Reviewing the new Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team box!
Greetings and welcome to my review of Kill Team Moroch, the new box set for Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team! Thanks goes to Games Workshop for providing this to me to review for free. As always, I am to be honest, impartial and constructively critical. I also have a Discord and Patreon you can check out as well as a YouTube version of this video where I go into more depth for this review:
What’s in the Box
The Moroch box is packed with plastic. Inside you get several kits of the new Warhamer 40,000 Fronteris terrain, 10 Phobos Space Marines, 12 Traitor Guardsmen, a Moroch rulebook and gaming board as well as some transfers for the Space Marines. The box is also extra THICC, coming in at about 6 inches in depth, with most of the space being taken up by the terrain.
Phobos Strike Team
The Phobos Strike Team is 1 of the 2 kill teams you get inside the Kill Team Moroch box. This team brings you the first up-to-date rules for Space Marines in Kill Team, allowing you to assemble a 6 Operative kill team from a selection of: Infiltrators, Incursors and Reivers. While being a great selection of operatives to choose from, you only get 10 Infiltrators/Incursors in Moroch to build from and no Reivers at all. This is the biggest flaw of the box in my opinion and I would have much rather the box came with 5 Infiltrators/Incursors and 5 Reivers.
Despite that, the Phobos Strike team is pretty solid. You can select from either Infiltration, Recon or Seek and Destroy as your archetypes, with only Security being left out. Not only that but each time of Primaris Phobos Space Marine comes with their own special ability and actions. Personally, Infiltrators have the best ability, being able to delay a key enemy operative by a number of activations so you can play around them, then the Reivers due to the effects of their mask and finally Incursors which just help you shoot at people hiding behind obscuring terrain better.
Guerilla Warfare is a key action for how the Phobos Strike Team operates. While you cannot do it during turning point 1, it allows you to change order while activating. It may not sound strong at first but what it allows you to do is activate from conceal, move, shoot then go back to conceal etc. It has a multitude of uses and allows very careful play from this kill team, taking quick shots then hiding back behind heavy cover to prevent being shot back. Or even charging, killing an enemy operative then going back to conceal and so on. Just remember you can’t do it while within red of an enemy operative.
Stratagems are also very good overall with Vanguard being maybe the best strategic ploy in the game. Being able to ignore the first white for climbing/traversing terrain AND getting 1 black of extra movement is so huge. Free climbing gear with extra movement! Elite Reconnaissance is also very good. Pick the scouting option you need to go first then use this strat once (or twice as it happens before the turning point and is not bound by the stratagem limit) for the scouting option you actually want such as picking dash to go first then selecting change order for 1 CP.
Operative-wise each operative is 12 wounds, 3 APL and with a 3+ save. Infiltrator Bolters are lethal 5+, Incursor Bolters have no cover (as well as getting a slightly better melee profile) and Reivers can take either a Bolter or a Special Issue Bolt Pistol and Combat Knife. Infiltrators have the best loadout here with Reivers next as they have AP1 Bolters and now their knives do 4/5 damage!
The Infiltrator Commsman is a key piece of the Phobos Strike Team. It can let any visible operative do a single 1AP action that isn’t movement based. Anything! It can’t repeat that action when activating but you will see how it synergises with the kill team. Move, shoot, switch to conceal. Then use the Commsman to make that operative now do a mission action or detonate or tract target etc. Lots of usage.
The Infiltrator Saboteur is your super demo man. Remote explosives takes a lot of setup but you can get single turning point explosions off with the Commsman letting you detonating after placing and moving away. Or just set it on a key point that the enemy has to control. Very good for controlling board space and targets multiple operatives if they are within range, just remember that includes your own Space Marines too!
The Reiver Sergeant hits on 2s like all of your 3 selectable Sergeants but also shares their unique action of Strategise for 1AP. It gives you +1CP (as long as no enemy operative is within red) basically meaning you gain +2CP a turn with this. Very good and it’s why I mainly take a Reiver Sergeant who can spare a CP to Strategise turning points 1 and 2 while moving up the board.
Equipment is pretty diverse although Reivers have the best, personally. Grapnel Launchers are fine but Grave-Chutes are ahmazing. A 2 white movement with fly that then gives you fly if you next move off a vantage point to a lower piece of terrain/ground. Can’t combine with recon from scouting but so much extra mobility is huge and allows setting up of early charges/board control.
Other than that, the rest of the equipment is standard. Krak grenades and frags are your friends whereas smoke grenades are okay and shock grenades are disappointing. Throwing knives are fun too for if you like ninja Space Marines.
Overall the Phobos Strike Team, despite suffering the main pitfalls of elite kill teams like krak grenade spam and being mass out-activated, are lots of fun and feel really strong to play. They require a lot of careful play but reward you for doing so. They play exactly like a team of sneaky Space Marines operating behind enemy lines would, which is perfect in my book. My Black Templar ones even have stuff like stealth candles and lanterns to make sure they’re extra stealthy.
