Games Workshop have previewed the Warhammer 40,000 pre-orders coming this weekend, and its all about the new edition of Kill Team.
As with all Sunday previews, Games Workshop released a recap video discussing some of the upcoming releases, as well as the kind of articles and content fans can expect to find this week on the Warhammer Community site and official Warhammer TV Twitch channel. You can find it below.
This week is all about the new edition of Kill Team, which was officially announced a month ago; and has received a steady stream of rules previews ever since.
Like with the previous version of the game, Kill Team is all about smaller scale, squad level skirmishes in the 41st millennium. The lower model count leads to a lower cost and time investment to get started, making it a great entry point into the hobby. One of the big new features of this version of Kill Team is the introduction of proprietary widgets to speed up measurements and ranges.
The new edition of Kill Team is being heralded by the limited release Octarius boxed set. This big box of plastic, cardboard, and books includes everything two players need to jump into Kill Team; including a game board, tokens, the core rules, the new measuring widgets, dice, and Tac Ops cards.
More importantly, the box includes two squads of brand new plastic miniatures. This set features the veteran Death Korps of Krieg facing off against the new Ork Kommandos plastic kit.
Each squad of miniatures feature numerous specialist variants and weapon options to tweak your team to fit a variety of battlefield roles. Both sets of models are also fully useable in 40k, with the Kommandos in particular being an attractive option from the new Orks codex. The set also includes tons of plastic terrain, allowing you to build an Ork scrapyard for your squads to fight over.
The box set will be accompanied by individual releases of the core rulebook, Tac Ops cards, and widgets for gamers who want to jump in right away, but aren’t really interested in the new Orks or Death Korps models.
Finally, there are four packs of 20 custom dice to show off your allegiance, including Death Korps, Ork Kommandos, Space Marines, and Chaos.
Rounding out the new preorders are a few new novels from the Black Library. The Helwinter Gate by Chris Wright follows the outcasts of the Járnhamar Pack Space Wolves, who are fighting to regain their honor during the 13th Black Crusade. The book had a limited edition release over the Christmas holidays, but is now available in hardback, eBook, and audiobook formats.
Covens of Blood by Anna Stephens, Liane Merciel, and Jamie Crisalli is a collection of three interwoven stories following the exploits of the murderous Daughters of Khaine in the realm of Ulgu.
Chronicles of Malus Darkblade: Volume One is an omnibus reprinting of some older tales from the World-that-Was (a.k.a. Warhammer Fantasy‘s Old World) by CL Werner, Dan Abnett, and Mike Lee. As you can probably gather from the name, these are some of the old novels and short stories about Malus Darkblade, the franchise’s iconic demon-possessed Dark Elf warlord.
Finally, Last Chancers: Annihilation Squad by Gav Thorpe has received a German version.
All of these items will be available for preorder August 14th. The Kill Team stuff will have a two week preorder period, meaning all of these new toys will release on the 28th.
Throughout the week, the Warhammer Community site will run articles teasing rules, new model reveals, and the Warhammer TV Twitch channel will run a variety of hobby streams. Of special note is that the first events of the US Open will be kicking off August 13th through the 15th in Orlando, Florida.
These 40k and Age of Sigmar tournament games will be livestreamed on the Warhammer TV Twitch channel, marking the first series of major tournaments for Warhammer since the beginning of the pandemic. To celebrate, Games Workshop will be showing off a roadmap of upcoming codex releases on Friday.
Which of these upcoming releases caught your attention? Will you be getting any of them when they release? Tell us in the comments below!