Disrupt Supply Lines

Finally! Finally. I had the opportunity to play a game.

Genestealer vs. Kabalite Warrior.

This time I played against Matt and his nefarious Genestealer Cult in a Kill Team skirmish against my Dark Eldar. This is to be my 2nd game of the current edition of Kill Team. I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was and didn't have pen or paper handy! So I looked on my phone for an app and found this brilliantly constructed app, that was easy to learn to use, called Kill Team Manager. If you play Kill Team and own a smart device I recommend giving this app a go.

(This is not a link)

Today's scenario was a fun one called Disrupt Supply Lines. I was the Defender and the Genestealer Cult were the Attackers. Basically I had to defend the 3 supply markers from the 'Stealers that wanted to destroy them. The scenario has special strategems that we can use our CPs to fulfill the scenario's objectives.

Dark Eldar deployment.

The Dark Eldar set up was very much a defensive one. I had every intent to maximize my gun line and blast Purestrains and the Abomination before they could close on my team.

Skulkers revealed. 

Matt's set up was a defensive one as well, He did not want to be caught in the open so he set up in a way that allowed for the most cover. Also, by keeping them hidden, when charges are declared he can avoid overwatch.

Matt's right flank. 

TURN ONE.

The Dark Eldar win the roll off for the turn. I decide to not move anyone and just Ready the whole team. Having not played since the day Kill Team was launched, I forgot that we play in turn at each given phase, so when suddenly the Genestealers break from cover and rush my force I was a bit surprised. The Genestealer Purestrain Veteran was nasty and he tried to make it to one of my objectives but I was able to counter his efforts to destroy it. In the shooting phase the Warrior with the Blaster vaporized the Abhorrent that was lumbering towards our lines. Two more Genestealer Purestrains were cut down in the shooting phase also. With the Genestealer Cult loosing 3 models on the first turn things were looking hopeful for the Dark Kin. Things were about to be shown to be more than they seemed...

Blasting from afar. 

The Genstealer Vet. had charged my Wyche Fighter with the Shardnet and Impaler. She had no hope and despite the Dodge ability and Power From Pain ability, she was taken out without hope of a counter-strike.

The Wyche Figher, bested with ease. 

TURN 2

Realizing that I had no targets, and that the Purestrain Vet was only going to get shot when he next charged a guy, I decided the best course of action was to try to take him out at his own game. I charged in with the two Wyches. One of them was killed by an Acid Spit Strategem. The other one put up quite the fight however. We both played the Decisive Strike Tactic which forced a roll-off to see who would go first. We both rolled 6s. I said "What are the odds we'll do that again?" And, we both rolled 6s again! So we rolled a 3rd time, and this time the Wyche  won the roll-off. The Genestealer made the save however and so did the Wyche when it was the Genestealer's turn to strike back, thanks to Power From Pain.

Wyches charge the Purestrain Veteran. 

Turn 3, and it was getting very annoying not having anything to shoot at, therefore I sent up a few warriors to try to flush out the leader. But the Cult Leader leapt through the window in a desperate gambit to get away.

A slippery escape attempt. 

He left behind another Purestrain Genestealer, who I had forgotten about, that charged one of the approaching Warriors.

>ulp!<

That warrior was butchered outright. The Genestealer Purestrain  Veteran and the Wyche continued their melee, with neither foe going down.

Turn 4

A critical and strategic maneuver was staged for Matt to strike hard against my force. His Purestrain Genestealer was about to charge into my Team Leader who was also holding an objective. She didn't have any close combat weapons so I didn't expect her to be able withstand a direct charge for a this killing machine. He declared a charge, and I responded with overwatch. And I rolled a 6! And it wounded! The blast pistol absolutely fried the Genestealer, ending his rampage!

Blasted by overwatch

Meanwhile my warriors had managed to achieve LOS on the Genestealer Cult Leader. Not wanting to see what the shooting phase was going to be like he decided to charge the closest warrior. He took a wound from the Overwatch shot, but managed to hold his own in the melee phase.

Hurt but not out!

Over to the never ending fight, and finally my Wyche took a wound, but he was still in it to win it, even if he was now a little less effective at it.

Turn 5 came and the game ended.

Dark Eldar 6 points to Genestealer Cult 1 point.

Never giving up!!!

Wow! What a fun and intense game that was! My Overwatch shots were sickeningly accurate and made a massive difference to how this game would go. So did the Power From Pain save. The Genestealers are quick and fierce (like they should be!) And the way Kill Team works now, Overwatch is crucial for survival.

