First we spent a lot of time making up Kill Teams for da Boyz. Elderboy brought his Tyranids, Yungerboy brought Heratic Astartes. We rolled up names and everything. This took some time as we only had one copy of the rules between us - a lot longer than I'd expected... Luckily my kids Kill Teams were all ready to go!!
GAME ONE
For the first game Elderboy decided he'd like to play Finnegan and his Orks...
SCENARIO
We rolled for random scenarios on the table in the campaign section at the back of the book. We rolled Sweep & Clear (page 56). There were basically four objective markers - each worth 3 points for anyone that controlled them at the end of the game. Every enemy taken out was also worth a victory point. HOWEVER, if one team broke, and the other didn't that would also end the game with the team that didn't break being the victor...
FORCES
The Red Killaz - Finnegan's Ork Kill Team
Grodnog Ripclaw - Boss Nob - Leader - Power Klaw and Slugga
Burnanza - Burnaboy - Zealot Specialist - Burna
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
Hivefleet Haemaroid Kill Swarm - Elderboy's Tyranid Kill Team
Tyrannid Warrior - Leader
Tyranid Warrior - Combat Specialist?
Genestealer - Some kind of specialist..?
6x Hormagaunts
6x Termagaunts
They all had names that Elderboy made up (he didn't like the ones he rolled), but I didn't make note of them... I also don't remember what the different specialists were.
SCOUTING & DEPLOYMENT
For the scouting phase Finnegan picked "Take forward Positions" and Elderboy picked "Booby Traps" as neither cancelled each other out - the Tyranids got to booby trap two pieces of terrain (effectively making them "dangerous terrain" for the Orks) and the Orks would get to move 20% of their force before the start of the first turn.
The Tyranids won the roll for Greatest Strategic Advantage and picked a deployment zone and the Orks started with the setting up. placing one of his Boyz first.
All set up and ready to go!
ROUND ONE
WAAAAAAAAAGGGH!!!!
Before the first battle round officially started the ORks charged forward with four of their Boyz (because of their "Take forward Positions" Scouting Strategy.
The Tyranids won the initiative for this round and most of them tried to charge the four isolated Orks out in the centre of the Kill Zone.... The Genestealer went running waaaaaay around the flank - hoping to stay out of sight of the Burnaboy and ambush him next turn. A few of the Termagaunts flanked around the side to get a line on some of the Orks to shoot at them. When the Orks moved, all those armed with Sluggas and Choppas charged into the mess in the centre of the Kill Zone, along with the Boss Boy.
What a mess it was...
During the Shooting phase the Burnaboy roasted one of the Termagaunts and one of the other Orks tagged the Tyranid Warrior that wasn't in the melee knocking off one of it's three wounds.
The fight phase was a brutal mess. The Tyranid Warrior took out an Ork, the orks took out a Hormagaunt.
Another Hormagaunt they kept hitting and wounding, but it just WOULD. NOT. DIE. and ended the phase with THREE flesh wounds...!? Because Elderboy didn't have a card for EVERY Hormagaunt written out, we just put beads by the ones with flesh wounds.
The Orks also managed to take do three damage to the Tyranid Warrior leader giving it one flesh wound!
No one was even close to reaching and with everyone all bunched up and only one lost on each side, there was no need to even roll for nerve tests for those with flesh wounds as they would have automatically passed.
ROUND TWO
The Orks won initiative and simply readied the shoot-type Orks that weren't in combat.
On the Tyranid movement phase the Genestealer decided to charge the Burnaboy... this required some looking up of things... Apparently you CAN charge a target that you cannot see (just says you have to be within 12", doesn't say anything about being able to see), but you CANNOT do overwatch fire on a target that is charging if you cannot see it at the beginning of it's move... So, the Burnaboy didn't get to roast the Genestealer as he was hoping he would be able to do, and instead decided to retreat... and thus didn't get to roast ANYONE that turn.
