Zoning Out Week: Adepticon Imperial Guard Team

I have declared this Zoning Out Week at the Realms of Equinox. My goal all week is to discuss various aspects of Special Operations: Killzone. Special Ops: Killzone (SO:KZ) was created by Big Jim and the crew from Galaxy in Flames and is making its world premier at this year’s Adepticon. Since becoming aware of it, I have fallen in love with the skirmish level approach to 40K. It is the kind of rules system that allows for challenging games using the standard 40K rules with a only a few minor tweaks. It also gives players the option to try out different armies and models without having to make a large commitment like standard 40K. In general, it feels like Necromundo mixed with a bit of 2nd edition 40K to produce a small scale version of 40K that gives players the chance to make very thematic kill teams.

When exploring the idea of an Imperial Guard Kill Team, the idea I had was for squad of snipers supporting a team of storm troopers. I also liked the idea of injecting a single sentinel as the centerpiece of the patrol team. Using the rules for Adepticon, which are 250 points and maximum of 25 points used for kill upgrades, I decided upon the following list:

Stormtrooper Sergeant w/ crackshot 22 pts
Stormtrooper w/ crackshot 22 pts
Stormtrooper w/ crackshot 22 pts
Stormtrooper w/ crackshot and plasma gun 37 pts
Stormtrooper w/ crackshot and plasma gun 37 pts
Ratling 10 pts
Ratling 10 pts
Ratling 10 pts
Ratling 10 pts
Ratling 10 pts
Armored Sentinel w/ heavy flamer 60 pts

One of the cool aspects of SO:KZ is the return of the rule overwatch. Overwatch allows for me to place models into a standby position. When an enemy model moves into LOS, models in overwatch can take a shot. Only models armed with certain weapons have the option, specifically weapons with the sniper special rule.

Another cool aspect of SO:KZ is that you can buy upgrades for individual models. The number of upgrades that can be purchased are limited to the size of the game and restrictions placed upon the game. In this case, I am preparing this list for Adepticon, so I am allowed 250 points with no more than 25 spent on skill upgrades.

Since I am using a team of stormtroopers, I felt that the crackshot rule would be a good idea as it will allow me to reroll a failed hit or wound dice each turn. The trick with this skill is that you must declare which type of roll you are going to use it for before attempting to shoot.