The terrain set up was weird. Although the Dark Eldar were in a great defensive line, the fields of fire were too small to matter. The Purestrain Genestealers had no problem closing the ground when they charged from cover. The Aberration and the two Genestealers I killed on the first turn are an exception, but I shudder to think how it would have gone for these murder-elves if they had managed to engage them! Winning every roll-off to determine sequence order every turn was a huge benefit as well. Luck was clearly on my side, and Matt's Kill Team could have easily shattered mine if my dice had been performing in their typical manner.

Once again, good game, thanks to Matt for (re)showing me the ropes for this edition of Kill Team.


Thanks for reading Neverness Game 1 of 2019!

Kill Team Launch Party

Kill Team Party!

Hello! This past Saturday my local gaming store, Hobbytown USA hosted a Kill Team launch party. It was a big launch for Hobbytown, probably the biggest I have seen at this location. They had plenty of Kill Team products in stock (which they sold a lot of!) And they had multiple tables set up for purposes of conducting demo games. And according to Matt, the man cordinating the event, they had quite a turn out for their first session. That session ran from late in the morning until 5pm, and the evening session ran from 6pm until 10pm.

The Kill Team event poster.

The event had some nifty give-aways: buttons (aka badges for my UK readers), a poster (for those who arrived early enough to snag one) and some really cool CP tracker dials. And pizza.

The Reaper's Mirth assembled before a dial.

I arrived at the 6pm session with 2 teams in tow, but I decided to run with the Harlequins since I never got to use them in the previous version of Kill Team. Matt gave me a super quick crash course on the rules, I threw together a team of 7 Troupers for 98 points, rolled up some quirks and background (fun but not game affecting), and I was ready to hit the table.

Racing towards the Skitarii.

Bob and Matt were already pretty familar with the rules at this point, so we decided to try the 4-way team battle. Bob had Dark Angels, Matt had Tyranid Genestealers, Jim and Chyanne had Skitarii and I had my Harlies.  One of the new (and refreshing!) changes to the game is the Iniative phase. All parties roll off each round to determine the turn order for that round. This added some variety to this game for sure and was especially refreshing in a 4 way match like this.

Genestealers pour into the Dark Angel wall of bullets.

I had a difficult time adjusting to how charging works now, but it was more an adjustment from decades of learned behavior than it was comprehension. This early mistakes caused some tactical blunders that surely cost some Harlequin lives, but my biggest foes were the dice were using. If I hit, I rarely wounded, but my armor save attempts were especially frustrating as I pretty much failed most of the ones I was asked to make. All well! LOL!

Look who  is charging who.

Multiple charges in the fight phase was an interesting thing to experience. In the pic above a Genestealer charged a Skitarii, the my Harlequin charged that Skitarii, then another Genestealer charged my Harlie. It was definitely a  crazy and swirling melee!

Slaughtered by Genestealers.

Once I got my Leader engaged with a foe, I finally got to expeience the joy of the Harlequins Kiss shredding a target to death. By the time this had occurred I was down to less than half of my force being alive. Most of the Harlequin had been shot to death by Bob's uncanny ability to roll 6s on Overwatch!

Harlequin Leader showing the clockwork guys how to dance! 

Ultimately this game shrank down to an area of a single building, the structure the Dark Angels were holding onto tightly! With a few marines left to defend the building from the invading xenos, the Dark Angels stood firmly in piles of dead clowns and shattered chitton.

This Harelquin and Dark Angel fought each other for 5 rounds! 

I had one Harelquin that charged one of the Dark Angels on the 2nd storey of the ruins way back on turn 2. That fight carried on until it finished on the ground level on turn 6. The Harelquin trouper finally surrendered to the beating it had been taking.

Finally it ended, with Bob hanging on steadfastly against my sole surviving Harelquin and Matt's remaining Genestealer.

The grand finale.

It was good, fast-paced fun and once we master the rules it should go even quicker for us. We hope to run a campaign at some point to as to experience the leveling system as well. I haven't gotten the book yet but I had really good look through it. I'm definitely looking forward to making some more Kill Teams as the diversity looks very appealing to me. Also, those numbered counters that come with the boxed game will be really handy in future 4 way games for keeping up with whose turn it is.

Alpha Legion vs. Dark Angels.

While we played our game there were other KT games taking place as well as a massive Chaos vs. Dark Angel 8th ed battle.  I think the Dark Angels won, but it appeared to have been an bloody good game!

