Kill Team: Shadowhunt Review - Expert Breakdown by Squad-Games

Written by Giacomo, Painted by Giacomo and Dakotah, Reviewed by Saya

Thank you Games Workshop for sending us this copy for early review!

We will have more Shadowhunt content on our YouTube channel

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The forces of the Imperium and Chaos clash in the newest expansion of Kill Team: Shadowhunt.

The Celestian Insidiants inspire each other while nullifying the killzone with abilities that will have psykers and witches alike retreating to the warp. The Murderwing descends from the sky to dismember their prey and revel in the hunt using their jump packs to full effect. All while underneath the battle, terrifying secrets hidden below will surface.

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Celestian Insidiants painted by Dakotah L

Celestian Insidiants

Leading by example, the Celestians inspire one another to perform acts of bravery when facing the enemies of the imperium. Fallen sisters become martyrs who further inspire their sisters to fight even harder.

Faction Rules: 

The Inspiration rule allows Celestian weapons on their datacard to gain Severe if they perform a charge action or incapacitate an enemy operative with six or more wounds. Inspiration is the heart of this team and should be triggered whenever possible.

If that rule was the heart, then Martyrdom is the soul. Martyrdom allows incapacitated Inspiring Celestians to give a visible friendly Celestian or one within six inches of that incapacitated model a Benediction. Benedictions are powerful abilities that make Celestians even stronger in battle.

They also have the Weapons of the Witch Hunters, which stop ranged psychic attacks from doing any damage to the Celestians, they prevent psychic actions from affecting them, additional psychic abilities are disabled if with three inches of a Celestian, and psychic melee weapons lose all abilities and cannot do more than 3/4 damage. GET NULLED!

Key Operative: Insidiant Denuncia 

A powerful support model that can use the Speak of Her Deeds Support action to give a Benediction to a friendly model, making the team that much more adaptable to a given situation. Did I mention the range of this ability can be increased by using a Comms Device!?

The Denuncia

Standout Equipment: Auto-Flaggelator

The Auto-Flaggelator allows a friendly Celestian to take some damage and possibly become Inspired. This is great if you need a ranged weapon to gain Severe but are not within charge range or fighting an enemy operative. One could pair this with the Denuncia that can remove her own Inspiring ability and hand it out to someone else (similar to how the Transfusion Ritual action and the Bloody Cadavar equipment work for Goremongers).

Honorable Mentions: Zealous Ultimatum

The Insidiant Mortisanctus can use the Zealous Ultimatum to make an enemy operative either cower in fear or accept their challenge. If the challenge is accepted, by rolling a 4+, whenever the Mortisanctus fights or is retaliating against the challenged operative, add 1 to the attack stat of their Blessed Blade. AND if they incapacitate that enemy operative, they permanently add 1 to their attack stat to a maximum of 5!

The Mortisanctus

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Murderwing painted by Giacomo V

Murderwing

Led by a Chaos lord, the Murderwing boost around the killzone with unmatched mobility. Their ferocity and speed make no place in the killzone safe from their deadly boost actions.

Faction Rules:

The Boost rule allows a Murderwing operative to move in a straight line ignoring vertical distances; they also cannot end below a vantage. If their Boost would end under a vantage, instead they must either end their Boost early and use any remaining distance to get under the vantage otherwise they end on top of the vantage.

When a Murderwing Operative performs Boost it leaves a Boost Zone from where it started Boosting to where it lands via Boost, it can perform special Boost actions on this zone. Each operative is limited to one Boost action per activation and counteraction per turning point. Don't forget how mobile this pseudo-fly ability makes the team too!

Key Operative: Chaos Lord

A deadly operative that can be equipped with an array of weapons, making him versatile to any playstyle, I like equipping the Relic Lightning claws myself. The lord’s Path to Damnation ability is where he really shines; starting with one Damnation Point, once per action, the lord can attempt to get Boons of Damnation by rolling a die and exceeding the number of Damnation Points currently on the lord. These boons can prevent damage from an attack or deal additional damage in melee.

Be warned, the Path to Damnation carries a heavy price. Should the player roll a die with a result lower than the number of Damnation Points the Chaos Lord takes that much damage instead. The Path to Damnation makes the Chaos Lord one of the most destructive operatives Murderwing has.

Chaos Lord

Standout Ploy: Malicious Narcissism

This firefight ploy can be used when there is one Murderwing operative left to activate, they can delay their activations as long as there are enemy operatives that can be activated. Being able to activate the Skysear with a Meltgun or using your Chaos lord as the final activation of the turning point is very powerful. Remember how good a similar ability was from the Nemesis Claw Visionary? (Funny enough the Celestians can nullify the Visionary’s Prescience ability).

(Dis)honorable mention: Warp Talon

Fueled by chaotic warp energies, this operative can Slice the Veil, if it does Slice the Veil it is set up in the warp instead of the killzone and the player sets up a Warp Marker wholly in their territory.

On the second firefight phase the Wap Talon can be set up in their dropzone or within control range of their Warp Marker while wholly within their territory; this ability can deter an opponent from positioning too close to your Warp Marker, less they want to deal with the savage Warp Talon!

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The Descent Killzone

No Kill Team set would be complete without a new way to play the game. Shadowhunt gives players the Descent Killzone, which is two half Kill Team boards, one on the “surface” and one “underneath”.  By using Entryway Markers, players can switch between maps simulating the “Descent”. Although one open board like Volkus and one close-quarter board like Tomb World are recommended, I would encourage players to try all sorts of board combinations.

The Shadowhunt dossier also brings us the deadly Nightbringer to Kill Team!

This NPO is massive and will test the skills of players new and old.

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There you have it, Shadowhunt is looking to have a very unique playstyle, so make sure to preorder this set from your friendly local game store, and check out the Highlander Hobbies brushes (used to paint the minis in this article).

Which team is your favorite?

• Murderwing
• Celestians