An impromptu game of kill team

This was an impromptu game of kill team that I played a few weeks back. A mate of mine was picking up his father from a party in town and had a few hours to kill, so he dropped by for a quick game of kill team. The teams were my guard horde list, featuring 16 guardsmen, including 4 with special weapons and a Sgt to lead them, facing off against a slightly less horde GSC team, including 2 aberrants and a number of neophytes.

I was worried by the aberrants and even more so after the free movement (cult ambush?), a number of them got before the first turn. I can't remember if we did the scout phase or not now but I have the feeling that we might have either gone for the same counter or cancelled each other out, meaning that the phase was pretty much useless for both of us.

Mid turn one and the GSC are almost upon us already! 

A close up of the above shot. You can see one of the aberrants on top of the building directly in front of my little castle. My opponent had chosen not to charge this turn as he was a long way out, about 10 inches I think, so closed the gap ready for next turn. 

Coming in on the flank, the leader and his 2 bodyguards. 

Turn 2 and the aberrant in the centre is no more, melted by the super charged plasma goodness of my gunner. With Comms +1, and orders, the weapon reduced the model to molten slag, although I probably wouldn't have super charged the weapon if I'd have know about the special rule that drops the damage by 1. Same result, less chance of cooking myself. 

This was in to turn 3 and I was starting to dominate now. My extra numbers were starting to tell and I was pushing models up. I forgot to say, we were playing the mission where you have to get models off the board and even though I had not manage it yet, I had 3 in good positions to go for it and I had successfully stopped his first wave from trying. The three models under the bridge in the top centre of the board are actually mine, making a break for the back lines. My main threat at this point as I have eliminated both aberrants, are the three models hiding behind the lower crate, you can just see the base of one sticking out.

End of turn 3 and we called it here. In the picture above, the models lying down were shaken and so weren't a threat to me and so I concentrated on the other models, the ones behind the crate and the ones hiding under the bridge on the right, eliminating all of them. we then skipped forward to the moral phase and this resulted in the GSC team breaking and at this point there was no way back for them, with all there models either removed or shaken again. I on the other hand still had the majority of my team alive and kicking, with 13 of the 16 still on the board, although many had flesh wounds on them. 

I don't think that this was quite the overwhelming victory it looks like but eliminating the aberrants early in the game helped a lot, taking out his most valuable models and the ones that could have done some serious damage had they got in to combat. Another really enjoyable game of kill team and another success for the Guard. So far the guard are proving them selves a lot better at this game than the death watch and as you'll see from the next post, this continues, in a fashion anyway.

Hobby update.

So today is just a quick hobby update, just to show what I've been up to and to keep something on the blog!

The grey horde assembles

A closer shot of the grey horde

So, the other half was south with the kids at the in laws, having an early Christmas, as we won't be able to travel down over the actual festive period. I was unable to go due to work but it also gave me an  opportunity to get some DIY done, in the form of stripping and sorting the play room. In the evenings I took the time to relax and cracked out the air brush to get some priming and basing done. I set myself quite an optimistic aim, one which I ultimately failed to achieve. The pictures above show most of the models that were ready to prime and base, although there are about two dozen guardsmen not shown, which were also on the list.

In the end I managed to get most of them done! From memory, I airbrushed;

10 skitarii rangers
10 skitarii vanguard
25 guardsmen
8 ravenwing bikes
3 attack bikes plus crew
46 marines (including  19 deathwatch marines)
19 terminators
1 hellhound
4 rhinos
1 dreadnought
6 chaos marines
14 chaos cultists

These were done in a variety of Grey's and blacks, starting with a light grey for the  chaos forces and gradually adding more black as time went on until the deathwatch were sprayed up in all black. I did the airbrushing over 2 evenings and I'm pretty pleased with the results, especially as I haven't used my airbrush and compressor for quite a while. They worked as there supposed to, although I was suffering with clogging quite a bit, as there seems to be a few bits of dried paint in my black primer. While this was annoying, at least it wasn't the compressor or airbrush that was the problem.

While I managed to get a significant number of models primed, I did fail to get two leman Russ's and a whole bunch, about 40, scions painted. The main reason for this is that they were not being primed in grey\black. The LRBT's were being painted in green, having already been primed on a previous occasion. The scions were to receive a custom primer\base coat, using a combination of black primer and red paint. This meant that I needed to mix up the paint rather than just dump it in to the airbrush and I never quite got around to doing it. This does mean that next time I will just be able to concentrate on these models and get them sorted.

So all in all a successful period of hobby time. Now I just have to find the time to get the rest of the paint on them!

Future projects

Recently you may have noticed that I have been posting a bit more sporadically than usual. I have generally tried to keep to posting twice a week or at the very least once a week but recently I've been struggling to do even that. There are a few reasons for this. I haven't lost any of my enthusiasm for the blog and I actually have a number of posts, either sitting in my draft folder, half finished, or in my head, waiting for me to actually get something written down. I have my guard kill team to post up, along with all the fluff and back story for each member. My deathwatch are also modelled up and ready for painting, plus I've started building my marine and AdMech teams. I've also got a couple of other posts sitting waiting to be finished plus some batreps. Plenty of content to keep me going for weeks.

There are several reasons for not posting. My new job is a factor that i've mentioned before.  Working nights over the weekend has meant that I've lost a lot of my hobby time, not only as I'm sleeping on the weekends but also it means that I don't get as much free time during the week as I'm catching up with my housework, such is the life of a house husband. The main reasons that I haven't had time to write and post stuff is that I've been spending all of my other free time on the DIY.

I'm currently upgrading the utility room (read upgrading as building a whole new one) and redoing the play room, which I'm in the process of stripping back to bare walls and floors. There is a good reason for this, as there will be a new arrival to the family in february and as such were going to need some better washing and drying facilities, apart from the back of the garage and the spare bedroom (which won't be spare for very long).

