Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team (HoR)/Tactics(7E)

Not to be confused with the official Kill Team released by Games Workshop.

Once upon a time, the Warhammer World dudes made a supplement for Warhammer 40k called Kill-Team, which were based around 200 pt battles where each model was controlled individually and you could only chose from the Elite, Troops and Fast Attack slots. Many 'toppers around the world loved it for its simplicity, for how easy it was to get into and how much bullshit it avoided. But then, something happened.

The Heralds of Ruin community made their own unofficial version, with blackjack and hookers. It was, and continues to be, awesome.

General Tactics

The Kill Team: Heralds of Ruin Unofficial Warhammer 40,000 Supplement (from now on called HoR to differentiate from GW's own Kill Team rules.) changes a lot of the usual dogmas about 40K that you need to revert to get into Kill Team - Don't get us wrong, it is still the same game, but the focus is shifted to a few key models instead of the usual bucketload of models, so you need to use a more focused mindset - Your "Heavy Support" might only be a couple of Devastators, and your "HQ" is usually something equivalent of Sergeants and Nobs. That said, because there are so few models, fewer AP/S and almost no Vehicles, the resilience of your models goes up in general. T 5 and up is suddenly king, and any Armour Save over 4+ is badass for most models. Also, even though it is not a written rule, many team leaders gain extra wounds in their statline, meaning they can take a little more damage.

Building a Kill team

This is usually the expensive part of making an army, but when playing Kill Team, you usually just need two or three kits of infantry. A Space Marine Team can be made of a kit of Tacs and a kit of Sternguards without problem, and even Orks can make an entire army of a box of Nobs and a box of Boyz.

A Kill Team is usually set at around 250 pts, and in general has one Team Leader (who keeps up morale and kick ass in CC), about 20-30 Core models (Do I need to explain) and about 5 Special Models (Who are models that would otherwise be a bitch to fight, and therefore is kept to a minimum, like Terminators or Dark Reapers). Most Team Leaders have some ability to get Special Models to Core (see the aforementioned Terminators), or increase the amount you can take of some Core models, which is why it is best to choose your Team Leader first before getting the rest - A Team Leader is good, A Team Leader that fits within the list and boosts it is absolutely boss.

There are two general rules when creating a Kill Team:

• Never be too Elite: When you can generally only shoot one model at a time, your attacks get funneled down to a little bit of the enemy while the enemy can gang on you - That will often end up with you getting crumped by the sheer amount of the models the enemy might swamp you with. Not that you can't be elite-ish, just remember the 40K dogma of "There is quality in quantity".
• Placement actually matters: Most 40K games are placed on half-empty boards with a lot of place for you units of Mahreens, Kill Team is jammed with terrain in several stories - If there is room for a Rhino to drive about, you are doing it wrong. Think about that when you make your list - Heavy weaponry needs to get up in to places where they can see more than an alley, so that will be about one or two turns were they can't use their guns right. Plus, the terrain will slow your dudes down.

New Rules

Kill team brings in a whole lot of new rules to simulate what the producers call a "cinematic experience", alongside simple amendments for rules like Mob Rule and Orders that make the more iconic parts of each faction stand out even more. They also bring new rules entirely for some models, a good load of extra gear for all factions and some new factions like Adeptus Arbites, Genestealer Cults and Deathwatch armies, making the game function more like Mordheim than 40K. What follows is a list of changed rules and amendments for the game in general. If it isn't mentioned, it hasn't been changed.

• Movement Phase.
  • Difficult Terrain: When moving through Difficult Terrain, your model subtracts 2" from its total Movement.
  • Advancing: All your models have suddenly learned to move about without stumbling all the time: you can choose between trying your luck with D6" or adding a flat 3" when Advancing.
  • Climbing: Same as Difficult Terrain, subtract 2".
    • Jumping and Jumping Down: Move to the edge of where you want to jump, then roll a D6: on a 2+ you can use your remaining inches to move through the air to you assigned location. If failed, the model will fall to the bottom of the building, closest to where your model jumped and take a S X Ap X/2 hit, where X is equal to inches fallen. Damage is 1 for falling less than 6", D3 otherwise. When jumping down, don't measure the distance travelled down as movement. If the model Advanced add 3" to the jump distance.
  • Hiding: If your model is more than 6" away from any enemy model and is 50% obscured or better from all enemy sources, you can choose to Hide. When hiding, no enemy can target you with any kind of weaponry or Psychic power. Your own model has effectively ended their turn if they choose to Hide, and will be able to move as normal next turn. If an enemy model moves so they are within 6" or can see more than 50% of the enemy model, the effects of Hiding immediately expires.

