First Game With New Chaos

November 8, 2012, 1:31 am

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I had a game (finally) with the new Chaos codex last night, against the new chaos codex! 1500 points. Guess what, Chaos won... Blood was certainly spilt for the Blood God, fortunately more of it was my opponents. In fact, I wiped him off the table! I didn't even think my list was that good to be honest, as I just grabbed a load of random bits of things I wanted to use and put them in the army. I wanted to give you a brief rundown on my feelings on my first game with the new codex. Fist of all, lists:

HQ
- Chaos Lord - Pair of Lightning Claws, Terminator Armour, MoK
- Sorceror

Troops
- Chaos Space Marines x15 - CCWs, Champion w/ Power Fist, MoK, IoW
- Chaos Space Marines x10 - Plasma Gun, Autocannon, Champion w/ Power Maul
- Chaos Cultists x25 - 11x Autoguns, Champion w/ Shotgun

Fast Attack
- Raptors x10 - 2x Meltagun, Champion w/ Pair of Lightning Claws
- Chaos Bikers x5 - Plasma Gun, Champion w/ Power Sword and Meltabomb
- Heldrake - Baleflamer

Heavy Support
- Forgefiend - Hades Autocannons

My opponent had a noise marine based list. Don't ask me what the acronyms stand for, I'm just copying from his email...:

HQ
- Chaos Lord - 5+i, PP, PW, VotLW, MoS

Elites
- Helbrute - Plasma Cannon

Troops
- Noise Marines x9 - CCW, Votlw, Rhino, IoS, PW+DS
- Noise Marines x10 - 8 SB, VotLW, Blastmaster, PW+BP
- Noise Marines x10 - 8 SB, VotLW, Blastmaster, PW+BP
- CSM x10 - VotLW, CCW, 2x Plasma Gun, Rhino, PS+BP

Heavy Support
- Havocs x5 - 3x Autocannon, 1x Lascannon
- Havocs x5 - 3x Autocannon, 1x Lascannon


The mission was The Scouring and we played the diagonal deployment. I will add that I rolled Infiltrate for my warlord trait, but forgot to actually deploy any infiltrators... although I did seize the Initiative! I won't go through the game itself, just how each unit did.

The Heldrake was awesome. Well worth the 170pts. I suppose it depends on if you have dedicated AA units (Tom only had 2 units of autocannon havocs which missed a lot). The S6 AP3 Torrent flamer is amazing at clearing out squads of marines, and laid waste to most of 2 squads of noise marines and a havoc squad during the game! He did day that he was going to add at least a defence line to his list after the decimation the Heldrake caused.

Cultists with the Endurance psychic power = win at holding objectives. They were shot down to about 10 by the end of the game, taking most of the brunt in the first couple of turns. Feel no Pain definitely helps against those sonic blaster ignore cover weapons! My loudout may not be the most efficient (was basing it off what models I had), but it was still fairly cheap and looked pretty chaotic.

Big blobs of CSM without Rhinos work if you're fairly lucky (and your opponent deploys fairly close to his deployment line). He had 3 turns of shooting at the MoK squad and whittled them down to about 7 (under half) due to his blast master AP3 blasts. But they had Mark of Khorne and Banner of Wrath so charged 10" into a full squad of marines and munched them down like Donkey Kong on a banana. I think this unit will be hit and miss though, depending on how much shooting it attracts during those first few turns.

Forgefiends are OK, not sure if they're worth their points though. It did wreck a Helbrute first turn due to hitting with 6 of its shots and using daemonforge to re-roll armour pen! But then it proceeding to not do much the rest of the game, except for glance a rhino to death over a few turns. I suppose its another random chaos unit! BS3 does hurt its damage output, I will have to have a few more game with it to see if its worth taking in future.

Raptors are great, very cheap for a Jump unit. Although they really need to get the charge off (or take MoK - but that will increase the points). The meltas didn't come into play so I can't comment on their loudout. Although I will say the boon Icy Aura did end up killing more marines than the champions lightning claws...

Bikes were killed turn 2 so didn't really do much, but they were a cheap distraction unit and did they're job, taking the AP3 shots away from the Raptors.

That's about it, overall I think the amount of stuff on the board at 1500 overwhelmed my opponent a little bit! He focussed on killing the Heldrake, Bikes and Cultists too much and let my assault units run across the board to hack him up and take objectives. I was worried about all those AP3 ignores cover guns at the beginning of the game, but thankfully blind luck prevailed!

Final score 7-0 VPs.

Darth Meer

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Chaos Lord Painted and Storm Reavers Background

November 18, 2012, 12:03 pm

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Here's a photo of my newly painted Chaos Lord, complete with my colour scheme for the 'Storm Ravers' traitor chapter.

Chaos Lord Moros, Master of the Storm Reavers

Here's a bit of origin background for my home-brew traitor chapter. They're basically my old Storm Hawks (see my downloads for their codex) gone bad - I thought it would be a nice touch to continue their story:

"Once known as the Storm Hawks, a loyalist space marine chapter, the Storm Reavers began their descent into heresy on the world of Vardia during the close of M41. After a long campaign against the forces of chaos to free the Vardian sector, the entire Storm Hawks chapter met their enemy upon the capital planet itself to finally bring the campaign to a close. Although Captain Aphael of the Blood Angels requested the Storm Hawks to hold until they could be reinforced, Chapter Master Falco was impatient and over-confident and ordered the assault.

