SCENARIO
They played the "Recover Intelligence" matched play mission, straight out of the Core Rule Book (page 58). There were five objective markers on the table - areas where vital intelligence could be obtained - data augers, orbital uplink, etc. One objective marker was smack-dab in the centre of the table and two that were on each of the players side. Points were scored at the end of EVERY round - 1 for controlling the objective markers on your side, two for controlling the ones on the enemy side, and three for controlling the one in the centre of the table.
FORCES
The Red Killaz - Finnegan's Ork Kill Team
Grodnog Ripclaw - Boss Nob - Leader - Power Klaw and Slugga
Urlakk Skullbusta - Loota - Heavy Specialist - Deff Gun
Garg Bigfist - Ork Boy - Veteran Specialist - Shoota
Shorkarg Da Facerippa - Ork Boy - Combat Specialist - Slugga and Choppa
Ug - Boy Gunners - Big Shoota
Snikar - Boy Gunners - Big Shoota
Tuska - Boyz - Shoota
Scarbad - Boyz - Shoota
Uruk - Boyz - Shoota
Grimgutz - Boyz - Slugga and Choppa
Gizarg - Boyz - Slugga and Choppa
Zagnutz - Boyz - Slugga and Choppa
Slaza - Boyz - Slugga and Choppa
Nukk - Boyz - Slugga and Choppa
Marines of the Emperor's Brethren Chapter - Other Tim's Adeptus Astartes Kill Team
I forgot to make note of what was in Other Tim's Kill Team, there was an intercessor proxy, a couple of scouts (one with a sniper rifle) and a handful of tactical marines (one of which had a flamer).
THE GAME
I had laid out the terrain before hand. I used all the Sector: Mechanicus bits I had on the game board that came with the Sector: Mechanicus Kill Zone. I also added in the crashed Aquila Lander bits.
SCOUTING PHASE AND DEPLOYMENT
In the Scouting phase BOTH ended up picking "Take Forward Positions" so they had to roll off to see who actually got to, and Finnegan won that roll. So, after deploying, he got to move 3 of his guys before the start of the first round.
We didn't end up using any of the special Sector: Mechanicus Kill Zone special rules of Tactics.... I figured there were enough new rules to keep track of with out adding ANOTHER element!
Marines of the Emperor's Brethern in their deployment Zone.
Orks in their deployment zone.
ROUND ONE
Orks had the initiative and moved most of their troops, a few stayed still to be "readied" - allowing them first shots in the shooting phase.
During the round the Space Marines took out Zagnutz and caused flesh wounds on three others, including Grodnog Ripclaw, the Boss Nob. A number of those were, I think, from the flamer - against all those orks bunched up in the centre of the board by the barrels (which was one of the objective markers. Ork shooting was utterly ineffective. The actually managed to HIT one of the scouts - TWICE! - one shot failed to wound, and the other was saved by the scouts armour. One of the wounded orks ended up shaken in the morale phase.
At the end of the round Finnegan collected five victory points and I don't think Other Tim got any, as he didn't even bother to get close to the objective markers on his side of the table. I think, from the outset, he decided he'd win by just annihilating Finnegan's Kill Team...
ROUND TWO
Orks, once again, had the initiative and moved first. The bunch in the middle decided to shift away. One charged a marine and made it into contact. Another tried to charge the marine with the flamer and was taken out of action (6 HITS! OUCH!).
In the shooting phase, one of the Marine Scouts took out an Ork, and the Ork Gunners blazed away at the Marine with the flamer and took him out of action.
Nothing much happened in the close combat phase... During morale Finnegan had to make a check to see if his team was broken - as over half now had flesh wounds or were taken out to action.
Both collected two victory points to bring Finnegan to seven and Other Tim to two.
ROUND THREE
This time the Marines took the initiative. The one in combat fell back, but sort of forward, out of combat and onto the central objective marker.
WAAAAAAGH! The Orks charged the Intercessor. Actually the first one that charged was blown up by a frag grenade.
I'm... not really sure what happened in the rest of the shooting and fighting phase. I had kind of stopped taking notes. I think the Intercessor was taken out of action... but Other Tim used a tactic to say; "Nope, only a Flesh Wound!".
I do know Finnegan failed his check in the morale phase and his Kill Team was broken. Things went downhill from there.... checking for shaken, just about his entire team was shaken. Shaken basically means they can do NOTHING for the next turn... So he conceded the game.
Had they collected victory points, Other Tim would have gained four (for a total of six) and Finnegan would have gained another two (for a total of nine).
It might have been interesting to play out the following turn. It probably would have meant a few more out-of-action Orks, but it seems unlikely Other Tim could have shifted the Orks off their objective markers - or taken out ALL of the ones in contact with the Intercessor (which were contesting one of the Objectives on the Astartes side of the table) so they likely would have gotten four and two again, leaving Finnegan with eleven and Other Tim with ten. Had the battle ended at the end of Round Four, it is conceivable that Finnegan could have won, but likely at a terrible cost... mind you, it was a one-off game... so... Regardless, he'd had it at that point and was tired of seeing Other Tim's marines blast holes through his Orks and decided to call it a day.
