It feels like it’s been a while since Brutal and Cunning landed, bringing new Kill Teams (Orks and Ratlings) with some cool new bunkers to attach to your Kill Zone Volkus buildings, with a couple of new missions to play.

Blood and Zeal is the brand new expansion to this edition of Kill Team, and it pitches the Holy might of the Ecclesiarch, the Sanctifiers, against the gore-hungry Goremongers.

Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team | Blood and Zeal is up for preorder right now! You can save some cash AND help us out by using our affiliates over at Element Games to secure your copy!

Before we jump in to the review you can watch the full unboxing of this expansion in the video below, which also includes a closer look at the assembled and painted models towards the end.

Our thanks to Games Workshop for sending us a copy of this box to unbox and review!

Let’s dive in!

What’s In the Blood and Zeal Box?

First and foremost, it features two fantastic, brand new, Kill Teams.

The Sanctifiers are members of the Ecclesiarch who fight for the Emperor. They’d look superb joining a unit of the Adepta Sororitas in full games of 40K (hopefully we’ll get 40K rules!). They follow a similar make up to that of the Inquisitorial Agents (although they do play quite differently).

Some very nice models in this set, and I cannot wait to get more paint on them.

I did however manage to paint the second Kill Team

The Goremongers are a fast moving band of Bloodletter-wannabees. When I first saw the image of this unit I immediately thought (from the front angle anyway) that these lunatics had jetpacks. They don’t have jetpacks though, and in fact have Gore Tanks (more on these later when we look at the Kill Teams in more detail). These fill up with the blood of your enemies, and allow your Kill Team to power up.

Alongside these two Kill Teams you also get a returning terrain piece, an Imperial Shrine Statue, originally released in a wave of new minis for the Adepta Sororitas a few years ago (albeit part of a larger building set). It’s great to have this bit of terrain back in production, as it’s been out of stock for some time.

Plastic sprues aside, you also receive a sheet of handy tokens for each Kill Team, a pack of Blood and Zeal cards (more on these later) and a supplement book.

Goremongers | Breakdown of the Kill Team

These elite killers are just that, an elite Kill Team out to collect skulls and claim the blood of their enemies.

They have two major mechanics in your games of Kill Team:

• Runes of Khorne: Each operative cannot lose more than 8 wounds from a single Shoot Action – This means that one enemy operative will be unable to kill a single operative of the Goremongers in one round of shooting (that is, so long as they haven’t already lost wounds. All Goremongers start with 10 wounds, aside from the Herald who has 11).
• Gore Tanks: So this is seriously cool. Your operatives all have Gore Tanks, which start empty. For each enemy operative you kill (or if you trigger an ability from a friendly operative) you gain blood for your tank, taking it to half full. Another kill or triggered ability takes it to full. As soon as you gain blood in your Gore Tank you can seek out the Sanguavitae table which gives you a list of abilities you can do for the cost of half of your tank. As you use these abilities your tank reduces by half a tank until you hit empty. Tokens are included to help track this on each of your operatives.

Unlike some other Kill Teams, you don’t have a vast array of different Operatives, however you have enough. Your leader will always be a Blood Herald. You can then have 7 other operatives (6 are unique and can only be chosen once. You can however choose multiple Aspirants).

Want a quick lowdown on the other Operatives? Of course you do!

• Aspirant: Your normal grunt. Gets a free Charge action after a Fight action should he no longer be in combat
• Bloodtaker: Only needs to inflict damage to fill up his tank, rather than fully taking someone out. Can share his tank with other Goremongers.
• Impaler: Can fire his Fleshskewer at enemies and pull them towards him, thus pulling them out of position so that your other operatives can pounce.
• Inciter: Wields two pistols. For 1AP can Dash and Shoot for free. Any enemies killed at range help to fill a nearby Goremongers tank. Can also cause bleeding on a unit she’s shot but not killed, again helping to fill nearby Gore Tanks.
• Skullclaimer: Your heavy hitter. 5/6 damage on his Great Chainaxe, and you gain a CP for every operative this guy kills.
• Stalker: Can treat vertical terrain as 2″, and gains Relentless when he pounces from a Vantage point.

They all only have a 5+ save, you have to make best use of the terrain, in particular against shooty Kill Teams. They do however have 7″ movement, making them a little nippier than many other teams.

All this talk of Gore Tanks…but what can you actually do with them? The answer is, well, a fair bit. The book contains a table called Saguavitae, which shows what you can spend your gore on. You loose half a tank of gore each time you use an ability. You can only use each ability once per activation. You also cannot use Mania and Fury during the same activation. Let’s take a look at some of the options:

• Mania: You can use this during a friendly operatives activation, either before of after it performs an action = Add 1 to the APL stat.
• Fury: You can use this during a friendly operatives activation, either before of after it performs an action. = Operative can Fight twice, with the second Fight action being performed for free.
• Surge: When a friendly operative has Charged or Repositioned = Can use an extra 1″ of movement.
• Rejuvenate: During a friendly Goremonger’s activation or counteraction, before or after it performs an action = Heal 2D3 wounds.

