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Three-Player Warhammer World Kill Team Fun

Started by Cammerz, February 11, 2019, 10:45:33 PM

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Cammerz

So back in November I went to Warhammer World in Nottingham with a couple of friends, neither of them have many models (yet) so I suggested that I could either bring two armies and they could share one, three small armies and we could take it in turns to battle each other, or we could play Kill Team. We opted for the third, one friend acquired the rulebook and we created the following lists;

White Scars

1x Reiver Sergeant [Saghari] (Leader) with Bolt Carbine, Combat Knife and Grapnel Launcher
1x Reiver [Khoros] (Comms) with Bolt Carbine and Grapnel Launcher
1x Reiver [Anagor] (Scout) with Bolt Carbine and Grapnel Launcher
2x Reivers [Suberei and Jurgah] with Bolt Carbines and Grapnel Launchers
1x Scout Gunner ['Baby Khan'] (Heavy) with Heavy Bolter

This was my list, I decided on a Reiver-based kill team after I bought the Reivers for my Alpha Legion army and still had half a box left. The Grapnel Launchers allow unlimited vertical movement whilst making a normal move (so no diving on my foe from a nearby rooftop) but overall it makes a very mobile force. Khoros, the Comms specialist, grants +1 to hit rolls for one model within 6" so my main tactic with him was to stick close to 'Baby Khan' and use all of my Command Points on the Hellfire Shells tactic to cause Mortal Wounds on a 2+.

Chaos Space Marines

1x Cultist Champion (Leader) with Shotgun and Mark of Khorne
1x Aspiring Champion (Zealot) with Power Fist, Plasma Pistol and MoK
1x Chaos Space Marine with Chainsword, Bolt Pistol, MoK and Icon of Wrath
1x Chaos Space Marine Gunner (Heavy) with Heavy Bolter
1x Chaos Space Marine with Chainsword, Bolt Pistol and MoK
1x Cultist Gunner (Demolitions) with Heavy Stubber and MoK
1x Cultist Gunner with Flamer and MoK
4x Cultist with Brutal Assault Weapons, Autopistols and MoK

This list was very combat focused with the two gunners sitting at range and everyone else rushing forwards, supported by the Icon of Wrath.

Imperial Guard

1x Tempestor (Leader) with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword
1x Tempestus Scion (Comms) with Vox Caster
1x Tempestus Scion (Demolitions) with Flamer
6x Tempestus Scions
1x Imperial Guardsman Gunner (Sniper) with Sniper Rifle

This was the list that worried me, all that AP-2 pointed at me, the bonuses (from my point of view) were the relatively short range and lack of fancy manoeuvrability so my aim here was to try to stay in the 19-24" gap and take pot-shots at them.

We played three games in all, originally it was going to be four with each of us playing the two others followed by a massive all-vs-all but we spent a lot of time looking around the Exhibition hall and the Forge World shop so skipped the last two-player game and went straight to the big one.

I'll stress that none of us had played Kill Team before, I'd only played two games of 8th edition prior to this (two more than either of my friends) and they had very little tabletop gaming experience before that so it was a learning experience.

The first game was myself vs the forces of Khorne, the second was Khorne vs Tempestus Scions. I won't go into those beyond saying that Khorne beat me (it was almost a tie, we both had the same number of objectives but he won because he spent slightly less on his Kill Team than I did on mine) and the Tempestus Scions beat Khorne.

For the final battle I was given free rein to choose any table in Warhammer World, I think I made the right choice.

The mission featured four objectives, the Chaos player chose the bottom left corner as his deployment zone, the IG player chose the top right corner and my deployment zone was at the bottom centre-right, between the two of them. During the Scouting phase, the Chaos player chose to Plant Traps (effectively turning three areas of the board into dangerous terrain although neither of the Imperial players knew which at this point), the Guard player chose Take Forward Positions where up to 20% of his Kill Team could make a normal move after deployment and I (anticipating that one of them would choose TFP) went for Eliminate Sentries where up to 20% of my Kill Team could shoot after deployment, but only at the 20% of the Guard player's team which chose to move. As it happened, he decided that maybe staying put was the safest course of action.

