Kill Team: Exaction Squad

When you are involved in a Warhammer 40K roleplay game, the theme is already rich and the rules add thematic depth and the setting is a lot of fun to play in. This can be enhanced further if you are playing in person by going old school and using miniatures. The Adeptus Arbites Exaction Squad is ideal to represent either Arbites player characters or as non-player character Arbites or even general law enforcement. They are slightly larger than 28mm too so they are a good imposing size.

Citadel miniatures have a range of kill teams designed for tabletop skirmishes, but honestly, they are nice models regardless and suitable beyond that. Although I wouldn’t normally buy a squad set because I just don’t need all the figures, since they don’t tend to come individually, a small set like this is the most logical choice. I would like Games Workshop to produce a box set of typical 40K ‘characters’ for roleplaying purposes, but I’m not expecting it.

Miniature quality

The miniatures are as you would expect from Games Workshop. The quality is excellent. There is good detail and the figures are made from a durable plastic – but hey I still wouldn’t advise dropping them! But they can be handled quite comfortably without fear of breaking if reasonably careful.

These miniatures certainly look the part and there is good attention to the kind of detail that make these stand out as Arbites, such as the Aquila symbols and shield design.

Variety

The boxset come with sprues with a variety of different weapons, postures and designs so even if like me you are using them as characters for roleplay and not as part of a wargaming kill team, there is a good range of choices to convey different figures for different roles from the front-line riot police with riot shields and shock mauls to the heavy weapons specialists. The pieces need to be cut out of course and it’s a little fiddly, but once you’ve chosen your options, it’s not difficult to build your squad. In my team, I simply went with variety with a couple of front-line officers (one of which is for my current Arbites character in a Dark Heresy 2 campaign), a leader – the Proctor-exactant model and various others as you can see from the photo including a Robo-doggy! What you then have is a custom built Arbites squad suitable for both tabletop wargaming as well as for 40K roleplay and tactical maps.

Painting

The paint scheme I used was kept fairly simple. Variations of black for the armour with highlights and worn effect look, with mostly red and metallics for the weapons and various simple schemes for the others pieces. This way I’ve kept it simple, so the painting doesn’t have to be too onerous, but with little details to bring the miniatures to life and make them army ready. I also find it quite therapeutic to paint, so although it takes time to paint them even half decently, it is quite a nice task.

What I like about the miniatures

What I really like about the set is overall it is a good quality, varied squad of Arbites models that really look the part. For me, that means I have setting specific miniatures that bring a presence to the tactical roleplay map. It enhances the game experience and for me with a preference for tactile play, this is appreciated.

Value for money

It is well known that miniatures are often not cheap and Citadel miniatures can be quite expensive, especially for the premium single models or vehicles. It is a luxury hobby in that sense, especially when you add on the cost of paint and peripherals and these days that can include airbrushes.

But, I do honestly think this is not bad value for money for its price point in the current market. It helps if you can find a stocklist which gives a discount off the standard price; something Zatu offer of course and the prices are great value. But regardless, the price does represent a reasonable deal, bearing I mind the quality product and the attention to detail. So, whether you play tabletop wargaming or roleplay characters in the grim dark of the Warhammer 40K future, this Arbites Exaction Squad set is a recommended one and don’t forget to add some of those transfers to the models to add some more thematic detail.