I'm hoping that I might get some more time to blog in the new year but we'll see. I know that I probably could use my breaks at work to do some blogging, but right now it's 4 o'clock on Saturday morning and I've been up since 8am with a two and a half hours sleep while the young lady was at nursery on Friday afternoon and I'm pretty much just monging while watching rubbish on YouTube. Saturday and Sundays are a little better as I don't get up till about 2 but then I don't get an afternoon nap before work. I guess I'm just getting ready for all the sleepless nights when the next one turns up!

Anyway, I haven't gone anywhere, real life is just taking over somewhat. Hopefully I'll be back up to speed soon.

Infinity scenery packs

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a new terrain set that I had purchased and last week I posted a few pictures and ideas on alternative layouts. The set in question was the Infinity Scenery Packs, Navajo Outpost. This set comes with four building and six containers plus the mat and all for the princely sum of 8 English pounds.

Navajo Outpost

Well, after having it a few weeks and playing a few games, including my first two full games of kill team, on the set, I have come to really like it. It is simple and cheap but provides everything you need for gaming. Yes you can get better looking set but they are also a lot more expensive, like a LOT more expensive. There are a couple of downsides, which I shall get to in a moment but overall I highly recommend the set, which is why I decided to bite the bullet and bought another.

Kurage Station

The Kurage Station is a slightly different set, with a different aesthetic to the outpost but one that I think will work for my kill teams. I did ponder going completely different and very "alien" but in the end I settled for a more human\imperial vibe. There are several reason I bought a second set, for variety and playing options, so that I'm not always using the same board but also cos there's bridges and who doesn't like bridges. Yep, that's pretty much the main reason I bought a second set, cos it's got bridges, two of them in fact. It comes with 4 buildings, 6 small containers (about half the size of the other set) and the two bridges plus the mat as well. Again this lot cost me 8 pounds, so for around 20 pound (ncluding all the postage) I have two boards with scenery, not bad really.

Now I did say there was some negatives, two really, both of which I could solve easily, probably with just one solution. The trouble is that the building and crates are very light and are easily knocked during the game, as happened several times in my kill team games. Secondly, the big building get a bit wobbly and deform when loaded with models, especially big ones like the new plague marines or a couple of deathwatch. There seems to be a simple solution to all this and it's to fit MDF frames inside. Now, I got the idea from eBay, where someone was selling sets of MDF frames, which were basically two lengths of wood in an X shape that fit across the insides of the building from corner to corner, bracing the set and also adding some rigidity of the center, stopping deformation I noticed when the models were on top. Unfortunately I can't seem to find them anymore, which isn't a problem as I wasn't going to buy them but I wanted to show another club member, who has a laser cutter, to see if he could knock a bunch up for me. I probably could do it myself with the MDF sheets I already have but getting them laser cut would be better. I'll just have to rely on my descriptive powers instead, what could possibly go wrong! I can't imagine it will cost much for a few bits of MDF, so even after I get them the scenery sets will still be excellent value for money.

Edit: found the after writing the post and and a bit of an internet trawl.

X braces

Kill team: first impressions

Well, I've finally done it! I've played kill team, not once but twice! After all these weeks of pondering and planning and musing, I have finally been able to see what all the fuss is about.

After two games I can say that I really like kill team and can see it being my main game from now on. As I don't get down much theses days due to work and family, being able to play several games in a day is great, plus only needing to take a smallish box with everything I need, rather than a large case, box of terrain and a mat, really makes a difference. But enough about that, how did I get on? Well, won one and lost one.

Game 1: Deathwatch Vs Orks

The Orks were running a horde list, with a nob, a boy with rocket launcher and 11 or 12 boys with choppa and slugga's. The pox walker in the picture was a stand in boy as one had gone walkies somewhere. I had 5 deathwatch, a leader with xenophase sword and bolter, a shotgun, infirnus heavy bolter heavy specialist, combi-melta and power sword armed veteran specialist (modelled with two swords and combi on pack) and blackshield with sword and shield zealot. The mission was the one where you need to capture your opponent's models.

Now, I probably didn't play this very well as I spread out my guys and charged the blackshield in first turn. I was really just trying to test out the system and try and get into as many situations as possible. While this worked, it did leave me very exposed and I ended up loosing three to nothing when we finished the game at the end of turn 3.

Headless veteran tries and fails to take out some orks.

Rather annoyingly I forgot my mat, at least I remember the terrain. The Orks are swarming my lines.

The infirnus heavy bolter really proved to be a very potent weapon in this game, although it does have some drawbacks.

End game, at the end of turn 3 this was the situation. I had killed quite a few orks but was unable to capture any due to the proximity of other orks. Also we rolled to see if we broke, the Orks broke automatically I think but I rolled a double 6! So two broken teams and me down 3 to nothing, we called it quits to get another game in.

So what did I learn from this game? Marines still suck in combat. One on one the blackshield could probably hold its own, with a good number of attacks and with zealot, there at t5 if you charge. Shooting is good, especially the heavy bolter, although you really have to be within 8 inches of your target and have a second target within 2 of that, to make maximum use out of it. Also I must remember that deathwatch have special issue ammunition, as I only remember for the last round! I don't know if it would have made a difference or not but it might have.

This mission definitely favoured the Orks , as they were able to swamp forward in numbers and stop me from gaining prisoners. Also I really need to remember tokens, I've enough from the two sets I have, so I just need to take them with me.

Game 2: astra Militarum Vs deathguard

For this, the tables were reversed, with my opponent switching to deathguard and brining 6 models. A leader with fist and bolter, a  (heavy?) Plague marine with blight launcher, a marine with melta (veteran?) Combat marine with bolter and two marines with bolters. I on the other hand brought the hordes, with a leader with bolt pistol and chain sword, comms specialist vox caster, sniper gunner with sniper rifle, heavy gunner with grenade launcher, plasma gunner and flamer, plus eleven guardsmen. We were playing the mission where you had to hold the opjectives to gain points at the end of each turn I can't remember which one it is off the top of my head.

