Kasrkin regain their elite status in the January Kill Team Balance Update

A new year has dawned and Kill Team is already off to a fantastic start with the impending release of Kill Team: Shadowhunt. The newcomers aren’t the only additions to the game, however, as the first Balance Update of the year is ready to download. We’ve collared Leila from the Warhammer Studio to talk us through some of its top changes. 

Leila: Hello! There’s lots to see in the January Balance Update, so to keep things short, here are the six biggest changes coming to Kill Team this quarter.

The Breach Points found in Killzone: Tomb World have proven to cause some balance issues. Some teams without a Grenadier or Piercing 2 weapons have found some drop zones too much of a disadvantage, while teams that have a way to reduce the AP cost of mission actions have been able to exert too much offensive pressure even after Breaching. To standardise the effects of this terrain across different teams, the new Breaching Charge universal equipment provides a one-time benefit of performing a Breach action for 1 less AP, and the Breach action now limits any Charge or Shoot actions during the activation if performed for less than 2AP, regardless of the source of this reduction.

Kasrkin have been struggling through much of this edition, as their damage output just didn’t represent the threat the Cadian elite should pose. A suite of changes now increases their damage potential and consistency, starting with the new Rapid Fire faction rule that allows the Kasrkin to shoot twice during activations with lasguns, laspistols, and bolt pistols, providing some much-needed weight of fire in specific matchups. Additionally, the Light ‘Em Up Skill At Arms now provides Severe without any restrictions, making it easier to stack shooting damage against enemy operatives. As one last benefit to Cadia’s finest, the Kasrkin Sergeant’s new Veteran Leadership rule allows for the selection of two Skill At Arms to be active each turning point, letting you have much more flexibility in your engagements, and allowing one operative to go all the way to three Skill At Arms when combined with the Sergeant’s unique action, to complete critical activations with stunning precision.

Battleclade’s Noospheric Network faction rule, while powerful, was layered with a string of restrictions that made it difficult to get full value out of it. The timing and movement restrictions of this rule have been relaxed to increase the value of Network Counteracts, and as a result, the Servitor Underseer’s Noospheric Spur action has been replaced with the new Datacoronal Accumulator action, which can generate CP for critical strategy ploys the team has had trouble budgeting for. 

Since their introduction, the Canoptek Circle kill team has been particularly powerful, with both offensive pressure and durability. To stabilise the entire team, their Obelisk Node Matrix now only provides the Accurate 1 weapon rule, reducing their offensive consistency. An additional concern were the Macrocyte Warriors, who were capable of threatening lethal damage, and avoiding any cost by returning to the battlefield with their A Ceaseless Scuttling rule. All of the Warriors’ offensive stats have been reined in, preventing them from being as dangerous, while continuing to allow their unique role as efficient, returnable harassment operatives.

Kill Team’s own namesake, Deathwatch, have proven an absolute smash in the game’s meta, becoming the most played faction in the game’s history! While quite close to being balanced, their consistent gameplan and durability combined with their massive popularity was beginning to warp the meta around it. To address this, some small changes have been made. Firstly, the strategy ploys The Long Vigil and The Shield That Slays have been modified to prevent them from stacking when positioned on the centreline, bringing down the durability they provided when combined. Secondly, the Special Issue Ammunition faction rule has had the selectable weapon rules modified, as Rending proved problematic when combined with the many Lethal 5+ weapons on the team, and Piercing 1 gave a greater level of ranged lethality to melee-oriented operatives. 

While less massive, changes to two of the Recon archetype Tac Ops – Flank and Retrieval – are expected to affect a large number of teams. These Tac Ops have been scoring high, especially combined with their reliability in scoring additional points on the Primary Op. Both Tac Ops have been modified to be less consistently high-scoring, and to counter certain tactics that made them very difficult to prevent.

Thanks Leila! You can download the new Balance Update now at the Warhammer Community Downloads page, and if you fancy trying out some of the teams that have been tweaked this quarter, visit the Warhammer webstore to find them all.