On using tokens

[Calyptra]

Because I got the starter box, I've been using Kill Team's tokens in my games. They're helpful, although I haven't had difficulty keeping track of which of my models have done what each round.

 

I do have a complaint about them: the set does not include tokens for flesh wounds. Instead, there are boxes to check off for flesh wounds on the roster cards, which makes finding a way to non-permanently mark on the cards a whole issue unto itself. (I don't think they make sleeves that size, but getting the cards laminated would let you use a dry erase marker.) Currently I'm marking flesh wounds the same way I handled lost wounds in previous editions of 40k: with D4s.

 

Most of the people I have played against so far have not bought a box and are not using tokens. In my last game, my opponent did the easy and practical thing I see players do all the time, and marked everything with D6s. I found it extremely confusing, because he was using different colors to represent flesh wounds, shaken, readied, etc, and I had trouble remembering which color represented what.

 

Thinking about the game afterwards, it occurred to me that the tokens are for the benefit of your opponent at least as much as they're for you. I own 3 sets of tokens, so in the future I'm going to offer my opponent the use of one of my sets if they don't have their own.

 

What do you think?

[Mordekiem]

Ah, the eternal debate of tabletop mini gaming.  Are the tokens, etc for you or your opponent?  Most people I know use them primarily for themselves, and opponent is secondary.  Or do they even want to bother with tokens?  Are confusing tokens good becasue your opponent will worry more about them than not?

 

As for offering to your ooponent, I say go for it.  But they may or may not want to use them.  At this point we have been trying to use them primarily to learn the game.  The number of minis is small enough that once you get it down I am not sure you need a lot of extra tokens, though.

 

In regards to wounds, we used the little tokens for flesh wounds.  Though I think they are supposed to be for morale.  Otherwise we normally use the small d6.  d4 are usually larger and more awkward, IMO.

 

Anyways, good luck with your games.

[hushrong]

I think it's a great idea to bring extra tokens for an opponent to borrow during a match. That way you are both using the official ones from GW and there can be no confusion as to what's going on. If a trooper advances you use the appropriate token and same goes if you charge or ready. The tokens with their symbols convey actions taken and it will be much easier compared to trying to use different color die and remembering what color means what.

 

As for flesh wounds we've been marking it down on scratch paper (haven't bothered to use the cards from the set) except our ork player who has his team cards photocopied. I had been thinking of using red glass beads (bottom is flat, top is curved) for flesh wounds but I think your idea of a d4 is much better. Less bits to move around on the board.

[Halandaar]

Agreed on the Flesh Wounds thing, it seems slightly odd that every other status effect is marked on the board with tokens but for that, you need to go back and reference your cards. I definitely think I'll look at some alternative solutions for that.

 

As for tokens in general, I'm a big fan of them and I brought both sets from the starter box to my last game so my opponent had the option of using them; he found them pretty useful too. D6's all over the place just leads to confusion, especially if the majority of those aren't actually trying to convey numbers.

[Halandaar]

I had been thinking of using red glass beads (bottom is flat, top is curved) 

 

Ahh good shout on those, I used to use blue ones as Markerlights in older editions.

[Fobzter]

We have the starter tokens, but don't use them. Although we use descent boardgame fatique and wound tokens to represent flesh wounds and normal wounds remaining on an injured multi-wound models. We have never had any issues on remembering other things like ready/advanced etc.

[hushrong]

Just browsed through ebay looking for custom tokens and saw one nice plastic set someone has made/is selling and I see markers with a '1' atop some red blood splatter and a '2' atop even more blood splatter for tracking wounds. I like that!

[Exilyth]

Printing out the cards for the kill team members on paper with a little bit more thickness and/or density - then getting them laminated at a copy shop (protip: ask about what they can laminate before deciding on a type of paper) is relatively cheap and allows the use of dry erase markers for tracking wounds and XP. You just need to write the totals down on the command rooster for between games since the markers have a tendency to rub off when touching other cards while in storage/transport. Then again, you can reuse cards prepared like this for multiple games/campaigns.

 

On a related note - copying the rulebook page which shows the different tokens multiple times and cutting them out would be an easy way to get a set of tokens, but I calculated the cost to be too close to the cost of proper tokens. Your milage may vary depending on copy shop chain and region.

 

Afaik, /r/killteam over on reddit has some discussions about different makes of (3rd party) tokens. They also have some printable token resources (which have a lot more tokens per page than that one rulebook page) and some people even 3d printed their own. Just search inside that subreddit for "tokens".

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I really like the tokens, but I use them a little bit differently than recommended.

