Kill Team: First Impressions

Welcome back to the Vault once more! Like a lot of my game-playing friends I've dived head long into the latest incarnation of Kill Team over the last couple of weeks, both from a gaming and hobby perspective.

Rival Tau Kill Team's face off in a training mission

There are plenty of other sites, You Tube channels, etc. which are covering the rules, so I won't dwell on the fundamentals, but here are my impressions based on the games I've played so far:

• The rules are simple to pick up; I like the alternate model activation system, although the movement rules seem to lead to some odd situations depending on who has won or lost initiative. As an example, if I've won initiative and have a model locked in combat with an opponent's model, he can fall back (moving second) leaving my model high and dry with no way to respond.
• I like the use of a Command Roster and dynamically picking Kill Teams are part of a game's prep phase. It's a bit like side-boarding in Magic.
• I predicted the use of Command Points and Stratagems in an earlier blog post. This aspect adds a lot to the game; especially the mechanics for generating CPs during the game, rather than having a non-replenishing pool simply available at the start. Do you use your CPs each turn, or bank them to use later in a critical turn?
• Model positioning is critical; having your troops sat out in the open is an invitation for disaster!
• The morale rules are intriguing; smaller elite teams don't seem to be particularly vulnerable to Break/Nerve, but bigger teams (like Orks or Guard) whilst having to take more casualties before they test will fail more often once having to take those checks.
• Whilst this edition doesn't have the variety of units that the previous versions of Kill Team offered a player, there are still plenty of choices. Balancing shooting and melee is going to be critical.

And this leads to one of the big appeals of quick skirmish games like Kill Team to me; my hobby butterfly can jump from Faction to Faction very quickly. I've played a game with Tau Stealth Suits and Drones, and also played a couple with Tyranid Warriors and Genestealers (against Necrons and Space Marines):

Space Marine Deployment

Nid Deployment (defend the supplies) 

Reiver goes solo, destroying the first supply dump

Before going Rambo into multiple bugs

Warrior Bug takes the attack to the Marines

Game end; the Reiver stands out of harms way as the
Leader Bug successfully defends the supplynode

Hobby wise, I've also been building a new Kill Team. Inspired by a typo in one of the club's group chats (and with apologies to the Tanith First and Only), I present "Gaunt's Goats" (to be played as Tempestus Scions).

There's slightly more than 100 points of models here. Vox Goat and Doc Goat will count as regular troopers unless I take the appropriate specialisations and one of the Gunner Goats will also have to be benched during a regular game (due to the limit on the number of Gunner models in a game). Excuse the mold lines (these are work in progress figures):

Gaunt's Goats

Leader Goat

Vox Goat

Medic Goat

Trooper Goat 1

Trooper Goat 2

Plasma Goat 1

Plasma Goat 2

Volley Gun Goats

Flamer Goat

As you can see it's been a busy time in the Vault. With Octoberfest looming and more D&D, Kill Team and Frostgrave planned, there's plenty to be blogging about in the future. As always, thanks for reading, and see you soon!