I know often people get a little bummed after losing a match, but to go out of the semi-final with just a one-point loss to Phobos on secure made me feel as though my play was pretty good. Maybe it wasn’t a fluke that I ended up where I placed and I had learned a bit about how to play Kill Team competitively over just the last few months.
So I got into my game with James on a huge high note. I’ve gotten my record of better than 3-3 and I was able to meet a ton of awesome people who share the love of the hobby.
This game is into Harlequins, and I think this is my third time playing this matchup. I know it’s probably going to be decided by the 4-6th activation in turning point 2.
I classify Harlequins mechanics as a “win more” team often talked about in Magic: The Gathering. They have a lot of tools to extend an early lead but not too many to come back into a match when behind. This means they have to be played very well to come away with consistent wins.
My plan into them is a 2,2,4,4 score on primary where the first two turns are used to reduce trading and stop 2 for 1 operative trades and hope to be up on models late game.
Disclaimer: Due to some TO stuff, I pretty much have no images of this game. Sorry y’all! My first event and I have yet to get using the camera in-between activations down.
Map
Sector
Mission
Capture
Tactical Operations
Novitiates
Reconsecrate ground
Secure vantage
Recover item
Opponent Team
Mythic Play
??
??
Barricades
I use barricades to secure the left side of my side of the board.
Map Thoughts:
With all the vantage in the center with a mixture of fly my opponent is going to be able to get a lot of shots onto my team behind any cover that is not heavy.
Scouting
I choose infiltrate
My opponent chooses recon
Turning Point One
After deployment I only then realize the huge issue my team will have with this map mixed with the fly keyword on my opponents side of the board. I’ve set up 3 operatives behind light cover, but that hasn't been near cagy enough to stop shots as the models with fly can push up the board and use vantage to get off shots.
Look at these poor ladies, just let outside heavy to die from elf shooting...
Sorry ladies!
In my first move I Ask if my operative will be obscured if moved up, and we call a judge over to get a ruling, but we are not at the top table and that finals game is taking a lot of focus from the judge to help with clarifications, so we have to wait about 5 mins.
I think this is a common conundrum against harlequin teams the classic statement: “you can go all the way over there?” is probably uttered nearly every game. And my opponent has done a great job placing a death jester on the center of the map with lots of shots onto my operatives. Losing one to the jester isn’t too bad though, it’s the fact the harlequin players will also all be within 6” with pistols for the other objective points for shooting. That said, the death jester goes and removes my model over on the left side of the board, I also realize that I’ve set up for a 3 -3 primary capture plan this turn though my notes into this team call for a 2 on turning point one. I think some of this has to do with the fact I had been prepping a lot of the top 8 players this morning and didn’t really think about harlequins as something I might face today.
I think this is a common conundrum against harlequin teams the classic statement: “you can go all the way over there?” is probably uttered nearly every game. And my opponent has done a great job placing a death jester on the center of the map with lots of shots onto my operatives. Losing one to the jester isn’t too bad though, it’s the fact the harlequin players will also all be within 6” with pistols for the other objective points for shooting. That said, the death jester goes and removes my model over on the left side of the board, I also realize that I’ve set up for a 3 -3 primary capture plan this turn though my notes into this team call for a 2 on turning point one. I think some of this has to do with the fact I had been prepping a lot of the top 8 players this morning and didn’t really think about harlequins as something I might face today.
that said, this is one of the reasons going to a large event like Tacoma is so rad, you get to face teams you might otherwise not see and if your able to get into the later states with a few wins you can also be assured that you’ll see some prime examples of how these teams are played. This kind of experience is hard to come by and its cool to get the chance to see how this game will unfold.
After the death jester activates I pop up my leader and shoot a plasma into the operative, but with rerolls on the invul save the jester remains alive and takes another operative’s shoot to remove turning point one.
Next another large activation happens, my opponent flies up a player with grenade and states they are using their pistol to shoot my pronatus, I say, I’ll blinding faith, so you must use your grenade.
