Kill Team - Assault Intercessors versus Craftworld

Last night Steedo came over a go at Kill Team (no covid this time). The game took a little while to set up as I had been preparing some minis and terrain for undercoating, then had to drop thing 1 so she could go off to a festival (and then meet  thing 2 with her sleeping bag which she had dropped as she headed off the to her festival). 

We played with compendium based forces- 5 Assault Intercessors versus 4 Dire Averagers  and 4 Rangers (the new balance update would have 6 space marines and 5 each of the Eldar).

Steedo chose to have the Eldar and we worked through the Tac-Ops cards (although we could find the faction specific ones in the compendium). Then we played through the setup rules for the Seize the Ground scenario from matched play. We probably set up the board incorrectly - but we were both playing on it. 

Steedo won the scouting phase and give me the initiative. The Victory Points came off holding objectives at the end of a turn - and move if they were on the opposing sides half of the table. 1 point a piece at the end of the first turn  

The game after one turn - the marines had taken some damage but were closing in on their opponents. 

Still early doors - the marines closing in - the high saves and high wounds were help them a lot - the closing of range perhaps should have meant the Steedo should have been moving his troops away out of pistol and charge range.

The Eldar leader getting a beating - this allowed me to get 2 VPs - the Eldar took serious casualties in turn 2 allowing me to play my second Tac-ops card. 

Some shocking dice rolling from me, as I tried to shoot the Avenger, so that I could then charge the Ranger behind and then batter him with chainsword … but it wasn’t to be. Shocking dice …

Turn 3 was a draw with 2 out of actions on each side - however the Only in Death Does Duty End allowed one of my marines to kill an Eldar before dying of wounds … thematic but tough on the Eldar.

The game continued with the Intercessors chasing the Eldar about - it was a tough game for Steedo as he had the numbers but it was a challenge keeping moving with the Rangers hampered by the heavy rule so that they couldn’t shoot from concealed. The 3 actions for the marines meant that they were able to shoot - charge - fight at times which was generally fatal for any Eldar they got close to. 

The end victory points were 8 to the marines and1 to the Eldar … no doubt we got some rules incorrect, but it was an interesting learning game. The Intercessors have some new rules which would allow a mixed Assault and Standard Intercessor team - so access to Auxiliary grenade launcher and Stalker bolt rifle … a tough team.  

It would be interesting to see the Eldar versus an Ad Mech team - where the guardians don’t get penalties for overwatch. The Craftworlds need an update on the compendium rules . 

I have started on the painting of the Chaos Space Marines and assembled the Nercon Immortals - and planning to kit bash some Deathmarks from some warriors (when I can get some cheap ones) . 

I am also planning a proper boots for kill Team so it matches the bases. I like the idea of the board on the reverse of an lkea picture frame  

Morts

Blackstone Cultists - part 2

With a little bit of effort I have completed the last 4 Cultists of the Abyss from the expansion with no cards or way of adding to the base game … anyway these will probably become the cannon fodder for a Chaos Space Marine Kill Team. 

Leader and dangerous flamethrower guy. 

A coupe of grunts - standard cultists you could say. 

Not bad job on these - no speed paints used.

Basing and varnishing to do. Will probably put the Chaos Space Marines on the painting table next .

Morts 

Chimera Speed Paint Experiment

As I have said previously I had picked up the Army Paint Speed Paint base set. I had tried 2 contrast paints but had had mixed results with them - the brown was too dark and the purple not dark enough. So before trying the speed paints I did watch he a coupe of videos on YouTube. One was very helpful as it suggested mixing the different colours and adding water to thin it a bit. 

The chimera was black undercoated, but I dry brushed white on for a zenithal starting point  

 The model after the initial speed paints - the darker brown was a mix of a contrast and speed paints. A good start. 

The finished model - with teeth and horns done. A bit of extra dry brushing on the wings. I did bugger up the lion head when trying to paint the eyes which was annoying, but I think it has been sorted. I have to say I am pleased with how this model has come out with the speed paints.

Just have to see how the paints cope with brush on varnish …. The has been some mention of speed paints reactivating when it gets wet. 

