Warhammer Kill Team Tomb World

I used to think board games were just cardboard and plastic, but then I opened Warhammer Kill Team Tomb World.

This isn't your regular Tuesday night board game. You get 10 Deathwatch Kill Team miniatures (which is like having a small army, but smaller), 7 Canoptek Circle Kill Team miniatures, and 13 Necron Non-Player Operative miniatures. That's 30 miniatures total. I counted them. Twice. Because I like to be sure about these things.

The Deathwatch are space marines, but they're the special forces kind. Like if regular space marines went to space marine college. The Necrons are ancient robot skeletons who used to be alive, which is confusing but also kind of cool. It's like if your grandfather became a Terminator, but in a good way.

What's In The Tomb (Besides Ancient Curses)

You get 33 Citadel Bases, which is important because miniatures need something to stand on. Otherwise they'd just be lying around, and that's not tactical at all. There's also 25 Kill Team: Tomb World Dossiers in a soft-cover book with 80 pages. That's a lot of pages. I've read shorter novels.

The double-sided Tomb World Game Board is there too. Double-sided means you get two battlefields for the price of one board, which is efficient. I like efficiency. It's like getting two pizzas, but they're stuck together and one is a tomb world.

The Miniatures Situation

These aren't pre-painted. You have to paint them yourself, which some people think is work but I think is like meditation, except with tiny brushes and the constant fear of messing up a face. The miniatures come on sprues, which are like plastic Christmas trees but for war games.

Each miniature has its own personality. Well, not really, because they're plastic. But they have different poses and weapons, so you can pretend they have personalities. I named one of mine Steve. Steve carries a big gun.

Game Mechanics That Actually Work

Kill Team is faster than regular Warhammer 40,000. It's like the difference between watching a whole movie and watching just the good parts. You can finish a game in about an hour, which means you can play it and still have time to explain to people why you have tiny space marines on your kitchen table.

The rules are in those 80 pages I mentioned earlier. Some of the pages have pictures, which is helpful because sometimes words are hard when you're thinking about tactical positioning and whether Steve should move behind that wall or charge that robot skeleton.

This set gives you everything you need to start playing immediately. Well, immediately after you assemble and paint 30 miniatures, read 80 pages of rules, and find someone else who wants to command an army of ancient robot skeletons. But after that, immediately.