Do you pronounce it WAAAGH or WAAAGH?
Today, Knut, Michael, and Nick from the north side all met up at Knut's place for a little Kill Team "bootcamp." Originally our idea was four players to meet up and play 3 games, so everyone plays each other, but scheduling changes and roster changes meant we ended up only playing two games. This was actually for the best as three out of the four players (poor Knut) brought Wrecka Krew. This ended up being okay as we all wanted a little more practice against Wreckas, and most of Chicago's ork oriented Kill Team players were in one room. I also put playing more Tomb World on my agenda for tonight. Luckily, my games tonight were both on Tomb World 1 (fig A); first against Michael, a very experienced Ork player, second against Knut and his Angels of Death, a perfect rematch and barometer against how I was doing a week ago.
Figure A - Tomb World 1
Game 1
For this first game, I knew Michael was going to be a tough opponent and throw moves at me I had not dealt with before. I went safe with my gear with the classic Glyphs (Waagh), Engine Oil, krak grenades and barricades. I approached deployment trying to spread melee and ranged attacks out across the map. Lastly, and my biggest mistake of the night, I selected Rout as my Tac Op and doubled down selecting my Tac Op as my Primary Op.
The first two turns were both of us positioning and just getting ready for turn 3. Once we got to turn 3 Michael had positioned himself that any time I got to the middle objective, he had someone to charge in and/or take the shot. I was able to play around this a little bit with positioning while even getting a few kills and getting my operatives onto objectives. I did realize at this point that there would not be any point in this game where I would be in a position to score on my Tac Op, so I got greedy and really waited to redeem my data download (we were playing Download Crit Op).
Changing to this more aggressive and gambling play style was the only chance I had, and I'm glad I took it, despite it not playing out in my favor. I think a different Tac Op selection would have made the game actually close, but because it wasn't, I kind of phoned in turn 4, missing out on 2 points. It was a fun game and I did get a few tricks for my own team to use on others going forward.
Game 2
For this game, I swapped sides of the map to the grey deployment zone, which allowed me to mirror some of Michaels moves from the game before. Knut went with a ranged selection for his operatives, while I swapped my regular Rokkiteer for a 'eavy gunner. I did swap out my Engine Oil for Drill Rokkits this game and I felt that worked out well as my operatives either died instantly, or only took minor damage.
For turn 1 I played it safe, while Knut opened up fire. This allowed me to get a toe hold in to leverage my way into the middle room. Building on that, it allowed me to pick off his operatives one by one. He commented I took a lot of resources to kill one of his operatives, but what I think he failed to realize, was that it took me so long because I was making sure he couldn't get retaliatory shots on anyone but melee charge range.
This really paid off as I got him down to 2 operatives by the final turning point. Overall I played the game without any moves I think I would change except for one.
My mistake
I moved my fighter in to open the wall, but I didnt realize Knut had enougn movement to charge my characters. I was sure he would target the squig (incorrectly labeled as conceal, it was treated correctly as on engage) and blow everything up, but he went straight for the fighter, who handled the fight with ease due to dice.
I think in the future I would have moved the squig to a more ambiguous location until the walls are already open, then move it into a more forward and attackable position. Despite this mistake, I brought the game home for a 11-4 win, mostly due to the Crit Op being Orb and Knut not having played it before.
Some Takeaways
I think tonight what I learned is mostly activation order. Keeping my ranged/more scary characters unmoved can be used either to keep the enemy guessing, or as a juice target to lure them out into easy to profit fights for me. I also think that tonight confirmed I'm leaning toward the right direction in what I'm focusing on, and I should just play more to get more experience with things that can happen.
Tuesday I have a game scheduled, then Saturday is the Dice Dojo open, so things to look forward to!
-j