Revisiting Kill Team after 5 years - are Marines distractingly weak?

[Preliminary Bombardment]

Hi everyone 

 

I last played Kill Team probably about 5 years ago before it was revamped, back then it was just a mini version of 8th edition and while not perfect fairly good fun.

 

I was reviewing some of the new rules and the set teams and the first things that stood out was generally how weak marines are. The set teams suggest that 7 standard guard or 5 scions can go toe to toe with 5 intercessors or even 10 scouts. Am I reading this right?

 

The version of KT I’m more familiar with had it’s problems, I mean Terminations and custodes had no business being there but something feels a bit off about this edition.

 

Im setting up a one off session with some friends this weekend, think I’ll just go with the old rules I know 

[Mandragola]

No, marines aren’t weak in kill team. Elite teams are pretty dominant. 
 

You get six marines in a kill team, nine scouts and various numbers of other things. The largest teams have 14 members so outnumber marines more than 2:1. And the marines would be favourites in those match-ups. 
 

tonight I played a game with my Nemesis claw (night lords) vs the new Khorne Goremongers. I wiped out the Goremongers early on turn 3, losing two guys in return. I thought my opponent was a bit more experienced than he was and would have brought a non-marine team if I’d known. 

[zulu.tango]

Marine teams are VERY good in the current edition, and can reliably delete 2-3 "mortal" operatives per activation given the opportunity. KT '24 reduced the number of primary objectives as well which was a huge buff for elites as they can now compete for the primary objectives with horde teams. 

I played in the adepticon Kill Team GT a couple of weeks ago and 6 of 7 teams I played were Marines of some flavor or another. Not to say other teams can't be competitive against marines (Felgore's won Adepticon for example) but in my opinion Elites/Marines are the current edition darlings. 

 

If you want to learn the new edition rules and see elites in action, set up an NPO (PvE) mission with your friends and run marines into some sort of horde. You'll get a solid handle on the new rules and see exactly how punishing they can be. The Space Marine 2 rule-set is surprisingly fun, reducing the marines from 6 to 3 and super-powering them (and giving them a revive) is a great way to teach people since each person can play a marine and go ham, learning the rules and having fun at the same time