For most Space Marine Chapters, the scout company is where neophytes get their proverbial feet wet in the endless sea of war that is the 41st Millennium, both to instil experience in new recruits and weed out those unfit to serve in the battle companies. Not so for the Space Wolves. Only the most experienced warriors, who have tempered their natural aggression over decades of battle, are selected as their scouts, creating a cadre of elite trackers and pathfinders who can operate behind enemy lines for months on end – perfect qualities for a kill team.
These Wolf Scouts are one of the new factions found in Kill Team: Dead Silence, and they operate quite unlike any Space Marine team that has come before.
When the sons of Fenris enter the killzone, they do so cloaked in an Elemental Storm, oftentimes conjured by their Rune Priest Skjald – a veteran battle psyker who channels power through traditional rune stones to rend the air and split the earth. This force of nature shrouds the Wolf Scouts’ movements and confounds their foes’ senses, allowing their warriors to conceal themselves after an ambush or suddenly Charge out of the haze.
ELEMENTAL STORM
It is said by some battle-brothers that their Chapter’s Wolf Scouts take the storm with them. In many cases, these tempestuous upheavals truly are supernatural, called into being by accompanying Rune Priest Skjalds. At other times, Wolf Scouts skilfully time their hunts to coincide with local atmospheric phenomen or instigate them with arcane technologies. Wolf Scouts can operate for extended periods hidden by such storms; using the cover to mask their movements and confuse the senses of their prey, their enemies feel they are fighting the very elements themselves.
STRATEGIC GAMBIT. Remove your Storm marker from the killzone (if any), then place it in the killzone. Whenever an operative is within 6" horizontally of your Storm marker, it’s within your STORM.
Each friendly WOLF SCOUT operative can perform the
Charge action while it has a Conceal order if it starts and/or ends that action within your STORM.
HUNTING ASTARTES
Wolf Scouts are experienced Space Marines who are utterly lethal on the hunt. These genetically modified superhumans are merciless warriors capable of exploiting strange climatic events to conceal their approach.
During each friendly WOLF SCOUT operative’s activation, it can perform either two Shoot actions or
two Fight actions. If it’s two Shoot actions:
1 additional AP must be spent for the second action if both actions are using a plasma gun or plasma pistol.
You cannot select two PSYCHIC ranged weapons.
Each friendly WOLF SCOUT operative can counteract regardless of its order. Whenever it does so within your
STORM, you can change its order first, or change its order instead of performing an action (for the latter, still treat it as having counteracted this turning point).
Sneaking close and bulldozing your opponent out of nowhere is a lot of fun, and that’s only a fraction of the Storm’s potential. Three of the team’s Strategy Ploys make good use of the elements, be it for defending allies with Cloaked by the Storm or sapping the strength of enemy operatives with Storm’s Bite – in case you need any more help dominating in close combat.
CLOAKED BY THE STORM
Wolf Scouts are expert in using the uncanny tempests around them to their advantage, ensuring their desperate prey rarely get a clean shot.
Whenever an operative is shooting a friendly WOLF SCOUT operative that’s within your STORM, you can re-roll one of your defence dice.
STORM’S BITE
Subjected to numbing temperatures, flying debris or the empyric lash of a Rune Priest Skjald, the Wolf Scouts’ enemies struggle to focus their wrath and skill.
Whenever an enemy operative is within your STORM, subtract 1 from the Atk stat of its melee weapons (to a minimum of 3).
Usually, this is where we’d pick one of the coolest Space Marines to show off and wax lyrical about how great their special skills are, but we know what you really want. Sure, you get five veteran Wolf Scouts to lead, but the kill team isn’t complete without their four-legged Fenrisian friend. In fact, he’s so good, he’s the only compulsory member of the team.
Waiting until your activation to Charge at a cowardly cultist who might just run away first? Weak. Using your ability to do it in the Strategy phase before anyone’s even thought about high-tailing it? Now that’s real power, and with jaws that hit like a chainsword, your target might as well just lie down and accept the inevitable.
The rest of the kill team are equally deadly in their chosen vocations, be they a psyker, trapper, or even a battlefield chirurgeon. You can pick any five of the following, though only one of each – or as many Hunters as you want.
Pack Leader: The boss. Carries a power weapon and can let you re-roll your initiative roll once per game.
Fangbearer: The medic. Keeps your operatives healthy, and lets them ignore Shock and Stun all game.
Frosteye: The marksman. Silent, accurate, and can go on Guard while within the Storm.
Gunner: The shooter. Carries a plasma gun, and can use the Storm to keep it cool even when supercharged.
Trapmaster: The saboteur. Carries a big haywire mine, and a plasma pistol for good measure.
Rune Priest Skjald: The pskyer. Move the storm, obscure your allies, kill people – pretty much everything you’d want.
Hunter: The trooper. Did we mention their basic operative gets a plasma pistol too? Also Severe when in the Storm.
It’s a pretty versatile team that can be aggressive or defensive depending on which operatives you pick, letting you adapt to the mission at hand and get the most out of your limited numbers. If you need to protect your territory, have the Frosteye and Gunner sit in the Storm, guns blazing. If you want to take the fight to the enemy, obscure the midfield and have your Pack Leader and Fangbearer plunge headlong into their best operatives.
Want to find out what the T’au Empire are packing on the other side of the Dead Silence box? Come back tomorrow, when we’ll be lifting the bonnet on those shiny new Stealth Battlesuits and finding out if they can stand up to a combat knife in the ribs. Our Earth caste sources say: definitely.*
* Our Ordo Xenos contacts threatened to throw us in the oubliette for even asking.
