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Warhammer 40K: Three Things Kill Team Has Us Excited To Try

3 Minute Read
Jul 17 2021
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Games Workshop is launching a new edition of Kill Team and we’re looking forward to giving this one a go for these specific reasons.

The new edition of Kill Team has seen a complete rework of the rules. While we’re still not 100% clear on how everything will work, we’re feeling a optimistic about the changes. If nothing else, this version promises to be a very different beast than previous editions and will feel different than “a 40k game but skirmish sized.” So what are we excited about? Let’s chat.

Alternating Activations

This has to be the biggest change and one that we’re absolutely looking forward to. In a previous article, we mentioned this one. It’s a bit of a shocker as it’s big departure from most of the other systems GW uses. It’s quite a popular option for lots of other wargames and skirmish-level tabletop games out there. Here’s what GW has to say about it:

“Constant back-and-forth action is the cornerstone of the new edition of Kill Team, as commanders take alternating turns to activate each of their operatives. Sudden dashes for objectives can come at any moment, and plans must change on the fly as enemy troops weave in and out of cover. No longer will one player have to withstand the full fury of their foe’s assault before getting to respond.”

We like the idea of less downtime in our games as we wait for our opponent to complete an entire turn. This back-and-forth should keep the games moving and engaging. It’s also going to be interesting to see how this pans out for GW as they tend to use other games (like Kill Team) to test out mechanics and interactions before they push them to other systems. Could we see an alternating activation version of 40k in the future? Time will tell.

New Melee Combat

Melee combat is getting a complete overhaul. It’s going to have a lot more back-and-forth and you’ll have to be more strategic with your dice/hits when playing as they also count as your defense. Again, it’s a complete overhaul so throw out your old assumptions of WS vs WS.

via Warhammer Community

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“Rather than the attacker taking their shots and trying to slip past their target’s armour, both fighters roll their melee attacks simultaneously.

Starting with the attacker, the combatants then alternate, choosing whether they want to use a successful hit to inflict damage or parry one of their opponent’s hits, cancelling it out. “

Having more attacks is going to be better overall, but those crits are going to swing combat quite a bit. And if you have a Lethal weapon that’s going to skew the odds even more. And we’ve only seen a couple of the special rules anyhow – who knows what else GW is packing for melee combat in Kill Team. In any case, we’re eager to give it a whirl just to see how it works!

New Models

It’s a new batch of PLASTIC Death Korps of Krieg and some awesome looking Ork Commando models in the box. I don’t think this needs any more explanation. We’re stoked about both sets of models and really can’t wait to get our hands on them!

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What are you looking forward to in the new edition of Kill Team?

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Author: Adam Harrison
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