• Terrain.
  • Real Terrain: Kill Team simulates walls just more realistically - A wall is a wall and cannot be moved through if there are no doors or openings, where doors are regardes as any actual doors on the Ruin model, and open spaces as any open space less than 1" high and more than 1" across. This means that most chest high walls can be moved through without suffering Difficult Terrain.

• Psychic Phase.
  • Generating Powers: Same as Bighammer, although you can generally cast and deny only one power per turn. Also, no Smite spam: each power can be cast only once per turn.
  • Smite: given the limited nature of Kill Team, Smite has been nerfed to 1 Mortal Wound or D3 on a 10+.
  • Area of Effect: powers affecting whole units now have a 3" AoE radiating from their primary target.

• Psychology.
  • The Rout Test: When you start a turn on a higher Rout Threshold than your opponent, your Team Leader (or the highest-Leadership model left, if your Team Leader has bitten it) must take a Rout test, which is a standard Ld-test - If passed, nothing happens. If failed, your team retreats and instantly ends the game. Note that the routing team is not auto-losing: count VPs as normal. You can choose to Rout even if you succeeded on staying on the table, though this mostly is used in Campaign to keep the troops alive.
  • Rout Thresholds
    • Threshold 0: more than 50% of your Team is alive
    • Threshold 1: 50-25% of your Team is alive
    • Threshold 2: less than 25% of your Team is alive
  • Nerve: When a model is taken out of action, all friendly model within 3" take a Leadership test. If failed, the model must try to Hide following the usual crit-CLANG - WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?

• New Rules.
  • Grenades: Grenades are always One Use Only.
  • Suppressing Fire: Any model with a ranged weapon with more than one shot per Shooting Phase may choose to allocate those shots - The original target gets the first shot, then pick as many enemy models within 6" as there are remaining shots. You may only allocate more than one shot on a model if all other targets has one shot on them too.
  • New USR.
    • Inspiring Presence: A rule Team Leaders have by default. It allows any model within 6" of the model with the IP rule to use that model's Ld for anything - Nerve, Psychic Powers tests, you name it. Simple, really.

• Assault Phase (This is where it gets tricky).
  • New Order of Operation: First, chose an enemy model, then, declare any and all charges against that single model. This means that massed charges at each model will happen, and reactions will be accordingly for the receiver of the charge - He can choose who and what to Overwatch, and if he want someone to charge to afterwards.
  • Supporting Charge: A model may charge a model already stuck in even though he can't be moved to be in base contact with the enemy model - Charge like you would measure towards the enemy, and then get your model as close to the enemy as possible. A model who charged this way are counted as being in melee with the enemy model regardless of Line of Sight.
    • Supporting Combat: Any model in base contact with a friendly model in base contact with an enemy may fight like it was in melee itself.
  • Overwatch: All friendly models within 3" of the charged model can make a Ld test to see if they may shoot Overwatch as well. This can be dangerous if one model charges lot of model, but with clever redirection, it shouldn't be too dangerous.
  • Counter-Charge: Friendly models within 3" of a charged model may take a Ld test to see if they are allowed to get stuck in with the closest enemy model, allowing them to fight in melee against the charging opponent. Models with Counter-charge rule get 1+ Attack for doing so, too.
  • Redirection: If you killed the model you wanted to charge in the Shooting Phase, make a Ld test - If successful, your model may charge an enemy model within 3" of the original recipient of the charge.
  • Charging up: If a model charges up a building per the Movement rules, it must pass an Initiative test or get stumped at the edge at the building, receiving enemy Overwatch in turn. If succeeded, the model may charge, albit at WS-1 (" If it succeeds, the model completes its charge, but reduces its WS by 1 during the subsequent Fight sub-phase") this turn.
  • Charging down: If jumping down upon an enemy model when charging, make an Initiative test: If failed, the model falls per the Movement rules. If successful, the charging model gain 1+ S that turn.
  • Combat Resolution: Just like the main game - The highest amount of wounds drive the other enemy away. the following achievements also gain a bonus for the teams who accomplish them. All give 1 extra wound for resolution purposes only.
    • A Model in combat Charged that turn.
    • A Model in combat Counter-charged that turn.
    • A Model bears a banner (Standard, Bosspole, etc).
    • The enemy is outnumbered 1 to 5.

