Time for another oddity in the modern games slot with a non-video game review. Well, the New Zelda isn’t out till next week so need to find things to fill the slot.

So, you want to dip your toe into Warhammer 40000, but you don’t know if you have the patience to paint a full or even small army? Or maybe you Like the look of one of the factions you don’t play as but aren’t sure if you want that army? Maybe the whole fully painted army thing isn’t for you? Well good news, Kill Team is a game which only relies on you needing to paint the equivalent of 1 unit.

Kill Team is a small-scale Skirmish game set in the Warhammer 40000 setting. Instead of an army it has you field a small elite team to complete a mission against another small elite team. This makes it far more accessible to people getting into painting since you at minimum have just the cost of that single unit (as well as paints and glue).

Playing the game there is a far greater focus on terrain, so at least one of the players will need to have a good amount of fully assembled terrain (the intro boxes usually come with them). The goal is different depending on which mission you play but it isn’t usually wipe out the enemy, just that helps a lot. Instead, often you have to go to an objective, capture it, activate it. Depends on the mission but you will need to deal with your opponent trying to do the same and kill you. A way to help achieve that is to kill them.

Since there is a greater focus on terrain and the game’s much denser with it, your characters will need to move around them, climb up them or use them for cover. All these are in the rules. Using its measuring object (comes in the box but may need to buy your own) your characters can move a set amount each activation. For each character has a stats showing how many actions it can make in an activation. Once that character is done it’s then your opponent’s turn to activate one of theirs, and you keep doing this changing up so no one is using their whole force at once. You have to plan out who to move and where. Weapons unless specifically stated in their profile have unlimited range so using that terrain for cover is essential.

One thing I love about this game is it has let factions and elements of the Warhammer 40000 setting that wouldn’t be justified for an army get models. The Arbites, sort of Imperial police, who resemble Judge Dread, recently got a Kill Team, as have Traitor Guard and recently Beastmen.

There is the balance issue. I could go on about which force is perceived as stronger than others and some silly meta statement. But usually if you have a force that has gotten proper dedicated rules, ether with a boxed release or White Dwarf article, they are usually stronger than the more thrown together rules for pre-existing units. But honestly, unless you find out the force you are looking into is literally the bottom of the barrel in terms of usability, pick the force you like the most. Just note that what may start as just you getting a small Kill Team, may lead into a whole army.