
This was our first game and 2 wounds on the Primaris really stood out. At one point a melee developed with 3 or 4 guards on one Reiver. He eventually took a wound but one of his buddies joined in and they wiped the soldiers out. Still, for all the lasgun (and Melta and sniper rifle) shots that missed or pinged off, and for every guy that died or decided to just stand there, the Astra Militarum managed to play the objective and eek out a surprise win.

IG vs Drukhari-
My DE were the 2 leaders, 3 Wyches and 4 Kabalites for ranged support. My plan was to rush into CC with most of my force on one side of the table, with the splinter rifles and a Shredder and splinter cannon taking out his other flank. The IG overwatch was brutal though, and my charge rolls were trash. The 2 Wyches that made it in to CC did do pretty well but they couldn't move far enough to pile in and keep in hand to hand and melted shortly after. The Kabalites were great fun though, throwing out a lot of dakka, which cover and saves ignored but it was great to see my opponent's face when I asked for another dice to roll my hits. I think DE could be really good if played better than I did, but the Guard still felt good, with their gun line horde of special weapons.

Tau vs Primaris vs Harlequins -
I had Harlies this time, and they were awesome, but the Primaris were still very solid and more than able to handle my guys in CC as well as keep them at range. We each had 6 guys but he was using 2-3 to deal with 4 of my team whilst I sent 2 charging right into the Tau, from behind cover, to really put them on the back foot. Sole Stealth Suit of the team fell back with fly, and didn't do much of note despite moving forward again once the immediate danger had passed. The basic Fire Warrior is still tough enough to make a decent stand against an Aeldari blade, but one I started Kissing and Caressing his guys they went down quick. At the top of our board a protracted firefight developed between 2 Primaris and half a dozen or more Tau. The Marines slowly whittled away at the fishes and I think they might have wounded one of the Marines in return. We ended up abandoning the game end of turn 3 due to time, but Primaris had the definite win on kills. The Aux Grenade Launcher firing into a melee between a number of your 2 opponents models is pretty sweet.

GSC vs Thousand Sons-
The GSC had a reserved mix of Big guns and mining weapons, only one or two in a list mainly built for bodies, and a couple of genestealers in for good measure. 3 Rubrics and a couple of Tzaangors had to protect their leader. And protect they did. First turn saw a good number of GSC die without a chance, the Rubric Marines didn't even register that their enemies were firing back. One Cultist made it into CC with a Tzaangor and those two continued to do some choreographed lightsaber dance for the next few turns. The Icon of Flame made no difference to things but Psybolt certainly did. Sorcerer was hiding in the back corner of the map, just killing anything that came near him with mind bullets or his Warpflame pistol. His only moment of concern was when the 2 genestealers finally made it around, and got in a charge outside of his pistol range. And they still didn't get the job done. The Cultists were admittedly not ready for this fight, and against more mortal opposition they might not have looked like Magicarp, but power armour and a 5++ on even the still tougher than a Guardsman Tzaangors, as well as some above average Bolters, the Soul Reaper AND psychic powers?! T Sons looked like a boss. They weren't quick though, but in this mission they didn't need to be. The impression I got was they'd probably be able to slowly stroll over to objectives in different games, and most of the time not worry if someone got there first as they'd just kill them whilst they were walking and look unconcerned as they did so. We'll see though, because I'm trying to build a list that can challenge them.

 Aaranis wrote:
ADEPTUS ASTARTES: [...] a Reaver Zealot with grapnel can be a nice mobile threat.

Vanilla marines can't take the Zealot specialism.

Kelbesq wrote:
Tyranids are missing from your list.

You are right.. dunno how they slipped my mind.

SG