Catching up to now

25 Feb, 2026

A prequel to the blog

Hello! Im starting up this blog to journal about getting better at playing Kill Team, and maybe a little modelling and friendship on the side.

Starting the blog now starts the journal about 15 games into my journey, so I feel I need to give a medium length synopsis of the journey until now, the journey to being ankle deep in Kill Team.

Starting off

I got my first Kill Team, Wrecka Krew, back in November 2025. I was getting into Space Marine 2 with a few friends and really enjoying the lore and learning about the 40k universe finally after window shopping getting into it since college over a decade ago. No one in my neighborhood (South side of Chicago) was playing big army Warhammer 40k games in my neighborhood but I did notice a meeting of "Skirmish Wargaming Club" on the calendar of the local comic shop First Aid Comics. A genuine shout out to First Aid, they are an amazing store with an amazing staff, its existence brightens my life. Anyway, I asked about it, was told about a discord, chatted with everyone there, and learned Kill Team was the game most people are playing close by.

Swallowing my 2000 pt. army dreams down, I did the next best thing and bought some orkz. I decided to paint them up in an Evil Sunz livery as they resonated with me the most. As I got through painting the team, I started playing as well, and as I played more, I fell more in love with the game. Luckily, locally there are also many new players for all of us to cut out teeth against as we run toward eachother like toddlers running head first at the coffee table corner.

Running at that table corner

To start out, I played 2 games against my now friend Knut, who is also new to Kill Team. Knut is also an amazing painter and really set a bar for me to reach for, mostly unsuccessfully. In both of our first game Knut played Angels of Death which I learned is a more Elite oriented team, while I was loaned proxies to play my beloved Wreckas by Al, an incredibly experienced player who also coached, taught both of us, and is an awesome person. Al also loaned us his copy of Volkus. Knut has played Games Workshop games so had a rough idea of how combat and movement work, which put me a bit on the back foot. We played through the game, laughs and fun were had, and I ended up losing by a fair bit, I do not remember the score. Notice this feeling, I will find myself here a lot. After reminding myself that if I'm not winning I should be learning, I went home and re-read the rules. This reflection and a few youtube videos pointed my head at focusing more on positioning, activation order, and those sweet sweet Wrecka Points.

Game 2 - This time its personal

Fast forward a few weeks, I find myself with some half painted orkz and a whole boatload of confidence. We met at a meeting of the Skirmish Wargaming Club at First Aid before I had to dip to work. This presented an interesting dynamic for new players as immediately we are forced into a 2 hour limited game, like normal tournament play. Right off the bat my main focus is getting my Pulsa rocket off and start getting dice rolling to get my wrecka point economy going.

At the time, as it is now, my main focus is trying to get a few wrecka points early and then run a floating amount so any attack is guaranteed at least some hits. This seemed to work out really well for me and promoted atleast what felt to me like a very aggressive play style. I snapped a few pictures at the starts of turns (I missed turn 4, we were really having fun)

A new challenge appears!

After playing these games I was very locked in on my desire to play Kill Team as opposed to bigger games of 40k for now. Right as I'm realizing this a few tournaments get announced. I signed up for an open at Grognard Games out in Roselle and immediately realized I still barely know the rules. Frantically 2 more games get scheduled, one with Al and one with another semi local Ty, another super nice and knowledgeable person. My game with Al was on Gallowdark, which is my first foray away from Volkus. Going through doors really is terrifying on an enclosed map like this, again another theme I suspect you will start to notice soon.

Al was playing Deathwatch, and I know now after reflection, was really taking it easy on me. I was able to park my Boss Nob in one room with a squig and a Breaka Boy to deter Al from entering, but that allowed him to basically do whatever he wanted on the rest of the killzone. I found myself feeling proud of shutting down that one room at the time, but on future reflection, I over committed and that put me on the back foot everywhere else.

I took a few snaps during this game. I had just gloss coated my minis so they would be sturdy enough to transport to the tournament I had signed up for in a few weeks. They look so silly

Two days after that game, I had a game scheduled with Ty. Ty always has excellent looking minis all done up using speed paints. They really tempt me to try them as again, they really look so good. I don't remember too much from this game as my focus was just to really make sure I knew all the rules and key words so when I got to the tournament the upcoming weekend, I wouldn't be completely lost. Ty also takes good pictures and it would be a shame to not share them!

Dawn of the first day, 4 games remain

After swallowing down a few more games, I find myself at my first tournament. I really felt like a fish out of water and super overwhelmed. There is just so much noise and commotion when you get 16 nerds in a room, then add on top of that a D&D group and a few 40K games and its just a wall of noise and motion. I downed my trusty white monster, grabbed a fresh tooth pick and checked my first pairing of the day.

Across the copy of Tomb World from me is a tall older man named Craig. Craig has a pleasant british accent and is former military. "I've been a Son of Sanguinius since'92" he proudly tells me as we introduce ourselves. Craig has some gorgeous Blood Angels painted up, and boy oh boy, did they provide blood for the blood god. At the start of turn 2, he lobs a grenade that hits 3 orks and a squig. That was the exact moment I knew how the day would go. Craig methodically and surgically removes my xeno scum off them killzone one by one, and I don't even see turn 4. With the extra time Craig takes the time to show me things I did wrong with spacing, tactics, and ideas for strategies in future rounds. He then also invites me to grab lunch next door with a few of the Dice Dojo (north side game store) regulars, I get a great BLT and even better company. Craig is really cool.