Deployment and yet again, the guard hordes are squeezed in. You can see the objectives in this picture, one is on the central building and one is hidden up on top of the top right hand building.

I didn't take many pictures sitting this game as a was busy moving all the guardsmen around and getting in to the game. We played the scouting phase again in this game and while I went for moving a few guys forward, my opponent booby trapped the centre terrain price, which really put the dampeners on things. With this objective being worth 3 points I couldn't get to it with out risking getting one of my guys blown up by booby traps, while my opponent could just wonder around at will.

By this point were on turn three and the last turn of the game. By this point I had taken down all but two of the plague marines and claimed the two right hand objectives and while the lower left was being challenged, there was little chance of loosing it. I had abandoned the centre objective, but had made sure to keep a close eye on it, with my sniped, sitting on top of the crates at the bottom doing a grand job killing off the marine champion that tried to claim it turn 2.

The final fight, which ended up with just one guardsman dying and the objective held. 

This was another fun game to play and while we again finished it in turn 3, with the guard claiming a lead of something like 10 to 4, with only 2 marines left to 12 or 13 guardsmen. In the next couple of rounds I could have gone on to claim up to 5 point a turn uncontested, so there was little point in continuing. The guard were good in this game, with the highlight being taking a plague marine down with a buffed plasma gunner overcharging his weapon, with a +1 from Comms and re-roll 1's from orders, shooting at a marine in the open. My opponent was quick to shut it down by charging the guardsman with his combat specialist.

I this there were fewer mistakes in this match, a few things were done out of sequence but nothing that would have changed the game. I really like guard, there orders are still just as powerful and despite there inability to hit and wound very often, they do have the numbers to make up for it. I can see why people spam plasma, they are really good, especially when buffed but I don't really see it as fluffy and so I'll not be spamming them. Sniper rifles are good, but just as in reliable as in 40k. I was lucky this game and got a mortal wound off but apart from that it didn't impress me much. Next game I will be giving a melta gunner a go and see how that does.

Again, this mission favoured one army over the other, namely the guard, as with the number of bodies they could claim many of the objectives easily and obsorb any losses the deathguard could inflict. I wonder what the results would have been like if the Orks had faced the guard or the deathwatch, the deathguard.

I am really liking kill team and hopefully I will get a few more games in soon but life is pretty busy at the moment and will be getting busier shortly.

Kill Team: battle zone

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had an idea for a battle zone and terrain but I needed to do a bit more research before I took the plunge and brought stuff. Well after a few hours surfing the internet I did indeed take the plunge and brought one of Corvus Belli'' Infinity Scenery Packs, more specifically the Navajo Outpost Scenery Pack.

The pack contains a poster type paper mat, 4 card buildings and 6 card containers.

The mat is a single sided poster type paper mat with a full colour poster on the other side, presumably so you can stick it on your wall when you've finished using it as a gaming mat. The mat is also slightly to big, measuring 34x24, as opposed to the Kill Teams 30x22. The extra inches can easily be dealt with by adjusting deployment zones if needs be. I am unsure how long lasting the mat will be, as I'm sure repeated folding will wear the fold quite quickly and it doesn't seem as robust as the GW types.

The builds are reasonably thin but decent card, think cereal packet card board. They are pretty nicely detailed and the roof section is slightly sunken, giving cover when on the roof, which is nice for kill team. While they may not match 100 percent with the GW aesthetics they are a close match, close enough that they won't look out of place.

The containers that come in the set are made of the same material as the buildings and are again nicely detailed. They are just plain square boxes and some of the graphics are out of place but again, nothing that would stop you using the set for Kill Team. The containers are slightly smaller than the GW munitorum armoured containers but they are still big enough to block line of sight and such. There is no doubt that the GW containers are better, both in detail and robustness, but then they are significantly more expensive as well.

As we're mentioning price, let's just put it out there, if you haven't looked at this stuff, I would suggest you check it out, as this set cost me the princely sum of £8, including postage. Yes, that's it, £8. It might not be perfect and may not last forever, but for 8 quid I can get around 6 for every Kill Team Battle Zone. Not bad really.

The mat can also be used for other layouts, such as with the pipe lines from GW and Mantic. Plus I could probably put some of my MDF building on here for something different but I've yet to try that. 

With the price of these things, I've been looking at the other options, there seems to be 4 other scenery packs available. The Hephaestus pack look like it could work for Tau, the Moto.tronica pack could possibly do Tau as well. The Neon Lotus I'm less sure about, maybe Eldar or Harlequins? Lastly the Kurage station pack, which would do Imperium or maybe Eldar at a stretch. None are going to be a straight fit, the best seems to be the Hephaestus for Tau but even then it's quite angular for Tau construction. Having said that, I'm looking at the Kurage Station pack as a possibility, mostly as it's different to the Navajo Outpost and it has walkways, which look cool. I think I could get away with the aesthetics by calling it a high tech Imperial world or even rough planet, hence the Imperial military presence and beside who doesn't like walk ways?

Kill Team Designers commentary

Now I was going to have all the kill team stuff in one post but after reviewing the length of the post, I decided to split it down in to two posts, otherwise it would have been a very long post.

The designers comments are basically an FAQ and the designers statement of intent all rolled in to one and as usual there are some really important questions answered and some really stupid ones too. Ok, I know that just because I think there obvious doesn't necessarily mean that others do but asking if you can use your tactical re-roll to re-roll an opponents dice really should be obvious.

Anyway, let's take a look at what has been said in the notes. Again, I'm not going to go over everything in detail, just the highlights and things that I think are important.