The other Tyranid warrior charged into the mess in the middle to come to the aid of the Leader (who was already suffering from a flesh wound!). I thin another Hormagaunt might have joined in the fray as well this turn.
In the Shooting phase one of the Termagaunts got a lucky shot and took out Burnanza the Burnaboy!! The Orks took out a Termagaunt and scored a flesh wound against a Hormagaunt that wasn't yet in the melee. Finnegan totally forgot to shoot with all the Orks that were already in combat that had neither charged or were charged this turn - as they would have been able to shoot with all their sluggas.
In the fight phase The Tyranid warrior commander took two more flesh wounds before finally being take out of action. The other Tyuranid Warrior took out he Ork Boss Nob. The Hormagaunt with three flesh wounds was finally taken out of action.
In the morale phase the Tyranids passed their first break test and all the wounded Orks passed all their nerve tests (most didn't even have to roll...)
One of the wounded Hormagaunts failed a nerve test, though...
As did one of the wounded Termagaunst. I don't think either were unshaken for the rest of the game...
ROUND THREE
Tyranids won the initiative again...
The Genestealer charged one of the Boys with a Shoota. The nearby boy with the shoota then charged the Genestealer...
Everyone else was just readied or remained in close assault.
This time the Orks that were already in close assault remember to shoot their sluggas! shooting took out one Hormagaunt.
In the fight phase the Genestealer took out the Ork that had charged.
The remaining Tyranid Warrior attacked two Orks - one he scored a flesh wounds on, the other was hit twice and wounded twice and we all figured he was gone and then he rolled not one six for a save, but TWO!? I think that was the only ork to pass an armour save in the whole game! The Orks also knocked out the shaken hormagaunt.
The Tyranids again passed their break test, the wounded termagaunt remained shaken and all the wounded Orks passed their nerve tests...
ROUND FOUR
Tyranids retained the initiative.
Movement consisted of readying anyone that wasn't in close combat. In the shooting phase the Orks actually remembered that hey had stick bombs and chucked one at the gaggle of Termagaunts... but rolled a one for the number of attacks, and failed to hit...
There was loads more Dakka... but nothing hit...
Then, in the Fight phase, the orks finally took out the second Tyranid Warrior - and the last of the Hormagaunts!
At this point The Orks had four out of action, four with flesh wounds, and 6 that were totally okay. The Tyranids had lost both of their Tyranid Warriors, all six hormagaunts and two termagaunts. The only thing they had left on the table was the Genestealer and four termagaunts. The Orks were looking pretty good. At the end of turn four they would test to see if the game continued - if it did, the Orks would win as they would have 13 victory points (10 for enemy taken out of action and 3 for the objective they controlled) and the Tyranids only had 7 (3 for the objective marker and four for the Orks taken out of action. If it went another turn (or two) the Orks could have added even more victory points by seizing two more objective makers with all the Orks that were no longer in close combat... and maybe blasted away a few more of the Termagaunts at long range...?
But first there was the morale phase. As both sides now had more than half of their initial number that were out of action or had flesh wounds they both did break tests (actually... I think they both did break tests the previous turn and passed, as I don't think any Orks were wounded or taken out of action this turn...?). The Tyranids passed again (the Genestealer had a Leadership of 9), but the Orks failed (Leadership 6). That ended the game and the Tyranids won... Felt a bit anti-climactic... It was a Pyrrhic victory at best...
GAME TWO
Making Kill Teams and playing the first game took WAAAAAAAAY longer than I'd expected. Keira wasn't super interested in playing at this point because she figured there wouldn't be enough time to finish the game before Da Boyz dad showed up to take them home, but Yungerboy really, REALLY wanted to play so she humoured him...
SCENARIO
Again, rolling on the random scenario table, they rolled "Take Prisoners" - another matched play scenario. This was an interesting one. Random battle length, no ending the game due to failed break tests (as per the previous one) no points for objectives or taking enemy out of action - the only victory points were for capturing enemy models; 3 for a leader, 1 for anyone else. To capture an enemy, it had to be taken out of action with one of your models within 1" but no other enemy within 2"...
