Kill Team: Tomb World review | "An incredible addition Warhammer fans won't want to miss, so it's a shame they may have to"

The Tomb Worlds have awoken, and the glorious might of the Necron Dynasties is here to kick some trespassers off their intergalactic lawn. They're in for a tough fight, though, as it's the Xenos-hunting Space Marines of the Deathwatch that have encroached into their crypts for Kill Team: Tomb World.

This huge box set contains two brand new Kill Teams, their associated rules, and a bunch of cool new terrain to represent the claustrophobic corridors of a Necron crypt. While the squads are certainly an excellent addition to the roster, it's the Tomb World itself that steals the show here, offering a new way to play that stands out from the ruined buildings and exposed gantries of the past two Kill Zone battlefields.

In their place, we have cramped corridors that funnel the combat into chokepoints around doorways, teleporters that can be used for tactical repositioning, and destructible terrain that lets you make your own damn door (which then reforms itself again thanks to pesky drones). All of these rules pile extra layers of complication onto the game, so I wouldn't advise new players to start here, but there's a lot to love for Kill Team veterans.

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Kill Team: Tomb World features & design

• Impressively modular terrain
• Emphasis on team-based Joint Ops
• Necron team is fiddly & fragile

Inside the box, you'll find the two squads, a mountain of plastic terrain, a cardboard battle mat, a rules dossier (not a full rulebook, as this isn't a starter set), datacards for both factions, and a bunch of tokens. You also get 10 basic Necron Warriors and three scarabs. These are for use in the extra Joint Ops co-op mode, which lets you play alone or alongside a buddy, against a horde of NPC Necrons — ideal for those who prefer to work together on game night, or fans of the best board games.

Excluding those Joint Ops missions, there aren't any new missions in the book. Instead, it offers a new terrain type for you to play the existing missions on. The Tomb World terrain is extremely detailed, with glowing orbs, ornate pillars, and sleeping Necrons adorning the walls. The modularity is impressive too, with push-fit slots that allow you to build a board in a multitude of layouts. This is much easier to put together than Into the Dark/Gallowdark's ship walls from the last Kill Team edition.

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The models are suitably gorgeous too, as you'd expect. Unless your name is Inquisitor Coteaz, Games Workshop doesn't really make bad models anymore. They're exquisitely detailed, and mostly easy to put together, though I did head off some future heartache and pin the serpentine tail of the Geomancer — I just know that thing would have snapped at some point in my future otherwise.

My only real complaint here is that the mould lines are hideous, on both sides of the fence. Get your hobby knife, sanding sticks, and elbow grease at the ready, because the real first mission of Tomb World is removing these bloody eyesores if you want your models to look their best.

Here's a quick breakdown of the two Kill Teams found inside:

Deathwatch
The Deathwatch are a wonderful Primaris update to the iconic unit, packed with awesome weapon options, gribbly details, and unique shoulder pads to show the wide pool of chapters that they pull their ranks from. All of the Deathwatch's iconic weapons are here, from the devastating fragstorm cannon to the hefty Thunder Hammer, and they've even stolen one of the Necrons' Hyperphase Swords, too. Outrageous behavior.

And while your team can only consist of five Marines at a time, the box comes with two full sets for a total of ten Marines, meaning you can build almost every variant operative without needing to resort to magnetizing.

Canoptek Circle
The Necrons get an even bigger treat, with a bunch of brand new models for their Canoptek Circle. The team is led by the centipede-esque Geomancer, a Necron Cryptek who uses their hyper-advanced technology to manipulate rock and stone. (The Votann will be furious at this gimmick infringement.)

Alongside this beautiful new sculpt, you get two hulking Canoptek Tomb Crawlers and five Canoptek Macrocytes – three warriors, a reanimator, and an accelerator. Beyond some back-mounted weapon choices, and the ability to build all five as Warriors (which is presumably for their 40K counterparts, since that's not a legal team here), there isn't much build choice, but it's a stunning collection of models – I think the Geomancer is the best of the Necron crypteks, and that's high praise considering that the Psychomancer exists.

Gameplay

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• Terrain results in tense, claustrophobic matches
• Deathwatch are a powerful, blunt-instrument addition
• Necrons are satisfying, but require 4D chess

Of the two Kill Teams in the box, the Necron offering is the more unique, but also the more challenging to get your head around. Gone is the Heirotek Circle's reanimation protocols in favor of the Obelisk Control Network, which sees you managing a trio of Obelisk markers to create powered-up "Matrix" areas of the battlefield. Your units get some big buffs inside this zone – Accurate 2 and +1 APL – and most of the Strategic and Firefight Ploys at their disposal either benefit from, or require you to be in your Matrix to use them.

