The 2024 Edition of Kill Team has overhauled the game, changing rules, datasheets, and bringing with it an updated set of rules for every team in the game. In this series we’re taking a look at each team, how they’ve changed, and what it means for how they play in the new edition. Before we dive in, we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing a preview copy of these rules for review purposes.
In this article we’ll be looking at the Corsair Voidscarred, released alongside Legionaries in Kill Team: Nachmund back in early 2022. The Voidscarred haven’t been super popular since their release, having been often overshadowed by the Void-Dancer Troupe and competing with two Drukhari teams and, more recently, the Aeldari team Blades of Khaine for playing time. That said, they’ve seen some competitive success recently and sit comfortably among the game’s middle tier.
Team Overview
Corsair teams consist of Aeldari from both the Craftworld and Drukhari sides of the aisle, all having come together to unite under the common cause of piracy. Voidscarred Kill Teams are fast: The entire team has the Aeldari Raiders ability, giving each operative a free Dash action each time they activate. That’s a powerful addition, essentially letting the team operate as though they were 2.5 APL and gives you a ton of movement. This team is built around shooting and fighting on the move, and can be hard to pin down while also being difficult to escape from. With 7” Movement, they’re also one of the game’s faster teams even before that free Dash.
The Video Review
You can watch a video version of this review courtesy of Can You Roll a Crit?
Special Rule: Aeldari Raiders
Each of your Voidscarred can perform a free Dash action during their activation. This is really handy to have, and makes your team extremely mobile, tacking on free movement as you need. And while this doesn’t combo with the Plunderers Strategic Ploy for double dashes any more, it’s still giving you plenty of extra speed for a team who already have a 7” Movement characteristic. This is especially useful when can use it to pop out from cover, shoot, and then hide again like the sneaky elf that you are.
Special Rule: Rifles
This replaces the Take Aim rule several operatives had in the last edition – when one of your operatives shoots with a Shuriken Rifle or Ranger long rifle when it hasn’t yet done a Charge, Fall Back, or Reposition action, the weapon gains the Accurate 1 rule. This gives you better odds of a hit, albeit at the cost of reduced Crit odds, making it something you might not want to do on your Fate Dealer unless they’ve moved. It is a shame that realistically you will almost never carry a normal rifle, so this only comes into effect on long rifles.
Team Composition
A Voidscarred Kill Team consists of nine operatives: one Voidscarred Felarch, who acts as the team leader, and eight additional operatives chosen from a list. Voidscarred Warriors are the team’s rank-and-file, and you can have as many of those as you like, while you get up to one Voidscarred Gunner carrying a blaster or shredder, or one Heavy Gunner with a shuriken cannon or wraith cannon. In one big change for this new edition, you can now take two Gunners in your team, but you cannot include both a Wraithcannon and a blaster when you do. On top of that you have a number of specialists, such as the Fate Dealer (your sniper), the Shade Runner (a stealthy melee option), and the Way Seeker (a psyker who can buff and reposition allies).
Playing This Team
Corsair Voidscarred are fast – with 7” Movement and a free Dash per activation plus tricks and ploys for additional movement, they can work their way around the killzone pretty quickly. This lets them get into position more readily – and out of trouble. As an 8-wound team of 4+ save models, the Voidscarred can feel pretty squishy at times, making it important that they stay out of trouble and pick and choose their targets carefully.
What’s Changed?
There have been a ton of changes to this team, tweaking a number of factors and changing things in the margins, all to a major effect. The big one is that the team’s operatives now move 7” instead of 3O, giving them a 1” boost before their free Dash. As a potential consequence of this, the Plunderers Strategic Ploy no longer gives you a second Dash – any of the D3 operatives you move with the ploy (it’s now D3 instead of “up to three), can’t perform the Dash action during their activation But lose the limitation of getting closer to objectives, so it’s a little more flexible to make charges happen. Other ploys have changed and been shifted around as well – Rapid Strike and Aeldari Agility are gone, replaced with Piratical Profiteers (weapons gain Balanced against targets contesting or holding an objective marker), and Mobile Engagement (re-roll one defence dice for an operative that moved when an opponent shoots them). Light fingers have also changed from a free mission action to being able to do an action while within engagement range
On the Tactical Ploy side, Opportunistic Range returns but now does 2D3 damage on an opponent falling back for each operative, Light Fingers is more or less the same, and Deadly Ambush and One Step Ahead are gone, replaced by Capricious Flight (Fall Back for -1AP) and Contemptuous Adventurer (gain Relentless for a Shoot or Fight action).
For your operatives, losing the Take Aim ability means they’re free to do more – they don’t spend AP for the ability any more and it’s now just a passive buff for Rifles. This also frees them up to gain a new ability, and for Warriors that’s Prowling Raiders, which lets them use the Light Fingers and Capricious Flight ploys for 0 CP. Fate Dealers benefit in similar fashion, though they don’t gain any new abilities – Camo Cloaks more or less return, but the big news is that the Ranger long rifle now has two firing modes, losing Heavy, Silent, and Devastating 3 when you’re on the move but gaining a point of damage on crits. This gives you a bit more mobility and flexibility with the operative.
Your Felarch also changed substantially, gaining two new abilities to replace Coordinated Strike and Take Aim. Veteran Raider lets the Felarch perform any 1 AP action free during their activation instead of just a free Dash from Aeldari Raiders (Making him virtually a 3 APL model), while One Step Ahead gives you a once-per-battle (as long as the model is ready) chance to interrupt an enemy’s activation if you can roll higher than their APL This is amazing for preventing charges or some close combat shooting. This makes them feel much less like a Comms operative (they no longer allow you to activate other operatives) and more like a utility player. Instead that Comms/Medic duty falls to the Soul Weaver, who retains both abilities to give a unit +1 APL and heal an operative, though now they heal for 2D3 instead of D3.
The Way Seeker has also changed, with two completely new powers to replace the old set. One creates a shield around an operative that allows them to ignore a normal attack die, and the other allows you to switch the positions of operatives that are within 5” of each other, which gives you some enormous flexibility to do some really sneaky stuff – plus you can up that range to 8” with equipment.
Three Cool Things About This Team:
- Speed. Corsair Voidscarred are still one of the game’s fastest teams, and have ample movement tricks to move around the killzone, picking their targets and falling back out of harm’s way.
- Lots of Tricks. Between the team’s two Psykers and a host of new abilities, this team has a ton of tricks to mess with opponents and reposition around the killzone. There are plenty of ways to punish an opponent for their mistakes with this team, and several ways you can feint effectively.
- Adaptability. Corsairs perform well both in combat and in shooting, with powerful shooting weapons and energy swords in almost all the equipment they can face any enemy.
Final Thoughts
The Corsair Voidscarred are one of the most changed teams in the new edition of Kill Team, with a ton of little tweaks and adjustments to operatives. From operative rules to ploys to equipment, there’s a ton of new quirks to explore with this team and it will be exciting to see how they play in this new environment. Although the ploys are not super exciting and we are back to 5” restrictions that can hurt the the team (especially in the Gallowdark), the operatives have new and interesting abilities that every competitive player should want to explore.
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