How To Kill Team | Choosing Units

there is an element of kill team that I have been kind of avoiding picking the units to make up the team you choose to field I did make a video in this series on the idea of putting together matched playlists as a means to give you enough options during a long form tournament to make some adjustments based on your opponents and the maps and missions apparently this was a little confusing for some this one's for you buddy and I get it putting myself in the shoes of an outsider kill team like most tabletop strategy games seems daunting with way too much information overload it's why this series is split into a few chapters but this is kind of my fault for avoiding this topic as long as I have this is not without purpose I needed time to gather my thoughts in returning to the tabletop realm I have come across a common nerd Trope that still persists after all these years meta Chasers stat slaves people who tend to either seek or believe the one true golden answer before which no other options could even be entertained this list is the combo throw everything else out don't even waste the energy to think of all the possibilities and purposes other things might carry I don't like this line of thinking it belittles strategic creativity in a way that brings free flowing systems down to a more stagnant level hideous so I've taken some time I've tried to piece together some Concepts that I hope I can impart to you in an effort to expand your horizons and give you the tools you need to make educated choices when trying to choose what may work in your favor because in my opinion this topic is a little more in-depth than simply take as much high damage a low attacking AP weapons as possible because that is the only answer before we get into it this space Hulk is fueled by all of you out there interested in tabletop strategy games the hobby the joy of narrative and competitive DIC driven interaction the stench of plastic glue and primer and if you're new to the channel and are interested in more content going forward maybe hit that subscribe button the little thumb buttons do stuff as well I believe and just ah heads up we have a community Discord join up if you wish to continue the conversation there maybe show off some projects or regil us with Tales of your victories or even hardfought losses with all that said let me provide to you some [Music] ideas again I do sort of get it when faced with kill teams like the legionary or the corsairs and many of the other multip specialist multi Loadout lists making good calls for what to bring can be a bit difficult something I focus on first when choosing a full Squad Squad is what I know of my own unit options and they're positives and negatives let me give you some examples we'll start with the legionary a prime example of too many options two leaders with alternate loadouts seven Specialists with many loadouts as well among them a basic warrior with two loadouts pretty crazy when you consider the final form on the field ends up being one leader and five friends let's take a look at those leaders a chosen with two range weapon variants and a collection of abilities that lean the model towards being close range with some sprinkled in survivability with its self heal the ranged options are both short distance and Drift from high damage with ap to lower damage with a roll option historically people would focus on that beautiful beautiful Plasma Pistol that damage line the armor reduction options so good ideal when facing down High Health High armor units and even against lower Health units the damage output would easily Overkill the target why would anyone in their right mind choose that bolt pistol well there is this Ploy the legionary have access to it allows units with bolt profile weapons to be fired twice a lot of the time those low Health low armor units tend to be easily killed by a Bolter profile weapon and those armies tend to be a little hord likee and the balanced rule provides a free reroll each shoot action basically this means that when under the influence of double shoot this pistol will be able to roll twice normally that would cost you two command points a bit pricey and even though your blood lust might be strong while wielding this demonic bladed unit if the choice is to do a scoring Mission charge an enemy fight to kill it and then die to a melta the next activation or do the mission and shoot two nearby enemies to death leaving the melta too far way to retaliate I'd say that double kill might be more worth it now granted you won't know this play would even happen before starting the match but losing the option completely by going with the spiky plasma damage versus the consistent bolt pistol against things like vet guard might cause problems in some situations the aspiring Champion has a similar Choice with its ranged profiles but even more with the melee massive damage with a lower hit chance and the brutal keyword decent damage with good crit and stun a similar option with more crit potential a weaker option but with a weapon capable of using normal hits to Parry crits a true Rarity you may lean heavily into those crit damage benefits making that Power sword look really nice but consider this the hotch are your opponent they could field a psychomancer with the nightmare shroud ability a 6-in aura that doesn't allow for crits to be retained as anything other than normal hits lethal 5 is meaningless that stun is useless brutal might still see some value but that Parry hook defensively is suddenly very nice as you'll still be able to Parry enemy crits now until both teams are revealed you won't know if this is the right call but there are other examples like the intercessors who have equipment that negates crit rolls of less than six making that Power sword a little less effective against those operatives counterplay like this is a big element of kill team even beyond the individual loadouts of these two operatives only being able to choose one also serves as a big list of possibilities I have heard that most people lean towards the chosen for its close-range brutality and sustainability but the champion brings the possibilities of more actions to a round creating a pseudo 4action Point Unit depending on the circumstances not many teams have access to that level of activation potential so which do you choose and why H we're not quite there yet but the first step is pretty much set having looked over the kits provided and seeing the positives and negatives chosen wants to be close solid melee survivability weak potential outside of melee aspiring adaptable loadouts amazing action economy weaken prolonged close-range fights and this