I think it's possible that flamers are going to become very popular with EVERYBODY - considering their ability to always hit, when everything else is subject to so many penalties!
The game took little longer than I expect it will in the future - there was a lot of double checking rules and reading tactic cards and trying to figure out what the heck they do...
With all the penalties for shooting (over half, flesh wounds, obscured, etc, etc) Orks are only ever going to hit on 6s with regular shooting. I think they're really going to need to get in close and burn their opponents with flamers (Finnegan DID get five Burnaboyz with his Kill Team starter set, which he is already painting up!) or stick bombs and get stuck in with close combat and mess them up!
Actually setting up the board and getting figures on them really made me realize how little space there is. It's like a knife fight in a phone booth with just two Kill Teams, I can't imagine how FOUR will work. So, for future four player games I'm going to have to use the Sector: Imperialis board - or something else... Maybe I need to shift focus and get assembling the Sector Imperialis terrain!!
Afterwards I did set up the Sector imperialis boards to see how they go together...
This is all three - the one from the Kill Team boxed set and the back sides of the Sector: Mechanicus and Sector: Munitorum boards.
I think Kill Team is going to be a lot of fun! I can't wait to get a campaign going! We will be playing a bit over the weekend. I'd hoped to get in a game today, but I'm having to prepare for some role-playing tonight as people were available to finish off Blessings Unheralded! Saturday... maybe... Sunday, definitely, as a couple of the kids friends are coming over with their chaos/tyranid/necrons and are going to make Kill Teams and try out the game!
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
MORE Kill Team Game Reports and some more Sector: Mechanicus terrain! After the game on Wednesday I stayed up waaaaaay too late and finished assembling the rest of the Sector: Mechanicus terrain.
After that...? I had planned on working on the Sector: Munitorum terrain next, but I may have to shift gears and work on the Sector: Imperialis stuff. I have eight weeks until ToonCon - where I am running a Learn to Play Kill Team event. I was planning to just run a four player game, but I think I'll need something bigger than the single mechanicus or munitorum boards! I'm not sure I actually have enough Imperialis terrain to COVER two boards butted up together... and that Sector: Imperialis terrain that is sold separately isn't CHEAP!!
Posts
My first thought on seeing the setup was "Holy crap that's a small playing area!" I guess it makes for fast games, though, but that also means you are likely to have bloody ones as well, which will take some massaging for campaigns - though I've no idea what sort of refit rules are in place.
ReplyDeleteFree hit flamers? Ugh. I'd house-rule the crap out of that.
The chances of guys that were taken out of action actually dying in a campaign is only 1 in 10 (yeah, a Warhammer games that uses a d10!). On a two they are convalescing and miss the next game. On 3+ they're totally fine - full recovery. So... SHOULDN'T be too deadly... Of course that's about the same likelihood of wizards dying in Frostgrave and I've had both wizard AND apprentice die... on multiple occasions!
DeleteFlamers are very short ranged (8") but they're brutal to charge against! They're strength 4 - which means they're going to, more often than not, wound anyone with Toughness 3 (Eldar, Imperial Guard, Tau, etc) and wound Orks and Marines (and others with Toughness 4) half the time. There's no AP so Marines, at least, will often save those wounds... not so much the orks.
I guess the other problem is that they can do d6 attacks per round. When Finnegan charged Other Tim's flamer he rolled SIX attacks - so with a 50% chance of wounding it was pretty much guaranteed he was going to be wounded and wouldn't be able to save all of them... In fact I think they're ASSAULT d6 - which means you can move, do an assault move, and STILL shoot with them and always hit anyone that'd within 8"... I can see their point values going up in a future...? Or like in older editions maybe figures will be able to dodge out of the way of them?
Flamers were similar in Shadow War: Armageddon - always hit everything under the template.
DeleteGreat report! Terrain and minis look good and the game sounds fun/interesting.
ReplyDeleteI guess people will have to figure out tactics against those flamers. Such as trying to pick them off from out of range?
Cheers! That is exactly what Finnegan did. He concentrated all fire on the marine with the flamer and eventually got lucky!
DeleteSounds like an interesting game, you'll speed up With practice, sounds like a brutal game!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
I hope so! We played two more games today and they took for-EVAR! Mind you I was trying to teach the game to friends of the kids who have the attention span of your average squirrel... on amphetamines... so there was a lot of explaining... and then re-explaining... and then re-re-explaining and... and... Ugh, you get the point... It was fun, though. Hopefully get a report of those games up tomorrow and get it some more games this week!
DeleteThe game can be brutal, yes, but the campaign system seems VERY forgiving. There is only a one in ten chance that anyone take "out of action" in a game actually DIES. 80% of the time, they fully recover for the next game - the other 10% the miss one game.