What the Storm Hawks did not know however, is that the Chaos insurgents upon Vardia were already in the process of breaching the warp and summoning a vast horde of daemons. Although the Storm Hawks were swift, without the aid of the Blood Angels they were still too late. The warp gate was opened and hell was unleashed upon the system.

Most of the Storm Hawks chapter was destroyed within the first moments of the warp breach, but a handful survived along with Chapter Master Falco deep within the catacombs of the planet. There must have been a chink in the defences of Falco's mind, or it could have been his proximity to the warp breach, but at some point the master of the Storm Hawks was possessed by a mighty daemon known as Moros.

The possessed Chapter Master requested his brothers join him in fleeing through the warp gate, he persuaded many that there was no other way to survive, and that they would take the fight to the enemy. Those that were left were soon overrun by daemons, but those that fled with Moros found themselves corrupted irreversibly by the warp. The Storm Hawks were propelled through the warp until they found themselves in the Eye of Terror, the journey twisting them so much that they held hardly any resemblance to their noble origins.

Lord Moros and his now named 'Storm Reavers' have left the Eye of Terror in search for recruits and commit to a never-ending war in order to gain glory and slake the unquenching thirst of their gods."

Darth Meer

Kill Team Rules v1.4 Update

November 22, 2012, 7:37 am

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First of all, yes, plasma EXPLODES! We all thought plasma was a bit overpowered in Kill Team currently (hence, everyone was taking as much as they could), especially with Suppressing Fire. Making Gets Hot weaponry explode gives it a little bit of a drawback. Plus its cool.

Also in this update is the addition of new Difficult Terrain rules, stolen shamelessly from the LotR game. Its a bit more time consuming to work out than the normal 2d6 rules, but we think its a lot more immersive (and makes more sense to be honest). Plus it evens out the impact of our running rules.

The other big change is the Mission rules. I know there was a lot done in v1.3, but v1.4 really shakes them up. Gone are the random secret missions - they just didn't seem to be popular, especially as un-trustworthy people tended to just make up their secret missions... The new system is very tradition, with 5 big missions/scenarios (I couldn't make up a 6th, that will be a future update) that you simply roll a d6 for at the start of the game. The new missions are Skirmish, Relic Hunt, Last Stand, Hostage, and Sabotage.

In other Kill Team news, the Chaos Space Marines and Space Wolves team lists are live, as well as a fillable version of the updated roster sheet (download to fill and save) and the updated Legendary Heroes document for your campaigns - including a very familiar dreadnought!

Get the new Kill Team Rules here!

Darth Meer

Kill Team Rules v1.5 Update and The Raid Mission

December 5, 2012, 8:53 am

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I'm afraid its another Kill Team update post, not much painting going on lately (very busy time of year for me). Anyway, update v1.5 is out for the core Kill Team rules. In this one we have focussed on emphasising 'cinematic' terrain, adjusting some of our existing rules to match this, and changing some of the more 'abstract' rules of 40k to be more 'real'. There is now a sixth mission (missed from the last update), and a general tidying up of rules (especially grenades, and the other missions).

Get the new Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team rules here.

Also in v1.5 are optional rules for Injury. Now we originally didn't want to add these, but we've had demand for it from a few people now. It is important to note that these are additional rules, and are NOT the 'official' Kill Team rules. Our game will not be balanced to take into account these optional rules. The rules are basically taken from Mordheim, with a few tweaks to make them work in 40k. They haven't really been play-tested, so if you're brave enough to try them, any feedback would be invaluable.

You can now download the first 'mission' document, called The Raid. Its basically an attacker/defender mission using sentries - hearkening back to the old Kill Team rules from white dwarf! It even includes mission wargear such as wirecutters, grapnels, las-traps (laser beams), etc.

On the KT lists front, I'm still working on the Tau list ready to be play-tested by the group. But I have been through the current lists and added tweaks, new wargear, etc. So it's worth seeing if your list has been updated.

Finally, my group and I love to hear of peoples Kill Team campaigns and battle reports, so if any of you have any photos or reports you want to share, email me at darthmeer@outlook.com. I also want to share a battle report I received this week from KaC, found here.

Next post will be pretty models, I promise.

Darth Meer

Norse Blood Bowl Team Converted and Painted

December 15, 2012, 1:56 am

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I love Blood Bowl, but haven't played for many years (since Uni). So when I got the chance to pick it up again, I jumped at an opportunity to re-create my original Norse team. Only this time I thought I'd convert up some Marauders instead of using the horrible old GW models. The Ulfwereners are from heresy minis.

Norse Blood Bowl Team

As you can see the Warhammer Marauder models work really well, and extremely simple to convert! The painting, however, is what I like to call 'slap dash' - it isn't my best. I basically needed to get these ready for this weekend, so used the tried and tested base-shade-layer technique. I may go back and highlight them eventually (may...). Here's a close look at the shoddy paintmenship:

Norse Blood Bowl Team Close-up

Wish the team all the luck in the Warhammer World, as from what I remember, they tended to die a lot... I may be purchasing an apothecary first chance I get.

