Review: Kill Team Pariah Nexus Expansion

In this post, there’s an unboxing video and a written review of Kill Team Pariah Nexus. I’ll be looking at the contents of the book, how evenly matched the included Kill Teams are and if it’s value for money.

Disclaimer. Games Workshop has kindly sent me a copy of Kill Team Pariah Nexus. My views are my own.

Features

This is being marketed as an expansion set. It’s not a complete game. There aren’t any core rules included but let’s have a look at what is included:

• 112 page Kill Team: Pariah Nexus Book
• 22” x 30” double sided gameboard
• Pariah Nexus Scenery
• Two Sets of 17 Objective Cards
• 1 Necron Chronomancer
• 5 Necron Flayed Ones
• 1 Space Marine Captain with Master Crafted Heavy Bolt Rifle
• 5 Space Marine Heavy Intercessors
• Ultramarines Infantry Transfer Sheet

Only the Chronomancer and Heavy Intercessors have multiple weapon and build options. The Heavy Intercessors can be built with different magazines for their weapons giving them different stats. I built mine with Executor rounds, they’re heavy 1 but do 2 damage. The Executor Heavy Bolter is 2 shots and 3 damage!. If you want less damage but more shots you can take Hellstorm mags which makes them assault 3 weapons. Or you can take them as Heavy Bolt Rifles which are Rapid Fire. All the rounds are str5. The Chronomancer has a choice of 3 heads which all look virtually the same and a choice of two weapons: the Entropic lance or the Aeonstave.

The Kill Team: Pariah Nexus Book features 14 pages of lore detailing the Necrons defending the M’tallonis Pylon, and the Adeptus Astartes descent down miles of mine shafts to breach a tomb.

There’s 28 pages with Close Confine rules including Terrain Rules, General Rules, Mission Rules, Ultra-Close Confines Tactics. You also get the special Killzone rules for both sides of the games board The Crypt of Cynosure and the Translocum Chamber. There are 6 Matched Play Missions and 2 Narrative Play Missions. The Matched Play Missions use the rules for choosing a Killteam from the Core Rule book. The 2 Narrative Missions use the models included in the set.

The rest of the book contains new rules for Space Marine and Necron forces. Complete rules for using Commanders including Tactics and Traits. There are background tables and name generators. You also get Chapter Tactics for Dark Angels, White Scars, Space Wolves, Imperial Fists, Blood Angels, Ultramarines Iron Hands, Salamanders, Raven Guard and Black Templars. Deathwatch also get their own special rules including special issue ammo. There’s specific command point tactics for Space Marines, Necrons and Deathwatch. There are rules for Adeptus Astartes Psychic powers.

There are 31 Space Marine profiles and 12 profiles for the Necrons. There are weapon profiles and points values and that rounds off the 112 page book.

Fun Factor

I thought I’d add up the models included in the box. The Space Marines total 179pts for 3 Heavy Intercessors, Heavy Intercessor Sergeant, Heavy Intercessor Gunner with Executor Heavy Bolter and a Level 1 Captain with Master Crafted Heavy Bolt Rifle. The Necrons only total 94pts for a Level 1 Chronomancer with Entropic Lance and 5 Flayed Ones. If you take a Level 4 Chronomancer and purchase some Commander Traits like Iron Will, Destined by Fate and Tactical Planner you can get the Necron force to 179pts. Standard games of Killteam are set to 100pts, but can be increased to 125 or 150 depending on if you’re using elites and commanders. 179pts is still too much for matched play games though.

For the 6 matched play missions, you’ll have to leave the Captain behind so both forces are 94pts. To balance the 2 Narrative Missions, the first uses a game mechanic that delays the arrival of Captain and the second mission allows you to bring back deceased Flayed Ones. There’s also plenty of helpful Necron Tactics to help balance things like Flensing Fury for 1 command point which adds +1 damage to your attacks. Helpful for getting through all those Heavy Intercessor wounds. Resurrection Protocols for two command points gives you a 4+ roll to stand dead models up too. Haunting Horrors is pretty cool too, it’s only 1 command point and it allows you to set up 3 Flayed Ones who were in reserve anywhere on the board 5” away from the enemy.

Value

Even though this is an expansion set, it has the price tag of a complete game, so what do you actually get for your money? Well none of the models are available yet so that’s a bonus to getting this set. That also means we don’t know the prices of the individual sets yet but if I use similar existing sets we can get a rough idea.

• Expansion Rulebook – £25 / €32.50 / $40 USD
• Primaris Heavy Intercessors – £36.50 / €45 / $60 USD (based on assault Intercessors price)
• Primaris Captain in Gravis armour – £22.50 / €30 / $35 USD
• Chronomancer – £21 / €25 / $35 USD
• Necron Flayed Ones – £25 / €32.50 / $38 USD (based on Immortals price)
• Necron Doorways/Barracades – £22.50 / €30 / $35 USD (based on the Necromunda barricades price)

Pariah Nexus retails for £95 / €140 / $170. My estimates come to £152.50 / €195 / $243. It’s not the impressive saving that we saw with the Indomitus launch set but it’s alright. One thing to note is you will need to purchase the Core Rulebook to be able to use this set. That’s £25 for the paperback (or £16.99 for the digital version). Adding the rulebook brings the overall cost closer to it’s Warcry Catacombs counterpart which costs £125.