Today I tried Kill Team. Just a basic run through of rules. The tacs ops and missions will require another game to play. This was straight up kill each other.
As you have seen before on blog I have the Imperial Guard Veteran team (Cheers Dave!) all painted up. So they jumped in their transport (foam box) and headed to war. Their opponents...... bleeding space marines!!!!
The size of battlefield shocked me even though I knew the size in my head. This would easily fit onto a dining table or even a table at a board game cafe or Geek Retreat type place. The terrain is nice looking we had some smaller bits and not the buildings that are also in set but as I said juat a learning game. We didn't use the missions or tac ops. I believe these add a more tactical element and your way to score victory points. These will be explored another time. We will be playing narrative as well so will get to use the narrative rules (always better than competitive) and my little band of krieg brothers can grow from strength to strength...... Or die horribly I suppose such is the guard way.
Onto the game a roll for initiative each turn keeps you on your toes, you could be going first but you also may not be so plan ahead. Every model can start the game with a conceal token or engage token. Models that have a concealed token can not be targeted (they can be when certain conditions are met) and can not engage targets. This represents soldiers moving as stealthily as possible trying to get to the best position. Some units like snipers can shoot when concealed. Engage tokens mean your model can shoot and fight but also be shot and charged themselves.
Models activate alternately though some less powerful models can activate 2 or more models in one go. When you model is activated you have AP to spend, most things cost 1 AP. The ranges in Kill Team are represented by symbols, square circle triangle and hexagon. Square is 3", circle is 2", triangle is 1" and hexagon is 6". So a models movement would be 3 Circle which would be 6". The template you get is very nice and covers 2 of the distances you will be needed to measure. And a straight ruler for hexagon is also provided. They do look very cool as well. A thing I discovered today and really like is most guns have no range in Kill Team. The size of the board assumes your average rifle in 40k can reach anywhere. Some weapons do, I can only speak for what I played today but my flamer, plasma pistol and Melta gun had ranges listed. All my Las guns and opponents bolt guns had no range noted down. This little touch speeds the game up.
Now the best bit the fighting! Kill team uses a system similar I believe to a game I own called Tanks Modern Warfare (Now been replaced with world of tanks or something like that). For example shooting, your weapon has an attack characteristic and that's how many dice you roll, your ballistic skill tells you what you need to hit. You equal or beat that total boom you landed a hit. If you roll a 6 that's a critical hit which is always good cos you cause evtra damage!. So you've landed some hits well now the target has to see how well they defended. Every model has a number of defence dice and a save throw. You throw your defence dice and try to make your saving throw. For every saving throw you make you are saved from 1 hit. Only a critical save (6) will save a critical hit though! Any hits that get through cause the damage stated in weapon. Once you have taken more wounds than your wound characteristic your model is out of the game. Its kinda the same system for close combat but both parties fight at same time. You don't use defense you roll your close combat roll (depends on weapon) then any hits you can use to hit or parry the enemies hits. So you have some tough choices. This system runs really quickly and Let's you get trough your turns nice and quickly. It being GW there are a few special rules here and there but they are fairly simple and don't complicate the game.
How did the battle go....... OK for a first time I killed 2 maybe 3 space marines and then got slaughtered ha ha ha I found out about the ranges when I ran my flamer close but not close enough and he couldn't fire and was killed next turn.
Overall really enjoyed it. The game runs smooth and the mechanics are quick to pick up and already planning another kill team. Really wanted the new box set Into the Dark but it's price is to much for me at the moment. So I quite fancy making a kill team board as when it needs storing it can live on top of a wardrobe.
Well there ya go! I shall report back when we have played a full game with mi ssions etc
