Warhammer 40,0000 Kill Team Moroch Preview

Kill Team Moroch is the next expansion for Kill Team, and follows the same format as Chalnath and Nachmund, introducing two brand new kill teams and a kill zone. Moroch features the loyalist Adeptus Astartes, or Space Marines, in a Phobos Strike Team, fighting against the Militarum Traitoris Blooded Kill Team. In this article, we'll have a look at what's in the box, and talk about the two new kill teams and the new kill zone.

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 know more about Kill Team, you can check out our full guide here.

What Does Kill Team Moroch Contain?

Kill Team Moroch contains:

• Kill Team Moroch campaign book
• Ten Space Marine Phobos-Armored Infiltrators or Incursors
• Twelve Militarum Traitoris Blooded
• Fronteris scenery set and double-sided game board

Kill Team Moroch is an expansion for Kill Team, which means that it's not playable straight out of the box, a copy of the Kill Team Core rules are required, as are some dice and measuring tools. If you have the Kill Team Starter Set or Octarius box, then it contains everything you need to start using Moroch right away. You can purchase the items required to play separately, and they are all detailed in our Kill Team Guide.

What does the Kill Team Moroch Campaign Book Add To Games?

The Moroch campaign book is split into several chapters, the first, Warzone Sanctus - Frontier World Moroch, details the lore and narrative of the planet Moroch and the forces battling within it. The next chapter contains the background for Phobos Strike Teams and Blooded kill teams, along with narrative ideas and hooks to flesh them out.

The core of the book are the datacards, abilities, special rules, ploys, and spec ops details for the two new kill teams included in the set, the Space Marine Phobos Strike Team, and Militarum Traitoris Blooded. These are different kill teams from those previously presented in the Kill Team Compendium, and we look at both in detail below.

The book closes with Killzone: Moroch and special rules for all the Fronteris scenery in the box, rules like the Fronteris Stockade, which gains the Defendable trait if certain conditions are met, giving an operative an advantage even when they're charged. It also has a Shadow Operations: Moroch Mission Pack, a series of nine narrative missions that make use of the Killzone: Moroch scenery, and also the Sentries rules, a short prologue battle using a few operatives each that enable the attacker to try and move into key positions and complete objectives.

What are the Space Marine Phobos Strike Team Kill Team Troop Choices?

The Space Marines are the poster boys for Warhammer 40,000 and have been a staple of the system since its release, along with being a core of the lore, as can be seen with the Times Best Selling Horus Heresy series of novels that details the fall of half of the space marine legions against the Emperor. In recent editions, a new generation of Space Marines were created, the Primaris. Larger, tougher, and better equipped than their firstborn brethren.

To aid these new warriors, the latest version of their iconic power armor, Mark X, allows huge customization to meet different challenges. Part of this is the Phobos-pattern armor which is lighter and more maneuverable, perfect for covert operations. Three types of space marine troops wear Phobos-pattern armor, the Infiltrators, advanced behind-enemy lines operators, Incursors, stealth assault specialists, and Reivers, shock terror assault troops. All three of these troops types make up the Phobos Strike Team for Kill Team, giving commanders a lot of options when picking their assault squads.

These options do mean that you are going to have to make some choices when building your Phobos force out of the Moroch box. It doesn't contain any Reivers, so those will have to be bought separately, but it doesn't contain two identical Infiltrator/Inccussor sprues, that can make most of the options without the need for a second purchase. If only working out of the box, you will have to choose between having both Seargent options and the Infiltrator Saboteur, and between having two of the three options of Commsman, Voxbreaker and Marksman. We detail all the options below and picking up a box of Reivers and an additional spur of Infiltrators/Incursors will allow you to build all options for full access to the roster.

