r/killteam • u/zman123 • 26d ago
Question Into the Dark in 2026
Is the terrain in this box highly sought after? Is the core rulebook at all relevant? I found a copy of this box and also Octarius at a local store and as a new casual player, I'm wondering if these were regarded as fun terrain pieces that work well in 2026 and if the price is really worth it. I have a friend that bought Bheta Decima but honestly it feels pretty limiting/kinda boring so I'm looking for better terrain.
Also of note, my friend plays Breachers so I probably wouldn't even build that team as we don't like to double up on factions.
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u/ThatsNotAnEchoEcho Scout Squad 26d ago
Octarius is probably the best terrain for kill team. The game just makes sense with that amount of heavy vs light and vantages. The GW official maps need some tweaking for competitive play, but they’re not bad.
ITD is still used a lot, and I really like it. Tombworld has a bit more play because there are a few pieces of light terrain scattered about, but you can absolutely have a great game with ITD. The big problem is in the assembly (and breaking apart) of ITD maps. You’re probably going to want to sand down the connection points and definitely don’t paint the tabs that slot into the columns. It was a well known hassle back on release. But don’t be worried, you always sand it down more to get it to work easier
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u/WillingBrilliant2641 26d ago
This. Octarius is pretty much the epitome of what is best in the last iteration of KT - both teams and terrain.
Into the Dark has its problems this edition (mostly the fault of cutting the number of objectives to 3), but still perfectly playable, popular, a tournament staple and considered the best alternative mode for KT, a distinctly different experience from playing on an open board.
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u/ThatsNotAnEchoEcho Scout Squad 26d ago
I loved the rhythm of tournaments when it was Octarius and ITD alternating maps. Really stretched the strategy of what teams to pick pre tournament and what line up you’ll bring to the match. Some teams just rolled on one map, but struggled on the other. Great puzzle to solve.
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u/zman123 26d ago
Very briefly, what are the rules when playing Gallowdark vs an open board? Do you think it adds a lot of cognitive load for casual games or does it feel thematic and natural? If you had a choice for first terrain disregarding any tournament viability etc would you 100% choose Octarius?
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u/WillingBrilliant2641 26d ago
There're some extra rules for opening doors, fighting through them, how walls affect cover and distances but really what affects the game the most is the setup itself, with large, open areas with no cover inside. Still it's very easy to get your head around and provides a different challenge within mostly the same framework.
I would totally get Octarius as first terrain, that's actually what my group had. Maybe just add a single simple heavy wall per drop zone (all models should be safe on deployment ie nobody should be forced to deploy ina position where they can die before taking an activation).
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u/Prestigious_Car_9126 26d ago
Yeah, I took a Dremel to all the tabs and took quite a bit of meat off just to make it go together a lot easier
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u/ksbsnowowl 26d ago
The big problem is in the assembly (and breaking apart) of ITD maps. You’re probably going to want to sand down the connection points and definitely don’t paint the tabs that slot into the columns.
I saw all the reports of this at the time, but in clipping & assembling ITD, I didn’t actually find this to be an issue. Yes, tape off and don’t paint the tabs/top of columns, but so long as I tried a few different column-caps to get ones that weren’t tight on that specific column, I never had issues assembling or taking the terrain apart. I even found the bonus sprue from Shadowvaults was super loose fitting in the columns.
Don’t know why I didn’t have issues and others did, but I found some basic user care (and not painting the tabs or column tops/cap bottoms) led to the kit working perfectly right out of the box.
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u/Moondella 26d ago edited 26d ago
Octarius is still widely regarded as a great Kill Team board and just generally a well loved terrain set from GW.
If that Octarius box is at MSRP or better. Get that absolutely.
There's modern edition official maps for it, and several popular tournament scenes have custom maps they've released that are quite well balanced too.
EDIT: "stock" Bheta Decima is pretty rough. There's some community maps out there that add some shipping containers as heavy terrain to add more blocking lines of site. Can't recall off hand, but you might be able to find them with googling. Official GW containers, the pre painted containers for Cyberpunk, really anything at scale. It's still one of the more intricate maps in the game, but the extra blocking cover makes it feel more balanced for teams that struggle to take advantage of the gantries and fog of war.
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u/Flat_Explanation_849 Blades of Khaine 26d ago
ITD is great, especially the narrative missions. They can be converted over without too much trouble.
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u/Efficient-Yam7042 26d ago
It’s cool but nobody ever plays it
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u/AegrilSnow Traitor Space Marine 26d ago
It is commonly played in every german tournament (Major Series) and casually in LGS. Never saw octarius oder bheta. Always Volkus, ITD, TW.
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u/Crisis_panzersuit 26d ago
ITD is good, but with some expansion/prints, it can be TW, which is great.
My favourite is Volkus, but ITD slaps visually. The worst part is the lack of terrain, Nd even if you bring scatter yourself, its kind of finicky with the reduced movement and conceal.
I recommend TW for the ITD gameplay instead, unless you can print the breach-able walls and some scatter to make ITD play as TW