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What would be an IG, Necron or Ork equivalent of a Deathwatch Killteam? Fluff wise, I mean.

IG - Stormtroopers most likely

Necrons? Well....they don't really operate that way, maybe a deathmark tracking team and a wraith flight

Orks....Kommandoes! Dey is da sneakiest after all

From the Chapter Approved article:

IG: Storm Troopers
Necrons: Flayed Ones
Orks: Ork Kommandos

This is of course more ruleswise, but I think the descriptions of these units fit well to the fluff of the Kill-team concept as well. Since the article is a bit old, there may be some units better suited by now. For example, I'd agree that the Deathmark would be excellent for Necrons.

Flayed Ones are now their own separate Court for the Necrons, kinda. Necrons that catch the Flayed One virus are, like, social outcasts amongst their own kind.

Hmm... I wonder if this condition is what may result from a night of unprotected abandon at the Court soiree?

Deathmarks sent after a specific target are more fitting the Kill-Team mission profile. Flayed Ones are sent out to drag more flesh back to the Court when the old flesh dries out.

Aren't some kill teams made up form IG members? I think I read that somewhere.

Duh. I'm really not up to the new Necron fluff, it seems. I remember the Flayed Ones as infiltration units.

Yep, looks like it'd be Deathmarks then! Not the best equivalent, probably, as they are more like solo assassins, though?

nomotog wrote:Aren't some kill teams made up form IG members? I think I read that somewhere.

Quite likely. The Imperium has many sorts of kill-teams. For example, the background for "Inquisitor" mentioned Ordo Xenos Kill-teams outside the Deathwatch (although DW veterans can join and even lead them - this was how Captain Artemis is intended to be used). And using the rules for Inquisitor, IG Veterans can be potential members of such a team.

Nah, Deathmarks work in squads to eliminate specific targets in an efficient manner, and then phase out into a pocket dimension to await their next target

Oh, I see - I've only ever read about Deathmarks in a Black Library novel, and there he was alone. Kind of like the Necron equivalent to a Vindicare Assassin, really.

Thanks for the clarification, I'll keep that in mind!

Yeah, a Deathmark is *basically* the Necron equivalent to a Vindicare. Though their "neural disruptor" rifles apparently teleport the target's brain out of their skull or something. They're... tricksy. They can and do work in teams, though, depending on the mission profile.

Actually killed the Inquisitor in the last DH campaign I was running with a Deathmark Assassin because her Interrogator kept running his mouth. The Lord of the Court thought it was a more-fitting example. The player was less than thrilled, but he'd ignored the actions I was indicating across the table. Pro-Tip: When the GM acts like a Necron Lord sitting in a throne, raising a hand with three fingers up, and people around you drop dead when their brain teleports out of their heads when he curls one finger down, you don't want to go past "two".

 Lynata wrote:
Quite likely. The Imperium has many sorts of kill-teams. For example, the background for "Inquisitor" mentioned Ordo Xenos Kill-teams outside the Deathwatch (although DW veterans can join and even lead them - this was how Captain Artemis is intended to be used). And using the rules for Inquisitor, IG Veterans can be potential members of such a team.

I'm not familiar with the Inquisitor rules, but that sounds like an Inquisitorial retinue, and in fluff, Inquisitorial retinues can be made up of any ragtag followers an Inquisitor either acquires or requisitions.

Sturmtruppen wrote:I'm not familiar with the Inquisitor rules, but that sounds like an Inquisitorial retinue, and in fluff, Inquisitorial retinues can be made up of any ragtag followers an Inquisitor either acquires or requisitions.

In Inquisitor, people are playing a "warrior band" which usually consists of an Inquisitor and his retinue, with a whole lot of classes to choose from (potentially even including aliens such as Tau Water Caste Emissaries, Kroot Mercenaries or Eldar Renegades!). However, the Inquisitor is not a must-have, and he could just as well be an NPC somewhere higher up the chain (kinda like in FFG's Dark Heresy).

For example:

"That was part of the reasoning behind Captain Artemis - he leads Ordo Xenos kill-teams, he isn't just a member of one. And I don't mean leading Grey Knight or Deathwatch squads!"
- Gav Thorpe : Using Space Marines in Inquisitor

I also recall the term "kill-team" being used by the Adepta Sororitas in Andy Hoare's Ordo Hereticus Strike Force article, which was published some time ago in Citadel Journal. Although obviously, there it only applied to Battle Sisters, in that particular example mentioning the execution of Apostate Cardinals of the Church or even "barely sanctioned assassinations".
All in all, I think that "kill-team" is a fairly established term in the setting, used by a number of Imperial organisations whenever you have special forces entrusted with "black ops", or strategic missions in general.

Psienesis: Sheesh! Sounds like that would've been a good moment to pull out the teleporter beacon. Or a void grenade.

