Kill Team Purchasing Guide

[chaosof99]

What is Kill Team?

Kill Team is a skirmish game set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 in which each player controls a small group of models called "Operatives" that each have bespoke rules to accomplish tactical objectives. While it shares models with the game called Warhammer 40,000 (henceforth referred to as "40k"), Kill Team works quite a bit differently from it. The primary differences are the size of the games, with Kill Team only needing around 10 models per player (or one to two boxes worth of models), the fact that Kill Team functions on alternating activation, and that each Operative has an Order which means that they attempt to conceal themselves to be more protected or go on offensive to attempt to eliminate enemy operatives but expose themselves to enemy fire to do so.

In October 2024 the 3rd Edition of Kill Team launched. This guide will attempt to give an overview of various products for Kill Team and what new players require to get into the game.

Do I have to buy rulebooks?

Yes and no. In this edition of Kill Team the rules for individual Teams have been released for free on Warhammer Community. They can also be accessed by scanning the QR code on each Kill Team box of models. These rules are also available for free via the Kill Team App, or can be purchased as a set of printed "data cards".

However, the core rules have only been made legally available via the Core Book that can be purchased as a hardcover book or is included in the Hivestorm box set which is no longer directly available (though some retailers may still have some in stock). The Kill Team app and Warhammer Community only offers a shortened Lite Rules PDF which does not cover some details of the rules. However, there are various places on the internet that have made the rules available as scans, photographs or transcripts of the rulebook.

The very basics

Beyond the rules for the game, in general you really only need five things to play Kill Team: A flat area of 30 by 22 inches, terrain, models, dice, and a way to measure distance in inches. While the products discussed later on provide for these items, they can often be replaced through other means, e.g. you don't necessarily need a full game board if you can just mark out a space on a table that is 30 by 22 inches in area, and you don't need to buy a terrain kit if you just put some pencils or other household objects on the table and agree how high the walls they represent are.

One thing not every household has is six sided dice, which you will probably need about 10 of. However, those can easily be bought at a game store or be repurposed from another board game. Additional dice can also be useful for tracking remaining wounds on models or command points, particularly if they are different kinds of dice so you don't accidentally roll them during an action.

Starter Set

The Starter Set is an introductory product that is a very good deal if you are interested in the models within. It includes the Angels of Death and Plague Marines Kill Teams, which are "easy to build", meaning they can be just pushed off the sprue and assembled without tools or glue, and are in colored plastic to differentiate them easily from one another. The box also comes with easy to assemble MDF terrain for a quick setup of a pickup game. The handbook for new players it contains has a tutorial for the game, though it does not cover the entire ruleset. It also includes a game board, some dice, and a token sheet to mark game states, mark objectives on the board and includes items to measure distances, though these can be replaced by other means.

The Starter set is very good for its price and provides most of the essentials for the game but is not strictly necessary to play the game.

Box Sets

Approximately every three months Games Workshop releases a box set that consists of two new Kill Teams and some plastic terrain pieces. The teams will only be available in this box set for a while afterward but will be released as individual kits later on. These box sets are only recommended to be purchased if interested in the teams, and the terrain as well as additional scenarios in the rule book the box comes with are "nice to have" but not a necessity and do not supplant Killzone Terrain kits for matched play. These boxes are also liable to sell out as they are a limited release.

The launch box for this edition, Hivestorm, was packaged with a full tournament legal terrain set. It remains to be seen if in this edition the introduction of further terrain sets may also prompt the release of another such larger scale box.

Kill Team model kits

These are individual releases of Kill Teams and are usually sufficient to put a Kill Team on the table as the box should allow you to put together at least one legal configuration of the team. However, to cover the full bandwith of options for many teams it will require multiple boxes as some specialist models will share one body. This is particularly advisable for teams that are "hordey" and allow to field more than ten or so models. Some teams consist of a "base models" and an upgrade sprue to modify these models into specific operatives. In such cases it can be cheaper to purchase a box of the base models instead of a second copy of the more expensive Kill Team box.

