Reviewing the new Kill Team annual!
Greetings and welcome to my review of Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team Annual 2022! This covers multiple new game modes as well as 2 new kill teams and a collation of the 4 White Dwarf kill teams! Before we get into things, thanks goes to Games Workshop first for providing this to review for free. As always I aim to be honest, impartial and constructively critical.
If you’re interested, I’ve also done this as a more in-depth video which you can watch here:
New Game Modes
The Kill Team Annual 2022 comes with a bunch of new narrative game modes, new ways to play Kill Team! Not just a collection of kill teams.
Multiplayer mode gives clear rules for playing 3 and 4 player games. It’s great to see something a lot of the community has been asking for. It’s a neat and nicely implemented addition. You basically need 2 Kill Team game boards but outside of that, the rules provided give a clear framework for use.
Next you have my favourite addition, the Last Stand. This is a super thematic but fun game mode. The Defender’s goal is to last as long as possible. You are going to lose but your skill and luck will determine when that happens. Your attacker has endless reinforcements and perfectly reflects such historic scenarios. You, as the defender, get a bunch of special resources you can use to fortify your position to help you last longer. I can’t wait to do battles from the narrative like a squad of Dire Avengers holding out against a Genestealer horde on an ice planet or a squad of Crimson Fist marines against the endless Ork Kommandos.
Above is an example the studio used to represent their assets for Last Stand games. It really adds so much and is great narrative addition to Kill Team.
Then you get the Sentry missions again. No real changes here although it does feel a bit strange to have this printed for the 3rd time after White Dwarf and Moroch. Really odd this was reprinted but the White Dwarf terrain traits were not added.
You also get a nice few pages showing off the studio kill teams.
Finally you get 6 kill teams. 2 are new (Elucidian Starstriders and Gellerpox Infected) with the other 4 being reprinted from White Dwarf. Sadly not updated with balanced changes (as those were done, likely, after the Annual went to print). I’ve already covered most of the White Dwarf teams on my YouTube but I’ve also done 2 in-depth videos on the new kill teams which you can watch here:
Elucidian Starstriders:
Gellerpox Infected:
The Elucidian Starstriders have Recon and Security, which is amazing. You do have a fixed and low selection of operatives which does offset this though. Faction Tac Ops are pretty great too. What I love are the abilities and airstrikes. The abilities add a lot of thematic depth to the kill team while the airstrikes help remind opponents that you own a fleet of ships in orbit. Very handy.
Operatives are pretty mixed, considering everyone is pretty much unique. Your leader is quite the short range beat stick despite her deceptive fragility. The dog is actually fairly useful. Then your Executioner is killy and stealthy too, almost a mini Harlequin.
Equipment is oddly a little tame but still good. Would have liked some more exotic rogue trader trinkets but overall very solid.
the Gellerpox have Seek and Destroy and somehow SECURITY. It feels really…wrong that these guys get Security and warps the power of the team. You have a small roster but looks are deceiving. Tac Ops are very solid for the most part and combine really well with Security. Ability-wise the kill team basically has a +5 Nurgle DPR and the ability to worsen ranged attacks if opponents are too close.
Your leader is a real beast and very customisable while also giving extra CP. All your Nightmare Hulks have the drawback of having mission actions cost more (except your leader) and cannot claim cover unless it is from heavy terrain so light terrain does nothing. Let’s hope there isn’t a game mode with only heavy cover.
You also have Glitchlings who have super conceal and are, oddly, really good for doing mission actions for you.
Equipment is…very unique. Instead of items you get your little daemonic bugs! This is fun and quite powerful. They just are an annoyance and waste activations for the opponent, which is perfect. You can either take doubles of 2 Mutoid Vermin or take 1 of each. I like 1 of each to get 3 extra activations but you can switch it up based on the opponent, very nice.
Kill Team Annual 2022 Overview
Overall the Kill Team Annual 2022 is a great little book. It adds lots of fun thematic narrative missions while also collating the White Dwarf kill teams and giving us 2 new kill teams. It’s a neat thing and only really misses out by not having the White Dwarf terrain traits, if it had that the book would have been perfect.
Pros:
- Official multiplayer game rules for 3 and 4 people
- New narrative game modes like the Last Stand
- Collected White Dwarf teams with 2 new kill teams
Cons:
- No White Dwarf terrain rules
- Kill teams are not up-to-date with rule changes
Personally, I’d recommend getting the Kill Team Annual 2022. It’s just a really fun and useful book. I was surprised by how much I like it. It’s useful to competitive and casual players alike. Just really great.
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.Check out my Discord as well as my Patreon too if you want to give me some more support!
That’s pretty much it for me now. So until next time, whether you’re facing your last stand or fighting off the Gellerpox Infected, nothing is hopeless as long as you can roll a crit!
Can You Roll A Crit? 