News:

For the most up to date reports about what is going on with the forum, and the latest topics of interest, throw us a like on Facebook, and if you're wanting some light banter with the seasoned and spiced members, join the Second Sphere Members Group.

Main Menu

Kill Team Revamped: Kill the Ethereal.

Started by Mabbz, December 17, 2012, 11:09:11 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Mabbz

This is an unusual battle report for three reasons:

1) It is the first time I

Narric

This sounds like a pretty cool narrative.

Have you posted the rules anywhere? I'd happily help, and as I have Vassal, I can test out rules.

Its seems strange that the total for each side isn't even. I don't think thats a good thing. I think if the IG side had used a bit more stuff/units, they could have taken the Ethereal out sooner.

The Man They Call Jayne

I think the point is that it is ment to be an Elite Team sent in to assassinate a target. You face off against the Mooks and gradually face tougher and tougher opponants.

I think this would work well in a high terrain area. Set up like the inside of a facility. You have to infiltrate against various things, and there are certain side objectives aswell. I would set up many drone patrols in groups of 2-3. Easy to kill, but they might get lucky. As soon as an alarm is triggerd, teams of Firewarriors start to be deployed from pre arraganged areas. If a Firewarrior rases an alarm, XV8s or 35s start to show up. In the main chamber, you have the ethereal, some Elite Firewarriors  and 2 Shas'Vre battlesuits.

To compensate, your team gets Shrouded, Feel No Pain, Crusader and maybe a few other rules to make them tougher. You can attempt to revive a dead character, but that means stopping somewhere not in LOS of an enemy unit and spending your turn ministering to the fallen.

Admittedly this becomes less of a 40k game and closer to D&D. But it could still be fun.
Jaynes Awesome Card Counter: +5

Secondspheres Crash Card Counter +4



Mabbz

Quote from: Narric of 4th Sphere on December 17, 2012, 01:34:17 PM
This sounds like a pretty cool narrative.

Have you posted the rules anywhere? I'd happily help, and as I have Vassal, I can test out rules.

Its seems strange that the total for each side isn't even. I don't think thats a good thing. I think if the IG side had used a bit more stuff/units, they could have taken the Ethereal out sooner.
I haven't posted up the rules (I'll post them on wednesday, I promise)

As for the uneven points, this is basically stealth based 40k. The idea is that you sneak in, do the job, and sneak out. Assassinate is one of the less stealthy missions. In theory, you could complete a game of kill team without raising the alarm at all, it'd just be damn hard.

In short, uneven odds is the whole point. The kill team has to try and be stealthy or they will almost certainly fail. Eventually it reaches a point when stealth goes out the window and you simply have to run for it, but the longer your enemy doesn't know you're there, the more likely you are to escape with most of your team intact.

Quote from: The Man They Call Jayne on December 17, 2012, 02:24:40 PM
I think the point is that it is ment to be an Elite Team sent in to assassinate a target. You face off against the Mooks and gradually face tougher and tougher opponants.

I think this would work well in a high terrain area. Set up like the inside of a facility. You have to infiltrate against various things, and there are certain side objectives aswell. I would set up many drone patrols in groups of 2-3. Easy to kill, but they might get lucky. As soon as an alarm is triggerd, teams of Firewarriors start to be deployed from pre arraganged areas. If a Firewarrior rases an alarm, XV8s or 35s start to show up. In the main chamber, you have the ethereal, some Elite Firewarriors  and 2 Shas'Vre battlesuits.

To compensate, your team gets Shrouded, Feel No Pain, Crusader and maybe a few other rules to make them tougher. You can attempt to revive a dead character, but that means stopping somewhere not in LOS of an enemy unit and spending your turn ministering to the fallen.

Admittedly this becomes less of a 40k game and closer to D&D. But it could still be fun.
Terrain is definitely a good idea. I set the game in an area with lots of ruins and two wrecked devilfish, but ideally the defender would be defending a military base, or an army encampment.

Reinforcements was an idea I toyed with and may still add in at some point.

