Campaigns
Kill Team campaigns let you collect operatives and fight battles of Kill Team in a series of connected missions. These form a narrative of covert battles fought alongside a greater war, where the skirmishes you fight have an impact far beyond the battlefields you are contesting.
Contents | ||
Kill Team can be played and enjoyed in one-off missions – you do not need to use these extra rules in your games. However, playing through a campaign can be a fun and rewarding alternative, giving you and your friends the opportunity to write the story of your own kill teams, charting their successes and failures as they grow in experience. In the end, one of you will be able to claim the glory of total victory!
In order to take part in a Kill Team campaign, you will need two or more players. All players will need a collection of Citadel Miniatures, which they will organise into kill teams. For more detail about choosing your kill team for a mission, see below.
The players fight missions against each other using the kill teams they create. The combatants in each mission gain experience, and may become more skilled or stronger as the campaign progresses. In addition, the outcome of each mission will affect the wider war being fought, as described below. The more success a player has in their missions, the more likely it is that they will be crowned victor of the campaign.
The fluctuating fortunes of the different factions in the war, and your impact on these, are represented by four resources: Intelligence, Materiel, Morale and Territory.
Each player begins a campaign with a set number of resource points. We suggest starting the campaign with 8 points in each resource, but you can agree with the other players that you will all start with a different number, or even different numbers in each resource (for example, you might have D6+3 points for each resource, giving each player their own strengths and weaknesses). Note your starting resources on your command roster.
Each mission tells you what impact the mission has on the resources of the players that take part in it. After the mission, record any changes to each player’s resources on their roster sheet. Once you have done so, any player who has been reduced to 0 or less in any resource is reduced to a guerrilla faction.
If the only remaining non-guerrilla factions are reduced to guerrilla factions after the same mission, the campaign will be decided by sudden death. At this point, anyone can win!
You can instead decide at the beginning of the campaign to set your own victory condition – this might be when one player has won a certain numbers of victories, or the player with the highest combined total of resources after a certain number of games have been played. It’s up to you!
In order to take part in a Kill Team campaign, you will need two or more players. All players will need a collection of Citadel Miniatures, which they will organise into kill teams. For more detail about choosing your kill team for a mission, see below.
The players fight missions against each other using the kill teams they create. The combatants in each mission gain experience, and may become more skilled or stronger as the campaign progresses. In addition, the outcome of each mission will affect the wider war being fought, as described below. The more success a player has in their missions, the more likely it is that they will be crowned victor of the campaign.
The War Effort
The missions that your operatives are fighting are part of a larger war effort, and the mission your kill team undertakes has an impact on this war. If you succeed in your sabotage mission, your opponent’s materiel is severely depleted. If you cannot stop enemy assassination missions, your force’s morale plunges!The fluctuating fortunes of the different factions in the war, and your impact on these, are represented by four resources: Intelligence, Materiel, Morale and Territory.
- Intelligence: A faction’s spy networks and intelligence gathering assets.
- Materiel: A faction’s military resources, whether it be weaponry, armour, transport or more esoteric items.
- Morale: A faction’s will to keep fighting, whether through nobility, determination, hatred or spite.
- Territory: A measure of the locations and facilities currently controlled by the faction.
Each player begins a campaign with a set number of resource points. We suggest starting the campaign with 8 points in each resource, but you can agree with the other players that you will all start with a different number, or even different numbers in each resource (for example, you might have D6+3 points for each resource, giving each player their own strengths and weaknesses). Note your starting resources on your command roster.
Each mission tells you what impact the mission has on the resources of the players that take part in it. After the mission, record any changes to each player’s resources on their roster sheet. Once you have done so, any player who has been reduced to 0 or less in any resource is reduced to a guerrilla faction.
Victory
Unless the players in the campaign agree otherwise at the beginning of the campaign, the last player who hasn’t been reduced to a guerrilla faction wins the campaign – theirs is the only force with the cohesion and the means to secure victory over all others!If the only remaining non-guerrilla factions are reduced to guerrilla factions after the same mission, the campaign will be decided by sudden death. At this point, anyone can win!
