Kill Team/Combat Squad - Short and Sweet

Kill Team/Combat Squad 40K games are new to me. Two club mates invited to take part in a 350 point game. I won't go into details on the rules, but the major change to a traditional game is that models act as individuals rather than in squads or platoons.

I decided to take a selection of my work-in-progress Harlequins. I took two troupes with a Starweaver fast skimmer transport for one, and the other was accompanied by a Shadowseer.

Harlequins doing their best to be inconspicuous

We managed two games during the evening, the first featuring one moveable relic objective (which needed to be taken off from your own table edge) in the middle of the table, and the second, featured three standard objectives whose final position was set by using the scatter dice. My opponents took two very different forces; one with 20 Dark Angel Space Marine Veterans (Kanan) with a selection of special a close combat weapons, the second a Adeptus Mechanicus force (Dave G.) based on a Inquisition henchman force with numbers on their side, and the occasional heavy weapon and specialist, such as Death Cult Assassins.

Above: The Mechanicum hordes





So onto game one. The Laughing God smiled (does he do anything else?) on me and granted a most helpful Warlord trait - an extra 1 inch on movement, running etc. I sent the troupe with the Shadowseer towards the objective and the other troupe in the Starweaver towards the numerically scary Mechanicus force. The Mechanicum sent over half a dozen figures to take on the clowns and very quickly regretted not sending more. Quickly into combat and the fear special rule quickly won this one sided fight for the Troupe.

Above: Dark Angels all tooled up.

My objective grabbing unit reached the relic, and with the aid of some helpful psychic powers avoided a lot of the shooting which came there way. So before long they had hopped, skipped and jumped off the table to win the game. Hurrah. The learning point from this game was the importance of fast movement. Something the Harlies have in spades, but the poor old Space Marines learnt was not their strong point.

Above: Harlequins were here a minute ago. "Where they go?"

Game two, which was limited by time, was notable by the Mechanicus appreciation of the scaryness of the Harlequins individual close combat prowess. With such a small force the Harlequins decided to only focus on two of the objectives. My Starweaver unit sped across the board and decided to take on 5 of the Space Marines. Something they did very well, but the other Marines did what comes easy to them and sought bloody vengeance with boltguns and plasma weaponry.

Above: Harlequins top left hold on whilst the Marines and Mechanicus Rush to the centre

However, the two Harlies that escaped were able to get to an objective still supported by their transport, which it held until the end of the game. My second troupe with the Shadowseer decided that hiding from the worst of the incoming fire from the Mechanicus forces was the best course of action. Despite a determined attack by Death Cult Assassins were also able to keep them at arms length and held an objective to the end.

Above: the Orbital Bombardment Team do their Speilberg thing

The third objective was held by the Mechanicus after the lumbering space marines failed to run far enough to contest it at the end of the game (doh!). We all enjoyed this different game format and agreed to play more games at the club. Our plans for the future involve getting a better understanding of the rules and to investigate what specific Kill Team/Combat Squad missions are out there.

Happy gaming all.