Warhammer 40K: Kill Team – New Edition Changes Ditch Icons For Inches
Kill Team is getting a revamp to the ruleset with a new edition. But what’s changing exactly? Games Workshop is here to explain.
The new edition of Kill Team is right around the corner. We got a preview over the weekend and there was a lot to unpack. Now, GW is back with a quick breakdown of those changes.
“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.”
Kill Team New Edition Changes
The first change is more of a visual one. The icons are getting a slight update for a fast way to communicate those concepts to players.
“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.”
It’s also worth noting that all the Kill Teams are getting an icon update with this new edition. Additionally, when the new Kill Team boxes ship out, they will contain a QR code for that Kill Team inside that will take you directly to their rules online. These rules will be hosted on WarCom so you can pop over there even without the code to check out all the individual Kill Team rules.
Kill Team is also ditching the Icons and swapping to Inches. The circles, squares, and hexagons are gone from the game. Personally, I can understand why they tried to do that in the first place but I’m really glad they decided to just use inches. I think it was an unnecessary barrier between full sized 40k and Kill Team. Your players are already used to inches just go with those.
Kill Team is also getting a rules pass to help clean things up. Additionally, there’s red and green icons to help with the “step-by-step” rules. Now, you’ll find more designer commentary to elaborate rules and concepts that need a bit more explanation.
“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.”
One of the new changes I’m most excited about are the new Co-op and Solo modes. These two new modes are great for teaching and learning the game. Co-op allows two players to team up to take on enemies controlled by some simple automation steps. Solo mode is basically the same concept but for just one player.
“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 don’t have all the details on this one yet but I’m looking forward to hear more about it.
The finally change that GW wanted to mention was the revamped Datasheets for the Kill Teams. Just about every Kill Team is getting a re-release of physical cards to use. The Elucidean Starstriders and the Gellerpox Infected will get digital updates. As you can see the preview card above, visually things are cleaned-up a bit. We also get a look at how the formatting has been changed, too.
These changes are just a few of the major things coming to the game. There’s still a lot more info coming out for Kill Team. Personally, I think these changes sound solid so far and it seems like a good way to get into Kill Team if you haven’t already. And bringing a friend along for the ride is going to be a much easier sell when you can play Co-op!