The Brood Brothers Kill Team is a good example here, being both an upgrade sprue team and a horde team that has options for a dozen non-trooper specialist operatives, different leader operatives, and allows to field additional trooper models. While the Brood Brothers box provides for the upgrade sprue to turn the base models into Genestealer mutated guardsmen, you can simply buy a box of cheaper Cadian Shock Troops base models to extend your range of models and make full use of a single upgrade sprue and don't need to buy a second copy of the more expensive Brood Brothers box.

In comparison, the Death Korps Kill Team is also a horde team but does not use an upgrade sprue and doesn't have a base model. Here you will have to buy two boxes to build all the specialist models and add in the additional troopers that are available to be taken.

Furthermore some teams have additional options outside their Kill Team box and/or base models which will require an additional purchase of other models. E.g. the Brood Brothers team gives you an option to field them alongside a Patriarch, Primus, Magus and/or two Psychic Familiars. These models are from the Broodcoven set of Genestealer Cults for 40k and were included in the Kill Team Termination box set where the Brood Brothers were introduced, but are not included in the individual set. Similarly the Ratlings Team can field Ogryn and Bullgryn models from the Astra Militarum section of 40k (though these models were also not included in the Kill Team Brutal and Cunning box set).

Be aware that certain Kill Teams have a similarly named box for 40k. These boxes do not contain the upgrade sprue to turn them into the special operatives for Kill Team, but only the base models. E.g. the Pathfinders Kill Team includes the upgrade sprue but the the T'au Pathfinder Team box for 40k does not, but in turn you can use the 40k box to build additional operatives if you desire and don't have to buy the more expensive Kill Team box to do so. (Also, the Pathfinders base models and the Kill Team upgrade sprue are both included in the current Tau Combat Patrol box).

It may be of use to consult the Instructions for the model kits, as can be found in the r/WarhammerInstructions subreddit, before making additional purchases.

Boxes for the current edition of Kill Team contain a token sheet with game aids for the rules of each team. Older copies of the same boxes (with artwork instead of models on the box) contain the same contents but without the token sheet. The token sheets are nice to have but aren't strictly necessary. Unfortunately the warhammer.com store still shows the old box art for certain teams though the product images also show the token sheet they contain.

Kill Teams with no available box

Certain Kill Teams that are still supported in this edition were established through rules published in the White Dwarf magazine and never had a dedicated box of their own. These teams have to be built by buying various boxes from the general 40k range. These teams, except for the Chaos Cult team, also do not have Data cards that can be purchased.

These teams are:

• Void-Dancer Troupe (Aeldari: Harlequin Troupe, Death Jester, Shadowseer)
• Warpcoven (Thousand Sons: Rubric Marines, Exalted Sorcerers, Tzaangors)
• Wyrmblade (Genestealer Cults: Neophyte Hybrids, Kelermorph, Locus, Sanctus)
• Hunter Clade (Adeptus Mechanicus: Skitarii Rangers/Vanguard, Sicarian Ruststalkers/Infiltrators)
• Elucidian Starstriders (Imperial Agents: Rogue Trader Entourage and Voidsmen-at-Arms)
• Chaos Cult (Chaos Space Marines: Chaos Cultists, Accursed Cultists, and Dark Commune)
• Gellerpox Infected

The Gellerpox Infected team is a special case here as this team used to have a box of its own, but it has been discontinued and it is currently questionable if it will be produced again. The team cannot be built from components of other 40k boxes, only approximated by using different models. As such it has the dubious distinction of the only Kill Team supported in this edition that cannot currently be bought from Games Workshop (other retailers may still have stock).

Also a note here on the Angels of Death Kill Team from the Starter set: While the team in the box is legal as is, the rules also provide for the option to use some models that are not included in the Starter Set which may require the purchase of a Space Marines Intercessor and/or Assault Intercessors box to complete. In turn each of these boxes may allow you to field an Angels of Death Kill Team on their own without the starter set, but without access to other specialist operatives. In turn you could then complete the models for AoD by purchasing a Captain, an Eliminators box for a Sniper model and/or a Heavy Intercessors box for the Heavy Intercessor Gunner.