 

The change is that I see no reason for the "shot" token (the one that looks a bullet hole, bug splat or an explosion) - I've been taking off tokens as models activate, which is an easier way of tracking who and who hasn't gone.  So, I use the "shot" token for shaken instead, and use the shaken token for flesh wounds.  Just have to remember not to remove fleshwound tokens when I take of the others.

 

At the moment, I only have 2 games under my belt, and in both I've used the tokens - its a real help to keep track of who has and hasn't gone - I play an AM kill team with 12 models, so its easy to get mixed up.  In the first game, I don't think my opponent used tokens, but he only had 5 models, so it wasn't really necessary.  In the second, my opponent did use tokens and it didn't seem really necessary but was again helpful - he had a lot of models (11), but as they were orks they seemed to mostly all do the same action every turn (advance until with 10 inches, then charge), so it again would have been pretty easy to remember without tokens.

 

Something I need to do is figure out how to mark models in melee - remembering they can fight is easy, but in the 2+ round of combat its easy to forget that they can shoot, especially when they don't have tokens which would otherwise mean they have no action.  Hasn't hurt me, as only have 1 model with a pistol (my leader) and he hasn't gotten into melee, but my friend's orks should have gotten a couple more slugga shots the last time we played.  Any suggestions on how to mark models in melee that could shoot?  A move marker would probably work, even though they didn't technically move.

[Calyptra]

The game I played where I got confused was against Orks, so there were a lot of models, and the dice decided that my Wyches would keep making their dodge saves and the Orks would keep accumulating flesh wounds. By the late game I had only taken a couple greenskins off the table and hadn't lost a model. (Bareldian, my Kabalite splinter cannon gunner, upon receiving his third flesh wound, decided to step away from the window and, instead of laying down suppressive fire, sit behind a wall a quietly play Solitaire for the remainder of the game.) With that many models accumulating status effects, keeping track of who had done what became difficult for me (despite my opponent's best efforts with colored dice). I've played 8 or 9 games at this point, and this is the only time I've had trouble with this. In a game like that, decision fatigue was probably becoming a factor as well towards the end.

 

(It was a fantastic game. I feel a little bad about it, because I almost tabled him without losing a model, which belies the fact that it was an incredibly closely fought slugfest that could have gone either way until the end, and my opponent played extremely well.)

[Midnight Brotherhood]

I've found the tokens extremely helpful for myself in tracking who has done what, especially when running lots of cultists and it happens to be a 4 player game.

[Kinstryfe]

I made 7 colors of tokens consisting of a bright plastic skull beads glued on top of buttons so they lay flat. I offer to let most opponents use them if they want. We tend to use red for flesh wounds (duh), and then the others we specify as needed. Usually blue for shaken and a third color for readied/acted. We seldom have trouble remembering who advanced or charged, probably from 40k experience.

 

This should be those beads https://www.amazon.com/JOLLY-STORE-Crafts-Skull-Colors/dp/B00E5TZZKC?keywords=skull+bead+jolly+store&qid=1537409070&sr=8-4&ref=mp_s_a_1_4

[Raven1]

I didn't think tokens were all that useful until i started using them and i had an opponent who didnt at all. So confusing for me. Definitely if you have em good to let people use them. I only have one set but i made a copy of them on cardstock to cut out and have extras around for people. I do wish there were flesh wound markers though.

[Tyriks]

I thought the tokens were a waste. After all, I play 40k without them all the time. But I had the Necron ones, so I figured I would use them anyway.

 

Turns out, I actually love them. They are very convenient. My opponents were just using different colored dice and all of us misremembered what they were at points, so I think the tokens will become standard.

[mel_danes]

I love the tokens. With all the book keeping in this game people forget what's what. I use small chessex dice for flesh wounds, and the tokens for everything else.

[Mordekiem]

I love the tokens. With all the book keeping in this game people forget what's what. I use small chessex dice for flesh wounds, and the tokens for everything else.

All the bookkeeping?  :)  I keep seeing people say this about KT.  It does have more than regular 40K.  But I've been playing Warmachine and Malifaux for a number of years now and Kill Team got nothing on them. 

 

I still like me some tokens, though!  :D

[Panzer]

Our group does fine without any tokens etc. either. It's not THAT much book keeping. Even the Ork player does fine lol

[Gemini]

A cursory search of the www will point to a couple of sets of tokens that include flesh wound, shaken and objective markers. I printed them, used a 3/4" punch to knock them out. Then used the same punch to make a bunch of discs from a food container and pva glued me a BUNCH of markers on the cheap.