 Lynata wrote:


Psienesis: Sheesh! Sounds like that would've been a good moment to pull out the teleporter beacon. Or a void grenade.

They did, just... in reverse. This was the culmination of a two-year-running campaign, so it was at this point that they called in their Ultramarines strike-force allies, as well as the forces of a somewhat-allied Radical Inquisitor the PCs own Inquisitor actually hated, though since her brain was on the floor several meters away she really didn't have much of a say in the matter.

Then the Tzeentchian Sorcerer Lord who had, for his own purposes, earlier assisted the party decided to bring in a kill-team of Thousand Sons Marines as well as a pair of Lords of Change (oh, your Monolith and Deathmark Assassins can phase into other dimensions? That's cute...), mainly because one of the PCs in the party was his daughter, and he was there to... recover her (this was our gun-bunny Assassin who was, by this point in the campaign, almost entirely augmetic, having required Cybernetic Resurrection much earlier. Her dad was not pleased with how the Imperium had been treating her...).

Things rapidly went to hell at that point, so the surviving PCs called for a teleport out, switching places with a void torpedo they'd acquired and had waiting on the teleporter, and then called for a hasty withdrawal of their allied forces from the area before the torpedo went off. This was... mostly successful. Though the Interrogator had tried to pawn off the presence of the Tzeentchian forces on the machinations of the Radical Inquisitor (rather than his own, which it was), who was now the senior member of the Imperial forces present, so things did not go so well for the Interrogator afterwards... exactly according to plan.

I am currently making an Ork Kill Team, with a unit of Kommandos and a small bunch of grots. I'm doing this after reading the Ork Kommando story in the 'Fear The Alien' collection. Worth a read if you are considering Orks as it is full of good ideas and is a great read.

Psienesis: Hahah, that sounds ... fairly close to what I would've come up with. So that was the climax of a 2 year campaign? Epic. You make me miss my 40k P&P days again. /jelly

Rysaer wrote:I am currently making an Ork Kill Team, with a unit of Kommandos and a small bunch of grots.

With or without camorkflage?

Definetly with Camorkflauge, I'm thinking of something like 'The Orkspendables' wish I could squeeze in Ard'nuld Snikrotegger, probably too expensive for kill team.

I'm now also thinking about a Necron Team made to resemble Robot Masters from Mega-Man, failing that Nob Bikers forming 'The Sons of Anorky!'

^ I loled , and then started looking around for orky bitz that could be converted into similar sneaky boyz.

To the OP's question though, I've never heard of anything quite like a deathwatch kill team in any of those armies. Though I would believe its possible for a guardsman to be selected by an ordo xenos inquisitor to help on like a single kill team operation against some force which that guardsman has unique experience or knowledge of. I've never heard of guardsman on kill teams, and they would NEVER be in deathwatch or something that specialized, but inquisitors steal people away for their own purposes all the time, so who knows.

To the other armys: 'Crons just don't really work that way. Orks, well I can't imagine them being organized enough to go out and find some sort of special boyz from different clans and have them all work together effectively.

Now I don't know much about Necrons aside from the fact that Flayed Ones are insane, maniacal bloodthirsty berserkers - not particularly stealthy I would imagine when they're trying to remove someones stomach through their eye sockets!

For Orks I would imagine that Kommandos are going to be the natural choice for stealth.

As for Imperial Guard - From what I gather, though Storm-troopers often make up an Inquisitors retinue, they aren't the only ones who can undertake 'Spec-Ops'. I gather the Penal Legions (The 13th Penal Legion in particular), are often deployed as a Forlorn Hope on special operations. In the Imperial Guard I think just about any unit can potentially take on special operations. In 'Ice Guard' by Steve Lyons,

Rysaer wrote:Definetly with Camorkflauge, I'm thinking of something like 'The Orkspendables' wish I could squeeze in Ard'nuld Snikrotegger, probably too expensive for kill team.

Love it!

Do the whole team, please. There must be a way to make each Ork recognisable.

Also ...

Warpig1815 wrote:As for Imperial Guard - From what I gather, though Storm-troopers often make up an Inquisitors retinue, they aren't the only ones who can undertake 'Spec-Ops'.

The Inquisition has its own Storm Trooper units (which, for some reason, seem more numerous than the "proper" IG Storm Troopers), although they are fielded as an actual military unit rather than part of a retinue. Take a look at this list from the Apocalypse rulebook, for example, and note the Inquisitor's "Household troops".

Anyways, the way I see it:
Retinue: an Inquisitor's personal staff, including bodyguards as well as assassins, specialists (medical, tech, translators, historians, etc) and personal assistants
Kill-team: any Imperial special forces unit such as Deathwatch squads, Adepta Sororitas purity control teams, Imperial Guard grenadier platoons, etc tasked with a mission and operating in low numbers (-> stealth over brute force)

The novel thing sounds a bit weird imho, but that is of course a matter of interpretation.