Kill Team Nachmund Review: The Corsair Voidscarred

Kill Team Nachmund introduces us to two new kill teams. Representing Chaos are the Legionary Kill Team, replacing Chaos Space Marine kill teams, while on the eldar side the Corsair Voidscarred give us our first new Eldar kill team, though not one that replaces Craftworlds or Drukhari teams. Instead, the Corsairs represent the best and worst of the Aeldari in a single team, giving us many more options and ways to build. 

In this review, we’ll be diving into the new team and talking about how they’re built, their rules, and how we think they’ll fare in Kill Team. But before we do, we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing a preview copy of the Nachmund boxed set for review purposes.

Corsair Voidscarred Teams

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. You may recognize this as something other Eldar teams pay 1 CP for with Fleet – It’s a powerful addition, as it gives the team’s operatives something more like 2.5 APL for action purposes as they’re able to tack on extra movement wherever they go. When combined with the Plunderers and Aeldari Agility Strategic Ploys (more on those in a bit), this helps you to get a ton of free movement out of your Corsairs.

The Operatives

A Voidscarred Kill Team consists of 9 Operatives: 1 Voidscarred Felarch, who acts as the team leader, and 8 additional operatives chosen from a list. Voidscarred Warriors are the teams 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. You can’t take two gunners on the same team.

The Generic Operatives

Generally speaking, Corsairs have 6” movement, 8 wounds, a 4+ save, 3 DF, and APL 2. They tend to hit on a 3+, and thanks to Aeldari Raiders and some of the faction’s ploys, can manage a surprising amount of movement per turning point. Warriors come with either a Shuriken Pistol and power weapon or a Shuriken rifle, pistol, and fists. The shuriken weapons haven’t changed from the Compendium and neither have power weapons, so this is more a ranged vs. melee loadout choice, though you won’t need to take a Warrior on any given team since there are enough unique options to fill a fire team when you add in the gunner/heavy gunner.

If you’ve ever looked at the Kabalite gunners, you’ll recognize the Corsair gunner – it’s basically the same datasheet here only with a shuriken pistol instead of blades. On the newer side is the Heavy Gunner, whose options offer a choice between a Shuriken cannon and a Wraithcannon. The Shuriken Cannon profile has changed here; it’s now 4/5 damage with Fusillade, Heavy, Unwieldy, and !Rending (Unwieldy replaces Lethal 5+ and Rending has been added on crits). Meanwhile the Wraithcannon is all-new, offering basically a heavy, unwieldy, unlimited-range meltagun. It’s a pretty spicy option for melting targets from across the table.

The Unique Operatives

After those generic options, Voidscarred teams have seven other specialists to choose from:

• The Starstorm Duellist is not a melee operative but instead a dual pistol model adept at wiping out enemies at close range with their fusion pistol and shuriken pistols, with the ability to shoot both each time it shoots and the ability to hit targets in engagement range.
• The Kurnite Hunter is the operative with the parrot. Or a Falchu, more accurately. The bird gives the operative a unique action that lets it attack Concealed enemy units with the Conceal Order and forcing them to change their orders to Engage.
• The Shade Runner is less the team’s melee hitter and more like a quick-striker who cuts up opponents while dashing past them. They get the FLY keyword and their Slicing Attack unique action lets them get in cheap hits on enemy targets as they move by them with a free Normal Move.
• The Kurnathi is the team’s melee hitter, armed with a pair of power weapons. They get 4 attacks at D 4/6 with Lethal 5+ and relentless and they have the ability to automatically resolve one hit as a parry every combat before the Attacker, potentially letting them avoid damage altogether.
• The Fate Dealer is the team’s sniper. Their Ranger long rifle has BS2+, does 3/3 damage with 3 MW on a crit, and has the Heavy and Silent rules. Their camo cloak gives them an additional save dice when in cover (so you retain two successes instead of one before rolling), and their Take Aim (1 AP) action allows them to steady and gain teh Balanced rule on their rifle until the end of the activation.
• The Way Seeker is the team psyker. They get the ability to manifest up to two psychic powers per activation, though the second one only goes off on a 3+. They have four options to choose from, and these range from doing damage with lightning to giving an ally a 3+ invulnerable save with Warding Shield and swapping the positions of two friendly operatives.
• The Soul Weaver is the team Medic. They have the standard Heal D3 ability, plus they have a unique action that allows them to give another friendly operative +1 APL for a turn. This is probably the least essential of the operatives, since healing isn’t particularly useful on 8W 4+ operatives.
• Felarchs are the team leaders. They also have the Take Aim action and have the ability to activate friendly operatives immediately after they’re done acting with Coordinated Strike. 

The Ploys

Corsair teams have all their own ploys, though some will seem a bit familiar to Aeldari/Drukhari players. Several of these give you extra movement – Plunderers (1 CP) lets you pick up to three friendly operatives to immediately perform a free Dash action, though you have to end your move closer to the nearest objective marker. Aeldari Agility (1 CP) Lets your team use move an additional ▲ each time it makes a Dash, Fall Back, or Normal move action during its activation, at the cost of not being able to FIght or Shoot. When paired with Aeldari Raiders this lets you move up to 11” with your Normal and Dash moves.

When it comes to melee, Corsairs have several nasty tricks as well. The Rapid Strike Strategic Ploy lets you retain a normal hit as a crit for each of your operatives when attacking an unreadied target, while the Opportunistic Fighters Tactical Ploy does D3 mortal wounds to enemies falling back from your operatives. And The Deadly Ambush Tactical Ploy lets one of your Corsairs charge an enemy operative immediately following one of their move actions if they’re close enough.

Equipment

Corsairs have a decent amount of equipment, though perhaps fewer options than you might expect for a group of pirates and marauders. The Ocular Scanner is a fine add-on for gunners that gives its weapons the No Cover special rule, while the Corsair Blade is just a bog standard weapon upgrade to fists, giving your operatives 3/4 damage attacks in melee. 

There are also three operative-specific options: The Mistfield is a must-take on your Felarch that gives them and nearby Corsairs a 5+ invulnerable save. The Lodestar Helm goes on your Way Seeker and lets them ignore the penalty for attempting a second cast per activation. And the Pathfinder Cloak gives your Fate Dealer the ability to always be treated as under a Conceal Order, regardless of any other rules.

Tac Ops

The three Tac Ops for the Corsair Voidscarred. Flawless Raid rewards you for outsourcing an opponent two turns in a row – the very definition of winning more, but something you can wait to reveal. Soul Guard is revealed at the start of the game and has you put Spirit Stone tokens on each operative and making sure you end the game holding all of them. Opportunists has you put three loot tokens on enemy operatives and rewards you for ending up with them on your own operatives. They’re OK – only Flawless Raid seems like a miss here, and the others seem flavorful and fun, at the very least.

How They’ll Play

Corsair Voidscarred teams are going to be very interesting. Durability-wise, they’re on par with Commorite Kill Teams, but much faster and more versatile. They’ll take a full complement of unique operatives in most missions, save maybe a Medic, where another gun might be more useful. Once they get going they’ll be all over the field, using the Shade Runner to make free attacks and soften up/finish off targets in concert with the heavy gunner and way seeker. If there’s an area the team struggles a bit it’ll be shooting, but they can be very deadly from short ranges and the wraithcannon is an absolute monster. The real question at this point is whether they’ll be better than Harlequins kill teams.

Either way, if you’re a Craftworlds or Drukhari player looking to have the full Kill Team experience, the Corsairs likely give you what you’re looking for, combining just enough elements of either that you can feel good about the team you build. 

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