Darth Meer

Blood Angels Army Background Document

December 23, 2012, 10:48 am

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Bit of a random one today. I thought I'd share a little background document I've been working on today for my Blood Angels army. I've added the screenshots below, but you can download the PDF here (its only 6 pages). I'm planning to spend time on each of my armies background over the Chrimbo period as I doubt I'll have much chance to paint (we're here, there and everywhere next week). I think putting together a document like this really brings you closer to your models, and the background of the 40k setting. It also makes a neat 'leaflet' to give to your opponent before a game.

 

40k Kill Team Rules v1.6 Update - New look, DA team list

January 16, 2013, 4:26 am

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The next update to Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team is here, and with a shiny new look. This look isn't restricted to the main rules either, I'll be rolling it out to all the team lists soon. For now, you can check out the new Dark Angels team lists to get a feel for it. The DA team lists also features a new format of unit entry that I'm trying out. More tabulated (and harder to edit) but should be easier to read!

Get the new Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team rules here.

Rules wise, v1.6 is mostly tweaks with the only 'new' rule being for psychic powers (they actually work now...). Take a quick read through though, as the whole document has had a going over with rules tweaked, missions adjusted slightly and you can now Deep Strike (only if you teleport though - yey for deathwing!).

If you have any comments or ideas for Kill Team, please visit our Facebook group!

I was hoping to get my Helbrute finished for today (for some non KT content), but alas he's taking longer than expected. Damn all that trim! I've not been totally idle this last few weeks however, and have finished 10 more saurus! A mighty achievement in my books. Only 30 more to go for that unit of 50...

Darth Meer

Storm Reavers Chaos Helbrute Painted

January 20, 2013, 4:54 am

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Storm Reavers Chaos Helbrute

Meet Varea Metalla, the newest painted member of the Storm Reavers warband (see here for the army background). I've only been taking him in bigger games lately as he tends to die quickly unless the opponent has other threats to focus on, but I wanted to paint him up as I love the Dark Vegeance model - so much detail!

Paint wise, I wanted to go for quite a 'choppy' look when highlighting so the metal looks as though its chipped and scratched. The flesh red is simply Mephiston base, Carroburg Crimson shade, layer on the Mephiston, then an organic highlight of Evil Sunz.

Chaos Helbrute - Close Up

"Varea Metalla was once Brother Nisus, a well-respected veteran of the Storm Reavers Chapter. Nisus met his fate during the Vardia campaign against Chaos and was entombed in a mighty dreadnought. However, it was on his début battle in his metal sarcophagi that the Storm Hawks were overrun by daemons and fled into the warp with Chapter Master Falco. Nisus battled his way through the daemon hordes and followed his brothers into the warp rift. But when he re-appeared in material space, like his Storm Hawks brethren, Nisus was not the same being. Twisted by the warp and driven mad, Nisus became Varea Metalla, his metal body chained until his crazed fury can be unleashed on the eve of battle once more."

Darth Meer

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Chaos Sorcerer Conversion - Plastic Kitbash

February 7, 2013, 2:51 pm

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Chaos Sorcerer Conversion with Wings!

I've been wanted to convert a plastic Chaos Sorcerer for a while now but didn't seem to have the inspiration until recently. This beast is actually very simple to kitbash! The legs, arms and gun are from the new Raptor kit, the torso and wings are from the Possessed box, and the head, torso, staff, and miscellaneous gubbins are from the Terminator Lord sprues. Bung them all together with magic glue (Humbrol Liquid Poly actually) and viola!

I will be Jump Pack-ing him around the table in future games, but if this turns out to be folly the wings can simply count as 'excessive decoration'.

Some more shot below. Only minor green stuffing was required - mostly due to the MASSIVE Sorcerer head preventing the shoulder pads from sitting correctly. I've also repositioned his left foot slightly so he's pushing off the rock.

A simple, but effective alternative to the Finecast model I say. I'll be painting him up soon and writing up some more of my oh-so-popular background! Oh, and I'll just leave you with this parting shot or something I may be talking about a little but in the future...

Pew pew pew!

Darth Meer

Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game Review

March 9, 2013, 4:12 am

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Introduction

I finally managed to get my hands on the Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game by Fantasy Flight Games. It's been pre-ordered for a long time, and OG Games have now managed to get stock from across the pond. For those who have been living in an exogorth, here's the official blurb:

Control the most advanced starfighters and outstanding pilots in the galaxy! In X-Wing Miniatures Game, you take the role of squad leader and command a group of merciless Imperial or daring Rebel pilots in furious ship-to-ship space combat. Featuring stunningly detailed and painted miniatures, X-Wing recreates exciting Star Wars space battles from small engagements of only a couple of crafts, to large conflicts where multiple squadrons clash. Select and equip your ships, pick your crew, plan your attack, and complete your mission.Taken from the FFG Site.

The first thing I'll say is that I love Star Wars, as if you didn't already guess from my internet handle. I was the kind of kid that ran around the woods with his mates and bashed the crap out of each other with plastic glow rods screaming the star wars theme. So as you might imagine, I had steep expectations.