There were several points in the movement phase that stood out, chief amongst them was the point that confirms that if you start the movement phase in combat but your opponent falls back, your still limited to staying still or falling "back". There doesn't seem to be any restriction on shooting though, other than the usual, so staying still seems to be the better choice. This has been a bit of a debate at my club and this ruling lands where I though it should, as at the beginning of the phase your still in combat. Also, if you react with a readied model, it's no longer readied, which makes sense, along with the fact that you can't react and overwatch to the same charge. For charges we also got clarification that if you fail a charge and still want to move, you have to move the full distance on the dice, getting as close as possible to your opponent or you stay still. No half moves in to cover anymore. Also in the movement phase it now says that you can't climb up something if there is no climbable surface, ie you can't climb up to an overhang.  The last thing to mention which is quite funny, if you get knocked off a ledge and land near another ledge, you can fall again. It brings to mind some of the classic cartoon, of the bad guy falling over a cliff and hitting every ledge on the way to the bottom. I'm not sure it will come in to play very often but when it does, it will be amusing.

In the shooting phase there are some further silly questions and some that I would never have thought of, like a readied model being able to pass in the ready, fire section and fire in the fire at will section. That's quite a useful thing. Also, combi weapons are one weapon not two, so you have to follow the rules for shooting a single weapon if you want to shoot multiple targets. I've always thought of them as one weapon but I can see why there would be confusion. Also, no shooting pistols at all if you get charged or charge. This is one I though was obvious but apparently not. We also got definitive proof that in multiplayer games, you can shoot other models in combat, as long as one of them isn't yours. It also good to see the issues around random damage weapons and also mortal wounds has been dealt with. It's not something I've seen but there has been a bit of discussion online about it and finally, if you've a model on 3 flesh wounds, there doesn't seem to be anything (ie tactics) you can do to stop it dieing when it takes another. There is quite a bit more in there but again, most of it should behave been fairly obvious anyway but not it's down in black and white, people can't try and game the system.


The fight phase is fairly simple with just 3 questions. The only one that seems worth noting is that if if a charging model has all it's targets eliminated before it gets to fight, it can only pile in and not consolidate.

The moral phase is even shorter, with just two questions. Does the order of nerve tests matter and what can a shaken model do. Of course nerve test order matters, afterall when you go through each step in the process, it has the possibility of changing every time, depending upon the previous test and shaken models can basically do nothing voluntary.

I haven't actually read the missions, bad I know, so I don't really know if these are sensible question. The one about objective markers makes sense and the one about terror tactics sounds like someone is trying to game the system for there advantage by counting models that are off the table as dead.

The tactics section again sounds like some people are trying their luck but any chance of that has been shut down.

In the choosing a kill team secretion, I think some people havent been reading the rule book properly, as all the points lists I've used all say (does not include wargear).  Also why ask why they give you options that aren't optimal? Choice people, choice and because they sell models equipped in that manor and don't want to make it illegal for kill team. As for making things specialists technically you don't have to make any models specialists apart from a leader.

Talking of specialists, the next section is all about the specialists and there various tactics and abilities.

Up next are all the faction specific FAQs. Some have a lot, some have only 1. Well run through them all quickly, some quicker than others. The Astartes are first, and there's nothing of note really, just a clarification for the auspex. Also, it clears up the wording for Deathwatch when choosing primaris marines, which was a little confusing. The guard only had one point, which stops you issuing an order to yourself. For AdMech, you can chip and chance between choosing and rolling for canticles. Oh, and read the options for wargear.

For death guard, DR doesn't affect the number of injury dice rolled for multi damage weapons and you cannot re-roll it, it's not on the list afterall. On the plus side the flail of corruption explodes on a 6+ to hit! The 1k sons get a minor boost (I think) for the all is dust rule and there's is nothing listed for chaos proper.

For the space elves, the craft world boys and girls seem to have a few problems with their weapons platforms, the key ones seem to be that of you ready the platform, the firing guardian doesn't need to be readied but it must be able to legally fire itself to fire the platform. For the dark kin, drugs are chosen after you've picked your team and the quin's don't have fly, despite what people think, so no shooting after falling back and even players are are clumsy sometimes, so can set of traps.

The necrons question is a bit random and I'm guessing comes from a non-necron player, after all if you play necrons why would you not want to trigger Reanimation protocols? Oh, and even mind shackle scarabs can't break the shooting rules. For the Orks, the question is fairly simple. You shoot at the original target but the wound goes on the grot. For the tau, you now need to just declare everything is firing overwatch using the greater good before shooting anything, not as each one fails. Pulse blasters are pretty risky weapons, always have been and saviour protocol's are still over powered.

Nids and GSC are last on the list. The nids questions a=e mostly about flesh hooks, which have got quite a boost as they are now the only weapon that can fire if the model armed with them is charged. Not a bad bonus. The other issue seems to have been the tactic metabolic overdrive, which has a mini essay on how to use it! Plus there is no point arming your warriors with more than one pair of bone swords. For the GSC there were just a couple of points, including the fact that genestealers don't gain the cult ambush rule for GSC.

One of the largest section in the commentary is about campaigns and the largest section is about managing your command roster. Most of it is pretty straight forward and ready only clarifies the way the system works, although on the whole it's a pretty easy system to understand, apart from 2 bits, both of which are cleared up here. Firstly, new models in your fire teams still cost the same as the rest of the team, so adding in a new recruit To a level 2 fire team means that you pay the level 2 cost for it, not the base level 1 cost until after the first battle, even though it doesn't gain any of the bonuses from the fire team. The other point of not is that you cannot change the wargear of a model once it's on your roster. Not a massive problem for most armies as you can just take several different variations in one roster.

All in all there are not many big changes to the game and nothing that jumped out at me as being unexpected. The errata and commentary both lean towards clarifying and tweaking the rules slightly to make play more streamlined and give us players a greater understanding of the game.

The Kill Team Errata

So, with the release of the Big FAQ 2 2018 we also got a Errata and designers commentary for Kill Team. Now I will admit I was quite surprised when I scrolled down to this on the list of updates, I didn't expect to see an update for kill team in this lot. I was expecting to see one at some point but thought that it would be done separately. This make me wonder if we will get anything for kill team in Chapter Approved 2018.

Anyway, what is in the errata and designers commentary? We'll start with the errata and the move on to the commentary. The errata is mostly clearing up some of the wording and options.

