After a year of fighting in the claustrophobic confines of a space hulk, Kill Team has now moved to the precarious oceanic platforms of Killzone: Bheta-Decima in the new season that has begun with Kill Team: Salvation. This killzone is rife with danger, and you’ll need to scope out the treacherous topography of Bheta-Decima’s industrial arenas in order to survive.
The rules for the new killzone and its Hazardous Areas are available to download for free right now, alongside a guide to using them with the missions from the Approved Ops Card Pack – so we’re taking a close look at both below.
The main feature of Killzone: Bheta-Decima is the great big waterway in the middle of the double-sided game board – one side is a yawning chasm into roiling seas,* while the other is bridged by a crucial central platform. Your operatives can’t dip even a single toe in these watery areas – to traverse the middle of the killzone, they’ll need to climb up onto the platforms that hang precariously over the ocean.
Some platforms are separated by deadly gaps, which operatives must leap (or fly) between. Not every gap is safe to jump, but the new mission maps in the Approved Ops 2023: Hazardous Areas download will show you exactly where your operatives can safely cross. If there is a yellow line between two platforms, they’re close enough for you to take a leap of faith.**
Another key feature of the killzone is Line of Sight – or lack thereof – from ocean spray and industrial fumes. Those watery spaces work similarly to a big block of Obscuring terrain, or a huge smoke grenade – if a target is at least 2◯ away through a Hazardous Area, it’s Obscured. That usually means it can’t be shot at.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the same as being Obscured by a terrain feature – standing within ▲ of the Hazardous Area doesn’t prevent you from being Obscured. Also, that 2◯ distance only counts actual Hazardous Areas – if the target is 2◯ away but your Line of Sight only crosses a tiny corner of Hazardous Area, you can see them just fine.
Another difference from regular Obscuring terrain – operatives standing on a Vantage Point like one of the gantry platforms totally ignore the Obscuring effects of Hazardous Areas. They can see – and be seen – over the mist and fog just fine. This is true whether they’re shooting or being shot at, and whether their opponent is on the floor or stood atop another platform.
Instead, operatives on Vantage Points have to consider the placement of gantries. If a Line of Sight crosses through an area occupied by another gantry – even if it passes right between its legs – the target is Obscured. This works both ways, meaning elevated snipers can’t pick out ground level enemies in the shadow of gantries, but are protected against return fire from those same targets.
Because these rules specifically use the Obscured terminology, they interact normally with any rules that deal with Obscuring – the Incursors of the Phobos Strike Team, for example, can ignore Obscuring entirely. This means that kill teams who rely on long-range firepower will need to protect their spotter operatives or lean more heavily on mechanics that bypass the Obscured rule – such as the Markerlights employed by the Pathfinder kill team.
Close-range kill teams will need to play a careful cat-and-mouse game as they advance. Keeping a chunk of Hazardous Area between your operatives and the enemy will protect against ground level shooting, while clinging to gantries can keep you Obscured from snipers on Vantage Points.
The risk-reward of climbing up to an elevated position is higher than it has ever been, but in this killzone you can set up your barricades on Vantage Points. Don’t forget to deploy a few of your barricades up on the exposed gantries, giving your operatives Cover as they advance or hunker down.
And remember, this is one of many ways you can play Kill Team. Regular open board missions from the Kill Team Core Book offer a totally different gameplay experience, while the claustrophobic Close Quarters corridors of Killzone: Gallowdark mix things up further.
A healthy mix of missions from all environments keeps your campaigns varied and fun, and most of all, forces commanders to constantly rethink their strategies. Just ask the players at the World Championships of Warhammer, who had to tackle two kinds in the same weekend!
* If your campaign takes place elsewhere, you can easily recontextualise it as another hazardous surface. Perhaps the floor really is lava?
** You’ll find the rules for jumping in the Kill Team Core Book, under the section on Moving Through Terrain.