When a Kill Team Starts Looking Like a 1000-Point Army
We had one of those very familiar hobby moments recently: a small rules observation suddenly turned into dangerous purchasing logic.
It started with Votann. As end3r noticed, a unit of 10 Hearthkyn Warriors can already pull double duty pretty nicely. From the Warhammer 40,000 side, that squad sits at 135 points, which immediately makes it feel less like “just a Kill Team box” and more like a real step toward a 1000-point army.
That is exactly the kind of thought process that gets us into trouble.
From Kill Team to Battle
What we really liked in this little exchange was the flexibility. The idea is simple: if we start from the Kill Team angle, we are not locked into only one way of using the models.
As end3r pointed out, Command Points can help round things out on the Kill Team side by adding more buddies to balance the roster differently — for example:
- 3 gunners
- extra warriors
So instead of thinking about a box as a one-game purchase, we immediately started seeing it as something that can feed both:
- a Kill Team project
- and a future Warhammer 40,000 army list
That kind of overlap is always appealing. It makes every hobby buy feel a bit more justified, which is obviously very dangerous for the wallet and very good for motivation.
Not Just Votann
The fun part is that this apparently is not unique to the Leagues of Votann.
Stas quickly noticed a similar thing on the Ork side: Kommandos can also be played in regular 40k battle. That opens up the same kind of pathway — start small, play skirmish, and then slowly grow into a larger force without feeling like any purchase is “wasted” on a separate system.
That sort of crossover is something we always appreciate. Sometimes the biggest barrier to starting a new faction is the feeling that we need to commit to a full army immediately. But if a Kill Team box already gives us models that have a place in big 40k as well, the jump feels much smaller.
The Dangerous Conclusion
Naturally, after all this careful and responsible analysis, the only possible conclusion was:
well, we just need to buy their Kill Team :)
A classic case of hobby escalation.
The Screenshot That Started It
Here is the bit of rules/purchase-fuel that pushed the conversation along:
Final Thought
We love this kind of army-building entry point: start with a compact project, get some games in, and keep the door open for expansion later. Whether it is Votann Hearthkyn Warriors or Ork Kommandos, the idea of buying into Kill Team while quietly laying foundations for 40k is just extremely tempting.
And honestly, those are often the best hobby plans — the ones that begin with “just a small team” and somehow end with a growing army.