Greetings commander, welcome back to the Ops Room. It’s been a few weeks since the World Championships of Warhammer crowned a Kill Team champion, and the ripples from that tournament are just now starting to lap against the shores of other killzones around the galaxy.
A new Balance Dataslate is on the way, and we’ll be looking into what that means for your kill teams, but first let’s join Warhammer TV’s Nick for a tête-à-tête with Kill Team designer Elliot. What lessons were learned from the most prestigious Kill Team tournament in history?
Kill Team broadly continues to be in a strong and balanced state, and only two factions have been toned down this time – the Chaos Cultists and Ork Kommandos. Several others have been lifted up to help them perform more consistently at high levels of play, based on an examination of what the top-level competitors at the Championships were not bringing to its world-class stage.
The Chaos Cultists, in particular, put in an overwhelming performance in the Championship Bracket, where their strong mutations and melee prowess – combined with some extremely effective gameplay from Alberto ‘Java’ and Aleksa Pavkovic – propelled them into a Grand Final mirror match. The Dataslate aims to gently reduce the power of their mutations, while Kommandos have the Sneaky Git and Bomb Squig rules brought down a notch.
Meanwhile, the Exaction Squad receives new buffs when fighting in close combat, to nudge them towards a more close-ranged control play style. Along with a separate change that makes the Nuncio-vox easier to use, the Arbites should now bring a unique approach to short-ranged offence that meshes with their Ruthless Efficiency.
As well as power adjustments, some factions have had their complexity reduced to increase their competitive ceiling – such as the Genestealer Cults Wyrmblade kill team, who see modifications to Cult Ambush and the Sanctus Talon operative.
Kill Team is in an excellent place right now, and with the new season comes new environmental challenges that will mix up the meta. With the claustrophobic corridors of the Gallowdark replaced by precarious platforms and gouts of obscuring sea spray on Bheta-Decima, it will be interesting to see whether more gun-focused kill teams eke out an advantage over their melee counterparts.
The team will continue monitoring the game for balance and the performance of newer kill teams – especially the new Scout Squad and Blades of Khaine – ahead of the first Balance Dataslate of 2024.