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.
Welcome back Kill Teamers, to the re-review of the Hierotek Circle the Necrontyr bespoke team of Kill Team 21. Making it through some big movement in KT21, and landing in KT24 very similar. Yet with new highs and lows. Don’t expect the hilarious tankiness of resurrecting, at uninjured status without a friendly Technomancer, or the bonkers chronometric suicide runs of old. We’re here to pick foes off, and live to fight another day off the backs of a more powerful counteract phase and the lowered lethality of this edition.
In this re-review, we’ll be going over the broad strokes of the changes, and trying to recontextualize the team in the new edition. Especially noting any larger changes, that are coming down the line.
Before we dive in, we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing a preview copy of these rules for Review purposes.
The Video Version of the Review
We have a video version of this review courtesy of Can You Roll a Crit?
Team Overview
One hero Cryptek, with two Plasmacytes, and a retinue of five sturdier Necrontyr. The tried and true load out with some key changes on the abilities spread, and passive abilities of our Deathmarks and Immortals. We continue into the new edition with Recon and Security, letting us goad our opponents into our fire, or bring the heat with our gauss weaponry.
Abilities
Reanimation Protocols
Each incapacitated operative leaves behind a reanimation token within its control range before getting removed, losing all rules and tokens associated with it. In the Ready step of each Strategy phase you choose one token and roll a D6 looking for a 3+. Hitting a 3+ leads to that Reanimated operative showing back up within 3” of its token outside of opposing control range. With D3+1 wounds, with an order of your choice. This reanimation will roll back kill ops but not tac ops, so keep an eye on that!
This has been a blessing and a curse around the Hierotek team, and moving back to two chances to reanimate a turn on 3+s is going to be hard to manage. Many an old game was decided on a pair of sleepy Necrons never waking, and we’re back to those times. Notably when we do wake up it’ll be with 2D3+2 wounds, which can easily keep us uninjured and able to dish out the pain. However getting a token on every operative once without positional babysitting will free us up to get where we need, and with 5”s of movement that’s looking better than ever.
Magnify
Gain Ceaseless when using another friendly engaged Cryptek or Apprentek as the active operative for the purposes of determining a valid target. A powerful shooting rule that can keep a cagey Cryptek safe, or let an injured Apprentek punch above its weight. Both operatives need to be engaged, but you can come at this from pretty oblique angles as you only need visibility from point A to B.
Living Metal
In the ready step of each strategy phase, after reanimation protocols, each necron heals D3+1 wounds, rolling separately for each operative. This is a reasonably large upgrade from 2 wounds flat, and notably happens AFTER reanimating, so your operatives are going to be getting up pretty darned healthy.
The Operatives
We’re still a team, with a strange mix of profiles, the Crypteks are our Astartes level threats, with the 14 wounds, 3+ save, and 3APL to back that up. Noble lords shoot on 3+s and fight on 4+s, but we’re mostly there for their abilities. Our mix of elevated chassis sport the 10-wound, 5” move, 3+ save, and we general shoot on 3+s, and fight on 4+s. While our plasmacyte helpers are 7” move, 5+ save, 2APL, and 5 wound dorks. A eclectic spread of technologically superior profiles, that a strong hierotek player must know how to manipulate. We’ll start with a deeper dive on the stars of the show the crypteks, who along with everyone else loss the ability to fly.
Chronomancer
The Kill Team 2021 pick for best Cryptek probably maintains a good argument for best all comers Cryptek. Each of them will have the Interstitial Command 1AP action, to have a friendly muggle Necron within 6 of the Cryptek or Despotek perform what effectively is a counteract window. Aka 1AP action with a 2” movement restriction, and that action cannot be repeated this turning point, or have been done this turning point. While our 3 actions have the same name, many of them are reworked. With Countertemporal Nanomine now being a 20mm token, with 6” radius that subtracts 2 from opposing operatives move stat, until the next users activation, or recast. Timesplinter is now a teleport of an operative within 6”, centered around the caster to another 6” away point, with a restriction to one Timesplinter on an operative each turn. While our old feel no pain Chronometron now subtracts 1 from the Atk stat of opposing weapons targeting an ally within 6” of the caster.
This all amounts to a pretty solid gunner with both Aeonstave’s 5 attack, 3+s to hit, 3/3 damage, Blast 2”, Lethal 5+, Stun profile, and Entropic Lance’s 4 attack, 3+s to hit, 5/3 damage, Devastating 3, Piercing 1 profile being defensible, with a good spread of debuffing and offensive repositioning on one Cryptek. You’re no longer getting the huge offensive punch from your abilities — Technomancer has picked up that mantle — but the utility on offer is through the roof. One notable buff is that our melee profiles are now threatening to 7 wound operatives with the move to four attacks!
