Warhammer 40k spin-off Kill Team gets its first narrative expansion in Ashes of Faith
Smouldering.
While the starter box for the new edition of Warhammer 40,000 was the biggest reveal of Warhammer Fest 2023, there were still plenty of surprises for fans of Games Workshop’s other titles. Kill Team, the skirmish game about small, elite squads of troops in the 40k setting, received some of the most intriguing reveals.
First up was the new boxed set, Ashes of Faith, which breaks from the pattern established by existing Kill Team boxes by not being part of the current season. Instead, it’s offering a “narrative campaign in a box” so that two players can duke it out over a series of linked missions and tell their own story of the battle for the city of Deepwell.
New miniatures are present in the form of Inquisitorial Agents, a bunch of wonderfully weird Imperial operatives who are the boots on the ground for an Inquisitor (someone far too important to be involved in Kill Team-level scuffles). The kit looks incredibly flexible and has a bunch of call backs to older GW minis, such as the 54mm-scale characters from the long-dead Inquisitor game and some classic Imperial preachers.
The agents won’t be standing alone, as they can use their boss’ influence to call on help from various Imperial organisations to bolster their forces. There are half a dozen options available, with miniatures for the Tempestus Scions and Sisters of Silence included in the box. It’s a nice excuse for Kill Team collectors to dust off some of their existing teams, like the Navy Breachers or Veteran Guardsmen.
Facing them will be the Hidden Canker, a Chaos cult whose members will be able to mutate into stronger forms during the campaign. There are no new models on offer here, but they’re all excellent recent cultist sculpts and their Pokémon-like evolution powers are a great reflection of the warping influence of the Chaos Gods.
What isn’t included in Ashes of Faith is a board and terrain, so it’s definitely a product aimed at existing Kill Team players. Don’t worry, though; folks who are a little Kill Team-curious can dip their toe in with a new range of Warhammer Heroes miniatures.
This will be the fourth series of the blind-boxed individual miniatures released by GW - however, this time there’s a Kill Team-flavoured twist. Collect all seven marines of Strike Force Justian and you’ll have a whole kill team, complete with brand new rules separate from the existing Space Marine kill teams in the game.
Warhammer Heroes will pop up in specialist stores this summer, with a wider release later on, with Games Workshop telling Dicebreaker that Kill Team: Ashes of Faith is set to be released sooner than we might think.