Warning, I am a Deathwatch fanboy and have been super excited to get my hands on this box! We also received this box a little late, so sadly didn’t get to paint any of the minis.

Yes, Kill Team is moving on from Volkus and we now find ourselves in the depths of a Tomb World, returning to close quarters Kill Team from the Gallowdark days!

In this brand new box, which is up for preorder right now, you get a brand new Kill Zone, a Tomb World, and two brand new Kill Teams to master on the battlefield, the nefarious Necrons and the original Kill Team themselves, the Deathwatch!

I’m going to run through the book in this article, including both Kill Teams and the missions which are covered in the book.

Before we get stuck into all of that however, should you wish to preorder Kill Team: Tomb World, or anything else Warhammer related, why not shop on Element Games via one of our affiliate links and save some cash Vs RRP and of course you’ll be helping us out big time too! And our thanks to Games Workshop for sending us a copy to unbox and review for you folks.

So, without further ado, let’s delve in.

Unboxing Tomb World

As always, the first thing we do here at Sprues and Brews is unbox! You can watch the full unboxing below, which also includes a read through of the book, and a closer look at the models/sprues.

I’ve also taken a shot of each of the sprues, ideal for those who want a closer look at the options, especially those Deathwatch sprues (told you, love the Deathwatch! and so will converters!).

Tomb World Contents

So what exactly is in the box?

The majority of thew box is taken up with the Tomb World sprues. IMHO, whilst similar in size and layout to the Gallowdark scenery, these feel thicker and more detailed. Its exactly how I would imagine a Necron Tomb World would be, in particular the Necron Warriors in stasis in the walls. I also love the little bits of scatter scenery, and of course the two teleport pads.

The best scenery piece though? The Sarcophagus! It’s really detailed and is a substantial piece of scenery!

The wall sections quickly and easily clip together using the pillar sections of terrain, giving it plenty of stability. You’ll see actually what I mean in the unboxing video back at the start of the article.

We’ll cover more about the scenery and missions later in the article.

You also get two brand new Kill Teams too, the Deathwatch (who are finally Primaris-scale!) and the Canoptek Circle (a new Necron Kill Team). You also get in the box some Necron Warriors and Scarabs to use as NPOs in solo games of Kill Team. They are the push-fit ones, for anyone interested, and the Warriors have both weapon options on the sprue.

The Canoptek Circle | Necron Kill Team

I thought we’d kick off our look at the Kill Teams with the new Necron one, The Canoptek Circle.

These fit in the ‘new’ range of Necron models perfectly, in particular the Geomancer and his little Tomb Crawlers. The rest of the Kill Team are made up of models that follow a similar look to the Plasmacyte that attaches to Skorpekh Destroyers.

From an assembly point of view, whilst the little guys of the Kill Team were really enjoyable (and very easy) to assemble, the Tomb Crawlers just needed a tiny bit more patience. The Geomancer though? Well, let us just say the air was a little bit blue by the time I finished assembling him. He has some very small joints, which is sort of fine. His curling ‘tail’ and reliance on using his staff for some stability took up most of my time when assembling. In short, I hope I don’t have to assemble one again.

I am however very happy with the finished Kill Team. It’s very unique, and as we’ll cover shortly, they have quite a different playstyle.

So, what does the makeup of a Canoptek Circle Kill Team look like?

• 1 x Geomancer
• 2 x Tomb Crawlers (either with Twin Gauss Reapers or Transdimensional Isolator. You can take one of each, or two Twin Gauss Reapers. You cannot take more than one Isolator)
• 1 x Accelrator
• 1 x Reanimator
• 3 x Warriors (either armed with Gauss Scalpels or Tesla Castors)

So, how do they play in Kill Team? What makes them so unique?

The best place to start is the Faction Rule, entitled Obelisk Node Matrix. On the token sheet which is included with the Kill Team are three Obelisk Markers. These are placed within your territory during the first turning point, and have a movement value of 3″. When two of the markers are within 6″ of each other, it creates a Obelisk Node Matrix. If you have all three in range of each other (in a triangle shape) then you get a larger Obelisk Node Matrix. When your Operatives are within one of these Matrixes, they gain some spicy bonuses:

• Weapons gain the Accurate 2 weapon rule
• Operatives gain an additional APL

Combined with the datacards, this makes the Kill Team pretty tasty, but it makes this Kill Team a little trickier to play to it’s strengths. You’ve really got to think about positioning.

