Kill Team Dead Silence. Tau vs Space Wolves

[skylerboodie]

19 minutes ago, ThaneOfTas said:

Genuinely shocked that this box isn't Ordo Malleus adjacent. Kits look cool though, thankfully as I'm not interested in either faction I'm comfortable giving it a miss.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is another Kill Team box in between Dead Silence and Shadowhunt; the graphic after the latter was leaked was more just a ? in between Tomb World and Shadowhunt, then confirming just one release, and four boxes feels more usual for a 'season'.

[Crimson Longinus]

6 minutes ago, bloodhound23 said:

Yeah I was hoping for an upgrade sprue for the new Primaris scouts. Never liked this armor style. Missed opportunity imo. 

 

Phobos makes way more sense. They're full marines, and can wear power armour and now there is stealth power armour design. 

 

I actually hoped that the sergeants in vanilla scout squads would have had phobos for similar reasons, but they probably wanted to avoid mixing armour saves. 

 

 

[firestorm40k]

Looks like the Wolf Scout team will combine aspects of the Phobos Kill Team and the firepower of the Angels of Death Kill Team, with added four legged support - I anticipate they'll be very strong in the game! 

 

Surprised there's no terrain, hopefully the Tomb World terrain will be getting a seperate release on it's own. 

[Fire Golem]

Really like the Tau. Will defo pick them up on their individual release. 

[Hfran Morkai]

Oh my...

 

I'm liking the update to the T'au. The Stealth Tech has always been a big appeal to me of the faction but the XV-25s were lacking in 'character' (fitting perhaps) so this is nice.

 

The Wolves, I do like them but wish it had been the Scout Carapace Armour. One of my favourite pieces of art is the Wolf Scout with Shotgun.

 

[Rusted Boltgun]

For me, it is the gameplay elements that I like the look of

 

Besides both of these brand new kill teams, the box also includes the Kill Team: Dead Silence Dossier book, which is packed with background lore and information for each side, from their objectives to the makeup of their kill teams. As well as full rules for the Stealth Battlesuits and Wolf Scouts, it also includes an extensive new campaign system designed to be played co-operatively, competitively, and even solo – letting you progress even if your opponent isn’t taking part themselves

 

These in-depth campaigns are known as Ctesiphus Expeditions, and are based around hex maps filled with different territories and landmarks for you to capture. Your first few games will take place on the surface, hunting for clues and an entrance to the quiet depths below, before you descend into the tomb world to loot valuable technology and information. 

 

As you’ll be recording your discoveries directly on the map, the Dead Silence box includes a pair of campaign pads to help you keep track – the map pad comprises 10 tearaway sheets for each of the 5 different maps, while the log pad gives you space to record your kill team’s progress and rewards. To cap it all off, you also get datacards, transfer sheets, and tokens for each kill team, as usual.

 

 

All that looks really good to me - co-op, campaign stuff in Kill Team really appeals.

BUT I got off the train at the last box so won't be partaking.

 

I might pick up the Wolves Scout team as a separate box just for painting fun (it has a wolf in it, what's not to like?!)

[Wispy]

The Fangbearer looks to be the medic. He has the Wolf Priest shiv (which is the SW equivalent of Apothecary reductor) and cannisters for the holy globules (Geneseed).

Edited yesterday at 02:01 PM by Wispy

[Moonstalker]

A few thoughts:

 

8 total models.  No Warrior (which in kill team, you can usually take multiple of).  Current Phobos team allows you to pick 6 operatives (leader+5).  So this is probably a one box kill team.  It looks like the Hunter/Fangbearer and Leader/Frosteye have duplicate poses, so that's one duplicate sprue.  The other four appear to be unique.  Might be possible that you get 2 puppers?  Two marines seems a little light for one sprue.

The Frosteye has an instigator bolt carbine.  Will probably get some sniper rules.  Silent and Seek Light?

Fangbearer is probably a Wolf Priest trainee of some sort (the guys who carry a Fang of Morkai), comparable to a Helix Adept in the Phobos kill team.

Trapmaster somewhere between Phobos Saboteur/Minelayer?  I imagine he'll have the keywords needed to be able to breach the breachable Tomb World walls with one APL.