As for giving USRs to the kill team, that's what Narrative points are for. Spending them mid game can have all kinds of effects, like:

- temporary ressurection of a model
- automatically making a precision shot
- making a distraction to draw the sentries away
- giving special rules like FNP, crusader and plenty of others

And probably more. The idea is that if you want to make up a new heroic action mid game, you should do it. These aren't rules for overly competitive people.

A halfway point between 40k and D&D is pretty much what I was going for.

The Man They Call Jayne

Something I just whipped up, feel free to discard or use what you like from it. Needs a bit of polishing around the edges though. And I used Tau because the lend themselves well to the defenders position with there drones, but you could switch out drones for Conscripts or Guardians and so on.

Assassination Vs Tau.

Target - Ethereal

Your mission is to infiltrate the Tau base and kill the Ethereal. You will encounter enemy patrols and sentries as you advance and the odds are NOT in your favor. You are the leader of an elite team, handpicked for this mission. You will need all of your skills to complete this task.

Your team is as follows:

You.
Medic.
4 Troopers

You Maybe upgrade a single trooper to a specialist.

The Big Guy - This trooper gains Relentess and + 1 Strength and Toughness
The Whizz - Armed with an Array of ECMs, The Whizz gives your unit +1 to cover saves
The Swordmaster - You gain Shred in Close Combat
The Sniper - You can reroll all to hit rolls of a 1.

The Squad has the following Special Rules:  Feel No Pain, Stealth, Crusader, Eternal Warrior.

Aslong as the medic is alive, you may take one turn to heal troopers. To do this you must be out of LOS of any and all enemy units. You may heal up to d3 wounds in this turn. You also count as having gone to ground.

Upon loosing your final wound, make a Toughness test. If you pass, you get back up with 1 would left. This cannot be done if you were killed by a weapon that causes Instant Death as the damage is just too great.

Every man in the Squad has 2 wounds. You as the Leader have 3. Every man has Ld10.

You may take any weapons that you may take in your codex that are permitted for your unit type. All the rules of these weapons still apply. A Space Marine Can take a Heavy Bolter, but not an Assault Cannon for example.

Every man gets a single 1 use Melta Bomb. This can be used to make a path through the walls of the compound. Be warned however, that doing so will alert every unit within 24" to your presense, and will raise the alarm level by 2.

Alarm Levels: There are 3 Alarm Levels in the facility.

Level 1: Heavily armed Sniper Drones will be released from Drone Dispensers within 18" of your position.

Level 2: Squads of Carbine armed Fire Warriors will be deployed from Guard Posts and move to converge on your position.

Level 3: A Crisis suit will be deployed from the Hangar and will head rapidly to your location. It will be armed with whatever weapons are deemed appropriate for the situation and a Shield Generator.

Alarm Levels are rasied by being seen by an Enemy unit while inside their Alert Radius. This is usually 12", although some may have a greater threat detection. Once Enemies are on Alert, their threat detection range becomes the same as their weapons range. Enemies on High Alert will move in your direction even if they cannot see you. if you are in their High Alert range.

If an enemy spots you, you have 2 options. Destroy the entire enemy unit, or go to ground and take a cover save. Either of these will result in the alarm not being triggered. Failing the save, or not destroying the unit in a single round of shooting and CC will trigger the alarm.

Each unit triggers the Alarm level above it. Firewarriors will call for a Crisis suit, even if you currently have no alarm rating.

You can reduce the alarm by keeping out of sight for more than 2 turns. The level will drop one level every turn after the first.

Example: You are spotted by a Gun Drone Patrol, you fail your cover save and the alarm is raised. A Sniper Drone is dispatched. You manage to kill the Gun Drones and then the Sniper drone. After a turn of no combat, the alarm will be deatcivated and any units that were coming to kill you are now returning to their stations. Drones will deactivate and return to their dispensers.

Should you run into a returning squad, they will immediatly engage you and raise the alarm again, so stealth is important. Attempting to shoot your way through eveything is ill advised.


What you will be facing:

Gun Drone Patrols: Teams of 2.
Armed with TL Pulse Carbines
Alert Range 12"

Sniper Drones: Teams of 2
Armed with single Railrifles
Alert Range 12"

Firewarrior Response Team: Team of 6
Armed with Pulse Carbines
Alert Range/High Alert 12"/18"
Firewarrior Response Teams can always Run 6".