In this review I'll talk mostly about the Core Set and its out-of-box gameplay, with only a small section on expanded play (as I only have two expansions currently).

Opening The Core Set

As with any other FFG game, you get an overwhelming number of components! The box provides all the movement templates, action and status tokens, range rulers, asteroids, mission counters, dice, cards and miniatures (two TIE Fighters and a single X-wing) you need to start playing. The only thing you have to provide yourself is a 3' x 3' gaming surface - I just used a square of black fabric from Hobbycraft, but it would have been nice if they included a play sheet or fold away board. Anyway, all of the included bits and bobs are printed on high quality card stock and feel as though they could handle some serious use. I was particularly impressed with the artwork on the cards and templates as they really give off a Star Wars 'feel'.

Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game - My Ships

The ships themselves look like they came directly from the ILM archives, and are highly detailed. The models are adequately painted to gaming standard, and to be honest I probably won't even touch them up - although I may add Rogue or Wraith squadron markings at some point... but that's purely to satisfy my nerd cravings. The scale is just right, not too big to interfere with gaming and not too small that you can't see the details.

With all these components X-Wing initially seems to come across as a bit of hybrid game. Part miniatures, part board game. You can buy the Core Set and set up a game in minutes (once you've read the rules) using the pre-generated pilots and missions, just as you would a board game. No assembling and painting models beforehand. Of course you only get 3 missions in the rulebook so this approach may get tired fast. On the other hand, if you want to go deeper and craft your own squadrons (like a traditional miniatures game) you can - which I will cover later.

X-Wing Miniatures Game - Core Set

Another thing I wanted to say was the box itself is actually sturdy enough to hold your bits. I have two expansions and their plastic 'cradle' (for want of a better word) sits nicely inside with enough room for everything else. I've used resealable bags to store all the components and the rulebook sits nicely on top. This is a nice touch as the game can sit on a shelf with the rest of my board games, I don't have to buy any additional storage like I do with my other miniatures games and find a place for it.

Playing the Game

As a space miniatures game I was expecting pages and pages of rules (like Battlefleet Gothic), but was surprised when the rulebook turned out to be just under 30 pages, and only about half of that is actual rules. You can read the pdf, or watch the tutorial video on the FFG site so I won't go deep into the rules, rather give my overall impressions.


X-Wing is simple and easy to learn. The book is very well laid out and takes you through the game step by step. The game uses templates in order to determine movement and range, and custom dice for combat. Something I actually rather like and makes movement and combat a lot quicker with less contention. You don't have to look at any charts to see what effect your roll had on the game - it's already right there on the die face.


I also really like the 'hidden manoeuvre' aspect of the game, where you have to try and out-guess your opponent in where they will be moving next - with different ships having different manoeuvring capabilities. The combat phase is totally reliant on your movement (through firing arcs) so it adds a heavy dose of tactics to quite a simple game mechanic. With most ship stats being similar, manoeuvring well and outguessing your opponent is what will win you games. Another thing to add is that the rounds fly past, this game is so quick! With most of the decision making done simultaneously, both players have something to do at all times - none of this twiddling your thumbs for half an hour while your opponent moves and picks off your army.

X-Wing Miniatures Game - Game In Progress

I've played a number of games with my fiancée now (a non-gamer) and she picked up the rules after only two games. She even said she had fun, something she has yet to do for any other miniatures game I force her to play! I personally would have liked a little more detailed rules (being a seasoned miniature gamer), but the game is very quick to play and there isn't anywhere that says I can't make up some extra rules myself! You never know, they may being out an Advanced version some day.

X-Wing Miniatures Game - Game In Progress

Squad Building and Expansions

Where X-Wing diverges from its board game roots is the ability to build and upgrade your squad. Like all good miniatures games it uses a points system for ships and upgrades, with 100 points being typical. You can load up on ships with elite pilot skills, missiles and modifications, or go with lots of ships with fewer upgrades, or you can find a nice balance. As I only have two expansions (about 50/60 points a side) I can't say how playing a 'full' 100 points game would effect the rapidity of play, but as the rules are so simple I doubt it would have too much effect.

An example Rebel squadron from the FFG site.

One bad note I have with this is that instead of giving you all the upgrade and pilot options from the start (such as a Codex), the upgrade and pilot cards come packaged with different expansions. This means that the only way to get all the options is to buy everything (as most upgrades can be used by both Rebels and Imperials). This annoyed me a little with one of my favourite SW characters Wedge, as instead of being able to buy two starter sets (and thus grabbing 2 X-wings and 4 TIEs) I'm forced to buy the X-wing expansion if I want to use him. But I suppose that's business.

Of course the main reason for buying expansions is the miniatures, and FFG are bringing new ones out all the time. The larger ship expansions also come with new rules and missions. I can't wait to get an Interceptor, piloted by the famous Soontir Fel of course! May have to paint the rest of my Imperial squadron with red stripes then.

