Kill Team Octarius (Warhammer40K)

[Muzfish4]

GW's community page was claiming their warehouse would be open again just in time for the KT release this weekend, at least as of last night/this morning.

They opened at noon on Saturday (AEST). I cracked and put my ore-order in. Decided to hold off on the Compendium pending actually playing the game and still not convinced over it's longevity I imagine most/all of its contents will be superseded as other forces are rolled out over the coming months.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

They opened at noon on Saturday (AEST). I cracked and put my ore-order in. Decided to hold off on the Compendium pending actually playing the game and still not convinced over it's longevity I imagine most/all of its contents will be superseded as other forces are rolled out over the coming months.

Probably a wise decision, the Compendium seems designed to be outdated, much like the little Ravening Hordes for WFB or that little black & white army book in 2nd edition 40K.  Difference being about $50. 

I'm still concerned that the ork minis seem to be sculpted to a much smaller scale than the rest of the range, but still haven't seen them off the sprue next to anything so it's hard to be sure.  Some of their specific weapons are definitely rather tiny - the kommando burna bit is maybe 60% of the size as a burna boyz' is, for ex.

[si2]

I pre ordered the box and the compendium. It looks like a move in the right direction to me. The old kill team was great in concept, with little teams fighting over a factory or warehouse. But the list munchers and list tweakers got to it like Shadespire, and there was muppetry as standard. A grot leader for okrs, cos he's cheap and can hide, four plasma in a guards squad, kroot hounds moving further than they can charge, etc. The usual GW roll a four, roll a four, you roll a four, roll a four thing is gone too.
I'm excited about it, probably as much as the original Shadespire box.
I am in to my thirteenth kill team though...
Been trying to work out how the old ones translate to the new ones and writing a shopping list. The biggest lump on there so far is two more Harlequins, oooh those diamonds.

[Muzfish4]

Just checked the GW site and the' exclusive limited edition' metal gauge is still being added to pre-orders automatically. Not sure if this is just a case of added hype for FOMO or a case of there being a lot fewer pre-orders than anticipted. Could be both.

[Muzfish4]

It arrived the other week and, to be honest, looks pretty good. Reading the rules makes me think there is actually a decent game system here. I may have gotten my hopes up but the miniatures are nice, the terrain okay, the rules seem to offer interesting skirmish gaming and the price tag is completely ridiculous but that's GW for you.

Anyway, I am inspired to paint up the Space Polius from Wargames Atlantic I received for participating in WSS Great Wargames Survey a few years ago in test colour scheme for the DKK guys (who look great on the sprue).

Current verdict - optimistic

[Chief Lackey Rich]

They were doing a test play/demo at the FLGS last Monday that I briefly watched, albeit not using the figs from the box since they had the Compendium available- Grey Knights versus some other Marines instead.  Consensus among the players and watchers was that the entire "name the shape" measuring system is one of the most pointless pieces of nonsense ever and was promptly thrown out in favor of a tape measure.  Also that the melee system has some sort of quirk that gives a huge advantage to whoever the attacker/person with initiative is, but I missed part of the chat on that and am not sure about specifics.  Did seem to be a game-killing flaw for the majority of folks involved, and even the store owner (who was running the Marines) didn't seem very happy with it.

I remain pessimistic about the game itself, although most of the terrain does look nice.  Withholding judgement on the box figs until I see them assembled and painted by someone that isn't GW, and in person.  Those orks still look kind of small to me on the sprue.

[AWu]

Thank you Inso, that's very helpful.
It looks like the new Krieg are around the same height, slightly pudgier, but still well within normal bounds. The new rifles are quite a bit bigger though.

Here are my actual models

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I take it the painted ones are the older Forge World figs?  The new KT ones don't look even close to the same scale to me, like comparing a true 25mm to so-called heroic 28mm.

Don't suppose you've got a plastic Cadian handy for a comparison shot with one of the KT figs?

[zemjw]

I was on holiday last week so wandered into the big city (only second time since March 2020, for some reason). I had planned to buy the first issue of the new part-work, but ended up impluse buying Kill Team

I already wanted the Orks, but the scenery looks pretty nice and I think it will work with the Mantic Killzone stuff I have. Not too crazy on the human soldiers, but hopefully they'll convert into something more to my taste.

I avoided the compendium up-sell, and I'm not sure he was too happy when I mentioned I'd probably never play the game (we were both masked, so it was difficult to tell). I know this is GW, but is the game usable as a more generic SF skirmish game, or is it very firmly wedged in 40K?