As you can see from those few examples, the abilities are really key, and with correct usage and movement, Khorne could find himself inundated with Skulls!

The Strategy and Firefight Ploys play off the Gore Tank ability. For example, a number of them have a different buff depending on if the tank is half full or full, like Enhanced Violence, which provides an Operative with the Balanced weapon rule if their tank is half full, or the Relentless weapon rule if it’s tank is full. My favourite Firefight Ploy is Destructive Demise which you can use when one of your operatives is incapacitated. Your operative explodes and deals either D3 damage (tank empty), D3+1 (tank half full) or D3+2 (tank is full) to one enemy operative within control range.

There is four unique Faction Equipment for the Goremongers, each suitably Khorne’y:

• Gory Totem: You can place a Gory token before the game starts. Whenever an enemy operative is within 3″ of this marker, that enemy operative cannot re-roll their attack dice.
• Bloody Cadaver: Another marker you can place on the battlefield. When one of your operatives performs an action and picks it up, in the Ready Step you can increase the Gore Tank of the friendly operative holding the Cadaver.
• Chaos Sigil: Once per Turning Point, when an Operative is shooting a friendly Goremonger, at the start of the Defence Dice step you can choose to worsen the x of the Piercing weapon by 1 until the end of the sequence.
• Wrist Chains: Basically makes a ‘Chain’ melee weapon also a shooting attacking with a range of 2″.

The Sanctifiers | Breakdown of the Kill Team

Do you prefer to attend mass on a Sunday morning, rather than claiming the skulls of your enemies? Then perhaps the Sanctifiers are the Kill Team for you.

Whilst they love their books, shouting and iconography, they also make handy combatants in the warzone, albeit ideally when they are working together in order to synergize abilities.

The Sanctifiers have two Faction Rules:

• Ministorum Sermon: The rule is very wordy in the book, however in essence you select one of your models to be the Orator, giving him the keyword. If your Confessor is still alive it has to be him. Any friendly operatives within 3″ of him (or 6″ if the Orator is your Confessor) are classed as benefitting from a Sermon. If an operative who is benefitting from a Sermon is attached, Normal and Crit damage of 3 or more inflicts 1 less damage.
• Blaze: Some of the Sanctifiers weapons have the Blaze special rule. If you retain any critical successes, the operative this weapon is being used against gains a Blaze token. Whenever that enemy operative is activated you inflict D3 damage to said enemy operative. Your opponent then gets to choose to either roll a D6 and on a 3+, remove the token OR Subtract 1 from the operative’s APL until the end of that activation to remove the token.

When creating your Kill Team you have to start with a Confessor and Cherub. You then get to choose 9 Operatives, all of which are Unique apart from the Preacher (of which you can take up to four Preachers).

• Confessor: He’s your Leader and you really need to try and keep him safe, as he offers a much bigger aura for the Orator keyword and offers free Charge, Fall Back or Reposition actions.
• Cherub: He has a cool ability which costs 1AP to improve an Operative within 2″ to gain an additional APL. He can also Fly!
• Conflagrator: When one hand flamer isn’t enough, you bring two! He can choose to fire both of them at one target (focused) or them at seperate targets (twin torrent). He can also use the Sanctification Orb equipment ignoring the once per turning point limit thanks to his Sanctification Rack on his back.
• Death Cult Assassin: He’s your best combat unit, dealing 4 normal and 6 critical damage in combat. He can also for 1AP change his order (but not whilst in combat range of an enemy operative).
• Drill Abbot: He allows a friendly Sanctifier within 6″ to ignore any stat changes for being injured. He also prevents any nearby enemy operatives from gaining any additional APL.
• Miraculist: She’s a floating, angry who fires bolts of Holy Light! She can also wreath herself in Holy Light whilst in combat. She also has the ability to return to the battlefield the first time she is incapacitated.
• Missionary: If he has a Holy Relic he is classed as always being in range of a Sermon, allowing him a bit more flexibility. In fact, if he is outside of 6″ of a friendly Operative he gains the Severe weapon rule.
• Persecutor: The first time this Eviscerator armed Operative fights, so long as the enemy isn’t incapacitated you can Fight again!
• Preacher: Your standard gents. If they are contesting an objective they are classed as benefitting from a Sermon.
• Reliquant: Helps to secure the control of markers as he increases nearby APL stats by one when determining control. He can also grant a free action to a friendly operative who has just been incapacitated (like a last stand!).
• Salvationist: This operative has two very important abilities. First one is an aura of 6″ which improves your Operatives Save charateristic by 1 and the second ability (which costs 1AP) allows you to heal an Operative 2D3 wounds.

Just like the Goremongers, the Sanctifiers Strategy Ploys and Firefight Ploys often play off either the Sermon or Orator keywords. For example the Strategy Ploy called Fervent Brawl gives your operative’s melee weapons the Ceaseless special rule so long as they are benefitting from a Sermon. Not all of them need those keywords though, such as Zealous Persecution which grants Lethal Hits 5+ to melee weapons when they charge.