Rune Priest is the first loyalist Psyker in kill team, I think.  About time, and looking forward to seeing what rules he's got in 40k (we need a generic psyker with the Space Wolf keyword, and being in Phobos armor helps too).

Plasma pistol on someone that's not the leader is a little strange.  Will the leader get one too?  Probably not, since plasma pistols are so rare.

[Dark Shepherd]

Any guesses at price?

 

Preferably in euros or gold

[Wispy]

Anyways I am glad this dropped. Our Ultramarine brothers were getting a little too smug and needed to be taken down a notch.

[sitnam]

14 minutes ago, Jscarlos18 said:

Nice, glad to see GW is using KT to give updates to units that really needed them. Mandrakes, Raveners, Stealth Suits, Vespids... And there's the future release of a brand new Nightbringer too.

I'm torn. KT is at its best when it does flavorful teams , not updates for 40k. But most of those teams you named were both flavorful and good updates. My main issue is stuff like Mandrakes, Striking Scorpions, etc. Those teams just don't fit into KT since they don't really have unique looking specialists. Contrast that to the Vespid or Raveners, who have very unique specialists.

 

These Stealth Suits will definitely be joining my Kroot army. I might even need a Ghostkeel to make them less lonely.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

17 minutes ago, jaxom said:

Agreed. Unless more information is forthcoming, the Wolf Scout team is just SW specific alternative sculpts for Phobos Librarian and Infiltrators and/or Reivers.

 

The Trapmaster is carrying a Haywire Mine so throw Incursors in there too.

 

Which makes sense. At the end of the day, this is basically just a Wolves-specific version of the Phobos Strike Team, which incorporated Infiltrators, Incursors, and Reivers, even if the latter didn't come in the box. There are still some specific new options like the plasma weapons, though. (And obviously a Rune Priest / Librarian being part of the squad is a special thing, particularly with Phobos Librarians being disallowed from the current restrictive KT lineup).

 

As to the repeat poses, from what we can see the Pack Leader and Frosteye share a base model, as do the Fangbearer and Hunter. The other three look to be unique, so that makes a typical five-man sprue. And in addition to what we see, I'd think all five could also be built as a generic "Warrior" type but maybe not given that these are specifically Veterans and with the Wolf factored in, a unit of six could be the max for this team.

Edited yesterday at 02:04 PM by Lord Nord in Gravis Armour

[Northern Walker]

I really hope the wolf scouts come as a box of 10, because they look like a conversion dream. Those run priest bits will combine nicely with some other kits.

[Casual Heresy]

6 minutes ago, Wispy said:

Anyways I am glad this dropped. Our Ultramarine brothers were getting a little too smug and needed to be taken down a notch.

 

As an avid Ultramarines* fan I... absolutely agree with you. We ate well, time for others to have their fill.

 

I'll be interested to see the full Wolf Scout kit and all it contains. One of my currently planned Space Wolf lists for next year will be swapping the Infiltrators for Wolf Scouts I think. They will fill a completely different role, but I'd rather be playing with as many bespoke Space Wolf units as possible.

 

* But lets face it I'm a fan and collector of every loyalist space marine *laugh/cries in too many projects*

[Indy Techwisp]

I like the look of the new Stealthsuits.

It does make sense that after being an "experimental" Battlesuit for so long they'd finally give us the "finished" version.

Shame that whoever named them tho failed to understand the Battlesuit Naming Scheme.

XV26 should be an Exoatmospheric suit.

[Orange Knight]

Wolf Scouts are a massive upgrade on the old kit, and it makes sense they would be wearing Phobos armour over the inferior Scout armour as they are veterans.

[darkhorse0607]

While the Scouts are nice I honestly think the XV26's win out for me here

 

I'm more of a fan of the older XV15 suits over the new XV25, so having them be a mashup of the two with calls to their bigger brother XV95 (namely the helmets) is a really solid win for me

 

The paint job doesn't help them though, bring back the Ochre scheme

[Tastyfish]

5 minutes ago, Indy Techwisp said:

I like the look of the new Stealthsuits.

It does make sense that after being an "experimental" Battlesuit for so long they'd finally give us the "finished" version.

Shame that whoever named them tho failed to understand the Battlesuit Naming Scheme.

XV26 should be an Exoatmospheric suit.

