Minimal Shooting in Kill Team 40K?

[Master Cruz]

Hello,

 

I have been watching many online battle Reports on Kill Team 40K to judge my interest in the game. 

 

It seems that many game develop into a mass scrum of melees and charges.  I see little or no shooting. 

 

This that a proper impression of the game?

 

Thanks

[Kinstryfe]

It depends a lot on the teams involved and the scenario. I've played some games where cc never even happens, and other where by turn 2 I'm completely stuck in. It's definitely going to happen more often than not though in scenarios where you have to fight over a physical Objective on the board, or missions with the capture element.

[Azekai]

To add to what Kinsryfe said, even if you have shooty teams, it can be tactically beneficial to get into a fistfight. My Genestealer initiates are happy to tie up Astartes in cc, since eating one attack is better than getting double tapped by a bolter.

[DuskRaider]

Fighting against Tau or Ad Mech (or using my Ad Mech) CC rarely if ever actually happens. Both of those forces know if you're in CC something went really bad and you're probably on your way out.

[Dosjetka]

I've got to agree with DuskRaider there. Case in point, last week I got taken down by a T'au Kill Team in one turn of shooting. And yet my shooting (with Genestealer Cults) was abyssmal. So it very much depends on what faction you choose and how you play around with the various auras, stratagems, and specialists.

[Gederas]

I've got to agree with DuskRaider there. Case in point, last week I got taken down by a T'au Kill Team in one turn of shooting. And yet my shooting (with Genestealer Cults) was abyssmal. So it very much depends on what faction you choose and how you play around with the various auras, stratagems, and specialists.

Ugh... Don't remind me of the Blueberries. My first game of Kill Team I played was Deathwatch V T'au. I got SLAUGHTERED in one turn, only thing my marines did was the Flesh Tearer with the Shotgun killed their leader (thank you Wyrmsbreath Rounds) and the Blackshield killed a single Drone.

 

Their "everyone can overwatch, including drones" is STUPID good in Kill Team.

[Master Cruz]

Thanks for replies. 

 

How much does terrain clutter play a factor? 

 

Tau "greater good" is Op huh?

[DuskRaider]

Terrain can limit ranged combat somewhat but when you have units like Rangers with an Arquebus (sp?) and a Comms Specialist along with him you better hope they don't have access to a good vantage point because they'll reach you literally anywhere on the board from Turn One onward.

[Maschinenpriester]

Ich think it is important to use Additional Terrain to the kill Zone boxes. Especially LOS blocking terrain makes the game more interesting imoh.

[Brother Tyler]

Ich think it is important to use Additional Terrain to the kill Zone boxes. Especially LOS blocking terrain makes the game more interesting imoh.

Absolutely. With the smaller board size, LOS blocking terrain is essential in Kill Team games. It shouldn't guarantee absolute protection from shooting, but should afford opportunities to move and force the right number of tactical decisions (i.e., which avenues of approach to cover with Overwatch, which ones to use to close with the enemy, etc.).

[Rogue]

I'd echo that. I've found that the terrain in the started box looks amazing, but doesn't provide a ton of line-of-sight blocking. All of those gothic windows drop to below head height, which really limits the number of walls you can hide behind. We've taken to using a couple of extra pieces (like a manufactorum or a sanctum) to provide dead areas that are difficult to see into.

 

We've not had the same issue with the munitorium killzone terrain - those containers do a lot to block sight-lines, whilst still being low enough to move over or around fairly easily. We've not had to add extra terrain there. (And at the risk of sounding like I'm self-promoting; over in the battle report thread I've got a bunch of reports that feature lots of top-down shots of the battlefield, so you can see what I'm talking about in terms of terrain density.)

 

 

Regarding the original point, about shooting and combat: it's a small table. If you want to get into combat, it's difficult to stop you (especially with good terrain, so you can't just sweep the approaches with overwhelming firepower each turn). And in most cases, one side of the other is going to see an advantage in getting up close and personal - I'd rather have my neophytes punching rangers than trying to out-gun them. I mean, the Ad Mech are better either way, but the gap is closer in combat. Unless both sides really fancy their chances at range, someone is going to be aiming for close-combat, and will probably get there.

 

Plus, the game itself rewards close-quarters play. Most missions involve objectives, which you need to be within 2" of to control, or require you to reach certain areas of the board. And because a successful charge takes away your movement and/or shooting (or pushes you into a retreat reaction, which achieves the same anyway), I can have much more influence over your tactical options when I'm inside charge range. In a way that shooting can't quite emulate - yes, I can use my fields of fire to make certain areas of the board difficult to cross, but you can probably find a way around, because you still have options. In combat, you don't. 

 

And some models have area effects (reduce leadership within 3", for example) which reward getting the enemy within that bubble. 

 

Finally, some missions start the teams very close together. We played one this week where I could deploy just 5" from her deployment zone. Couple that with the cult ambush rule, and I could have been inside the Ad Mech deployment zone before the game had even started. At which point, close combat is going to happen, guns or no guns.

[Gederas]

How much does terrain clutter play a factor? 

 

Tau "greater good" is Op huh?

It plays a major factor. If Line-of-sight is blocked, it means melee has a much easier time of happening.

 

Well... It's one of the only rules to be changed from normal 40k to Kill Team. In that it's unchanged, but now T'au DRONES can use it. Do you know what happens when a Marine charges a single T'au Firewarrior and there happens to be like 4 or more drones within 6 inches?

 

Death by Overwatch is what happens.

 

It's less OP and more "who thought that was a good idea?".

 

[SkimaskMohawk]

The marine makes the charge, statistically. You need 27 str 5 shots to force a failed save on overwatch, which is still a 50/50 to kill.

 

Marines are solid against tau, with veteran reivers. Pre move+advance into decisive charge from out of los gives you a very hard to counter charge, most likely without overwatch due to walls and grapnel launchers.

 

I played my buddies tau the other week in a Commander game. He had a full 20 dudes including a lvl 3 aura bot fireblade; I had 7 including a lvl 4 shooting stalker Bolt lieutenant who killed a drone in the entire game, aura never was used. So effectively 100pts down, with 3 reivers. I won, 15-12 on turn 6.

 

Use decisive move + adaptive tactics, use terrain to mitigate overwatch, use decisive move in subsequent turns to charge new models in so they can't retreat.

[Raven1]

Definitely depends on the killteam. My last game my Deathwatch went against a horde of Orks. I went out of my way to avoid combat.

 

I also played a game with a breakout mission where i had to move at least half my models off the far board edge. Staying in combat or shootouts i would lose the game so the name of the game was stay mobile and break from combat or retreat as much or as far as possible.

[Tordeck]

My first game with Deathguard we rolled up a mission and the terrain left a wide hole in the middle of the board. Scions shot me off the board before I could make melee. 4 PM 7 PW. And I've lost count of the Deathwatch teams that have tried to kite around the board. Shooting exists. Good use of terrain can mitigate the effectiveness is all.