As every Warhammer 40k player knows Kill Team is the only skirmish version of 40k we currently have. There have been plenty of posts about it recently in the 40k Bloggosphere. Magilla Gurilla and Snake Eyes from Tabletop War are gearing up for Kill Teams to help motivate them to paint! Then the man, myth and someone who inspires me greatly B.smoove from A Gentleman’s Ones has been sharing his painting and house rules for Kill Teams with us!
First thing to mention is that Kill Team is a great way to get a few games in when you have not got a lot of time.
The current Kill Team rules are found in the Battle Missions book. It is meant for specialized forces to be sneaking around the tabletop completing certain objectives. Each player builds a 200 point Kill Team from their codex, with the following restrictions:
Elite 0-1
Troops 0-2
Fast Attack 0-1
Troops 0-2
Fast Attack 0-1
There are a few special rules:
No Reserves: all models including Chaos daemons must be deployed on the table.
Every Man for Himself: Each model in you army acts as a unit of one, so totally independent from the squad that was purchased.
Specialists: This is an optional rule, but it allows you to give three models in your army a Universal Special Rule from the MRB. Each USR may only be used once per kill team.
So that is the general gist of the “Official” Kill Team rules.
With that out of the way, I think Kill team is the perfect vehicle for Story driven play and creating unique flavorful house rules.
Here are a few House Rules that my group has used in the past.
Grenades: Any model armed with grenades may throw them with a range in inches that is double their strength statistic. Frag grenades have a small blast template and may be thrown at anything. Krak grenades and Melta Bombs may be thrown at vehicles and fortifications, they have no blast.
Priority: Each player rolls a D6 at the beginning of each turn to see who goes first for that turn. (This is similar to the LotR SBG)
Rock and Roll: Any model with a Rapid fire weapon that does not move may Rapid fire their weapons out to their weapons maximum range.
Light Armor only: no vehicles are allowed to have an armor rating over 33. Armor rating is determined by adding the 3 armor values (FA/SA/RA) for your vehicle together.
Team Leader: Pick one model from your army to be the team leader, preferably an appropriate model; if available a squad leader would be perfect. This model gains +1 attack and all models within 12 inches may test on his leadership.
We also use these kill team rules for all games less than 500 points. It works fantastic and gives some really flavorful games!
Yeah, I only play Kill Teams, because I don't have a single army over 500 points (well, maybe Orks). I am constantly changing my mind over what army I want, what rules to use, etc. It just makes the most sense.
ReplyDeleteThose look like some good ones to appropriate.
ReplyDeleteBig Jim -
ReplyDeleteI am lucky to have two guys I work with who also play 40K. Kill Team Missions are perfect for that "Lunchtime 40K". The games are fun. and short enough to fit one or two in a lunch hour.
Kill Teams really are a great way to get in a few games when time is short. As you mentioned, Snake-Eyes and I will be using them as a way to motivate us to put some paint on our mini's.
ReplyDeleteI do however wish they would come out with Combat Patrol rules - I really think they missed out on a golden opportunity in the Battle Missions book.
Mags - Combat Patrol is easy enough, it's just regular 40K with a few restrictions and low points. If you don't have a 4th ed book, email me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the great comments and feedback!
ReplyDeleteOh Mags, you're so silly, GW history is chocked full of missed opportunities!
Writing rules for combat patrol are so easy a monkey could do it! ;-)
Sons is right it's 40k with a few restrictions.
I'll do a Rules from the Man-cave write up on Combat Patrol tomorrow after work.
-Jim
I like those rules! Nice write-up
ReplyDelete