Warhammer 40.000 Kill Team – Brutal and Cunning

Since yesterday the first supplement for the new Kill Team Hivestorm Season went up for pre-order. The Brutal and Cunning Kill Team expansion was announced on Warhammer Day Preview back in October, and covers Orks vs Ratlings.

The set which covers terrain, two Kill Teams and a dossier to upgrade the Killzone Volkus with the aspect of compound siege is 110 EUR or 85 GBP RRP.

Kill Team: Brutal and Cunning contains two kill teams. The Wrecka Krew is made up of a Boss Nob, five Orks, and two Bomb Squigs, while there are 10 Ratling operatives and a battlemutt lead by a Ratling Fixer. It also includes Killzone Upgrade: Compound Siege, comprising two bunkers, six fire steps and six stockades for use with Killzone: Volkus. The 72-page softback Brutal and Cunning dossier is packed with lore for the mission and kill teams, plus rules for the Wrecka Krew and Ratlings, and the Volkus Compound Mission Pack contains PvP and PvE scenarios. You’ll also get all the datacards and tokens you need for both kill teams, as well as an Ork transfer sheet with 438 transfers. 

None of the boxes are stand-alones, you will still need the Core Rulebook to play. The lite rules are free to download on Warhammer Community. This box provides quite the weight to it, which directly creates a positive tactile experience and what I like to point out, as price is an issue more often than we like it - this set is 5 EUR cheaper than the last supplement, Kill Team Termination.

These smaller boxes don't come with printed artwork as a seperator between items, but after quite the pile of sprues, you find a cardboard slipcase.

Inside the slipcase you'll find the dosier, the assembly instructions, two card decks for the Kill Teams, a cardboard sheet with markers and a decal sheet.

The way these dossiers are made is real value. A indepth coverage on the conflict, along with more information on the two new Kill Teams covered by this boxed set. And I really like how lore focused these are, for example for both - the Orks and the Ratlings - you see alternative paint schemes. In case of the Wrecka Krew these are the different Ork Klans, and with the ratlings various regiments of the Astra Militarum, from special forces to penal formations.

Beyond that, you'll find interesting artwork, fitting the scale of the conflict, along with new missions and information on how to assemble your Kill Team. In that context, the Ratlings can be supported by Bullgryns/Ogryns.

The instructions for the Kill Teams are always really interesting, as you get tons of options and they have a lot of variants per body, but more on that further below with the according miniature sets. And there is a decal sheet for the Orks in there as well. Not a new one, but the one from the 2021 wave for the updated Warhammer 40,000 range, for the Goffs, Bad Moons, Snakebites, Evil Suns, Blood Axes, Deathskulls, Freebooterz and generic iconography.

The new Ork Wrecka Krews are a tight and versatile unit of Ork specialist, that looks like an uparmoured Nob Mob. While I really like the design of the old models by Brian Nelson (which coined the GorkaMorka look as well), this latest release unifies the new proportions of the Orks in the game and further deletes the monkey-like proportions from the range.

It is a completely new set of miniatures, spread across three sprues, you get enough parts to build 8 models (a Boss, five Ork Boys and two Squigs), and we will cover the options with the sprues.

Casting is well done, very crisp details and basically no unused space on the frames. 14 heads for six Ork models is proper variety. You get a lot of options for each model, for example the Ork Boss can be build with either two rokkit pistols or a cominbation of rokkit pisol and smash hammer, and the remaining boys have lots of optoins, for example one body can either be a Tankbusta Rokkiteer or Gunner, or Breaka Boy Fighter, with the next being a Tankbusta Gunner, Break Boy Krusha or Fighter, the one after that Tankbusta Gunner, Breaka Boy Demolisha or Fighter, two further who can both either be build as Tankbusta Gunners or Breaka Boy Fighters. All of which have different heads and armour pads.

The bomb squids are build as they are.

With the Ratlings, who are simply that, no fancy name for the Kill Team itself, we get a bunch of meta-humans, who are part of the 40k universe since the very beginning. Due to their size and abilities, they fulfill special roles within the Imperial Guard, if they are even drafted, which mostly recon operations and being trained as snipers. And that is the role they had from the very beginning, in the 2nd edition with sculpts by the Perry Twins (looking like tiny Rambos in some cases), to the updated miniatures fifth edition, looking less joyful and serious, and then returning with Blackstone Fortress as a duo. And now they are back, in a little less serious way, still barfoot but more on the hobbits in grim-dark flair. We even saw a special diorama of them cooking, while being on a hide-out.

