Space Hulks. Massive amalgamations of multiple voidships that have ended up crashing and fusing together to create a spacefaring shipwreck drifting in the void. One ship, The Gallowdark, has been drifting through the currents of The Warp for thousands of years – however now this moon sized hulk has re-entered realspace, and the various factions of the 41st Millennium are greedy for the potential riches hidden within!

In Kill Team: Into the Dark, up for pre order today, the Mercenary Kroot of the the Warsphere Rak Varayaw face the Imperial Navy of Battlefleet Nemesys as they both search the Space Hulk for what lies inside.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us a free review copy of Kill Team Into the Dark to check out and share on the site, I’ve managed to get all the contents built so keep tuned to our Twitter as I’ll be getting this all painted up over the next few weeks – and i’ve got lots of shots of the amazing new scenery assembled below.

If you would like to support the site then why not order your copy of Into The Dark through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

Andy has also written a review of the Kill Team Annual 2022 containing rules for a host of brand new Kill Teams along with gaming content!

I have also filmed a full unboxing of the Kill Team Into the Dark box which you can see below or over on our YouTube!

So without further ado, let’s grab our grav boots and get ready to explore the desolate corridors of the Gallowdark…

Kill Team Into The Dark Review

So just what is Kill Team Into the Dark? Essentially it is the starter box for the next 12 months of Kill Team. Last year we had 4 unconnected boxes, each with a collection of scenery, 2 new Kill Teams and the rules to use all the content. Games Workshop have had the ingenious idea of creating a continuing narrative for the next 12 months of content with 4 boxes that are linked together (As we have seen with the recent Warcry Heart of Ghur)

What’s really cool about this however is that each box is going to have compatible terrain, with you building your very own miniature version of the Gallowdark Space Hulk – each box expanding on the scenery with new locations and features.

So what do we have inside?

Well firstly, the box contains everything you need in order to play games of Kill Team – namely: the Core Book, Tokens, Dice, Cards and Templates. This was all included in the original Octarius box, but not in last seasons expansions – so this is a very good place for new players to jump in as it means they will be able to play the game straight out of the box without any other purchases required. I’m not going to go into the core rules in this review as this content is exactly the same core book that was in the older Octarius review – but if you want some insight into how the core mechanics of the game works them you can check out our original review here.

It also means that if you have the original Octarius box you now have extra core bits that you can use to introduce someone else to the game, which is always a good way to encourage new blood into the hobby! Incidentally, Games Workshop also recently put a “lite” version of the core rules up for free on Warhammer Community – so if you are on the fence you can check these out here

Also included in the box are two brand new Kill Teams, the Kroot Farstrider Killband and the Imperial Navy Breachers! Both of these are absolutely glorious kits and filled with multiple options and are just oozing style!

The Imperial Navy Breachers look amazing built up, and I cant wait to get them painted – At the time of writing this review I don’t know if they have any 40k rules, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they do get rules in some form either as a specialist Astra Millitrum choice or perhaps an Unaligned option to take in an Imperial force. You actually get multiple heavy weapon options and each Kill Team specialist can also be built with just a standard weapon, which suggests we might actually get something similar to the Corsairs where this kit actually builds two different units.

The Kroot on the other hand are a massive upgrade over their previous incarnation (which is over 20 years old at this point) – not only are they packed with detail, but they too also boast an impressive amount of various options they can take from an assortment of heavy weapons, to a sniper and a bow wielding Kroot – and let’s not forget that the kit also includes a pair of Kroot Hounds too! This is an excellent kit, and I really hope these get expanded in the future with enough options to put together a purely Kroot Combat Patrol!

The real star of the show however is the band new Gallowdark terrain. Included in the box are 4 new sprues, and you get 2 of each frame allowing you to build a total of 16 wall and door sections, a large assortment of environmental hazards and scatter terrain and enough lips and corner sections in order to link it all together in countless different combinations.

I think what has been hard to see in some of the preview material is just how modular this stuff is – pretty much every piece can join together with any other piece – just pushed together with resistance, no glue needed meaning you can chop and change the layout of the scenery with every game! It also means that as the future Kill Team boxes are released you’ll get more walls, doors and accessories to add to this. In a move that will get a thumbs up from collectors, every piece of scenery fits back in the box for storage with plenty of wiggle room left meaning you can just check it back in the box when you are finished and not have to worry about finding somewhere to store large assembled scenery pieces (Which can often be the case with some sets)

I’m really impressed with just how this stuff goes together and look forward to seeing what everyone does with it! #

There’s also some amazing “playability” features here such as the doors being able to open and close – I’m pushing 40, but the first time I opened and closed the doors on these pieces i felt like a big kid again – it’s strangely satisfying to do!