Morts 

Helter Skelter and the North Sea

Snake-eyes and Steedo popped over for a couple of games (turned out to be 3 actually), which was nice. We started with a game of Judge Dredd - Helter Skelter by Osprey Games. This was the first time we had tried this reskin of Wildlands. The game is set in a fractured 2000AD universe where your teams have to collect 5 points to heal reality (or win). This is done by picking up tokens or killing members of the other teams. You can pick from Judge Dredd team, a Strontium Dog team, a Nikolai Dante (this is a character from after I stopped buying 2000AD in the 80s) or a Slaine team (we didn’t try these out as the rules for warped Slaine might have been too much for us). 

The game works with each team having an asymmetrical set of cards which activates different actions for different characters - so choices have to be made straight away when planning moves and attacks. Also deployment is done by being dealt 10 cards - each with a location on it, picking one for each character, then passing the rest to the player on your right as their fragments of reality (tokens to collect) - this mechanism can also cause some serious choices to be made at the start of the game. 

The first game was Snake-eyes as the Judges, Steedo as Nikolai Dante and myself as Johnny Alpha and the Strontium Dogs. 

This was a “learning” game where there was a fair amount of fighting - my good self causing the damage only for the other two to conspire to let the other get the kill and therefore the point. A close run thing in the end with a win to Snake-eyes, 2nd Steedo (4) and myself on 2 or 3. 

As the game had played pretty quickly, we had another go (with the same teams - I would have changed but the others won the dice off …). This was quite a different game. The way the map cards were dealt to me meant that initially I was going to spread my team around to board only for me to realise that the remaining cards I had would place all of Steedo’s tokens on one quarter of the board, which would not do … so I had to swap that around (although Steedo’s own deployment but his characters in the diagonally opposite corner … but how was I to know). Steedo did put 3 of Snake-eyes’ tokens in a nice line for him though - d’oh!

There was little fighting in this game as no one wanted to give points to the players following them … however due to Steedo’s line them up Snake-eyes won again this time I was second and Steedo last. It was only about half the time as well  

We all enjoyed the game - the different abilities of the teams and characters make it a challenge - I have the Dark Judges expansion, but will look into getting some extra maps from Wildlands and possibly the adventuring party as you can play the Helter Skelter factions in Wildlands. 

So after the very quick second game we thought we would get a game of Raiders of the North Sea in (as Snake-eyes hadn’t played it). 

This is the third game of Raiders I have played and I like it, the place do action, pick up do action is simple to get. The strategies to play are interesting - Steedo and Snake-eyes went for the raid big stuff as soon as you can but their crews were a bit light, so they weren’t getting the big victory points. I went for the offerings and attacking the harbours (with a character who give an extra VP for attacking harbours) and cheap crew as there were quite a few Valkyries in the harbours (who kill crew). 

My strategy paid off in the end, as although I wac last going into the scoring all the offering cards and a maxed out Valkyrie track give me 63 points, Steedo had 49 (and no Valkyries) and Snake-eyes 47.

So a good evening’s gaming (with no beige snacks consumed and limited drinking - very civilised). 

I have to admit to playing Judge Dredd without painting the models because … I have other things to do and I wanted to get the game to the table. Due to the backlog I don’t think they will get painted to be honest. Although I have been experimenting with Speed paint so I hope to post on that in the next couple of days. 

Morts

Blackstone Cultists

I have had a go at painting the Blackstone Chaos Cultists I received for my birthday. 4 out of eight painted - 2 heavy weapons and a couple other nasties. 

Pretty pleased with these but I have to decide on the basing - do I do the basing for Blackstone (ie black with blue highlights) or do I go the the Sandy style I use for kill team? 

I don’t have rules for the Cultists in Blackstone but I do for Kill Tram , so they are more likely going to be support for the Chaos Space Marines. 

I have invested in the starter set of Speed Paints by army painter, so will have to experiment with those at some point. 

Should be having some of the collective over this week to have a go at Judge Dredd - Helter Skelter (and if time Raiders of the North Sea).

Morts