This means managing these Obelisk markers is key, as is deploying them. You can easily put yourself at a massive disadvantage for the whole game if you slap these bad boys down poorly during deployment, as they need line of sight to each other and can only be moved 3 inches at a time once the game starts.

The structure of the team is odd, too. It's built around the Geomancer, a powerful cryptek who can lay down punishment while buffing your canoptek constructs, letting them act out of sequence or even teleport through walls. Alongside this leader, you get two tanky Tomb Crawlers who bring the firepower, a reanimator who serves as a medic (and your only real source of regenerating damage taken), an accelerator who can juice up your units, and three scrubs… sorry, I said that wrong, three fearsome Macrocyte Warriors. These are essentially chaff, but they can replenish their ranks every turn to make up for their inadequacies.

You need to play a cagey game early on, moving your control nodes in key locations and keeping your key units alive, so they can benefit from the buffs in areas of the board that actually matter in later turns.

The Deathwatch are much more straightforward, and I'd argue more potent of the two Kill Teams. They have a lot more variety in terms of team selection, with 10 operatives to choose from, of which you bring a squad of five. As Astartes, they shoot and fight twice, but on top of that, they can also use their Special Issue Ammunition to buff their firepower with a suite of keywords.

They don't require any 4D chess or intricate strategic thinking to get to grips with — it's five big lads who hit like a truck, and have a bunch of party tricks for when things do actually turn against them.

After one of our test games, I chatted with Benj (my opponent and our illustrious Tabletop & Merch Editor), and he said that the Deathwatch is what he'd hoped for from the Kill Team 2024 Starter Set. I agree on that front for sure – they're just Space Marines, but cooler and more unique. However, we both agree that the Necron Kill Team is far too advanced to throw at newbies, with too many spinning plates to manage. I massively screwed myself in our game by misdeploying my Obelisks and never really recovered from it. Ironically, I also suspect that the Necron Kill Team would function better on the other terrain types, where there are fewer intervening walls to block the line of sight between the obelisks. No home turf advantage here.

Speaking of the battlefield, the rules and terrain feel like a spiritual revival of (and improvement on) last edition's Gallowdark zone, not to mention the Boarding Actions 40K game mode. The close-quarters, claustrophobic combat it offers is well suited to Kill Team's smaller scale. Doorways force chokepoints that lead to brutal and often brief encounters. That brutality is amplified by the Condensed Environment rule, which means all blast, torrent, and devastating weapons get Lethal hits on 5+ instead of 6s. Having been shot by the new and improved Frag Cannon, all I can say is… ouch.

You can also Cool-Aid Man through the walls at specific points, creating new sight lines and doorways to move troops through, but these reseal themselves in time thanks to the tiny Necron bots seen across the sculpts. Sleeping Necrons may also be disgorged from certain sections, and there are teleport pads on the battlefield that allow for rapid relocation. It's a noticeable difference from Into the Dark/Gallowdark, proving that this isn't just a reskin (thankfully).

There's a lot of space for tactical play, in other words, and I'm here for it, but it can be overwhelming. Bear that in mind if you're new to all this.

Should you buy Kill Team: Tomb World?

This is a redundant question, as the answer right now is that you can't buy it. Or at least, not easily. Kill Team: Tomb World sold out instantly, and Games Workshop won't be making any more copies. Hypothetically, if you do find one, then the question is this: are you a Kill Team veteran looking for a new way to play the game?

Yes? Then Kill Team: Tomb World is a no-brainer that will add a ton of variety to your games and campaigns. The claustrophobic corridors of the Tomb World play very differently from other terrain layouts, and the solo/co-op game mode is another welcome addition to the sandbox.

It's not well-suited to new players, but that's fine – the Kill Team Starter box has the fresh meat covered. This one is for the Kill Team sickos.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Kill Team: Tomb World

I spent a couple of weeks with the Kill Team: Tomb World box set, painting up some of the models, reading the rules, and playing some test games against myself. I also played a proper game against our Tabletop & Merch Editor, Benj.

For more, see this guide to how we test board games or the full GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

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