Kill Team 2010

 

So the new Battle Missions book is going to have among its offerings a new "Kill Team" mission.  I haven't seen the new book yet myself, but this is one of the things I'm looking forward to.

Back in 4th ed there was a Kill Team mission too, but at least around here it never really caught on.  While it looked really cool, I think there were a couple of reasons.  One, it seemed much cooler to be the Kill Team than the Brutes.  After all, the movie the above pic is from wasn't titled "A Bunch of Off-duty Germans".  Two, which ties into part one, you really needed two forces to play - a Kill Team and a Brute force (and would hopefully swap back and forth so each player got a chance to be the cool Kill Team).  Three, it required a bit more narrative and pre-work than a typical pick-up game.

From the sound of it the new version will avoid those issues.  From what I've gathered, it's a 200pt game, with 0-1 Elites, 0-2 Troops, and 0-1 Fast Attack.  There's also an option to give up to 3 models a Universal Special Rule, which all have to be different.  Each model acts independently - so no issues with coherency, etc.  

So instead of having to make and convert a special force (though some certainly still will), you can just pull 200pts from an existing army, making it a lot easier to get into.  No disparity between elite and schlubs, except by choice (like one guy picks terminators, the other one a whole bunch of grots).  With less worry about mutable rules, etc. it should be easier to get games going.

There's already chatter online about putting some restrictions in like no vehicles, and I think that might be a good thing, but would need to see a few games before being sure.  My instinct is the less there is that some guys can't affect, the better.  I look forward to these matches being something like a simpler Necromunda, a firefight between a couple of squads rather than a bunch of guys with lasguns against some Sentinels.  Combat Patrol had restrictions, and I think it'd be wise to institute some into the even smaller point level of KT.

Given how each unit operates independently, I'm curious as to how long these games will generally take.  In some ways it will go faster - roll a couple of dice, move on.  In others it might take longer, given you might have 30 different guys to make decisions for, move, check LOS, pick targets, etc. compared to a 40K game that will have many more models, but fewer units.

Another thing is that I think it's a great 'entry drug' type of scenario.  I can foresee making some forces just for KT - though in time some may well morph into full armies.  It's a small (relative to a full army) investment, so I may get a couple of boxes of Aspect Warriors or some Nids or some Dark Eldar or...

What are your thoughts about the new Kill Team, or the Battle Missions book in general?