Kill Team Octarius (Warhammer40K)

[kerpob]

I dabble in a bit of the Warhammer 40K spinoff skirmish rules called "Kill Team". These use the standard Warhammer rules (D6 roll to hit then wound then save) with additional bits to help with the fact that there are fewer than 20 models per side (often only 10 or so).

This month GW (Games Workshop) are releasing a totally new set of rules for Kill Team which have a bespoke set of rules which are actually designed for skirmish games in the WH40K universe. They are up for pre-order in about a week I think, with deliveries at the end of the month.

I thought this thread would be useful to discuss these rules and ideas for games with them.

Some information I have found about them (mostly from the youtube Kill Team fan "Glass Half Dead"):

• The rules are not just Warcry (the WHFB skirmish set)
• They use activation points
• Teams are built using a list-pick system - no points
• Opposition dice rolls are used: I roll hits using my weapon's profile, you roll defence using your own profile
• The big release box has rules, 2 teams of minis (Orks and Guardsmen), a lot of terrain: £125
• You can just buy the rules, but I think you also need to buy a supplement for the factions.

[fred]

Interesting.

I quite liked Kill Team and built a Tau force from scratch for it. But the 40k players in my group where never that interested in it.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

If you've got the time (about 50 minutes each) there's full review and rules discussion on youtube here:



Same channel is supposedly doing playthrough vids all week, first of which is here:



I can't say I'm impressed with it compared to the many other skirmish game options (including plain old Rogue trader) out there but YMMV.    Re; your last point, the Compendium has all the not-Kommando, not-Death Guard army lists and rules, and is effectively mandatory if you want to play the game with other forces.  Probably a $50 book, on top of the actual rules, which are likely $50-65 - and that's not factoring in the tactics cards, which look mandatory to me.  Not cheap to get into compared to, say, Stargrave's $35.

Also, be very wary about ordering from GW online instead of getting it in a shop.  After the Cursed City debacle they've had to resort to posting this "we promise you can get a copy on preorder" update:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/08/09/kill-team-octarius-a-pre-order-promise/

but let me quote from that:

There’s some nuance here… we’ll be shipping them out first come, first served. If you get in late, it might just take longer to get them to you… potentially several months longer – but you WILL get your copy.

So they're telling you right up front that if it sells through you may be waiting months to get the copy you've already paid for.  They do this sort of thing to retailers all the time - billing their credit cards for product that doesn't ship for extended periods - but apparently they've decided their direct customers deserve to share the experience as well now.

In short, if you buy, do so in person and don't pre-pay for anything you aren't physically holding or you may regret it.

Oh, and this whole thread probably ought to be moved to the new "Scifi Small Skirmish" child board.  Kill Team's very much small skirmish.

[Dentatus]

I was actually going to buy my first GW game in decades with Cursed City. But that opportunity slammed shut faster than a broken window.
My grandsons do like their Ork figs tho, so I'll pick up a set off eBay. But hard pass on Kill Team.

[kerpob]

I've had a lot of fun playing the first kill team, so this is a dead cert for me. Preorders are today, so I got a copy of the rule book and compendium (which has the army lists) for £30 each.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I was actually going to buy my first GW game in decades with Cursed City. But that opportunity slammed shut faster than a broken window.

Cursed City was an absolute debacle, and GW's continued silence on what went wrong is baffling and still earning them quite a bit of ill will.

My grandsons do like their Ork figs tho, so I'll pick up a set off eBay. But hard pass on Kill Team.

They look quite nice, and appear to be using the same general frame style as Necromunda gangs, where you can build at least two "stock" variants off each body even before you start experimenting with arm swaps and the like.

There's a good (albeit quite depressing) ~25 minute review of the Compendium up here:



Strongly recommend a listen so you can judge what you'll be getting from the book and whether it's for you.

[gregmita]

Does anyone have a side by side comparison between the new Death Korps and the original Forgeworld? I've only seen brief flashes in videos comparing the two, but not actual still photos.

