HomeThere he stood, alone, his entire team around him accomplished yet slaughtered by the task, with one thing standing in the way of this Guardsman, who, clad in black carapace armour, against all odds had managed to take the final objective, a small beacon in the middle of this desolate ruin, allowing him to upload vital data to a ship in orbit.
The thing that stood between him and success was a hulking, bloodied Space Marine wielding a giant axe stained with the blood of his comrades, one corrupted by Chaos, donning the bright pink armour of a forgotten traitorous legion, but a deadly one nonetheless. The marine snarled through his grated mask, intent on making an example of the Guardsman who by all accounts should never have gotten this far. The Guardsman raised his lasgun, his hands were not shaken in the face of fear as one would expect, they were determined, trained, as he landed 4 bright red shots, each one a critical punch through the armour of the hell-bent marine.
The sudden clang of metal sounded as the axe fell onto the mud-laden ground, a loud ominous crack of thunder sounded the end of his mission. With the Chaos Marine out of the way, and the mission complete, this lone Guardsman took a moment of respite; he stumbled into a ruined building nearby grasping at a wound, slumping into a corner… soon he would be free of this nightmare one way or another.
This game is beautiful, both narratively and aesthetically, it’s quick to learn and it’s not a major investment in terms of both time and money. An average game takes between 45mins – 2hrs.
For those who aren’t familiar with the 40k Universe, a Kill Team is essentially a small band of elite warriors who do covert missions ranging from obtaining intel to outright assassination. They are selected for their specialist skills, aiming to get in and out of the field before the alarms are sounded.
This is translated in the game via each operative’s special abilities and 4 rounds. You will have teams such as the Death Korps of Krieg, a bunch of zealous humans who know no fear, they have a decent sniper, a medic who can heal operatives, a comms officer who allows certain special orders to be relayed (that give buffs/debuffs), a bruiser who can take bigger guys in hand-to-hand combat, a demolition expert who can place mines to discourage enemies and a whole bunch of other special operatives, all of which can be selected with each one adding a unique ability to the loadout you choose for your Kill Team.
Another team, the Fellgore Ravagers, are insanely strong beastmen who pride themselves on strengths bestowed to them by the gods of chaos. You do not want to get up-close and personal with them as they are pure brute force and nothing more – they can and will push their way through the battlefield. They’re simple to play but very challenging to play against.
Let’s take a look at the Tau. These blue-skinned underdogs who claim to be pacifists just want peace (or so they say) and they’re known for their shooting abilities, coupled in with their technology-obsessed drone pilots they make for a good shooty team, or how about the mysterious Inqusitorial Agents whose whole game is geared towards countering their opponent with an array of specialists such as the Death World Veteran, able to sneak and charge out at enemies whilst ignoring a wound he may take during the fight, or the Hexorcist who denies the opponent of certain buffs just by being near them.
Getting started is easy, if you already have models, you can use them to dive straight in or you can get the starter set which includes everything and is incredible value for money.
The core rulebook is simple enough to read, and operatives have the option to flip between being ‘engaged’ and ‘concealed’ – represented by tokens. Whilst engaged, you can shoot and be shot, whilst when concealed you’re generally unable to shoot and be shot at, allowing your operatives to skulk about the map unbothered.
As seen on the Datacard, your APL (action point limit) is how many things you can do, these include, movement, shooting, fighting etc. and your weapon profile tells you what weapon loadout you have, how many attacks (ATK) you roll, and what you need to hit. The damage (DMG) is on the left of the weapon profile, with critical hits (rolling a 6) being the number on the right. Unless stated next to the weapon, shooting distance is not limited, and some weapons have special rules like Lethal allowing you to crit on 5+ or Relentless which allows you to re-roll any of your attack dice. Saving is simple, everyone has 3 dice and you roll them aiming to meet or achieve your SAVE (5+ in the example of the Death Korps Trooper). Hand-to-hand combat is fun, it’s slightly different when resolving, you both roll with the person who initiated the fight going first – you use your successful hits to resolve each attack against each other which makes for a fun experience as opposed to just outright brutalising your opponent, you get to experience every block and blow between your operatives. Once you’ve dropped to 0 wounds, your operative is removed from play.
There’s some cool equipment like ladders to help you climb and portable barricades. faction specific rules like Tempestus Aquilons being able to drop into battle with their grav-chutes or Hand of the Archon being able to score ‘pain tokens’ and use those tokens for buffs, With that said, choosing a team is purely based on preference. Currently there are 42 teams you can pick from, and the game has seasons, where they add some cool terrain/map packs, extra teams, more narratives and optional rules which are usually specifically for that map pack. This keeps the game fun with a constant engagement without making it feel forced when they update anything. Each team is reasonably balanced and there’s no need to buy this or that to make your team better, virtually every team is a one box team, ready to build, paint and play with. Further to this, each team plays differently too, and with the option to switch your loadout both in terms of your team and mission narrative, you won’t play the same game twice even if it’s against the same opponent.
Speaking of narratives, the game also has rules for co-operative play (similar to Stargrave & Frostgrave) and solo missions which can be found in the core rulebook.
I find that the Kill Team scene is generally way more relaxed; I play both within the tournament circle and casually, even teaching people at a local game store! That’s how much I enjoy this game. Kill Team seems to draw in a different crowd, a more welcoming and pleasant one with good humour being a core concept in the scene and players more than happy to show new people how to play; I think partly because it’s an easy enough game to learn. Even in the competitive scene here, I’ve not found that guy and I’ve enjoyed the friendships I’ve made whilst talking about the lore and having fun with our mission narration. Tournaments aren’t generally intimidating either, you will find beginner friendly ones and whether you want a game where you can travel and be competitive or just play casually in your house with friends once in a while, Kill Team does all of this for you.
There’s some good content online if you’re struggling with the rules, Glass Half Dead on YouTube is my recommendation with videos ranging from easy introduction rules to current releases.
My final note on this is that the 3D printed scene is perfect for Kill Team, there’s loads of decent proxies out there should you want to change your teams design or prefer a different look, and with fewer models, people who enjoy spending more time painting their models can appreciate the game for catering to that as you generally won’t have a whole army to get through, making this ideal for both casual hobbyists and serious ones too.
Final Verdict
- Concealment and movement are just as important as shooting
- Play the Lite Rules first
- Remember that the aim is to have fun
- Remember your crit ops!
- This chart for shooting/cover disputes is very handy
Top: Void-Dancer Troupe during a tournament game, Bottom: an introduction game being played with two Krieg teams locked in a fight
Cameraman: Everyone say HERESY!! UwU