Weekender: 40K KillTeam Commanders; Marvel Or Mistake?
October 13, 2018 by brennon
Welcome to another episode of The Weekender where we're going to be trying to employ the powers of the Kill Team Cat to answer a question about a new expansion from Games Workshop.
Podcast Download
Make sure to get involved in the comments as we're going to be giving away two copies of the Kill Team Commanders Expansion this week too!
Marvel Or Mistake?
As we were discussing the new expansion for Games Workshop's successful Kill Team game we thought that maybe these Commanders are taking away from what made this skirmish version of Warhammer 40,000 what it is.
Do you think that this is true or do you think that the Commanders Expansion allows us to develop new stories and narratives within the universe, offering us a chance to get stuck into the development of more characters.
Remember, include Marvel or Mistake in your answers in the comments below and we'll get all scientific about it next week.
News
We also have some great news from this week to discuss...
- 500 Store Celebration - Two new miniatures appear from Games Workshop next weekend
- Middle-earth Awesomeness - Watch out for more from Tolkien's world in the coming months
- Star Wars Specialists - Some new generic options are coming out for Legion commanders
- Cruel Seas - We get a better look at what you're getting with Warlord's newest game
- Building Rome - Z-Man are bringing together plenty of interesting mechanics in a new board game
What caught your eye from this week?
The Edge Campaign
Justin talks with Pawel from Awaken Realms about their campaign that started this week. The Edge is a fantastic game with plenty of interesting options for those who love narrative tabletop experiences.
Make sure to check out the first episode HERE and let us know what you think.
Kickstarter
We have two great campaigns for you to check out.
- D6 - A fantastic role-playing/adventure board game which needs your attention!
- Beowulf: Beastslayer - Will you be considering this new game book from some luminaries of the craft?
Make sure to let us know if you've seen anything else we should consider on Kickstarter.
Community Spotlight
We're looking at some amazing terrain building, kitbashing and painting this week from the Community Spotlight and if you'd like to share your thoughts you can do so HERE.
Also, remember to check out the Hagglethorn Hollow Kickstarter which still has two weeks or so left on the funding platform.
Prizes - Win Kill Team Commander Expansions
This week we're going to be giving away two Kill Team Commander expansion sets from Games Workshop which you can snag by commenting on this episode.
We also have two winners to announce from last week who won Warhound Titans and Half Moon Bay Steins.
Prize Centre - See If You're A Winner
We have a new Prize Centre which will list all of the winners from our myriad of competitions so make sure to check out if you've got your hands on something on the link above.
Have a great weekend!
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Yay, the comment box is back. 🙂
Comment Box is misbehaving badly today lol
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I’m going with Marvel. It doesn’t take away from the base game, but does allow players to slowly build their armies to full on 40K.
@brennon – GW do have a Path to Glory product available for AoS as either a 88-page softback (20 of your UK pounds) or as an ePub for 9.99.
These were brought out under first edition of AoS. Since I don’t play the game, I don’t know what effect second edition will have on the rules therein.
I do actually have it on my shelf haha but it wasn’t quite the same game as the original unfortunately.
Ben. My wife had me cracking up this morning. She said you look like General Zod and his buddies in “the fantom zone” when they are looking out. lol… Oi! ???
I think I would say Marvel. More options.
Its a Marvel! The oppertunities for narrative play with heroic characters at the skirmish/scuffle level are enormous. I can imagine a squad of guardsmen taking on a Genestealer Patriarc or a squad of Wyches on an assassination mission targeting a Necron Overlord. Or why not imagine a squad of Space Marines evacuating a Librarian onto a waiting flyer as a horde of Poxwalkers and a few Plauge Marines are closing in threating to overrun their position. Or why not proxy an Astra Militarum Commander as an Imperial Knight Pilot that has to cross the board to reach his Knight with… Read more »
Mistake – due to execution * The price for the single rulebook is ridiculous (to field *ONE* model). * The Commanders are not new sculpts, so the only way to buy the faction specific Commander is to buy a box with a model we likely already have. * They’re super-over-powered relative to the rest of the troops. * Instead of now meeting up to play KT, you’ll need to agree whether to play with/without Commanders. * It’s taking a leaf from video games, release a product that’s incomplete and sell expansions that should’ve been in the main game to begin… Read more »
Re the new prize place. You have used ( in my opinion) the wrong spelling of centre.
