Greetings, spec ops commanders, and welcome to the very first Metawatch covering Kill Team! Elliot from the Warhammer Design Studio recently sat down with Warhammer TV’s Ben to talk about the state of the game, the new Critical Operations card pack, how the team approaches balance changes, and what the future has in store.
Elliot: It's a great time to be playing skirmish games in the 41st Millennium. There are more people playing Kill Team than ever before, monthly tournament attendance is on the increase, and there are strong, active communities developing across the world. Kill Team is a highly tactical game, where victory is determined by the decisions you make at the table, rather than the faction you pick or the roster you build. This has meant there’s a great spread of factions doing well, and the introduction of Gallowdark terrain and Close Quarters rules have given players a whole new layer to the game.
We last published a Balance Dataslate in December, so it's a little early to draw conclusions on its impact yet. Instead, for this first instalment of Kill Team Metawatch, the team wants to provide an overview of our approach – and a hint at what you can expect from the future.
As with all other Warhammer game systems, our design choices are informed in part by win-rate data from tournaments and gaming groups across the world. It’s important to note that our data pool is smaller than that of Warhammer 40,000, and we sometimes see bigger swings or more exaggerated effects.* For this reason, we prefer to use data to inform, not lead.
Balance Dataslates are released quarterly, to address those factions that are struggling and tone down the over-performers. Outside of limited, faction-specific equipment, Kill Team doesn’t use points – you have a choice of operatives to select, but the maximum number is already set, and you can rarely repeat the same specialists or even weapons. Therefore, our balance updates precisely target certain rules, datacards, or abilities to adjust game balance. We aim to be concise and impactful, rather than provide a large list of minor changes, so things don’t get unwieldy.
The new Critical Operations mission pack has driven the biggest recent change in the meta. It’s brought a new standard to matched play with more streamlined missions, a selection of updated Tac Ops, and some targeted tweaks to the mission sequence.** Its popularity exceeded our expectations – selling out very fast – but stock is due to return in the near future.
We’ve also added free rules for using the deck in Close Quarters games, including two replacement Tac Ops cards and 10 full killzone maps for setting up your Killzone: Gallowdark terrain. Between these 2 resources, players now have 2 very different, but equally satisfying ways of playing matched play Kill Team.
Thanks for checking in, Elliot. Metawatch will return to Kill Team in a few months, to absorb the changes from the next Balance Dataslate.
* For more details on the kinds of factors that influence game data, check out the Warhammer 40,000 Metawatch for October 2022.
** The pack also includes a variety of ways to quickly generate game conditions, combining random elements with a sense of fairness – Veto is an excellent approach, but we especially enjoy Bidding for Tac Ops.