FORCES
The Masque of the Everdancing Rainbow - The Girl's harlequin Kill Team
The Rainbow Queen - Player - Leader - Shuriken Pistol, Harlequin's Blade, Plasma Grenades
The Shadow Witch - Player - Medic Specialist - Shuriken Pistol, Harlequin's Kiss, Plasma Grenades
The Bladed Crone - Player - Combat Specialist - Shuriken Pistol, Harlequin's Blade, Plasma Grenades
Stab Pants - Player - Veteran Specialist - Shuriken Pistol, Harlequin's Blade, Plasma Grenades
The Moon Ghoul - Player - Shuriken Pistol, Harlequin's Kiss, Plasma Grenades
The Void Seer - Player - Shuriken Pistol, Harlequin's Kiss, Plasma Grenades
The Brothers Khorr - Yungerboy's Heretic Astartes Kill Team
Again, I didn't take note of names and specialists there was one Aspiring Champion, six other Chaos Space Marines and two Cultists. One Chaos space Marine was a gunner with a heavy bolter, the rest were a mix of bolters or bolt pistols and chainswords. There were a few that weren't entirely painted. Normally I don't let unpainted on incomplete figures on my table... but I let it slide this one time but made him promise he's have them painted when we play again a week from now!
The first names were rolled for - as the last name for the first one was Khorr and Yungerboy really like that name, he decided they would all have the same last name and be from the same family. Most first names were rolled, but then we started making up fun ones, like "Hard Khorr" and "Hollow Khorr"...
SCOUTING AND DEPLOYMENT
For their scouting strategies the Harlequins chose "Disarm Traps" and the Heretic Astartes chose "Eliminate Sentries" - both strategies that countered what they others used in the first game. As neither of the strategies these countered were used... nothing happened...
The Harlequin's had the "Greatest Strategic Advantage" and so chose a deployment zone first and the Hereatic Astartes started setting up.
All set up and ready to go!
ROUND ONE
The Harlequins won the initiative and started off moving up - most of them getting into cover behind the Thermic Plasma Conduits. One was left out in the open. The Heratic Astartes all readied themselves.
After all the shooting was done, one of the harlequins was out of action and another had a flesh wound.
No fighting, no morale.
ROUND TWO
This time the Heretic Astartes had the initiative and so two of them charged out and got into close combat with one of the harlequins, the rest were readied to do a lot of shooting....
Of course then the remaining Harlequins simply charged the two Heretic Astartes, denying the readied ones any targets (as they can't go shooting into combat!)
First they took out the regular Marine....
then they took out the Aspiring Champion - as there were no other Heretic Astartes within 2", the champion was captured and the Harlequins were up three points...
At this point Da Boyz dad showed up, but he let them play on for a turn (or two)
ROUND THREE
The Heretics once again had the Initiative.
And again they charged SOME of their number into combat, and maneuvered others into a position where they might shoot... and again the harlequins piled in on the ones that had charged, denying the marines that had hoped to shoot any targets...
The Harlequins took out the Chaos Space Marines Zealot specialist, and the Brothers Khorr took out one of the Harlequins.
As they'd only started with six, the harlequins had to start making Break Tests this round as two were out of action and one was wounded. They passed.
ROUND FOUR
As we were just trying to get through this as quick as possible, I stopped taking pictures.
The Heretic Astartes had the initiative again and FINALLY learned from the last two turns events and just charged with EVERYONE! It was a bloody fight. At the end of the round the Heretic Astartes had only three marines on the table (The Leader was captured, three Marines and two cultists were taken out of action). The Harlequins still had four on the table, but at this point I think at least two of them had flesh wounds. The marines passed their Break Test (though I think they may have had to use a command point to do so...?). The harlequin's failed theirs. Despite this, they all passed their Nerve checks...
And then we had to call the game because Da Boyz had to go... Yungerboy insisted he still could have won... despite having experience 66% losses to the harlequins 33% losses and the Harlequins having 3 victory points to the Marines 2... Whatevs... we called it a draw...
