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.
Seal your voidsuits and climb into the boarding torpedo, because today we are reviewing Imperial Navy Breachers. Breachers have been a strong team since their introduction, and have had decent win rates and podium representation up until the end of KT21, only really suffering due to the prevalence of powerful melee teams that have been at the top of the meta for nearly a year. How will the Imperial Navy’s finest fare in this new edition?
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
Team Overview
Breachers are a close range shooting team that gives up ranged options for overall improved durability and reliability across the team. They have a large number of abilities that are meant to enhance these aspects and excel at overwhelming opponents.
Special Rule: Breach and Clear & Void Armor
The main ability of the team is one that shares their namesake. This allows the Breachers’ player to activate two operatives in a row once per Turning Point if those operatives begin their activation within 3 inches of one another. This, when combined with many of their ploys, allows the team some of the hardest hitting activations in the game, especially when coupled with their weapon specialists.
Breachers come with a 4+ save putting them in a category similar to either Exaction Squad or Kasrkin, and additionally may re-roll a single failed save with any weapon that has Blast or Torrent while being immune to X’ Devastating if they aren’t the initial target. This makes them slightly more durable against weapons that are more commonly used to combat horde teams, or taken to the Gallowdark.
Team Composition
Breachers are largely unchanged from KT21, consisting of the same operatives as they did before, but now the robots only cost half a selection. This means the team still has 12 selections, but now may have up to 13 operatives on the board, which is a nice upgrade since in the past it had not been uncommon for players to leave the robots behind and take extra Armsmen instead. The downside to this is you can no longer have a complete team from a single box.
Playing This Team
As mentioned the Breachers are meant to bully their opponents, closing in and punishing them with coordinated shooting along with the help of their unique robot helpers, while being able to soak up more punishment than most teams of similar size. For example the ploys Overwhelm Target and Blitz are specifically meant to be used in coordination with Breach and Clear, enhancing an already powerful team ability.
With the changes to Elites and this team having access to Security odds are players will want to focus on playing this team more defensively. Fortunately the same abilities that make it effective on the offense can just as easily be used to punish over aggressive opponents, and ploys like Brace for Counterattack allow Ready operatives to survive when you lose initiative. Additionally, most Breacher operatives come equipped with a hatchet that allows them to hit harder than human standard, however due to many teams now having team-wide melee upgrades as an equipment choice this advantage is somewhat less notable.
What’s Changed?
Like all teams there are some changes, but Breachers, having been a solid team in Kill Team 2021, definitely fall on the side of receiving a lighter touch than most. All the ploys players have grown used to remain, with the single exception of Calm Head being replaced by Deck Hand, which allows operatives of 1 or 2 APL to perform a Free Operate Hatch. This does allow for some more interesting plays on Gallowdark, but overall feels like a slight nerf since this ploy is only useful on that Kill Zone.
The Sergeant-At-Arms sees his ability to change the location of the Attack/Defence Order modified slightly, while the Axejack has lost his Wade In ability and Embolden is in line with other damage reduction abilities, a significant nerf for this combat specialist.
The C.A.T. Unit and Gheistskull have seen changes to bring them in line with similar types of pet operatives such as no longer counting for your opponent’s scoring, and their abilities function in much the same way with the C.A.T. now having the ability to mark targets on its datacard instead of the Surveyors. The Gheistskull’s detonate has lost EMP and has a smaller range, but has had its damage increased.
On the equipment front we have Rebreathers returning to prevent your team from suffering negative APL modifiers, while Combat Stimms now prevent movement penalties from being injured. Both of these in conjunction are great as it means your opponent can’t do much to slow your team down unless they fully remove your operatives. Somewhat less impressive we have Slugs returning to allow your shotguns to be used as lasguns when not in range, and System Override allows a once per TP free use of Operate Hatch. Override is great if you’re on Gallowdark, especially combined with Deck Hand, however is useless otherwise.
Cool Things About This Team:
- SWAT Team. Breachers live up to their name with loads of abilities that make your team feel like trained room clearers working in tandem. This sets them apart from Exaction Squad who have similar arms and armor, but give more of the feel of guys doing a drug bust as opposed to entering a fortified bunker.
- Aesthetic. The Breachers are one of the more interesting design decisions for Imperial forces, looking more like they belong in a Submarine than in space. It would’ve been real easy for these guys to just be Imperial Guard with Navy uniforms, but GW did something special instead.
Final Thoughts
Breachers remain a strong choice for both new and veteran players, having not changed nearly as drastically as some other teams, basically retaining all their strengths and weaknesses from KT21. Their central ability means you can very easily set up multiple threat points at the end of a Turning Point making losing initiative less of an issue than with other teams making them somewhat forgiving. However, they do lack much in the way of Piercing or dedicated melee threats meaning they can have trouble against pure close combat teams and Elites.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
