More Kill Team - Trouble in the Imperium

So last night Bazza came around for a game of Kill Team. Bazza used to play 40k twenty odd years ago - so this was a reintroduction into the 40k universe and nerd-dom in general. Bazza picked a Space Marine (used to play Ultramarines), with a auxiliary grenade launcher, stalker both rifle, leader with power sword, a standard intercessor and a couple or reivers -one of which was a sergeant.  I went for the assault oriented Mechanicus team which was soundly thrashed by Steedo’s Deathwatch a couple of weeks ago.  

We played the Open scenario Break the Lines - with my objective to get my figures off Bazza’ send of the board. His lib was to stop me. 

The Ad-Mech’s starting positions. 

The plan was to rush forward with everything apart from the ranger with the big gun, who would shot stuff from a far.

Above the Sicarians and Skitari scuttle forward …. A wound is put on a Reiver. But a wound is put on a ruststalker. 

Bazza puts a charge in the centre with his leader and Reiver sergeant - this turned into quite a fight. The ruststalker and vanguard getting flesh wounds on the marines (but annoyingly I couldn’t roll high enough to put the marines out of action!).

On the other side of the battlefield one Reiver was blocking off the advance on the other side by a couple vanguard including the leader and an infiltrator - by the end of the 5th turn I finally put him out of action - after 2flesh wounds had been inflicted … this seriously buggered up my plan. 

Back on the other side the marines took out the ruststalker stalker - but were tied up up a single vanguard who survived 4 shooting attacks with pistols and 14 melee attacks with combat knifes and power sword before eventually being overwhelmed - having already sustained 2 flesh wounds … a true hero of the machine god!

By the end of turn 3 I had managed to put flesh wounds on 2/3 of the marines - but Bazza had managed to put 2 of mine Out of Action (OoA) and flesh wounds on a couple of others - we both passed the morale for that round. 

Turn 4 progressed both of us hitting the others troops but the saving throws undoing all that effort. Unfortunately at the end of the turn I failed the morale test and the team was broken and one of the skitarii was shaken - and we were going to be playing turn 5! 

It was going to be tough turn for the Ad-Mech!

The pictures above show the end of the game - the valiant vanguard had prevented the marine leader and Reiver sergeant getting back in the game, I had final kill off the Reiver who had been blocking 3 of my figures in melee, but on the other side I was down to one ruststalker versus 2 marines …

Fortunately the dice roll put me out of my misery by ending the game … I hadn’t got a single figure off Bazza’s start line. An 8 nil thrashing…

Obviously I let him win to encourage him to play again…

I really enjoyed this game actually very close - I managed early on to get some of the marines down to 0 wounds, but I couldn’t roll high enough to put them out of action which was frustrating (I think I put 12 wounds on the marines but only put one OaA). As for the objective - the table was cluttered so it was difficult to get lines of fire for the transonic arquebus. We also played the table long ways - so a narrow battlefield, if we had played with a wider field it would have been difficult to get the choke points. I should have also sacrificed a troops to screen off Bazza’s troops in true blitzkrieg style. 

Morts

Oathmark Cavalry

After the games on Friday - I spent some time putting together some Oathmark Human Cavalry for my fantasy human army surprisingly enough, although I should have been painting heroes for the Blackstone Fortress….

These are all still in need of some greenstuff to fill a few gaps etc. 

The mounted rangers/archers

I when with hoods for these guys, a musician (horn) and leader with big axe. The figures go together well. It will be interesting to see how they paint up. 

Next up the medium cavalry. 

These chaps have metal shields to match the rest of the human forces. I need to do a bit of work on the helmets so they are a closer match to the “Roman” style of the others. I think adding these to the human forces will make them an interesting force to game with - not matter what system is being used. I might use the thinner bases if these seem a bit tall against what is already painted. 

The Oathmark pack with 15 figures so the last three have been done as Viking/Saxon types with bits off the Gripping Beast sets which make up the SAGA forces and auxiliaries for the fantasy humans. 

I made the spears a match for the Gripping Beast stuff. If they fight for humanity there could be 4 human mounted unit on the table - the flanks will be important!

After I had finished playing with the glue and clippers I spent the rest of the evening sorting out the bits box into some order - still a little bit to go as not every spire is accounted for. 

