Kill Team Initial Impressions

 The other day I played my first game of Kill Team (KT), 2^nd Ed.  I have played the 1^st Ed which is very similar to 40k. The only similarity between 40k and 2^nd Ed is the names of forces and the models, otherwise it is very different.  My first impressions is that it plays fast and has more tactical depth than 40k.  Another difference would be in the nature of the collection you will acquire.   The basic mechanic in shooting and fighting is comparing dice pools, which is essentially how Risk works. But, due to the number of special rules still provides a lot of player agency.  An area where it is a bit sluggish is terrain, instead of over simplifying terrain (like many table top games) they have given terrain a lot more rules.  This will likely not be an issue after a couple of games, once your group has decided how big and effective each structure is.  One essential piece of kit, not provided in the box, is a laser!

Lists/List building.  We used lists from the compendium, there is not much variety in each factions KT. KTs are currently one or two fire teams and while each fire team has choices there is usually an obvious best pick, always take the plasma gun! The major decision for your operatives is whether they will be good at shooting or fighting. After that it is what extra equipment to give your KT. In this skirmish the Tyranids KT consisted of 3 Warriors each with a shooting and melee weapon as well as 5 Genestealers.  The ability to give each warrior both weapons combined with their 18 hit points makes them a very strong choice, the Genestealers also have a free dash special rule. The Chaos KT was a Fire team of Chaos marines with a plasma gunner and icon bearer as well as an aspiring champion and 8 cultists. The cultist were mostly equipped for fighting with two equipped for shooting and two gunners with flamers.

I think the real variety in KT will come from collecting KTs from different factions. This will also diversify your collection which I think is a bonus.  I think the “Art of List Building” if you will, is making a list that maximizes both the strategic and tactical ploys of the faction.  Once you have master this for one faction, it will probably be time to move to another.  I think as the Meta gets developed for this game then an important rating will be Action Point Limit (APL) per KT.  In our game the Tyranids had 16 APLs/Team and The Traitors had 25 APLs/Team.  Spoiler alert the Traitors lost, but that was due to bad decisions not unbalanced lists.

The Actual Fight. Since it was our first game we just played the standard one from the open play rules.  There were four objective on the table and you could score one point per turn per objective (four blue circles), with the highest score wining.  The Tyranids had the initiative (deployed in green ellipses), and even though I had to set up my complete Kill Team (I was Traitors, and deployed in the red ellipses) first, I did not feel I was at a disadvantage in the first turning point. The game took about two and a half hours but we tried our best to get the rules right so were looking up things in the rules constantly.  By the 3 Turning Point felt comfortable and the game trucked along very quickly.

Turning Point 1.  In the first Turning Point both sides spread out to secure and cover different objectives.  Interestingly both sides lost sight of this aim once the lives of their operatives became at risk.  Otherwise the first turn had minimal combat, essentially it was just the fighting on the catwalk between the Chaos Gunner and a Tyranid Warrior with both operatives getting wounded but not enough to injure either.

Turning Point 2.  In this turn there was a lot of hand to hand fighting, with both KTs advancing aggressively on the objectives.  I would say that any special rules that is activated after a critical role is rolled going to get solid use in any game.  During the fighting there were lots of cultists getting incapacitated, with minimal damage to the Tyranids.  Essentially Tyranids roll more dice and do more damage so the poor cultists didn’t stand a chance.  A point on fighting, it is very hard to avoid damage completely while fighting.  This leaves the winner of the battle quite vulnerable to counter attacks.  This is where activation order and tactical depth become very important, charge with your cannon fodder first.   

Turning Point 3.  This Turning Point had a lot of combat, essentially with the Tyranids finishing off most of the Chaos KT and securing most of the objectives.  Both sides did do some shooting with the star being the Chaos gunner incapacitating two Tyranid operatives. Of course this was only after three Chaos operatives had been incapacitated in the melee on the catwalk.  While shooting is deadly, in KT it can be mitigated effectively by conceal orders and cover.  This meant that the shooting was at its most effective when it was used to counter attack by fire, after an enemy operative and left their concealment to engage with an enemy in the open, at which point they were shot to pieces. 

Turning Point 4.  At this point of the skirmish with two cultists on the top floor of the factory, hopelessly out of position and the Chaos Gunner injured and not close to any objectives the battle was firmly in the Tyranid’s clutches.  The Tyranid activations saw the KT taking cover and claiming objectives while the cultists tried to climb down a ladder and the traitor gunner let off some steam by blasting away at the Tyranids but not effecting the score.  The final total was 7 to 1, interestingly the total potential for the game was 16.

Conclusions.  It was a fun game and I will not play the same next time. For the force deployment I will mix melee troops with shooting troops and I will not charge my leader into a fight with an enemy that has 50% more hit points, 18 damage is not enough to kill a monster with 19 hit points….  I will also not send cultists armed with pistols onto a roof 6 inches above the battlefield…..

