Kill Team Tactica: Adeptus Astartes

[Disruptor_fe404]

Did I read it right that a tactical marine sergeant must take a pistol to grab an auspex and then can not take a meelee weapon?

 

Yup, you read it right.

 

 

Grav is a weird inbetween. 6" less range than Plasma and 6" more range than Melta. Less Strength than both, same AP as Plasma. Only 1 damage unless you shoot it against Marines or Stealth Suits. I honestly don't see a reason to take this one over Plasma like ever. Maybe if you don't have enough points after paying for specialists and whatnot in campaigns ...

 

Grav is as good as normal plasma - range trade-off not withstanding - and is slightly better against MEQ (other than Death Guard). So if you have re-rolls, plasma is the go-to, but if you don't, I can see a case for grav. While running grav has the risk of being out of range by a little bit every so often, I largely don't think it will matter too often. Unless you're playing a 3 or 4 player game.

[Exilyth]

 

Did I read it right that a tactical marine sergeant must take a pistol to grab an auspex and then can not take a meelee weapon?

 

Yup, you read it right.

Thank you. Even if that makes the tactical sergeant less awesome than it could be.

[Berzul]

Yeah, sorry. I'm not saying you did, nor that grav beats plasma overall. Only that, specifically in kill team, grav seems to me like they are more equally matched in usefulness that in 40k. Over here, 18 inches for a S5 AP-3 :cuss seems pretty good. At that range, the extra +2 to S of plasma still makes a difference, but not THAT big a difference, is my point. And you save 3 points in your list, which, in Kill Team terms, is a lot.

[Tonius]

Grav guns are more interesting indeed !

I would have liked to have plasma cannon as a gunner option.

[Berzul]

Grav guns are more interesting indeed !

I would have liked to have plasma cannon as a gunner option.

Maybe they will expand into it later.

[Tonius]

I hope so: I’ll then be able to play my Dark Vengeance DA tactical squad

[Berzul]

I'm seriously sad that Chapters are all thrown in together... I really wanted to play my DA as Plasma-Heavy gunners, with a Plasma Cannon along my Plasma Gun and Combi Plasma.

 

We could have had atleast a Specialism difference, if not a wargear difference, between chapters.

 

Like, Raven Guard and White Scars could have had scouts more available, Blood Angels, Black Templar and Space Wolved could have had combat more available, Ultramarines and Dark Angels could have gotter Veterans more available, Imperial Fists could have had heavies more available.

 

Kinda how it was in Shadow War Armaggedon.

 

Kinda feel weird to me that a Blood Angel Gunner cannot take a Chainsword and Pistol, a Combat specialism, and rush forward into the fray.

 

... Yeah, I know I know. We hot reivers for that. But, you shouldn't be forced to take reivers to get the specialism that you feel defined the edge of your Chapter, I think.

[Tonius]

Maybe Kill Team Rogue Trader will bring Chapter specific rules, new gear/weapons (TDA !!! Edited August 7, 2018 by Tonius

[Berzul]

Maybe Kill Team Rogue Trader will bring Chapter specific rules, new gear/weapons (TDA !!!)

 

We just have to wait...

 

EDIT

Quick question:

Is it normal that tactical marines don’t have the option to be combat specialist ?

 

I kinda suspect it was done to push people into primaris models. Not everyone plays them, still, and this forces you to use them, otherwise you handicap youself to always playing ranged lists.

[Tonius]

I kinda suspect it was done to push people into primaris models. Not everyone plays them, still, and this forces you to use them, otherwise you handicap youself to always playing ranged lists.

Alas, I think you’re right about those damned Primaris Edited August 7, 2018 by Tonius

[Berzul]

I have a series of matched vs Tyranids on thursday. Lets see how well I fare with no primaris against a full blown melee horde list

 

Im going with

 

Scout Sgt Leader with Shotgun

 

Tactical Gunner (Heavy) with Missile Launcher

Tactical Gunner (Sniper) with Plasma Gun

Tactical Sgt (Comms) with Combi Plasma

 

Scout with Shotgun

Scout Gunner with Heavy Bolter

Scout Gunner with Heavy Bolter

 

100 pts.

Edited August 7, 2018 by Berzul

[Disruptor_fe404]

Count me interested in your result. Shotguns are meant to be decent weapons when they get into optimal range, but I remain... Unconvinced.

[Berzul]

I'm thinking, he is a Tyranid. He will get close, no matter what I do. Might as well pack some shotguns.

 

Always like to keep them. For close encounters.

 

/Aliens Theme plays

[thewarriorhunter]

I played two games this past weekend vs nids, here's a copy/paste of my update in my RG thread:

 

Got two games in last night. Went a little slow but we were learning rules and enjoying ourselves. I took my list with a few minor tweaks that didn't matter since those models didn't do much. My opponent ran nids, he just grabbed a quick list online and boy was it nasty:

 

Warrior - venom cannon (only gun, everything else was melee)

Lichtor

Genstealer x 2

Hormagaunts x 4

 

Bugs are fast. He was moving them all over the place with advances, getting them behind cover or LOS blocking terrain, and really denying a lot of my shooting. I'd say his average move was 11 inches, and when he rolled a six to advance 14 inches got really scary on the small play area (we ran the box board size, 22 x 30). The terrain was some awesome home made Necromunda stuff he had so we had lots of cover and elevations to play from.

