Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team – Blood and Zeal

Today a new Kill Team supplement goes on pre-order - Blood and Zeal - introducing two new Kill Teams of Zealots, one following Khorne and the other the Adeptus Ministorum.

After the release of the starter set of Hivestorm and the first supplement Brutal and Cunning, we follow with Blood and Zeal the "regular" setup with two Kill Teams, a dossier and some terrain. Pre-Order starts today with the launch set for April 5th, the RRP is 82,50 GBP  or 105 EUR.

Kill Team: Blood and Zeal contains two completely new kill teams. The Sanctifiers are nine Imperial zealots, including the likes of the Conflagrator, the Death Cult Assassin, the Drill Abbot and the Miraculist, who have been stoked into action by the rabid oration of the Confessor (a priestly figure attended by a Cherub). The Goremongers are a cohort of seven cybernetically enhanced operatives like the Impaler, the Skullclaimer and the Stalker who follow the commands of the towering Goremonger Blood Herald.

As pointed out, this is a supplement and you need at least the Core Rulebook to play. Never the less, the lite rules are free to download on Warhammer Community. It is a heavy boxed set and is another 5 EUR cheaper than Brutal and Cunning (which was already 5 EUR cheaper than Kill Team Termination). Maybe nature is healing or they count in, that the terrain is not new but a re-release from 2020.

For Kill Team they moved from printed artwork as a separater between the printed material, like cards, dossier and tokens, and the plastic sprues, towards slip cases and they can be proud of those, as they are usually neatly designed and come with interesting diorama shots or illustrations.

The slipcase did its job and kept the dossier and everything else from being punctured or otherwise damaged. There is a 56-page Blood and Zeal dossier with background lore on the conflict, rules for the kill teams and new missions. Along with a card board sheet of tokens two decks of cards, covering the datacards for both kill teams and the new missions cards. There are no decals in this set.

The Kill Team dossiers are packed with content, as you get really atmospheric artwork, lots of pictures and of course new rules for the supplement. I really like the aspect that Kill Team has its own design language regarding the artwork. The black and orange is dominant, combined with grim but different grim artwork from 40k.

When the name Blood and Zeal dropped, without any further information, I was expecting something like Sisters of Battle or Grey Knights against Khorne Berzerkers, but we got something a bit more low tier in terms of equipment, but surely not regarding faith in their god (emperor).

Both Kill Teams are complete new designs and never released before for Warhammer 40,000.

The Blood part is coming from the Goremongers of Khorne, a warband of eigth - the number of Khorne. From a design point of view, they are very close to the Jakhals from the World Eater armies, but replaced their legs with custom build mechanical ones to come closer to the image of the Bloodletters, especially with the Goremonger Blood Herald wearing a helmet imitating the head of one of the daemons.

The Goremongers are spread across two sprues, very tightly packed and good detailed cast. The warband is lead by the Goremonger Blood Herald, armed with a chainblade and an optional Icon of Khorne (or empty hand) otherwise build as shown. All of the seven Aspirants have two different head options and five of them can swap their chainglaives for a second weapon option, ranging from a ritual blade for the Bloodtaker, a great chainaxe for the Skullclaimer, a Fleshskewer for the Impaler, Pickrippers for the Stalker to dual Autopistols for the Inciter.

The Zeal part comes with the Sanctifiers, a group of fighters of the Adeptus Ministorum, very similar to the Ashes of Faith supplement, picking up another Inquisitor easter egg, as we get a 28mm variant of the 54mm Brother Josef, just like we had with Sgt. Stone. The are Agents of the Imperium, and will certainly be added to the Inquisition forces or as allies with other Imperial factions.

The Sanctifiers are another two sprue gang, covering 11 fighters, lead by a Confessor. Three of the sanctifiers are build as seen, the Cherub, Salvationist and Miraculist. The Death Cult Assassin can choose from three different heads, while the Confessor can choose from two. Both of them have fixed weapon options. The seven Missionaries can choose from 14 different heads and usually have two different builds, You get two missionaries with special weapons (plasma gun, melta and flame thrower between two models) - these are heaviliy influenced by the old models from the Sisters of Battle range, and have either a Brazier of holy fire or icon in their other hand. Brother Josef is a Drill Abott and armed with a Great Hammer, his alt sculpt is a preacher with a hand flamer and chainsword, three more preachers are armed with hand flamer and chainsword, but can be build into a Persecutor with Eviscerator, Conflagrator with dual hand flamers or Reliquant who swaps the chainsword for a relique.

Once again, very clean cast and the sprues are filled to the capacity with bits.

The terrain in Blood and Zeal is a massive Sanctum Statue, which fits in a single large sprue.

The statue is a re-release from the 2020s Adepta Sororitas Battle Sanctum terrain set. It stands upon a very grim-dark podest with a lot of skulls - what could be more Warhammer? But to make it not too Khorne-y, they added some candles, it is a statue of a saint and not a idol to the blood god after all.

The statue itself is quite tall and build from various pieces interlocking, as they captured the flowing gowns. You might need some small filler on some areas, but as this is terrain, it shouldn't be much of a problem. Just make sure to remove the mould lines and clean the areas where the pieces were connected to the sprue and the fit overall should be fine.

Of course, she is not empty handed and carries a sword as well as a blazier of fire in her hands, you could call it a day and already have a very present piece of terrain / statue.

But as she is meant to be a saint, she receives a halo along with a pair of wings, who add further heights to the statue.

A great detail or inspiration the dossier delivers is a suggestion on how to desecrate the Sanctum into a idol of the dark gods with some quick modifications. Great idea and good content on the designers part.

To give you an idea how incredibly tall this statue is, here are some shots not only beside Warhammer 40,000 statues but next to a Adeptus Titanicus / Legions Imperialis Warlord Titan, and as you can see the entire statue is almost 20 cm / 8 inches tall.

Conclusion

Blood and Zeal is a very themed boxed set. I can see that especially players who are into narrative gaming will enjoy what you receive here. And the possibilities beyond Kill Team are quite interesting, as these Goremongers will  make a great addition to the Underhive, for example some Corpse Grinder Cult. Similar with the Sanctifiers, along with the Agents of the Imperium set, you have a great setup for playing Inquisitor in 28mm (throw in the Blackstone Fortress sets and Artemis und you're pretty much there).

Regarding the price, if we compare both Kill Teams to similar sets, the Imperial Agents Kill Team (which has less miniatures) is 45 EURs, the Jakhals without the Kill Team content are 44 EUR, so this already adds up to 89 EUR - leaving us a gap of 16 EUR for the terrain, dossier and card decks. And while a single sprue terrain kit used to be around 20 EURs, but more likely would cost around 35 EUR independently, were saving a few buck. It is not a stunning 30+% like in Battle Groups, but it is something and if you pick this set up from your trusted dealer, you surely will have a 10-15% discount.

And while the Sanctum Statue is a repack, it was out of production for a while and we had some compound terrain already. Adding more walls would have been repetitive and adding this central piece - which works for both sides - is a reasonable addition.

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

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.