As the Great Gun reloads and its hallowed ammunition is transported across Hive Fissilicus, great processions of pilgrims and preachers accompany these holy relics to their final assembly points. They are far from a peaceful congregation, and any who seek to disrupt the great Day of Firing will find themselves lit by the flames and faith wielded by the Sanctifiers.
The Adeptus Ministorum has a long history of militant missionaries across the galaxy, joining Imperial military operations to first-hand combat experience. This provides their front-line operatives with an impressively diverse arsenal, complementing their customary hand flamers and chain weapons with a meltagun, a plasma gun, or a Ministorum flamer wielded by their two Missionary operatives.
You may notice that several of these operatives hark back certain classic metal missionaries from days of Warhammer yore. Carrying books into battle is a time-honoured tradition, after all.
The Confessor who leads the team also pays homage to the original mace-swinging, tall hatted ecclesiastic, Confessor Kyrinov. Top points go to those who noticed that the Drill Abbot is patterned after Preacher Josef – a character from the classic early-2000s role-playing game Inquisitor, which used larger 54mm models – complete with his grim head-in-a-box.*
Preachers are the most common operatives, and up to four can be taken at a time – although the sheer amount of specialists means you don’t need to bring any at all. The Drill Abbot, Persecutor, Conflagrator and Reliquant can all be assembled as Preachers, with head options to personalise your little fanatics.
While these zealous warriors engage their foes beneath the Confessor’s sonorous Sermon, shrugging off damage while within earshot of his stirring oratory, the Death Cult Assassin plies their lethal trade from the shadows with throwing knives and deadly ritual blades. By contrast the Salvationist is all about keeping others alive, with the twin boons of a medikit and conversion field generator keeping nearby allies on their feet and in the fight.
SANCTIFIER SALVATIONIST
Conversion Field: Whenever an operative more than 6" from this operative is shooting a friendly SANCTIFIER operative within 6" of this operative, improve that friendly operative's Save stat by 1 and worsen the x of the Piercing weapon rule by 1 (if any). Note that Piercing 1 would therefore be ignored.
One of the stranger operatives is the Miraculist, a natural-born conduit for the Emperor’s divine power. Their inner light manifests as a searing blaze emanating from their body, burning all who come close, and once per game they can blast an unbeliever off their feet with a massive burst of holy energy.
This burning light, like many of the team’s flame weapons, inflicts a special Blaze effect on their targets on a Critical Success. Unique to the Sanctifier kill team, this ongoing malady causes operatives to take extra damage whenever they are activated, with opponents needing to either spend an Action Point to put the flames out or gamble that they’ll go out on their own.
BLAZE
Only in holy fire can deviance be absolved. With flamer and burning hands the faithful purge the malignant taint of heresy.
Some weapons in this team's rules have the Blaze weapon rule below.
*Blaze: If you retain any critical successes, the operative this weapon is being used against gains one of your Blaze tokens (if it doesn't already have one). Whenever an operative that has one of your Blaze tokens is activated, inflict D3 damage on it. Then that operative's controlling player selects one of the following:
Roll one D6: on a 3+, remove that token.
Subtract 1 from the operative's APL stat until the end of that activation to remove that token.
This focus on close-range firepower makes for a very aggressive kill team which rewards bold action – though due to their relative fragility, a little divine protection from the God-Emperor won’t go amiss. All nine on-table operatives can punch above their weight should they get into the right position, and careful rationing of their defensive abilities will be key to getting the most from them.
Kill Team: Blood and Zeal goes up for pre-order this Saturday.
* The Death World Veteran from the Inquisitorial Agents kill team is a similar callback, to one Sergeant Stone. Can you spot any other callbacks to Inquisitor?
