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Does anyone play just Kill Team. Or, do you play KT plus Commanders or Elites?

Less is more so for now its core Kill Team. That said, I'm hoping a new expansion is around the corner with fast'n'heavy units such as the Dark Reapers and Scourges.

Just core book for our group. Might expand later once we’ve played a campaign or two.

We normally use a bunch of additional units and equipment/options ported over from 40k (the points aren't that hard to work out, really), as most people have something that they love excluded from the official books.

Elites added some of those in and is generally assumed to be in use. Commanders isn't the default, but people do use them (though we changed the levels to interact with campaign play, rather than something you buy).

All of it.

You don't have to use the expansions in every game.

Elites is part of core, not a separate mode so that's part of every game.

We have the full 100+ mission set (excluding open and battle brothers missions) in our rotation so commanders come up in approx 1/3 of games.

 Scott-S6 wrote:
Elites is part of core, not a separate move so that's part of every game...

Please explain.

Commanders was for us a big disappointment and killed the game in the club.

Commanders has real potential for narrative games, it actually looks really fun to me. I love the idea of a powerful character and a couple of hand-picked specialists going on a daring mission, or a kill team being sent to eliminate a rampaging villain or something. Having one player with a character and the other with a normal kill team reminds me a lot of the original rules from 3rd edition.

But for matched and/or pickup games, Core+Elites all the way.

On the subject of commanders, I've been weighing it up again but now more confused in regards to matched play. Putting aside all talk of open, narrative and campaign modes, here are some questions regarding a battleforged team in a single one-off matched play game...

Can a battle forged team take more than one commander model so long as they are different? For example, can a Asuryani team have a Farseer and a Warlock?

How many traits can a Commander have?

I like splitting it into core KT, Elites and then commanders, it gives 3 distinctly different feeling choices of play.

Eadartri wrote:

 Scott-S6 wrote:
Elites is part of core, not a separate move so that's part of every game...

Please explain.

A lot of players consider Elites to part of the core rules since they mostly don't change the rules and only add more units. Kinda like Forge World units. The only big exception is Reserves/Flanking rules which are largely tied to the Elites missions anyways and can be as easily ignored as the Scouting Phase.

I personally disagree that Elites is part of the core rules even though Elites doesn't imbalance the game. If anything it actually seems to make the game more balanced. Even if a player only uses units from the main rule book and nothing from Elites most of the time they lose nothing. I have a bunch of teams I haven't added anything from Elites and they still do fine (Dark Eldar, Grey Knights and Necrons). Some factions didn't gain additional data sheets anyways (Genestealer Cult and Harlequins). The only faction that I can think of that kinda needs their Elites unit is CSM with Khorne Berserkers maybe Necrons with Lychguard.

Just the same, I teach/play a lot of new players who are often brand new to miniatures war gaming. I think it is best to keep the rules separate both in terms of them not thinking they need to buy a whole other book now (which could blunt their enthusiasm needing to spend even more money) as well as not giving the impression I have an unfair advantage with units they are unaware of being in the game (even if they are actually weaker).

So with new players I take a stepped approach to the rules starting with just using the core rules often without specialists and Command Points if they are brand new. After a couple of games, everything in the core rule book is open use. At that point, I will ask my opponent if they want to use Subfaction Traits (read: Chapter Tactics, etc.) and possibly include Elites units. Typically, I still stay away from Elites Tactics though. If my opponent doesn't feel comfortable those additions, we stick with the core rule book. Usually after a few games, most new players get a feel for the gaming group I am in and aren't nearly as concerned about someone pulling a fast one so they usually have no issues to Elites being used as commonly as the core rules.

***

I did vote Core plus Elites, but I do occasionally play a game of Commanders, Elites and Core. Basically, our group's 200 points games. I am not a fan these 200 point games as I find that is where Kill Team breaks down. I think it has become somewhat popular because much of my group plays elite/super elite factions (read: the ones that can't really hit the 20 model limit spamming their cheapest option) whose power is far less tempered at 200 points while many of the factions I play easily leave points on the table after hitting 20 models or switch to units I don't necessarily want and that is even with a Commander unit. I much prefer 125 points with everything in the core rules and Elites. It seems the most balanced of all game modes to me.

We stopped playing KT after playing Funkoverse because it is a better game design.

Eadartri wrote:


Please explain.

The (non-commander) units in elites and the rules in elites can be used in all missions.

This is in sharp contrast to commanders which can only be used in missions that explicitly permit it (most of which require you to take a commander).

As such, commander is a distinct mode locked to a subset of missions and elites is not. Anyone can use elites units and rules in any mission unless you make a point of houseruling it out.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

SamusDrake wrote:
Can a battle forged team take more than one commander model so long as they are different? For example, can a Asuryani team have a Farseer and a Warlock?

How many traits can a Commander have?

Only one commander in a team. P14

Up to 3 traits. P15

Thanks for clearing that up Scott. I'll probably leave Commanders then.

 Saturmorn Carvilli wrote:
The only big exception is Reserves/Flanking rules which are largely tied to the Elites missions anyways and can be as easily ignored as the Scouting Phase.

Actually, the reserves rules can be used in all missions as long as you aren't using the ultra close confines rules (i.e. the arena and RT kill zones). There's nothing tying them to the elites missions.

Also, deep striking is a massive game changer in a lot of missions and has shifted the meta for leader selection significantly. (selecting a grot or cultist as leader is much less desirable when your opponent can deepstrike into the backfield and kill them)

Well, I voted for core book + Elite + commanders. I'm fairly new to this game, and when I first got the core book, I was a bit of disappointed about campaing rules. But now that the game has more expansions, i've been intrested about it again.