Mid-way through the movement phase I remembered that we wanted to take photos so I could write this report and so from then on we took pictures of the battlefield after every movement phase.

I'll be honest with you, I didn't take notes and don't recall everything that happened, I'm basing a lot of this off the pictures themselves and will be referencing and annotating them as we go on. I don't remember things like who had the Initiative on each turn so I'll just have to make do.



The above image shows the battlefield after turn one of movement. The four bone-coloured dice are the four objectives which I have indicated.

The Chaos player deployed his Heavy Bolter where he deemed that he would be able to draw a good line of sight to the battlefield, the rest crowded around on the landing pad with the aim to advance on my position en masse. Fairly early into turn one he realised that ladders can be quite long and use up quite a lot of your movement. As you may be able to see, his Icon bearer and a lone cultist had managed to descend to the low level between us while the others took to crowding around the top of the ladder, patiently waiting their turn. Only his Heavy Bolter stayed still and readied.

From left to right my team is as follows; Khoros (comms) next to 'Baby Khan', on the low level beyond them is Saghari (leader), up to his right is Suberei, to his right is Anagor (scout) and above him is Jurgah. The latter two both reached their positions by Batman-ing around the board with their Grapnel Launchers. Khoros, 'Baby Khan' and Suberei all readied shots. I don't recall what Saghari did but he didn't move very far, probably waiting to see where he was needed.

The Guard mostly deployed on the highest landing pad and used their first turn to advance towards their closest objective. Two Scions are visible below the main force, on a platform which terminates where Suberei stands whilst a further scion and the Tempestor stood just out of frame, on the lower path which leads to the ladder below Anagor. (The arrow indicates their rough location).

During turn one shooting, the Chaos Heavy Bolter opened up on 'Baby Khan' who I had foolishly left out in the open but fortunately he was unable to inflict any damage. 'Baby Khan' directed his first Hellfire Shell at the Chaos Aspiring Champion but sadly missed. The only other actions of note during turn one were either Khoros or Suberei shooting and killing the Chaos flamer cultist whilst Anagor and Jurgah targeted and killed the Tempestor.



Turn two saw a further two Khorne-worshippers descend the ladder, one Marine and one Cultist. Neither of the first two had sufficient movement to ascend the second ladder but gathered around the base ready for the next turn.

As a response to being targeted by Heavy Bolter rounds, 'Baby Khan' ducked into the cover previously occupied by Khoros who moved aside to let his little brother have a clear shot at the Aspiring Champion. Saghari decided that the left flank needed his attention more than the right and proceeded along the path toward the Chaos Heavy, I have indicated his vague location with an arrow. Anagor also decided that he was needed stage-left and used his Scout specialty rule to re-roll the advance roll as he did so. Suberei remained where he was and readied another shot, I do not recall at whom but it was probably the Heavy Bolter.

The Guard moved further towards the action, the sniper and his trusty comms scion moving towards the large red tank containing who knows what while the two scions down at the bottom right readied actions to fire at Jurgah. The scion hidden beyond the right-hand side of the frame moved further along his current path.

Turn two saw 'Baby Khan' successfully hit the Aspiring Champion with a Hellfire Shell but only succeeded in causing a flesh wound on the hulking marine. Shooting by Suberei and Saghari caused a flesh wound on the Khornate Heavy Bolterist whilst Jurgah exchanged fire with the Storm Troopers, to no avail from either side.



Turn three's movement saw the first followers of Khorne reach my deployment zone, the Icon bearer and a cultist we dubbed 'Matt' were the first to make the climb whilst only the Cultist champion remained on the original platform.

Saghari and Anagor Batman-ed about the place, Anagor to a position where he could intervene if the Chaos assault became too much to deal with, Saghari towards the Chaos Heavy and the objective on that side of the map (for I remembered that this game was about securing objectives, not just murder, trust the Khornates to forget that). Suberei remained where he was whilst the advancing Storm Troopers convinced Jurgah to seek better cover.

