Kill Team Hivestorm Review

Kill Team Hivestorm is the launch box for the brand-new edition of Kill Team. The new version features some rules changes, but still ties in and links back to the previous version. In this article, we'll have a look at what's in the box, go through some of the changes, and look at anything else you will need to know to get started.

Kill Team is a skirmish wargame, set in Games Workshop's larger Warhammer 40,000 setting. As a skirmish game, Kill Team features a small number of elite troops, fighting special operations battles, rather than huge battles fought with entire armies. We've covered Kill Team in depth since the first edition, and you can read our guide to the previous edition of Kill Team, or check our Gallowdark coverage in our Kill Team Into the Dark preview. 

What Does Kill Team Hivestorm Contain?

Kill Team Hivestorm contains:

• Kill Team Core Book
• Kill Team Hivestorm Dossier
• 11x Tempestus Aquilon miniatures
• 11x Vespid Stingwing miniatures
• A token set
• Approved Ops card pack
• 10x D6 dice
• 1x game board and 14x pieces of Terrain for Killzone: Volkus
• Kill Team Upgrade Equipment Pack containing 30x equipment miniatures and measuring tools

What Do I Need To Use The Kill Team Hivestorm Box?

Kill Team Hivestorm is a full starter set for the new edition of Kill Team, so it contains everything you need to play. It also only contains one Approved Ops card pack, so if you want to play using that with 2 players, you will need to pick up another pack.

Missing from this edition, which was included in the last season of Kill Team, are the cards for the included kill teams, but Games Workshop has suggested that alongside each pack release, the datacards will also be available for a short time, so we may see those (and the cards for all the previous released kill teams) release with Hivestorm.

Kill Team Hivestorm does include the rules for using the previous 2 seasons of Kill Team's scenery, so if you want to have the fully available experience, you can add it

• Killzone: Gallowdark scenery box
• Killzone: Bheta-Decima scenery box

What Rules Have Changed In Kill Team Hivestorm?

The latest version of Kill Team uses many of the same rules as Kill Team 21, with a few changes.

• The movement symbols have gone, it's just movement in inches now
• The Group Activation and the Defence stat have gone, players now roll 3 defense dice when shot and try to score equal to or over their save stat with each dice
• Counteract has now been added, so if you run out of operatives to activate and your opponent can still activate, when you would normally activate, you can perform a 1AP action with an operative that has already been used that turn (each operative can only counteract once)
• A solo/cooperative horde mode, Joint Ops, has been added
• But the narrative Spec Ops missions appeared to have dropped away
• It also looks like the set 20 operative roster is gone, and you simply pick your fighters each game using the selection rules for your kill team

What Kill Teams Do You Get In Kill Team Hivestorm?

Kill Team Hivestorm, as standard with Kill Team boxes, includes 2 brand new kill teams, the Astra Militarum Tempestus Aquilon kill team and the Tau Empire Vespid Stingwing kill team. 

Astra Militarum Tempestus Aquilon

The Tempestus Aquilon are elite Astra Militarum (or Imperial Guard) operatives that can deploy a portion of their numbers from above during the game. They can bring their leader plus 9 other operatives, including the awesome Aquilon Servo-Sentry, which moves slower than the other operatives (4 inches as opposed to the Aquilon's operatives 6), but it can fire twice with a choice from its arsenal of 3 weapons. The other operatives deploy with hot-shot weapons (pistols and carbines) and the Astra Militarum's usual love for heavy weapons.

When deploying, you have to set up at least a third of your force in your dropzone (the rest can deploy to special drop markers later in the game), but if you use your standard troopers (of which you will have 3) in your drop zone, they have a strategic gambit that lets them all take a free Reposition (new action name for a standard move) action but can't push more than 3 inches away from your drop zone. This means that your entire kill team is going to be putting pressure on your opponent and advancing towards them, or deploying from the sky in subsequent turns.

Tau Empire Vespid Stingwing

The Vespid are an alien race that joined the Tau Empire, and now have access to their equipment and weaponry, which combines with their ariel mobility to create dangerous warriors. All of the Stingwings have fly, which means that terrain has no effect on their movement and they can freely move up and down levels when they move. Their mobility also links to their neutron weapons, which gain Piercing 1 when they move. As an aggressive alien race, they tend to shoot and charge the nearest enemy, unless you spend Communion Points (which you have D3 of to use each turn) to override this and allow you to choose their targets.

The Stingwings can take 10 operatives, including their leader and the Oversight Drone. The basic Vespid Warrior comes armed with a Neutron Blaster, which has Devastating 2. Devasting immediately inflicts its listed value in damage to an enemy operative for each critical hit that's retained in combat, allowing you to really ramp up the damage on enemies

What Are Our Final Thoughts On Kill Team Hivestorm?

I really like the changes to the rules and the changes to the rulebook itself. It all feels like a really nice flow now. The counteract rules are great and really help when running low model count elite teams, and also if you get trounced in your first few turns, it doesn't feel quite so oppressive as it did. The way Kill Team now handles products is a welcome change. The difference between essentials and enhancements being really clear is great for new players (we've been calling the key products Kill Team Essentials since our first guide in 2018). The solo/co-op horde mode is welcome, but it looks like it's at the expense of the narrative play, which is a shame. I'd also like to see the included kill team datacards in the boxes like they were last year for Kill Team. Having to pick them up separately seems odd.

The way that the previous scenery sets are drawn in works well, and keeps the previous seasons of Kill Team relevant, making this new edition not feel like an oppressive change that makes the previous product redundant.

The 2 new kill teams in Hivestorm are a lot of fun. I can see myself playing the Tempestus Aquilon for a while. Their drop deployment shenanigans are really rewarding when you get it right, and the mobile Stingwings are the perfect opponent for them. It's also great to see Kill Team back in multi-level ruins. I love the amazing corridors of the Gallowdark, but for me, Kill Team is at its best in 3D terrain.

Should I Buy Kill Team Hivestorm?

The Kill Team core book will be available separately, so if you just want to jump into Kill Team with your old teams, then you can pick that up and get going, but if you want the new kill teams, Killzone, and all the extras like the new equipment and Approved Ops card pack, then Hivestorm will be your most cost-effective way in.  Both new kill teams are awesome and the new Killzone suits them perfectly. 

The copy of Kill Team Hivestorm used to produce this review was provided by Games Workshop.