So, after a week of frantic batch painting, I finally got a chance to run the Catachan 890th in a game of Kill-Team! They passed their first test with flying colors, sure, they didn’t win but they didn’t fail me completely either.
It was, as always in this wonderful club I’m in, a much grander event then just a 1v1. No sir, I jumped into a 4 player match, with the mission being Recover Intelligence. With 5 objectives, the ones furthest from your deployment being worth 2, close ones worth 1, and the centre worth 3! The opponents had Orks (A really nice throwback list with the old 2nd edition starter models, and a bunch of Lootas.), a group of Deathwatch, and a mostly primaris Minotaurs Chapter astartes force. The orks started far from me, at the other end of the table, and I had Deathwatch on my left and Minotaurs on my right. It was going to get bloody, fast.
Surprisingly, despite some heavy 1st turn losses, the other players started to focus mainly on each other, and of the two Deathwatch Marines that came after me, one fell to a flamers overwatch, and the other, while not actually dying, started to chase a guardsmen to the edge of the board and kept him away from my objective. For morale reasons I wanted to keep my lads together, but the presence of both a frag cannon and a missile launcher in my opponents teams meant I had to scatter pretty quickly.
With the centre objective controlled by the Minotaurs, the Catachans fanned out, and I started to eek out wounds where I could. One deathwatch marine, as stated before, fell to overwatch, and luckily for me, it was the storm shield! I stripped a couple wounds off some Minotaurs with my Scions, but their Trans-human Physiology and 2 wounds made them a tough nut to crack.
I may not have killed much, but with the Space Wolf far from my one objective I stayed in third place till the end of the game. I had a chance at the centre, after a well placed grenade cleared out some grots, but my opponents rallied and killed my scions before I could make good on it. On the other side of the table, the Deathwatch was being swarmed by Ork Boyz, while the Minotaurs were splitting their shots between me and the Orks, and both of us were credible threats.
Insane Bravery kept me in the fight longer then I should have, but in the end it was too little too late. The Ork player made a come from behind push, and despite being broken took the objective in his last turn, taking 1st right from under the nose of the Minotaurs.
The final score ended with me in 3rd, the Deathwatch in 4th, then the Minotaurs in 2nd and Orks in 1st! A great game, flowed really well, and I have to say, the elegance of the rule-set really showed; never feeling too complicated or bogged down, but still feeling really tactical.
Despite this, I don’t feel like my list was terrible; Lasguns are a lot more effective when their not facing tanks or high toughness enemies as much, and flamers and grenade launchers are actually useful! I’m not a competitive guy, and my list was put together more for fluff then actual effectiveness, but I never felt drastically outmatched. I had almost as many bodies as the Ork player, and my guys could shoot better. Next time, I’m going to stick a little closer together and focus fire a bit more.
A great game, with a great bunch of guys. Kill-Team I think will be a staple of this blog going forward! But, while I’m making a lore post today as well, that’s it for gaming! So as always, Ave Imperator!
Not by Strength, By Guile 