[Inso]

I found this on Google. I hope it is of some use:

https://i.redd.it/85lsieku8ja71.png

[Sir_Theo]

I really like the new models, also I like the idea of  lot of stuff added to the narrative play (something lacking in the original KT) and was trying with the idea of picking up the rules and compendium, but the compendium seems so lacking in anything interesting (and will be undelete as soon as they start rolling out the expansions) I have decided to give this one a pass.

I think if you are committed to the buy in then it seems a fun way of dabbling in the 40k universe

[Veteran Sergeant]

Does anyone have a side by side comparison between the new Death Korps and the original Forgeworld? I've only seen brief flashes in videos comparing the two, but not actual still photos.

I was wondering myself. I have a feeling this will be a similar case as the comparison between Old Necromunda and new Necromunda, or old Sisters of Battle and new Sisters of Battle. GW has been scale creeping pretty steadily, definitely away from the more slender 28mm FW Imperial Guard.

[gregmita]

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.

I found this on Google. I hope it is of some use:

https://i.redd.it/85lsieku8ja71.png

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I was wondering myself. I have a feeling this will be a similar case as the comparison between Old Necromunda and new Necromunda, or old Sisters of Battle and new Sisters of Battle. GW has been scale creeping pretty steadily, definitely away from the more slender 28mm FW Imperial Guard.

I got a look at the figs on the sprue at the FLGS yesterday and they looked about in scale with the Necromunda plastics, so a bit smaller and less bulky than most recent 40K releases.  Kind of hard to tell for sure unassembled, though, they're sectioned up into a lot of parts without really being all that modular beyond arm/weapon choices and some gear swaps.

The orks looked positively small and weedy to me, to the point where I'm grabbing some of my existing figs and doing a side by side comparison next time I go in.  Which might be today, I predictably forgot to buy the glue I actually went in for.

The terrain in the box looks pretty nice and durable (very thick plastic, sensible joins for the most part) although the "oil rig" piece is a disappointment, the detailing of the machinery is very poor and it's an entirely static single-pose build instead of having been designed to let you position the "hammerhead" at various angles, much less making it movable like, say, the doors on a Land raider.  Two things struck me about the pieces as a whole:

1) The ork meks, in fine orky mekboy fashion, have leaned into imitating the AdMech by having icons of a divided skull with one artificial eye scattered around, although their skulls are predictably orky rather than human-styled.

2) Wherever the terrain is supposed to be set, the place apparently supports a lumber industry because there's wood-grain planks in the mix alongside all the rusty dented metal bits.  Given that most Forge worlds haven't seen a living tree in millennia (outside of some specimens carefully preserved by a Magos Biologos, I suppose) it's either not on one of them or the "portable ecology" produced by ork spores includes some kind of giant fungus sturdy enough to cut down and use for lumber. 

I rather like the latter idea - if greenskin spores can produce squigs the size of a T-rex over time giant mushroom farms seem at least as plausible.  Also makes the giant obscenely-shaped shrooms from the porn webcomic Alfie really, really funny, since they're planted by that setting's goblins and are as much a hyper-invasive species as 40K orks are.

[zirrian]

There's a good (albeit quite depressing) ~25 minute review of the Compendium up here:



Strongly recommend a listen so you can judge what you'll be getting from the book and whether it's for you.

I haven't seen a single video of this guy talking posivitely about anything. I've watched some of his video previously, and he can find issues in so many tiny, meaningless stuff it's mind boggling. I wouldn't base any of my decisions on his opinion.

[Muzfish4]

I watched it the other night and it didn't put me off.

Cant pre-order it at the moment as the Ingleburn warehouse is locked down along with the rest of NSW, Victoria and the ACT. I am still leaning towards getting this as I do like the DKK miniatures and the gameplay sounds interesting. I like the idea of the ongoing narrative campaign.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I watched it the other night and it didn't put me off.

Cant pre-order it at the moment as the Ingleburn warehouse is locked down along with the rest of NSW, Victoria and the ACT. I am still leaning towards getting this as I do like the DKK miniatures and the gameplay sounds interesting. I like the idea of the ongoing narrative campaign.

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.