If you haven't been following along you can find the first two instalments here:
Kamp Kill Team Campaign - Day One
Kamp Kill Team Campaign - Day Two
Today followed more or less the same format as the last two days - two rounds of Kill Team games followed by some climbing and some painting. The games are definitely getting shorter.
ROUND FIVE
In Round Five we saw siblings battling each other... some siblings get along better than others...
Harlequins vs. Orks
Scenario: Take Prisoners
Sector Mechanicus - Service Hatches
Scout Phase - both selected Take Forward Positions - so they had to dice off to see which actually got to make use of it.
The Orks got to use the Take Forward Positions strategy.
Like most games so far this week, the battle denigrated into a brawl in the middle of the Kill Zone. In the end the Harlequins tabled the Orks in three rounds. They also managed to capture Burny Sandurz and another of his waaagghband for 4 victory points...
Stabba got stabbed with a harlequins kiss an had his spleen removed via his lung and bleed out amongst the Thermic Plasma Conduit... 'Artburn was seriously wounded enough that he would not be fighting in the next action. The rest survived their wounds, some how. Burny Sandurz, the leader of the mob, made it to Level 3 and gained the Paragon ability. 'Artburn, despite his wounds learned hisself enuf to make it to Level 3 as well and gained the Puritain ability. the Boyz themselves also levelled up and gained the Fleet ability (+1 Movement! Them's some fast orks!)
Jade Lightning was injured in the brawl and would miss the next game. Twinkle Twinkle and Little Star were both injured as well, but recovered from their wounds. Stabpants, the veteran, finally made it to Level 2 - which is crazy because he's been with the troupe from the beginning of the campaign - but he missed TWO games due to serious injuries, so is only NOW making it to Level 2. He took the Practiced ability. The Rainbow Queen and Twinkle Twinkle made it to Level 3! Rainbow Queen gained the Paragon ability and Twinkle Twinkle gained the Death Blow ability! The rest of the Troupe also levelled and gained the Skilled ability (re-roll hit rolls of 1 in the Fight Phase!).
Tyranids vs. Chaos
Da Boyz also battled it out this round...
Scenario: Fire At Will
Sector Munitorum - Triggered Alarm
Scout IN Phase:
Tyranids - Take Forward Positions
Chaos - Eliminate Sentries
FINALLY someone cottoned on to the Tyranids strategy and took Eliminate Sentries - allowing 20% of the Team to fire on his Tyranids making use of the Take Forward Positions strategy. The Tyranids tired to move up and hide behind a container, but his tail was sticking out so the Heretic Astartes shot it OFF! (The Warrior took two wounds!)
The Fire at Will scenario is a bit wild - the warehouse/facility represents a huge store of munitions - any rolls of 1 against a target that is within 1" of a piece of terrain in the shooting phase means the target suffers a mortal wound!? The Tyranids had NO SHOOTERS in their Kill Team, so they wanted to close with the minions of Chaos as fast as they could.
Of course the minions of Chaos had a LOT of shoot guys, so they backed up as fast as they can and tried to unload on the Tyranids as much as they could! - especially any that were anywhere near crates of shipping containers!
The Tyranid player was utterly incensed by this tactic, which he called cowardly, and berated his brother incessantly about it. Now I've been known to talk a little smack, in a good-natured sort of way... but this wasn't just smack talk - this kid was seriously angry about it. I thought it was ridiculous because, for all the chaos players faults and/or mistakes... it was a COMPLETELY LEGITIMATE TACTIC!? He wasn't abusing any rules, he was just doing what ANY force that's good at shooting should do against a foe that is entirely build for melee - back up and pour on the fire as much as you can before they get to you!?
It didn't help that the Chaos player seemed to be up to shenanigans again... There were a few times he was wounded with rending claws with a roll of 6, which increases the weapons AP to -4 effectively making the marines power armour useless... once or twice when this happened he rolled a die, and then another die. He said, after the fact, that the first roll, which happened to be high, was his armour save - which he didn't need to roll - and the second roll was his injury roll. He didn't need to make the armour save, as he couldn't possibly pass (needing a 7 on a 6-sided die). The high roll, on an injury roll, meant he would have been out of action... Other times he did just roll for injury... when that first die roll was lower...? This made his brother even angrier and he carried on about it for much of the day...
I've tried to impress upon the Chaos player the necessity of saying aloud - loud enough for your opponent to hear - what you are rolling for, and then leaving the dice on the table for them to see. Because NOT doing so may look like you are CHEATING...
