Right, on with a new post series. I'm going to start using labels for this one because previous posts may be found relavent for the new ones. This post series is going to be called, 'The Arena', or 'Arena' in the tags. The concept behind it has been done to absolute death. Essentially, we have 1 big bad HQ choice from each Codex, and in a knockout style they battle it out to see who wins. These posts will be quite regular, and yet none of it is staged, as I write as I roll dice.
Each unit starts in close combat, with neither unit counting as charging. The only HQ that is banned is Saint Celestine, as having a model that can't die is purely unfair. Also, there my be some points irregularities, with some HQs being a lot cheaper than others, but hey, Logan Grimnar is a very expensive character but that doesn't make him a raging beast like Draigo, Abaddon or Ghazghkull. So, without further ado, here are the competitiors.
Black Templars: Chaplain Grimaldus
Blood Angels: Mephiston, Lord of Death
Chaos Daemons: Skarbrand, the Exiled One
Chaos Space Marines: Abaddon the Despoiler
Dark Angels: Azrael, Supreme Grand Master
Dark Eldar: Drazhar, Master of Blades
Eldar: The Avatar of Khaine
Grey Knights: Kaldor Draigo
Imperial Guard: Commissar Yarrick
Necrons: Imotekh the Stormlord
Orks: Ghazghkull Thraka
Sisters of Battle: Uriah Jacobus, Protector of the Faith
Space Marines: Captain Darnath Lysander
Space Wolves: Ragnar Blackmane
Tau: Commander Farsight
Tyranids: The Swarmlord
So, these are the combatents. Onto the first round.
The first draw for round one is Imotekh the Stormlord vs The Swarmlord. On paper, you would expect the Swarmlord to cruise this one and fly into the next round. The Swarmlord would be striking first, hitting and wounding on 3s and forcing Imotekh to re-roll his passed Invulnerable saves. Ouch. On the other side, Imotekh needs 5s to hit, although he does get a re-roll, and 5s to wound, and even when he does, he doesn't even have a power weapon. Still, stranger things have happened. The fight begins.
The Swarmlord strikes at Imotekh, rolling 2 1s, a 4, a 5 and a 6. Hitting him thrice. He then rolls to wound, getting 2 6s and a 5. Imotekh only manages to save one of these with his phase shifter, but luckily for him after the re-roll he still passes, although he only has 1 wound remaining.
Imotekh then strikes back, getting 2 2s and a 3. Missing, he re-rolls all of the dice only to get a result that replaces one of the 2s with a 1. Imotekh fails to hit.
The Swarmlord strikes for a second time. Getting one of each of the numbers ranging from 1 to 5. Hitting thrice once again. It then proceeds to roll 2 3s and a 6 to wound. Imotekhs phase shifter performs averagely on this turn, and results in him passing 2 of his saves. But it is not enough. He is felled and the Swarmlord steps past him into the second round.
Well, sometimes the most likely candidate does win. See you soon for the second match up of round one.
In other news, and to stop you from scrolling to the end to find out who won rather that read through the 'blow by blow' account, my Throne of Skulls ticket for the July 40k event arrived through the post today, so if any of you reading this are attending the same event, just let me know. Also, I've managed to kick start a new army in the form of some power armour (finally) and have 8 Grey Hunters primed and ready for painting, with 2 just waiting for their Melta Guns to arrive.
I think that, ultimately, the characters without Eternal Warrior (Ragnar, Mephiston, etc) are pretty much screwed here. It'll probably come down to Swarmlord or Draigo.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree with that, I think that when you have so many high end special characters about anything without the ability to ignore instant death is going to struggle. I think that Draigo will really stomp his way through until he meets up with Ghaz, the Swarmlord, Skarbrand, etc, maybe even the Avatar. Then it might get interesting, although he should really be beating characters like the Avatar.
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