Greetings, my fellow Solid Snakes; the following article is for experienced players who want to cut right to the chase. At this point most of you know that the latest edition of Kill Team is more akin to a stream-lining or update to Kill Team 2021 as opposed to a complete overhaul. With that in mind we have taken it upon ourselves to collate the important changes, and comment upon what they might mean for the competitive scene going forward. The easiest way to go about this is to cover each change as you would expect it to arise when setting up using the newest Approved Ops game sequence.
Before we dive in, we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing a preview copy of these rules for review purposes.
Missions
Games of Kill Team now revolve around three different mission types: Crit Ops, Kill Ops, and Tac Ops each of which can be scored to a maximum of 6 Victory Points over the course of a match. Crit Ops take the place of what was known previously as the Primary Mission (Loot, Secure, and Capture), but now players will have nine different options to choose from. All of these options introduce a unique mission action related to the objective markers placed on the battlefield, which has been reduced from six to three.
Tac Ops still correspond to the four archetypes players are familiar with, however each has been reduced to three options with players only choosing one to complete over the course of a game. Additionally, most are kept secret until at least a single point has been scored. In almost all cases both Crit Ops and Tac Ops can not be scored during the first Turning Point meaning players who are used to playing aggressively and scoring early will have to adjust their play style.
Lastly, Kill Ops is simply a kill counter that allows players to accumulate VP as they incapacitate their opponent’s team. The number of kills needed to score points is based on the size of your opponent’s team with a maximum of five points available, and a final sixth going to the person with the highest kill grade.
Battlefield Setup and Terrain Changes
Kill Zones: Gallowdark, Volkus, and Bheta-Decima all come with specific terrain placement, while generic “non-specific” maps are provided for Octarius, Moroch, Chalnath, etc. As before players need to assign terrain features to their battlefield with all previous terrain features carrying over with the addition of a few new ones and changes to existing ones.
Exposed terrain has been added to distinguish from Insignificant terrain as something that provides no rules benefit such as cover, but may still inhibit things like movement due to being in the way, ladders or hanging chains for example. Secondly, Blocking has been added to apply to small gaps or openings that might have previously provided small windows of visibility on terrain features that are otherwise meant to totally block it, small windows on doors or the gaps beneath pipes for example. Lastly, Accessible has been introduced for terrain that has doorways, such as Chalnath or Octarius, which work as before but impart a one inch movement penalty when being passed through. The new “Door Fight” action lets you attack enemies within 2” of a door you’re touching on City Fight boards like Volkus, rather like a hatchway fight on ITD.
Perhaps the biggest change to terrain is how Vantage now works. A large number of changes have been made to vantage, although its key purpose of allowing operatives to fire on Concealed operatives within Light Cover remains. However, those same operatives may now either retain an additional cover save, OR retain a single critical save automatically. If operatives on a vantage point fire on enemies with an Engage order their weapons will gain the new Accurate 1/2 special rule depending on their height in relation to the target (more on new weapon special rules later). This means that while vantage points still provide more firing options, operatives who attempt to remain hidden have a greater chance of survivability. In a large shift in design Vantage terrain now grants cover, where previously operatives on a vantage were essentially fair game unless there was a rampart between them and an enemy.
Lastly, In a strange choice of wording, Attacker and Defender has been removed, however a roll-off still occurs with the winner deciding who gets their choice of drop zone with the other player winning ties during the Scout Phase.
Selecting Equipment
Our next large change comes in the form of equipment selection. Instead of each player using ten points to distribute items amongst their operatives each player instead may choose up to four equipment options. These may be chosen in any combination from either a new list of Universal options or Team specific options. It is important to note that equipment no longer corresponds to any individual operative, and while some are limited in their uses you don’t have to worry as much about a key operative being eliminated early and losing access to that option as a consequence. Each option may only be taken once per battle, and players alternate setting them up prior to operative placement.
2x Light Barricades – Barricade placement is now no longer an automatic part of the game. Instead if you feel a Kill Zone lacks sufficient cover you can use one of your four options to place barricades.
1x Heavy Barricade – Nowhere to hide from enemy vantage points? This piece counts as Heavy Terrain, perfect for Octarius and other terrain sets that often have less heavy terrain.
1x Portable Barricade – A light barricade that can be moved over the course of the game. An operative can Reposition with this at a minus 2 movement penalty, and loss of the ability to climb, drop, or jump. However, it also provides a +1 to saves, meaning this will likely be a popular choice for Elite gunners.
