Nothing evokes more nostalgia and happy vibes from Warhammer 40,000 fans than the words “Rogue Trader”. After all, the first ever 40K game was (nominally) about these spacefaring almost-pirates winding and warmongering their way across a hostile galaxy. Kill Team: Rogue Trader brings together both Games Workshop’s new shiny thing, Kill Team, and the amazing Rogue Trader setting that brought many into the hobby in the first place.
This is an expansion pack – you’ll need a copy of the actual Kill Team rules and associated gubbins (dice etc), but it adds another level to the whole thing, turning a game of close quarters combat into an almost claustrophobic struggle. Combined with the theme, what we essentialy have here is “Alien meets 24 Days Later meets Cowboy Bebop”. And the result is something awesome.
The set comes with 33 models. We get ten members of a Rogue Trader crew. In addition to Elucia Vhane, the Rogue Trader herself, we get a death cult assassin, a surgeon, a tech priest, a squad of well-armed thugs, and their dog. Opposing them are the 23 Gellar Pox Infected – diseased cultists that include triple-headed horrors, swarms of flies, vomiting space worms and a horde of shambling horrors. The effect is a cool bunch of sci-fi heroes taking on a horrific team of monsters straight out of a Return of the Living Dead movie. That’s a movie we’d totally watch – someone should make it!
Rules-wise, this is Kill Team. It’s a smooth, fun to play tactical skirmish that doesn’t take that long to get through. We get a ‘codex’ for each side, and both sides play differently to how you’d expect most 40K units to behave. The Gellarpox Infected are more monstrous than your standard plodding Nurgle team, and Elucia Vane’s crew play as smoothly with a fair bit action movie-style moves added for good measure (and the cool space dog, as silly as it sounds, works really well).
The map covers a shuttle craft called the Truehawk on one side and the Ministorum shrine on the other. This is a proper solid board with plenty of scenery to add in. In proper Kill Team style there’s plenty of lovely bits for your toy soldiers to cower behind while they snipe at the enemy. The set is crammed with lore to make it easier to get into, and evokes the atmosphere of the world.
Our only criticism is that though the models work fine unpainted, you really need to give them a quick once over with a brush to appreciate the detail; the plastic is just a little too lurid otherwise. Overall though, if this is the future of 40K, then we are very excited by it all.
KILL TEAM – ROGUE TRADER / PUBLISHER: GAMES WORKSHOP / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