You can instead decide at the beginning of the campaign to set your own victory condition – this might be when one player has won a certain numbers of victories, or the player with the highest combined total of resources after a certain number of games have been played. It’s up to you!
MISSION CRITICAL
Following the orders of their commanders, kill teams battle in the darkness of a nightmarish and war-torn landscape. The leaders of these teams play games of cat and mouse with their foes amidst monolithic refineries and tangled hab-complexes, leading their squads in daring strikes against their enemies.
Choosing a Mission
You can arrange to fight missions as and when you wish, and can use any Kill Team mission that is available to you. Either choose a mission that you and your opponent(s) want to play, or roll off, and the winner rolls 2D6 and consults the following table. Where a mission has an attacker and a defender, whichever player has more Territory than the other is the defender. If there is a tie, the players roll off – whoever wins is the attacker:
|
Choosing a Kill Team
Once you have chosen a mission, the players choose kill teams using the rules for choosing a Battle-forged kill team subject to the mission you are playing, with the following exception: they must each choose their kill team from their campaign command roster (see below). Players choose their kill teams in secret – they will be revealed together once the battlefield has been set up. We suggest that each player keeps the Faction keyword they chose for the length of the campaign.Campaign Command Roster
Each player in a campaign has a campaign command roster, from which they choose their kill team for each mission. This roster is created in the same way as for a matched play command roster, with the following difference: it starts with up to twelve models, rather than up to twenty, and can grow beyond twenty models as the campaign progresses.If a player has already played a mission in the campaign, they can choose their kill team from any of the models on their campaign command roster but they can also choose to add new models with new datacards to their kill team (though see Adding Members to a Fire Team), or even use a kill team chosen entirely from new models. Each time a player completes a datacard for a model that they add to their kill team, they should also record that model’s details on their roster. Adding new models to their kill team for a mission in this way is the only way for players in a campaign to increase the number of models on their roster.
The campaign command roster therefore becomes a record of all of the models that you have used in the campaign, and comes to represent the ‘pool’ of Kill Team models available for you to choose kill teams from. A player might, on their command roster, have models from every specialism, and a number of Leaders. However, they need to choose a kill team from their campaign command roster (and any new models) that matches the restrictions for each mission. This means that kill teams will often be made up of a mix of experienced and new models, and players will need to balance the flexibility of using their whole collection against the reliability of using certain stalwarts.
Play the Mission
Once you have decided on a mission and the players have chosen their kill teams, play the mission!Strategic Withdrawal
At the end of the third battle round, and at the end of each subsequent battle round, before any dice roll to determine whether or not the battle ends, a player can make a strategic withdrawal. Players make the decision about whether or not to do so in the order determined in the Initiative phase. If a player makes a strategic withdrawal, they lose the mission – if there is only one other player remaining, that player wins the mission. When a player makes a strategic withdrawal, all of their models are removed from the battlefield. They must roll a dice for each model with one or more flesh wounds when they do so to determine whether or not they go out of action, as described in Casualties.
Commanders and Campaigns
If you are playing a Kill Team campaign, and you are incorporating Commanders, then use the following additional rules:- Your command roster cannot include more than 1 of any particular Commander model.
- Commanders do not gain experience points like the other members of your kill team. Instead, when you first include a Commander in your kill team, you can purchase Commander upgrades for them (Commander Levels and Commander Traits). You cannot purchase additional upgrades for your Commander during the course of the campaign.
- If a Commander takes an enemy specialist out of action, treat any rolls of 8 made for that model’s subsequent Casualty roll as a Hard Knocks result instead. That model has faced one of the deadliest foes in their enemy’s army and lived to tell the tale.
- A specialist gains one experience point after a mission if one of its attacks or psychic powers took an enemy Commander out of action. Similarly, a fire team gains one experience point after a mission if one of its models’ attacks or psychic powers took an enemy Commander out of action.
- If a player’s Commander was taken out of action during a mission, the player loses one Morale at the end of that mission, regardless of the outcome of the battle itself.
