Failure Next Week. No Genestealer Cult.

This is almost getting ridiculous. No Genestealer Cults yet again. While this week's pre-orders are looking good as we head back to Kill Team for Arena, its really getting frustrating the lack of forward movement we are getting for Warhammer 40,000. I know not everyone feels this way, and the expansions to Adeptus Titanicus yesterday and Kill Team look great, but the attention to the primary game most of us play Warhammer 40,000 once again sits on the backburner.

Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. This mornings Next Week releases just pissed me off when I first saw them. I miss 40k. Im probably a little off this morning, so I will reboot, get some coffee in me and see where I end up.

Lets do take a look at what is coming next week before I head out, with a great section in here about the new Kill Team Expansion, Arena. Plus there are two new Kill Teams coming... Adeptus Mechanicus and a Genestealer Cult and a new Killzone that looks really good.

The more I read on the new Killzone, and the two new Kill Teams, the better this week looks. I also suppose marketing wise..... its best to do the new Kill Team Expansion 1st so that it is not overshadowed by a big 40k release.

OK, Im heading out somewhere for coffee. Promise I will reboot. Less rants, more fun. Maybe the new Genestealer Cult Kill Team is a lead in for the following week?

BTW I know Mike from the Nova Open, and just his word that this expansion is great and that he was involved in leading the playtesting means a lot. Looking forward to hear more on Arena.

via the Warhammer Community
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/01/20/next-week-kill-team-arena-arrives/

Next week, Kill Team: Arena will be available to pre-order, transforming your favourite skirmish wargame into a fully fledged competitive experience.

Kill Team: Arena is more than just a boxed set – it’s a crucial step in Kill Team’s evolution, adapting the game for tournaments and matched play while retaining the narrative flair you know and love.

Don’t just take our word from it – here’s Mike Brandt, organiser of the world-famous NOVA Open with why he’s excited about Kill Team: Arena. Mike is a core member of the Kill Team playtest group and has helped us make the game as awesome as it can be:

Mike: Hi, my name is Mike Brandt. I run the Warhammer Community-approved NOVA Open in Washington, D.C., and I’m one of the lead playtesters for Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team. Being involved with the Kill Team testing process has been really exciting from Day 1. I’d like to focus on the core Arena mission set, which takes the game in a very fresh new direction in terms of mission design.

To help explain the new missions, let’s look at the core rules briefly. Perhaps the most underrated development in the Kill Team rules is the use of a command roster. For those that don’t know, Kill Team is often played with up to 20 models on your command roster, where each model has its equipment and specialisms fixed. Upon seeing your opponent’s command roster and the mission, you then select a 100-point kill team from your roster to deploy. It’s innovative in a way that is echoed by Arena’s missions, thoroughly blending narrative and balance.

Being able to tailor your force to match your opponent’s is, by its very nature, a balance-enhancing mechanic, since it reduces the likelihood that either you or your opponent will win purely based upon playing a rock-paper-scissors game of bringing the “right match” to the table. You’re going to instead have to win the old-fashioned way – brains, tactics, and a heavy dose of guts – because your opponent’s kill team is probably going to be equipped with answers for yours (and vice versa).

Arena, in many ways, doubles down on this across the board. It takes the Games Workshop Official Tournament missions to the next level, codifying them into the competitive play and Ultima mission sets. These missions centre around a shared Victory Condition that all players must work towards each round, but also included is a deck of Arena Objectives. Sometimes you’ll create a shared deck with your opponent, and sometimes the mission will prescribe which Arena Objectives are available. Before the battle, after seeing your opponent’s forces, you get to select 3 Arena Objectives in secret, only revealing each when you’ve begun to earn points for it.

This super-cool feature to Arena missions was a major emphasis point during playtesting. Just like command rosters, the Arena Objectives strike a better balance while simultaneously providing a strong narrative experience. You really feel like your kill team’s Leaders are making key decisions based upon the present conditions on the ground (the Arena Objectives), supplementing the broad strategic directive they were issued in the first place (the Victory Condition). This adds an element of combat realism to the game while improving balance by letting you tailor your Arena Objectives around your opponent’s force.

For example, the Victory Condition may be to control objective markers each turn, but your Arena Objective choices may include either shooting the enemy to death or pinning them in close combat – the one you select will reflect both your force’s strengths and weaknesses and your opponent’s.

The expansion also adds progressive points accrual for meeting Victory Conditions, which basically means you earn points for completing your objectives each turn instead of only at the end of the mission –encouraging engagements early and often– but you also run into a hard cap if you do very well early on.

This enables opponents with slower or more cautious kill teams a chance to catch up, instead of the more traditional mission scoring that never stops allowing quick-scoring kill teams to achieve an insurmountable lead. As a result, even though you may be pursuing different Arena Objectives, you must achieve your own goals while denying your opponent theirs.

I hope you enjoy Kill Team: Arena as much as the playtesters did. I’m also excited to see it put into practice at some of the world’s most massive events. Besides being great fun, implementing narratively compelling and competitively balanced missions ensures your Kill Team experience is something you can count on being awesome everywhere.

Thanks, Mike!

And More!

Kill Team: Arena is joined next week by loads of awesome new stuff, including two new Kill Team Starter Sets – containing new Character models for both the Genestealer Cults and Adeptus Mechanicus – as well as the Killzone: Sector Fronteris Environment Expansion!