40K Kill Team: New Killzones For Close Up Killing
Rogue Trader expands Kill Team with new minis, factions, and stratagems, but you’ll also find rules for new Kill Zones. And it’s surprising how much they change the game.
Kill Team is a ton of fun, pitting your forces against one another in secret battlefields–but it’s played on a small table with even smaller ranges. It can be frustrating to take on enemies when you’re often at -1 or -2 to hit (and that’s standard). Dealing with modifiers is one aspect of the game, but it puts a damper on the up close specialists. Well the new Kill Zones which come with rules for Ultra-close confines, aim to change all of that. Finally a use for those Demolitions and Combat Troops. Heck shotguns might actually be worth taking. Let’s check out Ultra-Close Confines.
Ultra-close confines present a new way to play Kill Team. Rather than battling over ruined cityscapes or lofty industrial wastelands, you’ll instead be fighting vicious close-quarters battles in starships and Adeptus Ministorum shrines.
In ultra-close confines, the board is broken up by walls that cannot be fired through, seen through or measured through in any way – meaning careful positioning is key to victory. Once-reliable Sniper specialists must scrabble for strong firing lanes, while Combat and Demolition troops reign supreme.
As well as being great for gaming, these new killzones are fantastic tools for narrative players. Imagine kicking off a Kill Team campaign with every player attempting a landing in a shuttle of their own while under attack from enemy forces – or linking the Ministorum Shrine to another killzone in a multiplayer game as a group of troops rush for cover during an orbital bombardment.
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There’s shades of Necromunda present in these rules. You have walls that you can’t draw LoS through, you can’t charge across them either. Lots of broken up firing lanes–and ways to place those bulkheads we’ve seen as part of the box. This is a pretty exciting direction for the game because it does something that Kill Team really needs–it gives you tools to take your fights indoors. Kill Team has been needing to give you the rules to fight in the decks of ships, or in secret research facilities. You’re part strike team, part covert ops, and these new Kill Zone rules add that feeling into the game.
I’m excited to finally get to use some Tau Breachers, I think this might be the environment that your close-up troops will really shine in. Of course Flamers, already great in this game, will be even better here. So stock up on those and burn them all.
What Kill Zones will you take your teams to? How else can you adapt these rules to 40K at large?