 

Perhaps they are, most tomb worlds are dead worlds after all. It's an imperial designation though, given it's not in base 8.

Edited yesterday at 02:20 PM by Tastyfish

[Indy Techwisp]

2 minutes ago, Tastyfish said:

 

Perhaps they are, most tomb worlds are dead worlds after all.

 

I've been corrected by a T'au player.

XV26 should be an Aerospace Battlesuit, not Exoatmospheric.

[Jscarlos18]

While lately the KTs always get a free datasheet(at least until next edition), agreed in that there's no excuse not to include them when a new codex releases. Coordinating these things should be the obvious thing to do.

[jaxom]

39 minutes ago, Wispy said:

Can your infiltrators/reivers take power weapons and plasma guns? 

Good point. I was assuming it’s the 10 man Infilitrator/Incursor kit plus an upgrade sprue so there’d be enough normal parts to leave the specialist weapons off. I may have missed something in the article.

[Wispy]

The key art has a Scout swinging an axe, so hopefully that's an option on the box.

[Tastyfish]

6 minutes ago, jaxom said:

Good point. I was assuming it’s the 10 man Infilitrator/Incursor kit plus an upgrade sprue so there’d be enough normal parts to leave the specialist weapons off. I may have missed something in the article.

 

Although it might be significant that the new Deathwatch veterans also have a Kill team option of plasma gun that isn't in the previous unit entry, and they haven't been updated either.

[Orange Knight]

To add on my previous comment, now that I've seen these awesome veterans in Phobos armour.... how about we get some more? Ideally Chapter agnostic.

 

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense for Veterans to pick extra speed and stealth over defence and brute strength, should the situation call for it.

[Brother Tyler]

1 hour ago, Flaherty said:

Is this one going to come with the wall terrain? Or is it just the two squads? Typically, these follow-up boxes would feature some new accessory piece that expanded the terrain rules, but there was no picture or explanation of that in the write-up. The new scouts look amazing. The Tau suits are also there...

 

I have a suspicion (or maybe it's just me being hopefully/naively optimistic) that the tomb world terrain will be released separately, which will be especially useful and (hopefully) attractive to hobbyists that don't [just] play Kill Team. If GW gives a big tomb world box in the same manner as the Gallowdark/Boarding Actions box, more players are likely to purchase it. Given how much I paid for the Deathwatch/Necrons box, not including the terrain in this one may be viewed as a way to reduce the price point (which would be especially good for hobbyists who purchased the Deathwatch/Necrons box).

 

Paint jobs never worry me overmuch (especially since they're always far better than I can accomplish ), but I'm curious about the varying great company markings on the Space Wolves models. A few use the left shoulder pad of Ragnar Blackmane's great company whereas most use that of the Great Wolf's great company. That inconsistency makes my eyes twitch (though maybe it's ignorance on my part - I'm not as knowledgeable about the Space Wolves as I am about most other Chapters).

 

Overall, I like the Space Wolves models (though I think that bare arms on Adeptus/Heretic Astartes are dumb). I always chalk the bare heads thing (which I also think is dumb from a void warfare perspective) as artistic license and the rule of cool, so I can accept the very characterful bare heads as helping to sell the Chapter's theme. I'm especially pleased to see that the Fenrisian Wolf is big, but not ridiculously big (don't get me started on the wolf riders).

 

Having just purchased the Deathwatch/Necrons kit yesterday, and after reading the Joint Ops campaign that is contained therein, I expect that this Space Wolves/T'au set will be a great addition for anyone who plays one of those factions. I play neither faction, so I don't plan to purchase this box, but I may buy the campaign stuff (the dossier and any cards/tokens that are specific to that campaign) if they become available separately later. The Joint Ops campaigns are a great way for hobbyists to play solo and to help them to bring new hobbyists into the addiction. I just wonder which side will serve as the aggressors (i.e., player-controlled operatives) and which will serve as the antagonists (i.e., non-player operatives) in this campaign. From the looks of it, the T'au are the active faction here, which should prove interesting (unless I'm wrong, but the opposite would also be interesting).

 

Worst case scenario: Anyone who plays one of these factions in the Warhammer 40,000 game (and not Kill Team) could split the box with someone else to give their WH40K armies a bit more in the way of distinct and characterful models.