Picture the scene: you’ve infiltrated a slumbering Necron tomb world, avoided setting off the alarms, and just need to grab some vital intel before sneaking back out again… only to run straight into a pack of Space Wolves spoiling for a fight. You can take them on, but too much noise will wake a legion of vengeful automata, and then it’s curtains for both of you. What do you do?
You spin up the burst cannons, engage the stealth fields, and get ready for the quietest deathmatch of your life in Kill Team: Dead Silence, a new expansion set that builds on the Tomb World killzone with more teams, more hazards, and a new narrative campaign playable both competitively and co-operatively.
The T’au Empire are desperate to unlock the secrets of Necron translocation technology, and deep within the Chalnath Expanse they have found a critical source of information – a tomb world locked in heavy sleep, with a master programme far too preoccupied to take notice of isolated intruders. It could be an invaluable font of data, but they’ll need their best infiltration teams on the job to make sure the Necrons don’t catch on, and nobody does it better than their cadres of Stealth Battlesuits.
Equipped with bleeding-edge XV26 battlesuits, these maverick pilots are an anomaly in the otherwise strict and codified Fire caste, given free rein to employ unorthodox tactics and questionable methods so long as they serve the Greater Good. Each one is a veteran of many wars, equipped with one of the smallest battlesuits in the T’au Empire armoury – a technological marvel that can render itself almost completely invisible despite being powerful enough to carry serious firepower into battle.
In addition to their weapons, each member of a XV26 Stealth Battlesuit kill team also carries an assortment of sensors and communications equipment into the field, allowing them to conduct highly technical missions without support from the Earth caste. Neutralisers jam enemy signals to disrupt their counterattacks while Liberators demolish fortified targets and Lodestars deploy stealth-enabled homing beacons to coordinate with nearby support.
Unfortunately for the T’au, their arrival in the Ctesiphus System is spotted by a Space Wolves vessel, which sets off in pursuit. When the xenos’ objective becomes clear, the sons of Russ resolve to hunt them down before critical Necron samples can make it off-world, and deploy their own infiltration specialists – a team of veteran Wolf Scouts – to ensnare the slippery Stealth Battlesuits.
Unlike other Space Marine Chapters, the Space Wolves do not use their scouting forces to train novitiates, but rather put the talents of their more taciturn veterans to good use hunting dangerous foes and stalking through dense terrain. Wolf Scouts are loners and vicious killers who stand apart from their more gregarious brothers, who regard them highly as being marked by Lokyar, the Great Lone Wolf of Fenrisian legend.
As veteran warriors, many of the Scouts carry plasma weapons for extra hitting power, alongside frost-rimmed combat blades and other specialist gear*. Strangest of all are the Rune Priest Skjalds, battle psykers who summon powerful elemental storms to obscure their advance and batter enemy operatives with wind, hail, and lightning.
Besides both of these brand new kill teams, the box also includes the Kill Team: Dead Silence Dossier book, which is packed with background lore and information for each side, from their objectives to the makeup of their kill teams. As well as full rules for the Stealth Battlesuits and Wolf Scouts, it also includes an extensive new campaign system designed to be played co-operatively, competitively, and even solo – letting you progress even if your opponent isn’t taking part themselves.
These in-depth campaigns are known as Ctesiphus Expeditions, and are based around hex maps filled with different territories and landmarks for you to capture. Your first few games will take place on the surface, hunting for clues and an entrance to the quiet depths below, before you descend into the tomb world to loot valuable technology and information.
As you’ll be recording your discoveries directly on the map, the Dead Silence box includes a pair of campaign pads to help you keep track – the map pad comprises 10 tearaway sheets for each of the 5 different maps, while the log pad gives you space to record your kill team’s progress and rewards. To cap it all off, you also get datacards, transfer sheets, and tokens for each kill team, as usual.
Kill Team: Dead Silence will be coming to pre-orders pretty soon, so keep checking back in with us to be among the first to hear when it deactivates stealth mode and materialises out of thin air.
* Speaking of specialist gear – find out how you can get hold of a Space Marine pouch to hold your dice on Warhammer Day.