Neither of us did a good job with our Command Points. During a game you will normally accumulate 6 Command Points we spent 2 or 3 each… I really think that at each turning point you need to be choosing one or two strategic or tactical ploys and then spamming its effect as much as you can. For instance Chaos can fight twice or shoot twice in one turn, If you save your command point from the first turning point you could do each of these for the rest of the game, too bad they don’t effect cultists.

Forces in depth (counter charge).  Since fighting is so bloody, the victor is often left vulnerable to counter attacks.  A great deal of planning should be put into who will charge and when, even charging and not fighting seems more useful than you might think as it may provide opportunities in the next turning point and is a great way to avoid enemy fire.

Anyway, fascinating game.  Can’t wait to play again.  Maybe even with painted scenery.  Thanks for reading.

The Emperor’s Finger – Warhammer 40K Battle Report

This battle report is of a very casual game of 40k, many of us hadn’t played in a while and we really just wanted to put some models on the table and roll some dice. The objective of the battle was to hold the center of the table.  The imperium forces were trying to recover an escape pod that contained a relic of the emperor.  For the sake of a story it was called “the Emperor’s Finger” a hive fleet had intercepted the signal and thinking that I was genetic material from the emperor himself, sent a swarm to intercept.

“Sir the Heavy Cruiser Divinity has suffered a catastrophic malfunction, cause unknown, the ship is destroyed. 

And the cargo?

 The Emperors Finger was jettisoned and has landed on a remote planet.  Awaiting authority to dispatch recovery team.

Deploy the recovery team.  Do we know what destroyed the Divinity?

Unknown.  There are reports of xenos on the planet, it looks like tyranids.

May the Emperor’s strength be with them”

Sisters of Battle, Dark Angles, Ultramarines and Blood Angels have been dispatched to recover a secret Imperial Weapon known only as the Emperors Finger.  The Tyranid Hive Fleet has also sent a swarm lead by a Tyrant and Broodlord.

Set up for the battle used 6 inch deployment zones along the long edges with both armies keeping some forces flying high above the battlefield (Gargoyles and Tyrant as well as Assault Marines and a Chaplin on the loyal side). No points values were used and side were just best guessed. Loyalist army won the role for initiative. 

Turn 1.  The loyalist conducted a general advance, and directed some very effective fire from the plasma guns in the center on the Carnifix, destroying it instantly.  Bolter fire killed lots of little Termagaunts that couldn’t find the shelter of the bushes.  On the Tryranid turn 1 the Hive Tyrant and Gargoyles landed and the rest of the army moved forward using as mush cover as possible.  A lone Hormagaunt ran for the objective hoping to draw the fire of the marines, and the other Carnifix destroyed a Battle Sister Mortifier.

Turn 2. The Loyalists tried to shoot the lone Hormagaunt but luck would not let them land a shot.  This forced some marines to charge the lone Tyranid and finish it in melee.  Their heavy weapons focused on the Hive Tyrant who had luck on its side and made far more saves then it should have.  The big action for the Tyranid turn was to charge with the Broodlord in the center, after summoning his bodyguard of 15 Genestealers, who all stormed the objective.  The hive Tyrant also started to roll up the fire base in the loyalist deployment zone.

Turn 3. Assault marines and the Chaplin land on the battlefield and charged the Genestealers on the objective with support from the Sanguine Guards (The Chaplin didn’t make it in), but they did not cause sufficient damage. The Psyker in terminator armour also charged the Hive Tyrant and somehow got eaten.  Hive Tyrant destroyed the remaining marines and charged the Canoness (and not the Battle Sisters with heavy weapons). Dark Angles do an awesome job holding up the Tyranid Warriors and Termagaunts from reinforcing the Genestealers on the objective, who do finish off the Sanguine Guards and most of the Assault Marines.

Turn 4. The tide of battle finally shifts to the loyalists who manage to finish off the Tyrant and Broodlord, sadly the Dark Angles finally falls.

Turn 5, 6, 7. The survivors in the center face off, and the Marines clean-up of last Carnifix and Tyranid warriors while the Battle Sister secures the objective for the win.

Observations. Some short observations from someone who doesn’t often play 40k.

Initiative seems so important in a game where one army moves and fights in its entirety before the other.  While certainly the Tyranids could have won it did seem like they were always playing catch up.  If the Tyranids made one major mistake it was not having the Hive Tyrant attack the Battle Sisters with heavy weapons instead of the Canoness.  While the heroic single combat was fun and thematic, the long range heavy weapons covering the objective wee a more important target. Anyways bit of a crummy report but I just wanted an excuse to post photos.  Thanks for reading.