Welcome back, Kill Teamers, to a doozy of a week. If you’ve been living under a rock and missed the news, check out the multitude of articles over on WarCom!
- 30 minutes of words from the head designer, https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/08/20/kill-team-lore-whats-the-buzz-around-the-upgraded-vespid-stingwings/
- Light vespid dives, https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/08/20/kill-team-lore-whats-the-buzz-around-the-upgraded-vespid-stingwings/
- Reject shapes, embrace imperial units, and some rules teasing, https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/08/21/inches-and-icons-what-to-expect-from-the-new-edition-of-kill-team/
With all the buzz online (two can play at this game GW), being taken up by the massive upheavals. We wanted to let readers know that we’ve got some big plans for the new edition. However in the meantime we’ve still got the end of the Kill Team 2021 edition to talk about, as golden tickets to the World Championships of Warhammer are still being given out!
It seems in the twilight hours of our current edition we’ve still got some play yet with a fair number of teams performing pretty well across a couple tournaments. While Mandrakes and Brood Brothers are no surprise in the 60+% win rate bucket, we’ve got a couple surprises. Between Voidscarred, Blooded, and Veteran Guardsman all performing above people’s perceptions. With the NoVa Open right around the corner, it’ll be interesting to see if it really will be the Mandrakes and Brood Bros show. However between you and me, I expect some upsets or a very stinky Gellerpox menace to appear there.
On the topic of teams still likely to make an upset between here and the October release of Kill Team 2024, Phobos and Hearthkyn Salvagers stand out from this week’s smaller golden ticket tournaments. With tickets being given out across a few smaller tournaments. Phobos in particular snagged a nice win at the No Coast Open, and we caught up with Eric K to catch up on how he did it.
Goonhammer: How was the experience of playing at the new tournament the No Coast Open? Why did you pick Phobos when the meta seems so toxic to them right now?
Eric K: The No Coast Open in the Tulsa metro was a great experience and we have Justin, the organizer, and Waypoint Lounge, the venue, to thank for that!
I took Phobos Strike Team to the tournament and they served me well. Strategically: I considered taking Blooded but declined because Brood Brothers felt like Blooded+. I was also considering Nemesis Claw but I didn’t have enough practice with them—I couldn’t expect to win the mirror match. With Phobos, however, I had the practice reps in and they had tools to handle the meta. Some matchups might be tough but I would never get caught on the losing side of rock-paper-scissors.
GH: Phobos are a team that have been doing pretty alright, with plenty of spikes, but this week and this meta seem particularly hostile to them. What do you think you do differently?
EK: Tactically: I don’t like Reivers as much as other Phobos players do. Positioning is the essence of Phobos; I fight in the position my opponent picks but I shoot in the position I pick. Reivers are valuable to me when Terror can make the difference in objective control—usually against 3APL teams. Reivers are also good for a counter-charge when you need to get your team out of combat. Out of five games, I took a Reiver Sergeant four times but I only took a Reiver Warrior once. In addition to the positional considerations, I like having more Infiltrators to increase my Omni-scramble options. You are always, always going to take the Incursor Minelayer and the Incursor Marksman. If you take the Reiver Sergeant, that leaves room for two Infiltrators, if you pick a Reiver Warrior, or three Infiltrators, if you don’t. The difference between two Infiltrators and three Infiltrators is huge in terms of the mileage you get out of Omni-scramble.
GH: You had a strong 4-0-1 showing, how did you approach your gameplan this weekend?
EK: My default plan is to put myself in a position where I can threaten four primary points on Turning Point One. You can always create that option with Phobos mobility but whether you take that option depends on what your opponent is doing. You cannot afford to lose a model Turning Point One, so your actual play needs to be conservative. Nevertheless, you create the threat and they must respond to it. Now that the opponent has distributed their Kill Team to deal with the threats your mobility creates, you pick a side of the board to attack. Whether you use Elite Reconnaissance or just run real fast with Vanguard, you shift as much of your force as you can to the weakest side of the board. You might have one operative on a flank skirmishing for points and one operative in the middle skirmishing for points, but you are looking to shove four space marines down your opponent’s throat on their weakest flank, using Omni-scramble and Bolter Discipline to isolate and pick apart enemy operatives. This is also the flank where you’re looking to put your Recover Item token and take Plant Transponder actions, which were among the regular choices for my Tac Ops.
Thanks Eric for stopping by, and readers for catching up with us on such a busy Kill Team week.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