Just keep in mind it takes a little while to built and clean up – I did it over the course of a couple of nights so sadly ran out of time to get it painted in time for the review, but I’ll be painting it up in a similar scheme to my Necromunda guide I painted for WarCom

Speaking of Necromunda, I know some people will want to know if it fits on the Zone Mortalis tiles, and the answer is “kind of” – while it doesnt “lock” onto the tiles in the same way the Zone Mortalis scenery does, a small room does take up 4 “squares” on the tiles, and so scale wise does not look too out of place and honestly I’ll be using it alongside my ZM terrain in games.

What you do get in the box however is a double sided Kill Team board on which the scenery can all fit – Again if you are using Zone Mortalis tiles then this is a little bigger than 4 Zone Mortalis boards – however for terrain placement all the maps are based on the board in the box – so you would have to adjust things a little if using a smaller surface (Or alternatively use a 3×2 layout of ZM tiles and don’t use the furthest squares.)

I really hope that with some of the future expansions we get the possibility of putting multiple tiles together to make larger environments or perhaps even something akin to 3D Space hulk using multiple sets…

If you are a fan of terrain then in my opinion this box is a must buy – it probably ranks as one of my favourite sets this year, and that’s some strong competition with all the kits we have seen released in 2022!

And if that was everything in the box that would be amazing, but we also get a full Into the Dark supplement…

Into the Dark Supplement Review

Following in the same style as the previous season’s Kill Team supplements, Into the Dark acts as a volume containing all the rules and lore for the contents of the box.

The first 33 pages consists of lore and information about the Gallowdark itself – we learn that the hulk is made from a number of different vessels, and that it still has inhabitants in it’s tormented corridors – we get glimpses here of what factions future expansions may include, such as Mutant Rodents, Giant Spiderlike Creatures, Tortured Machine Spirits, Supernatural Creatures, Monsters from a forgotten age and also particular name checks for the World Eaters, Tyranids, Aeldari and a penal transport barge… While we have no express confirmation of what to expect, there’s a good chance that future boxes contain some of the above mentioned. Incedently, the World Eater Terminator Warhammer Plus Year 2 model is painted with a basing scheme to match the models in this box – so it wouldn’t surprise me if World Eater Terminators get their debut in the next Kill Team box at the end of the year…

We also learn about the Imperial Navy and the Kroot – For the navy we learn about the current state of naval affairs in the galaxy with this particular squad hailing from Battlefleet Nemesys (Could we see this as a successor to Gothic in miniature space battle form?) and the Kroot are mercenaries who work for themselves and are not part of the Tau Empire – Again I wonder if this is a hint that we might get rules that allow any army to hire a warband of Kroot in battles of Warhammer 40k?

Like with other Kill Team expansions we also get name generation lists and Quirks, Background and Base of Operation tables that allow you to generate some background for your Kill Team quickly and easily!

We also get the full Kill Team lists for both of the factions in the box:

Imperial Navy Breacher Kill team

The Imperial Navy consists of 12 models, featuring the Sergeant-at-arms as the leader and then a choice of 11 models including the CAT unit and the Ghiestskull (Though these can only be taken if the relevant model that controls them is also taken) this gives you a nice amount of options, and all the key operatives can be built from the frames in the box with minimal issue – If you want to build all possible options you would need a second box, but honestly you can get a great Kill Team just from the single box!

We see some nice mechanics on show, Breach and Clear can be used once per turning point and allows two friendly Breachers to gain Group Activation 2 in order for them to open doors and cover each other’s advance in tandem in true spec ops style (If you are not shouting “CLEAR!” as your Kill Team advances through each door then you are not playing them right!)

They are also equipped with Void Armour which gives you impressive defence against Blast, Splash and Torrent – only the target of the attack can be hit with Splash (no one else is effected) and a defence dice can be re rolled against Blast and Torrent making them quite resilient against these weapons.

The Sergeant at Arms enhances your troops by being able to issue an “Attack order” or “Defence order” without spending a command point – essentially this allows him to call a point on the battlefield and cause your troops to reroll a specified dice value for either attacking or defending. So for example he calls an Attack Order and specify that all rolls of “2” can be rerolled for any attacks made within square of that point – really cool ability!

The Endurant (Guy with the boarding shield) is very cool – he has a 2+ save and removes 2 hits on a parry – also if another opperative is touching his base then that other operative cannot have line of sight drawn to them if the line passes the Endurants base first – Essentially they duck down behind him as he advances with his shield!

In equal cinematic style, the Hatchcutter can be used to cut doors open or weld them shut behind him, making it more difficult for the enemy to open them up again!

Again, leaning into classic sci-fi movies the Surveyor can send his CAT unit deep into enemy territory and use it to survey enemy units, making then count as Engaged for the purposes of shooting them!

