Warhammer 40,0000 Kill Team Ashes of Faith Review

Kill Team Ashes of Faith is an all new narrative expansion for Kill Team. It features 2 brand new kill teams, as with other expansions, but rather than scenery and a Kill Zone it gives you all the components to fight through several linked battles as part of a campaign, with your operatives gaining experience as they progress through.

We've covered Kill Team in depth since the last edition, and you can read our guide to all the current Kill Team products, or check back to where the previous season of Kill Team started with the Gallowdark in our Kill Team Into the Dark preview. In this article, we'll have a look at what's in the Ashes of Faith box, and talk about the 2 new kill teams and campaign.

Kill Team is a skirmish wargame, set in Games Workshop's larger Warhammer 40,000 setting. As a skirmish game, Kill Team features a small number of elite troops, fighting special operations battles, rather than huge battles fought with entire armies. If you want to check out the Kill Team rules before you buy, Games Workshop has made the core rules available to download for free.

What Does Kill Team Ashes of Faith Contain?

Kill Team Ashes of Faith contains:

• Kill Team Ashes of Faith Fraction Book
• Kill Team Ashes of Faith Campaign Rulebook
• 17x Inquisitorial kill team miniatures
• 23x Chaos Cult kill team miniatures
• 6x Game Boards, campaign cards, location cards, and reusable markers

Kill Team Ashes of Faith is an expansion pack for Kill Team, so the Core Rulebook and accessories are required to use this set. You will also need at least one Kill Zone scenery set and its corresponding rules. The Kill Zone can be from any other expansion, starter set, or from an individual release.

What Does the Kill Team Ashes of Faith Campaign Rulebook Add To Games?

The Ashes of Faith Campaign Rulebook takes players through a narrative campaign set in the world of Exhalus. An Inquisitorial Force is trying to stop a Chaos Cult from taking root on the planet. The campaign can be played through with the 2 included kill teams, or players can use any other kill team in place of either. The book begins with background information about the planet and the campaign, written in a mix of first-person narrative and detailed information. Then there is an overview of how to use the new location and campaign cards during the campaign and how to play through each step of the campaign.

The book includes details of the first mission, The Cult Revealed, and 4 options for the final mission, with players using missions from other Kill Team sources for the core of the campaign.

Players play through the campaign like a Spec Ops campaign, with their operatives gaining experience, equipment and battle honors. Abilities are also gained from the locations that are controlled during the scheme stage after every battle. as both players try to gain every advantage before the final confrontation.

What are the Inquisitorial Agent Kill Team Troop Choices?

Inquisitors hold the absolute authority to defend the Emperor in any way they see fit. Serving these figures, are elite warbands of operatives, made up of varying individuals and units, dependent on the mission. They operate in the shadows, gathering information, and interrogating suspects, until the Inquisitor makes a decision, which they then follow up with whatever action is required.

The Inquisitorial Agents Kill Team are made up of 12 operatives, either 12 from the Inquisitorial Agents list, or 7 from that list, and 5 from an Ancillary Support Option of Sisters of Silence, Tempestus Scions, Extraction Squad, Kasrkin, Imperial Navy Breachers or Veteran Guardsmen. The rules for the Sisters of Silence, Tempestus Scions, and Inquisitional Agents are presented in the Faction Book, but the others are available in their own expansions, or by picking up the Faction Book and miniatures separately.

Out of the box, you can build 7 of the Inquisitorial Agents, so if you want to have a full roster of options, you will need to pick up another sprue when they are available separately. Playing out of the box, you will need to make some choices of which options you build, and also in the Ancillary Support, as both the Sisters of Silence and Tempestus Scions have a couple of options for their 5 operatives. 

Because of the sheer number of operative options, Inquisitorial Agents have at their disposal (55 not including weapon options), their roster size is 30, not the normal 20. giving them a huge amount of flexibility to adapt to any scenario thrown at them.

The Inquisitorial Agents' troop choices are:

• Interrogator - The Interrogator is the leader of the kill team and they can split a choice of aura abilities with their Tome-Skull. They can either add to the attacks of nearby friendly operatives or decrease the attacks of enemy operatives against nearby friendly operatives. Once per turn, they can change which aura ability they have with the Tome-Skull if they are near each other.
• Tome-Skull- The Tome-Skull is a compulsory choice for the kill team and gets the ability that the Interrogator doesn't choose. It performs no other function, other than moving into position for the aura effect.
• Autosavant - The Savant isn't a great fighter but has a couple of support functions. They can dominate an objective as an action, which means they control it regardless of enemies until they are incapacitated. They also gain you a command point every time your opponent uses the same strategic or tactical ploy after the first time (except command re-roll) and in narrative games if they're not incapacitated, they can gain an operative of your choice D3 experience points after each battle.
• Questkeeper - These zealots are great melee fighters. Armed with huge Eviscerator swords, they can reroll an attack dice if they are the attacker, ignore wounds on a 5+ and if they are incapacitated in combat, they can strike a final time before being removed.
• Death World Veteran - This hunter is another melee fighter. They can charge from conceal to use their knife or polearm, and ignore damage from one successful hit each turn.
• Enlightener - These operatives have the ability to injure any enemies they strike with a critical hit, and can also stop operatives falling back from combat with them, and their paired blades can dish out some solid damage.
• Gun Servitor- These lobotomized servitors need to be close to other friendly agents in order to get 2 action points a turn. They come with three weapon options, the high rate of fire heavy bolter, high damage multi-melta, or the blast plasma cannon.
• Hexorcist - This shotgun-wielding operative can stop a nearby enemy from using a unique action or ability, and also all nearby operatives from re-rolling attack and defense dice.
• Mystic - This icon-bearer is only armed with fists and an auto-pistol, but they do count as having 3 action points for the purposes of objective control. They can also cast divine guidance or divine protection on a nearby friendly unit to boost their attacks or defense.
• Penal Legionnaire - The Penal Legionnaire comes armed with a hand flamer and chainsword. Their chem-mask stops their stats from being affected by any modifiers and if they attack an enemy that's taken a wound this game, they can reroll any or all of their attack dice.
• Pistolier - This dual-wielding pistol operative has loads of fire options with their scoped plasma pistol and suppressed auto-pistol. They can fire from concealment, or at range with the scoped profile on their plasma pistol. They can even fire both with one action with their pistol barrage unique action.