just applies to the unenhanced version of these operatives things get weird when you add chaos marks to them but let's not get into that applying this line of thinking for every operative of every team will at least start you off right the Corsair Gunner options the Blaster is better against heftier single targets the shredder is better against flimsier groups I know it's an odd naming convention the hearken salvagers have five Gunner options that range from extreme anti- Elite all the way down to just being slightly better than the regular guns and you'll have to pick three at most to start a match with choices choices compiling your team strengths and weaknesses may take some time you might not see the value at first but once you start applying the possibilities to potential enemies as well as map types you'll find some things that may have had limited value suddenly Skyrocket in potential let me show you what I mean we'll start with sizing up your opponent this is where having a good knowledge base of operative possibilities could play out well which may be difficult considering the sheer quantity of them these days how however asking about rules you might be looking out for as well as the gimmicks and potentials of the different teams can at least inform your decision making never played against harlequins they like Melee and have advantages in traversing terrain better than most but there are a few units that play well from ranged they get an invulnerable that is better than their save limiting the benefit of AP but their health is low enough that you won't need much to bring them down they have high APL as well so don't expect their activations to be a little Limited in options and with eight total units they are just above elite team in numbers but decently below horde this opens up your weapon choices a bit as an opponent sticking with legionary melee options can be good here as they all have survivability to take a hit or two and can deal enough damage to make the harleyquinn player think twice about wasting a unit's life for some chip damage this means the butcher anointed and shrie Talon are all probably worthwhile the leader option can vary here but having the extra free action could be useful from the aspiring as well at eight wounds for the common harleyquinn player nine for the more unique units most of the weapons will need both a crit and a normal to outright kill so all options are open consider though that the harlequins have access to guaranteed melee crits truly brutal from the aspiring load out you can lean into the powerfist to prevent too many counters the power weapon could help you with an extra crit or two per fight potent ially personally I lean into that Parry hook on the chainsword you can counter whatever and try and focus on killing from ranged for that I have a combo in mind I'd use the tainted bolt pistol and I'd factor that into my equipment choice to enhance it with tainted rounds for the four five damage line either way two wounds through the armor is a kill for the common players a kit a wound for the more Elite operatives you would get access to the free roll and that double shoot option for possibly Downing two harlequins around so so far we have a leader and three of the five total operatives history would point to a plasma gun and probably an icon bear to finish out the list because everyone loves plasma but maybe we should take a stroll over to another key element in list building before we make our decision the arena the underappreciated opponent in every match of kill team the terrain and the mission since two .0's launch we are now at this point up to three main approaches to competitive terrain open maps Close Quarters and beta DEA open maps can range from single surface areas to multiple Vantage points lots of variation Here Close Quarters enhances certain Universal rules while greatly limiting Vision beta DEA pushes for needed Mobility while limiting Vision below but getting some advantage to those above so let's consider this when choosing the last of the two legionary when playing into our harleyquin opponent if the map is open with many Vantage points it could be worth it to leave a unit near a vantage point with a heavy weapon like the reaper chain Cannon it would be one way of preventing harlequins from playing two out in the open which could maybe Bunch them up behind walls ideal for a flamer with a grenade option perhaps to take advantage of we miss out on the icon Bear's potential free Ploy but that might be for the best and the leader has its own version of this anyway rather than the chain Cannon the bellfire acolyte could threaten large areas with the fire blast power from Vantage forcing people to spread out allowing for a more mobile boltgun wielding icon Bearer to find some angles while providing the team with an option for which Ploy can be used for free as well as a single unit that can pull a capture point from a single harleyquin a couple good options here all pretty reasonable in the darkened Halls of a Close Quarters map I'd probably stay as far away from heavy gunners as I could against against the harlequins wielding a flamer Gunner and a balefire would both be extremely advantageous as the map type keeps units close as well as enhancing the Bale's fire blast with lethal 5 on top of its already existing blast and splash similar to the lethal 5 the flamer would get as well all while keeping Mobility up as an option beta deima exists as a sort of in between all units on the bottom floor have their Vision restricted by the middle hazardous Zone whereas Vantage Point areas can see past but will be obscured by the whole area of the gantries still holding top with a powerful chain Cannon or maybe even a missile launcher as there is limited space to maneuver and blast is always horrifying to the lower Health units maybe a balefire as well or the flamer Gunner yet again thanks to the limited places for enemy units to set up this map quality gives much power to the blast and splash profile weapons against teams with lower health and Tighter spaces even without the conferred lethal 5 from from Close Quarters and this only accounts for map and matchup things get a little hairy when you apply primary and secondary [Music] missions let's keep to critical Ops for this the primary three missions are loot secure and capture loot requires the spending of action points to gain VP once per objective per turning point and Performing the action prevents the opponent from looting the same objective for the turn secure also requires action point expense to gain control of objectives but so long as your opponent doesn't take it from you this action will only need