In the shooting phase, Jurgah continued to trade fire with the Guardsmen below him, again with both sides failing to do very much. Fortunately for Jurgah the hellguns have a very low strength and he was out of short range of all but one of them at this point. 'Baby Khan' landed another Hellfire shell, this time at the Icon bearer and this time it successfully killed the Heretic Astartes. Shooting from various angles succeeded in landing a flesh wound on the Chaos Heavy and one of the Scions on the upper platform. The Cultist Champion and Matt also died.

In the nerve phase, these heavy losses caused the Chaos Heavy to become shaken, meaning he would be incapable of doing anything during turn four.



Our two previous games had both ended at the climax of turn four so I started the movement phase by moving Saghari, Khoros and Anagor towards their nearest objectives. Suberei Batman-ed up to join Jurgah take on the Imperial Guard whilst 'Baby Khan' stayed readied. Saghari's move brought him into an area booby trapped by the heretics but by the grace of the Primarch he was unharmed. Jurgah moved to be directly underneath the Guard-held objective and, being within 3", successfully began contesting it.

Three more Chaos figures scaled the ladder this turn, including a Marine and the Heavy Stubberist.

The Scions atop the battlefield moved to counter Suberei's approach, leading the way was their flamer specialist.

The flamer Scion, with a little help from his friends, caused the first fatality from my Kill Team as Suberei failed two armour saves and was taken out of action.

Incoming fire took out the cultist closest to my home objective and landed a flesh wound on the Chaos Marine. I can only presume that this is the point when the Aspiring Champion was slain as I can't see him in any future photos. Either that or he remained at the foot of the ladder.



The Heretic with the Heavy Bolter remained shaken after once more rolling poorly during the morale phase.

We rolled to see if the game continued and the dice gods deemed it be so.



The Chaos Space Marine in my deployment zone charged Khoros, in the process he contested the objective. Two more cultists made the climb. The Heavy Bolterist could once more do nothing.

Anagor moved up to claim the last objective and discovered the second of the three Chaos traps, fortunately for me he too was unperturbed by this as well as uninjured. Khoros was in combat, Jurgah, Saghari and 'Baby Khan' also stayed put and readied shots.

The Imperial sniper moved onto the strange container, his trusty vox friend still in tow. Meanwhile the flamer operative and his hellgunner mate moved to target Jurgah. One of the scions down below spent last round and this round moving along the path towads the centre of the board.

In the shooting phase the flamer-bearer and his hellgunning friend exchanged fire with Jurgah, Jurgah suffered a wound from the hellgun and reciprocated by landing a flesh wound on the scion. The sniper took aim at Anagor and hit but failed to harm the Reiver who retaliated by blasting the sniper apart in a burst of high explosive bolt rounds.

In the game's first fight phase the Chaos Marine was able to wound Khoros but neither marine could kill or even flesh wound each other.

The morale phase saw the scion who was wounded by Jurgah become shaken.

We rolled to see whether turn six would make an appearance, but it didn't.





The game ended with the White Scars holding two objectives and contesting the other two.

WHITE SCARS VICTORY!

Looking back at the battle afterwards, we realised that the Chaos forces might have broken but we forgot to take flesh wounds into account when calculating half of his team, not that it really mattered.

The important thing is that we all enjoyed ourselves. The game board was fantastic and I dread to think how much it'd cost to recreate.

The Reivers were great to use in Kill Team, the Grapnel Launchers are a marvel, especially on a table like this. I'd easily be able to do in two turns what the Chaos forces barely managed in five thanks to the added manoeuvrability. The Assault 2 bolt carbines allow a solid level of firepower which I can even maintain after advancing. The two factors together allowed me to run rings around the slower, shorter ranged teams of Khorne and the Guard.

We'll probably return to Warhammer World in future for more Kill Team, hopefully we can make it an annual tradition. I foresee different teams though, hopefully neither of my opponents will opt for the four Lictor Tyranid Kill Team which would probably cause a lot of problems.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this battle report, I know it's different to the narrative sort I usually make.

Note: I'm attempting to use the cross-platform image hosting suggested by Narric, if it works then he's the one to thank, if not then he's the one to blame  ;)