GAME 1: KILLTEAM
Pre-Game:
I brought out my old Space Marine collection and picked some proxies for Angels of Death:
Space Marine Captain
Assault Intercessor Warrior
Eliminator Sniper
Heavy Intercessor Gunner
Intercessor Warrior (Bolt Rifle)
Intercessor Warrior (Bolt Rifle)
Attila had Legionnaires:
Legionary Shrivetalon
Legionary Chosen
Legionary Anointed
Legionary Baleful Acolyte
Legionary Butcher
Legionary Warrior
Round 1&2:
I was learning the movement and combat. I pulled ahead by a point in the first couple of turns.
Round 3:
I had done more damage in the earlier rounds, but wasn't able to finish off some models that I was in melee with. I had decided to take a risk with my heavy; instead of walking away and shooting the model engaging it (that would go down to a single hit), I figured I could kill it in melee, score the objective, and then use his ranged attack to finish off another model, but I whiffed HARD in melee and just died without costing Attila a single activation instead.
Round 4:
With very few activations left, the score remained even while Attila was ahead by one living model. However, having the numerical advantage allowed my an extra action with my sniper, who managed to finish off one more Legionnaire, drawing the game.
Post-Mortem:
It's a quick game to pick up and play. The movement and action system seemed to be simple but fairly well done. The combat resolution system took a little getting used to, but I can see how it creates the opportunity to make meaningful decisions while giving the attacker an advantage. The "stealth" system felt unintuitive to me, but I guess it makes sense as a way to balance melee and ranged combat. The action point system seems to allow most activations to follow the standard "move and attack" format, but with some flexibility (moving further and attacking, or scoring an objective without sacrificing movement and combat) while still remaining quite simple. I have had issues with small model count games in the past, where sometimes models would die too easily, or there was too much of a binary difference between the model getting hit and dying, and never getting hit and not taking damage, making attacking feel unsatisfying. Killteam's system of wounds and saves might be the best health/damage system I've played in a small-model-count game.
The basic game did feel very simple, without too much difference between different models and weapons, and very few special rules outside of basic attack/defend combat rules. Of course this was an intro game where we didn't use all the rules so it's not a fair comparison, but I will say there was a stark difference between the model profiles, which were mainly just base stats with a few special rules on the weapons, and the incredibly rule-dense model cards in Warmachine. Which is not a knock on Killteam, I believe it's supposed to be a quick and easy-to-pick-up little skirmish game, so the simplicity seems like a feature. I don't know how much depth the game has when played at a higher level by experienced players, I imagine there's a fair bit of strategy in positioning etc. when you understand the game better.
From this one experience, I felt it was a fairly quick and clean game that's an easy way to put some cool 40K models on the table, that can be enjoyed in a very casual way. I wouldn't mind playing it again, though I don't expect it to replace Warmachine or Monsterpocalypse for me. It might replace Zone Raiders sadly; the core rules in that game are probably just too crunchy for me.
GAME 2: WARMACHINE
Pre-Game:
I wanted to write a couple of 30 point lists that prioritised using actually painted models for the demo, with at least one jack, unit, and solo. I chose Butcher1 for Attila; he's relatively straight-forwards (or at least he used to be) and wrecking face with him is great fun. Ruin is the best jack for Butcher and would help demonstrate command cards (Grave Robbing) and internal synergies/interactions through his bond with Butcher. The Legion of Lost Souls was freshly painted and synergised with Alexia2. The Koldun Lord filled out the points and brings a great debuff.
Butcher 1
-Ruin (proxied by Juggernaut)
-Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Legion of Lost Souls
Alexia 2
Koldun Lord
*Blessing of the Gods
*Grave Robbing
*Infiltration
*Old Faithful
*Power Swell
I chose Harkevich for myself as he's a relatively simple warcaster, and Black Ivan could show off some synergies and movement tricks with him. The Drakhun and War Dog are painted. I didn't want to run a mirror with my second unit of Legion of Lost Souls, so I just grabbed the Cutthroats.
Harkevich 1
-Black Ivan
-War Dog
Croe's Cutthroats
Man-O-War Drakhun
*Break Through
*Careful Reconnaissance
*High Alert
*Hit & Run
*Put The Fires Out
I know demo games are usually played without a scenario, but again I didn't feel that was a good representation of the game, and Attila was not new to wargames so I figured he could handle it. So I just threw a 12" zone in the center of the board and said that any model could score it if no enemy models were in the zone, starting from the second player's second turn. First to five points - or to kill the enemy warcaster of course - would win. I said I'd go first so I could demonstrate the turn order etc.
Deployment:
I deployed centerally, with Harkevich ready to run into the forest. We discussed his deployment and I suggested that some models wanted to stay further back.
Round 1: I forgot about Escort and moved Black Ivan before activating Harkevich. Everything basically just ran up and spread out.
Round 2:
The Drakhun was almost exactly 13" away from Ruin; too far to charge, but just close enough to walk and shoot, repositioning away afterwards. I think he might have done a couple of points of damage; in retrospect this would have been an opportunity for Ruin to trigger Hyper Agressive and Vengeful (singe the Drakhun was almost exactly 6" away so Ruin could walk 4" and attack 2"), but I completely forgot about those rules. Also that would have allowed the Drakhun to hit Ruin, and I don't remember if Black Ivan had activated yet, so it probably wouldn't have been a good idea. But I should have remembered it and discussed it.
Hark and Black Ivan did a bit of shooting, but didn't do much damage. The Cutthroats charged the Legion of Lost Souls; I killed one but that left two of my models without a target in range. Croe and the last Cutthroat missed their attacks.
Round 3:
I allocated to Black Ivan and charged him in to Ruin, but wasn't able to finish him so I had to finish the job with Harkevich. Worth mentioning is that Black Ivan's Dual Attack shot hit even though he doesn't have the Pistol advantage, but the Thrall took the shot. Also I once again forgot that Ruin had Vengeful and should have been able to take a swing at Black Ivan. I scored a point.
Post-Mortem:
I find it amusing that Attila played a Legion and Butcher in both games. Playing Warmachine right after Killteam reminded me just how complex Warmachine is these days; every model on the table had a multitude of special rules. Butcher1 used to be one of the simplest Khador casters; the back of his card used to be blank, but now he has Hyper-Agressive on himself and his warjacks; I feel that's a rule that takes a fairly high skill level to use effectively. Perhaps Vlad1 is a better starter caster now; he's strong but pretty straight forwards, with great buffs and crazy threat range on his jacks. Guess I need to get mine painted up.
Still, Attila seemed to enjoy it, and didn't seem to have any trouble with the rules (other than both of us forgetting about Vengeful...). It was fun to play some Warmachine, it's been a while. As much as I love the game, it has no local presence and I don't really want to try to push it. I was trying to bring people into Monsterpocalypse, but that game is pretty much dead right now, at least in terms of support. As is Warcaster. People seem to be enjoying 40K and related GW games, at this point I don't think I'd be doing them any favours trying to get them into other games. So maybe I should be playing more Killteam...
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