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The Kill Team: Typhon expansion feels like those Tyranid aliens it stars. The skirmish game has evolved here – grown into something new. Yes, it's still got the recognisable teeth and claws and fast-paced fury. But just as the box's Ravener squad has grown beyond the aging models that inspired them, Typhon takes Kill Team off-road and into new territory.
Basically, this set puts most of its eggs in the basket of co-op or solo play. While there are still two fresh squads to master and a load of narrative-based lore propping them up, the majority of its missions are 'Joint Ops' rather than the usual player-vs-player match-ups. Kill Team: Typhon also has PVP options, of course, but even these scenarios introduce an added complication I didn't expect – non-playable enemies that make life difficult for everyone.
I wasn't sure how to feel about this at first, but the more I think about it? Well, the more I dig what Kill Team: Typhon is selling.
Breaking new ground
If you're out of the loop, Typhon is the latest expansion for Warhammer 40K's faster-paced sibling, Kill Team. (I love this scrappy little bastard; bite-size combat blends beautifully with competitive, premade squads.) It's also the fourth release for this current 'season,' which is focused on the Imperial world of Volkus. That means it ups the complexity with more strategic squads who'll require a deft hand to use correctly, not to mention Tyranid scenery to make your board 100% more gribbly.
Those two sides couldn't be more different; you've got lobotomized slave Servitors on one end (known as the 'Battleclade' Kill Team) and tunnelling, snake-like Tyranids on the other (Raveners). Both are a prime example of why this game has such a chokehold on my heart, because they employ imaginative tactics that set them apart from what came before. The Battleclade are able to transfer control between themselves like cogs in a machine, making it harder to know where the next blow is coming from. Meanwhile, the Raveners are able to vanish beneath the surface and spring up to attack before disappearing again. They seem like an absolute bastard to fight against, and I love them very much.
My colleague Will Salmon has also been able to try out Typhon, and he noted that "the Raveners are a five model Kill Team and quite an unusual one at that. They have some clear disadvantages – a 5+ save for all but the Wrecker, and only one model with proper ranged weaponry – but also some tremendous upsides, namely speed, a minimum of 20 wounds per 'nid, and 3APL. They may be big bugs, but you can play really tactically with them."
However, they're not necessarily the main event. Sure, a sizeable chunk of the book is dedicated to their background, tactics, and loadout as expected. But the back half revolves around missions that are played against Non-Playable Operatives, or 'NPOs.' These were introduced in the current edition of Kill Team as a way to play the game alone or with a pal instead of beating the snot out of each other, and this adds a ton of value by providing new ways to interact with Kill Team alongside an excuse to use Warhammer 40K models you may have lying around. Typhon leans hard into that conceit with a campaign tree of scenarios that can go a multitude of ways depending on how successful you are.
While I'm still not sure this is what Kill Team players are here for (although I appreciate how reminiscent its camaraderie is of Warhammer Quest or the best board games, it's not the tense, head-to-head chess match that I suspect most players are drawn to), I've got no such qualms about the book's handful of Adversary Ops. These are your average PVP affairs, but with a twist; a horde of Tyranids are on-hand to scuttle your best-laid plans. It's the boldest change to Kill Team in a long time, and I'm surprised Warhammer isn't making more of this.
An added complication
It may not seem like a groundbreaking change at first blush, but hurling a clutch of NPOs into your PVP sessions shakes things up in a significant way. To start with, it adds a surprisingly deep layer of strategy to proceedings. Managing a hostile third party that hates both players equally gives you one more thing to juggle. (Yes, this does mean you could have have Battleclade vs. Tyranid vs. NPO Tyranid action in Typhon... maybe as two alternate broods?) However, clever opponents can use it to their advantage as well. Each NPO carries a list of behaviours that dictate what it does next, from charging the nearest enemy to repositioning for a better ranged shot – and that means you can lure your rival's Kill Team into the line of fire or lead NPOs to them, giving you a chance to secure objectives uncontested. The world's your oyster, and I'm excited to see what cunning so-and-sos do with this.
It forces you to adjust your tactics from the off too, shaking things up in the same way Dungeons & Dragons: Onslaught did a couple years ago. You can't take a 'business as usual' approach to matches if a third party is there to rain on your parade (not unless you fancy being eviscerated, anyway), so it should inject fresh life into the game for those who may be finding Kill Team stale.
Will took a look at the Tyranid horde, so it was only right that I focused on the Servitor warband in Typhon. I adore the Network Counteract mechanic I mentioned earlier in that it allows me to be an absolute piglet and mess with foes like Whack-a-Mole, but I was most enamored with the minis. These feel very classic in a mid-2000s kinda way; they're all rigid gaits and over-the-top weaponry, as you'd hope from cyborg automatons. They remind me of the Borg from Star Trek, and their hodge-podge nature means they'll be perfect for conversion. (Resistance, after all, is futile.)
Happily, Typhon doesn't require you to have other models lying around either. Unlike the core rules that needed you to buy or already own miniatures you could use as NPOs, this box includes them in the pack. That's a first for Kill Team, and adds a lot of value to the overall deal. OK, so there are stats for models not included here (most of which can be found in the Warhammer 40K starter sets). Yet it's a foundation to build on, which is more than we had before.
My only criticism is that I wish these Adversary Ops had gotten more attention in the Typhon book itself. They're relegated to two pages of rules and six maps without any kind of narrative setup or unique objectives tied to the Tyranid scourge detailed throughout the supplement. Alright, there are three objective markers on each so the maps can be used in conjunction with the extensive Approved Ops deck. That's fair enough. Still, I would have appreciated some plot-driven fluff as seen in the Joint Ops. The latter revolves around the discovery of a secret Tyranid brood beneath Volkus' hive city, and your effort to stamp them out before they overwhelm the planet's already-strained defences. That gives the missions a real sense of place that I appreciate, particularly in a heavily-themed season such as this. It's reminiscent of those worldwide 40K campaigns Warhammer used to run, where the community submitted their wins or losses to decide the fate of an in-universe location.
Nevertheless, I suppose I can't complain too much. I love the concept and hope we see more of it from Kill Team going forward. It's a solid foundation upon which to build, and I suspect clever sausages will be able to reverse-engineer Adversary Ops into narrative missions from Hivestorm (which I still think is the best starter set Warhammer has ever made) and beyond. I hope they do.
Anyway. I'm still digging into Typhon as we speak, and that means my full review isn't quite ready yet. Nevertheless, I can say I'm enjoying this detour into uncharted territory. I don't know about you, but I'm intrigued to see where it leads.
You can pre-order Typhon direct from the Warhammer store now, but it should also be available soon at Miniature Market in the US and Wayland Games in the UK.
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