Revenge of the Brothers

 Had my first game of Kill Team 2024 with Terjoe, using my Brood Brothers against his Tau Pathfinders. Not a full battle report this time, just some pictures and comments.

Brood Brothers get so many operatives.

Pathfinders get so many guns!

Knife fighter gets an early start.

Heavy barricades to get cover from the vantage points are very useful equipment.

Ladders allowed the Tau to get to the vantage points early on.

Knife fighter, aka Blade McGee, uses a surprise charge through a door to cut down a pathfinder.

However, he's very exposes for some railgun nastiness.

Hiding from snipers.

Looking for targets.

Plasma gunner comepletely wiffs on a shot, and then...

... gets utterly pasted in the return fire.

Primus chops a Tau in half and then uses if third APL to shoot the railgunner on the second level. Continues to impress.

But a couple of Tau move into position and take him down before more damage is done.

Taking a lesson from the Kasrkin, the Brood Brothers dominate the centre line and score some VPs for my Tac Op.

Tau try a flanking manuevre in TP3.

Battle of the snipers goes to the Tau.

Brood brother vetern killed the pathfinder trying to flank but hears a humming sound as the burst cannon spins up....

... but his armour saves are golden and only take three damage!

This last failure broke the morale of the Tau and they sounded the general retreat.

Thoughts after first game:

Not a fan of three different things to kerp track of for scoring atm, might get easier in future

Vantage makes sense now and is not overpowering but is useful

Cover/obscuring makes better sense

Ladders super useful

Heavy barricades super useful

Love the volkus terrain, feels similar to octarius but also different

Know where the doors are

My metal bullet dice needed to get the bad rolls rolled out, they were starting to work in the latter half of the game

Fuel Run

 Back on Octarius, the vicous legionaries of the Black Storm decided at the same time to secure some promethium fuel as a team of Tau Pathfinders.

The deployment zone are opposite corners. In the other two corners are two objectives worth 2 VPs each at the end of the game, while in the centre is the fuel pump where from the spout Prometium can be pumped, 1 VP for pumping and 3 VPs for each fuel objective controlled at the end.

The Tau were very conservative early on but the marines took the aggressive approach, advancing on the flanks and through the middle.

The heavy gunner clambered on top of the fort ruins and had a wide open field of view, but his reaper chaincannon failed to kill a tau Blooded, leaving him with one wound.

The return rail gun fire severely wounded him in return.

The plasma gun exchanged fire with a railgun and while severely wounded he took out the Xenos and moved to cover by the pump.

The Aspiring Champion of the squad decided to act. He charged the Tau line, murdering the grenadier with a fell swoop of his blade before turning the overheated plasma pistol on a rail gunner who died a painful death.

The Shas'ui leader approached with a primed fusion grenade and greviously wounded the enemy, but not enough to kill. In return, the champion overwatched him to death with more plasma.

As the game moved into the second half, casualities mounted.

The Annointed and Shrive Talon approached in cover ready to charge the Tau lines while the Balefire Acolyte and gunner held the middle pump.

Finally the Ion gunner took down the Aspiring champion before he could kill again.

With the champ down, the drone controller took control of the marker drone and pumped some fuel. With a promethium objective on the table, the stakes are raised!

The plasma gunner, desperate to maintain control of the centre ascended to the pump's platform to have clear line of sight to the recon drone but only damaged it. Return fire soon removed him from his perch.

The Annointed let the daemon loose and charged the lines but came up short. The Tau fired everything they had at him but he shrugged it off. Would the enraged possessed marine break their lines!?

The Balefire Acolyte unleashed warp fire on the drone and destroyed it, securing the promethium fuel... for now.

At the top of turning point 4, the Ion gunner once again proved his worth as he swung the weapon around and blasted the possessed marine with 22 points of damage, and his daemonic energies were insufficient to keep him standing.

The Shrive talon extracted some revenge, but the Tau turned mass carbine gunfire on the Balefire acolyte psyker to incapacite him and secure the promethium.

In the end that proved to be the winning move as the Legionaries 4 points from tac ops could not compete with the 8 VPs the Tau had from two objective markers, 1 from pumping the fuel, and 3 from controlling the promethium at the end.

Great game!

Battle of the Bot

 I challenged my undefeated son to a battle of Kill Team and he accepted. He used his painted Tau Pathfinders and I broke out my solid dependable Vet Guard. The mission was on the Close Quarters board from Soulshackle, Uncover Riches:

Two kill teams descend on an ancient vault intent on picking it clean and making off with as much equipment and as many artefacts as they can carry.

 

There are four loot objectives and a robot we can control of in the middle that is work 3 VPs at the end of the game. I took my usual lineup with ancillary option of 4 extra guardsmen. Nothing says trouble like 14 activations.

The pathfinders took the big Recon Drone and the game was on!

The guardsmen immediately took control of the centre corridor and robot, moving it back towards their lines. 

On the flanks both sides cautiously moved in but only the guard secured two loot objectives in turn 1. Hooray for lots of boots on the ground.

AS the first turning point ended, both sides were prepared to open heavy fire.

The pathfinders opened fire in the middle with the big recon drone, riddling the plasma gunner full of holes, and the Tau grenadier and Infrometer specialist killed the flamer guardsmen and a couple more, but the return fire from the melta gun and grenade launcher and sniper kept the talley even.

In the centre the melta gunner specialist was gravely wounded by a rail gun shell but stood his ground, and the sgt prepared to charge in, power sword humming with death.

ON the right flank another drone fell and the superior numbers of the guardsmen started to turn the tide.

As the Tau tried desperately to hold back the onslaught in the middle, the Sgt charged and wounded teh railgun gunner. Is there anyone who can stop the sgt?

Meanwhile the Sniper controlled the angles and prevented the pathfinders from making headway on the flank.

A regular guardsmen charged the veteran Blooded pathfinder, each wounding the other. The Shas'ui leader charged in to try and dispatch the wounded trooper but my dice were hot and I fended him off. Next turning point the guardsmen stabbed the Shas'ui in the heart before succumbing to the robotic fist of the Blooded. The trooper's efforts broke the back of the Tau on the right flank.

Meanwhile in the centre the sgt killed the gunner and charged the medic. 

Their lines crumbling (and the guard getting more and more VPs from objective and Tac Ops as well as driving away with the robot), the Tau ceded the day and vowed revenge next time.

Conclusion

A combination of some hot dice rolls, a solid plan to charge up the middle to accomplish two Tac Ops and get the robot, and my son being rusty with the Tau added up to a solid win for the guardsmen.

The mission was fun, the board layout interesting. Would play again.