• Infiltrator Sergeant - The Phobos Strike Team has three leader choices from the troop types, all with the same core stats, but different armaments and abilities. The Infiltrator Sergeant , as with all Infiltrators, comes with a Marksman bolt carbine that has Lethal for more crits to dish out damage.
• Infiltrator Commsman - The commsman comes armed the same as the rest of the Infiltrators but also has the option to allow another operative to take an action at the cost of one of their own, the action can't be one they have taken already, and they can't perform it again that turn, so it can't be used to double up on attacks and objective actions, but it is useful for working with the Phobos' Guerilla Warfare ability to take them in and out of concealment or to let the Saboteur set off their explosives.
• Infiltrator Helix Adept - The team medic, while still an effective shooter, can also save a nearby operative from being taken out and use an action to heal.
• Infiltrator Saboteur - The Saboteur has access to remote explosives, which they can plant and then later detonate for an AP1, five damage attack within a three-inch radius. Great for setting up to protect an objective.
• Infiltrator Veteran - The Veteran comes with a custom bolt carbine, which allows them during deployment to select two special rules from a list of six to tailor it for the mission, terrain, and enemy. 
• Infiltrator Voxbreaker - The Voxbreaker has unique actions that allow them to reveal concealed enemies, and also stop nearby enemies from rerolling their dice in combat.
• Infiltrator Warrior - The warrior is the basic Infiltrator, equipped and stated the same as all the other types, but without any bonus options. With only six operatives in a Phobos Strike Team, it would be rare to see a warrior with so many other options with unique abilities.
• Incursor Sergeant - The Phobos Strike Team has three leader choices from the troop types, all with the same core stats, but different armaments and abilities. The Incursor Sergeant, as with all Incursors comes armed with an Occulus bolt carbine with the No Cover special rule that allows them to hunt down enemies trying to hide.
• Incursor Marksman - The Marksman is a true craftsman, armed with a Stalker marksman bolt carbine with AP1 and Lethal 5+, they can also spend an action point to interrupt an opponent's turn to fire an overwatch action from concealment.
• Incursor Minelayer - The minelayer has access to a proximity haywire mine that can target a single operative moving into range of the mine, regardless of cover.
• Incursor Warrior - The warrior is the basic Incursor, equipped and stated the same as all the other types, but without any bonus options. With only six operatives in a Phobos Strike Team, it would be rare to see a warrior with so many other options with unique abilities.
• Reiver Sergeant - The Phobos Strike Team has three leader choices from the troop types, all with the same core stats, but different armaments and abilities. Both the Sergeant and Warrior Reiver options have two armament choices, either the short-range special issue bolt pistol and combat knife or the bolt carbine and fists options. The choice will depend on how close you are looking to get to the enemy.
• Reiver Warrior - Out of the three different basic warrior options, Reivers are the one you might see hit the tabletop. They have the same armament options as the Sergeant, as well as both of them having the Terror unique action. This increases the action point cost for mission action and also reduces the APL of enemy operatives for scoring objectives. This makes them great against swarm kill teams, if you can keep them alive and on the objective.

What are the Militarum Traitoris Blooded Kill Team Troop Choices?

If the greatest heroes of humanity can fall to the lure of Chaos, then what chance does an unaugmented human have? The Militarum Traitoris Blooded are those of the forces of humanity that have chosen to act on their greed, lust, and anger and turn against their fellows in support of either the fouls gods of Chaos, or simply to pursue their own ends. 

Blooded Kill Teams gain Blooded tokens each turn, and when they incapacitate enemy operatives or their own are taken out close to enemies, which they can use to draw the attention of the dark gods. If an operative has a Blooded token, they can automatically retain a hit when they attack, or if they are under the gaze of the dark gods, a critical hit.

Some choices will have to be made when building out of the box, as they have sixteen troop choices in all, and only twelve and buildable with a single Moroch set. So plan your build carefully using the construction booklet, or pick up another sprue or two in order to fill out your roster with all options.

