Games Workshop - Kill Team: Octarius (2021 Starter Set)

Product Information

Along side these there are two identical sets of cards with two different coloured backings – these are used to generate a bank of secondary objectives that are then drawn at the start of each game.

Additional Accessories: Get straight into the game with a double-sided game mat, two decks of 27 Tactical Ops cards, and 10 dice. What’s more, this launch will be followed up by major releases every quarter, including new models, killzones, and settings, and you may even see detailed rules for other factions elsewhere. I think I’d still recommend saving your pennies to see if there is a future boxed release for your favourite faction, though. If you don’t feel like reading everything below, I’ve stuck a tl;dr at the bottom in nice big letters so you can’t miss it.Terrain Pieces: Create a ramshackle Ork shanty town with brand new ruins, platforms, and scattered refuse. First things first: the Kill Team 2nd Edition Core Book, and the Octarius supplement (both included in the Octarius box set) are a couple of the spiffiest-looking books GW has ever produced. However, these are both very thin and often at odd angles, which can make it even more difficult to judge where they’re supposed to go. There are heaps of build options to choose from throughout the guide: just about every special operative can be constructed as a regular veteran soldier if you so wish, so there’s plenty of room for personalisation. However, the majority of the sprues are dedicated to scenery, and there is some chunky bits of the stuff in here.

Citadel Miniatures: Two full kill teams of Veteran Guardsmen and Ork Kommandos form the heart of Kill Team: Octarius, each featuring a wide array of customisation and alternate assembly options. Whilst the Death Korps of Krieg has never looked better, and the Ork Kommandos are just downright incredible, I can’t escape the feeling that everyone else has been somewhat left out in the cold. Even once I had it done as according to the guide, and after some fiddling, the support column still wasn’t quite touching the ground. Finally after deployment there is the scouting phase where essentially you pick from Fortify, Infiltrate and Recon each having a different benefit but each also beating a different choice as in rock, paper scissors. Tac Ops, on the other hand, while I haven’t had much time to play with most of them, are a particular stroke of genius, splicing the previous Kill Team’s objectives system with 9th Edition 40k’s wildly popular secondary objectives to add variety and narrative colour to your game plan.This incredible boxed set includes two full kill teams – Veteran Guardsmen of the Death Korps of Krieg and cunning Ork Kommandos – alongside all the rules, terrain, and accessories you need to start playing. With Kill Team’s previous (2018) iteration having somewhat faded into the background since the arrival of 40k’s 9th Edition in 2020 – and its latest expansion, Pariah Nexus, landing remarkably poorly among fans – we could be forgiven for having expected to see nothing from Kill Team for a fair old while, if ever.

The Orks are spread across two sprues (well, one large sprue frame and one half the size again), and it’s common that all the components for a single Ork will be scattered across all three, so be prepared to have to hunt. I managed to get this built up and painted to a battle ready standard in a day (due to needing this stuff together and painted in time for this review!Whilst I wasn’t an enormous fan of the expansion set (funnily enough, I still haven’t painted the 3,000+ pieces of ridiculous cuboid terrain that came in the box), I did quite like the skirmish-style gameplay and found it fast-paced and exciting. Instead, pieces of terrain now have strategic importance, and can tip the battle in the favour of those who used them correctly.

And yeah, whilst I think the Kill Team: Octarius box, as an isolated release, is absolutely smashing, I am concerned what the wider changes to the new edition of Kill Team mean for players.Contains 17 new terrain pieces including ruins, platforms, and scattered refuse for creating your own ramshackle Ork shanty town. Where many had thought it would die out, GW has instead invested much in rebooting it, hard, with a genuinely top-class starter box, and a cracking ruleset with vast potential. Unlike games of 40K, in the new edition of Kill Team matches have three phases: Initiative, Strategic and Firefight.