Necromunda Gang used as Imperial Guard Veterans

There are times when you just want a quick game of Warhammer 40k, or you want to try out a new unit or army. Kill Teams are a spin on the Warhammer 40k rules that have been published to adapt the 40000 game for smaller quicker games.

The Kill Team rules seem to be based on those war movies that have a small band of commandos that need to complete a mission against impossible odds. I specifically think of the ‘Dirty Dozen’ films, but the more recent ‘The Expendables’ films fit this mold too.

Kill Team games are great if you want a game that should only take an hour to play, or if you want to try out a new army, or even trying out a new unit type for an army that you have been playing a while.

The Kill Team Rules are found on the Games Workshop Black Library website. The rules come as an E-Eook

If you are looking for a compatible ebook reader, I can recommend the Caliber Ebook Reader for Windows computers. It’s so good I even donated some funds to the project! For Android devices the ‘ Cool Reader ‘ app works well. You can find this in the Google Play app store. Apple users are on your own as I do not have any Apple devices.

Kill Teams Specialists

In the Kill Team rules you can upgrade 3 of your team with skills from the specialist lists. These specialist skills are very similar or identical to the special rules found in the main Warhammer 40k Rulebook. This is great because it gives new players a chance to try out some of the more popular special rules in small games and see how they work before diving in to playing full Warhammer 40k games where you have to remember all the 40+ rules at the same time.

If you are getting to know Warhammer 40k you may agree to skip the specialists extra rules for a game or two until you have a good grasp on how the rest of the game works. This is fine as the Kill Team rules work fine without using Specialists.

The Best Kill Team Army List

With Kill Team games you only have 200 points to spend on a force that will need to hold up to 5 objectives. This includes the 3 objectives placed by the players, plus the two end zones. There are units available in some army lists you could spend all 200 points on a single model, and this would be a legal force.

So what makes a good Kill Team?

First, they need to be tactical. All round forces that can shoot, move fast and can assault tanks if need be.

As the different members of your kill team will have different skills, it is highly recommended that you name the characters and that you can identify which model has which skill. You will need to make sure that the models can be individual identifiable too. For models with the same weapons you may need to number the bases or add names ( or markings ) to shoulder pads. Naming the members of the makes for better story telling too.

Space Marine Kill Teams

The Space Marine army is all about having all round basic troops. This means that the basic Space Marine is a great choice as a Kill Team unit.

• Tactical Squads
• Scout Squads
• Assault Squads
• Terminator Squads
• Bike Squads

If you have the Dark Vengeance starter set, here is an example kill team using the Dark Angel Codex and the Dark Angel models from the Dark Vengeance box set.

Chaos Space Marines

Like the imperial Space Marines, the Chaos Space Marines are also good with shooting weapons and close combat. However they often have special rules that gives them an advantage when it comes to close combat. This means that if there is plenty of scenery on the table the Chaos Space Marines should have an edge.

Tau Kill Teams

The Tau army have a number of specialist units that are great at shooting but are no good in a fight. However there are a couple of units that are worth considering.

• Kroot Carnivore Squad. These are troops so you can take 2 large units. Kroot are not bad at shooting and assault by Tau standards.
• XV8 Crisis Teams
• Stealth Teams. These are fast, have a good amount of fire power, and have stealth suits that convey a cover save as well as the usual armour save.
• Vespid Stingwings. This is another fast choice that have decent fire power, and they have a bit better close combat skills.

Tyranid Kill Teams

Like most of the close combat specialists the Tyranid kill teams do better if there is plenty of terrain on the table. If there is then the Genestealers are the masters of this environment.

• Genestealers. As Genestealers do not need Hive Mind control they work very well in Kill Team games.
• Tyranid Warriors. Tyranid Warriors first appeared in a Warhammer 40k spinoff game called Space Crusader. As such they are good all round troops that work well in Kill Team games too. They can shoot, they have decent close combat skills, and as they are Hive Mind creatures they can operate independently too.