It always starts the same way.
He did have some new recently painted MDF gantries to play with. And as we hadn’t managed to get a game in since April, we decided to jump into something quick, easy to play and fun.
And so, I broke open the box of unloved Space Marines and headed across to York for a quick game of the new edition of Killteam.
I have in the past made my thoughts on 40k pretty clear (love the setting and the models, hate the game and it’s ever changing nature that makes keeping your army current a potentially expensive proposition) but Killteam has always been attractive to me. I even enjoyed the very first version, the one with goon squads vs your team of commandos. With the releases for the current version, I’ve also been interested to see them using it as a chance to make forces that wouldn’t suit full armies (Corsairs, traitor guard, Sisters of Battle Noviates) into fun and characterful forces. So, lets see if it’s any good.
Of course, before we started playing the game, the star of the show had to be the literal pile of MDF gantries that My Dastardly Regular Opponent had been working on. Using the last few weeks of warm weather to crunch his way through them using the patented Dreadquill method (all spray cans, all the time), he’s assembled an impressive collection. To keep things simple, we want played a floor is lava setup (the floor was out of bounds) giving us a chance to run all over the raised platforms.
As this was a beginners game, we went for Seize Ground, a relatively simple setup with 6 objectives to be secured. I took my Primaris Intercessors (5 marines including a Sergeant) while my opponent pulled out a potnetially devestating Ork force, pairing a 5 Ork Fireteam of Boys with 4 Burnas. We also decided to skip the Strategy portion to get a grip on the rules, just to understand the basic flow.
And about 90 minutes later, we’d finished off the first game. The Marines managed to get an early foothold, securing three objectives before pushing to grab one on the far side before the Orks could secure it (all thanks to having 3 action points to play round with each activation). However, once the Orks started whittling down the Marines (including the Intercessor Sgt being punished for his advance by being disembowelled by the Ork Nob with Power Klaw) then they managed to push back and claim objectives. The final result was 7VP for the Marines vs 5VP for the Orks.
Overall, this is definitely a game we’re going to keep in the box as something quick and easy to play, using only a few figures and a box of dice. I really like the tweaked shooting and fighting systems, alternating activation and matching dice rolls keeping both players involved in the game. It’s also something lots of my friends have figures for (thanks to just using the 40k troops sets) and is still being supported by GW so there will be plenty of content coming soon.
Now just to try to avoid picking up some of those lovely Traitor Guard/Krieger kits…