This is where my memory gets a little bad, as I am terrible with names. My 2nd game finds me paired against the other new guy at the tournament, who happens to also be playing Wrecka Krew. It seems we both mostly only have one strategy - move right at the enemy then make an explosion happen. We played the Orb crit op (my favorite) on Tomb World which allowed me to really capitalize and it becomes obvious early that I understand action ordering while my opponent does not. I pick off a few of his orkz with more aggressive movement off turn 1 which also allowed me to out active him. At one point he tried to move behind me to activate his "Plant Banner" tac op, but I have so many more models on the table I was able to deal with it without any issue. 1-1 for the day.

Game 3 puts me up against a played who is playing Space Wolves, and let me tell you, it felt unfair. Every single activation I feel like I'm playing reactionary and just trying to keep up or do anything. This was by far my worst game of Kill Team I have ever played.

Game 4 put me up against Alejandro, who is playing a beautifully painted Battleclade. I had never played against a team like this and it was really cool to see it work, even if it was during a ceremonial ass kicking. We played on Volkus and it felt like every rooftop had an Ad Mech on it.

At the end ofthe day I found myself 1-3, better than I expected. A snowy drive home with good buddy Al and I find myself at home buzzing. Even though I did terrible, I had such a blast. I was so overwhelmed that I didn't get pictures in.

My ankles are wet

Over the coming month I find myself trying to take any game I can. I played as a sparring partner for a brand new player, Conner, as well as to just get in casual after work games with other players in the neighborhood. A doubles tournament also popped up ran by Al, which presented a new fun way to play.

Double Trouble, Double Fun

I signed up for this tournament with Connor as it felt only fair 2 new players play together, as opposed to me signing up as a wild card and dragging a competent player down from a win. Connor played Void Dancers which is a cool team with good movement and weapons range. Knut had us as well as Al over one night so we could try out the rules together, and we knew immediately it was going to be a fun tournament that weekend.

Game 1 we played against Alex and Ernesto who where playing Blades of Khaine and Farstalker Kinbands. This tournament was cool because each game was playted across 2 killzones. We ended up pairing off so I played against Ernesto on Tombworld while Connor played Alex on Bheta-Decima. This was my first game against a team with more models on the table and Ernesto really knew them well. I was so concerned with his bird men that I didnt even get to look over at the other side of the table so much. We made it to turn 4 but just barely. We lost but we laughed a lot and made new friends.

Game 2 was on the same table, but this time against James playing Celestian Insidiants and Matt playing Murder Wing, so basically playing against the new Shadowhunt box. I took Tomb World again against James. I turns out he painted the copy we were playing on and it did look amazing. This game felt far more close and overall we all had a blast. Another loss but it felt closer.

Game 3..... oh god game 3. We got paired against Knut playing his trusty Angels of Death and his team mate was Rob, a Dice Dojo regular, playing Deathwatch. Rob is good, Rob is really good. We played on a Volkus and tomb world table, which inspired confidence in me that I could maybe get some area control on Volkus then help conner potentially if needed. This is not what happened at all. I made a super risky placement on initiation that relied on us moving first, which did not happen. Rob picked off over half my team by the end of turn 2 without any effort and moved over to go bully Connor with Knut, all while rolling dice so joyously. While this game went the worst for us, I know I learned a lot about model placement and risk vs reward.

Overall it was a very fun, if not very successful, tournament. Doubles definitely adds an interesting spin on the normal game, but I am excited to get back to 1v1. I snapped a few blurry pictures throughout the day

.... And now we find ourselves at present day

So that's my history with Kill Team so far. I am starting this blog in hopes of better documenting my games and reflect further on what worked, and more importantly what didn't. As it stands I have a copy of Tomb World, as well as 2x Death Watch, Canoptek Circle, and Batteclade in my pile of shame to paint up, ontop of a Blood Bowl team (I really want to get into that game).

There is a meet up of the Skirmish Wargaming group this Saturday, and I also have games scheduled for the next few Tuesdays. Looking further than that I have the Dice Dojo Winter Open in just over 2 weeks and I hope to get up to Adepticon, if not to play, just to see what's there. There are also a few multi day tournaments coming up but I don't know if I have that in me yet. Either way, I will post updates after all of those games and any more I schedule.

I really hope to find a balance of aggression vs defense in these coming games as that feels like my weak point. My understanding of general map positioning is starting to get better, but I feel like as soon as I get hit at all I fall onto the back foot and try to hide. This does seem to go better than my other reaction of just kamikazeing at whoever shot and praying the dice roll well (spoiler - they never do in this setting).

I really hope this project will bring joy to me and if anyone finds this they find it interesting. I will leave you after that novella with a photo of Ike's excellent Murderwing Chaos Lord facing off with my Wrecka Boss Nob

-j