Special Operations: Killzone Update

B. Smoove again to keep you informed of all the Special Operations: Killzone developments. After a minor delay and a few inevitable hiccups, I am quite pleased to announce that Special Operations: Killzone has moved out of the Beta stage. The most recent revised Rulebook, Missions, and Errata can be found as three individual downloads on Big Jim’s site Galaxy in Flames. I highly recommend that you have a perusal.

The Rules are quite solid, and now include both Secondary Objective and Fate cards to add a bit of spice to your wargaming experience. Secondary Objective cards are drawn randomly and kept secret until the end of the game when players tally their Mission Points. These are designed to spread your Team’s resources and add a layer of tactical complexity that the game, in my humble opinion, merits. Fate cards are similar in that they are drawn randomly at the start of each game, but differ in that they directly influence key cinematic moments in the game –such as a crucial re-roll, an extra bit of vigor in a model’s step, or some other unlikely boon that will fold a bit of Hollywood flair into the proceedings. I’ll be discussing each of these at greater length in future posts.

The Killzone: Missions book now sports 18 Missions for you to select as you like. These can also be generated randomly. I should mention here that Killzone at AdeptiCon will be drawing from this source, but revising the Missions so that they directly engage the tables currently in creation (you’ll also be hearing more on that soon).

And finally, the Errata now offers possibilities for every race currently in the 40K canon, including the new Dark Eldar codex. With an eye on new releases, we will be sure to update this. (I must note, however, that in accordance with AdeptiCon guidelines, we will mark the end of February as the cut-off point for any new codex or rules releases).

For what is, at the end of the day, an informal and friendly 40K alternative, the Killzone system has been really quite rigorously play-tested. A whole team of contributors have hashed out various ideas and worked tirelessly to blend the standard 40K ruleset with the suggestions from 3rd edition, 4th edition, and most recently the Battle Missions supplement into the shape you see it now. Of course, there are unavoidable imbalances and some obscure potential for abuse but as AdeptiCon already hosts a tremendous spread of genuinely competitive events, we are not particularly concerned that anyone will approach this event with an attitude other than the irreverent, informal, cinematic, and friendly of which it is intended.

Enjoy.

Find out more about Special Operations: Killzone at AdeptiCon 2011 over at b. smoove's blog, A Gentleman's Ones.