- If a player’s Commander was taken out of action during a battle, roll on the table below for them at the end of the mission, instead of the normal Casualty Roll table:
| ||||||||||||
CONSEQUENCES OF BATTLE
As the dust settles after a battle, each side retreats to count the cost. Territory may be won or lost, and morale may suffer a devastating blow. Whatever happens, the fighters in each kill team come away with new experience and scars, gaining in value even as they prepare for their next death-or-glory mission.
After each mission, each player who took part in the mission should play through the following steps.
1. Resources
2. Casualties
3. Experience
Once the players have all completed this sequence, it’s time to start planning the next mission!
Each player then makes a Casualty roll for each of their models that is out of action at the end of a mission by rolling a D10 and consulting the following table:
After making any casualty rolls, each player removes all flesh wounds from their models.
The non-specialist models in your collection are organised into fire teams, where each fire team consists of all of the non-specialist models chosen from a single datasheet. For example, if you had 6 Rangers on your command roster (not counting specialists), those 6 Rangers would be a fire team.
As long as two or more models from a single fire team were in your kill team and are not dead as a result of Casualty rolls, all models in that fire team (even those who did not take part in the mission) gain an experience point. In addition, all models in a fire team gain an experience point at the end of the mission if at least one enemy model was taken out of action by an attack made or psychic power manifested by a member of that fire team. Check these points of experience on your models’ datacards in the same way as described above. When you check a box with an orange outline, all models in that fire team have reached the next level – Level 1 models become Level 2, and so on. At each level, roll a D6 and consult the table below to see what advance your fire team gains. All members of the fire team gain this advance. Each fire team can only gain each advance once – if you roll a result you have already rolled, re-roll until you roll a new result.
Once you have checked all the boxes on a fire team’s datacards, it cannot progress any further.
When choosing your kill team for a mission, you can add a new member to a fire team: take the appropriate model and fill in a datacard for it. You must include it in your kill team in this mission. You can even do this with multiple new members if you like. For each new member you include in your kill team you must include at least one experienced member of the fire team (to ‘show them the ropes’). This means if you only have one member of a fire team remaining, you can only include a single new member alongside them in a mission.
In their first mission, new members of a fire team cannot use the advances that the fire team has earned – check the New Recruit box on their datacard to show this. At the end of the mission, you can erase the check and fill in their experience points so that they have the same number as the other members in their fire team. They also gain the fire team’s advances at this point.
Note that, if all members of a fire team are dead as a result of your Casualty rolls, their experience is lost! You cannot add new members to a fire team that has been wiped out in this way.
A player can choose to disband a fire team after a mission. When they do so, they discard or erase all datacards for that fire team and delete them from their command roster. They can then add a new fire team chosen from the same datasheet to their kill team in the next mission.
A guerrilla faction has no resources and cannot gain resources, but otherwise they take part in missions like any other player. In this way they can still take part in the campaign, and have an impact on who wins in the end. If a guerrilla faction is very successful, they may even manage to manipulate events so that they have a shot at victory!
A guerrilla faction cannot add new members to a fire team. They can, however, disband a fire team in the same way as described above.
1. Resources
2. Casualties
3. Experience
Once the players have all completed this sequence, it’s time to start planning the next mission!
Resources
Each player should update the resources listed on their command roster as described in the mission. Players may find themselves reduced to guerrillas at this point, as described below, and if there is only one non-guerrilla faction left, that player wins (unless you agreed on a different way to end your campaign).Casualties
Each player should roll a D6 for each model from their kill team on the battlefield that has one or more flesh wounds. On a roll of 1-3, that model recovers. On a roll of 4-6, that model goes out of action.Each player then makes a Casualty roll for each of their models that is out of action at the end of a mission by rolling a D10 and consulting the following table:
| ||||||||||||
After making any casualty rolls, each player removes all flesh wounds from their models.
