Arming the Brothers - Chaos Cult Shooters

Members of the Benevolent Brotherhood keep a wary watch as Demagogue Jakob carries out doorstep conversions.

With my new Necromunda campaign kicking off next week, I am busily finishing off the last few fighters I need to complete my starting roster. I've made the decision to sacrifice reliability in favour of bodies, so my cultists are by and large going to be unarmoured and equipped with unreliable reclaimed auto-weapons - pretty fitting for underhive muties I think.

Speaker of The Word - Chaos Cult Demagogue

Every Necromundan Chaos Cult is led by a Demogogue - that forceful and charismatic (or possibly underhand and scheming) personality that persuades, coerces or tricks people into following them. The Benevolent Brothers are no different, being led by the monk-like Jakob, brother to Wilhelm the witch.

Jakob walks the mutie slums barefoot, dispensing food to the hungry and blessings to those with bruised souls. The Cult of the Benevolent Brothers supports the oppressed mutie population, and in turn muties offer the Brothers their loyalty, their ferocity and their lives in pursuit of mutant rights.

I built Jakob many months ago from a selection of parts which resulted in a pretty unusual figure with a look of a holy man. I knew that in game terms I wanted him to carry a grenade launcher, but I didn't want to ruin the simple look of the figure, so I decided to give Jakob a servant (Wretch) to carry his equipment for him (possibly there is some irony that a cult leader dedicated to mutant rights is happy to have a slave-like figure attending him).

Mobile Firepower - Eldar Scout Walker and Spotter

With the deadline of completing my Eldar scout kill team for the Old World Sprint Challenge looming, I figured it was high time to get on and finish the final two figures required. I needed to bring in one last Scout to meet the minimum requirement of 10 figures, as well as a "support element", which could be anything relevant to the unit - a Dreadnought, transport, heavy weapon or similar.

Insidious Growth - More Chaos Cultists

The trouble with a cult is that it can grow. A charismatic leader and an attractive offering brings the desperate, vulnerable and weak-willed. I've recruited some more cultists to the Benevolent Brothers - this time a pair with autoguns and my first disciple, Grund.

The Benevolent Brothers door to door preaching.

The Benevolent Brothers - A Cult for Mutants and their Supporters

Necromunda is home to all kinds of cults, Imperial devotees, sinister xenos bands and spire-based secret societies. Chaos cults are not unknown - there are those who seek (or are found by) dangerous and unpredictable powers. There are also those cults who provide havens for the unwanted, the lonely and the dispossessed. The origin of the Benevolent Brothers is rumoured to have been a soup kitchen run by a pair of missionary brothers, seeking to bring the light of the Emperor to the mutant slums of Borscht's Crack. No-one knows for certain what happened to the brothers, but the rise of the Benevolent Brothers, a cult of mutants and their human hangers-on, is led by a charismatic and eloquent pair of mutie brothers...

Chaos cultists stalk the streets of the underhive.

Eternal Wanderlust - Eldar Scout Characters

Part of the fun of Kill Team is including a wide range of individual specialist fighters. Whilst I'm limiting my Eldar Kill Team to the Ranger/Scout theme, that doesn't mean that I can't include proxies like my "grav platform" guy with his big gun. And like my illegal 2nd edition unit of Scouts with shuriken catapults, I see no reason why long rifles are the only weapons that an Eldar Scout would utilise.

Pathfinder Bres Ayvan leads his scouts through Imperial ruins.

So my next two additions are the leader of the Kill Team, and a guy with a handy special weapon. In game terms my leader, Bres Ayvan, represents a Dire Avenger Exarch (hence his shuriken catapult), and the fusion gunner is a Storm Guardian.

Ranger Support - Eldar Scouts with Alternate Weapons

I wanted to add some variety into my Eldar scout-themed Kill Team. I figured the best way to do this was by way of proxying some scouts with different weaponry. My favourite unit in my 2nd edition 40k army was a squad of scouts armed with shuriken catapults. These guys in fact:

This veteran unit has experienced the horrors of being boxed and discarded for decades.

I converted this unit by clipping off their long rifle barrels and replacing them with Dark Elf crossbows. At some point in the late 1990s or early 2000s, the unit got further upgrades with fur and Wood Elf accoutrements, and were used as Exodites. It was only a few weeks ago that I suffered the acutely embarrassing realisation that scouts armed with shuriken catapults are not a legal 2nd edition codex unit. I can tell that you're shocked.

My current Kill Team will salvage and refurbish some of the horrifically converted scouts owned by my younger self. And will possibly redeem my rules illegality in the process.