Today I would like to introduce my new Kill Team: The Zoats. Not much is known these days about these xenos race. I concentrated on the part of their lore regarding their supposed enslavement by the Tyranids.
The question now is, how the Tyranids would be able to do so. Thus I came up with a whole new-made up unit, the Cephalotrophs. The Cephalotrophs are a small, floating breed of Tyranids who have quite a fragile body which mainly is a gland plus a little tail. While on the hunt their chitin scale is used to protect them but as soon as they find a possible host they try to hug them from behind. Flesh hooks are fired then, the Cephalotroph pulls himself to the victim’s back injecting a paralysing poison directly to the spine. Once the new host is completely disabled the parasite starts to connect with the victim’s spinal cord. The Cephalotroph and therefore the hive mind aswell has then taken over the host completely.
You might ask now which rules I used for this team. The Zoats are in fact count as Space Wolves Thunderwolves and the Cephalotrophs count as Space Wolves Fenrisian Wolves. Quite a disturbing thought but also very fitting regarding their rules.
The enslaved Zoats.
An attacking Cephalotroph.
A floating Cephalotroph’s bottom side.
My Kill Team’s leader is the only Zoat not wearing a mask. The basis was a dragon ogre which got heavily converted to a Zoat. On the back of every Zoat there is a Cephalotroph attached to controll them. The team leader’s face and his bionic eye were sculpted.
The skull of a Genestealer should remind of the hostility between these races during the days before the enslavement.
This Cephalotroph’s tail got connected to a new tyranid weapon.
The three regular Zoats wearing masks.
A closer look at their backs shows the Tyranid infestation much better.