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How do?

Seems we don’t have a thread focussing on this particular area, but I feel we should.

At the time of writing, we’ve got seven Kill Zones open to us, including the two in Rogue Trader.

But what are they actually like, and how does it affect your games?

I’ve got the Sector Mechanicus and the core box so far, but haven’t had a chance to actually play. So I’m afraid I can’t offer any help. But if you’ve got them and or others, do let us know what you reckon.

Remember, this is about the Zones, not the actual boxed set contents.

I played on a Sector Mechanicus zone over the weekend and it was pretty cool. We rolled the battlefield trait that has us roll a D6 at the start of each round and on a 1 or a 2, all open ground is difficult terrain. It happened a few times, which was nice because it slowed the Harlequin player down quite a bit.

We forgot to use some of the Tactics cards, but they seem pretty cool too.

I picked up the Death World Forest Killzone. The Battlefield Traits are all pretty bad. I might try to convince someone to play them, but I would more often just skip over.

The (Terrain) Tactics that cost zero Command Points are interesting. Any player can choose to activate the plant terrain into Dangerous terrain that can cause Mortal Wounds. Personally, I would change it to a Flesh Wound if I expected to have any fun.

but since it is a DEATH world I'd love to try a great Narrative game using the box rules.... I'm just not sure I'd find another player crazy enough to try and survive.

That kind of reminds of a 5th edition mission. I forget where it was published but it was essentially meant to represent a world drowning in radiation. You basically rolled every turn for every unit and it would take wounds on a 1. It was a fun fluffy mission cause both sides was constantly losing models.

So I've played on a good few of them now, mostly the Sector Mechanicus one. I have bought all the boxed ones aside from the Rogue Trader one (and the latest one, Wall of Martyrs, which isn't out yet!).

Sector Imperialis: Only really played the demo game here, the terrain is good to restricting movement, but leaves things pretty open as there are lots of windows to shoot through.

Sector Mechanicus: With enough terrain you have a good mix of obscuring terrain with a little LoS blocking. What's good is there is lots of verticiality, but because of the size of the walkways it doesn't improve your shooting by a huge amount (though you maintain mobility). I always love stooping down to table level and seeing the jungle of sec mech supports and pipes down there... a real twisted tangle of rusted metal! I haven't used the tactics here much as they tend to be a bit fiddly (and as Necrons I don't use plasma, which a load of the tactics trigger off).

Sector Munitorum: A little bit of vertical terrain but typically *lots* of LoS blocking terrain (a lot of people call the armoured containers the 'best terrain GW produce'). I actually love the look of this because I have so many of those containers, about 12 now! I can really make cool container mazes. You often end up with long straight firing corridors here, and getting high ground really improves your shooting (but pretty much fixes you in place in terms of movement). The tactics focus on shooting here, there are some really fun ones for Heavies.

Death World Forest: This is the most different due to the 0 cost tactics. This means either player can use them for free, and as typically each one will always benefit one player more than the other consider them in play all the time This means almost all terrain (and within 1" of it) will be dangerous terrain, and everything else (open ground) will be difficult terrain. Almost NO LoS blocking here (and no verticality unlike Sec Mech), so a shooter's dream, but you cant hang out near terrain to gain cover...

How long before we see a "Ork Junkyard" Killzone?

I've played a game on both Rogue Trader kill zones (Truehawk shuttle and Ministorum on the flip side of the board). Using Death Guard vs Blood Angel Primarus. And, one game on the Truehawk using the two new factions with the game.

The boards are nice, the terrain bits (doors and doodads) are OK and easy to paint. And, the close quarters rules and special setting work well with the more confined spaces (walls, rooms, and doors).

So far, the Truehawk battles tend to revolve around the one opening between the cargo bay and the bridge. Duh. There are alternate ways to get to the Bridge, but easily defended. The Ministorum side of the board is more open. But, not excessively so. Still has walls, rooms, and doors.

The Rogue Trader factions introduce a bunch of faction specific rules. Which are necessary for them to perform well (against each other). Especially the Rogue Trader Starsriders. With restricted movement, special setting rules, and faction specific rules, those games aren't quick, and just pushing models around and rolling dice Kill Team style wont win the scenarios.

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
I picked up the Death World Forest Killzone. The Battlefield Traits are all pretty bad. I might try to convince someone to play them, but I would more often just skip over.

The (Terrain) Tactics that cost zero Command Points are interesting. Any player can choose to activate the plant terrain into Dangerous terrain that can cause Mortal Wounds. Personally, I would change it to a Flesh Wound if I expected to have any fun.

but since it is a DEATH world I'd love to try a great Narrative game using the box rules.... I'm just not sure I'd find another player crazy enough to try and survive.

The only disappointing thing for me was the lack of a Death World Forest Tactic to let you move the grappleweeds around. They don't do anything at all, other than block LOS and movement.