Kill Teams Two: The Sequel

Veterans lead by Sgt 'Steelclaw' Harkonen and supported by The Patriarch's Hand
On Wednesday, June 16, 2010, I participated in my second Warhammer 40K Kill Teams tournament at Jersey Shore Hobby Center in Brielle, New Jersey.
For those who don't know about Kill Teams, you might want to check out my previous Kill Team. This time, they added scenarios (oh, you'll hear me gripe about those in more detail later) and randomly drawn strategy cards to be played during the rounds. Oh course, I wasn't 100% sure what the scenarios were and how they were played until after I had chosen my team.
My team consisted of IG Veterans lead by the Genestealer Cult Equivalent of Sgt. Harker, two grenade launchers, and the Genestealer Cult equivalent of Guardsman 'Sly' Marbo. Again my total was 200 points exactly. I planned this team because I heard multiple players were using either Harker or Marbo (or both), so I chose to fight Named Characters with Named Characters. Having Stealth for all my models wasn't too shabby either (3+ cover save!). I also thought having an entire army that could infiltrate would be a good idea. It wasn't.
My apologies if my commentary on the event is a wee bit biased...

Round One: Sovrus Valkyrie & Lt. Rachenko On City Fight World

I AM SPETZNAZ!
This was one crazy game despite just being the only regular kill team scenario. The legendary AshHammer brought his two model kill team that consisted of his Marbo equivalent (based on Dolph Lundgren in Red Scorpion) and a Valkyrie (based on a Soviet Hind chopper). It was a race to see who's bastardized version of Sly Marbo would be on the table first. It was AshHammer's. My Grenade Launcher guy managed to hit him in the face with a krak grenade and wound him. My lone specialist was able to survive two rounds of frenzied shooting, but got gacked in close combat. Then my Marbo showed up, immobilized the Hind with melta bombs (his demo charge failed to penetrate armor). After The Red Scorpion was felled by a lasgun shot to the head, AshHammer conceded. None of the Hind's guns were facing my troops and all my guys en route had krak grenades.
Today's Lesson: Next time, give Tank Hunter to Harker so he can get three S6 hits on vehicles

Round Two: Marines On Cavern World

I hate that damned Attack Bike!
Okay, this game was based loosely on a Mordheim scenario where the terrain features become objectives if you roll properly. My opponent had four scouts, a Razorback with twin linked assault cannons, and an attack bike with a MultiMelta that he gave Feel No Pain too. Ouch! I had all the objectives but I couldn't manage to take out the damned bike. Not to mention he had a stratagy card that let him put a dead model back on the table. Mine was a Look Out Sir! card that I forgot about until after Harker died. I routed. The next day, I learned a Razorback is a dedicated transport, so he couldn't field it unless he bought it for a squad of Marines; you can't just buy one & throw it on the table. That tank did as much damage as the unkillable bike!
Today's Lesson: Double check your opponent's Codex if something seems off

Round Three: Harlequins On City Fight World

Okay clowns, come get some!
I felt bad for my opponent on this one. Apparently, according to the weird rules for this scenario, the middle terrain piece was the objective and you only got victory points if you were holding the objective when you killed someone. My opponent gave one of his guys Infiltrate and I informed him my whole army could do that. So I did... right in the objective. Then I mowed all his guys down in two rounds. I didn't even get my Marbo clone on the table. I only lost a single model to the one Harlequin that managed to get into close combat. Only afterwards did we read that the Infiltrate ability was not allowed to be used in that game! However, given how fast that game went, it likely would have gone down roughly the same way if I was starting within 9 inches of it per the deployment rules.
Today's Lesson: Read the weird scenario rules very carefully

Round Four: Cadians On Ork World

Not these guys and their Chimera -again-!
Okay, this one totally sucked. The mission was to protect a VIP model from the enemy, there's no leadership testing like in previous games, and no one can infiltrate (not even Marbo or a Lictor if someone had brought one). This was all spelled out quite clearly before the game started. Okay, I spent my points to specifically make an infiltrating kill team. In other words, I couldn't do the one thing my guys were good at. To add insult to injury, my strategy card gave me a +1 to leadership for routing. I had a useless squad with a useless strategy card against vets in Carapace armor in a Chimera, backed up with ratling snipers. I should have just given up right there! Instead, I won the dice roll, chose to be the defender (since my opponent would have put the VIP in the freaking tank if he was defending), and did my best. Basically, none of my guys were in range and the ones that were got picked off by snipers and/or the Chimera's multi-laser. Marbo was a waste of points because he was shot 87 times trying to get close enough to demo-charge the tank. Harker at least immobilized the tank, I sent a guy or two to charge it with krak grenades, but then the vets in armor came out and wiped those guys out. I hid the VIP in a ruined building, tried to get close enough to start blowing guys away, and was killed to the last man (despite the 3+ cover save). I just couldn't make that many saves.
With my VIP the only model left on the table (and considering the VIP has Juve stats), I conceded.
Today's Lesson: Learn all the scenarios before chosing a kill team
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Final Outcome: Two Wins and Two Losses

Okay, so I'm still averging a 50% victory rate. Not too bad, all things considered.

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