Darktide hits the tabletop!
Welcome to today’s Warhammer 40000 Kill Team article where I cover the new Darktide Board Game based on the Kill Team rules set! I cover all the contents inside as well as the gameplay mechanics! Find out how this board game version of Darktide correlates to the video game version as well as how fun it is!
I’ve also done this article as a video you can check out here:
What’s in the Box?
Darktide is a board game of the same named video game. Based on the core Kill Team rules, it pitches a team of 4 Imperial rejects against a horde of chaotic foes. Inside the box you get 4 blue miniatures to represent the game’s playable characters: female Primaris Psyker, Zealot, Kasrkin Veteran, and an Ogryn. You also get a full squad of 10 Blooded operatives and 6 Poxwalkers.
Unfortunately none of these miniatures are new or primarily designed for the game. Interestingly though, the Kasrkin and Ogryn have both been re-cut to fit on a single sprue. Only the Psyker, Zealot and Poxwalkers are push-fit models too, the rest all need to be built and glued together normally. Although the box makes it clear at the back that building and glue is required, it’s still just odd for a board game like this. Having no options to make a Bullgryn is also a huge shame.
You also get rules cards for all the operatives, bases, dice, action/equipment cards, the rulebook, instructions for building, tokens sheet and 4 double-sided game boards! Everything you need to play a full game of Darktide.
Rules
Inside the book it references everything you get in the box. It also breaks down the stats cards for all friendly and enemy operatives in the game, which follow a more simplified version of Kill Team’s rules.
For the core gameplay, the main change is using hexes for movement and range, which speeds up things considerably. It effectively plays like Warhammer Underworlds. You also get light and heavy cover hexes along with objectives too. You also have pretty much all the core actions you can do in Kill Team, with fighting and shooting working exactly the same.
Missions
For the core gameplay, you have 5 missions each with 3 rounds. These rounds work more like full games themselves so you effectively have 15 missions. Each 5 main missions represent different areas of the hive with a mixture of enemies to face and objectives to complete. It actually provides quite a bit of variety. Hopefully we get more added via White Dwarf or Warhammer Community as that would be lots of fun.
Darktide Overview
Overall Darktide is a nice little miniatures game. It’s fun and quick, with each game taking about 30 minutes. You can either play by yourself or with up to 3 other people as the enemies are AI controlled. Personally I prefer playing with a GM to control the enemies but either way works. It’s just a shame we didn’t get a big boss to fight such as a Chaos Ogryn or Beast of Nurgle like you do in the videogame version.
Pros:
- Everything you need to play is in the box
- 20 miniatures included
- Fun and tight gameplay with games taking around 30 minutes
- Hex-based so easy and fast to play
Cons:
- No dedicated Darktide miniatures make it feel too thrown together
- You have to build and glue most of the miniatures
- No final boss to fight like a Chaos Ogryn or Beast of Nurgle
Darktide, as a whole, is worth it personally. I’m not aware of the price but it’s a nice little board game that represents the videogame pretty closely while also being a nice bridge into Kill Team itself. Hopefully it gets more support going forwards either via free online missions or even additional expansions. Just nice and refreshingly fun.
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That’s pretty much it from me. So until next time, no matter what happens in Hive Terminus, remember there’s always a chance to win against the forces of Chaos as long as you can roll a crit!
Can You Roll A Crit? 