GW gave us yet another look at the new Tau and Sisters of Battle models from the new 40k Kill Team: Chalnath box set.
The new box will have a bunch of those cool Imperial ruins for terrain, brand new Sisters models, and unfortunately, only an upgrade sprue for the Tau.
We had heard rumors about this box for a while, so actually seeing it revealed is always nice!
Warhammer Community unveiled new pics of the terrain, some rules, and more about the upcoming starter box.
GW Reveals New Sprues & More: 40k Kill Team Chalnath Box
This new set includes two new kill teams – T’au Pathfinders and Battle Sister Novitiates, with new models and new equipment – as well as a vast array of plastic scenery and a double-sided game board.
There’s also a chunky 96-page rulebook containing detailed new rules for both teams and their operatives, as well as plenty of background on the escalating war for the Chalnath Expanse and nine new missions.
This has about the exact same stuff as the new Kill Team Octarius starter sans system-wide rules, so expect the price point to potentially be about the same. The main difference about this one, there is just an upgrade sprue for the Pathfinders. Also, this probably means when they come out on their own, they will actually get a bump in price to $50 (unfortunately), because they were more expensive than the Cadian Shock troopers.
With the action focusing on Imperial worlds in the Vedik System in particular, your kill teams will be duking it out across ruined Human cities and installations, with all the usual trappings – Aquilas, cathedral windows, and barely a floor left intact.
It’s a great set of terrain, and it’s totally modular. With five ruined walls and two larger ruins offering deadly vantage points for snipers, and plenty of doors and hatches for sneaky operatives to get the jump on their foes, it’s the perfect stage for a bloody bout of covert operations.
The terrain looks pretty decent and it’s hard to go wrong with ruins. So even if you just want the minis inside for 40k, the terrain will be perfect for those games as well!
Sisters of Battle
Before they become fully fledged Battle Sisters, aspirants must prove their piety on the front lines. Known as Novitiates, they are usually deployed as kill teams with an experienced Sister Superior directing their youthful zealotry.
Novitiates are completely new to the 41st Millennium, and as you’ve come to expect from Kill Team releases, their kit is incredibly flexible and comes with dozens of options to let you build your team as you see fit.
We’re sure they will eventually come out with rules for 40k for the Novitiates, but if not, you can always just sprinkle them into your squads. Plus, they look to have a ton of options, which means a lot of bits! You can tell by the sprues, there are plenty of options and they don’t look to be the ETB style. With all that, we expect these will go for around $50 when compared to Repentia Squad.
Even more fun is their upgrade sprue, which houses enough parts to make 10 distinct kinds of operative, ranging from the relic-bearing Novitiate Pronatus to the Novitiate Exactor with her twin neural whips.
There are definitely a ton of options, so we’ll have to see what wargear is good when they come to 40k, as GW also said the new equipment will be usable in 40k as well with new rules!
Each team is packed with options and has unique new Spec Ops Campaign rules, Ploys, and Equipment.
40k Kill Team: Chalnath Sisters of Battle Rules
They wield a wide array of sanctified weaponry, from humble autoguns to ancient maces. One can even carry a pair of neural whips, which are just as handy for driving your operatives forward as they are for lashing your foes. There are ten sisters in total, with twelve different types of operative to pick from.
Sometimes you just have to whip those initiates into shape apparently! Overall the minis are pretty interesting, even though they have received mixed reviews up until this point.
The Sister Superior wears full Adepta Sororitas power armour and can wield a boltgun – the only member of the squad to have that honour. She has a range of wargear available to her (and, as you’ll see from her sprue, some fantastic hats), while her Lead by Example special rule lets her activate another Novitiate if she does something cool, like incapacitate an enemy.
With her better save and weaponry, she is going to be a force to be reckoned with. Then her Lead by example will let you get the most out of your Novitiates.
You can even encourage those who don’t lack enthusiasm, such as the Novitiate Penitent, who loves to go undercover with a chainsword that’s taller than she is…
If you’re playing Sisters, you always need an Eviscerator in the army, even if you’re playing a stealth mission!
