Kill Team is a fun, balanced skirmish game, with very thematic teams to choose from. Space Marines play like tough super soldiers and Orks are very anarchic. It also has a cooperative mode where players work together to beat NPOs (non player operatives) and achieve a shared objective. The range of available teams, 42 at the last count, and stats for various NPOs fills a very nice toolbox for the creation of narrative scenarios. This coupled with the fact that I’ve always wanted to play a big game hunt with dinosaurs since playing 40K as a kid has inspired me to build a kill team narrative mission. Of course there needs to be various twists and turns in there too. After all, no narrative mission is complete without secret objectives.
This mission is for six players plus a GM.
Mission Context
The Imperial Governor of Neblar Prime is celebrating his 150th birthday. Tradition dictates that he host a big game hunt as a core part of the festivities. Being useless with a gun, the Governor has engaged the famed Imperial hunter Thaddeus Ravenwick to bag a few dinosaurs for the feast. Of course, the hunters exploits will be televised across the planet so that all the citizens can share the excitement of this momentous occasion. It will be good for the morale of the workers.
However, the Governor should be more worried about the morale of the workers. Even now rebellion is fermenting, aided by a nefarious genestealer cult. The locals, who revere the dinosaurs are being stirred up and have been convinced that disrupting the hunt will spark an uprising that will overthrow their uncaring overlords once and for all!
Factions and Objectives
This game is set for six players split into two factions, the imperial hunters and the zealous rebels/cult. A third faction, consisting of three dinosaurs will be run by the GM.
To win the imperials must kill more dinosaurs than the rebels can save. Five points each respectively. In addition each player will score three points for completing their secret objective.
Characters
Each player gets one character and one to two support operatives. I have listed them below including the equivalent Kill Team stats for each as well as their secret objective. All the Kill Team operative stats are free to download from the Warhammer website.
Team Imperial
Big Game Hunter:
- The famous Thaddeus Ravenwick (Angels of Death Eliminator).
- His trusty manservant Djeeves (Exaction Squad Vigilant).
- Secret Objective: Keep your legend alive, kill at least two dinosaurs.
Long Suffering Security Detail:
- Lt Salazza (Rogue Trader Void Master)
- Shadowy guard (Rogue Trader Death Cult Assassin)
- Secret Objective: Do your job, make sure Thaddeus is alive at the end of the scenario.
Imperial Scouts:
- Lead scout Ragman (Space Marine Scout Sgt)
- Scout (Space Marine Scout Hunter)
- Secret Objective: Had a bar fight with the Rebel Gunna last night and need to finish what he started, make sure he is dead by the end of the scenario.
Rebels (Sneaky Genestealer Cult!)
The Boss:
- Rebel Leader Vispoz (Wyrmblade Kelemorph)
- Cult Brother (Brood Brother trooper)
- Secret Objective: Make sure Thaddeus is dead by the end of the scenario and fuel the fire of the rebellion.
The Heavy
- Gunna Bigarms (Brood Brother with grenade launcher)
- Buddy (Brood Brother trooper)
- Secret Objective: Had a bar fight with the Scout Ragman last night and need to finish what he started, make sure he is dead by the end of the scenario.
The Young Blood
- Falco Soarer (Wyrmblade Primus)
- Buddy (Brood Brother trooper)
- Secret Objective: If The Boss doesn’t make it out alive you’ll get promoted. Make sure he doesn’t.
Kill Team Dinosaurs
The GM will control three mega fauna (dinosaurs) that the hunting party are stalking. These will be set up together in the designated area. Kill team stats as follows:
Grand Lizard (x1):
- APL 3, Move 6″, Save 4+, Wounds 30
- Melee Claws and Teeth Attack 6, 3+ 5/6 Relentless
- Ignore piercing (tough hide), can attack twice per activation.
Sub Lizard (x2):
- APL 2, Move 7″, Save 5+, Wounds 20
- Melee Teeth Attack 4 3+ 4/5
The kill team dinosaurs operate in a simple way.
- If they can see an operative – Charge and attack the closest.
- If they cannot see an operative move in a random direction.
Game Set Up
For this Kill Team narrative mission place thick jungle terrain across the board. Feel free to add ruined temples, abandoned hab blocks etc. Make the terrain denser than a normal Kill Team battle. A jungle stream with 2 bridges is also a fun addition. The dinosaurs start in a clearing to the right of the board. Make sure to have no firing lanes between the Imperial deployment and the dinosaur clearing.
Terrain Rules
Some suggested rules for the terrain are:
- Stream – minus 2″ to movement when crossing.
- Jungle – blocks line of sight and gives light cover.
- Ruins etc – heavy cover and blocks line of sight.
Playing The Mission
Players position themselves around the table in alternating order: Imperial-Rebel-Imperial-Rebel etc. Roll for initiative and play moves in the above order.
No tac ops, no crit ops. The sole mission is that described above.
Play lasts for 4 turns.
Final Thoughts
Although I’ve designed this narrative mission with Kill Team in mind this could very easily be ported to Space Weirdos or 5 Parsecs from Home. In fact I’m aiming to run this at the local club using Kill Team and Space Weirdos for the next Marty Con. I’ll write up a battle report when the dust has settled.
I’d love to hear if anyone uses this scenario. But if nothing else I hope I’ve shown that Kill Team can be used for some different narrative style missions. There is so much scope here. Lots of inspiration can be drawn from WW2 commando actions and I’m looking at how to create a 40Kified Battle of Termoli.
You can see more about the narrative Kill Team Campaign I ran here.