The first couple of changes are to clarify the injury roll system and also how invulnerable saves work. The next couple are clearing up issues around the terror tactics mission. I haven't looked in to the changes, so don't know how much of an impact they will have.

We then move on to a couple of updates for specialist. Again most of these are clearing up the wording and intent of the rules. The leaders ability has been reworded to.make it clearer and the  Comms ability has been changed so that it can no longer affect itself. The scouts ability has been simplified, 5o just give a 2" movement boost.

The rest of the errata is concerned with updating the various data sheets in the book. I'll not go through each change, as there's quite a few minor changes.

The first few are updates to the space marines and update tactical sergeant and intercessors data sheets along with adding the Medic Specialism to tacticals and intercessors, meaning you can add in a jazzed up apothecary model now.

Deathwatch and grey knights also got updates to there sheets to clarify weapon options. A big change comes to the chaos Flail of Corruption, as it is reduced to a damage 1 weapon now, making it less of an auto include. Chaos marines also got the option for the combat specialism. tzaangor's also got a wargrear clarification, although I have no idea what it clarifies as I've never even looked at the rules for Thousand sons.

The Xeno's also got a few updates. Eldar heavy weapons platforms automatically pass nerve tests, which makes sense, it's a mobile weapons platform afterall. The Harlequins got hit hard by this FAQ though, with two changes. The first, removing the special rule for fusion pistols, which is sensible and I believe brings them.in to line with 40k, like everything else. The second and probably biggest need in the whole FAQ, is the change to flip belts, clearing up the fact that you can't just 'flip' through terrain. Previously it said to ignore it, which 2qs silly, as it's still there. Now you just don't count vertical movement, which makes far more sense, both fluff and rules wise. Oh, and the neuro disruptor got bumped from S3 to S4. Nercons got a change to Tesla carbines, changing a hit of 6 to 3 hits. Again, don't know what this was before but seems very normal for Tesla weaponry. The GSC also got some updates, mostly changes to the Acolyte wargear options but also a rewording of the heavy rock drills ability.

The Tau got the most changes by a long way, however a good few of them are basically the same change. The original bonding knife ritual rule ment that any Tau unit could support any other tau unit, now it has to be aosrl from the same data sheet, ie breachers can only support other breachers. There were also some changes to the keywords for both versions of fire warriors. Drones, already good units , got some upgrades as well, with a 4+ save now and gaining extra abilities for shield drones and marker drones. While it may look like tau have taken a hit, in reality I think the changes mean just the opposite and overall tau just got stronger. There have been some changes to the specialists options,

Lastly for the Errata, we have the changes to the guard. I left these until last as I will spend a bit more time on them, as they are my main faction. With guard squads gaining the medic specialism, special weapon squads loosing Comms but gaining medics and scions getting clarification that Comms specialists need to have a vox caster. To start with the addition of medics makes sense, your not (fluff wise) going to send a squad off without some form of medic around, even if in reality the medic is useless. The changes to Comms also makes sense, afterall, why would your Comms specialist not be the one with the vox caster? It also brings all the squads inline with each other, with all the specialities being the same across the board, as they should have been from the start. The final change to the guard is a minor change to the Scion wargear options. Now, this is a two part change and the first part is quite funny, as I'm pretty sure we went through this exact same change for 40k proper when scions were first released. The change relates to what weapons the vox caster can have as the kit tells you to build it with a hotshot laspistol but the rules only give you the option for a hotshot lasgun. The changes means that you can have a pistol or both a pistol and rifle. I'll be going for the latter, as the pistols only got a six inch range! The second change is one that, in hindsight, was an obvious change and is the addition of grenade launchers to the scions list of special weapons. This was the only weapon on the scions sprue that wasnt an option for them to take. I'm glad they've included this now, as I'm quite a fan of grenade launchers, as they have quite a lot of versatility.

So that's the changes from the errata, most of which are just clarifications and minor tweaks to rules to make there intent clearer. All in all it won't change the game much and is a nice little update. It will be interesting to see if there are more adjustments in Chapter Approved 2018.

The big FAQ 2018 no.2

So, last time I looked at the Codex FAQ and Erratas, this time I thought I would look through the big FAQ itself and pick out bits I thought were relevant or interesting.

As usual there are some new Beta rules and some of the old beta rules have been made permanent. This time is slightly different, as one of the beta rules has been re-written and put back in to beta. We'll start with the beta rules that have become finalised. Battle Brothers is confirmed and the two other rules, Psychic Focus and the Targeting Characters rule continue as pretty much everyone thought it would.

The big change is to the Tactical Reserves Beta rule, which has been re-written and there have been some key changes. This wasn't what I was expecting but it does it make sense. I know that alpha strike units were a powerful force in 8th and were dominating the game some what. The previous beta rule meant that units could only drop in there own deployment zone first turn, now you cant drop at all. The other big change is the change form power levels to matched points. The first change seems to have come about as several armies, such as Genestealer Cults and Ravenguard had ways and means around the restrictions. There were also some changes to these abilities but I'll get to that below. As a result of all this, the new beta rule has been proposed and I think its not quite right. I understand that alpha strikes are not great for the game but I think banning all reinforcements turn 1 is not a good idea. I don't really have an idea of how to fix it apart from maybe restrict the points limit further but I don't think that's really the solution. We'll see how this rule plays out and if they change it again. I really like that they didn't just make some changes and go with it, putting it back through beta is a really good step in my eyes. On a final point, changing over to match play points is good, I know power levels are GW's new thing but very few people seem to use them and no tournaments I know of do, so it seemed to just be there to complicate things plus there was a lot of room for abuse.

Related to this beta rules are changes to a number of Stratagems, namely all the ones that allowed you to place units in reserve that normally wouldn't be able to, such as "strike from the shadows" and "forward operations". These have all had huge changes, meaning units now actually have to deploy and then can move, usually 9 inches. There are two things I don't like about these changes. Firstly, the standard move distance. Each unit should just get a move, what ever it's normal, data sheet move is. Thus still means each unit acts as it should, instead of giving some units a movement noisy and others a nerf. Secondly, I think having to revel the stratagem when you deploy a units is wrong, as it gives the opposition a chance to counter something that in theory you shouldn't know about. I think it would be better to play this stratagem after deployment but before the first battle round, meaning it retains its element of surprise and the intention\fluff of the stratagem.

