Preparing for a Kill Team Tournament

[bluntpencil]

Okay, I'm going to be playing in a knock-out tourney soon. Any advice?

 

I've decided to go with a rather mean list:

 

• Watch Sergeant with boltgun (Leader)
• 4 Deathwatch Gunners with Frag Cannons (Demolitions, Heavy, and Comms Specialists)

Simple, but effective. What do I need to watch out for?

[Panzer]

I guess boards with lots of LoS blocking terrain against Harlequins will be a problem since they can just charge 3d6 over the terrain without you being able to overwatch.

Also mass of Orks Boyz or Gaunts where your opponent positions them just outside of 8" and does mass charges to raise the chance of rolling a 8 for the charge roll to avoid overwatch.

 

I'm not sure if you really need the Comms specialist considering that you will mostly want to be in flamer range. Consider a Veteran for the scout move Tactic instead.

[bluntpencil]

I think I'll switch the Heavy for Veteran - the +1 to hit can cancel out the advance penalty if needed (unlikely needed - if I'm advancing I'll be in autohit range.). I really want that Nerve debuff from Comms.

[Brother Tyler]

The first thing you need to do is come up with a complete command roster. No single "all-comers" kill team is going to be optimal in each situation. You don't necessarily need to populate 20 members of the command roster, but I recommend that you do so if you have the resources. Add as many more members as you can, and give them a variety of weapons to deal with a variety of threats. Also, have redundancies so that you can tailor kill teams with sufficient specialists and non-specialists (e.g., you might have two guys with heavy thunder hammers - one a specialist and the other not a specialist).

 

There are several discussions in this forum that I highly recommend:

 

Kill Team - Command Roster

Kill Team - Specialisms

Kill Team Building - Deathwatch

 

A single "all-comers" list is fine when you're just starting out in casual play, but effective play in any kind of campaign, league, or tournament needs a complete command roster that is as flexible as your local meta (i.e., range and styles of kill teams used by other players in the league, campaign, or tournament) needs it to be. You might get by with the single "all-comers" list in the league/campaign/tournament, but only if you're either really trying to challenge yourself (and don't care about winning) or if your skill level and luck with the dice is sufficiently greater than that of all/most of your opponents.

[Prot]

Is this a real tournament or a campaign?

 

I really don’t know if it’s wise to put all your eggs in one basket like this.

 

I’ve won a lot of scenarios involving objectives and without firing a ton. The inability to press hard in some of those scenarios will definitely be a disadvantage.