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Ever since I read the Confrontation rules serialized in White Dwarf all those years ago, I've been interested in the idea of a skirmish-level 40K. However, I could never find anyone to play with, so I missed out on later games like Necromunda or Gorkamorka. Instead I contented myself with the solo rules from the Space Hulk expansion, Deathwing.

Now, I have Kill Team, and am excited by the possibilities. I do have a friend who can occasionally play, but of course I want to bring back the old days of playing solo.

Possibilities include:
* Playing the solo Deathwing campaign, Cloud Runner's Last Stand, but with a kill team faction vs. tyranids (using the lettered blips from Genestealer or Advanced Space Crusade), weighted towards termagants. You don't roll injury for the tyranids, they are always taken out of action, and they don't use command points. I'm not 100% sure how this will play with the single-file corridors.

* Advanced Space Crusade / Tyranid Attack. These board sections have plenty of cover, narrow and open spaces. I did a test run using Tyranid Attack, but the exploration aspect didn't work well. There's a lot of movement and rolling dice for advancing turn after turn, and only got interesting once you draw a cocoon card. Will probably work better using the standalone "ambush" setup from ASC.

* Advanced Heroquest uses wider corridors that Space Hulk, I think these will work better tactically. I've drawn up some custom geotiles for use with Deathwing's mission generator but haven't tested yet. I've got various tiles and counters from White Dwarf (such as an air processing unit, and auto-gun counters) that I've mixed in. It might be also interesting to adopt the dungeon generator from AHQ, so there are sci-fi equivalents of hazards and traps.

To go full oldhammer, I'm digging out me earliest 40K minis, some Rogue-Trader era Adventurers and space marines. At some point in the future I'll post a battle report and pictures.

My brain goes to using the packed in missions from the KT book, but giving the enemy force an action priority table of some sort based on the objective.

IE: giving the "NPC" kill team a defined set of a few actions they take based on the objective and a d6 result so you can streamline their turn without crippling their efficacy.

Incorporating old "Brute Squads" from the original 4th edition Kill Team might work well with proposed NPC roles. Basically one player had his Kill Team all in commando gear and the other guy had a bunch of three man squads of random mooks under one bigger and nastier leader. They behaved in a rather relaxed and random manner until the commandoes clocked up enough "klaxon counters" to raise the alarm and stealth flew out of the window.

I admit I haven't had a proper read of the Kill Team missions yet (we've only played Terror Tactics, which was great fun). I should also mention I'm focusing on the room-and-corridor tile-based gameplay of Space Hulk and ASC, as the squares make it easier to determine where the enemy is moving in solo. As in ASC, I'll allow models to straddle two squares for the purpose of getting cover at corridor corners.

I'll look into the brutes, I have the 4th edition book somewhere...

I like an ASC-Tyranid Attack mashup. I've used the ASC "campaign" system with TA's simpler (and more fun) "tactical" system. Kill Team should work well on the Gut's boards. And, you can dispense with the squares, using just rulers for movement and ranges (like Necromunda does on the Zone Mortalis boards). I do sometimes drag unsuspecting pals into the darker recesses of my GW gaming. They are suspicious, but easily distracted by shiny objects.

So here's my battle report. This is a solo game using AHQ tiles. I made some custom geotiles and linked three together. The objective is just to get from the entry corridor to the exit corridor. At the beginning of each round, I roll D6 to see what reinforcements the enemy gets: 1-2) none, 3) Termagant with fleshborer, 4) with spine fists, 5) with devourer, 6) Genestealer.

I'm using slightly modified solo rules from Deathwing. Tyranid reinforcements move on at the entry point closest to my kill team, they don't have to lurk. Termagants try to position themselves so they can make a ranged attack at the longest distance, and always advance if they are further than 6" from that position. Genestealers position themselves as near as they can out of line-of-sight, and charge if they are within 10 squares of one of my models. My kill team can secure entry points my moving next to them. Doors take 1" of movement to open or close.

The tyranids don't get command points, my Kill Team does (even though it's not a battle forged team). I don't make injury rolls for a tyranid, they are always taken out of action.

Here's my kill team: https://flic.kr/p/2cryckF As promised, these are the first 40K models I ever bought. 1) Gakagus, an ork boy combat specialist; 2) Kylla Condotti, a guardsman sniper specialist, 3) "Old Pirate", a Veteran specialist with a knife and hand flamer, 4) Brother Crispinus, a marine sergeant leader specialist with a power axe and bolt pistol.

https://flic.kr/p/2cn6zts - I use the old pirate's veteran tactic to quickly secure the first two entry areas. A genestealer is my first foe. One tactical difference between Kill Team and Space Hulk is that if the Genestealer charges at me from beyond a closed door, I can't make an overwatch shot. Instead I use a command point to counter-charge with brother Crispinus, who chops the 'stealer up. As the game progresses, Decisive Move gets used a lot to counter-charge, as I couldn't let the tyranids press me back. I have to keep moving so that they can't build up reinforcements.

https://flic.kr/p/QiH4xw - This fairly open area around the air processing unit is the only point where a firefight occurred, although it was ineffectual for both sides. The orange counters to the top-left area auto-fire gun mounted in the ceiling.They are lasguns with a BS of 5+. The first time a model passes underneath one, it gets shot at. The tyranid reinforcements need to pass underneath these, but none have been killed yet. Still, I'm feeling quite confident at the point and I'm wondering if I made it too easy.

https://flic.kr/p/2crycRR - I'm doing my best to press on, but tyranid reinforcements are building up. My combat specialist ork is at the back because he had to catch up from securing an earlier entry point. During the fight phases along this corridor, the old pirate's hand flamer gets used a number of times when combat gets bogged down after ineffective charges.

https://flic.kr/p/2crycG2 - Now I'm in trouble. Two genestealers, and they continually pass their lighting reflexes save (they roll 5 after 5 after 5), and brother Crispinus falls. I'd used a lot of command points to try and help here (Lead By Example, Decisive Move, tactical reroll). I forgot that I had grenades, and one might have been useful here.

https://flic.kr/p/QiH47G - I back off, hoping that the auto-fire gun will get some lucky shots (nope), and down goes Gakagus. I end the game here because I'm out of time. It looks like they won't make it though, as at best I think reinforcements will arrive as fast as I can take out tyranids. But the exit corridor was in sight!

This game was quite linear, although some of the geotiles I made do offer alternate paths. Next time, if I'm only using four models on my team, I should adjust the reinforcement table to either reduce the number of oncoming enemies or reduce the chance of a genestealer.