The game ended in a draw as victory points were simply awarded for enemy taken out of action and they both had lost four. This made the Tyranid player very angry - as the last guy he hit and wounded with rending claws (rolling a 6 to wound), his brother again made two rolls for... and "armour save" of 6 and an "injury roll" of 2...
Both of the Genestealers taken out of action during the scenario survived - the scout specialist even gained an extra XP. The Tyranid Warrior also survived, but the Hormagaunt Veteran - who would have made it to Level 3 after this game, died - blown apart by multiple bolter shells detonating deep inside it's thorax. The Scout gained +2XP, the others gained +1XP, I don't think anyone levelled.
TWO of the Specialist Chaos Space marines were injured seriously enough to require convalescing. Everyone else was okay. The Heavy Specialist has used a Tactic and gained +2XP which brought it to Level 3... I'm not sure what ability gained... didn't really matter as he sat out the second game.
After these two games were finished we had a really early lunch, and then continued on with the next round...
ROUND SIX
Harlequins vs. Chaos
Scenario: Disrupt Supply Lines
Sector Munitorum - no extra rules
Scouting Phase - Both Set Traps!
The Harlequins played short-handed... for some reason she didn't bring on a new recruit to replace Stabpants...?
The Heretic Astartes were attacking. There were three objective markers on the Harlequin side of the Kill Zone - controlling them at the end of the game was worth 3VP to either side. The attackers had the option of blowing up one they were in contact with at the end of a round - gaining themselves 1VP and denying it to the defending Harlequins.
Fighting short-handed meant the Chaos minions just swept around the Harlequins. On round two they blew up one of the objectives.
By the end of Round Three they had blown a second objective and there were only two harlequins left on the table.... and they rolled a 12 for the break test... at that point the decided to Strategically Withdraw...
All four Harlequins injured in the battle were patched up and will be ready for action tomorrow! Experience was gained, but no one levelled up. the Harlequins lost 2 Materiel for their defeat.
Ashkal Khorr (well... one of them) died of his wounds... Larshack was grievously wounded and will spend the next game convalescing. Kharn Khorr, the Aspiring Champion, survived his wounds and gained +2XP, which brought him to Level 3... I'm not sure what ability he gained.
Tyranids vs. Orks
Scenario: Forward Position
Sector Mechanicus - No special rules
Scout Phase
Tyranids - for once DIDN'T select the Take Forward Positions strategy!? I think the figured they were finally on to him... Instead he Set Traps.
Ork - DID take Eliminate Sentries - which was of no use as it can only be directed at a player who has used Take Forward Positions.
For this scenario the attacking Orks actually got a bonus20 points to play with... but their objective was to utterly wipe out the enemy... They recruited a pair of Boyz Gunnerz with Big Shootas for this little misadventure.
The Tyranids charged out of their deployment zone and took the fight to the Orks.
In the first round the Orks lost their leader and Combat Specialist... It quickly went downhill from there...
At the end of Round Three, with EIGHT out of action and only four Boyz on the table - all of whom were shaken - the Orks decided to execute a Strategic Withdrawal.
Despite all the injuries MOST of the Orks survived. Burny Sandurz - the Ork leader was wounded seriously enough to miss the next game, and Mista Burns died...
The Tyranids only casualties were their leader and the Genestealer Scout. The Leader survived, the Genestealer died. The leader made it to Level 2 and the Team gained +1 Materiel for their victory.
We were done these games just after 1pm and there was plenty of time to play another round - I offered it as an option, but everyone but the Tyranid player said they'd rather do something else...
Standings at the end of Day Three:
Tyranids
Intelligence: 10
Materiel: 11
Morale: 9
Territory: 10
Total: 40 - 4 wins, 1 loss, 1 draw
Heretic Astartes
Intelligence: 9
Materiel: 11
Morale: 8
Territory: 9
Total: 37 - 3 wins, 2 losses, 1 draw
Orks
Intelligence: 10
Materiel: 8
Morale: 9
Territory: 10
Total: 37 - 2 wins, 4 losses
Harlequins
Intelligence: 8
Materiel: 8
Morale: 10
Territory: 7
Total: 33 - 2 wins, 4 losses
Afterwards we did some painting again and listened to another Black Library Audio Drama (Asurman).
This fellow I actually finished up the night before. As the Wych Cult starter for the Drukhari is being released this Saturday I thought I'd work out a paint scheme for Amanda's Drukhari Kill Team using one of the Kabalite warriors I was going to possibly include in it. I didn't want to go with the standard dark green... This evening I finished up one of the Galvanic Servohaulers - we shall see it in action in one of the Kill Zones tomorrow!