As you can imagine, both the Strategic and Firefight Ploys tie a lot in with the faction rule. Transdynamic Amplification for example, is a Strategic Ploy with grants an Operative the Ceaseless special rule, so long as Operative is shooting within a Obelisk Node Matrix. Animate Obelisk Nodes is a cool Firefight Ploy, which allows you to activate or counteract by moving your Nodes. You can move all three nodes, however you have a combined limit of a 6″ movement value. What this means is you could just move one Node 6″, or you could move two 3″, or one Node by 1″ and a second one 5″. In short you cannot move more than 6″ between all three of the Nodes.

My favourite thing about how this Kill Team plays is the focus on the Geomancer. He can perform Actions, such as Operate Hatches, through the Obelisks, which is super cool. He can also grant extra APL to your friendly Operatives, so long as they are within range of the Geomancer, or within range of a Node.

If I had to pick a weapon to highlight from this Kill Team, it has to be the Transdimensional Isolator on the Tomb Crawler. 5 shots, hits on 4s, 5/6 damage but with a special rule called Dimensional Banishment. In short, if an enemy Operative is damaged by this weapon you roll 2D6. If the result is more than the enemy Operatives remaining wounds, they are incapacitated. Ouch. As you would imagine, the Reanimator allows you to bring back wounds, as well as prevent friendly Operatives from becoming incapacitated within 6″, whilst the Accelerator buffs or debuffs the enemy.

I think these could be quite the tricksy and fun Kill Team to use, but it’s all about placement of your Operatives and the Nodes. Perhaps not one for complete beginners.

If you’d like to see all of the rules for the Canoptek Court, ensure you check out our unboxing video.

Deathwatch Kill Team

If you hadn’t have guessed by now, this is the one I have been waiting to talk about. This game is called Kill Team, so it was about time the original masters of Kill Teams, the Deathwatch, entered the fray.

The new models have had the upscaled treatment (aka become Primaris) and they are geared up to the nines. All three flavours of ‘Primaris’ armour is here, including Phobos and Gravis.

Each Operative is skilled in a particular weapon/area, making this your typical Elite Kill Team. What they lack in number of models, they make up for with abilities, skills and weaponry.

Whereas I was faced with some difficulty with assembling the Necron half of this box, I had no such issue with the Deathwatch. That is unfortunately, apart from mould lines, which are incredibly prevalent throughout the Deathwatch sprues.

Out of this box you can build 10 out of 11 different Operatives, which does unfortunately mean that one model misses out. This is because each set includes one Gravis armoured Marine with a choice of three builds. Should you want every Operative, you will need to buy another Deathwatch Kill Team in order to build the third and final Gravis Operative.

You’ve got a plethora of different head options, as well as different shoulder pads from some well know, and some lesser known, Chapters of the Space Marines. Have no fear, as you do also get some blank ones too for your transfers, should your particular favourite Chapter be MIA.

Speaking of Operatives, what does a Deathwatch Kill team look like?

You can choose 5 Marines out of the following list:

• Watch Sergeant
• Aegis
• Blademaster
• Bombard
• Breacher
• Demolisher
• Disruptor
• Gunner
• Headtaker
• Horde-Slayer
• Marksman

When choosing the Kill team you are sending into battle you are only able to choose one of each Operative, and you can only choose one Gravis Marine (the Gravis marines being the Breacher, Horde-Slayer and Bombard).

Moving on to the Faction rules, firstly, Deathwatch get the Veteran Astartes rule which allows them to Shoot or Fight twice during an activation, however if they use a certain piece of equipment they must spend another APL to use it (this is for weapons such as the (infernus heavy bolter, frag cannon, plasma pistol, etc).

The second Faction special rule they have is suitably fitting for the Deathwatch, Special Issue Ammunition. Once per turning point, when you come to shoot with one of your Operatives you can choose to load the weapon with Special Issue Ammunition. You’ve got the following options:

• Blast 1″ (cannot be used on Torrent weapons)
• Devastating 1
• Lethal 5+
• Piercing 1
• Rending
• Saturate
• Severe

The Strategic and Firefight Ploys are also very suitably Deathwatch. Suffer Not the Alien allows you to reroll hit rolls against Xenos, whilst Transhuman Physiology allows you to retain a Defence Dice whilst one of your Operative’s are being shot at.

As they are Marines, they have a great statline, with APL 3 across the board. Your normal ‘Intercessor’ armoured Marines have a movement of “6 (Phobos gets an extra inch, whilst Gravis loses an inch).