Yeah I took literally minutes stressing over that word wondering “mmmmm I wonder which will annoy @torros” 😉
I’m old and senile enough now that everything annoys me?
Clearly some of us hold you to better standards than you hold yourselves. Just imagine what a mess you’d be without us!
This is similar to the email sent to me this week about the movement at work of some ‘stationary items’; which I responded seemed a contradiction. The original sender still hasn’t worked it out…
lol
You’re obviously not British, maybe American?
‘Centre’ is correct for British-English (in my opinion).
Torros spelt it ‘centre’ to refer to it, but OTT spelt it ‘center’ in their ‘Claim a Prize’ part of the website.
Ah, thanks for clarifying. I jumped up to the top of the page and thought they were referring to that. Cheers
I’ll just drop this here sorry Torros I really like you but I think they’ve used the correct spelling.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/centre
Thanks @totsuzenheni for your clarification. I retract my bewilderment at @torros response ( because he usually is right) and feel much more happy with the state of the universe.
Even with the law of averages it had to happen eventually
Marvel. Nice to have a team go assasinate some higher ups.
Still gw needs to learn that expansions like this should not be that expensive
8th!
I don’t play KT, but I would say both – from my gw days people like characters and if gw didn’t get there, people will make their own character rules, and they don’t like ideas that deviate from the stc
Deviation from STC templates is heresy, please report to your nearest tech priest for servitude reasignment.
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It’s the Weekend!! Time again for a Weekender.
Mistake – feels like a commercially exploitative release and messes with what Killteam in its various previous releases has always been about. Danger it becomes a necessary pay-to-win purchase.
While I like the idea of developing individuals in a team over an extended campaign… isn’t that what Necromunda has always been about?
I like the idea that Cruel Seas . I shall maybe have to go and by a new Duffle coat and a cup for my cocoa
I’m slightly on the Mistake side of the fence. I like playing grunts. But I’m with Sam too, bribed by the new options. I want Harlequin commanders. I want a commissar. I’m just not sure what it’ll do to the game. I’ll probably pick it up to find out for myself.
Marvel… never played 40k (i know.. shame on me), but now its a possibility for me to get into the game.. 40k feels sooo big for newby’s, thats why I never get involved
You aren’t missing anything. Stay away!
pretty much my thoughts as well.
Standard 40k armies feel too big.
This is a nice byte sized entry level.
Depending on the faction you’ve got 5-10 models to build & paint.
And there’s less to worry about in terms of list building.
Factions like the Harlequins are even easier : one box, all the models … and you’re done.
The faction itself may be a bit more tricky to play, but that’s it.
So you will be Beasts of Peace from now on :p
lol yup gonna have to be it seems 🙂
Or Beasts of the Continuation of Politics by Other Means
Apologies to Clausewitz
I’m sure On Tabletop defeats all those nasty bots
I was thinking 1984 it too.
Better to get all the rebranding done in one go, so to be on the safe side make it ‘Bunnies of Peace’…
Marvel because it adds interesting individual commanders which is what any small scale miniatures game needs. Reminds me of the original concept for Rogue Trader way back in the day.
Happy weekend! Marvel as an idea in regards to offering more options, both narrative and gameplay wise. That said, I will await reviews of the actual product before potentially buying it.
