The T’au Empire’s battlesuits are supremely impressive feats of engineering, with different types able to mount city-destroying weapons, fly through the air like fighter jets, and turn invisible at will. Most are used on the battlefield to augment their disciplined firing lines, but cunning Fire Caste Commanders soon saw the value of independent kill teams equipped with their Stealth Battlesuit technology – leading to a new specialised variant being developed for field testing.
Now, in Kill Team: Dead Silence, the cutting edge XV26 Stealth Battlesuits are ready to deploy, and they’ll run rings around any Wolf Scouts who think that raw aggression can carry the day.
If a Stealth Battlesuit operative doesn’t want to be seen, they won’t be – the advanced Stealth Fields built into their armour render them completely invisible from more than 3” away so long as they’re in a Conceal order. By the time you see them, it’s probably too late, and they’re already spinning up the burst cannon.
With the ball firmly in their court, XV26 specialists use the martial philosophy known as Kauyon – or the Patient Hunter in Low Gothic – to draw in their prey and launch devastating ambushes. As the enemy creep closer to their territory, targeting solutions are carefully plotted, and the resulting salvo strikes with unerring accuracy.
STEALTH FIELDS
Integral stealth field generators are built into each veteran's XV26 battlesuit and the specialised drones that accompany them. The camouflaging fields they project mask a team's operatives, allowing them to move through hazardous territory while evading detection.
Whenever a friendly XV26 STEALTH BATTLESUIT operative has a Conceal order, it's not visible to enemy operatives more than 3" from it (taking precedence over all other rules).
Whenever a friendly XV26 STEALTH BATTLESUIT operative has a Conceal order, it can perform the Fall Back action for 1 less AP.
KAUYON
Of all the principal martial philosophies revered by the Fire caste, Kauyon is the oldest, and is greatly favoured by kill teams of XV26 Stealth Battlesuits. Roughly translated as the patient hunter, Kauyon's tenets emphasise luring the enemy into overreaching before striking at them with coordinated fury. Shas'vres who are expert in this strategy employ multiple mobile assets, layers of contingencies and delaying tactics to draw foes into ambushes or corral them into pre-prepared fire boxes.
Whenever a friendly XV26 STEALTH BATTLESUIT operative is shooting an enemy operative, its ranged weapons have the Accurate X weapon rule. X is determined by that enemy operative’s location.
Now, Stealth Battlesuit pilots are known for being a bit more maverick than their highly strung Crisis Battlesuit counterparts, and use a healthy mix of ordained stratagems and off-the-cuff improvisations. One moment they might be diligently following the tenets of the Patient Hunter – striking only when the enemy has already exerted themselves – while other times they’ll recklessly reroute power from weapons to stealth fields so they can disappear in a flash.
PATIENT HUNTERS
By allowing the enemy to recklessly show their hand or exhaust themselves, the wise can exploit the foolhardy aggression of the foe.
Whenever a friendly XV26 STEALTH BATTLESUIT operative is shooting against or fighting against an expended enemy operative, that friendly operative’s weapons have the Balanced weapon rule and its ranged weapons have the Saturate weapon rule.
GHOSTSHROUD
Readily rerouting power from their weapons to their stealth fields, these operatives appear to vanish after sowing sudden death.
Use this firefight ploy at the end of a friendly XV26 STEALTH BATTLESUIT operative’s activation. If that operative has an Engage order, change it to Conceal. You cannot use this ploy for each friendly operative more than once per battle.
Recent upgrades made to the Stealth Battlesuit design mean that they can now carry a range of specialist equipment into the field that support covert missions and let operatives accomplish more than simply shooting people while invisible. The XV26 Neutraliser, for instance, straps a sophisticated Multispectrum Sensor Package onto their arm that gives comrades advanced warning of enemy advances, allowing them to Dash away or fade from view.
An XV26 Stealth Battlesuit kill team is made up of five operatives accompanied by two loyal drones, and you have to bring the Shas’vre squad leader and drones along every time. In addition to the Neutraliser above, your roster looks something like this:
Shas’vre: The leader. Carries a drone controller to get the most out of their floating allies, and empowers the team when casualties start to mount.
Designator: The spotter. Uses a classic T’au markerlight to reveal obscured enemies.
Liberator: The grenadier. Yes, high explosives might not be the stealthiest thing in the world, but you’ll be glad you have them.
Lodestar: The defender. Fires clouds of electrochaff to foul enemy shots, and feeds intelligence through a homing beacon.
Infiltrator: The soldier. Dependable, uncomplicated, and the best at taking mission actions.
Marker Drone: The other spotter. Also has a markerlight, but much more expendable.
Gun Drone: The guard dog. Respectable firepower, and can slow down enemies with photon grenades.
Most of your suits are equipped with burst cannons, but two can take powerful fusion blasters instead, which are all kinds of fun when the Space Marines show up to the party. While there have been sneaky factions in Kill Team before, none of them play quite like the Stealth Battlesuits, and they’ll reward patient commanders who choose the right moment to strike with overwhelming force.
We can’t wait to get our hands on both of the new kill teams coming in the Dead Silence box, and some lucky painters from the wider Warhammer community even got to put a brush to them early. We’ll be showing those off later this week – absolutely seething with jealousy the whole time – so make sure you come back to see what they’ve done and, maybe, get a few ideas for your own.