• Transports (Optional):
  • You may only take as many transports as there are models in your team, divided by 10 (rounding up). Of course, these models can by any ones you want so long as the army has access to them normally.
  • Only Transports with a total AV of 34 are allowed (Goodbye Land Raiders! Goodbye Drop Pods! (They specifically mention that drop pods are an exception to this rule) Goodbye Stormwolves!) This includes upgrades.
  • Any model can use the firing points at any targets. This also means that they can overwatch in the event that their ride is getting charged.
  • Transports cannot contest objectives, nor may they be used to carry them.
  • If they explode, all occupants have to test initiative or catch fire like the Flamer rule writes.
  • Transports cannot be concealed, meaning that any cover that hides less than half the vehicle habe a -1 modifier on their cover.
  • Transports without Jink can still dodge when fired upon for a 5+ cover.
  • Transports moving more than 6" can only pivot once up to 90 degrees. If going flat-out, this pivot must go before the move.
  • If the force has no tools to repair a vehicle, they can take a 5-point Tool Kit that can let them repair an HP or fix Immobilized on a 6+. Of course, any armies with other methods have those available.
  • Transports In Campaigns:
    • Can only be requisitioned from the HQ's Vehicle Hangar.
    • After the first turn, Transports must pay a maintenance fee with Requisition; this is calculated by dividing the vehicle's total cost by 20.
    • Transports have their own Battle Honours and Damage results. If it explodes or wrecks, the results table has a -1.

Campaigns

In order to allow narratives to be made in an organized fashion, there are supplemental rules that tell how a campaign can be run.

1. Build a Kill-Team. The recommended amount is around 250 points.
   • Establish a Force. This Force is essentially a pool of all the models you have for the whole campaign.
     • In a Force, Core Models of the same type join into 5-man groups which are deployed together in a game. This is just so you can roll certain upgrades without having to pour over every single model. They're otherwise the same as regular.
       • If you ever need to replace a lost member of a group, roll 1d6. If the result is higher than or equal to the number of battle honours the team has, then they'll be replacing that model. Otherwise, the new guy won't be able to be used and you have to wait a turn before trying again.
       • Squads act as single groups. They gain Battle Honours and replacements as if they're a group.
     • In a game where the Leader is out of commission, a Special Model can become a Leader with Inspiring Aura. This makes them effectively a leader, but it'll costs -1VP from whatever winnings you get. Note that if you have no Core models to use in a game, then you immediately forfeit the game.
2. Play the damn game. Seriously.
3. Determine injuries for totally-dead models/squads.
   • Core and special units have different result tables to roll on for injuries, as do transports, walkers, and artillery if you take them. While Core units either get dead or alive, Special models can risk losing from a stat or being temporarily out of a game.
4. Determine RP and Renown won
   • Requisition is won through accomplishing certain goals in the game. They make models better.
   • Renown is generally how good you are, so they're a score. Winners gain renown, losers roll d6 where they either lose Renown for what happened or gets +1.
5. Spend RP
   • You can either spend Requisition to replace models, upgrade the base or buy Battle Honours for certain models.
     • Base upgrades give you not only bonus points to spend on your Force, but you can also spend Requisition to get you bonuses you can use on-field.
     • Battle Honours upgrade one model in a group by either raising his stats or giving him special rules he normally doesn't get. Walkers and Transports have different upgrades from the infantry, with one allowing them to recover any lasting damage they take from the Injury Results Table. If a model ever is killed and stays dead after a game, they lose whatever Battle Honours they get.