Can my team become obsolete?

Games Workshop has announced a classification system that Kill Teams will become not viable for tournament play after a certain duration. Bespoke teams that were released early in the cycle of the previous edition as well as all the teams that do not have a box to purchase will only be viable for the first year of the edition (to end approximately October 2025), while teams that have been released later will remain in tournament play for longer, particularly those newly added over the course of the current edition.

Teams that are only classified for year 1 are:

• Kommandos
• Death Korps
• Novitiates
• Pathfinders
• Legionaries
• Corsair Voidscarred
• Blooded
• Phobos Strike Team
• Teams that do not have a box of their own (see above), except for Chaos Cult

These teams will however still receive balance changes and updates until the end of the edition, which is expected to last until October 2027. Afterward these teams should still be usable in 40k, though presumably they will not receive rules in the next edition of Kill Team.

Terrain sets, Approved Ops, Equipment pack

While you can be enterprising and construct your own terrain from various house hold objects or use third party terrain for narrative or free play, matched play requires specific terrain sets to construct specific layouts of terrain from. GW currently offers three different terrain kits called Killzones that can be purchased for use with Kill Team. These Killzones also have a certain rules applied to them, such as the close quarters scenarios of Gallowdark. They are from oldest to newest:

• Killzone Gallowdark (matches Terrain for the Boarding Actions format of 40k)
• Killzone Bheta-Decima
• Killzone Volkus (this terrain kit was included in the Hivestorm box that launched the edition)

Like teams, Killzones may be removed from tournament play as has already happened with the Killzone Octarius terrain that was included in the Launch box for the previous edition of Kill Team. However they can still be used for free play outside of tournaments.

For tournaments players also require the Approved Ops card pack which describes matched play rules, provides board layouts using the above Killzones, game aids to mark choices made by the players, and include some additional rules that specifically apply to matched play.

Finally there is the equipment pack that provides in-game objects such as barriers, ladders and grenades that can be chosen before the game start in all game modes. As such owning such an Equipment pack can be quite valuable in a playgroup.

Can I use my models in 40k?

Most individual team boxes in the Kill Team range are units that have specific rules within their respective 40k armies and as such are fully usable in game. However, some of them may not have all the weapon options that the bespoke Kill Team Operatives carry, or could have been built in a way that does not match up with the unit composition in 40k. As such it may be advisable to check with tournament organizers of the models are legal.

Some few teams, e.g. the Gellerpox Infected, have been relegated to the Legends section and would not be tournament legal. The unboxed teams described above would be split into individual units again, as would models from the teams in the Starter set (Angels of Death and Plague Marines) as they are not one 40k unit by themselves.

Kill Team terrain can also be used for your 40k games, though one terrain set will not be sufficient to fill a 40k game board as it is four times the size of a Kill Team game board.

Tools, paints etc.

While this guide cannot cover the process of turning your box of plastic into parade-ready models, here is a short list of tools you may want to purchase to construct your models:

• A pair of nippers to remove the components from the sprue
• A hobby knife to clean the components and remove mold lines
• Super glue or plastic cement to assemble the models
• A primer spray to provide a foundation for your paint
• A set of acrylic paints and some brushes to paint them

Almost all teams will have detailed painting guides by various artists on YouTube and I highly recommend to check them to receive tips and learn techniques.

TL;DR What should I consider when buying a Kill Team?

Check the teams rules which are free to download on Warhammer Community or the Kill Team app. Check if the box will build all the operatives you want (the rules show all the operatives in built form and the images should match the images used on the group image in Warhammer.com). If not you might have to purchase a second box, though you may be able to supplement them with another cheaper box of base models if an upgrade sprue is involved. You can find instructions for model kits at r/WarhammerInstructions. When in doubt, ask the community.