This game took less than HALF the time the first game took. There were a few reasons for this. First, both sides had far fewer models than either of the teams used in the previous game - like HALF the number of models. Also, because The Girl and Yungerboy had sat and watched the other's entire game They had a much better idea of how the game worked, and I also had to do a lot less looking up of roles and clarifying how things were supposed to work.
There are a LOT of very subtle but important differences between Kill Team and regular 40K - some are obvious (the round structure, alternating actions, etc) but others are small things that are handled slightly differently and if you've played 40K a lot and you haven't carefully read the Kill Team rules - or reread the rules - you might miss them and assume they are the same as in 40K... when they aren't... One thing is that in 40K a model can fight in the fight phase if it is within 1" of an enemy model - OR if it is within 1" of a friendly model that is within 1" of an enemy model - which allows ranks of troops within a unit to fight. In Kill Team you are only allowed to fight if you are within 1" of an enemy model. There were a couple of other things that cropped up, but I can't think of them at the moment...
Da Boyz will be back in a week - for the last week of summer break they're going to be coming over here every day for the week and we're planning to play through a complete campaign of Kill Team!! Stay tuned for daily updates starting next Monday!
The girl had also prepared her Assuryani Kill Team in hope that she might get in more than one game... but then barely got in one... Hopefully they'll get to see some action this week!
Elderboy also brought over his Hierophant Bio-Titan to show off as he's finally finished painting it. I took few pics, but most were wildly out of focus... Only this one, that captured only part of it, was even remotely in focus... We'll probably see it again some day. When he announced to us that he was getting one, I had told him that would make a nice decoration in his room as no one of us would ever have anything that could face it... but now that I went ahead and got a Warhound Titan, I'll probably have to throw down with it at some point...
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Sounds like the kids had fun, yes?
ReplyDeleteTaking out the burna boy surely helped in the tyranid/orks game, I would think.
I think so. For the most part.
DeleteThe Girl was pretty disappointed - I'd hoped they'd all get to play two games each - figuring since we'd gotten in four games of 40K in a day, I thought surely we could get in four of these in an afternoon when we're playing with a small fraction of the forces! She'd really hoped to try out both of her forces and not feel rushed to hurry up and finish as Aaron showed up to collect Da Boyz. I'd also suggested that she and Yungerboy stay and watch the first game so they could get a sense of how the game went - and it worked - the second game went much smoother and I'm pretty certain it was entirely because they's stayed and watched the first game, but after the first game Finnegan and Elderboy just wandered off and did something else, and somehow she resented(?) or was otherwise annoyed the fact that they didn't stick around to watch her game...?
The Burnanza the Burnaboy worked out pretty well... he used him in a game against me earlier today, and, like this game he became a high priority target for my guard and was taken out on the second or third turn... but I think he recognized how valuable they'll be in an Ork Kill Team and I have a feeling he'll be painting up a few more tomorrow!
Hopefully I'll get some pics and a brief report of today's game up sometime tomorrow!
New system,it it always going to take time to sort out, might have been an idea to try the Harlequins and chaos types first? More difficult when it's similar but slightly different too I guess,at least there was some paint on the chaos figures,got to give him a bit of slack!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
That probably WOULD have been a better idea - playing with the smaller Kill Teams first...
DeleteI cut him some slack by letting him play today, even though they know my policy of not allowing figures on the table that aren't fully painted. I don't know, I guess I have a hard time feeling sorry for kids, on summer vacation, with nothing better to do, saying they "don't have time" to paint a half-dozen figures for a skirmish game - when I am providing all the terrain and everything else - that I have spent countless hours preparing, assembling and painting... Cutting a little slack allows for the thin edge of the wedge to slip in and that's how we've ended up in a position where I go down to my local game store and half the guys playing miniature games are playing with bare plastic and metal!? I don't care what they, or anyone else does, but I say "NOT ON MY TABLE!"