Psychomancer
Our spooky scary fearmonger returns with an old take on what mortals fear. An underutilized pick in KT21, returns with much the same Abyssal Lance with 5 attacks, 3+s to hit, 2/2 damage, Blast 2”, 2” Devastating 1, Piercing 2, notably with new spots to get Lethal 5+ inside of Volkus strongholds. We have the same Interstitial Command same as everyone else, but we’re here for the star of the show, the Nightmare Shroud action, an 8” bubble of no re-rolls and no critical successes. Harbinger of Despair sees a new lease on life in an edition with only three objectives, where polluting the opposing APL on a central objective can force opponents to send three Death Korps mooks to beat the APL of a single Steadfast Immortal. Move over Mandrake Nightfiend! Vision of Madness is my new best friend, allowing us to select a visible opposing model to gift a madness token to. Whenever that opposing model attempts to activate, roll a D6 and roll equal to or higher than its APL. If you do that successfully, skip the activation unless it’s the last model left to go. A 66% chance to stall an Astartes or an 83% chance to stall a mere mortal’s activation is insane, especially when you can mark this on an expended enemy operative and have madness at the start of a new turn.
The Psychomancer makes its grand return in a metagame low on piercing 2 threats, against Astarte-level threats ascendant. While you aren’t likely to kill those Astartes in a round, of shooting or with a unique action. You can certainly control the flow of a game against Astartes quite well especially with full access to your suite of abilities. Now may be the time to dust off those fearsome tentacles.
Technomancer
Our mid-range choice, focused on the health and damage output of our friendly operatives. Staff of Light is one of the few 6 atk weapons, with 3+s to hit, 3/4 damage with Rending. Being able to Augment Weapon to grant an ability pair from Lethal 5+, Rending, Saturate, and/or Severe to a friendly within 6”, which includes yourself. Means that your staff can absolutely nuke almost anything with weight of dice if you grant yourself Saturate, Severe, and Ceaseless through an Apprentek. Meanwhile Canoptek Repair lets you heal a friendly within 6” of the cryptek 3D3 wounds. Reinforce Metal gives a friendly operative within 6” of us, this edition’s version of damage mitigation, letting us ignore 1 damage from any attack die that deals 3 or more damage. Amusingly enough with all of these being Support abilities a comms equipment, means a centrally placed Technomancer can let loose devastating blasts of light while supporting everyone in a 9” radius.
Ultimately the Technomancer is a strong support piece, and the ability for our Apprentek to also use the Augment Weapon ability after we let loose once, can let us double dip in a nice way. While our ability to heal ourselves means we could lodge ourselves into vantage and just let loose with reasonably reckless abandon.
Plasmacyte Accelerator
Our cute plasmacytes have lost the ability to fly, but gained 7” movement for their losses. Not an even trade, though we’ll take what we can get. Both keep super conceal, 1AP fall back, and our accelerator keeps its APL boost. Interestingly enough our ranged weapons see some changes with Spark going to 4” range, with 4+s to hit, 2/3 damage, and Piercing 1. Meaning there are going to be a number of games where a hero accelerator swings out to finish off opponents, bonus points if a Technomancer uses Augment Weapon first to juice the damage!
Plasmacyte Reanimator
All the same chassis comments follow from above, with our Sparks being replaced with the Atomiser beam, a new profile with four attacks, 4+s to hit, 3/4 damage, 6” range, and Lethal 5+. Our Reanimator still remains a crucial operative with the Reanimate 1AP action letting us roll a 3+ to get something reanimated, or 2AP to guarantee that reanimated status! Keeping the reanimator around is crucial to letting us get up for a second bite at the killzone apple.
Apprentek
We keep our 3APL Apprentek, with 11 wounds and a 3+ save. With Arcane Conduit remaining a solid 4 attacks, 3+s to hit, 4/5 damage, and Piercing 1 if you reach out and blast someone its going to hurt. Additionally we can use any of the cryptek actions each turn, but can only do it once a turn. All in all you should never leave home without him anymore.
Immortal Despotek
Our boy lost his 3s to hit, but that’s just part of the new meta game, and luckily we gained an 1” of move stat for our troubles. The big loss here is our Interstitial Command going back to 1AP, over Demand’s 0AP. On a team with so few APL it’s a confusing ask to trade those AP for weak abilities like this. Meanwhile Steadfast is a new ability that lets us control markers as a 3 APL operative always. Which is pretty potent against both hordes, and opposing Astartes. The math on our gun options remains the same, but the number of zones where Teslas perform has increased if Volkus becomes the norm across communities.
Immortal Guardian
Same weapon math, same as the despotek, with the same Steadfast ability. The true struggle is now we need to compare and contrast our Immortals, to the new and improved…
Deathmark
Hyperphase subspaces have been lost and in return we gained the ability to stage on turn 1 safely with our 5” of movement. Meanwhile the new Deathmarked ability grants opposing survivors a deathmark token, which lets all future deathmark operatives shoot at them with the Seek weapon rule. With the Multi-Dimensional Vision 1AP action letting us ignore obscurity with Seek, there isn’t an Astarte that can strike fear into your heart. Especially with Snyaptic Disintegrators still hitting on 2+s with 4 attacks, 4/3 damage, and Devastating 2, Heavy (Dash only), Piercing 1, and Severe. Those deathmarked opponents will find it nigh impossible to survive the onslaught.