Cost

I bought the core set for £25 from OG Games and expansions are around a tenner (of which you'll need about 2-3 per side). So a 100 point squadron will cost you around £45-55 if you're only collecting one of either Rebel or Imperial. Which of course no-one will! So it ends up being more like £75. That's a lot of money, but a new army from GW costs over £300 for each player not including things likes books, paint and other paraphernalia  When you take into account that £75 gives you everything you need for 2 players to play a decent sized game, its a bloody bargain!

X-Wing Miniatures Game - Game In Progress

Conclusion

If you love the movies, love the books, there is no way you won't like this game. The miniatures, the art, the characters, awesome. To be honest, even if you're not a Star Wars fan I would recommend it. I wouldn't replace my regular more-in-depth miniatures game with it, bit X-Wing is great for light evening entertainment. The models are of high quality, rules are tight and quick to learn, and if you can resist making 'pew pew pew' and 'froooom' noises while playing then you're a better man than I.

Darth Meer

P.S. You know you want to play it with A New Hope playing in the background.

Playing 1000 Point Mini 40k Campaigns

March 11, 2013, 3:47 am

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Last week me and my gaming buddy decided we would try something different in our usual weekly game, a mini campaign! Three story-driven 1000 point games played on three different boards. Amazingly we managed to play it after work, taking about 3 and a half hours in total (including lots of chat with on-lookers).

We played on a Tuesday at Warhammer World and it was pretty empty so we got to use two of the 'special' boards as well as the Zone Mortalis table in the last game. Really sorry there's no photos but I just wanted to share the rules for our little campaign, and hope to inspire some other players to create there own!

The campaign story follows the Storm Hawks (the codex I wrote a long time ago can be found here, although I didn't use it) last stand on Vardia and their eventual fall to chaos (see here for background on my Storm Reavers). There is a lot of background taken from the Vardia campaign book my friend is writing, so it may seem a little off-cuff to some readers.

The rules below are built specifically for our mini campaign (Space Marines vs Chaos), but it may give you ideas about how to write up your own. I kept the mission objectives simple as I knew we would be playing after work, but you can spice them up if you have a day to play.

GENERAL CAMPAIGN RULES

• Three different 1000pts armies. The third army may not have any Vehicles except for Walkers (and no Defilers!)
• The Storm Hawks must take Chapter Master Falco in every army: A Chapter Master with Terminator Armour and Twin Lightning Claws. In addition he gains the Fearless special rule.
• If Falco is killed during battle, at the end of the game roll a D6. On a 1 the model's Wound value is permanently reduced by 1. On a 6 the model permanently gains the Hatred special rule. If you roll a 6 again after future games, the model also gains Rage.
• If any of the Chaos HQ units are the same (both type and build) they may keep all of their rolls on the Chaos Boon table for all games.

GAME 1: RAPID ASSAULT

The Storm Hawks have arrived at Vardia, only to find it already lost to Chaos. Heedless of the Blood Angel requests to hold, the Storm Hawks race towards the planet in a daring attempt to break the enemy's back before it can reform to meet the incoming reinforcements.

In this game the Storm Hawks use a lot of fast moving transports such as Stormravens, Drop Pods and Land Speeder Storms, supported by Stormtalons and regular Land Speeders. The Chaos forces have lots of troops on the ground but not many 'linebreaker' units such as Obliterators or tanks.

Objective
The Storm Hawks must rush in and destroy the Chaos forces.

Deployment
The Chaos army deploys first, anywhere in the table that is more than 12" from a table edge. In addition, Chaos units must be placed more than 6" away from each other. The Storm Hawks will enter play on their first turn from any one table edge (in exactly the same way as arriving from reserve). In this mission, all units fall back to their nearest table edge. No Chaos unit may be placed in reserve. Any Storm Hawks units that do not arrive first turn are assumed to be in reserve. Storm Hawks always get first turn.

Special Rules

• Orbital Assault: Any Storm Hawks unit that can Deep Strike may arrive automatically on the first turn.
• Already Dug-in: All Chaos forces receive the Move Through Cover and Stubborn special rules.

Victory Conditions
Kill Points and Secondary Objectives.

GAME 2: THE ENDLESS TIDE

The warp portal has been unleashed upon Vardia and caught the Storm Hawks unawares The Storm Hawks have been pushed back by the chaos tide against the entrance to the ancient Vardian catacombs. Luckily, the marine forces have come across an abandoned PDF strong point and plan to use it to try and whittle down the enemy before they retreat further in.

In this game the Storm Hawks forces have no fast support units, but have managed to deploy artillery tanks such as Whirlwinds and Vindicators in order to support their defence. Most of the Chaos forces are transported in Rhinos or are equipped with Jump Packs.

Objective
The Chaos side must cause as much damage to the dwindling Storm Hawks as they can!

Deployment
The Storm Hawks deploy first, up to 12" from the edge of the table. They also get an Aegis Defence Line to set up for free (note: we actually used a Fortress of Redemption instead). The Chaos forces deploy anyway up to 24" from the Storm Hawks forces. Chaos automatically gets the first turn.

Special Rules

• Endless Tide: When a non-Vehicle Chaos unit is completely destroyed it automatically re-enters reserves. This counts as a new unit in all respects.
• Last Stand: All Storm Hawks units gain the Stubborn and Preferred Enemy special rules.

