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I've decided my next Kill Team ought to be a Space Marine kill team for the custom chapter I've had in the back of my head for ages, but could never get playgroup interest, interesting rules to support the concept, and time at the top of my painting queue to line up right to execute.

My playgroup isn't hyper competitive -- I'm not looking to take this to tournaments or anything, but I'd also like to build a roster that can have some flexibility to pick its fireteam to match the opponent and mission and put up a fight even if it's a bit uphill against the stronger bespoke box set and white dwarf teams.

Now for the constraints: the chapter is Ultima founding, so firstborn and tacticals are out, as is Death Watch. Narratively, the chapter is a White Scars successor that favors rapid surprise strikes followed by skirmishing withdrawals to avoid facing the enemy in strength. I figure a KT is either special forces or recon to support that in a SM context, so of the remaining fire teams available in the Compendium, only the Heavy Intercessors feel like a stretch to fit the theme.

Assume I don't have to minimize box purchases -- I've got plenty of the eligible sprues lying around from previous kitbashing projects and impulse buys for the future.

What do people who have played with or against Astartes in KT feel has worked well? The subtle differences in keywords have made math hammering out the options between , say, Infiltrators and Incursors a murky prospect for me because I don't have enough games under my belt with my other team to really weigh the situational benefits.

I figure that for Primaris to function as intended given their generally mono-equipment composition, you want to choose your multiple fireteams in your roster to cover your flexibility and matchup tailoring.

This comes down to a few factors: weapon loadout, secondary selection, and specialty equipment/ploys.

So let's start with secondary selection. Is flexibility here worth taking Intercessors to access the Security secondaries? None of the Intercessor fireteams have specialty ploys, and Assault Intercessors can't even bring special equipment to the mix.

On the core gear and equipment front, Reiver/Incursor/Infiltrator as an 18 model base (presumably with the remaining two models as Reivers to offer carbine vs. pistol/knife flexing) seems like it offers the basic range of scenarios well. If the Security objectives *are* worth downgrading a squad some to get access to, which one is the weakest or best covered by an equivalent Intercessor squad? With Intercessors, what are your preferred bolt rifle variants? Do you take a mix? Extra bodies to let you flex in/out based on the terrain and deployment zones?

Finally, Sergeant loadouts: I'm assuming you always take the Bladesman Reiver Sgt., and the other Phobos Sgts. don't get options. What about Intercessor and Assault Intercessor Sgts? What melee weapons do you favor there and why?

So given your fluff if you play by book rules that means
6 Infiltrator (to field that team)
6 Incursor (to field that team)
6 Reiver (to field that team)
Then you can have the other weapons load out on the Reiver sarge. And I guess a random mascot for the 20th marine?


Buuuuttt, I would ask are they happy to use a house rule.

We say you can pick any Primaris for the team - a bit like a deathwatch Primaris team.

Originally that was choose any one sergeant then choose any 5 marines. 1 marine can be upgraded to heavy intercessor heavy gunner for 3EP.

As they have received a boost (to 6 strong), our current consensus is to split them by archtype

So....
ARCHETYPE: SEEK & DESTROY / SECURITY
Choose 1 sergeant from Intercessor, Assault Intercessor, Heavy Intercessor
Choose any mix of 5 marines from Intercessor, Assault Intercessor, Heavy Intercessor. 1 marine may be a Intercessor, Assault Intercessor, Heavy Intercessor Heavy gunner at the cost of 3EP.

ARCHETYPE: SEEK & DESTROY / INFILTRATION / RECON
Choose 1 sergeant from Infiltrator, Incursor, Reiver
Choose any mix of 5 marines from Infiltrator, Incursor, Reiver

These teams are more fun and you can have a sense of tailoring your squad for the mission. You could again stick to the infiltrators (with the mix described at the start), or have a real mix like

1 of each Sergeants
3 Intercessor (1 of each rifle)
3 Assault Intercessor
3 Infiltrator
3 Incursor
3 Reiver