Experience
Then, the members of your kill team progress as described below, becoming even more formidable as they gain experience.Specialists
Each specialist in your kill team gains an experience point – check one of the experience boxes on their datacard. They also gain an experience point at the end of the mission if you used at least one Tactic from their specialism. Check the boxes left to right; when you check a box with an orange outline, your specialist has reached the next level – a Level 1 specialist becomes Level 2, and so on. You can then choose a new ability for them as described in Specialists section, and you may also gain access to new Tactics for that fighter. Once you have checked all the boxes on the model’s datacard, it cannot progress any further – every fighter has their limits!Fire Teams
The other models in your kill team may not be specialists, but they are all learning a thing or two during these covert operations, and their bonds of camaraderie are growing!The non-specialist models in your collection are organised into fire teams, where each fire team consists of all of the non-specialist models chosen from a single datasheet. For example, if you had 6 Rangers on your command roster (not counting specialists), those 6 Rangers would be a fire team.
As long as two or more models from a single fire team were in your kill team and are not dead as a result of Casualty rolls, all models in that fire team (even those who did not take part in the mission) gain an experience point. In addition, all models in a fire team gain an experience point at the end of the mission if at least one enemy model was taken out of action by an attack made or psychic power manifested by a member of that fire team. Check these points of experience on your models’ datacards in the same way as described above. When you check a box with an orange outline, all models in that fire team have reached the next level – Level 1 models become Level 2, and so on. At each level, roll a D6 and consult the table below to see what advance your fire team gains. All members of the fire team gain this advance. Each fire team can only gain each advance once – if you roll a result you have already rolled, re-roll until you roll a new result.
|
Once you have checked all the boxes on a fire team’s datacards, it cannot progress any further.
Crack Troops
As your fire teams grow in experience, so their worth increases. In a Battle-forged kill team, this greater value is accompanied by an increased cost for each member of that fire team, as shown in this table:
|
Adding Members to a Fire Team
Even as your fire teams grow in experience, you can recruit new members to replace losses or to expand their presence in your kill team. However, your green recruits will take some breaking in!When choosing your kill team for a mission, you can add a new member to a fire team: take the appropriate model and fill in a datacard for it. You must include it in your kill team in this mission. You can even do this with multiple new members if you like. For each new member you include in your kill team you must include at least one experienced member of the fire team (to ‘show them the ropes’). This means if you only have one member of a fire team remaining, you can only include a single new member alongside them in a mission.
In their first mission, new members of a fire team cannot use the advances that the fire team has earned – check the New Recruit box on their datacard to show this. At the end of the mission, you can erase the check and fill in their experience points so that they have the same number as the other members in their fire team. They also gain the fire team’s advances at this point.
Note that, if all members of a fire team are dead as a result of your Casualty rolls, their experience is lost! You cannot add new members to a fire team that has been wiped out in this way.
A player can choose to disband a fire team after a mission. When they do so, they discard or erase all datacards for that fire team and delete them from their command roster. They can then add a new fire team chosen from the same datasheet to their kill team in the next mission.
Guerrilla Factions
When a player has had one or more of their resources reduced to 0 or less, they are reduced to a guerrilla faction. A guerrilla faction has had their strength broken, and fights without central leadership or territory they can call their own. A guerrilla faction cannot normally win a campaign, with the exception of a campaign that is decided by sudden death.A guerrilla faction has no resources and cannot gain resources, but otherwise they take part in missions like any other player. In this way they can still take part in the campaign, and have an impact on who wins in the end. If a guerrilla faction is very successful, they may even manage to manipulate events so that they have a shot at victory!
A guerrilla faction cannot add new members to a fire team. They can, however, disband a fire team in the same way as described above.