Victory Conditions
Kill Points and Secondary Objectives.

GAME 3: FALL BACK!

Chaos have overrun the Storm Hawks and Chapter Master Falco has ordered their retreat into the warp portal, through the underground catacombs. The trouble is some of the Storm Hawks are too stubborn to run! What the Storm Hawks do not know however, is that their Chapter Master has already succumbed to the will of chaos and is in the progress of being possessed!

Objective
The Storms Hawks must get as many units through the warp portal as possible before they are destroyed!

Army Restrictions
No vehicles may be used in this game except for Walkers.

Deployment
Played on a 4x4 board. A lot of terrain must be placed as the game is played within the Vardian catacombs (preferably on a Zone Mortalis board!). Both sides deploy within 12" of their board edge. Randomly determine who sets up and goes first. You may seize the Initiative. Only units which are described as being able to teleport or materialise from the Warp may use the Deep Strike special rules.

Special Rules

• Filled with Doubt: At the start of the Storm Hawks movement phase, any unit not within 24" of the Chapter Master must take a leadership test. If it fails, the unit may not move at all this turn (except to charge).
• Falling Back: The Storm Hawks are proper legging it! They may run 2d6 and choose the highest.
• Chosen of Chaos: Chapter Master Falco gains the Champion of Chaos special rule.

Victory Conditions
For every Storm Hawks unit that leaves the board via the Chaos board edge, they gain 1 VP. For every Storm Hawks unit that is completely killed, the Chaos player gains 1 VP.

Steel Brain vol 1: Team Building - Weaknesses And Why They Don't Matter

February 14, 2018, 11:48 am

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Good evening players, and welcome to the beginning of the end...of summer. Getting ready for cosy days indoors, painting miniatures and obliterating your foes? Today we're looking at building your team, and why you shouldn't worry about what it can't do, but instead should focus on what it can do better.

You're Expecting Too Much

Heralds of Ruin Kill Team is truly a game for all-rounders. The day before, your band of miscreants had to take down a rampaging monster the size of a battle tank, taking care to outwit the Grey Knight Terminators as well, and now you're sneaking through a city on the verge of civil breakdown, fighting local gangs and the opposing swarm of cultists all at once. And now there's a live Nuke/Gellar field breach/zombie infestation to deal with. Fantastic.

With a 250 point limit for most games, how are you supposed to make sure your team can cope with these varied challenges?

The key is balancing specific unit strengths against an all-purpose playstyle. You need to be able to take on anything, but if you build too general-purpose a team you won't be good enough at doing a particular thing to win at all. You need to decide what you want to be good at, and be really good at it, but without investing so much in that thing that you can't cope should a situation call for a different approach. 

That's not an easy task without experience, but we can and will break it down. Beneath the foam and chocolate of bewildering choice awaits the hot latte of truth.

Finding Your Keynote Killer

Picking a unit to build the team around is a very good start. For this exploration, we'll start with your Team Leader. The Leader is usually a decent place to start because, to some extent, your choice here will open up some options and shut off others. Often it will influence your Core choices, perhaps allowing certain Special models to be taken as Core or access to greater numbers of a certain unit, and will almost certainly count towards one or more weapon/wargear allowances.

Let's build two teams at once, just for a laugh. We'll choose a Craftworld Eldar Warlock Skyrunner and a Chaos Daemon Changecaster. 

Once you know what kind of leader you have, you've got a better idea what the team will be doing. At this point, you've just chosen the Leader unit with basic wargear. Shiny bits come later! 

Our Skyrunner is a fast-moving unit capable of boosting pretty much any element of her team, be it speed, survivability or lethality, with psychic might. Her jetbike gets her where she needs to be quickly, and she's on the expensive side. She'll therefore need some measure of protection, and some powerful units that her magic can turn into absolute monsters. With only one power per turn though, plus a rubbish version of Smite, we'd better choose carefully. 

Our Changecaster is a Psyker too. It's slower, with three powers in hand compared to the Skyrunner's one, but still only casts one per turn. It's not as tough, but has a better invulnerable save. The combination of infantry speed and a good choice of powers makes this Leader ideally placed for hanging back and controlling the state of the board.

Cleared For Takeoff

Now we're moving! Our Craftworld team could still be about a few different things at this point, but let's commit to something and take some more jetbikes. This is going to look sweet. Rule of Cool is definitely a big part of roster building. A quick look at the Windrider and Shining Spear entries shows we're limited to a maximum of 3 of each, and that Saim-Hann Windriders have better weapon access. Hold that thought. 

We don't yet appear to have a speciality, besides incredible speed which helps with objective grabs if the mission calls for that. Not all of them do, so that's not good enough. Let's say what we really want is a solid Alpha Strike list. For my money, that's Shining Spears and the Quicken/Restrain power (heavy emphasis on Quicken). 

So - Warlock Skyrunner + 3 Shining Spears, not forgetting wargear, comes to 178 points. We're looking at 10 T4 Wounds and a devastating laser lance charge which, thanks to Quicken, is almost certainly going to happen in turn 1. (By the way, why not Shining Spear Exarch? In short, Expert Hunter is useless in HoR outside of specific scenarios and the psychic power of the Skyrunner is well worth the extra points.) 

