We’ve all heard the stories of zealous Inquisitors blowing up planets to stop otherworldly invasions, but for every apocalyptic showdown with the forces of Chaos, there are far more cases where specialised teams of agents nip impending incursions in the bud. Every Inquisitor maintains a network of reliable acolytes to act as their eyes in the field, and it’s these Inquisitorial Agents who’ll be taking on an insidious Chaos cult in Kill Team: Ashes of Faith.
As we know from the reveal, nearly half of the kill team can be composed of ‘borrowed’ Imperial troops, but the remaining operatives are brand new agents bristling with personality. Four of them can each be built as two entirely different characters, giving the kill team huge flexibility.
There’s no actual Inquisitor in the box - that’s you, the player - but you have a wave of more expendable underlings to send into combat on your behalf.
The Interrogator is your second-in-command who leads the team in the field. All Inquisitorial Agent kill teams need to be led by an Interrogator, but if you pick up a second set of agents, you can also also assemble one as an Enlightener – a blade-wielding maniac recruited specially for their ability to cripple their foes with the nick of a knife.
Though primarily equipped for investigations, agents often need to bring firepower to bear on uncooperative miscreants, and Pistoleers are well-equipped to mow down all kinds of rabble. By contrast, the Questkeeper is a zealous close combat machine who hefts a massive eviscerator into combat, and despite having the same body piece as a Pistoleer, looks completely different thanks to the abundance of extra bits and accessories.
Equally as diverse are the Mystic and the Hexorcist. The former is a psychic adept, trained to resist the malign influence of the warp and channel its power into miraculous feats of divination. The other is an angry old man with a shotgun, who also moonlights as the spiritual heart of the team. The character of each operative is reflected in their differences, as one looks every part the prim and proper acolyte while the other appears dishevelled and vaguely manic.
Perhaps the most distinctive are the agents drawn from the Astra Militarum, be they untrustworthy criminal scum serving a heinous sentence or hardy death world veterans prized for their prowess. Both are clad in a rough mix of armour plates and torn fabric, a far cry from the neatly tailored uniforms of their peers.
While they can accompany an Inquisitorial Agents kill team, the Autosavant, Tome-skull, and Servitor don’t serve as dual purpose as the basis for other operatives, and are instead unique character builds. The Autosavant is covered in small mechanical limbs to accomplish its one job – recording information – and the Servitor has its choice of heavy bolter, multi-melta, or plasma cannon.
No matter how you build your kill team, you’ll have spare parts to really customise your operatives, and a bit of stylish Inquisitorial flavour never hurt anybody.
Here’s a closer look at the plastic:
Join us later this week as we begin our investigation into the mutated Chaos Cult you’ll be battling in Kill Team: Ashes of Faith.