I have been looking into delving back into the world of Warhammer 40,000 recently in the light of a lot of our talk about it on The Weekender and such. With this in mind I dug out my Chaos Space Marines (mended the ones that were broken) and then thought about how best to get back into the whole scene. The game mode that came to mind was Kill Team.

Go Big Or Go Home!

A few friends and I had broached the subject of doing some Kill Team this week and last night we got together and realised we could either play some one versus one games against our respective warbands or try something different. Immediately we noticed that I was playing Chaos and so was another chap, and the other two were playing Dark Eldar and Eldar respectively. Surely this means a big four player scrap is in order?

With that sorted out we each took a corner of the board and assembled our teams. Our goal was to make this as fun as we could so decided that each side could shoot at their 'friends' if they really wanted to. After all, the only way to claim victory was to be the only faction around the centre objective at the end of the game. Sounds rife for some backstabbing!

I was taking a clutch of Cultists who were most likely wondering why on earth they had been bought along to this conflict. They were joined by five Chosen with a collaboration of Power Swords, Heavy Bolter and Flamer (quite the weapon for dealing with a terrain heavy board). My friends Chaos warband was much the same but it was made up of Noise Marines and the familiar Cultist brood. One of their number had also bought along a flamer and the template weapons of the Noise Marines were going to be ace.

Across the board the Dark Eldar had assembled with a Kabalite Squad armed to the teeth with nasty rifles and a blaster for making sure we felt the pain. His other squad consisted of a unit of Harlequins that proved to be quite the target. The Eldar player picked up a squad of Guardians and were joined by some Dire Avengers with their ridiculously good weaponry.

Much like with Regiments of Renown you choose some members of your Kill Team to be specialists and they can choose from pretty much all the special rules in the main rulebook. I chose to give my leader, Cornen the Conqueror, Rage while I had Feel No Pain and Blind on two of my other Chosen armed with Power Swords. Their names were Havva and Luca the Blind respectively (Luca has a spectacular ability to hit pretty much anything despite his model being blindfolded).

With that sorted it was time to get stuck in!

Battle For The Landing Platform

The objective stood in the middle of the board and was surrounded by masses of building terrain to simulate the blasted area around a landing platform that had been erected by the Imperial Guard (or should I say Astra Militarum?). Being vacant at the start my narrative for the game was going to be that each side was looking to secure the platform to allow their forces to bring down ships without crash landing in ruins and such elsewhere. Of course while there was an alliance of sorts each side wanted it to be their leader that managed to make landfall first.

With each of us in the corners the first turn of the game was a flurry of movement. We agreed that each of us wasn't going to be able to shoot anyone to begin with so just forwent the usual rules and turn order and just moved everything we could. Each soldier in your Kill Team moves individually from that point on so as you can imagine when we made run moves there was a fair bit of dice rolling going on.

From that point on we made it so that we would roll for initiative each turn. A lot of us, sensing that this would be the first turn of shooting, wanted to go first. Dice were rolled and jokes were made about the chance of re-rolls but my Chaos brothers went first followed by the Eldar and then finally little old me.

The shooting was fairly nasty to begin with. The Noise Marines blast weapon claimed the life of two Guardians while a bit of stray Bolter fire killed another. Across the other side of the battlefield some auto-pistol shots rang off the Gothic architecture and managed to bring down one Kabalite. The Eldar responded in kind when it was their turn by practically decimating my Cultists and cutting down about half of their number with shredding blasts from their Shuriken Rifles. The Dark Eldar bought their nasty weapons to bring as well and made the Noise Marines pay for their earlier blasting of their battle brothers by killing the chap with the Doom Siren.

This was also the first spot of 'friendly fire' as one of the Dark Eldar fired off a random pistol shot towards a Dire Avenger who ducked just in time to see the poisonous shot dripping down the brickwork of his hovel. I'm sure the Eldar just chalked that one up to excitement?