What Is It Good For?

Back to the Daemons for a minute. Our Changecaster isn't going to be moving much, so why not take advantage of that to boost its Daemonic Rituals?  We've got some Armoury items to do the business, and I'm going to ignore my own advice and pick two of those right away: the Well of the Warp and the Transpicuous Orb. The Well allows us to dictate the ebb and flow of our own forces, as any daemons arriving on the battlefield can choose to climb from its depths. The Orb is a great late-game tool for bringing reinforcements when they're needed most. 

At 98 points, that's quite enough on the Leader. Or is it? For a mere 2 points more, we fill the requirements for Herohammer and get another Tactical Point. Why not. The Staff of Change takes it to 103 and gives Smite the range of a boltgun. Not bad.  

Now we need some backup! Our Leader is a Locus of Tzeentch, but isn't likely to be too close to any combat, so that probably won't matter. For a cheap, fast moving, extremely threatening backbone to this team, I humbly present the Daemonette. 7 points a piece. Let's take 10. 15 is tempting for the Flurry of Claws ability, but keeping all 15 alive long enough for it to work is unlikely, and therefore something of a waste. An Icon works extremely well with the Well (well, well...) and an Instrument keeps them moving as they should.  That brings us to 198 points. 

Craftworld Would Be A Great Name For A Yarn Shop

Our Craftworld team now fulfils our first condition nicely; it's really good at a melee-focused alpha strike. Such clear strength comes with a clear weakness, namely a low body count and next to no ranged firepower. We also have no Core units, which is a problem. Now's the time to think about which Craftworld we might be from. Saim-Hann is the obvious choice, as either the Opus or Codex trait would serve them well, but you might think about Il-Kaithe to get some Imperial Core choices (only three though, so this probably isn't the way to go) or Malan'tai Before The Doom for a 36" Turn 1 move for all your jetbikes, assuming Quicken goes off. 

We don't really need another 2" of movement, though Malan'tai's Seize ability is nice, and I don't want to dig into yet another Opus, so we'll go Saim-Hann, Opus flavour. Being able to forego fall back + shoot for fall back + charge fits the Spears beautifully. It also allows us to take a single Windrider as a Core choice and give it a Shuriken Cannon. Since we're not using the Codex trait, the Scatter Laser would be hitting on 4+, which isn't really good enough for a team this small. There's some thematic ranged power for you, anyway. 206 points total. Let's finish this off. 

At this point we're looking to further bolster our strength or mitigate weaknesses, and it's a good time to look at the Armoury and Tactical Actions available to us. Our Warlock won't be seeing much combat, ideally, so the Leader Only relics aren't for us. As our bikes are likely to run close together for maximum psychic power impact, avoiding Nerve tests would be good, so the Runes of War are a sensible choice. 

Since the Runes extend as far as our Warlock's Inspiring Presence, it makes sense to make that bigger with an Autarch's Seal, and finally buy a single Ranger.

The threat of even one sniper on the board shouldn't be underestimated and can play havoc with your opponent's plans for their Leader. We'll return to sum up the Eldar in a minute, but first, Daemons.

The Daemon Is In The Details

Our Daemon team is looking a bit weird at the moment, with a sizeable melee force and a Leader who's up to the task of buffing, killing and most importantly, summoning reinforcements, but isn't particularly scary in its own right. They're still very vulnerable to sit-and-shoot teams, as are all Daemon teams, so let's see what we can do about it with our remaining points.

Two bases of Nurglings can put early pressure on an enemy, deploying right on their doorstep and maybe even getting some lucky charges. These 36 points are strictly sacrificial, and their value should be counted in enemy shots that don't find your other models! 16 points remain to us. We could throw another two lesser Daemon bodies into the mix, or peep at the Armoury again. The Localised Warp Storm looks good - a single turn of protection from shooting will make your opponents think twice about attacking your Leader, and give his plans time to come to fruition. Most factions have access to this in some form (smoke grenades) but few can wield it with no downsides like a firepower-devoid Daemon team can. Add a single Pink Horror for some tricksy business, and we're done!

Now let's look at what we've come up with.

CRAFTWORLD AELDARI - SAIM-HANN (OPUS) - ALPHA STRIKE

Leader

Warlock Skyrunner (85)
Autarch's Seal (10)
Runes Of War (5) 
Quicken/Restrain (obviously you should choose the right power for the game, but this will serve you well most of the time)

Core

Windrider (23)
Shuriken Cannon (10)

Ranger (20) 

Special

Shining Spear
Shining Spear
Shining Spear (93)

246

Tactical Points: 6

Destined for Greatness +3
Death and Diversity +1 (this one is incredibly easy for Craftworlders to get)
Herohammer +1 
Philosophy: The Skeins of Fate +1 (This is just a suggestion, of course. 4TP with the ability to regain 1 or 2 is pretty decent, but this team shouldn't require a lot of rerolls or shenanigans like some others do) 

Battle Plan

Warlock, Spears and Windrider should deploy forward and hidden where possible, and ensure the 3" area of effect on Quicken catches all of them. Move aggressively, cast Quicken to catch everyone. Reroll as needed, it's important this power works! The Spears move again for the charge, the Windrider and Warlock may go where they need to to find appropriate targets/provide the Distortion Field buff. 