Acts of Faith
All of this fervour and piety does actually pay off, you see. The more zealous your Novitiates are in the prosecution of their duties – skulking around, sneaking about, covertly chunking enemy operatives with giant swords – the more points you earn to spend on Acts of Faith. And what do faith points mean? Re-rolls and extra crits. Devotion pays dividends.
It’s nice to see them keeping this staple for the Sisters going even in Kill Team. This army is really focused on incapacitating the enemy, so be sure to get right into the thick of it! Then getting re-rolls is always a plus, but just getting a free hit is even better.
Wargear & Ploys
Of course, our brave Novitiates also have plenty of exclusive wargear they can collect on their travels. We’re particular fans of the Auto-chastiser, which lets you re-roll as many 1s as you like. Of course, if you roll more 1s, you take mortal wounds. The God-Emperor giveth, and He taketh away…
This army will have a bunch of re-rolls, which will make them so much more reliable.
Finally, there are also bespoke ploys to help you demonstrate your devotion to the Emperor even harder. We’ve chosen a couple of especially fervent examples – Glorious Martyrdom lets you hurt yourself in exchange for extra faith points, while Aegis of the Emperor lets you hurt perfidious psykers just by closing your eyes and thinking really, really hard about how much you love Him.
Glorious Martyrdom is really sweet for only 1 CP, if you can get a Novitiate up close and she does get incapacitated, this could dish out the damage and gain you a decent amount of Faith points.
Chalnath Sisters of Battle Novitiates Squad 40k Rules Revealed!
Despite a relative lack of experience, Novitiates are just as accurate in shooting as their full-fledged Battle Sister comrades – but it’s in melee combat where they truly shine. By swapping their autoguns for Novitiate melee weapons, they can swing three times when charging, with a crucial extra point of Strength to put the hurt on the likes of Drukhari raiders, smaller Tyranid bioforms, and other light targets. Not only that, their charges become more reliable when fighting under a sacred banner.
They can get a decent amount of attacks, but with D1 and no Ap, it’s going to be hard for them to really cut through units, especially with that 4+ WS. Still, they could be a fun unit to have, let’s check out the full sheet:
The melee weapons do seem like the best choice here because they get 3 attacks if they charge at strength 4.
Overall, they will be a fun addition to your Sisters of Battle army, and if you’re buying Chalnath anyway, might as well get the rules to play them in Warhammer 40k as well!
Pathfinders
The T’au Pathfinders are already incredibly versatile, but the Earth caste has outfitted them with a ton of new gear. Kill Team Chalnath comes with a comprehensive new upgrade sprue for the existing Pathfinder kit, meaning new heads, new gadgets, new guns, and even a few new poses – all you need to bring the Greater Good to the recalcitrant Imperial citizens of the Chalnath Expanse.
We were really, really hoping for a fully new Tau set in the box, but an upgrade sprue is better than nothing. Well, in a way it is however it could mean the cost of the box will go up, most likely to $50. So getting new bits is cool, but paying more really isn’t.
This could mean new kits in the future though, as it seems to be happening with Imperial Guard and the Death Korps of Krieg. The upgrade sprue isn’t that big, but will change up the look of your Pathfinders.
This evolved Pathfinders kill team has access to exciting new toys including a manual control system for their drone support, a marksman rail rifle with inertial dampeners and silent dart rounds, and a debonair pair of wrap-around shades for every team member.
This has about the exact same stuff like the new Kill Team Octarius starter sans system-wide rules, so expect the price point to potentially be about the same. The main difference about this one, there is just an upgrade sprue for the Pathfinders.
Also, this probably means when they come out on their own, they will actually get a bump in price to $45, just like the Cadian Shock troopers.
GW also said the new equipment will be usable in 40k as well with new rules!
Each team is packed with options and has unique new Spec Ops Campaign rules, Ploys, and Equipment. They will also be fully usable in games of Warhammer 40,000, with rules coming soon.