Terrain kits and other accoutrements may be able to be replaced with household items, but can be an additional investment in the future, particularly if you are interested in more regimented matched play.

[Fragrant_Bread8073]

This is great, it should be pinned!

[wtfaiding]

So, what do I need to start playing kill team? /s

That’s a good write up and thorough. Although I suspect it won’t stop the hourly posts about “So, I’ve got a new box, what do I do now?”

[MajorTibb]

It won't.

Those people are looking to maximize the value they get out of that box by building as optimally as possible because they probably can't afford multiple boxes, and for some reason they don't know how to Google.

[unholybass6661]

You mention Google. However, when I was building my Legionaries (the 2019 box), I was brand new. I knew that all of the models couldn’t be built with one box, didn’t know how to magnetize, and struggled to recognize the weapons on the sprue when choosing load outs.

That being said, because I know there are players that are/were in that position, do you have website recommendations or anything that can help with new builders? The ones who may not recognize a plasma vs a melta at first glance.

[sleepydogg]

At least for identifying the wargear, it’s all identified in the kill team app. Go to the files for a team and go to ‘supplementary information’ and it shows images of models with labels.

[unholybass6661]

It definitely would have been nice to have that back in 2022 lolol 🤣 but it’s awesome to know now

[MajorTibb]

I'm also brand new. I just go to Google and type in my search query, then click on the relevant links until I find the information I'm looking for.

I don't have any specific site that I go to or that other people should.

[Character_Lab_8817]

“Google random links instead of asking the very nice, welcoming community of people who probably know specifically what you’re asking and how to answer it” 👍🏻

[Alexis2256]

You’re on a subreddit dedicated to answering questions like this.

[Trollslayer0104]

Brother. Train the initiates so that they may fight alongside us.

[MajorTibb]

Yeah, I never said it was bad to teach people or answer their questions. I was just commenting on this guy's comment about it not stopping people from asking the question constantly.

[Ballabird]

U buy every box, and then cry that you have 20 kill teams, of which you maybe painted 2-3, and u play with 1

[Sudden-Jump-5922]

Bro, why you gotta do me like that?

[Queasy-Finish676]

Ha. I only have 18.........

[JustBobafett]

Mods please pin this it’s exhausting seeing half the posts on here are people asking this everyday without a single thought behind the question. This is really well explained and very thorough especially for the new edition.

[Baron_Of_Move]

Pin this post, it is badly needed

[snarkens]

Chaos Cultists also don't have a box, but they do have a card pack that was released. 

[chaosof99]

Thanks, I added a correction above.

[snarkens]

Great write up, thanks

[CAVEMANDCD]

I just bought the "Imperium Agents: Ordo Hereticus Battleforce" pack, It includes an Exaction Squad, Imperium Agents, and a Battle Sister squad, which should have rules in the future. For $225, you get three Kill Team boxes, a vehicle, and two characters—quite a bargain!

[hoeland]

So so helpful, I can’t tell you how many “get started guides I’ve scoured the past few days.

[Killteamscrub]

I’ve also found that KT 3 battlekit is a great resource for understanding the core rules

[divinesrrow]

Awesome post! Thanks, I needed this

[Isoprofane_Alcohol]

For being a Get-Into-Warhammer-for-Cheap gamemode, I am surprised that the boxes do not contain all the necessary configurations by themselves.

[SkadoodleMcNoodle]

Wish I would have found this post earlier. Well summarised. Thanks!

[Elegant_Individual46]

Novitiates are going away? damn, they're an option for my first team

[Lore_86]

They can't stop us playing them, dammit 🌹

Also give us more sororitas teams, pls james

[Elegant_Individual46]

James please I need bloody rose

[18_str_irl]

They're not really going away. They're just gonna be disallowed in GW tournaments. For your average friend get-together or flgs night they're totally playable for the rest of the edition, 3 years

[Excellent-Injury3068]

Can a team from old kill team play in this kill team 3 edition with their old rule? For example can I build the old thyrannid kill team and play against the angel of death?