This looks like a fun party, yes?

Remember To Take Your Rad-Pills.

Who is stalking who?

It has been far too long it seems but finally the stars aligned where I was able to play a game at the Hobbytown Game Night in Johnson City. The Bob was available, so we agreed to play Kill Team (and yes, we're hopeful for the new edition). I arrived with the Celestial Lions and Bob brought his Skitarii.

The Skitarii had their Radium Carbines and they were led by an Alpha with a Taser Goad and a Phosphor Pistol. The special weapon guy had a Plasma Caliver. The Iron Strider was equipped with a Taser Lance. I feared the Iron Strider the most, because the previous time I encountered one of these things it proved to be quite challenging to defeat.

Quite challenging indeed.

Bob won the roll-off to choose sides, deploy and go first.

Skitarii deployment. 

This time I decided to try out, for the first time on the table-top, my Land Speeder. This particular load-out features two muti-meltas.
But it chewed up enough points to reduce the infantry marines down to six.

Celestial Lions deployment. 

Despite having the Leadership Ability called Quick Thinker, which bestowed my leader with the ability to Steal The Initiative on a 4+, the Skitarii would go first. I was saying to Bob (and Michael, our only spectator) prior to deployment that for me this is the worst Leadership Ability. If I roll this one up it is guaranteed that I will botch the roll!

The field of battle and both 

Turn 1

Skitarii advance, taking the first objective and getting really close to another. They were not close enough, or had no opportunities, to fire upon the Celestial Lions so they ran forward and secured their positions.

Turn 1 advance!

The Lions advanced also but my weapons have better range. My first shots were declared by the Land Speeder upon the skitarii creeping up toward the unclaimed objective outside the ruins. I rolled two 1's. A lot of my other shots were a little better but these skitarii made their saves. I eventually took out a guy in the ruins with a lucky shot who happened to be a specialist. First Blood goes to the Celestial Lions, but it was going to be a tough fight...

Iron Strider strides forth. 

Turn 2

Powering up the Radium Carbines it was time  to unleash the radioactive death. Two of the Celestial Lions were brought down by the vicious Skitarii onslaught.

Death Dealers with Radium Carbines take objective 2.

Celestial Lions turn 2 and I had to get aggressive. I sent two Marines storming into the ruins. The guy with the special weapon had to go, and I was prepared to charge him, but I managed to kill him with a Bolt pistol!

Bolt Pistol  vs Plasma Caliver. 

The Land Speeder was able to get into position to take aim at the Iron Strider with both Multi Meltas. With a blinding blast, the machine was brought down!

Land Speeder claims it's first kill.

Turn 3

The Lions proved to be more fierce than before, but that only meant the Skitarii would need to roll up their sleeves and start slitting throats. Both of the Marines in the ruins were laid low by the Skitarii within, with the last Marine killed by the Alpha in close combat. The Alpha, much to his annoyance, took a wound during the encounter.

The Celestial Lion learns what an apex predator really is . 

The Celestial Lions are now officially broken due to their losses. On Turn 3 they have a Plasma Gunner, the Vet Sgt and the Land Speeder left. Thankfully no one bottles out. The Land Speeder shoots another Skitarii, melting him. The Land Speeder breaks the Skitarii. Things get dire however when the Plasma Gunner shoots twice with one hit killing a Skitarii Ranger but the other shot instead gets hot and he fries himself leaving just the Vet Sgt as my one infantry model.

Turn 4,

The high leadership value of the Skitarii Alpha, with his Leadership Ability extending his range for Leadership tests out to 12" instead of the usual 6", should've been a good thing. But Bob's dice wanted to roll high, resulting in the Alpha  and two other Rangers pulling out and leaving the other Skitarii behind! This left him in a position of outnumbering the Lions with superior firepower to having just two models left! The Vet Sgt was able save against the Radium blasts, much to tbe Skitarii's annoyance.

The Celestial Lions had to gamble to pull out a win as technically the Skitarri could still win with objectives. The Land Speeder hopped the wall and entered the ruins, with both Multi-meltas aimed at the last Ranger within.

"Hi there!"

The Vet Sgt moved up, but failed to kill the last Ranger with his Plasma Pistol.

Closing in...

As predicted the Multi-meltas on the Land Speeder reduced it's target to ash.

01001101 01111001 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100110 01100101! 

The Vet Sgt, surviving the snapshots, charged the last Ranger and cut him down with his chainsword, claiming the objective.