Rinse and repeat until you have a winner.

Bonus Stuff

For the sake of bonus fun for your campaigns, you can add in bonus rules to give access to both Legendary Weapons (weapons with nifty special rules) and Legendary Heroes (Special characters, though not necessarily Codex ones, with options like the Legion of the Damned and Dreadnought Davian Thule.)

LEGENDARY WEAPONS

1. Before the next mission of the campaign starts, you can declare that you're looking for a Legendary Weapons if you have 5 Renown to spend.
   • The next mission you play is based upon how many players also call for a hunt.
2. If you win the weapon, you now get to roll to generate just what exactly it is, be it a gun or a melee weapon, and the properties it has.

LEGENDARY HEROES

1. During the spending stage, a player can spend Requisition to hire the services of a certain Legendary Hero that can be hired by their faction. For every 5 Renown you have, you can hire another Hero, but if you ever go below that limit, you can't look for another until you regain renown.
2. These heroes are essentially outside the FOC (though they will be added in points cost). This means that they'll never get Battle Honours because they're already special enough.
3. After the first fight, the player must pay for a Legendary Hero's upkeep fee in Requisition. If he is killed or dropped from the Force, then there's no cost.
   • If the Hero is ever killed in a game, they must roll on the Core Injuries chart. If the Hero's part of a squad, then they can never hire reinforcements.

Tactics

All existing factions has updated rules as per 7th, and has their own list of models and wargear for use. Most are existing models with no extra rules, but some are slightly changed to make them work with the rules of Kill Team. Some are completely new entries with rules unseen in the offical codices though, so all is not the same. The armywide rules are also amended in most cases. The lists also assume thay you have your codex at hand, as most upgrades and rules beyond the most base statlines aren't stated.

All Version 3.0 and higher are updated to 7th Edition, but all lists functions decently.

Imperium.

• Space Marines: Version 3.1. They come in lots of other flavors, if Ultramarine Vanilla doesn't cut it for you:
  • Black Templars (zealous footslog-assault): Version 3.0.
  • Blood Angels (fast jumpy-assaulting zealots): Version 3.0.
  • Dark Angels (zealous NSA catholics): Version 3.0
  • Deathwatch (Mix & Match Alienhunters): Version 3.2. UNIQUE RULES. Take if you wanna play your team in the FFG game.
  • Grey Knights (Zealous striketeams of anti-chaos): Version 3.2b.
  • Space Wolves (Space Vikings, and wolves. Not zealots): Version 3.0a.
• Astra Militarum (Puny zealous guardsmen, with options for a Militarum Tempestus army): Version 3.0a.
• Adepta Sororitas (Zealous nuns with guns and armor): Version 2.0.
• Adeptus Arbites (A zealous mix of Guardsmen and Sisters): Version 1.1.
• Inquisition (Unexpected zealots that make good allies): Version 2.0.
• Adeptus Mechanicus (Zealous tin men, merging CultMech with Skitarii): Version 3.1.
• Rogue Traders (Spacefaring traders and colonists): Version 1.0.
• Squats (Dwarves in space): Version 1.0.
• Ogryns Version 1.0.

Chaos.

• Chaos Space Marines (Evil Marines with focus on the Traitor Legions): Version 3.0.
• Chaos Daemons (Evil creepy-crawly things from the realm of nightmares, with less random): Version 3.1.

Xenos.

• Dark Eldar (Murder elves): Version 3.1.
• Eldar (Jumpy elves): Version 3.0a.
  • Harlequins (Even jumpier elves): Version 2.0.
• Necrons (Hardass zombie robots): Version 1.4.
• Orks (Green gitz with hordes of boyz): Version 3.0.
  • Grot Rebels (Smaller green gitz): Version 1.0.
  • Feral Orks : Version 1.0.
• Tau Empire (Small blue dudes with not-so-small pewpew): Version 2.3.
• Tyranids (Bugs. Bugs everywhere): Version 2.1.
  • Genestealer Cult (Generic humies with extra eeeew): Version 1.1.