Sudden Death
If all non-guerrilla players are reduced to guerrillas after the same mission, the campaign enters sudden death! At this point, any player can win, as there is no faction in the lead. Play a game of Kill Team using any mission that allows all players in the campaign to play at once. If you cannot agree on a mission, determine one randomly. Whoever wins the mission wins the campaign! If there is no victor, resolve the steps after the mission as normal, and then play another game as described above. Repeat this until a victor is decided.Escalation
If all players agree, after a set point in the campaign (it could be after a certain number of battles have been played, or after a certain number of weeks – it’s up to you) you can increase the size of the kill teams to represent the increasing resources being poured into this escalating conflict. If you do so, your Battle-forged kill teams can cost up to 150 points (though you should still apply any adjustments to this total as described in the mission you are playing).Roll-offs
Some rules instruct players to roll off. To do so, each player rolls a D6 (or 2D6 if there are more than two players), and whoever scores highest wins the roll-off. In the case of a tie, those players re-roll their dice – if the second and subsequent rolls are also tied, keep on rolling until a winner is determined; this is the only time players can re-roll a re-roll.
Flesh Wound
A model that suffers a flesh wound is restored to 1 wound remaining. A model with one or more flesh wounds suffers penalties to hit and is more likely to be taken out of action (see above). Mark one of the empty Flesh Wound boxes on that model’s datacard. If a model suffers a flesh wound and all of the Flesh Wound boxes on their datacard are marked, it is taken out of action instead. In the Morale phase each player takes Nerve tests for each of their models that has one or more flesh wounds.
Out of Action
A model that is taken out of action is seriously injured or may even be slain – either way it will play no further part in the battle. Remove that model from the battlefield.
Psychic Test
You can attempt to manifest a psychic power with a psyker from your kill team by taking a Psychic test. To do so, roll 2D6. If the total is equal to or greater than that power’s warp charge value, the power is successfully manifested.
Saving Throw
The player controlling the target model then makes a saving throw by rolling a D6 and modifying the roll by the Armour Penetration characteristic of the attacking weapon. For example, if the attacking weapon has an Armour Penetration of -1, then 1 is subtracted from the saving throw. If the result is equal to, or greater than, the Save characteristic of the target model, then the damage is prevented and the attack sequence ends. If the result is less than the model’s Save characteristic, then the saving throw fails and the model suffers damage. An unmodified saving throw of 1 always fails.
Nerve Tests
You must take a Nerve test for each of your models that has a flesh wound, and for your other models if your kill team is broken. To take a Nerve test for a model, roll a D6 and apply the following cumulative modifiers:
| ||||||
If the result of the Nerve test exceeds the model’s Leadership characteristic, the test is failed. The model is shaken, and cannot do anything until it is no longer shaken: place a Shaken token next to it. Otherwise, the test is passed. The test is always passed on an unmodified roll of 1.
Long Range
A target is at long range if it is more than half the weapon’s Range characteristic away from the attacking model. Grenade weapons are not affected by this rule.For example, a boltgun has a Range of 24". Any target that is more than 12" away from a model attacking with a boltgun is at long range.
Obscured
Other models (even friendly models) and terrain may hide a target from view. If the target of an attack is even partially obscured from the best point of view of the firing model (that is, the point of view from a part of the firing model that gives the clearest line of sight), then it is said to be obscured.When checking to see if a target is obscured, consider the main body of the firing and target models – do not include a model’s base or parts that are ‘sticking out’ like aerials or weapons, but do include all limbs and a model’s head. If there is still doubt, we recommend the players agree about what constitutes the main body of a model before the battle begins.
Hit Roll
To see if an attack hits the target, roll a D6 and apply the following cumulative modifiers:
| ||||||||||
If the result is equal to or greater than the attacking model’s Ballistic Skill characteristic, then it scores a hit with the weapon it is using. If not, the attack fails and the attack sequence ends. An unmodified hit roll of 1 always fails, and an unmodified hit roll of 6 always hits.
Wound Roll
If an attack scores a hit, you will then need to roll another dice to see if the attack wounds the target. The roll required is determined by comparing the attacking weapon’s Strength characteristic with the target’s Toughness characteristic, as shown on the following table:
| ||||||||||||||
If the roll is equal to or greater than the required number, the attack succeeds and the attack sequence continues. If the roll is less than the required number, the attack fails and the attack sequence ends. An unmodified wound roll of 1 always fails and an unmodified wound roll of 6 is always successful.