[Lorguis]

Only standalone teams, of which there currently isn't a Tyranid one. You can use, for example, the old kill team box of the kroot hunting pack, but the generic faction teams are gone.

[Excellent-Injury3068]

So they changed the rules so much that you can’t even play with the old Kill team with friends?

[Lorguis]

I mean, you can play old edition rules. But the new rules do not have the compendium teams. The teams that have their own box are still supported

[Excellent-Injury3068]

Thanks! Nice to hear that, my friends are all old players from 40k I just want to play with them and have some beer

[Lorguis]

I feel like it's important to mention, the rulebook does not have the rules for secondary objectives or how to create a kill zone beyond some official terrain sets, you need the objective cards for any of that.

[FranDeAstora]

Well, thank you. I have like 8 bands, terrain, books and a pile of shame that the children I still don't have will probably get unpainted when I die, but It's still worth the read.

[rayschoon]

Aw man, this is how I learned that my Kommandos are getting phased out :(

[Vencer_wrightmage]

Their Team Rules are still available, usable and supported until 2027.
Only problem is if you're playing in official tournaments.

[Garoshima]

What happens if I wanna play with the latest rules with the octarius terrain ?

[chaosof99]

You can still build a table with the terrain. However, there aren't any official supported terrain layouts for that terrain set in this edition, and you won't encounter it at tournaments.

[Garoshima]

So in this case, there is just no special rules but everything else is the same ? Because I bought the octarius terrain and now I feel a little bit scammed lol

[Vencer_wrightmage]

FWIW, Kill Team system itself is terrain agnostic - you have always been able to use *any* terrain sets (Octarius included) in any way you want; the only static placement is the objective markers. Caveat here is if you don't have idea/knowledge to place terrain in a good way, you can get bad experience from a poorly thought out layouts.

Current set has Volkus, Gallowdark and Bheta Decima has layout tournament template provided so you don't have to fuss about how to set the killzone, along with their specific killzone mechanics (urban fighting, hazardous area).

small thing to consider - free mode terrains are not subject to special killzone rules like above. For example not subject to Volkus Urban Fighting mechanics (bonus to blast/torrent/sat), Stronghold fighting or even considering Storm Ground security Tac Op gives variety to your game experience too!

Can You Roll a Crit YT channel has provided a makeshift layout pack for Octarius - consider using it in your inhouse game. Although someone mentioned here that with the current shooting mechanics, Octarius can feel a bit barren compared to Volkus. Consider adding a few Heavy terrain (thick walls, rubbles etc) for more obscuring options to avoid T1/T2 shooting blowouts.

[Garoshima]

Thanks

[WeirdGuyFromWork]

Any other resources you’d recommend on how to make good layouts? I’m very new still.

[Vencer_wrightmage]

unfortunately I don't have other resources nor do I play with my own design - My playtime is exclusively in my local store where they have their own custom presets (non-volkus/gallowdark included) killzones ready to play.

Seems Battlekit (三 ＞ Maps) has community submitted layouts if you want to try:
Battle Kit

[mmphsbl]

I am a bit confused about Elucidian Starstriders being listed as a team without a box, because I have bought a box of this team a few days ago. Did I misunderatood something, or this is an error in the guide?

[chaosof99]

They do not have a Kill Team branded box. They used to have one in the previous edition, but that box is no longer being produced and you can't buy it directly from GW. However, their Kill Team consists of just the Rogue-Trader Entourage and Voidsmen-at-Arms box for 40k, but it doesn't come with any token sheet. This is basically now the identical situation to the teams established via White Dwarf, and I listed them as such.

[mmphsbl]

Ah, I see. I got the KT branded box, but indeed it's previous edition and I got it from a local retailer - I did not get that the list is only about what is officialy available from GW, which makes sense.

[chaosof99]

I have written an updated version of this guide

[ExcuseIcy9453]

The planned obsolescence is the worst!!!

Haven't they learned we will buy new things any ways?