Warhammer 40K: Kill Teams Get ‘Classified’ For Competitive Play
Games Workshop is making moves to make Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team a more competitive environment. It’s a new tournament play standard.
Kill Team’s new edition is coming soon. With it, GW is attempting to make it a more competitive and balanced experience. The rules have been refined and they are taking more steps to manage Kill Team overall. That includes working on the individual Kill Teams themselves.
Will all that in mind, GW has a goal they are looking to accomplish.
“Our goal: keep the game exciting for veterans and accessible for newcomers, while maintaining balance and avoiding unnecessary complexity.
We’ve taken great care and pride in refining the rules, product design, and everything in between for the new edition. One of the main focuses has been on managing the growing range of kill teams to ensure everyone gets to enjoy their miniatures to the fullest.”
That might not sound like a lofty goal but in reality that’s a tall order. Considering there are going to be 33 Kill Teams at launch balancing them all is quite the task! But one way GW is going to do that is by ensuring they all get a rules pass regularly.
“From now on, every kill team will receive consistently updated rules for two editions – updates will be quarterly, while smaller adjustments may be made as required. Every team will remain in the product range for four full seasons – seasons generally last 12 months, though they can be longer or shorter as required. This is to ensure a manageable range that we can keep in stock.”
These rules are also going to be available online for all. That will ensure everyone has access to the most up-to-date rules and FAQs/Erratas as needed. I’m liking this change!
Classified Kill Teams
Now, I’m sure you read that title and thought, “okay what’s this Classified business all about?” That’s going to ensure the tournament crowd is on the same page, rules-wise.
“Teams that are currently available in the Kill Team product range are labelled Classified, which indicates that they are the ones currently recommended for tournament play. The teams below are currently Classified, and this list will be updated after the first season of the new edition comes to a close. When a team leaves the product range it leaves the Classified list. “
Realistically, this is geared for the competitive scene.
“The list will be used to ensure fairness, stability, and availability for major Warhammer events such as US Opens and the World Championships of Warhammer. We will provide an Event Companion document containing all the guidance you need to run your own tournaments in a similar way. But that doesn’t mean that your favourite team won’t be playable!”
For the folks that want to participate in the tournaments they can follow the tournament guidelines and play that way. For a lot of players this new Classified system isn’t going to impact their enjoyment playing with friends in clubs, leagues, or just for fun at game night. Again, it’s not like the GW Fun Police are coming to smash your miniatures and burn your rules. In fact, even the Kill Teams that leave the Classified list are still going to get rules and updates until the end of the season.
So why even bother with the Classified list in the first place? Well, I can see why you’d want to rotate Kill Teams out of the “tournament” scene. If they aren’t available for purchase, you’re kind of messing with the balance and really putting anyone new at a major disadvantage. Also, from a design perspective, it’s going to be less Kill Teams to manage in the longer run as new Kill Teams will inevitably be added. And again, all the Kill Teams are still going to be useable in non-Tournament settings.
The new edition is almost here. So if you want to tackle the tournament scene or if you just want to play for fun the new edition is waiting for you!
Does that make the removed Kill Teams “declassified” then?
