Kill Team Starter Set Review

With the recent launch of a new edition of the Kill Team rules, it's the prefect time to start playing, but what's the best way to get started? The Kill Team Starter Set? In this article, we'll take a look at what's inside the box, and see if it's the best way for new Kill Team players to start playing, along with seeing what it has for veteran Kill Team players.

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 review of the launch box for the current edition, Operation Hivestorm here.

What Does The Kill Team Starter Set Contain?

The Kill Team Starter Set contains:

• Kill Team Starter Handbook
• Angels of Death kill team (7x Space Marines)
• Plague Marine kill team (7x Death Guard)
• 2x Operative Reference Sheets (1 for each kill team)
• Game board and MDF terrain
• Tokens, dice and card-measuring tools

All of the miniatures included in the Kill Team Starter Set are from the collectible Warhammer Heroes sets. The included Space Maries are those from the Strike Force Justain set we covered for the last edition of Kill Team. All of the miniatures push out from the sprue (no need to cut them) and are push-fit, so they also don't require glue, which makes them perfect for those starting out in the wargaming hobby, as no hobby tools are needed.

The scenery is also beginner friendly, and is push-fit, pre-painted mdf that slots together (and can be reconstructed for easy transport). This, combined with the push-fit miniatures mean that from opening the box to playing can be extremely quick.

What Do I Need To Use The Kill Team Starter Set?

The Kill Team Starter Set is the complete package for your introduction to Kill Team and it contains everything you need to start playing. It is very much aimed at the beginner wargamer though and doesn't contain the full rules for Kill Team (we discuss what you need to get next to continue your Kill Team journey below). This means that players of the last edition of Kill Team won't need to pick this up, as the rulebook is a tutorial handbook and the 2 included kill teams can be picked up separately by getting the Warhammer Heroes sets they belong to. But for those new to wargaming or Kill Team, this is the perfect set to get you playing as it contains everything in a single box.

What Kill Teams Do You Get In The Kill Team Starter Set?

The Kill Team Starter Set contains 2 kill teams, both with miniatures from the Warhammer Heroes lines.

Angels of Death

The included Angels of Death kill team is the repackaged Strike Force Justain from the previous edition of Kill Team. The rules for them on the included reference sheet are slightly different from those in the full Kill Team rules, and the profiles we discuss below are from the Starter Set (we discuss how to take the Angels of Death kill team beyond the Starter Set in the section below).

The Angels of Death kill team contains:

• Space Marine Captain - A close combat specialist armed with a plasma pistol and power fist, which can only be blocked with critical success, making it hard for your opponent to avoid damage.
• Intercessor Sergeant - The kill team's second in command armed with a bolt rifle that reduces your opponent's save dice on a critical hit.
• Assault Intersessor Warrior - A close combat specialist armed with a heavy bolt pistol and chainsword.
• Eliminator Sniper - A ranged specialist with 3 fire modes, the accurate executioner, hyperfrag with blast for multiple targets, and the armor-penetrating and high critical hit damage mortis.
• Heavy Intercessor Gunner - Another ranged specialist armed with a high rate of fire heavy bolter.
• Intercessor Warrior with auto bolt rifle - The auto bolt rifle has the torrent special rule, which can be used to make additional attacks against all visible enemies within 1 inch of your original target.
• Intercessor Warrior with bolt rifle - The standard bolt rifle gets piercing on a critical hit, which makes it harder to enemies to save against.

Plague Marines

The Plague Marine kill team is a new faction, having not had a dedicated kill team release in the last edition (only in the Kill Team compendium released at the start of the last edition). They currently only have the starter set rules, and not full rules on the Kill Team app (which may change after the release of the Starter Set). As such, the profiles we discuss below are from the Starter Set.

The Plague Marines kill team contains:

• Plague Marine Champion - A close combat specialist armed with a plasma pistol and plague sword, which lets you gain a critical success from a standard success if you didn't roll any critical hits.
• Malignant Plaguecaster - A psychic user with 2 spell options, the short-range entropy with extremely high crit damage, and severe which helps you gain a critical hit, and plague wind, which can roll an attack against every visible enemy within 2 inches of the original target.
• Plague Marine Bombardier - A grenade-armed Plague Marine, carrying a blight grenade with a 2-inch blast radius, so even enemies that aren't visible or behind cover aren't safe.
• Plague Marine Fighter - The fighter only carries a flail of corruption, a close combat weapon, which can only be blocked with critical hits. It has the shock special rule, which makes your opponent discard a success when struck with one of your successes.
• Plague Marine Heavy Gunner - Armed with the short-range plague spewer, it can target all visible enemies within 2 inches of the original target.
• Plague Marine Icon Bearer - Only armed with a short-range bolt pistol and plague knife, the icon they carry means it's easier for them to capture objectives as their APL is considered higher than their stat card.
• Plague Marine Warrior - The standard Plague Marine operative comes with a bolter, which has the same stats as the Angels of Death bolt rifle, but without the piercing crit special rule.

Where Do I Go After The Kill Team Starter Set?

Once you've played through the Kill Team tutorials in the Starter Handbook from the Starter Set, you'll be ready to play full games of Kill Team. You will be able to initially upgrade to the Kill Team Lite rules for free, via the Kill Team app and you can also download the Kill Team Lite rules and the full rules for the Angles of Death kill team via the Kill Team downloads page. The next stage is to purchase the Kill Team Core Rules and you'll be able to play full games of Kill Team.

If you are looking to use the included kill teams using the full rules, you should note the Angels of Death kill team isn't a legal kill team using the full rules. You can't take both the Space Marine Captain and the Intercessor Sergeant, but you can use the Sergeant as another Intercessor Warrior. You also can't take both the Intercessor Heavy Gunner and Eliminator Sniper in the same kill team, so you will need to add another Assault Intercessor, Intercessor Gunner, or Intercessor Warrior. If you pick up a pack of Intercessors, you will have more than enough to build the options for the different armament options for the Intercessor Warriors and Intercessor Gunners, and a pack of Assault Intercessors (or the cheaper Assault Intercessors and Paint Set) will give you all the options for a full roster.

The Plague Marines currently don't have full Kill Team rules, but I'm hopeful they release them online to coincide with the Starter Set release.

Or if you fancy a different kill team, you can check out the rules for free via the Kill Team downloads page and see which of the currently released 33 kill teams that take your fancy, and then pick up the box for them. Some kill teams require 2 boxes to be able to build all the options.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On The Kill Team Starter Set?

I really like what Games Workshop have done with the Kill Team Starter Set. It's not an essential purchase for veteran Kill Team players unless they don't have the 2 included kill teams from their release as Warhammer Heroes, but it does help onboard new Kill Team players very well. The starter handbook does a good job of taking players through their first few games with 2 very easy-to-pilot kill teams, and it makes it very easy to move into full games. We'll have to see what happens with the Plague Marine rules, but it would have been nice to have an additional Space Marine miniature so that it's a legal kill team out of the box, or at least have made the Angels of Death rules work with this kill team as it is.

Should I Buy The Kill Team Starter Set?

If you're brand new to wargaming, or Kill Team, then this is the perfect place to start. The miniatures are easy to put together, and the handbook does a great job of introducing the rules and setting you up to move into Kill Team lite, and then the full rules. If you're a veteran player, there's nothing extra here other than the miniatures and the new mdf scenery, so if you have them already, you won't need the Kill Team Starter Set, but if you don't have either kill team, then this may be a cost-effective way to get them.

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