There are also changes to two eldar Stratagems that are related to the tactical reserves rule but I don't know what the original said, so don't know what the changes are.

We then move into the new beta rules and this is going to have a pretty big impact on the game. The first, the "prepared positions" stratagem is a nice bonus and is going to see a lot of use. It gives the second player a chance to weather the storm. We'll see if its too powerful and means that everyone wants to go second but I doubt it. I will no doubt be using this for my guard as there is little chance of getting every unit in to cover! I can see this going straight into the main book without any changes.

The next rule, Tactical Restraint, is one that I hope they don't implement as it is now. I see the need for this, as with some combinations, such as the guard warlord trait and relic alongside the Blood Angels relic, were very powerful and I have in the one game I have used that combination, ended with about the same command points as I started with despite using lots of them. I do however, think that this has gone a little to far the other way. Only being able to get one point back per battle round I think is very restrictive. I think that it should be limited but at most I think it should be limited to being able to get one point per option or at most never being able to gain more than you started with. I think the intent is right but the execution is wrong and besides, all that will happen is that people will start including small Battalions, such as Guard ones costing as little as 180 points, to gain the 5 command points. two battalions will net you an extra 10 command points for just 360 points and in a 2000 point games that still leaves 1640 points for a main detachment and the possibility of at least 14 command points or potentially over 20.

The next section is just an adjustment of stratagems to balance the game out. Mostly its about command point increases. The Imperial Knights got quite a few price hikes, as they were some very potent stratagems, while the Chaos stratagem  got a cavate that means that you can no longer get a save better than 4++. The two of note are the increase to the Blood Angels stratagem, "upon wings of fire" upping the cost from 1cp to 2cp's. Not a great problem, even at two command points its still a good stratagem and has multiple uses.

The last change on the page is actually in two parts, firstly the price hike, up to 4cp, making it one of the most expensive stratagems in the game but its also one of the best. The second part is a long awaited clarification on its use. The stratagem in question is the Drukhari "Agents of Vect", seen by many as the best stratagem in the whole game, able to shut down an opponents play and alter the course of a whole game in a moment. To be honest I have no view on the price increase, as I've never played against a DE player and have never seen the stratagem used. However I have seen numerous discussions around who can use the stratagem. There was a lot of debate about the wording, as it didn't specifically say that it could only be use by the Kabal of the Black Heart, even though it was titled as one of there Stratagems. I think it was one of those cases where RAI and RAW really came in to force. It was clear it was intended to only be used by the Kabal of the Black Heart detachments but as it didn't specifically say that in the text, it could be used by anyone. Now however it has been cleared up and it now states that at least 1 unit of Black Heart must be in the board to use it. This brings the RAI in line with the RAW and makes it as it should have been in the first place and stops all the people who were clearly bending the rules to there advantage. It has also now been stated that it is only an in game stratagem and can't be use before the first turn starts. I wonder if the changes will see a reduction in the use of the stratagem or not. With the clarification that you need a Black Heart unit for the stratagem to be used, your now enforcing a tax on it for a lot of people, either through the auxiliary detachment and it's -1cp or through the use of a patrol detachment and the associated unit costs. Also, remove the Black Heart units and the stratagem is stopped. Maybe this along with the price hike is too much?

Which ever way you look at it, the big FAQ is another step in the right direction, although I'm still unconvinced by the Tactical Restraint rule. We will see what the Chapter Approved 2018 brings in a couple of months as well.

The big FAQ - Rules erratas

The big FAQ dropped the other week and while it didn't contain many big changes, there were a few little changes that might have a big impact on the game. I'm not going to go into every little change, just the few that I see as interesting or relevant to me.

In the main FAQ there were a few points of note, the first change and the one a lot of people are talking about is the first one on the Errata. The changes to the FLY keyword have pulled back some of its power and I am not sure that it is the best change to the rule but it will stop some of the shenanigans that we currently see, such as 0" charges. I think that it will change again, as I think that stopping them being able to jump over models when charging is a bit silly. Stopping them ignoring terrain or vertical distances is a bit still and I've always thought that measurement should have been measured diagonally from start to finish position or just to ignore intervening terrain or models. I'm not sure how I would have changed this rule but I don't think this is the answer.

The next change is to one shot weapons and brings in the options in the rules to enable you not to shoot a one shot weapon if you want. It was always silly to have it that if you shoot you must shoot with all the weapons, wasting a one shot weapon or not shooting at all. This is a good change, although I suspect that most people have been playing it this way from the start.

There is little else new in the way of actual rules changes and none that I think will really make any difference to the game itself. After the rules errata's ae the FAQ's and as usual there are a few that I thought were pretty self explanatory but apparently not. It has been confirmed that you cannot skip a phase, which I though was obvious, the phase doesn't not happen just because you have nothing to do in it, it just passes very quickly.

We also have another example that stratagems from different codices  with the same name are considered the same stratagem and there for only one can be used in a phase. I though this had already been cleared up but maybe not.

Next up is that using stratagems to shoot units that come in from reserve and how it interacts with characters. If they say "as if it were the shooting phase" that's what it means, so all the rules for it still apply. I know lots of people have tried to get around it by rules lawyering but now its set in stone. The same can be said for Heroic Interventions, no you cant do it in your turn, you never have and now its there in magenta and white. Oh, but you can in your opponents turn even if they didn't declare any charges.

There is also a bit clearing up the "Rule of Three" at the end but I've not bothered to read it as I never use the rule.