 

I ended up losing both missions. I played to them but had a couple things I overlooked that may have changed things had I realized them. First game was the core rules mission. Ended up needing to be on one objective by the end of the game. I had a heavy bolter and sniper on overwatch that did OK. My reiver performed really well as a harassing/mobile unit, especially with the grapnel launcher (I think that's an auto take now). I ended up getting overrun and he was able to advance onto the objective with more models than I had so he won.

 

Second game we played the Search and Rescue mission from the book. It seemed fitting that I was the rescuer since nids wouldn't just eat their wounded... The objective ended up being on my opponent's side of the board. I was working my way up to it and thought I'd be able to make a mad dash but I didn't realize he had a ladder on a piece of terrain so he blocked me off. I killed a lot of bugs on my last turn but it was more for fun to see what I could kill since the mission was lost at that point.

 

Here are my initial thoughts:

 

• I don't know if sniper rifle's are worth it. In a game of few die rolls it makes more sense to take something that has more shots, like a heavy bolter. The MW on a 6 is nice but at most you're only rolling for that gun 5 times a games so statistically it's likely to not see the 6 in several games.
• With my limited experience I believe movement is the most important part of the game. There were many times I moved poorly not thinking about the flow of the game.
• Remember who has the Initiative. In one turn I readied a marine so he could blast a hormagaunt but I forgot my opponent could still move. He laughed as he ran his gaunt away and behind cover... wasted a turn with that marine as nothing else could be shot at.
• Primaris may be the way to go... 2 wounds will make a huge difference with being able to stick around and avoid flesh wounds. He Warrior and Lichtor were pains because they had 3/4 wounds.
• My MVP (even though he died early game 2) was my reiver. He was so incredibly mobile and had a huge threat bubble and I knew my opponent viewed him as the biggest threat.
• Ultimately in a game with such a low model count weight of fire is really important. I think I am going to look at redoing my list to incorporate as many 2 shot minimum weapons as I can. That means my scout sniper is probably gone... marines get rapid fire, reiver has two shots, heavy bolter is three, etc.

 

Back to the present: I have a game coming up Friday against a co worker. I've put two heavy bolters in it to see what they do, and I think eventually I won't run a sniper at all. I'd rather have three STR 5 AP-1 shots vs one STR 4 shot that might do a mortal wound. I am also planning on building a homebrew primaris only KT and using the AGL to make a grenade sniper because rule of cool.

[Disruptor_fe404]

My experience with sniper rifles has been similar to yours: they look much better on paper than they actually seem to be. At this point, I am thinking of only taking Scout Snipers as either Leaders or Comms.

[mel_danes]

If you make the scout sniper a demolitions specialist, for +1 to wound obscured targets, does it trigger MW on a 5+?

[Neophyte for your Ryghts]

If you make the scout sniper a demolitions specialist, for +1 to wound obscured targets, does it trigger MW on a 5+?

Should do, yes. The MW is triggered on a 6+, so modifiers count (unlike e.g. 'an unmodified roll of 6' style of rule).

 

Oh, and the Level 1 tactic for +1 wound rolls should stack too. Who know snipers were such good demolishers :P

Edited August 8, 2018 by Neophyte for your Ryghts

[SkimaskMohawk]

Yea you need to take demo on the sniper to make it worthwhile

[Panzer]

Combat specialist Reiver and a Flamer Tactical seem to be the best options against Tyranids. Just be careful to not hug terrain too much with your Flamer so he can't charge you without you having LoS.

 

Also keep in mind that Tyranids don't necessarily have to be a horde of gaunts and genestealer. They could just as easily play an elite team with just Warriors and Lictors.

Edited August 8, 2018 by sfPanzer

[thewarriorhunter]

The thing that bothers me about flamers is the short range. Nids can easily hug cover or stay just outside of 8" and then you're charged. Your flamer might have had a shot at another target if he'd had something with more range. I'm taking a Grey Knight with a flamer in a demo game with a friend so my opinion may change. I will admit I tend to prefer having range at my disposal.

[Berzul]

More than Flamers, I plan on a heavy use of Heavy Bolters and Missile Launcherd.

 

2 scout gunners with HB

1 tactical gunner (demolitions/heavy) with missile launcher

[thewarriorhunter]

I think Heavy Bolters > Sniper Rifles for us. I'm not sure if I'm sold on the ML because of the random damage and extra point costs. I think the tac gunner with a heavy bolter might do better. and the 36 in ranch on the HBs means you're still fully effective to 18" which is a huge percentage of the small play areas.

[Panzer]

Heavy Bolter is definitely one of the strongest ranged weapons in Kill Team currently.

[thewarriorhunter]

Give one HB Sniper to reroll ones, another HB Heavy so he can be a mobile gun platform and that's a descent start to a fire base.

[Neophyte for your Ryghts]

Yea you need to take demo on the sniper to make it worthwhile

Whilst I agree with this completely (as you are agreeing with me), the shock and awe of someone agreeing with me online prompted me to double check. While I'd stick by this line at Level 1, it's worth noting tactica-wise that at higher levels in open/narrative play a sniper specialist scout with a sniper rifle makes more sense, as the demolition specialism diverges into abilities and tactics which make little sense on a sniper. A high level sniper supported by Comms can really go fishing for mortal wounds.