Crisis Response Unit: Single XV8
Armed with: Various
Alert Range/High Alert 18"/Unlimited
The Crisis Battlesuit has a direct link to the central computer and can track you at all times once it is on high alert. This link is deactivate once the threat is deemed to have passed and the suit will return to the Hangar.

Ethereal: Single Ethereal with Honour Blade and Shield Generator. 2 Shield Drones.

Elite Bodyguards: 2 Units of 6.
Armed with Pulse Rifles and Targetting Arrays.
These are the Ethereals personal bodyguards, they will give their life to protect him. They get to make their Look Out Sir! rolls on a 2+.

Sentry Drone Turrets: Single unit.
Armed with: Various TL weapons.
Alert Range 12"


Important Areas:

Guard Outposts: Destroying a Guard Outpost will prevent the deployment of Firewarriors from that location. Instead, an extra Gun Drone team will be deployed from near by dispensers.

Armoury: A Lootable store of Weapons and Wargear. Pulse Rifles, Carbines, Photon Grenades and EMP grenades can be picked up here, replacing your own weapons.

Hangar: The Crisis Suit storage. Heavily armoured and guarded, destroying this facility will prevent the deployment of Crisis suits.

Destroying ANY of these facilities will permanently increase the base Alarm level, and raise your alarm rating to 3 for 2 turns.

Upon entering the Command Room, you will immediatly raise the full alarm, ALL Enemy units will begin to converge on your position. Killing the Ethereal is the only way to escape.

The chances are you are going to die in you mission, but killing the Ethereal will ensure that your commanders can drive the Tau back and win the war.


Jaynes Awesome Card Counter: +5

Secondspheres Crash Card Counter +4



Mabbz

The kill team rules I'm trying to make are meant as an expansion, like Planetstrike. The rules could be used to make a kill team from any codex to infiltrate a defending force from any codex. I want both sides to be able to pick their forces, and points costs with restrictions on what you can take seemed the simplest way.

I might use the idea of pre-chosen specialists, but I figured if you wanted a sniper, you'd take a ratling or special weapon guy. If you wanted a medic, you take someone with a medi-pack.

One thing that I put in after I played this: fortifications. My idea is to give both sides a small number of fortification points (and plenty of new options to spend them on). The defender uses them to buy things like tripwires, laser fences and gun emplacements, while the kill team player can buy things like hydrogen silos, power generators (which can be sabotaged to deactivate some enemy fortifications) and the like. Thoughts?

Actually, we should probably save this discussion until I get the rules up.

The Man They Call Jayne

Ah, I see. I was more combining the 40k mechanic with a more narrative story line. Might give it a try tommorow at my gaming group, see how it goes.
Jaynes Awesome Card Counter: +5

Secondspheres Crash Card Counter +4



BigToof

This really looks good Mabbz.
I've always liked Killteam, but it always seemed just a bit lacking...

I know I'd like to see more, plus if you have pictures or the like of the deployment and play it'll make things a bit easier to visualize (at least for me).

Plus, well... I wouldn't mind if there was a bit of fluff for continuity :)

In any case, gonna give up a Karma on you for this one.

Best,
-BT
BigToof Points:

Cammerz: 8
Waaaghpower: 1
The Man They Call Jayne: 3
Mabbz: 6
Archon Sharrek: 3

Mabbz

Quote from: BigToof on December 17, 2012, 05:51:00 PM
This really looks good Mabbz.
I've always liked Killteam, but it always seemed just a bit lacking...

I know I'd like to see more, plus if you have pictures or the like of the deployment and play it'll make things a bit easier to visualize (at least for me).

Plus, well... I wouldn't mind if there was a bit of fluff for continuity :)

In any case, gonna give up a Karma on you for this one.
Hmm... I can make up fluff...

And thanks for the karma :)




One quick question: the rules I have so far take up about 12 pages in a word document. What do you think would be the best way to post them, a word doc attached to the first post or copy pasting into the actual message?

Narric

I'd recommend printing it with Bulldog PDF Printer, then uploading it to Box.net, or DevintART. then sharing the link with us.

It causes less clutter in the thread, and allows others to easily download the file and review it in their own time.