The blood Angles errata didn't change much apart from increasing the cost of the stratagem "upon wings of fire" which is understandable, it is a very good stratagem and even a doubling in price doesn't dent it's usefulness. I'll still be using this one regularly. The only other new thing is just the clarification that you can't use narthecium to bring back an armonium cherub. Makes sense, it's busy flying off to get more ammo and won't be back for a while.

The main changes in the Astra Militarum errata are centred around bullgryns and Stratagems. The wording of slab shields has been changed so it only affects armour saves, which makes sense. Two Stratagems have also been changed, "jury rig" has become a once a turn stratagem, which is ok, I'm not sure it was needed but apparently it was, not that I've used it much. The second stratagem to get changed was "take cover" and was modified so that it can only be used on infantry units, which seems sensible, being able you use it on a bloody great tank was a bit silly but useful nonetheless. Now it's just on Infantry, although there the ones that usually need it most.

That's it for the rules errata's, nothing major and nothing that's going to change the way that I play the game. I'll have s s lo at the big FAQ itself next as there are quite a few things to mention from there.

Kill team - primaris marines

A quick post today. As I mentioned in an earlier post I have been playing a few games with my son recently and I thought I would just put up a few pictures of my sons kill team. He has three primaris intercessors at the moment, with minor conversions to space wolves heads and I was hoping to pick up issue 3 of conquest for the Reaver's but the shop seemed to stop at issue 2 and I haven't seen it anywhere else. We will probably pick up some for Christmas or birthday, as he'll like that but for now, here are his primaris marines, glued and painted all by himself (I did the sprues)

Head swops, he likes the wolf face best and thinks the hair cut is cool. 

Post paint. I was really impreeimpwith his brush work on these, it's significantly better than his last attempts and I think given a bit more time he'll only improve.

Ok, going day glow here but it shows the colours pretty well. He's painted the hair of the central marine to match his hair, which is red incase you were wondering. 

I've a feeling that I might have to build some bigger storage trays as if he keeps up with his enthusiasm we could end up with a whole primaris force!

Kill Team: Astra Militarum

My Astra Militarum kill team is coming together nicely and although I have yet to get a game in, I have pretty much finished painting up the force. There have been a few changes since I last put it up here. They are basic changes to the roster, added a few more troops, special weapons and specialists. The reason for adding in a few extra models is based on one of two reasons. One, I decided to go for all special weapon options and as such I added in a melta gun, even though I am as yet unconvinced by there useful ness in kill team. Two, extra specialist are never going to be a bad option and with the latest FAQ, it has changed the options, so I've added in those options too.

So, what have I added in? Well a second Sergeant, a Gunner with a Melta, a second Sniper Rifle and a second Grenade Launcher. I also added in a Medic. I have always thought that the guard should have the option to take a medic, I mean not many squads are going to go into battle without some form of medically trained person. Plus I had already had a model made and painted as a medic that I was just going to use as a general trooper.

I've also fleshed out some more of the fluff for the force. I will go in to this in more detail in a future post but the basics are that these are the last remanence of various squads, platoons, companies or regiments who were thrown together as a necessity of war, labelled up as the Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (TRS) and sent out to locate and probe the enemy location, as part of Operation Enlightenment. The top brass consider this as a sound tactical option, the troops generally refer to the tactic and recon by fire, or getting shot at to see where the big guns are. 

So what is the final list and I do mean final, as I've pretty much finished painting all the models!

The Leaders

Sergeant [6pts]: Voice of Command Orders, Laspistol, Power Sword, Leader

Sergeant [5pts]: Voice of Command Orders, Bolt Pistol, Chain Sword, Leader

Both leader are built for combat although there primary role will be for orders and buffs. Guard are not combat orientated units and so there is little point in throwing them in to combat situations unless there is no choice. Having a power sword means that one has a bit of bit and the other just attacks.

The Specialists

Guardsmen [5pts]: Medic

Guardsman Gunner [8pts]: Demolitions, Flamer

Guardsman Gunner [8pts]:Scout,  Flamer

Special Weapons Gunner [6pts]: Sniper, Sniper Rifle

Special Weapons Gunner [7pts]: Heavy, Grenade launcher

Guardsman [10pts]: Comms, Vox caster

The Medic is there because I can but in reality I cant see him getting much use. The two flamers are there, as with the poor ballistic skill of a guardsmen, auto hit weapons are a good option. One will get a bonus for attacking obscured targets and one gets a movement bonus, to help get the flamer in to range quicker. The sniper rifle will probably team up with the comms guy, to take advantage of the benefits he can dish out. The pair will probably also hang out near to the leader as well, again for the potential buffs he can give. The last member of this lot is the heavy specialist and this was a bit of a stretch, i'm still not sure if its a good idea or not but as grenade launchers are assault weapons it does still get a bonus, so I took it. I can always scrub him from my list if it doesn't work out.

The Non-specialists

IllI not list every one of these as there is little point, but the basics are;

Infantry Squad Fire Team
. Guardsman [10pts]: vox
. Guardsman [5pts] - there are 16 of these.

A second vox is included for if I want a vox for its re-roll ability but don't want the Comms specialism or don't have space for it. Now 16 guardsmen may seem a lot but there's a good reason for this. Firstly, even with a full list of specialists and gunners plus a Vox, the list would top out at just under 50 points, still room for 10 guardsmen! suddenly 16 doesn't seem that many. This is the big issue with an all guard list, there is space for a lot of models. If I included scions, then the same set-up but with scions instead of guardsmen the points would be nearly 80 points. Quite a difference but the scions are reserved for my other list, more on that later.

Special Weapons Squad Fire Team
. Special Weapons Gunner [8pts]: Plasma gun
. Special Weapons Gunner [8pts]: Plasma gun
. Special Weapons Gunner [8pts]: Melta gun
. Special Weapons Gunner [6pts]: Sniper Rifle
. Special Weapons Gunner [7pts]: Grenade Launcher

So, this rounds out the list. Now I have for the moment just lumped all these in to the Special Weapons squad but I will have to think hard about where I want these to go. the guard can only take a maximum of 4 special weapons in a kill team, so spaces are tight.

