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Can you believe that up to around 4 or 5 months ago I’d never played Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team? It wasn’t for a lack of wanting to, it’s just there’s so much cool stuff to play I hadn’t got round to it. Securing tickets to a narrative Kill Team event at Warhammer World changed all of that pretty quickly!

It’s safe to say I have the Kill Team bug now, but one thing that did gripe me a little bit was the range of books available with different rules and scenarios. It felt like 40k at it’s worse, carrying around multiple books. Luckily for me, the team event only required the Core Rules and my Kill Team rules, but I hoped that one day soon we’d see a reduction in books required. Not only this, but having secured some Gallowdark scenery I quickly realised that I also needed scenarios!

So, it’ll come as no surprise that before I’d even got that stuck into the Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team Annual 2023 for this review that I was already pleased, I hadn’t even got past the contents page. 

Without further ado, let’s check out why this book is worth your money.

What is the Kill Team Annual 2023?

In short, a complete collection of rules for the Kill Teams introduced during the range of Gallowdark releases, as well as the Ashes of Faith box. Furthermore it also includes every single scenario from the Gallowdark books too, but sadly not from Ashes of Faith.

It also features rules for a linked campaign within the Gallowdark.

Why No Ashes of Faith Missions?

This will simply be down to the amount of resources and tokens that came within the Ashes of Faith box. The scenarios that were within it would require these.

So which Kill Teams are covered?

The following Kill Teams are within this book:

• Imperial Navy Breacher Team
• Farstalker Kinband
• Kasrkin
• Hierotek Circle
• Hand of the Archon
• Exaction Squad
• Hearthkyn Salvagers
• Fellgor Ravagers
• Inquisitorial Agents
• Chaos Cult

All of the rules for the above Kill Teams are included, so we are talking Strategic Ploys, Equipment, Spec Ops and Requisitions. Nothing is missing.

This is brilliant, especially if you enjoy flicking between Kill Teams. I would also like to see a book that includes every Kill Team at some point.

Killzone Rules

The book runs through all of the differing rules from each of the different Gallowdark boxes. Those are:

• Killzone: Gallowdark: This zillzone first introduced us to the walls, rooms and corridors that made up the Gallowdark!
• Close Quarters: This set of rules mission rules for fighting it out in the close confines of the Gallowdark. This section can be used in conjunction with the other Killzones.
• Killzone: Into The Dark: This particular section expands on the original Gallowdark rules, with crumbling walls and new pieces of scenery.
• Killzone: Shadowvaults: Rules for semi-automated machines, piles of equipment and weapon lockers were introduced with Shadowvaults.
• Killzone: Soulshackle: Command and control rules were introduced in Soulshackle, allowing you to use control panels within missions. 
• Killzone: Gallowfall: The final box to be released for the Gallowdark. This section introduces rules for using medical and evacuation mechanics.

Now Matt has already done a fantastic job by reviewing all the previous boxes, so instead of me running over old territory you can click the above links to be taken straight to his reviews. 

Now, of course, this is purely a book, so to use the missions and killzones in this book you would need Gallowdark scenery, ideally with all of the different upgrade sprues from the likes of Shadowvaults and Gallowfall (but not mandatory). If you missed out on these Games Workshop did say they would be releasing them separately (of which the Gallowfall stuff box is up for preorder right now too!), which will be very welcome. 

The Mission Packs

The last major section of this chunky book is the mission packs from all of the Gallowdark boxed releases. Again, we’ll quickly run through these (remember to check out Matt’s in depth reviews at the links above):

• Critical Operations: Gallowdark: 9 missions set inside the Gallowdark. No other bits and bobs required from the other expansions, just the Gallowdark scenery required.
• Shadow Operations: This section allows you to play linked games of Gallowdark for a more narrative experience.
• Shadowvaults: You would need to have the upgrade sprue from the Shadowvaults to really take advantage of these, for example the semi-automatic guns, but you can adapt (and as mentioned earlier these will hopefully be re-released on their own).
• Soulshackle: Again, could do with the command points from Soulshackle, but all the missions from that box are right here.
• Gallowfall: To make the most of this section make sure you pick up the Gallowfall expansion box if you didn’t manage to get the big box.
• Gallowdark Expedition: The coolest set of rules in the book, the Gallowdark Expedition rules allow you and your friends to play through a complete linked set of games to really flesh out a narrative, ideally with a Campaign Master. Rules in here include generating the Gallowdark, gaining resources and Commendations. You also get an Expedition Map which can easily be photocopied. 

Summary

It’s a bit of an odd review this one…as Matt has again broken down each release as they landed…

However, this book is the first time we’ve been able to get the missions for the Gallowdark outside of the, let’s face, incredibly hard to get big boxes. 

The scenery has been able to be picked up for a little while, so it’s a shame it has taken this long to get the rules, however here they are in this one complete, chunky (seriously, it is 304 pages long) book. 

Combine that with all of the Kill Teams released along with each Gallowdark box and you have a seriously comprehensive book. The downside however, is that you’ll still need to ideally have a couple of the Core Rules, as they are included in here. Also, whilst all the Gallowdark Kill Teams are in here, all the ones previous to the series aren’t, however you can still obtain last year’s Annual. 

My favourite part of the book however is the Gallowdark Expedition section, which allows you to play out a campaign with a series of linked games. You even get a series of rules for a Campaign Master to introduce to your games to really mix things up and really get a narrative going. The best bit though is the gathering of materials, which will help towards ‘winning’ the expedition and/or gaining cool Commendations. 

I would have really liked for all the upgrade sprues from the likes of Shadowvaults to have been released alongside this, but sadly that isn’t the case. It means that for people like me, quite a number of missions aren’t available straight away to play without some proxing or converting. 

The final point was, by reading this book, I now want to pick up all the different Kill Teams that are in here…

If you have any of the Gallowdark scenery, or plan on picking them up…or even if you are looking to pick up some different Kill Teams, then in my opinion this book is a must-buy! Heck, even if you have one of two of the big boxes, having all the missions in one book is a lot easier than going through different books!