Objective and battlefield secured. 

The Celestial Lions win the day with a tabling of the Skitarii!

That was fun! And it was way closer than I may have had you believe. The Skitarii weapons are brutal, the the Rangers are difficult to take down with their Feel No Pain rolls to protect them. It could have gone either way right up until the Skitarii botched those three break tests at the top of Turn 4. The Skitarii had the tools to bring down the Landspeeder, so I made sure to keep it out of either range or LOS of those guns. Only it and Vet Sgt survived this battle. It was refreshing to have my Leader actually lead and survive a Kill Team mission -and be the sole surviving infantry model at that!


The Bob and I chatted about it afterwords and here are some of his remarks:

"And the really fun radiation rules didn't even get used.
LOL!
Next time...
I'm thinking I'll try some of the long range guys next time or the rust stalkers."

We'll see what happens next time!

Death by Flashbang

Straight to Hell. 

Hello, and welcome to another Kill Team battle report. This one is very much different from the other Kill Team reports as it involves 5 players controlling 4 different factions. This would be my first multiplayer Kill Team game, and my second fielding the Celestial Lions. The Bob chose to use his Death Watch, Screech would field his Imperial Guard Vets, and Jim & Chyanne would each play a small Blood Angels Death Company squad.

With 4 preset boards to chose from we decided to once again give the fractured ground with the molten lava fissures another go. Oddly enough it was still set-up from the last game, (supply-drop) that The Bob and I played together, and we decided to leave it just like that. Since we are only playing on just a 4'X4' section of the board, it was decided that Screech's Imperial Guard models should be placed in one of the "off board" fire pits as casualties accrue mostly so that we could all keep up with who he had in reserve and who was dead. We were all carrying on and having a lot of fun, and since Screech's IG are notorious bastards, someone stated that when they die "They skip St. Peter and go straight to Hell!". We were all in agreement with this notion.

Alone in the Dark was the mission we selected, but with the 4-way rules in effect. Three objectives were placed in a line in the center of the table to hopefully encourage more cross-fighting between the four factions. (Yeah, we'll see how well that idea will worked out.) Anyway, this mission has the Nightfighting rule in effect for the whole game. In addition to that we had to roll off to see who in our respective Kill Teams would end up in Reserves.

Celestial Lions Deployment. 

Only six of my Lions would start on the table. I divided them into 2 groups, hoping for solid strike at my foes and still be able to make a mad dash at the objectives.

BA Death Co. Deployment. 

The entire Death Watch deployment. 

The field of battle, everyone deployed. 

This game had a lot of chaotic, hilarious, and crazy events taking place. Therefore the following will mostly be highlights with a few comments. The turn order was Imperial Guard, Celestial Lions, Blood Angel Death Company and Death Watch.

Turn 1, not a lot happened really, mostly missed opportunities, missed shots and movement strategies. Accept for Bob's Death Watch who picked off one of my Lions (the gravgun guy) and earned a Secondary VP for First Blood.

 Turn 2, Screech brought in the majority of his reserves and placed them in a line in my zone and behind my KT Leader and another marine. My guys lived through the flashlight hits however.

Flashlight ambush! 

He also took shots at the ravening Death Co. marines storming down the trenchline at him.

"They are coming right at us, and they look pissed!!!"

Celestial Lions Turn 2, again a folly of dice rolling ment either they didn't hit or brought clips full of dud bullets. It made sense to charge the nearest Guardsmen only to botch that as well, and the Sgt found himself locked in combat with the steadfast and determined trooper.

It was a better plan in his head.

The Celestial Lions reserves came in on the Death Watch side, attempting an ambush, and that plan flopped also. I think at that point I switched out dice. I was very frustrated with my dice at that point.

"I thought you said these guys were undefended?!"

The Death Company performed more maneuvers, seemly obsessed with getting closer to the Imperial Guard. The Death Watch retaliated against the Celestial Lions, sending two of them after my leader. It seemed as if my deployment zone was becoming a battle royal pit. They killed a lot of Guardsmen, which actually pleased me.

"Oh, this looks fun!"

The Deathwatch, being Inquisition agents afterall, purged my two Celestial Lions in his zone.

The Lions have been eliminated.

Turn 3, and IG kill a few Death Company marines despite their Feel No Pain attempts.

The shooting gallery.

Some of these following turns get a bit fuzzy, so I will go into Highlight Mode (TM):

For example, someone killed the DW shotgun guy (I think I shot him in the back but I don't recall if I killed him? Or if that was the guy Screech Flashbanged?)