Morts

Unmatched and Chaos in the Old World

So after a bit of a hiatus the collective (minus Sylon) reconvened at DK’s for a game session. 

While we were waiting for Tony the Tiger to arrive Snake-eyes had brought over Unmatched - Battle of Legends for a try out. So after a quick rules explanation we cracked on with myself versus DK as Medusa and Bruce Lee respectively. Steedo and Snake-eyes played with Big-Foot and Sinbad.

The game is card driven with lots of synergies with the text and actions on the cards. Each turn you pick two actions make the moves and play the cards from your hand. Each deck of cards for the various characters (others include King Arthur and Alice of Wonderland fame). The 3 actions are manoeuvre (pick up a card and the move), play a Special action card (the actual name of which escapes me) or fight.

Medusa has 3 harpy counters which she can use to attack her opponents and the special rule of dealing 1 damage if you opponent is in the same zone as you at the start of your turn - ouch. Bruce’s special rule was he can make an extra one space move at the end of his turn.

So DK and I set down the battle - I used the harpies to try and corner Bruce in a zone but not adjacent to Medusa. I think I did this fairly well. After about 30 minutes Bruce was no more and Medusa had only taken 2 hits (but the harpies had been kicked about a bit). By this time the Tiger had arrived - not having eaten so DK organised pizza and I tried quickly explaining the rules. Then we cracked on with another game - this time I had Bruce Lee and Tony had Medusa. This game played differently from the first as I tried chasing the harpies to kill them off and Tony initially was cautious with Medusa. I think the cards fell better for me than for DK as I had multiple actions from them (ie play a card and it’s text says have another action) - also had the one inch punch card which allowed be to kill off the harpies and get the card back. But try as I might Bruce was again turned to stone by Medusa (she seemed very tough, possibly the easy mode) - but I managed to put 9 hits on her.

In summary Unmatched - Battle of Legends a really good asymmetrical game that I enjoyed (would even consider purchasing it!), plays well, simple rules, nice artwork and good quality miniatures (worth painting). 

We then set up Chaos in the Old World a game DK has had for years and loving painted - I think I have played it once, Steedo, Snake-eyes and DK 3 or 4 times and Tony the Tiger was new to the game. 

Then there was an intermission for pizza and for us to get in the right seating order to play the game.

Snake-eyes was Khrone, DK was Nuggle, I was  Tzeentch, Tony was Slaanesh and Steedo was Skaven.

After a fair bit of bimbling we worked out how to play (but not in my case how the game works so that I might win) - spend points to play one action put down a figure (only in territory adjacent to where you already have a figure) or cast a spell (in any territory). We got through the game fairly slowly - checking spell effects. Tony cleverly read the rules and key things on his faction card so he knew how to get victory points and movement on the power dials - genius (I didn’t … and consequently didn’t score any points for the first 3 or so turns!).  The game turned into a race for 50 victory points between Snake-eyes and Tony the Tiger - one of the highlights being a confident TtT rolling 5 dice needing 4, 5 or 6 and managing 4 ones and a 3, the briefest hint that someone could catch him - the dice gods were against him.

But it wasn’t to be Tony the Tiger comfortably won with Snake-eyes, DK, myself and the Steedo trailing in his mercurial wake. Thrashed by the game newbie. A good game I think I might need to do more prep for the next game (or take more notice of what I need to do on the faction card). 

DK did mention that we should play this again (I think 7 years ago was mentioned as the last time we played Chaos in the Old World), but the question will be when especially as most of the group have a insatiable Kickstarter habit for the new, so games get an outing, then something new is brought to the table. 

A splendid evening’s entertainment, so thanks to DK for hosting. 

A game of Kill Team with Bazza next week. 

Morts 

Kill Team - first games for a bit!

So Steedo brought over his nasty Deathwatch Kill Team (after prompting) for a game. 

For once we played on the correct sized board by using the sheet from the WK40 recruit edition starter set I pick up last year. 

For the first game it was Deathwatch versus Ad Mech - I had gone for a melee heavy approach with 2 ruststalkers and an infiltrator backed up with vanguards (running as a duo, the sicarians getting the benefit of the -1 to toughness from the vanguards rad saturation) and a ranger with the transonic arquebus. This was a different team than the one that was thrashed by the Deathwatch sometime ago. Would I get my revenge?