We've covered the Extraction Squad, Kasrkin, Imperial Navy Breachers, and Veteran Guardsmen in their expansion articles, which can be read by following the links on their names. The 2 new Ancillary Support options are:

• Sister of Silence - The sisters come with 3 options, boltgun-armed Prosecutors, Greatblade armed Vigilators, and flamer-armed Witchseekers. The kill team can take any combination of the 3 types if the sisters are chosen as the support option.
• Tempestus Scions - The Scions can choose between a Comms, Medic, basic Trooper, and a choice of 5 Gunner options, flamer, grenade launcher, hot-shot volley gun, melta gun, and plasma gun. They can take 2 Gunners, which you always will, and one of each of the rest.

What are the Chaos Cult Kill Team Troop Choices?

The Chaos Cult begin by operating in secret, gaining support throughout all areas of humanity, by promising gifts, change, and weaponizing the anger, hatred, and greed of the human populous, until they are strong enough and adequately supported to complete whatever scheme they have been working towards.

The Ashes of Faith sprue allows you to build all 15 of the fixed roster, plus 5 Chaos Mutants and 3 Chaos Torments for mutating your Devotees.

The Chaos Cults can mutate their followers, changing them first into Mutants and then Torments, which we discuss below. They can be mutated in a number of ways, each turn you can mutate a number of devotees in the strategy phase equal to the turn number, they can also be mutated if they take out an enemy in close combat and survive, and the leader can mutate them with an action.

The Chaos Cult troop choices are:

• Cult Demagogue - The leader of the cult can mutate their followers with an action, or make them fight or charge. Great for putting in the middle of your swarm of Cultists and sending them forth.
• Blessed Blade - The Cult comes with 2 Blessed Blades that can activate together if they're nearby each other. They only have close combat weapons, but their Commune blades do 6 damage on a 5+ crit, and any enemies within engagement range suffer D3+1 mortal wounds if they fall back.
• Iconarch - This icon bearer increases the damage on each dice from nearby friendly operatives and decreases the damage on each dice from nearby enemy operatives. They also have a 6-attack torrent weapon for any enemies getting too close.
• Mindwitch - This mutated psyker can blast visible enemies, dealing mortal wounds that vary on the distance they are away, or hit multiple enemies within range of a token they can place anywhere in sight for 1 mortal wound each, plus a mortal wound at the end of every turn they are within range of the token. They can also reduce an enemy operative in line of sight's action points, which is great for keeping them in range of the token.
• Chaos Devotee - The basic Cultist, armed only with a pistol and crude melee weapon, their purpose is to be mutated.
• Chaos Mutant - The first level of mutation gains them a 5+ roll to avoid any wounds they take, along with an upgraded close combat attack and a choice of 6 gifts. The gift chosen is then given to any Devotee who mutates into a Mutant.
• Chaos Torment- The second and final level of mutation, gaining them a further upgraded close combat attack and another gift. The gift chosen is then also given to any other Mutant that mutates into a Torment.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On Kill Team Ashes of Faith?

I absolutely love Kill Team Ashes of Faith. Two fantastic, thematic kill teams with some fun abilities and great miniatures and a campaign that's a lot of fun to play through with any kill teams. While I love Kill Team as a competitive, challenging game, if this had been the starter set for Kill Team, combined with the rules and dice and then new campaigns each season, I probably wouldn't have been playing anything else. The campaign itself fits incredibly well with the Inquisition and Cults, and the vying for control of territories with cards that act as operatives and ruses is incredibly thematic for both sides. If you want a fun campaign, perfectly suited for a weekend of gaming, then Ashes of Faith is a must-buy.

Should I Buy Kill Team Ashes of Faith?

If you're a Kill Team player and you want the new kill teams, then the awesome campaign is almost a bonus. If you're a new Kill Team player, then all you will need to add are the core rules, dice, and the scenery and rules for a Kill Zone, which you can get in the Kill Team starter set, or separately if there's a particular kill zone you want.

Either way, Ahses of Faith provides 2 fantastic, thematic kill teams for you to use beyond the campaign and a great campaign to play through.

The copy of Kill Team Ashes of Faith used to produce this preview was provided by Games Workshop.