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Rules aside
Playing novitiates requires a huge understanding of the basic rules of the game, especially the shooting rule. Shoot is a very complex action with a ton of different steps that are never played out in game. The first part of a shoot is to declare you will start to shoot. At that point your opponent agrees you are starting a shoot action, this is the point IN THEORY a novitiate player plays the act of faith blinding aura. In practice step 1.1 “choose weapon” and 1.2 “select target” is almost always said at the same time “I shoot this model with this weapon, any response?” technically the first thing my opponent tells me in very shoot interaction has already pasted the step where I could declare a blinding aura. This almost never madders… but here is does.
You see I would blinding aura before weapon selection and then my opponent would choose a weapon to be used for selecting a target. A pistol cannot make an attack into my operative, but a grenade can since it has the indirect rule. Since shoot says in step 1.2 you must make a shooting attack if you can I interpret that to mean you must select a weapon that could successfully make an attack in step 1.1.
You see I would blinding aura before weapon selection and then my opponent would choose a weapon to be used for selecting a target. A pistol cannot make an attack into my operative, but a grenade can since it has the indirect rule. Since shoot says in step 1.2 you must make a shooting attack if you can I interpret that to mean you must select a weapon that could successfully make an attack in step 1.1.
My opponent with good reason says “I feel like you shouldn’t be able to take an equipment out of my hand.”
I honestly think this may be the first time this interaction has ever come up at a GW event, it’s a high-level understanding of a rule where an operative must have a pistol and a indirect weapon… It’s the first time I’ve ever had this interaction come up. TLDR it’s a crazy edge case.
Well unfortunately while me and my opponent are laughing over how intricate convoluted this all is we call over the judge who is already busy monitoring a very meticulous top table for a GT final. I feel super bad that we talk this over for as long as we do. I think everyone is staring at the rule book in confusion. To up the pace of play the TO says, lets treat it like this other rule of psychic actions, and you can choose not to use the grenade.
(After the round I spend TOO LONG looking this up and asking other competitive players their interpretation, I was wrong, you can choose to start a shoot action with a weapon you know cannot make a successful attack, and I agree 100% as step 1.1 has no clause about selecting a valid weapon.)
After taking even more time away for our poor TO I’m pretty committed to not having any other rules dispute at our table.
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Turns out im 100% wrong but get to learn EVEN MORE about the steps of the shoot action, (there is always more to learn about the shoot action.)
This sets my opponent up for I think a game ending play mid turn 1, ouch me. After having me spend faith points, his player dashes and chucks a grenade into 3 of my operatives. Taking out my dailogus and injuring my flamer.
Turning Point Two
Turning point 2 initiative goes to my opponent. Even on operatives is a bad place to be for novitiates vs harlequins, but its where we are.
My first activation I try to wrest back momentum by moving a flamer up to remove my opponent’s leader, but the they get a high variance save that only lets 1 attack thru, not enough to injure and probably not enough for me to start going even.
Then 4 activations later my model count is 4 sisters to 6 harlequins, when a normal pistol is able to remove my leader from the game after I’m unable to mitigate any of the damage from saves.
Turning Point Three and Four
With my combat pieces removed, unable to inflict more than 3 kills onto my opponents team, this game is handedly won by the harlequins. Final score 7 to 22.
It’s a great game though, as their pilot used to be a competitive ex-novitiate player and is able to give me some tips of the matchup.
After Action Thoughts
The tournament was such an awesome experience, and I had to much fun attending, technically I play 8 games over 3 days, get a chance to play on table 1 for two games, get some tips from veterans of my team, sing some karaoke, and see how an awesome event is held… oh also I walk away with best painted you can see the team here, and grab some pics that goonhammer later users for their write up.
Never thought I would have as much fun as I did. Could not have asked for a more pleasant weekend and into to the hobby at the event scale, thanks to all my opponents, the TO and all the great people at the event.