The new set for the Ratlings covers 10 snipers, a battlemutt and three special items (2x trip wires and a single ammo cache).

Most surprisingly they fit all that into two frames, but those are packed to the edge. The entire set can be build as 10 regular snipers, with eight of the poses having an alternative build. The leader can be build as a fixer, there is a heavy sniper Big Shot, a Hardbit, a Raider, a Sneak, as Spotter, a Stashmaster, a Vox-thief.

While certainly very well made miniatures, with lots of options, I am not a fan of the faces, as they are too true scaled for my taste. This is something I didn't like with the re-done Astra Militarum either. You get taller Space Marines, making for proper proportions and then resize the others, eliminating that benefit. Beyond that, the overdrawn features of the range got more and more reduced. Surely appealing miniature painters, but I like heroic scale.

Beyond that, for this Kill Team itself, I think ten ratlings is too much for my taste, too niche. I would really go for some rag-tag survivors of the Imperial Guard, with like five humans, an Ogryn and two to three ratlings. Like Expendables, but drafted from Warhammer 40,000.

And a real banger in this set is the terrain and something that in my impression, wasn't as clear in the preview as it was once I had them on my table. On most of the previews, it didn't come across that you get two sprues of terrain with quite an amount of pieces, as they are cleverly arranged within the sprue.

These are additions to the new Killzone Volkus, which was introduced with the Hivestorm boxed set and is now available as a stand-alone terrain set. These sprues cover a compound siege upgrade for the Kill Zone, which really provides value as you will see.

We get three different sections of straight walls, each with a breaching element, either a door or wall panel that can be removed / opened. As we have two sprues, we have a total of six wall elements about 2" / 5 cm high and 5" / 13 cm long. The removable panels keep in place stuck by friction, same with the door.

Each sprue covers three pile of boxes as well, meant as firing steps. These fit in between the pillars and raise the ratlings high enough to look through the embrasures. The wall sections provide enough cover for even taller infantry miniatures.

Within each sprue you find a bunker, that can be used as a corner piece. Not only does it provide a 270° firing angle, but it fits properly with the wall sections without leaving a gap. There are two of these in the box.

And something that needs context are these covers. These are used with the ruins from the Volkus terrain set, to provide a clean finish for the stockages to adapt to. By this the ruins expand and connect with other ruins / buildings. They did this with the Fronteris series already, were the stockades fit the Ryza pattern buildings.

This can be used to build a compound or close alleys on the table.

In the first picture you can see all the terrain included in this set. Quite a lot from just two sprues. And the second and third show them being used with the two main ruins from the Hivestorm / Killzone Volkus sets. Absolutely stunning for a Killteam table.

Initially I thought these would be compatible with the Sector Fronteris Stockades, and "just" be an alternative design with the addition of the removable components and addition of bunkers. But unfortunately neither the height nor width is the same. Why would I expect that? With the Necromunda terrain series, the kept everything in certain multiples (for lengths and heights) so you could stack and combine various terrain pieces and keep them on the same level.

Conclusion

This set is a pleasant surprise. I expected it to be a "regular" supplement. Two Kills Teams that are additions to the existing range of their 40k armies, with maybe a few bits in an upgrade sprue, but otherwise pretty close to the standard and some terrain to make it a deal. But seriously, they really delivered on this one. Both Kill Teams are very versatile, with lot of character. The Orks are an amazing set, that is heavier than the former Kommandos Kill Team, and surely will replace some of the older Ork boxes down the lane. Regarding the ratlings, I pointed it out above, but for the Astra Militarum this is an interesting addition to their range, maybe a bit large of a unit with 10, but surely lots of character.

And these two Kill Teams alone already rack up thei 110 EUR face value of this set, so you basically get the dossier, gaming material and well done terrain for free on top. Quite the savings, and surely something you can easily split with a friend.

Beyond that, I like the style of the product. The dossiers are made with much thought, you can download the rules for free if you just want to snoop in and I'd even keep an eye on the Killzone Vorkus if I'm into sci-fi skirmishes, as the compound addition really adds to the game.

Warhammer 40,000 and Kill Team are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.