to be used once to maintain control capture is more free form no action points are spent just tallying APL control at the end of the round to determine who has control and that objective remains sticky until an enemy takes it simple but you can hopefully tell that loot will require your unit to get to a point and sit on it reducing Mobility secure will have an action point burden but it won't slow the momentum too much capture makes turn one a bit Cy as most games of kill team tend to be anyway but turn two can become an allout Brawl for control while preventing agile enemies from breaking your front line for an elite team like the legionary being stuck in place on a handful of points would maybe lean your choices for operatives towards ranged Focus loadouts in most cases limiting that range to 6 in in Close Quarter ERS can still be a viable option but for the most part you would still want to cover your limited front line with as much supporting fire as you can but in a situation like secure leaning into close-range strength and melee power could force your opponent to have to collapse and defend just to maintain the objectives they mustered early on capture plays much the same but the legionary won't benefit from Simply moving to a point capturing it and dashing further up for better positions you'll have to sacrifice some units to secure the backline but that shouldn't affect unit choices too much though but we can push to the tack Ops truly the most difficult layer to master matching tack Ops to units on the field alongside opponent strengths is a journey I don't think I can fully acquaint you with no matter how much I want to think of this though we'll focus on one possibility the legionary have access to Seek and Destroy and subsequently the Head Hunter mission kill the enemy leader in the first two turns for full score do you think you could harlequins are fast Little Devils and your opponent might be seasoned enough to not want to give you his leader before turn three that means you have to go for it with extreme prejudice you'll need the speed and operative potential to catch that high Mobility monster offg guard your units need to be a big enough threat to Tunnel through harleyquinn fodder that will stand between you and those sweet sweet points and whatever load out you come up with hopefully it can handle the other two missions they'll be tasked with but tack Ops can be a little secondary to team building after maximizing your board control and matchup potential bending tack Ops to suit your needs is a bit easier for most rather than the other way around now let's make some adjustments to the matchup and apply some of these Concepts the Harley quins have fled from our strategic prowess and in their place we have the more pure Elite focused intercessors the roster leans towards movement with a touch of survivability from its chapter tactics we're still rocking the legionary so what do we do well our opponent is leaning towards 15 wounds from the health bonus and a movement threat range of 10 in quick and durable choices I think we generally hang up the torrrent weapons although the hit saturation will overpower the possible armor saves it will only act as a minor chip damage and The Limited units elite team like the legionary or intercessors bring to the table tend to get around torrent and blast pretty easily maybe we're playing an open or beta DEA and there is a reason to entrench on distant ends of the map I would probably be looking to limit my front line down to expand my range definitely both the Gunner and the heavy gunner thinking plasma for long range damage and a heavy Bolter for double shoot potential maybe a Bolter wielding icon bear as well but probably the balefire instead as his buff match matched with the heavy Bolter makes for a brutal combo the anointed tends to be a good durable distraction the butcher is still capable of deterring enemies from a large portion of the map and here I could see value matching durability potential with a chosen leader we'll just have to keep track of who has the Tilt Shield to stop his crit potential and try and range that down with plasma Weaponry if we find ourselves on Close Quarters Maps however I could see value in the Gunner trading in its plasma for a melta with some good positioning a well-timed bail fire buff a four attack 63 damage line ap2 mortal wounds four close-range weapon with a lethal five bonus tends not to care how big its Target's Health pool is it will become the same molten puddle on the floor and the value still persists with the melee units already chosen a pretty simple setup for most elite teams now all of this will be best applied with more and more experience knowing what to ask for about factions you're not familiar with as opponents move speed durability weapon rules that your team tends to be weak to the key to good decisions leading to a good match really comes from all that information the gimmicks the gotcha mechanics it helps you know what to expect do they want to be in melee will it be a war of ranged attrition so definitely take some time decide what each of your operatives are best at figure out their weaknesses then simply apply where needed or just play teams like the idian the gellerpox or the chaos Cults don't have to make decisions when they already have been made for you hopefully I have cleared up some ways of thinking on how to build your teams going forward again my hope is to impart on you that there is no one true gospel for team comp maybe this will help break some ideas I've been seeing floating around the Vox on thinking there is in fact a universal build for every matchup and map in my opinion simply not true but this is where I turn to all of you out there have you found any fun team compositions to play into certain enemies or missions that ended up being surprisingly efficient maybe some Hidden Gem units that are must takes against certain matchup possibilities let us know in the comments below as a reminder we have a community Discord Linked In the description join up if you want to continue the conversation or maybe you don't fully understand what an operative might be meant for drop a question there and someone might just open your eyes to some interesting possibilities as always likes for the like God and subscribes for the Subscribe Throne I am Kimmer and I'll see you in the next one [Music]

Channel: KimerexProjekt

Views: 2,549

Keywords: warhammer 40k, warhammer, games workshop, tabletop gaming, kill team, Kimerex, kimerex projekt, wh40k, tabletop, miniatures, strategy, strategy games

Id: o3n75P7YLv8

Length: 20min 55sec (1255 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 10 2024