There are enough presents in Kill Team: Hivestorm to make me feel like a child whose parents are about to tell them they're getting divorced.
OK, I appreciate that this is a little flippant. But the new starter set took me by surprise because it's weighed down with all the trimmings. Actually, I'd argue that Kill Team: Hivestorm is competing with Skaventide as the best-value beginner box Games Workshop has ever made.
That's what I keep coming back to as I mull over the advance copy of Hivestorm that landed on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago (my full review will be out soon). Yes, I appreciate that the headline for most will be how it kicks off a fresh season of the game with some quality-of-life tweaks. And I'm excited about that too. Indeed, the new edition of Warhammer Kill Team fixes a weird rule I've always disliked. However, I then circle around to how bloody massive this thing is. It brings to mind an overstuffed suitcase that someone has jumped up and down on a few times.
I appreciate that the mooted price of $230 / £145 is still a lot. When weighed up against everything featured here, though (and comparing it to other starter sets), it's better value than I'd expected. Alongside the two new Kill Teams and accompanying dossier telling you how to kill things real gud with both, there's the full core rulebook for this edition, a batch of cardboard tokens, accessories like a stylized plastic ruler set, a sprue of the new 'Universal Equipment' you can equip your troops with before a match, and a ton of terrain.
This last bit impressed me the most. Yes, yes, those Tempestus Aquilons are kickass – it's scientifically proven that sticking a jetpack on something makes it cooler. The Vespid Stingwings are awesome/gross enough that I want to break out a flyswatter, too. But the scenery is what stopped me in my tracks.
While you normally get some bits and bobs in each box-set (from new releases like Warcry: Briar and Bone to older ones such as the last Kill Team starter set), Hivestorm seems unusually generous. There are two chunky buildings – here called "strongholds" – alongside a couple of large ruins and a pair of smaller ruins, not to mention rubble pieces to populate the cardboard battlefield that's also included in the box. Compared to the game's last season, where most of the terrain was relegated to a sold-separately set called Bheta-Decima, it's freakin' Christmas. I loved Kill Team: Salvation, but it can't come close to this.
Crucially, this scenery can also be used with Warhammer 40,000, Horus Heresy, and Necromunda (though perhaps not the fresh-off-the-presses Hive Secundus, seeing as it's underground). As opposed to Bheta-Decima or the ship-based Gallowdark pieces from a couple years ago, it's a generic warzone you could find anywhere across the 40K galaxy. I'm all for recycling your terrain wherever possible, so this gets an enthusiastic tick in the win-column from me.
More of this please, Games Workshop.
Kill Team: Hivestorm is now up for pre-order, and it'll be launching soon – as will my full review. For recommendations on what to play while you wait for the latest Warhammer boxset, be sure to check in with our guide to the best board games and the best tabletop RPGs.