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Kamp Kill Team Campaign - Day Four - tomorrow.
After that we'll have the epic conclusion to the week's campaign on Friday. We plan to play full-sized games of 40K with forces of power levels equal to the total of the remaining resources after tomorrow's battles.
After that...? More Kill Zone terrain...? the Drukhari Kill Team
Posts
I am really enjoying your campaign and interactions of the players with you and each other.
ReplyDeleteAlan
Thanks Alan!
DeleteNice looking games, brothers can often be acrimonious gamers,I know my nephew's were, space crusade was better because they weren't fighting each other!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
yeah...
DeleteThey JUST announced a new Warhammer Quest game involving a Rogue Trader:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07bouWnhUL4
When I was a teen I played games with a couple of brothers (twins) - could they go at it!?
ReplyDeleteSounds like the Tyrannid player was making some canny moves with that initial strategy thing - taking advantage of it until someone called him on it and then switching up the next time.
Are the scenarios rolled randomly? What about the abilities gained for experience?
That Drukhari figure looks cool. (are they elves, I mean eldar?)
All of your minis and terrain look brilliant!
I looked at some of the Kill Zone boxes at my local game store last week; mostly looking for sci-fi terrain. I might eventually pick some up (but opted for a cheaper smaller box of some small sci-fi terrain bits for soe Star Wars miniatures game). I really want to figure out some terrain bits for my dwarf musketeers stuff; looks a bit sterile with just the buildings.
Cheers!
DeleteOh, the Take Forward Positions strategy was a great strategy for the Tyranids - who had not shooting weapons, and wanted to get into close combat as quick as possible as it let 20% of his force to have a free move before the first round began. I was just surprised no one else cottoned on and started taking the Eliminate Sentries strategy - which allows 20% of your force to take shots at any enemy that have made use of the Take Forward Positions strategy...
The Drukhari are basically BDSM Dark Elves in Space!
The scenarios were generated randomly - there is a table in the campaign section of the book. In a few instances there are choices in the table (play A or B) which we generally randomized or if we'd played one before, we selected the other. There are also new scenarios with each of the Kill Zone sets (Sector Mechanicus and Sector Munitorum) which can be played instead of certain scenarios in the main book - so I made an expanded table including those. Las night I remembered that there would have been two scenarios included in Finnegan's Ork Started kit and asked if he was interested in trying that one today, so that's how they ended up playing Lure of Loot.
I'd like to run a campaign with a bit more narrative - and maybe just pick scenarios we want to play or that fit into the narrative.
Specialists gain experience if they showed up for the game and can gain a bonus point for using one of their tactics cards at some point during the game (and can possibly earn an additional one if they are taken out of action and roll a 9 or 10 on the recovery table - that which does not kill you...). Non specialist are grouped into fire teams of like models, they gain experience as a fire team and can only gain experience if there is more than one present in the team for the game. They gain one for showing up and can gain a second if anyone from the fire team takes out an enemy during the game.
When specialists and regular nobs gain a certain amount of experience (3, 7 and 12?) they level up. When specialist level up there are ability trees they can select from. Each Specialist of a particular type starts with one special ability that every specialist of that types gets. When they make it to Level 2 they have a choice of two different abilities. When they make it to level 3 they have another choice of two abilities - based on which ability they took at level 2 (so there are 4 different level 3 abilities for each specialist, but only two are available depending on which ability you took at level 2). At level four they can select any of the level 2 or 3 abilities that they don't already have.
When Fire teams level up there is a table they roll d6 on and get a random bonus. movement, can re-roll hits of 1, can re-roll failed nerve tests, etc.
With each level, however, specialists are worth more points (4 per level gained) and regular fire team members are worth 1 more. There is a cap of 100 points you are allowed to field in any particular scenario. So if you start with exactly 100 points worth of troopers and all your initial guys survive and make it to level 2, some will not be able to be fielded as they will now be worth more points than they were at the start of the campaign.
It seems like a pretty slick system so far. Some of the abilities seem like they'll be more useful than others. None seem super over-powered so far...
Thanks for the info!
DeleteIt does seem like a pretty slick system, and seems to keep things from spiraling too far out of balance if some players win more than others.
That's exactly it - so many campaigns there's sort of a doubling effect - a person wins a game and they get some sort of bonuses which gives them an advantage, but then the person that is defeated loses guys and don't gain the resources necessary to replace them putting them at a disadvantage... This one if you need new guys, you just add them to the roster. If they're schmoes, after their first game they gain all the advantages of the rest of the fire team...
Delete