Fancy some unique equipment? Well you have four to choose from:

• Sanctification Orb: My favourite! It’s basically an Orb loaded with Holy Water. It costs 1AP to use. It allows you to douse enemy operatives within 6″. If any of your operatives shoot at an enemy operative with the Doused token, and the weapon they are using has the Blaze keyword, then that weapon also gains the Seek weapon rule. The token is then removed.
• Purity Seal: Once per turning point, if you roll two or more fails when shooting or fighting you can discard one of them to retain another as a normal success instead.
• Ecclesiarchy Texts: In the Ready step of each Strategy phase, you can roll 2D6. If the result is less than the remaining wounds of a friendly Orator you gain a CP
• Imperial Cult Symbols: Once per turning point, when an enemy operative is shooting a friendly operative who is benefiting from a Sermon, when you collect your defence dice you can use this equipment. If you do, you can choose to change one of the attackers Critical Successes as a Normal Success instead.

Blood and Zeal Mission Pack

As soon as I saw the box the first thing that came to mind was what would the missions be like in this book, with only the one piece of scenery being included.

With Brutal and Cunning, the previous expansion, you had a series of bunkers which connected to the Kill Zone Volkus buildings and the book included two missions (albeit I hoped for more).

So as I recorded the unboxing video, you should hopefully pick up my surprise when I realise as I get to the end of the book, that their are no ‘structured’ missions in the book. No battle plans, no layouts, nothing.

Instead, you get rules for placing your included Shrine within your games of Kill Team, which works with either the vanilla Kill Team or with the Brutal and Cunning expansion which I appreciated. You also get rules for the Shrine which interact with the actual Mission Pack rules for the expansion, and this is where the Blood and Zeal cards come in.

In essence, the Blood and Zeal cards offer one use quick abilities (Blood = Offensive abilities, such as additional damage, Zeal = Buffs, such as healing, granting additional AP etc). These are drawn by both Kill Teams during the Strategy step, and also interestingly whenever your opponent scores VP. I quite like this, as it’s the games way of trying to keep the battle close until the end.

As well as this, if you control the Shrine you can manipulate the cards, drawing new cards and discarding current ones. For more text on the mission pack you can check out a recent preview of these rules over on Warhammer Community.

In short, you play your mission from the core Kill Team rulebook or from Brutal and Cunning, slap down the statue in/around the centre of the battlefield, and add the use of cards to the strategy step.

I’m so torn on whether or not I like the inclusion of these decks. It’s a completely new mechanic for your games of Kill Team, but in my own personal opinion I don’t think the game really needs it. It does, however, expand and give a fresh new approach to your games, and I like the concept of gaining cards whenever your opponent scores. A fresh idea for objectives or similar for full-fat Warhammer 40k maybe?

Summary

I love the Inquisition, always loved the lore and the minis, and the Inquisitorial Agents are my favourite (or were my favourite) Kill Team faction, so OF COURSE I’m going to fall in love with the Sanctifiers. The models are superb, and they have a lot of potential in your games when played the correct way.

Not to mention, you can mix and match the models with the aforementioned Agents, and other Inquisitorial models we’ve had from various releases to create your own band of Henchman for 40k/RPGs or homebrew games.

However, my particular favourite Kill Team as a whole are the Goremongers. The models are fantastic (I’ve wanted to paint a World Eaters army for a while and these guys have pushed me over the edge) and I really like the way they play in games. Well timed use of the Goretank abilities will be the key and ensuring you play to the strengths of the Kill Team.

One of my favourite things about the new addition is the token sheets which come with every Kill Team. Everything is being thought of, even down to tracking the Gore-Tanks on your Goremongers.

I always liked the Shrine, and regretted not picking it up when it was first released, so it’s brilliant to see it get another shot in the sun.

No new mission maps, well, you could say no real ‘missions’ at all in the book is disappointing, but I can understand why with the inclusion of just one scenery piece and the introduction of the Blood and Zeal cards. I really like that the cards can be played with either the missions from the core Kill Team book or Brutal and Cunning, and the Shrine looks great between your buildings. I also really like that you gain cards as your opponent scores victory points.

However, I really like how Kill Team plays right now, and I don’t really know if I like the cards ‘disrupting’ the gameplay. This is of course my opinion, and it is certainly a fresh new way to play. It’s something else to think about, and also has you and your opponent fighting for control of the Shrine in the centre of the board. I need to play more with the cards to make up my mind I feel.

The value of this box, like most of these boxes, will vary on what you like or don’t like. For me it’s a bargain because I love all the plastic components in the box, even if I’m firmly on the fence when it comes to the mission pack. Others who may like just one of the Kill Teams will see this box as very overpriced for 2 teams, two packs of cards and one scenery piece.

Overall I like the approach they are taking to these expansion packs for Kill Team, and I’m very much looking forward to what they do next, not only for the Kill Teams themselves, but also what they may add to the game.

You can preorder Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team – Blood And Zeal right now from Element Games.