Blooded Kill Team
The Blooded Kill Team are the Traitor Guard and the second kill team in the Moroch box. They have your average body of 7 wounds with a +5 save. You’re locked into Seek and Destroy which is rough and can only select 2 out of your 4 gunners so maybe a sign of change for Veteran Guardsmen too? Otherwise you have a roster of 10 operatives then either a selection of 4 Guardsmen or an Enforcer and Ogryn who count as 2 slots each.
Blooded tokens are…frustrating and give me Warhammer Underworlds flashbacks. You have a pool of Blooded tokens for your Blooded Kill Team. You gain 1 per turning point, 1 when an enemy operative is incapacitated and 1 when your operative is killed within red of the enemy drop zone. That gives you a max of 3 per turn. If you have 4 allocated to friendly operatives, one of those becomes under the gaze of the gods. Normally a Blooded token lets you retain a dice as a success before rolling, if under the gaze of the gods you retain as a crit instead. It’s just so slow and complicated in a kill team of 12 to 14 models. And you lose Blooded tokens if an operative dies with them. Just frustrating.
Strats are fine but Reckless Aspirants is most useful for basically making everyone Blooded while within red of the enemy drop zone. Callous Disregard is funny but Reward Earned is what you’ll likely pop too so you can up your intake of Blooded tokens.
Operative-wise the Brimstone Grenadier is amazing because he gives you access to your 4th Krak grenaded while also having a better Frag grenade. The Butcher is a surprisingly good melee body with 8 wounds to boot. The Sharpshooter is fine but has a kinda redundant camo cloak due to firing silently. The Trench Sweeper is pretty solid too but the shield should give a +3 save or count as heavy cover when you use it.
The Enforcer is fine but even with his choose someone to overwatch ability, 2 normal Blooded operatives are far more useful. It’s not like the Ogryn who is a 16 wound tank. And then you have your Chieftan who will likely be rocking a Plasma pistol and Makeshift combat weapon.
Equipment isn’t bad but just boring. 3 Krak grenades are your most useful pick with a Chem-Breather on your favourite model. A bit disappointing really and helps highlight the current problem with grenades that Kill Team has. Flamer shotgun shells are fun however.
Overall the Blood Kill Team are fun but a bit boring. Their main goal is to just run at the opponent and kill them while doing some mission actions along the way. It’s fine but just kinda one-track. You rush your opponent with an Ogryn, 2 Gunners and 4 Krak grenades. Anything elite will likely fall to that and you have a good chance to defeat a lot of people that way. It’s not bad but with how frustrating Blooded tokens can be, I would have liked it if the Blooded Kill Team operated more like the Blood Pact and not like murdering-focused Guardsmen.
Terrain
Terrain-wise you get a lot of selection from the new Fronteris terrain. I’m a fan of it to begin with and the pieces are quite big and take up a lot of the board. Their unique rules are also fun too. What I like is how stackable the terrain is. You can put the auspex shrine on the hab-bunker or landing pad. OR you can put the hab-bunker on the landing pad and the auspex shrine on top of the hab-bunker to make a truly tall terrain piece. It gives you lots of variations to play around with.
The vox-antenna is odd. It’s the first vantage point that only allows a single operative on it but it should have been an punishing vantage point too so that people are encouraged to climb it. The stockades are good too but if I find it very strange that the door isn’t a door (I mean, I guess it’s a gate but still). It’s 2 white to climb over and doesn’t block line of sight if in the way but a door would have made the terrain much more friendly for moving about. The diagram for cover lines with the stockades is also greatly appreciated.
Sentries
Sentries is the new game mode seen in White Dwarf and the basis of all narrative missions in the Kill Team Moroch box. It’s from the last edition of Kill Team but you originally had a Sentry mode in Warhammer 40,000 4th edition Kill Team with stuff like klaxon counters etc. This version is fine but strictly good for only narrative/casual play. While thematic, it can take a lot of time to resolve if the attacker remains stealthy as despite the defender controlling 2 operatives, they operate on auto-pilot unless they spot the single attacker. As I said it’s alright but may need additional comping to work well in your own games such as a 5/10 minute time limit or a max of 3 turns etc.
Kill Team Moroch Overview
Overall Kill Team Moroch is a pretty neat box. It’s another nice quarterly update for Kill Team that I can highly recommend. The terrain selection is great and I’m a fan of both new teams (although more-so for the Phobos Strike Team). Even buying the box for the terrain only is great value. But yeah, Games Workshop continue the trend of Nachmund with thematic yet decently strong Kill Teams that are fairly balanced in the overall scope of things. It’s a good sign.
Pros:
- Lots of new Fronteris terrain
- Strong and thematic kill teams
- Sentry game mode for narrative/casual games
Cons:
- No Reivers in the box
- Blooded Kill Team is a little one-dimensional
If you want to pick up Kill Team Moroch you can pre-order it directly from the Games Workshop website or use my affiliate link at Element Games to net you a 25% to 15% discount at no additional cost to yourself while helping to support me and my work.
But that’s pretty much it. Remember to check out my YouTube review for a more in-depth guide but another good update in my book. So until next time, if your stuck between a sneaky Space Marine and a corrupted bloodied Guardsmen, remember that all hope isn’t lost as long as you can roll a crit!
Can You Roll A Crit? 