The Ploys
We did have a small reshuffle of our strategy ploys, with some old returns, and some new ploys. Relentless Onslaught is a returning favorite with a buff even! Getting that balanced rule against targets within 8” compared to the 6”s of KT21. Undying Androids also remains unchanged, letting us saunter into the open and still keep a cover save. In a metagame without AP2, this matt end up carrying us even harder than one may expect. While Methodical Elimination is meant to make up for the loss of some of our melee prowess, letting retaliating operatives start with Accurate 2, among its other benefits. This makes charging us almost guaranteed to land an opponent into a self healing morass. Command Underlings is another new toy, with some interesting Support keyword usage considering that RAW the comms device equipment doesn’t interact with it. However, giving a strategy phase movement ploy to a slow team, when ladders exist and let us dash up or down for 1” we can get a startling amount of shuffling done. Especially if a comms device lets the range be 9” wide! In the meantime I’ll certainly be looking for spots where that 6” range bubble around our cryptek can get us into or out of trouble.
Firefight ploys got some big changes, with the loss of our forward deploy, we make it through with almost a full four ploys feeling fresh. Cortical Control is not quite the Subjugation of KT21, only letting a Cryptek or Apprentek use a support ability with no range requirement. I honestly can’t see too many use cases but if you really need to juice someone from afar, it’s nice to have the option. Reanimated Function is a brand new one, letting out 20mm reanimation token count as a 1APL operative while determining control of a marker until the start of the next turn. Honestly this is pretty neat and could see some trick plays, letting you steal objective control when you most need it. Living Lightning lets us flip the kill switch on our tesla’ carbines shifting us from 2” Devastating, to Blast 2” which really undersells how lethal that change up can be. Definitely an excellent argument for Tesla’s against wider teams of all sorts. Dimensional Ambush lets a concealed Deathmark perform a Guard action that lets us flip to engage to Fight or Shoot. Honestly the Deathmarks have had quite the glow up and the ability to use Guard on open, bheta decima, and volkus boards is incredible especially since we can ignore obscurity before setting up. Letting us just output an absurd amount of board pressure with a couple triangulated Deathmarks!
Equipment
Magnification Conduits
Once per turn, your Apprentek or Cryptek can use a non-Plasmacyte engaged operative as if it had the Magnify rule. Honestly I expect you’d always take this as it’s an absolutely insane damage amplification rule letting you gain Ceaseless with your best shooters almost whenever you want from any angle.
Phase Shifter
Once per turn when a Cryptek is being shot, drop the Piercing value of an opposing weapon by 1. Excellent if you expect to take any piercing fire, terrible otherwise.
Tesseract Cube
In the ready step of each strategy phase get a CP for some gambling. On a 1, you lose your cube, and on a 4+ gain a CP. You can gain a max of 2 CP from this, and you should always take this as our strategy ploys are incredible.
Tesla Weave
Whenever an enemy ends a Charge action in control range of any of our operatives, they suffer D3 damage for each friendly in range. A must take against melee hordes, and middling otherwise.
Hyperphase Assimilation
If Astartes think they’re scary this edition, we’re here to show them what’s truly terrifying. We’re taking the Psychomancer, backed up with a horde of Deathmarks. We’ll be selecting Confirm Kill, and selecting the Kill Op as our primary op. Letting out Nightmare Shrouded leader ghost up to the central objective early into tp1, leaving some incredible bait for our astartes opponent. Deathmarks stage in any position that lets them see as much of the battlefield as possible. With our Apprentek casting Vision of Madness on the first Astartes that peeks its head out. If you’ve been prescient enough to reposition a Deathmark onto a vantage point near your drop zone, set it on Guard with no obscurity, and just lie in wait. If your opponent gets into a shoot out on TP1, you’re in an excellent position as you’re in this for the long haul. A 2:1 ratio is fine by you.
Let the Deathmarks take the wheel as those tokens stack up amongst survivors as you reanimate into new firing positions, then fade into the shadows after letting loose. The crit op can be ignored, because you’re only here for ultra violence and that sweet sweet Seek value. This notably works best in a mission type that scores later in the game, where you can take some attrition and focus on getting to turn 4.
Final Thoughts
The Hierotek Circle make it into the new edition with plenty of new legs. While they’ve lost some big reliability in their free resurrection roles, the humble Plasmacyte has swooped in to fill that role. While each of your Crypteks feels somewhat balanced in the lower objective count boards. Meanwhile this lower number of objectives helps our low APL count feel substantially less burdensome, especially when we can craft a game plan that lets us channel that APL into bullets. A much easier ask then noodling around with buttons, and tokens.
The metagame will shift in a way, that should give us some more room to breathe, seeing as the mass of piercing 1 on the team, should fare well into the new Astartes threats. 4/5 damage tends to injure even 14 wound models with startling efficiency, especially with some of the special threats you can juice up. All in all the team looks to have a bright future.
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