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I know this is GW, but is the game usable as a more generic SF skirmish game, or is it very firmly wedged in 40K?

You could hypothetically use the game engine for non-40K-setting gaming but the amount of work you'd need to do to create entirely new stat cards for everything alien top the setting seems enormous.  Also the ranges versus movement distances have the same "melee against supertech shooting weapons is perfectly feasible" issue that GW scifi has always had.  Be easier and more rewarding to adapt Necromunda, I'd think.

[zemjw]

Thanks. I figured it was a long shot, but always worth asking. I bought it for the figures and scenery, so the rules aren't a big problem. Skirmish SF is very popular at the moment, so plenty of rules to explore

The guy in the shop did say that he thought the plan was to release a new starter version every few months with different factions and scenery. If nothing else, it should prevent the game disappearing too quickly.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Thanks. I figured it was a long shot, but always worth asking. I bought it for the figures and scenery, so the rules aren't a big problem. Skirmish SF is very popular at the moment, so plenty of rules to explore

Well, you might try playing it a bit before you give up on it.  If it isn't obvious, I'm a little negatively biased about the game and YMMV.  maybe it's easier to craft your own stat cards than I think, or maybe someone else out there will do fan ports of stuff from other settings.

The guy in the shop did say that he thought the plan was to release a new starter version every few months with different factions and scenery. If nothing else, it should prevent the game disappearing too quickly.

GW posted an extensive (if somewhat vague) schedule of planned releases on their community page a while back, which probably indicates they intend to support it fairly heavily for some time to come.  OTOH, a cynic might suggest that after the absolute debacle around Cursed City's botched release (it was supposed to have a bunch of supplements as well, although they didn't give us a real schedule there) they had to do something to convince people KT wouldn't be another flash in the pan.   

[gregmita]

Wow, the weapons especially are oversized. Look at the lasgun in the hand of the trooper on the left, versus the second trooper from the left.

I take it the painted ones are the older Forge World figs?  The new KT ones don't look even close to the same scale to me, like comparing a true 25mm to so-called heroic 28mm.

Don't suppose you've got a plastic Cadian handy for a comparison shot with one of the KT figs?

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Wow, the weapons especially are oversized. Look at the lasgun in the hand of the trooper on the left, versus the second trooper from the left.

What's really weird is that many of the ork weapons seem undersized to me compared to existing sculpts.  The burna is tiny compared to the ones the actual burna boyz lug around, and the big shoota the kommando "sniper" is using looks smaller than any of the other examples of them - albeit not quite as much so as the burna.

[Muzfish4]

They were doing a test play/demo at the FLGS last Monday that I briefly watched, albeit not using the figs from the box since they had the Compendium available- Grey Knights versus some other Marines instead.  Consensus among the players and watchers was that the entire "name the shape" measuring system is one of the most pointless pieces of nonsense ever and was promptly thrown out in favor of a tape measure.  Also that the melee system has some sort of quirk that gives a huge advantage to whoever the attacker/person with initiative is, but I missed part of the chat on that and am not sure about specifics.  Did seem to be a game-killing flaw for the majority of folks involved, and even the store owner (who was running the Marines) didn't seem very happy with it.

I remain pessimistic about the game itself, although most of the terrain does look nice.  Withholding judgement on the box figs until I see them assembled and painted by someone that isn't GW, and in person.  Those orks still look kind of small to me on the sprue.

That's  a big musket on the new box guy compared to his Forge World predecessor. Not a huge worry for me as i don't have any FW stuff, but I can see it would be disappointing to try to use the two side by side and have half your crew look like they were issued weapons from the cadet locker.

From  my reading (only) the melee system lets the player choose how to use one of his successes to either try to hit or parry and remove an opponent's successful dice. Reading it makes it reasonable with a little more choice in the way  will fight adopting either a defensive or offensive stance. Clever use of this by an opponent would, I imagine, be frustrating especially if, say they have initiative and have three successes to your one. They could parry with their first die- removing your only success - and then have two unopposed strikes. Again, have to see how that pans out in play rather than in theory. The lack of enthusiasm from players giving ti a go is a bit of a worry.

The Ork Kommandos are a bit small, but I'd imagine that can be reconciled with having smaller guys lined up for missions where some form of stealth is required.

Current verdict - still hopeful, but trending pensive