Reviewing the newly released Kill Team!
Welcome to today’s Warhammer 40000 Kill Team article where I go over the new Strike Force Justian Kill Team! I cover this new Space Marine team in-depth from how you collect them to how they work in-game! Thanks goes to Games Workshop for providing this to review for free. As always, I aim to be honest, impartial and constructively critical.
I’ve also done this article as a video you can check out here:
What’s In The Box?
This new Kill Team release comes in individual boxes that contain a random miniature from a set of 7. If you buy a full box of 8, you get all 7 miniatures with 1 spare (Space Marine with ceaseless Boltgun). Inside each box you get a blue sprue of plastic, small booklet with instructions for building as well as a QR code for the Kill Team Lite rules, and you get 2 datacards in English and Japanese respectively.
It’s an interesting release but I do like that you can ensure to get every miniature by buying a full boxing, making it easier to get a full set if desired.
Roster and Rules
Strike Force Justian is a little…odd. While Warhammer Community has said we will get a full free PDF rules set for the team, currently the cards inside tell you how to build the team. You have 7 operatives and can select 6 of the 7. Interestingly you can take both the Captain and Sergeant then choose who gets the Leader keyword, always do this. Might change with the full PDF rules but for now, RAW you can take the Captain and Sergeant, giving the Captain the Leader keyword.
As for ploys, each one available to the Strike Force Justian is printed on the back of each datacard. They have all the ploys that Intercession Squad can use sans the change Chapter Tactic ploy as Strike Force Justian has no access to them. You don’t get archetypes, Tac Ops or equipment too but the latter makes sense considering the operatives. For Tac Ops, I’d play the team as having Seek and Destroy plus Security, maybe use the Intercession faction Tac Ops too if you want.
Operatives
To make it basic, your 7 operatives are: Captain Justian, Bolt Rifle Sergeant, Phobos Eliminator, Heavy Intercessor, Bolt Rifle Intercessor with a Smoke Grenade, Assault Intercessor, and Intercessor with Auto Bolt Rifle.
Captain Justian is odd, yet welcomed to see, quite restrained, being only 15 wounds and hitting on 3s with his Power Fist. Considering he is a Captain, I was expecting 19 wounds and hitting on 2s with everything. He has a +4 invun and also gives you an extra command point each turn while on the field.
Brother Flavian has 12 wounds, the lowest of the kill team, but has a Bolt Sniper Rifle with 3 different firing modes. They’re all nice but Mortis is just the best as Hyperfrag will be very unlikely to trigger. He can spend an action point to ignore obscuring so still quite threatening when he can start shooting.
Brother Acules is a Heavy Intercessor that is, gasp, 3 APL. Still 2 white movement but also 18 wounds so your biggest boi. He has a Heavy Bolter that can fire twice although I don’t think it needs heavy considering he is a Heavy Intercessor. Now people having been losing their minds that his Bolter is 4 attacks, however, let me calm you down.
As with the Japanese rules, plus all prior rules for Heavy Bolters since the game launched, it’s 5 attacks so the English printing is a typo. Sometimes leaks aren’t accurate. Regardless, Acules is still good, just limiting.
Narrative Rules and Equipment
There are none, once again. This could change when the full PDF rules drop but currently we got nothing.
Strike Force Justian Overview
Overall, Strike Force Justian is pretty neat. It’s an interesting way to release a kill team for sure, very odd that lots of countries do not have access to the models currently (especially noting the UK). Kinda an ode to KT2018 with how the kill team is made, I’m glad it’s pretty restrained with the rules we have. I was worried with the Captain wrecking face or being 7 operatives but they’re good to see currently. Once again, all could change with the full PDF rules but I doubt it.
Strike Force Justian might be a little too weak but that’s okay. Currently a converter’s dream unless you’re in the country these are being released in, hopefully we get a full global release soon. For beginners, I find Intercession Squad are still much better as you get a sold all-around kill team that doesn’t miss any rules while being easy to collect.
I’d still recommend getting Strike Force Justian kill team if you can, they’re a neat little squad that will liven up your games if you’ve been playing Intercession for a while.
UK readers cannot buy this team (yet?) but I still have 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 to use in-general.
Check out my Discord as well as my Patreon too if you want to give me some more support!
That’s pretty much it from me. So until next time, no matter how you acquire your own Strike Force Justian, remember there’s always a chance to win via your leadership as long as you can roll a crit!
Can You Roll A Crit? 