Kill Team: Blood and Zeal has just gone up for pre-order at all your favorite hobby stores, and for me, it's a good example of Warhammer at its best – when it gets bloody weird.
To be precise, this new box set may as well have been plucked from a John Blanche illustration (sepia masterpieces full of wild-eyed fanatics with gross augmentations and a penchant for religious dodads). As the name would suggest, Kill Team: Blood and Zeal sets its sights on the Warhammer world's truest believers. On one side are the Sanctifiers, an Imperial group of holier-than-thou Emperor-botherers who've gotten carried away so far as devotion to their deity is concerned. On the other are Goremongers, a cult so dedicated to the demonic servants of Chaos that they've twisted their bodies to look like them.
It's the grimmest of grimdark, and I'm glad Kill Team continues to mine that particular idea; if you ask me, this is where Warhammer excels. It's hard to find examples (no matter whether it's other wargames or the best board games) that have such a distinct identity, and the line's recent releases have knocked it out of the park.
Brutal and Cunning gave us bunker-busting Orks alongside sniper hobbits… complete with grilled sandwiches they heated on powerpacks. Hivestorm offered remote-controlled aliens. Before that, we got Nightlord Space Marines with a love of wearing flayed skin. Oh, and don't forget the reality-warping Mandrakes who were able to teleport around like Nightcrawler from X-Men.
Besides being incredibly memorable, these Kill Teams are very mechanically distinct. Let's take Blood and Zeal as a case in point. The Sanctifiers can bellow out sermons that reduce incoming damage (thanks to them being whipped into a frenzy) and provide numerous buffs, or set opponents on fire with holy 'Blaze' tokens that inflict D3 damage to foes unless they are able to remove it. The floating Miraculist is able to set themselves aflame and damage anyone within an inch of the model too.
As for the Goremongers, they carry infernal stimulants in canisters on their back that must be kept topped up with the blood of foes. These provide special abilities which range from healing the fighter in question to allowing two attack actions per activation, but each one reduces the tank's contents. Players must then refill them by gutting enemies, or risk running empty.
In other words? Now that we're a couple of expansions past Kill Team's current starter set, the design team is unleashing its creativity and getting damn strange. I'm a big fan of this, and can't wait to see what wildly creative ideas they drop next.
NOTE: This review sample was provided by the publisher.
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