Over the weekend we announced a whole new edition of Kill Team, and now the vox is filled with chatter about what that means for the rules, miniatures, and missions. Now it’s time to clear the air on what exactly is changing when Kill Team: Hivestorm comes in for landing, and there’s nobody better to give us a quick overview than the designers themselves.
So with all that said, what is the new Kill Team all about, and what are some of the biggest changes you can expect to see? Let’s go down the list.
Getting Started with Kill Team
To help new players understand exactly what they need to get started, a new section in the Core Book discusses the essential components needed for a game of Kill Team, and where enthusiasts can go once they’ve tackled their first few missions. Like all good things in life, it’s accompanied by a handy graphic for quick reference using new icons you’ll see throughout the book – the upper three are the essentials, while the lower three are enhancements which expand the experience, but which aren’t compulsory.
In short, all you need to get going is the Core Book, the core token sheet, your choice of kill team, and a killzone to fight in.* Many classic kill teams will also be shipped out in brand new boxes that sport a QR code linking to their full and up-to-date rules online, with balance patches and updates for all Kill Team rules hosted right here at Warhammer Community. It is designed to make it as easy as possible to try out a new team – so if one catches your eye, you can check the rules out online, get the box, and you’re good to go!
You may also have noticed that the triangular icon above looks remarkably like the Vespid. Every Kill Team has one of their own while different killzones have distinct diamond icons, which aside from being nice thematic badges, can tell you at a glance where rules for your favourite operatives apply.
Shapes to Inches
Is it any coincidence that Warhammer fans like their measurements Imperial? While many of the new edition’s rules are unchanged from the game you know and love, Kill Team: Hivestorm bids a fond farewell to the circles, squares, and hexagons of old and welcomes good old-fashioned inches back into the fold.
Clarified Rules and Designer Commentary
Rules terminology has been clarified in order to clear up confusion right from the outset, with many actions and rules following a simple process of checking conditions before applying effects. Some, like the universal actions – Reposition, Shoot, Fall Back, and the like – are presented in clearly marked boxes with their effects and conditions labelled in green and red, while concepts like Cover state when and when not to apply them in plain language.
Most rules are accompanied by designer commentary in margins throughout the Core Book, which help explain the reasoning behind some rules, clarify potential mishaps, or simply offer advice about when and where you might apply them. These snippets are an invaluable aid for new players who lack the benefit of experience, clearing up ideas like why it’s not always a great idea to finish off an opponent during a Fight action, or why using more Conceal orders is a good idea if you’re losing operatives too frequently.
New Solo & Co-operative Game Mode
As anyone who’s taught their friends to play Kill Team will know, it can be a bit tricky reining in your dazzling command skills to give newcomers a chance. The new edition provides an elegant alternative with a brand new cooperative game mode that pits one or two players with their own operatives against hordes of enemies controlled by a simple automation process.
Enemies in these Joint Ops are known as Non-Player Operatives, or NPOs, and can be represented by a wide range of miniatures from your collection, from cultists and mutants to Space Marines and xenos fiends. This gives players a great way to teach rules fundamentals in a battle just as tense and exciting as regular competitive games, and also brush up on their skills when fellow commanders are off doing things much less fun than playing Kill Team.
We’ll go into much more detail about Joint Ops soon, so stay tuned.
Revised Datacards for Existing Kill Teams
The Vespid Stingwings and Tempestus Aquilons from Kill Team: Hivestorm are just the start of an awesome new range of miniatures, but their peers from the current edition aren’t going anywhere. Almost every kill team released in a boxed set** from the Veteran Guardsmen of Kill Team: Octarius right up to the Hernkyn Yaegirs of Kill Team: Termination will have fully updated rules for the new edition and a pack of physical datacards to keep them close at hand, while those Kill Teams found in the Kill Team Annual 2022 – including the Elucidean Starstriders and the Gellerpox Infected – will receive updated digital rules.
Datasheets themselves have also been refined to reduce clutter and lower the amount of characteristics per operative, removing Group Activation and Defence. We’ll delve into these deeper when we take our first look at rules from the new kill teams tomorrow, but in the meantime, have a sneaky glance at the new look Dakka Boy.
We’ve got loads more to cover in the weeks ahead, so whether you’re a seasoned Kill Team commander or want to take your first tentative steps into the killzone with Hivestorm, keep checking Warhammer Community. Up next is a quiet afternoon with the T’au Empire’s favourite flying auxiliaries, and they’ve got our office abuzz*** with excitement, so if you want to be among the first to hear the good news, sign up for our newsletter today.
* And a few dice, but you all knew that.
** This does mean that kill teams from the Kill Team Compendium book will not have updated rules.
*** We can use this joke at least six or seven more times before release. Just watch us.