So in total this gives me a list of 30 men, 10 to many for a roster but I intend to roll through the guys as they fight and die, so that I don't always have the same team on the table. Ok, I really don't think I'm going to get that many games in but I can plan for it!

I will go in to details in another post, give a full account of the squads backstory and also go through each and every member of the squad, all of which have there own stories to tell but that's for another post.

Kill team - Drop Force Imperator

I have brought in to kill team in a big way, even if I have yet to actually play a game! I'm hoping that situation will change soon but time will tell. As with 40k proper, the astra Militarum are my main army and will probably see the most games, as such I decided to fork out some of my hard earned cash on to the new box set, Drop Force Imperator.

There were three main reason that I did this. Firstly, the terrain. The munitorum armoured containers have always been on my list of things I would like to own but I have never really had a need for them. The additional items on there are also very nice and can add a lot of detail to a battlefield, something I have discovered in recent years can really make a huge difference to the game. The fact that the containers are also brown in colour and not the standard grey is also great, as it means that if I don't get around to painting them for ages, it's not going to be quite as noticeable!

The second reason for the box is obviously the figures themselves, although I don't actually intend on using them all in the kill teams. I will create a inquisitor to lead my kill team, using a standard tempestor stat line, although this will include some kit bashing. I will also be using some of the weapons and arms tonkit out the models I intend to use as my inquisitorial kill team, mainly the special weapons as I have quite a few already with the hotshot lasguns. As for the rest, I don't quite know what I'm going to do with them, they may join the Dagr Ormr Militarum Tempestus force or they my not, I really don't know yet.

The third and probably the main reason I brought the set, is for the rest of the stuff, the 'paperwork' side of things. Now, I have a full set of AdMech tokens and cards but what I really wanted was the guard ones. I have a pack of the general cards with all the specialists abilities and all of the universal tactics cards but having the guard ones is also very useful as well. I have found in 40k that having cards makes things significantly easier, organising Stratagems and psychic powers is as easy as laying out the cards on the table edge, rather than flipping back and forth in the book to check out what's what. With kill team being a faster paced games, I think having the cards will be even more vital to keeping things going in the right direction.

Also included in the paperwork are a couple of missions, which I may play at some point but that will depend on how many games I get and lore book, which was a nice little read with some good stories in. I always like these little extra lore books and stories, not only are they a good read but they also provide lots of ideas and options for creating my own lore for my models and units. I won't be using the preset kill team, as I like creating my own but my leader has actually ended up being almost identical in stats and war gear!

I think overall, that this is a really good value boxset, especially as I got it from a third party retailer at a very good discount. My only complaint is a general complaint across all the boxset and it's to do with the faction cards. I understand why they only put some in the box and not in the core rules but it's still annoying. I plan on building a deathwatch kill team as well and I already have to models, so I won't be buying the boxset bit that means I can't access some of there tactics, which is annoying. Apart from this issue, it's a really good little set, it does seem to be one of the few that can't field a full 100 point force straight off though.

Kill Team - Terrain

While I was browsing the internet looking for the Drop Force Imperator boxset on various discount retailers, I had a look at some of the various terrain options that I thought might be good for kill team. While there are almost unlimited number of kits available out there, I couldn't justify the cost of a lot of them or they just wouldn't have fitted any of my current themes. However, I did come across this box. 

It's one of the terrain crates available from Mantic games and is primarily designed for use in dead zone. I don't know a lot about them but there appears to be a couple of different options, this one being the industrial accessories kit and contains a big pipe, similar to the promethium pipes from GW, a thinner set of pipes, a conveyor system, a couple of generators and some small scenic bits. 

The conveyor, generators and small pipes.

The generators are one of the best features in this pack I think, they are just the right size to hide behind. They are also quite nicely detailed. The conveyor belt looks quite good but has one minor flaws, it is a raised system but is designed to fit over the main pipe work, there is no other way of supporting it in the box set. I have been looking around at ways of supporting it without using the pipe but as yet I have not been able to find a suitable alternative. I will keep looking as I think that it would make a very interesting terrain piece, something different. I could just run it along the floor but I think that then it will not have the same impact. The small pipework that is in the box is also an interesting piece but I don't know how useful it will be, it also has quite a big flaw in the design. It is designed to stand about an inch or so above the ground on stands, however, all the stands have the mantic connector system on the bottom of them, meaning that they won't stand up properly on there own. If I want to use them, I am going to have to go around and cut off all the bits off the bottom of the stands to make them flat and stand the pipe as it is shown on the box art. Its annoying and as yet I haven't been bothered to do it. One day I probably will, but there are other things to do first.

The main pipework

The main set of pipe work is very similar in size and scale to the promethium pipes and if I have done a bit more planning when inbuilt them, I could have used the ends that would have enabled me to fit these pipes (almost) flush with the GW pipes. The one advantage of these pipes is that they are a lot more modular, conning in a number of short sections, enabling you to build these in to pretty much any shape you want to. This in itself can cause problems, as deciding exactly how to build them can be take some time. Overall though, I really like these and if you own either the original promethium pipes or the newer plasma conduits, then this could be a very useful set for adding in more options and pipe connections.

Lastly I though that I would put up a little bit about the munitorum armoured containers. I got two of these in the Imperial kill team boxset and they form the last of my new terrain pieces. They are, as usual for GW these days, very nice bits of terrain. Not only do you get the containers, but 4 crates and 3 barrels per sprue. These make good scatter terrain or if I ever figure out the conveyor belt, the will be added to that for extra details. The containers themselves are easy to put together and are nicely detailed and as I mentioned in the review of the drop force Imperator, the fact that there brown is a bonus as it doesn't look like I haven't bothered to  paint them,

All in all, with this boxset, the containers, my promethium pipe relay and aegis defense line, I have more than enough terrain to fill a kill team board, that's if only I actually had one. I have an idea in mind but I need to do a little more research before I take the plunge and buy it. I'll let you know if and when I do though.