Yup, I bit the proverbial bullet and bought the new Kill Team Starter Set. Come along and see what's inside!

This box is big. It is four times the volume of the past edition box, and twice the MSRP. More on the comparison with the old product will be in a future post. If this kind of smaller-scale scifi skirmish game is up your alley though, the new set is a far better value for your money.

Beneath the box lid is a sheet of heavy paper with the Kill Team logo on one side and a poster featuring the box cover art on the other. Removing this reveals a huge pile of plastic components.

The first major perk to note is that everything is molded in colored plastic rather than the standard GW grey. While some assembly is most definitely required, this game is completely playable after that without any painting whatsoever. If you want to paint it, though, it should take paint just as well as any other GW plastic mini.

These are the same frames of components as the Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii Rangers/Vanguards kit, normally a $39 item on its own. All prices noted will be in U.S. dollars, by the way. Check the site links to convert to your currency. The red plastic, as noted earlier, is a nice way to color-code the army out of the box. In Kill Team, there is no reason not to have some Rangers and some Vanguard in a combined arms squad.

This Genestealer Cult Neophyte Hybrid kit retails on its own for $40, and includes a wide range of weapon options and upgrade items to customize the team. This plastic is a lighter shade of grey than most GW kits.

There are many tan plastic frames of terrain components that should allow construction of a very nicely varied game table, and of course they are also perfect for inclusion in larger games as well. They all feature the technology combined with imposing gothic architecture and numerous skulls that defines the aesthetic of the Imperium of Man.

There are three of these sets of ruined walls and columns.

There are two of these frames featuring floor panels and more ruined walls.

There are also two sets if these relatively intact walls and columns.

And lastly, there is an imposing gateway absolutely covered with the relief sculptures of Imperial insignia and slogans. After that, it's just a repeat of the poster that covered the top of these plastic sprues...

But wait, there's more!

That second poster concealed the actual game part of this set! There is a massive 208-page perfect-bound soft-cover rule book ($40 MSRP), faction rule booklets with background fluff, a quick-start guide, and assembly instructions!

There is also a clear plastic range ruler, ziplock-style bags to contain stuff, bases for all the minis, data cards, universal tactics cards, and faction tactics cards plus a set of dice.

And beneath all that is a sturdy cardboard fold-out play mat and punch-out tokens!

All told, this definitely feels like a complete product that should play well right out of the box, at least after some assembly for your customized squad. While the included armies aren't a perfect balance, some wargear options or omitting a solder on one side or the other should allow a balanced game quite easily. The $130 price tag is not cheap, but the retail price of the minis, rule book, and dice add up to almost that much on their own, and this includes a LOT of terrain and other extras in a surprisingly sturdy box, and all of that would probably add up to nearly the MSRP again on their own too.

All told, I think this is a superb game if you are looking to explore the grim darkness of the far future where there is only war. Keep an eye out though for future posts where I plan to compare this to its predecessor and a competitor from another game company. And as always, I apologize for typos or formatting errors that result from composing this on my phone!

Click here to see the product page from Games Workshop.