2x Ladders – These may be placed on terrain within your territory and reduce a climb to a single inch. This seems to essentially be the replacement for climbing ropes, giving teams a more even footing in terms of vertical movement.
1x Ammo Cache – A marker that is placed within your territory. An operative controlling it may once per turn use it to get a single re-roll when shooting. Essentially a free Command Re-roll for shooting attacks assuming you keep someone near it, a perfect choice for a Sniper or Gunner nest.
1x Razor Wire – A choice dedicated to move-blocking your opponent. With roughly a similar footprint to a barricade this piece counts as Exposed, however incurs an ADDITIONAL two inch penalty on attempts to climb over it, or movement within one inch of it.
1x Comms Device – A marker placed within your territory that extends the range of any SUPPORT rules the controlling operative may have by three inches.
1x Mines – Must be placed within your territory and more than 2 inches from markers and access points. The first time this marker comes within an operative’s control range (more on that!) it receives D3+3 damage. Keep in mind this affects your operatives as well.
2x Utility Grenades – Stun and Smoke Grenades are now available to everyone. When you choose this option you can either take two uses of a single type or one of each. Stun Grenades now incur a APL penalty on a 3+, but otherwise remain unchanged, while Smoke has had its footprint reduced to one inch with enemies within two inches able to ignore its effects. Smoke grants Obscuring to operatives within its footprint, and ignores the Piercing weapon special rule. Both of these rules have extensive changes that will be covered later. Lastly, instead of disappearing at the end of a Turning Point it is removed D3 activations into the following Turning Point meaning players who have used a Smoke Grenade to aggressively move operatives forward won’t be immediately punished for losing initiative.
2x Explosive Grenades – As above but with Frag and Krak Grenades. These weapons now hit on +4 instead of +3, and have gained the new equivalent of No Cover, Saturate, while losing Indirect, now called Seek. Grenades now function more as a way to gain access to anti-elite or anti-horde weaponry for teams that lack them, instead of a way to perform alpha strikes early game.
Setting Up Operatives and Scouting
Operatives are still divided and placed as before with one big difference. All operatives MUST begin with a Conceal order, meaning that all operatives have the option of switching orders during the first Turning Point. That’s right! No more having to worry about how many operatives you wish to start in Conceal. This is a big change that will drastically affect the flow of the game.
Scouting has seen some big changes with all options renamed and improved. Fortify (1) has become Equip (1) which allows for a fifth equipment choice meaning at no point may barricades ever be placed on Vantage, which would be largely redundant due to the changes to Vantage. Infiltrate (2) has been changed to Ploy (2), which allows for a Strategic Ploy to be used for 0 CP during the first Turning Point, a strong improvement over the now redundant ability to change orders. Lastly, Recon (3) has been changed to allow for a free Reposition (3) (formally known as Normal Move) action as long as the operative remains wholly within 3 inches of your Drop Zone, a straight improvement over a free Dash action. All these scouting options are significantly better than those found in the last edition, while they determine initiative in the first Turning Point in exactly the same fashion.
Author’s Note: Initiative is basically determined twice, first during Board Setup to determine Drop Zone choice, and second during Scouting to determine who will have the first activation in TP1.
Starting the Battle and Strategy Phase
The Strategy Phase is largely unchanged with the exception of the introduction of Strategic Gambits as a placeholder term for ploys and datacard abilities that occur during this phase. Additionally, during the Strategy Phase of the first TP players will choose one of their three mission types in secret to be their Primary Op. They will gain a bonus amount of VP at the end of the game equal to half (rounding up) of what they scored. There’s now no target reveal step. Instead, Tac Ops are now usually revealed when they are first scored.
Also, in an attempt to make losing initiative less devastating in later Turning Points the player without initiative will gain 2 CP in TP2 and beyond.
The Firefight Phase
Oh boy, here we go. Playing the actual game.
Actions remain largely unchanged with a few major changes, the most critical being the introduction of Counteract in place of Overwatch. Now when it is your turn to activate an operative, and you have no more to activate, your operatives with an Engage Order may perform any 1 AP action as long as that action does not move them more than 2 inches. Boy howdy! This is the big change Elite players have been wanting for some time, and will drastically change how people play.