My turn was less impressive with a bit of Bolter fire cutting down two Eldar. My Cultists, scared for their lives, ran for the objective thinking that that would surely be the best course of action as Cornen roared orders at them. My Chosen with the Flamer moved up into a good position and prayed for initiative next turn.

You Weren't There Man!

The rest of the turns were pretty much a swirl of action and combat and it's pretty hard to break it all down into clearly defined turns I'm afraid. So, instead I will tell you some of the highlights.

One of the funniest moments came from the Dark Eldar. They had been nearly flamed earlier by a dangerous looking Cultist with a Flamer and so wanted some revenge. That being said the Kabalites lined up and essentially plugged as many rounds into the dude as they could. Most of them missed, a few did hit, but then failed to wound. This Cultist was made of sterner stuff and in the subsequent activation moved and toasted much all of his aggressors.

Across the other side of the battlefield my Chaos Chosen did the same, barbequing a few Eldar in a ruin. He didn't last as long as his Cultist brother though and was shot to death by Dire Avengers looking for, well, revenge. The Exarch of the Dire Avengers ran around the corner and sensing the presence of Chaos Worshippers charged into one of my Chosen, Havva, who had Feel No Pain. This had saved him from deadly shooting and he also survived the first round of attacks from this skilled swordsmen. He then failed to wound in return, but less said about that the better.

Eventually all the warbands had mashed together and one of my plucky Cultists, a Guardian and a Noise Marine had clambered up on top of the landing platform. The fighting was still going on elsewhere but it appeared that my Cultist was severely out matched. As you might imagine he was shot to death and bit the dust from Guardian fire. The Noise Marine that had clambered up then shot him full of holes and moved up to the objective to take it.

Cornen, sensing a chance for victory clambered up after the hapless Cultist and seeing victory within his grasp ran up with his bucket of attacks and cut the Noise Marines legs off, flinging him from the platform in a roar of glory. It looked like victory was secure. Alas that was not to be as the surviving member (the rest being shot to death by Noise Marines and Cultists) of the Harlequins jumped up and charged Cornen. He thought his rage would keep him alive but the Harlequin just danced away from his thrusts and swings and bought him down. I'm fairly sure Cornen was muttering "This was a bad choice" as he collapsed to the ground.

The game was decided in the final turn of the game. I was wiped out and so were the Dark Eldar. The Noise Marines and Cultists were on top of the landing platform with the Eldar taking up firing positions on the buildings nearby. All it would take is four casualties and a forced retreat and the Eldar player would win. Three of the four kills hit and bought down their foes but the all important one against the Marine holding the middle position failed and he chuckled as he punched the control panel and waited for the ships to land.

The game ended with the Eldar ducking back into the ruins, their Exarch knowing full well that they would need to regroup. I'm sure at this point the Noise Marines also realised how much of a traitor Cornen was and killed him as he stood there groaning after the Harlequins sword stuck through his ribs.

Fun Or Folly?

So was it fun? Yes! Was it a good introduction back into Warhammer 40,000? Yes! Would I do that big a game again? Errm...possibly! The four player game was fun and it was chaotic too, which I like. It also provided a bunch of excellent moments where people scrapped it out and looked to betray their supposed allies which I thought was a neat addition. The best thing was that everyone was generally up for it and didn't take it too seriously.

The problem however came that it was a lot more complicated with four players than it should be and Kill Team is very much made for two players battling it out for the one objective. Movement is a pain with four players and it can get very confusing working out who has shot and who hasn't. I can see it being a lot of fun and the ability to level up your leader and then head back out there means you can make some pretty ace little stories.

The best thing about it is that you can essentially make a Kill Team out of any box of models from Troops, Elites or Fast Attack you can think of. I will include the PDF link below but it means you can buy a box, make them how you like, and then take to the tabletop for a quick game of Warhammer 40,000.

I am looking to do that with my Space Wolves (The Aesir Wolves) that I am starting to build up to around 750/1000pts. I can't wait to take the Norse Gods into Kill Team to see how they take to it.

Kill Team PDF

Have you been playing Kill Team?