Kill Team: Pariah Nexus & Killzones

Last Sunday, Games Workshop announced the products that will go up for pre-order this weekend. Amongst them are several new releases for Kill Team including the new Pariah Nexus box. I was surprised at the number of releases since I had only seen previews of Pariah Nexus itself, but I’m left with really mixed feelings by the set of releases.

Pariah Nexus

Pariah Nexus is a new box set for Kill Team that comes with a new expansion book, Space Marines, Necrons, a game board, and terrain. Pariah Nexus is not a new starter set and doesn’t include the core rulebook.

The Space Marine kill team is a set of heavy intercessors and a captain that is similarly equipped. The Necron kill team is a set of flayed ones and a chronomancer cryptek. The miniatures in the box will be exclusive to the set initially, but will most likely end up available as individual sets for Warhammer 40,000 in the not too distant future.

The expansion book will contain rules for close quarters combat inside a Necron complex as well as new and updated data sheets. The close quarters rules will likely be very similar to other places they’ve been published (Rogue Trader and Arena). The data sheets cover not only the units in the box but also updates for newer models in the Space Marine and Necron lines for Warhammer 40,000 such as new cryptek varieties and assault intercessors. According to previews, the book will also update some units and wargear to be more inline with their stats in 9th edition. As of right now, it is unclear whether the rulebook will be available outside of the box in the future, or if other factions will get updates to align with 9th edition.

Killzones

The Killzones book was a surprise to me. It is going to collect the rules bits from the various Killzone sets that were released early on for Kill Team before quickly being sold out. The sets included rules for playing in different environments such as a random condition table, special scenarios, and tactics to use in the killzone. I was really disappointed when these sets sold out so quickly since the rules included were suddenly unavailable, so I’m really happy to see this book. I hope that Kill Team gets more releases like this in the future.

Killzone Environment Sets

In addition to the Killzones book, a few of the Killzone boxes are being re-released. The Sector Mechanicus, Sector Fronteris, and Sector Munitorum boxes come with a new game board as well as enough terrain to fill it. I really like the Warhammer 40,000 terrain kits, and when these were originally released the price point made them a great deal. I’m particularly fond of the Sector Fronteris ruins, so it’s good to see them available again.

Mixed Feelings

I’ve been hoping for Kill Team datasheets to be updated to align with 9th edition, so I’m happy to see that Games Workshop is taking steps towards that. I’m also very happy to see the Killzone sets coming back and the Killzones book is exactly the sort of product I’d like to see more of for the game where the rules aren’t exclusive to box sets. That said, packaging updates to the Space Marine and Necron armies in a box is a step in exactly the opposite direction. I’m not eager to have to buy a box to get updated stats for existing units or access to other new units that aren’t even in the box. I also dislike in both Kill Team and 9th edition how updated stat lines are rolling out unevenly across the various factions – for example, Space Marines moving to 2 wounds while Heretic Astartes remain at 1. In the end, I hope we get more products like the Killzones book and that updated datasheets are available outside of the Pariah Nexus box without too much of a wait.