There’s loads of fun stuff like this within the kill team and I suspect they will be great fun to play with!

Kroot Farstrider Kinband Kill Team

The Kroot Kinband has 11 models including the Kill-Broker and includes the option of up to 2 Kroot Hounds meaning that whichever way you build the models in the box one will be sitting out. On the subject of building them you will need 2 boxes to build every option of operative as there is one body that either builds a Stalker or a Tracker – though I’m sure you could adapt the parts to other bodies if you did particularly want them both in your Kill Team. I think I’ll be picking up another box however as that will also allow me to build the multiple Heavy Gunner options too along with a selection of generic Kroot Warriors armed with their 2 weapon options.

The Kroot are quite sneaky and their Rogue ability allows them to either retain an additional save when in cover, or instead convert a save into a crit, making them quite hard to shift from behind cover

Again for the leader we get some nice supportive abilities – Call the Kill for example allows the Kill-Broker to nominate a visible enemy target and allow all Kroot to retain a hit against them when attacking that target.

The Bow-Hunter is very cool and has a choice of various arrows he can use with effects ranging from Silent to AP1 to Splash 2 depending on which one he uses. For 1AP he can also energize the bow making it Lethal 5+ too!

The Cut-Skin is fun getting to make a free attack action against a target he fails to kill in combat with his Savage Assault ability.

Heavy Gunners get some brand new Kroot weapons, Dvorgite Skinners which are anti infantry guns with an accurate high rate of fire, or the Londaxi Tribalest which is less accurate but causes more damage, is Ap1 and rending!

As well as looking very, very cool the Kroot pistolier has the Gunslinger Salvo ability that allows it to make too shoot actions one after the other with its dual pistols!

Both of the Kill Teams look really fun to use and I’m looking forward to exploring the Gallowdark with them!

As with other books we also get full Spec Ops Rules for them for use in Spec Ops campaigns.

Killzone Gallowdark

The last section of the book contains all the rules you need to play games within the Space Hulk known as the Gallowdark! This includes rules for how the walls and doors work – essentially most games of Into the Dark will be in confined environments, tight corridors and dangerous bottlenecks and this changes up how games of Kill Team work play quite a lot! Vantage points are now very rare and positioning is extremely important – doors can be interacted with, opened and closed for action points, however doors are not that wide and someone stood on the other side can hinder movement until they are dealt with, allowing you to trap and contain enemies until the rest of your troops can get into position – a single fighter in a doorway may be able to hold against greater numbers just as they will find it difficult to get through to fight them – equally a Navy team can work in tandem to open up doors to set up their partner to move through the door to clear the other side in more efficient military style – I’m looking forward to seeing what other forces we get, a Genestealer Kill Team could be interesting with the ability to move through air vents etc!

Additional rules and abilities are also supplied such as the ability to go on guard and fire point blank overwatch when someone opens a door in front of them! Or the ability to fight across hatchways in a scramble to take that key location.

The fact that we are fighting on a contained Space Hulk also means that people shooting have to be more careful with their shots so not to breach the environment – so if line of sight passes another model on the way to a target you roll one less dice as you have to be more careful making the shot.

We get a full 9 mission campaign that allows you to play through the events of this story arc, but also we get a suite of 9 symmetrical missions that offer play more suited to balanced Matched Play games – a nice mix of different mission types for all players!

What’s also new is an entire Gallowdark Expedition Campaign which allows a group of players to play a series of linked campaign games while exploring a procedurally generated Space Hulk by using playing cards to determine the resources that are in that particular location on the ship – this is really cool and adds somewhat of a feel of Necromunda to proceedings as your Kill Teams start exploring the ship looking for specific resources and supplies – I suspect this will also be expanded upon as the year long Gallowdark focus continues!

Summary

So what do I think of Kill Team Into the Dark? Octarius was a brilliant start for the new edition of Kill Team, but Into the Dark takes that further and doubles down on the things that make Kill Team work! The cramped confines of the Gallowdark make for tense, exciting and cinematic play and this is boosted further by the frankly glorious Gallowdark Terrain allowing players to create their own Space Hulk interiors – And I’m pretty sure this terrain will be snapped up for Necromunda and Zone Mortalis games of Horus Heresy too!

The miniatures in the box are gorgeous and for modelling alone they are great fun, I’m very much looking forward to getting some paint on them!

The fact this box also contains all the Core Rules and accessories that you need to play games of Kill Team also makes this a brilliant start point for new players.

I’m looking forward to seeing what we get over the next 12 months of Kill Team and seeing what secrets lie at the heart of the Gallowdark

Kill Team Into the Dark is up for pre order today and is released Saturday 10th September

Games Workshop sent Sprues & Brews a free copy for review purposes

Published by Matt Crowther

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