How to pick the Custom Bolt Carbine for your Phobos Infiltrator Veteran

Infiltrators. Source: Warhammer Community

In Kill Team, the Infiltrator Veteran has a custom bolt carbine:

Select up to two of the following special rules or critical hit rules for this weapon to gain for the battle: Balanced, Lethal 5+, No Cover, MW1, P1, Rending.

I set out to check which combination of custom rules is the best. Let’s assume you’ll always take Lethal 5+. Infiltrator bolt carbines are Lethal 5+ because that’s what they do.

Pulling values from the KT21 Calculator I compared Guard Equivalents (GEQ), Marine Equivalents (MEQ), Hearthkyn Warriors, Kasrkin Troopers, Kommando Boys, Chaos Cult Mutants, and Void-Dancer Players.

Which combination is the most potent?

It turns out most of the juice comes from 5+ combined with almost anything. Example: assuming you target a GEQ (7 wounds, 5+ save) with one cover save:

• Lethal 5+ (your baseline infiltrator) gives you 5.04 average damage and 41% chance to kill the enemy operative
• Lethal 5+ / Balanced is 6.6 average damage and 58% kill chance. That’s a more than 30% increase in average damage.
• Lethal 5+ / Rending is 6.5 and 56%.
• Lethal 5+ / MW1 is 6.37 and 43%.
• Lethal 5+ / No Cover is 6.36 and 51%.
• Lethal 5+ / P1 is 5.83 and 50%.

While the pattern repeats (big jump by adding anything to Lethal 5+, with the biggest jump being Balanced) the differences are small enough for anything other than P1 that unless you’re in a highly competitive setting, you can pick the combination you like the best.

For higher wound models, you have a marginally better chance to one-shot the enemy if you pick Lethal 5+ / MW1, but this comes at the cost of decreasing average damage.

Example: Commando Boy (10 wounds, 5+ save) with one cover save:

• Lethal 5+ / Balanced is 6.6 average and 25% chance to one-shot.
• Lethal 5+ / MW1 is 6.37 average and 28% chance to one-shot.

The song remains (almost) the same for MEQ (12 wounds, 3+ save):

• Lethal 5+ / Balanced is 5.15 average and 4% chance to one-shot, jumping to 6.61 and 8% with Deadly Shots.
• Lethal 5+ / MW1 is 5.05 average and 5%, jumping to 6.33 and 9% with Deadly Shots.

What about Intercession?

Intercession Warriors have 14 wounds and a 3+ save. Here, at last, you face a choice:

• Lethal 5+ / Balanced is 4.71 average and 0% chance to one-shot. But add Deadly Shots and the numbers jump to 6.61 and 1%.
• Lethal 5+ / P1 is 5.00 average and 0.41% chance to one-shot. Of course, Deadly Shots add nothing to a P1 bolter.
• Lethal 5+ / Rending is 5.05 and 1%.
• Lethal 5+ / MW1 is 5.05 and 4% chance to one-shot. Adding P1 takes it to a respectable 7% chance to one-shot an Intercession Warrior.

Leaving aside Bolter Discipline — and assuming your Veteran shoots once each Turning Point — Lethal 5+ / MW1 with Deadly Shots will effectively let you one-shot a Warrior once every four games. Whether that swinginess is worth the CP you’ll burn up on re-rolls is largely down to your playstyle.

Ouch, my CP

The last, and best reason to pick Lethal 5+ / Balanced: Phobos are CP hungry. You are less likely to burn CP chasing command re-rolls if you have one re-roll already baked in.

What are we Leaving Out?

The Incursor Marksman’s shooting is vastly better than the Infiltrator Veteran’s. But you only have one of him.

• Whether you take Deadly Shots one or more times depends on your team composition. If you’re taking, say, a Reiver Sergeant, two Reivers, the Incursor Marksman (all of which have AP1), and two Infiltrators, Deadly Shots might not be worthwhile since it only helps two of your shooters. Consider saving your CP for Stealth Assault. Or Bolter Discipline!
• Speaking of Bolter Discipline: we’ll cover that Strategic Ploy in a future article. For now, don’t forget you can shoot twice, and it’s almost always worth it in Turning Points 2 and 3.

Summary

When selecting a custom profile for your Phobos Infiltrator Veteran

• Lethal 5+ / Balanced is the best profile for steady, reliable damage. Set it and forget it.
• but Lethal 5+ / Rending or Lethal 5+ / MW1 are so close that if they fit the story your play style, they’re valid picks for all but the most competitive settings.
• Leave No Cover to the Incursors.
• P1 is the worst pick by far, and duplicative of Deadly Shots. Don’t take it.

Here’s the spreadsheet. If you’d like to see another enemy operative — or if you spot an outlier that I didn’t take into account — leave a comment and I’ll update the article.

Update

I wrote this article the day before the Q3 2023 Balance Dataslate was released. I’ve updated the numbers and the spreadsheet accordingly. The recommendation remains the same: pick any combination you like as long as it’s Lethal 5+ / Balanced.