Below the initial deployment for the Ad Mech and Deathwatch.

The aftermath of turn 1 (below). A skitari down and a ruststalker with a flesh wound. Much shooting by me to very little effect. 

The end of turn 2 saw a ruststalker down, the ranger with transonic arquebus OoA without firing a shot and the vanguard Alpha shot by the Reiver after a heroic rush to prevent Steedo picking up 3 victory points per turn. So the team would be only getting 1 command point per turn. On the plus side I  did manage to take out a member of the Deathwatch. 

End game (I missed a photo - probably because I was crying due to some awful dice rolling - a highlight was that the team managed to pass a broken team morale test, where rolling low is of benefit!). However at the end of turn 4 the whole turn was shaken .... the other ruststalker had tried to charge the reiver on the main structure only to be cut down by the use of decisive strike. I ended with the inflitrator and a vanguard uninjured - and a vanguard with 2 flesh wounds. Steedo had one marine OoA. 

The scores on the doors were 1-15 to Steedo. It was a grim time for me, my dice rolling was terrible. My plan to use the melee side of the Ad Mech was a complete failure and once again the Deathwatch were just to tough.

So we looked at the time and though lets have another game. This time I would be using the recently painted Necrons from the recruit edition of 40k. The Necron team would be 8 warriors (because I don't have anything else), 4 with gauss flayers and 4 with gauss reapers. I would use the Royal Warden as the warrior leader (so we knew who he was). 

The initial deployments above.

Steedo rushes forward to get his melee specialists into action - unfortunately he ran straight into my firing line - the reiver ends up with a flesh wound, so at least 3 hits got through!

End of turn 2 and the Deathwatch have lost their leader and picked up another flesh wound, the Necrons lost a warrior to the Reiver (and possibly one wound or OaA  as well). Things would be tough for Steedo this time ...ha ha ha!

The end of turn 3 and the Necron fire power puts 2 more Deathwatch OaA. This meant the Deathwatch were broken with 3 OaA and the remaining 2 had flesh wounds. Steedo conceded here (he didn't want or need to play the 4th turn as the team was broken). To be fair Steedo had a nightmare with his dice rolling (5 dice needing a 4 or more and not getting a single hit!) and was convinced that the Necrons are a lethal Kill Team - especially as this team only contained warriors. I think a numerous melee based kill team would give them a hard time, by limiting the shooting opportunities. But Steedo will need to get his Orks painted.

So the evening ended as a 1 all draw - with poor dice rolling being a key factor for the losses (but not the only factor). The rest of the collective are meeting up soon to play Terraforming Mars, so I would like to hear how that plays.

Morts 

More Sci Fi Terrain

It has been a busy few weeks - the better half had an milestone birthday, which due to COVID restrictions meant we had 2 parties (one for family who could make it and one for friends we could fit in the garden - there are a few people to catch up with) either side of the actual day. 

Yesterday I was out helping check point DofE with work - I have to say I wasn’t expecting a 14+ hour day. Again due to COVID the kids training wasn’t as we would have liked, so they we struggling with navigation, the route the leader had picked and the very hot weather - to be fair they did well under the circumstances. 

Anyway on to the important stuff in the world, which has done ok in spite of the pandemic - gaming ... well the gluing things together part bit. I have put together the Mantic games Military Checkpoint kit.

The watchtower. 

The main bastion and walls - and some pipe work stuff. The kit is nice - with some clever features but is a bit of a pain to put together as the connectors can’t quite hold it together when trying out the layouts. I have superglued it now so that’s it. Got some sanding to do on the pipes then a grey spray primer is hit this and some other stuff. It should work well for Kill Team and Starship Troopers. 

Talking (or more correctly writing about it) of Kill Team I pick up the book and cards for the Pariah Nexus expansion - mainly for the new Primaris and Necron Stats. I had read that the rules were rather tied to the Necrons, but I think with some house rules and possibly some spaceship floor plans an interesting addition to Kill Team. We will see. 

Having first face to face miniatures game this evening, so better prep (pack stuff away) for that. 

Morts