Kill Team

A kill team is a small, hand-picked squad of elite operatives sent to accomplish what whole armies cannot: covert strikes, sabotage, assassinations, and recovery missions fought in the shadows of the 41st millennium's great wars. The term is most famously associated with the Deathwatch, whose alien-hunting Space Marines are organised into exactly such units, but nearly every power in the galaxy fields an equivalent: skitarii stalkers, T'au pathfinders, ork kommandos, and deathless Necron phalanxes among them. Where the front lines are decided by mass and firepower, kill teams win wars one silenced sentry and one demolished generator at a time.

Kill Team is also the name of Games Workshop's tabletop skirmish game built around that idea. Each player commands a single squad of roughly six to fourteen individual operatives drawn from the factions of Warhammer 40,000, activating them one at a time in tense, mission-driven battles fought on a compact board. With its low model count, fast games, and cheap entry compared to a full army, it has become one of the most popular gateways into the wider hobby. For a full breakdown of how the game works and how it differs from Warhammer 40,000 proper, see What Is Kill Team?.