Ranger and Windrider should prioritise targets to facilitate the Spears' charge - try to trigger Nerve tests, remove strong auto-hitting weapons, etc. A well-aimed initial charge should remove the head of the enemy team and leave them fighting to catch up, while your Wild Host can essentially do as it pleases even after falling back from a combat.

CHAOS DAEMONS - MULTI-GOD - BOARD CONTROL

Leader

Changecaster (78)
Staff of Change (5)
Well of the Warp (10)
Transpicuous Orb (10)
Localised Warp Storm (8)
Bolt of Change, Gaze of Fate, Smite

Core
10 x Daemonette (70)
Icon and Instrument (25)

2 x Nurgling Swarm (36)

Pink Horror (7)

249


Tactical points: 8

Destined for Greatness +3
Mind the Boat +1
Herohammer +1
Death and Diversity +1 
Philosophy: Keep Them Guessing +2 (we've really tried to maximise our TP here, as you'll see)

Battle Plan

Nurglings set up to Make Mischief. Daemonettes take forward positions but cover where possible. They're fast but fragile. The Changecaster should be fairly far forward and as hidden as possible, with the Pink Horror 6" behind it and able to keep up. 

The Nurglings and Daemonettes have very obvious roles here, so I won't labour that. The little Tzeentchian duo have some tricks up their many sleeves though. Observe...

Turn 1. Both the Changecaster and Pink Horror move forward as fast as they can while remaining 1. Out of danger and 2. Within 6" of each other. Surge of Unreality (2TP) can be useful here. Psychic powers as neccessary. No Ritual. Consider using the Localised Warp Storm.

Turn 2. Get the Changecaster into a good position to drop the Well - look for objectives, enemy spawn points or weak flanks. Move the Pink Horror to prepare for Turn 3, and keep it within 6" of the Changecaster. No Ritual. Another good time for the Localised Warp Storm if you didn't use it yet. 

Turn 3. Use Devious Deviants (2TP) to switch the positions of the Horror and Changecaster to bring the Leader to safety. This isn't a Move and does not prevent a Ritual being attempted. At this point you ideally want to be attempting a Ritual every turn, using the Orb on a later turn to minimise the risk of a waste, and the Incursion Instigator action (1TP) at a key time if needed. 

Your Daemonettes and Nurglings will be doing their thing by now, your enemies concerned with them, and you can continue to build your board presence with Rituals and Bolts of Change to bring in as many reinforcements as you can. It's a far less reliable and obviously powerful strategy than the Saim-Hann one, admittedly, but after playing it a couple of times most opponents will still be at a loss as to how to counter it, and teams with such good board control led by such an optimised Leader are rare indeed.

Summary

Hopefully I've managed to show how a team doesn't have to be good at everything to succeed. A fast Aeldari team largely without fire support can mitigate that weakness by playing even more into its strengths, to ensure the enemy isn't at range for long. A numerous but fragile Daemon team can play to its strengths by tying up the enemy with numbers and distractions while it reinforces itself.

By contrast, a smaller team of tougher daemons without that ability would probably give a mediocre performance at best, while an Eldar team that tries to compete in all arenas of battle might outclass its opponents in individual duels, but would soon find itself brought down by weight of dice. By throwing most of its points into doing outstandingly what it can already do quite well, a team takes on a power and a narrative that outstrips any typical jack-of-all-trades enemy and feels awesome to play.

Join us next time (whenever I find the right combination of coffee and spare time) for a look at optimising your team's growth in a campaign!  

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August 31, 2018, 4:02 am

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Kill Team Rules v1.3 and Campaigns v1.1

October 28, 2012, 6:41 am

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Some big additions to the main Kill Team ruleset in v1.3, including a new 'hiding' mechanic (straight from old school specialist games) and massive changes for the assault phase - including supporting charges/attacks for when you just want to shout "bundle!", as well as notes on quick rolling and a new 'supporting' Overwatch mechanic.

The Campaign rules have had a complete overall with changes to almost everything. Now you can 'group' your Core models to make it easy to manage, as well as different EXP, Injury, and Advance tables for Core models. We found this makes it a lot quicker! We've also updated the 'official codex' document to include rules when using it with campaigns.

WARHAMMER 40,000: KILL TEAM RULES CAN BE FOUND HERE

Changes in Kill Team Rules v1.3

• Changed wording for climbing and jumping, added 1" and unit type exceptions.
• Added 'Hiding' rule to enable hidden models. This is converted from the old Mordheim rule that we though was great.
• Combined the Run and Fleet rules.
• Added Grenade rule - all shooting grenades have One Use Only rule.
• Added charge sub-phase ‘order of operations'
• Added Supporting Charges
• Added Diving Charges
• Added Climbing Charges
• Added Overwatch
• Added Quick-rolling
• Added Supporting Attacks
• Removed 'outnumbering' from Assault results
• Amended Squad rule to include rules for hiding and jumping/climbing.
• Changed Destructible Markers wording.
• Added Optional Rule – Destructible Terrain

Enjoy!

Darth Meer