• Traitor Chieftan - The leader of the Blooded is always considered under the gaze of the gods when away from your deployment zone, and can return blooded tokens to your pool once per turn when a nearby operative is taken out. They also have four armament options, including a ranged boltgun, and different pistol and melee options including a power weapon for some close combat mayhem.
• Traitor Brimstone Grenadier - The Grenadiers have three grenade choices, frag for low damage blast, krak for opening armor, and diabolyk which can inflict splash mortal wounds. They also have a chance to explode when taken out.
• Traitor Butcher - The Butcher is armed with a deadly power weapon and cleaver. They heal themselves when they take out enemies and also gain you Blooded tokens through critical hits.
• Traitor Commsman - The Commsman, as well as having the standard giving an AP for the cost of one of their own, also has an in-turn way to exchange Blooded tokens or issue a token that has been earned that turn.
• Traitor Corpseman - At the start of the game, and as an action, the Corpseman can give a friendly operative either 2D3 wounds back, give them an additional 6 save on wounds lost, or give their melee weapons the relentless rule, which means they can reroll any or all of their attack dice. If you deploy them close by to other operatives, you can start supercharging your kill team from the first turn. 
• Traitor Flenser - The Flenser is a sneaky close combatant. Their skinning blades gain lethal if they're near terrain, and they can charge from concealment and even attack before they're removed if they're taken out in combat.
• Traitor Gunner - There are four gunner options, and the Blooded can take two of them into battle. They can be armed with either the short-range multi-target flamer, a grenade launcher with frag and krak grenades, the short-range high damage AP2 meltagun or the longer-range plasma gun with a risky AP2 option. 
• Traitor Sharpshooter - The sharpshooter is armed with a silent long-las that can deal mortal wounds on crits, and their camo cloak helps them survive any return fire by retaining extra dice in cover.
• Traitor Thug - Thugs are more durable than regular Traitor Warriors, subtracting one from the damage of incoming attacks. They can also dish out damage back with their four damage club.
• Traitor Trench Sweeper - The Trench Sweeper is armed with a short-range, but accurate shotgun, and a shield that lets them reroll any or all or all of their defense dice. This free ability has to be activated, so activate them early in the first turn, and it remains active until they're activated again.
• Traitor Trooper - Troopers are the basic lasgun armed soldiers, and they can be taken in the core Blooded list, and up to four can be taken in the sub-group instead of the Enforcer and Ogryn. They do have group activation two, so if you're looking to swarm a battlefield with inaccurate bodies, then troopers are the way to go.
• Traitor Enforcer - An Enforcer can be taken instead of two Troopers in the Blooded sub-group. Enforcers are armed with a high damage power fist. They scare nearby friendly injured troopers and let them ignore the modifier to their move. They can also give a nearby operative a free dash action, and allow them to take an overwatch shot at the cost of one AP.
• Traitor Ogryn - An Ogryn can be taken in place of two Troopers in the Blooded sub-group. Ogryn's are huge brutes with sixteen wounds and come armed with a high damage power maul and mutant claw. They can deal mortal wounds on a charge and their APL can never be modified.

What Fronteris Scenery does Kill Team Moroch Contain?

The Fronteris scenery set allows you to build:

• One STC Hab-Bunker
• Two Stockades (that can be built as part of the Hab-Bunker of free-standing)
• One Fronteris Landing Pad
• One Vox-Antenna
• One Auspex Shrine

It also contains a single very durable, double-sided game board. All of the included scenery is used in the Shadow Operations: Moroch Mission Pack narrative missions detailed in the back of the Moroch book.

It doesn't sound like much scenery compared to the other Kill Team boxed sets, but the Hab-Bunker and Landing pad are huge, and the Vox-Antenna is a great sniper's nest if you can survive getting to the top.

Also Up For Preorder This Weekend From Games Workshop...

Along with Kill Team Moroch, the new book of lore and stat blocks Warhammer 40K Codex: Chaos Knights is also up for preorder. We covered this to some extent with our review of the Chaos Knights Army Box, where a special edition of the Codex was included. Read on to find out more.

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