Kill Teams come in all shapes and sizes. But there’s a sweet spot to Kill Teams that they should try to stick to. Let’s check it out.
Kill Teams are the elite covert killers from every faction that treats strategy seriously. Even though all the Kill Teams in the game are “elite”, they play differently. But there’s a healthy balance to maintain for each team.
Maintaining a Healthy Balance
Unit cost in Kill Teams differs from faction to faction. but one thing you have to realize is that cheaper units aren’t always a good thing. When you look at 8th edition, you’ll see the cheapest possible units dominating lists that have a high BS and save.
in 8th edition, armies don’t have to worry about leadership too much because of CP spam and stratagems. However, in Kill Team, players don’t have those options and failing a single leadership check can cost you the game.
Bottom line is don’t spam cheap units to maximize your shots. It’s strong at first but will come back to haunt you once your team becomes shaken. It’s possible for models in your Kill Team to completely shut down and become unable to do anything so good leadership is favored.
With that being said, don’t take 5 models in your Kill Team if you can help it either. Sure you will hardly ever have to worry about your Kill Team becoming broken, but each model you lose is like adding another nail to your coffin. You have to maintain a healthy balance between model count, firepower, and leadership.
Go For AP and Multi Wound Weapons if You Can
In Kill Team, you need to make every shot count. Unit placement and shooting at the right enemy is paramount. Take a few high AP guns like plasma with you and make sure you maximize your specialists.
For example, Take a Space Marine Gunner with the sniper special rule. Next, take a comms guy and let those two roll together. The comms will give him +1 to hit (basically hitting on 2’s now) and the sniper special rule will let the guy with plasma reroll 1’s. So now you can rapid fire an overcharged plasma hitting on 2’s and rerolling 1’s.
You can also take a Heavy weapons gunner with the Heavy special rule. You’ll be able to ignore the -1 to hit penalty after moving with a heavy weapon and if a comms guy is close, he can have 3 S5 shots at -1 AP hitting on 2’s. (You can also spend 1CP to give your heavy an extra shot).
Every Kill Team is different so this doesn’t apply to something like a list of nothing but Genestealers. But if you can, balance yourself between a decent number of models as well as some decent weaponry. Tau and Guard are very strong at the start of the game, and then crumble if they lose too many units. Likewise, Grey Knights have double the shots of a normal Marine and have high AP melee weapons, but with only 5 models, you’ll have to play extremely tactfully.
What do you think about Kill Team? What faction do you play? Do you have a different mentality to the game? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