(Not sure what happened in this pic)

The Celestial Lions Missile Launcher with Sharpshooter arrived,  and with an amzing snapshot killed one of the Death Watch guys, and it was apparently their KT Leader! This earned the Lions the first Kill The Leader Secondary Objective of the game.

Snapshot of doom. 

Eventually the Celestial Lions Leader killed his Guardsmen foe.

"These grunts are tough!"

The Blood Angel Death Company tangled more with the guard. More of the Death Watch Reserves arrived, killing a guardsmen in their zone.

"Get off my bunker!" *WHOOSH!*

On Turn 4 the Death Watch returned the favor and snuffed out my KT Leader.

"Eye for and eye!"

The Death Company continued their assault on the bastion controlled by the Death Company. They used their jump packs to assault the troops on the roof. Tbey killed one of the guardsmen up there but one guy refused to be killed and hold out for a few Close Combat phases.

Attacking the roof.

The Celestial Lions continued the assault on the IG held trenchline. One of the Lions was overhelmed by them and eliminated. The heavy flamer guy at the end of the trenchline was proving to be very resilient, and survived a lot of bolter rounds that were sprayed his way. Same goes for the three marines in the pic below who were also dodging las blasts. I wanted to kill the Sgt that was in this trenchline as I really wanted my revenge against his from the last time I encountered him. He, and his small cluster of men, are holding and objective in the trenchline and I was focused on getting it. The Celestial Lion on the crater is holding an objective also.

Trench warfare.

Meanwhile the Death Company continued their assault on the rooftop guardsman, only to continue to be held back by the bayonet weilding fiend.

"How is he surviving this?!"

Also out of no where, a Death Company marine in the control of Chyanne, charged the Celestial Lion holding the objective and a fierce hand melee would begin with neither warrior defeating his foe.

"The objective is mine!" "No, mine!"

Typical of the treachery that Screech is renowned for, and not having any of his troops in the fight, his Guardsman weilding the Heavy Flamer immolated the Death Company and Lion marine who were locked in combat with each other. But they cared not, and continued to clash amongst the flames!

A literal fire fight.

It was looking like it would be the last round of the game so I decided to have the Missile Launcher Marine make a dash for the objective on that side of the table. He reached it and held it while dodging bullets from the Death Watch and Death Company marines.

Taking the objective! 

In the trenchline I was happy to kill that Sgt only to discover that he was not the IG KT Leader afterall. That guy was snuffed by the Death Watch in a previous round and somehow I had not realized it! Still killing traiter guard is always fun no matter their individual relevance. Sadly one of my Celestial Lions would fall. Bring my Kill Team to it's break point and earning the IG a Secondary Objective. But at least I now had a marine on all three objectives!

Trench warfare continues.

Ultimately the guardsmen on the bastion top would be overwhelmed and slaughtered by the blood lusting Khorne worshippers in denial.  One of Chyanne's Death Company would start an assault on one of the guardman at the bastion's base that had been attacking her for most of the game. I do not recall the outcome of this clash however...

Seizing the bastion.

That was the last in-game pic I took. I am sure there was stuff I missed (or got wrong) but without a pic it's difficult to recall exactly what those events were. With a cast of the die, the game was ended at that point. The Celestial Lions held one Objective and contested the other two.

Victory Points tallied out as follows:
Blood Angel Death Company =0.
Celestial Lions- 1 Objective, Slay the Leader (DW), Break The Enemy (IG).
Death Watch- First Blood, Slay the Leader (CL), Breaking IG = 3 VPs.
Imperial Guard- Break The Enemy (DW & CL) = 2 VPs.


One of the highlights, at least for Screech, was that he got to kill a marine with a defensive grenade!

Screech: "I mean, that guy is the real MVP for the IG.  "What's worse for a Death Watch Marine than being killed by a Guardsman?  Being killed by a Guardsman with a Flashbang."

The highlight for Jim and Chyanne was the slaughtering of Screech's Imperial Guard, which they had declared early on was the only objective they cared about (it's a vendetta thing).

Jim: "Such a small and weak heretic (that looked like a guardsman) should have his name immortalized as a deceptively fearsome opponent -before ripping his head off and diembowling him!" (In regards to the guardsman that locked two Death Company marines in close combat for a few turns).

As you can see, having Screech place his dead directly in Hell was rewarding for all of us:

So many souls to stoke the fires of Hell.