Games Workshop (GW) has released the latest re-balancing dataslate for the Kill Team game. Let’s look at some of the highlights.
Chaos Cults And Fellgor Ravagers
These two groups got a little bit nerfed. GW says they were designed to be effective in melee in large, open areas. But in the close confines of environments like the Gallowdark, they might be a little overpowered.
Mutant and Torment units have an ability called Unnatural Regeneration, which gives a chance of saving a wound after all other saves, on a D6 roll of 5 or better. The dataslate changes this to 6.
The Mutant’s close combat weapon, Blasphemous Appendages, formerly had the Relentless ability, which allows them to re-roll misses. This has been changed to Ceaseless, which only allows re-rolls for rolls of 1.
Two of the Iconarch’s special abilities, Ruinous Deterioration and Ruinous Invigoration, now become actions costing 1AP each. Ruinous Deterioration adds 1 to damage rolls of a target enemy operative while Ruinous Invigoration subtracts 1 from damage rolls for a target friendly operative. Under the new dataslate rules, these actions only last until the start of the target operative’s next activation. Also, Ruinous Invigoration’s minimum damage total has been raised from two to three.
Sickening Aura is a Chaos Cult Strategic Ploy which worsens Ballistic and Weapon Skill stats of enemies near Mutants, Torments, or Dark Communes. The Dataslate removes Dark Communes from the list, so this ploy now only works for Mutants and Torments.
Before becoming Incapacitated, Fellgor Ravager units get a Frenzy token instead, and remain active, although with limited capability. When they have a Frenzy token, they become Incapacitated when their activation ends, when receiving a critical hit, when hit a second time in close combat, or when the battle ends. Under the new Dataslate adjustments, Frenzied models cannot control Objectives, and they can now become incapacitated in shooting attacks that do critical damage.
Inquisitorial Agents
Inquisitorial Agents have also been nerfed a bit. Because they can field a high number of units, the Dataslate changes the Group Activation stat of both the Interrogator Agent and the Tome-skull to 2. This means that those units must activate with one other unit, i.e., they combine into one activation, although the Interrogator and the Tome-skull can fulfill each other’s GA.
Agents have a Tactical Ploy called Absolute Authority, which negates an opponent’s Strategic or Tactical Ploy. The change here is that it cannot stop the same Ploy more than once and it cannot stop Ploys that cost zero Command Points.
There’s also an adjustment to Operative selection. For all units, including Ancillary Support, you cannot have more than two operatives with weapons that have AP2.
Hearthkyn Salvagers
The Hearthkyn get a bit of a buff in the new Dataslate. Each unit now gets an extra Wound, and their plasma knives have been improved.
Hearthkyn can use something called a Grudge Token. Any time a Hearthkyn model hits an enemy model that has a Grudge Token, one normal hit can be converted to a critical hit. A model can have more than one Grudge Token, in which case one hit per Token can be converted. The Theyn unit has an ability called Eye Of The Ancestors, which, during their activation, allows them to put a Grudge Token on any model they can see.
The adjustment in the Dataslate removes the visibility requirement, so now they can put the Token on any enemy model. It also changes the timing from the Theyn’s activation to the Strategy Phase, as an alternative to using a Strategic Ploy. Even better, it increases to Tokens for two enemies if three or more Hearthkyn models have been destroyed.
Pathfinders
One of the arts for the Pathfinder Art Of War ability is called Kauyon, and allows a Pathfinder model an extra dice as a successful normal save for Cover. The revision adds that in its activation, any Pathfinder model can perform a mission action or the Pick Up action for on less Action Point (to a minimum of zero).
Pathfinders now can perform the Guard action even when under a Conceal order. But instead of the Guard Attack, they perform the Markerlight action.
Gellerpox Infected
Gellerpox have a Strategic Ploy called Rust Emanations, which treats enemies in engagement range as Injured, even if the model has rules stating it cannot be Injured. This was any Gellerpox Infected unit except for Mutoid Vermin. With the revision, now only Nightmare Hulks have this ability.
For the rest of the details and changes, check out the new Kill Team Balance Dataslate.