The Disruptor is well worth a shout out, as he has a special rule called Advanced Omni-Scrambler. It’s a Strategic Gambit which allows you to choose an enemy Operative within 6″, you then roll a D6. In the following Firefight phase the enemy Operative cannot be activated until either your opponent has activated a number of enemy Operatives equal to the number on the dice roll or if it’s the last enemy operative to activate.

I really like the Deathwath, and I’m really happy that their rules in Kill Team reflect how I would imagine they’d play. They have an Operative for almost every scenario, and they feel Elite.

Again, fi you’d like to see all the datacards and rules, ensure you check out our unboxing video, where we go through the full book.

Kill Team: Tomb World Rules

If you’ve played in the Gallowdark Killzone, then you know exactly what to expect from Tomb World, as there is very little difference. This book goes through every detail on how to fight in the close quarters of the Tomb World, just in case you haven’t played on the Gallowdark. To make life easier, although Necrons don’t have doors per-say, the entrance ways operate with the same terminology as the doors from the Gallowdark.

The Tomb World does have some Breachable walls, which can be breached using 2 AP (or 1 AP if you are using the Breacher from the Deathwatch). You also get to use the Teleport pads, which are new, and have been explained how they work over on WarCom, see below:

Joint Ops: Tomb World

Within the book you get rules for Joint Ops, which allows you to play co-op or solo against NPOs. You of course get Necron Warriors and Scarabs, as well as the new Canoptek Circle models to use in this mode.

I’ve really fancied playing a solo game since the launch of the new edition of Kill team, and this book only strengthens that will to set up and give it a go, The two key elements of Joint Ops is the Threat Level (which increases as you Shoot and Fight). As it increases the Tomb World reacts and dispatches more Necrons to sort you out.

You also get some really cool Event Cards, which come in to play when you hit Threat Level 3. These are really cool, and are basically the Tomb World again reacting to you causing chaos. These cards trigger things like being unable to reroll Hit rolls if you are shooting an NPO over 8″ away, or, the coolest one, Necron Warriors begin to come out of the Warrior wall pieces.

As you would expect, this section includes all the rules you’ll need in order to use your NPOs, with the datacards and Threat Principle rules.

This section is then completed with 6 brand new Tomb World Missions. Each mission is uniquely different and make full use of the contents of the box. My favourite mission being to destroy the Sarcophagus!

Adversary Ops: Tomb World

As cool as the section before was, imagine using NPOs whilst you are fighting an opponent in a game of Kill Team? That is exactly what Adversary Ops is.

This section explains the slight changes to NPO rules as you and a friend try to have a normal game of Kill Team, whilst the Necrons (or you could adapt these rules for any NPOs in your collection) try to scupper your plans.

In fact, the book states that these rules are also fully compatible with the Gallowdark scenery set. Three map layouts are included in this book, or alternatively you can use map layouts from the new Approved Ops card pack which launches soon.

On that note I will quickly add that this book is fully compatible with the upcoming Approved Ops card pack

Summary

And that brings this review to a close. So what are my overall thoughts?

I’m a big fan of the Adversary Ops mode, and think playing Joint Ops within the confines of the Tomb World will be a lot of fun, especially with the Threat Levels and Event Cards.

The two included Kill Teams are very different, but I’ve enjoyed covering both sets of rules. Unfortunately, we didn’t get long with the box, so I didn’t get to paint anything from the box, nor did I get chance to play any games with either Kill Team, however it should come as no surprise that I shall be prioritising the Deathwatch in order to get them painted, as I cannot wait to try them out. I’ve also been very drawn to the Canoptek Circle, however I feel I need to get more games of Kill team under my belt before I try those, as positioning is such a key element to how that Kill team operates.

The scenery is VERY nice. It really does feel like you are gaming within the confines of a Tomb World. I really like how the Necron pillars attach to the wall sections in order to create your layout. My only minor gripe is, teleport pads aside, the gameplay is basically identical to that of the Gallowdark in normal games of Kill Team. I feel like maybe another element should have been added just to change things up a little more.

The only other gripe I have is that you need to buy another Deathwatch box (once released separately) in order to just build one Gravis marine (although if would give you plenty of bits for you to convert with I guess).

It’s a great box, with some fantastic minis and two fun game modes. What more could you want?

Our thanks again to Games Workshop for sending us a copy over to unbox and review, Also our thanks to Warhammer Community for some of the images and diagrams.

Published by David Jennings

Born and raised in Crewe in Cheshire, Dave is a geek through and through. Enjoys designing and managing websites. View all posts by David Jennings