Of somewhat lesser importance the Pick Up/Place Marker (1 AP) universal action has been added allowing objective markers to be moved over the course of specific Crit Ops. Normal Move has been changed to Reposition (1 AP), but is otherwise unchanged. However, Reposition is now the only way operatives may climb terrain and may only do so if the target of the climb is within 3 inches vertically, also Scalable is no longer a terrain trait. In addition, friendly operatives no longer block one another’s movement, which is a big boost to horde teams who can find themselves struggling to move properly during the first Turning Point.
Engagement Range has been replaced by Control Range which functions as both melee range and the range by which an operative controls things such as objective markers. Almost all actions that were restricted from being done in engagement range can’t be performed in control range. Operatives are considered to be within control range of something if it is within an inch and visible. Importantly, this means that markers may no longer be controlled through walls that block visibility.
Shooting has seen some major changes, the biggest being that Obscuring no longer prevents you from being the target of a shooting attack. Instead, when firing on an obscured target you reduce the number of RETAINED hit dice by one, and retain all critical hits as normal hits, which is specifically noted to take precedence over all other rules. Additionally, operatives now only need to be within one inch of terrain, respectively, to lose Obscuring. This means that there is no longer a special dead zone where operatives can find themselves out of cover and obscuring despite having heavy terrain between themselves and their opponent.
There’s no mention of invulnerable saves in the core book. It’s possible that these will be added later, however we’ve now seen a preview of mandrakes and they now just ignore Piercing. We’re curious to see how this is handled in future, particularly where models have different armour and invulnerable saves in 2.0.
Combat has received a slight alteration with combat support bonuses now stacking, and how re-rolls are handled in combat being more clearly delineated with players now alternating to choose to re-roll a single die to pass. Once both players have passed the results of the rolls are final and players begin the hit/block (parry has been replaced) process.
Finally, we have a significant refresh of the weapon special rules, some new, some renamed, some combined, and some reworked. On the new front we have Accurate X, Punishing, Severe, and Shock. Accurate allows for a number of auto-retained normal successes equal to the value associated with it (remember the changes to Vantage?), Severe allows for the auto-retaining of normal hits to critical hits if no critical hits were retained (this DOES trigger other critical hit rules), and Shock replaces Stun on melee weapons even allowing for a critical hit to be discarded for your opponent’s retained successes if no normal hits are available. Punishing, while not technically new, was previously granted by certain terrain features, and now allows for a player to turn a failed roll into a normal hit if they retain any critical hits.
Heavy, Blast, Ceaseless and Hot have been reworked. Heavy no longer allows for ANY movement in the same activation in which the Shoot Action is performed unless there is accompanying movement type next to it (Dash, Reposition, etcetera). Blast is mostly the same, however secondary targets now benefit from Cover or Obscuring if the primary target did. Ceaseless now allows re-rolls of all results of a certain number, making it superior to Balance. Hot no longer causes damage to the user on a roll of 1, but instead a single roll is made after firing. If the result is less than the hit value of the weapon the result is multiplied by 2 and that is how much damage the operative receives. This makes Plasma much less dangerous to fire the better the user is, another boon to Elite teams.
Saturate and Seek have replaced No Cover and Indirect respectively with the possibility of Seek having certain terrain types (Light or Heavy) associated with it. Piercing now encompasses both Piercing and Armor Penetration with the value and keyword afterward determining the amount and when the rule is applied (Piercing 2 or Piercing Crits 1 for example).
Torrent has been slightly improved. Now, rather than all targets having to be within X of each other, they only need to be within that range of the primary target. Secondary targets do all need to be valid targets though, so you still can’t torrent people you can’t see or are out of range. [It looks like Torrent also replaces the old Fusilade rule, as we’re starting to see weapons with a Torrent fire mode.
General Changes
With over 30 teams receiving rules updates to bring them inline with the new edition there are a number of general changes that we have noted across all teams that one wouldn’t expect to find in the Core Rulebook.
Grenades have universally lost Indirect (Seek) and Flamers are now 4 attacks and 3/3 damage across the board. Sniper operatives have all gained a Mobile option that is equivalent to a standard boltgun.
Ending the Battle
Games of Kill Team still end after four Turning Points and are completed with a total of 21 points possible, six for each op type, and an additional three for getting a score of 5 or higher from your primary op.
Final Thoughts
Personally I am very happy with the rules changes to the Core of the game. It remains to be scene how well all the teams will be balanced in relation to one another and within the framework of the competitive scene that will be generated around the Approved Ops Deck. This being said the design team seemed to have addressed nearly every issue that could be found around what was an already very tight ruleset.
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