I don’t think it’s as extreme a move to be either a marvel or a mistake. But I’m nearer to marvel. For me a marvel would be if for each faction you got a bits-box-on-a-sprue – so a highly modular kit with a wide variety of options to create a unique commander, but way more accessible than having to kit bash from other kits. Accessibility is key. People who play Kill Team over Necromunda say that the Necromunda campaign is way more complex and is a huge multi-week time sink. Kill Team is more pick up n play and you… Read more »
I’m not sure about Cruel Seas. Torpedo boats were made to attack bigger ships (cruisers and battleships and up) by zooming in very quickly and then launching torpedo salvos at close range. Actually, the Destroyer (short for Torpedo Boat Destroyer) was specifically made to combat this threat.
To me it seems out of place to have torpedo boats fighting between themselves. Their main armament is the torpedo, which would be useless against other torpedo boats.
There are larger boats coming from what I remember the largest being 12″ which is around 4 times the size of the torpedo boats
We used to play ‘Action Stations’ years ago, it was a coastal warfare game using MTBs fighting in the English Channel. Some good scenarios involved attack/defend games with merchant ships or a fishing fleet as the objective or rescue/capture downed aircrews or crippled sub. The MTB has plenty of secondary weapons to engage other MTBs with (quick firers, autocannons, MGs, etc), used to make for some good games.
Maybe using Motor Gun Boats (MGB)instead of MTBs is more appropriate?
Was that the old Skytrex one that was out years ago (with a range in metal MTBs). Had some fun with some pilot rescues using that one (if I’ve got the right set of rules). I do seem to remember it was very hard to take down those S Boats in the game however
We were developing a set based on the old Hammerin Iron rules which was a set for ACW ironclads. The main part was that it was played on hexes
@phaidknott, yes mate, the 1/600 stuff that they had quite a large range of.
Yes the S boats could be hard, I always liked the Fairmile D MGB to take them on with.
I would say marvel, whilst I like the original squad idea having a commander this way allows you to expand if you want. Plus it’s a cunning way of building an army slowly 🙂
Good episode as always but Ben please please stop pronouncing Lieutenant like an American!
Here’s a couple of vlogs on this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-5iI1pThN4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu8O6zyc9_4
I’m leaning toward marvel for the commander expansion for Kill Team.
Had to double take when you were showing off the new prize centre, great way to see I’d won a boot camp bundle! Thank you to you guys and Warlord :).
As someone just starting kill team (having never played 40k) this fills like something I now have to buy to keep up in getting started. I guess story wise in my head kill team battles are pockets of a larger 40k battle going on somewhere with just a handful of models so adding this special unit might not make it feel like that given he/she is the Hero rather than just one of the team stepping up into that heroic moment. As a collector, they look cool and I will probably pick them up. I don’t think it is needed… Read more »
#Mistake I say this in that I feel that this is moving away from what I like about Kill Team in that we are creating a personal narrative for our miniatures. I agree with the comments that would like to see a regular grunt rise in rank to the a position of leadership; be it awarded for acts of valor or even just wartime promotion. I have just finished reading “Brotherhood of the Snake” by Abnett which follows a collection of stories about Space Marines from the Iron Snakes chapter. In the first story, it involves a single marine who… Read more »
Great to see Sam improving the sartorial quotient of the show – sharp jacket man! I approve! To the question in hand, for me, the Commander expansion is definitely a #Marvel. I totally accept the concerns and agree that the distortion of the meta could be an issue. But “meta” is a concept in games I just run a million miles from and never impacts on my play. I play at home every couple of weeks with a mate I have played against for well over a decade now. I also play at a local club every couple of weeks.… Read more »
Marvel. With caveat, the price, which will be unnecessarily inflated for Australia and New Zealand (says the angry retailer – see my comments from last weeks piracy debate). GW has added characters to the kill team game but lets face it, we aren’t talking about special characters that everyone has heard of. These are characters that no-one has heard of before, just like the characters in Shadespire. I doubt they will be overpowered or be auto-includes in everyone’s games. GW has tried a number of character progression systems in a number of games, usually embedded in a campaign system. It… Read more »