40k Kill Team: Chalnath What’s it Worth?
This has a decent amount inside but the price is a little higher than we expected. With them saying they will release more of these in the future, expect this to set the pricing for their KT bundle boxes moving forward (and hopefully not more).
Let’s check out the value then compare it to the previous 40k Kill Team Starter box from 2018:
2018 Kill Team Starter Set $130
GW was clever when they posted the pictures on their website. They don’t show the sprues of the terrain in the box and don’t call it a part of any of the other terrain kits.
But what is the true value of this starter set itself? Let’s start by going down the list (in 2018 pricing):
- Kill Team Core Manual $40
- Squad of 10 Skitarii (Rangers or Vanguard) $44
- Squad of 5 Genestealer Acolyte Hybrids $40
- Accessories $50
- Varied set of Imperial Terrain $136
Total MSRP: $310
Total Value: $180
Like with a lot of these sets, a ton of the value comes in the way of terrain and accessories over the minis. This set had some seriously sweet terrain, we wish we could get this kind of value again!
Now fast forward to the value inside the latest Kill Team box:
40k Kill Team: Chalnath $170
The T’au Empire and Adepta Sororitas clash in a series of violent running battles in the Vedik System with this new expansion for Kill Team – which comes complete with two full teams and a bunch of Imperial ruins to fight over.
The all-new Adepta Sororitas Novitiates kit is a team of 10 fresh-faced Sisters of Battle eager to prove themselves worthy of induction into the main ranks. Against them stands a T’au Pathfinder Squad which includes an upgrade sprue full of new options to kit out your team of 10, plus three drones.
All of these new models look pretty sweet, not to mention Xenos players are always looking forward to receiving more love from GW! They will also be doing this box set as an MTO, so everyone who wants one will be able to get one.
New MKII Design- Get it Now!
It’s also worth mentioning that the terrain sprues inside this box appear to be the same exact configuration of sprues from the 2018 Kill Team Starter Box release as well.
That featured the old Basilicanum terrain set with one extra sprue of ruins, and sans the statues sprue. Previously $100 retail in 2018, adjusted for 2021 pricing, but be aware this has not been available from GW for quite some time.
- Tau Pathfinders $50 (the upgrade sprue brings the extra cost, but could go to $48)
- Novitiates kit $50 (based on the Repentia kit)
- Terrain $130 (based on the old Basilicanum Terrain- see above)
- Rules for the Minis inside should be added value i.e free
Total MSRP $230
Total Value $60
The value on this isn’t too high, but again it’s the one way to grab the new minis first. We were also hoping they wouldn’t raise the price on this from Pariah Nexus, but at least it was only $10. Still, we just want these starter sets to come with more value.
Should You Buy Kill Team: Chalnath?
The short answer is probably no, well unless you have to have those new minis for your Sisters or Tau.
It almost seems like Games Workshop is putting less of an emphasis on value, and more on early access and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) for their larger box sets as of late.
However as we saw with Dominion, and the Black Templar Army box, interest in these paywall-type releases may be waning as hobbyists continue to vote with their hobby dollars about what’s important to them.
With Chalnath, Octarius, and a full lineup of new releases on the way, 40k Kill Team is in full swing!
Check out the Latest News & More For Kill Team!
Are you excited about the Kill Team Chalnath box? Will you be picking it up, or waiting to see the price?
Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group, or our new Discord server, and make sure you enter the latest monthly giveaway for FREE today!
Get ad-free access to the site, a monthly crate of miniatures, and support some of the best creators out there for as little as $6 a month on Patreon!
About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Joined: 2019
Socials: @paschbass
Bio: Dark Eldar Dracon and Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the third edition in 1998. He also loves camping because you can only paint so much! He joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the main daily writer since 2020.
Maybe one day, he’ll finish converting all his Ad Mech models and turn into a true tech enjoyer, complete with sad and happy robot noises!
