Kill Team 2021

It feels like a long damn time since I've had any positive vibe for anything hobby. 

Working on Zona Alfa was a great project that lasted several months but I'd achieved what I was hoping to achieve in terms of the hobby, and with no games being played anywhere that seems to have reached something of a nebulous conclusion.

I've probably mentioned several times on here that Betrayal at Calth is/was one of my favourite games, or more specifically I really enjoyed the simplicity of the rule set. It was of course only a method of GW introducing the plastic lines of 30k marines, so the 'game' itself was always destined for obscure oblivion.

Necromunda was the closest thing I'd found in recent times to a comparable/decent ruleset for skirmish level games (i.e. not massed armies). I still like munda, but again, no games, so not much to be inspired for.

A couple of months ago an updated version of Kill Team was released. I'd been tempted by the previous version but never pulled the trigger. The latest incarnation however boasted alternating activations which is a must have for any system I'll bother with. And so I got the starter set.

I'm not a huge fan of kreig/guard and am generally ambivalent about orks, but never mind the concept of having some alternative forces to be moving around the board. I finished assembly all the krieg today and the orks are still on sprue.  But all the terrain is done. and tbh, it's quite substantial.

I'd been watching 'how to play' videos while waiting for the set to arrive (and it took it's damn time. gw delivery is really terrible compared to other online hobby suppliers i've used). Anyway, I moved some models around and threw a small number of dice the other day in an abstract learning session, and the rules seemed to make sense.

So today I assembled the board and played my first 'real' game. There was plenty of stuff I left out, like strategic and tactical plots (is there any point using hidden 'tricks' if you're just playing yourself anyway), and I used mainly basic weapon varieties and no special tricks or loadouts: regular tactical marines vs chaos marines. 

Not entirely surprisingly - it was very good. BaCalth was largely an opportunity to get out my regular 40k 28mm models and I think Kill Team will be taking over that role.

Some pictures...

Just about to start turn 2. The small size of the board keeps thing immediate and relevant.

This is something we discussed in the munda crew; that generally the small board keep things upbeat and interesting, at least with our small-board preferences, time constraints and expertise levels etc.

Conversely, and through no fault of the game, I found Zona Alfa to be something of a slog when playing with 'full sized' tables. I was using 6x4' (later 4x4') by default to inspire an 'exploration' feel to the game experience, but it felt like it diluting the action a little too much; 2/3rds of the game turns were just moving across the board to points of interest - the movement was a relevant aspect, but didn't fit a tight, round-limiting mechanics imo. Anyway...

With new Kill Team the smaller board made for more intense action.

Anywho... turn one both sides secured two objectives and moved up the board. This was 'the simplest mission possible in the book' while still having some objectives other than 'kill everyone'. Objects are emphasised fairly heavily in the stuff i've read.

I didn't have to refer to the rules tooooo often. Though I did review the cover/LoS aspects.

Here we're at the top of turn 4. The game was fairly narrative, with each model kind of playing out the most interesting move at the time rather than playing out a grand strategy. I think the game might lend itself to 'competitive play' if that's your thing but it will definitely allow for fun 'narrative' style sessions. 

By turn 4 both sides had lost... 2 models each.

The Chaos Aspiring Champion (sword dude) charged the marine, sword chopped him (only 1 Hit Point remaining), secured the objective, then shot the other marine with his plasma pistol... which now occurs to me is wrong because charge and fight are separate actions... so he did 4 things instead of 3... oh well. wasn't the first mistake of the game. 

This is the final state of the board. Chaos win 8 to 7.  Though it should have been 5 to 7 the other way, as I had one chaos guy secure 2 objectives in turn 2 (cheeky). A model can usually only perform an action (type) once per turn, this should have included securing objectives (so I stuffed that up too - oh well).

Here's the last standing tactical marine.

And the last standing chaos marine.

And that will do me for today. All up, about an hour of dice rolling. 20 minutes on either end for set up/pack up.

Without rulebook reads I reckon 30-60 minutes would get you though a quick game. Nice and quick. 

The terrain all fits into the start box - neat. The teams are small and compact, and the measurers and tokens quite manageable. Again, comparable to munda.

Anyway, that kept me entertained for a while.

Until next time...