The Avatar Vs Skarbrand: The Arena

I know that I said I'd have a post on Marneus Calgar up on Wednesday, but from now on I'm going to stop foolishly posting when new posts will be up because I'll just keep missing them. But anyway, that's not up yet as I do not currently have access to a Space Marine codex an I want to do this properly. But anyway, just to keep the blog ticking over here is the latest arena.

We've got some Daemon on Daemon action today as the Avatar of Khaine is drawn against Skarbrand. Despite the fact that Skarbrand has a much larger points cost I wouldn't rule the Avatar out. I personally think that the Avatar is a bargain for his points and that the only reason that he is not commonly seen in tournament level is because he does not fit in well with the Mechdar build, although he is a very important component of footdar. So, on with the fight.

The Avatar strikes first due to his superior initiative, rolling 1124 to hit, despite his weapon skill of 10 only hitting once, but he does get to re-roll the fails due to Skarbrand's special rule. He does better here getting 456, hitting 4 times overall. Rolling to wound, he scores 2455, Skarbrand takes his saves but only rolls 126, reducing him to 2 wounds.

Skarbrand's turn now, he rolls 122345 followed by 2356 on the re-roll in scoring 4 hits overall, he then wounds with all of the hits with a score of 3566 and the Avatar only manages to save one with his invulnerable save after a roll of 2334 reducing him to a single wound.

The Avatar strikes back, getting 2445 to hit and then a 3 on the re-roll resulting in 3 hits, he then gets 136 to wound and Skarbrand only saves 1 with a 2 and a 6. Reducing him to 1 wound also.

Skarbrand then closes in for the kill, but only scores 3 hits after 133556 and 122 on the re-roll. He wounds the Avatar thrice after 246, meaning that the Avatar will have to pass 3 4+ saves on the bounce to stay in the Arena. The first save is rolled......1. Oh. Well to finish it off he then proceeded to roll another 1 and a 2 for his remaining saves, meaning that Skarbrand took him down pretty hard in that last round of combat. In short, Skarbrand is through and the Avatar of Khaine is out, and Skarbrand joins the list of beings who have gone out to beat up an Avatar justto prove how hard they are.

Drop Pod Rage and the Arena

Well I haven't hit my target but at least I'm back to doing some posting. I'm trying to make a real push now to get my Space Wolves ready for Throne of Skulls. So far I have 2 squads of Grey Hunters (1 half painted 1 half assembled), 2 squads of wolf scouts (1 assembled but for the Melta Gunner and 1 still in the box) and a Dreadnought (half painted) with a Drop Pod (half assembled).

If anyone has ever glued something on to a model wrong you'll know part of the frustration that I'm having with this. The main problem was the section where the marines would be strapped in as they fall to the planet. I feel that the instructions weren't exactly clear on this but common sense should have told me that I'd glued these on the wrong way around, as I discovered when I tried to insert the frames of the pod. What's more, I only discovered this the morning after I had glued them. Therefore, I had to pull them off, and try to swap the cables going into the central panel around. I did this by cutting them off where they met the 'chair', and gluing them onto the other side, using Green Stuff to fill in the gaps due to the cutting technique of my rather crappy hardware store pliers.

I then had to clip off the bottoms of the 'chairs', and glue them down without them, as there was now all sorts of gunk in the slots. I'm now trying to put the framework on and insert the little turnbine / storm bolter thing in the middle. Such a task has thus far brought me very close to chucking the drop pod out of the window.

Anyway, I would love to spend all day talking about myself but unfortunately I've got to get down to doing other things, so here's another Arena for you.

Some of you may be familiar with a piece of background in the Space Wolves Codex which involves the ecclesiarchy going off to inspect the Space Wolves on Fenris, so the Space Wolves shoot their ships out of the sky. Today's arena is a similar encounter, with Uriah Jacobus taking on Ragnar Blackmane. Ragnar costs a lot more points than Uriah for a reason, but hey, at the end of the day anything could happen...

Ragnar rolls to hit Jacobus, scoring a 2, a pair of 4s and a pair of 5s, followed up by rolling 1356 to wound, Jacobus takes 345 for his saves and is reduced to 2 wounds. Jacobus' turn now, rolling 14556 to hit and 1236 to wound, Ragnar rolls a 3 for his save nullifying the hit.

Ragnar's turn again, 13455 to hit, 3356 to wound. Jacobus needs to make 3 saves to stay in the game, but only manages to make 2, with 1, 3, 4 and 5. Meaning that Ragnar is promptly through to the next round.

...or not, so Ragnar is through, leaving the field so far as Ragnar, the Swarmlord and Ghazghkull.

So, who do you predict to win?

Back with a Target - The Arena: Armageddon

Been very busy, and so have forgotten most of what happened in my most recent game. The main thing that I can remember is that sticking Eldrad and Imotekh the Stormlord in a squad of Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent and then repeatedly using guide to allow Imotekh to re-roll his failed to hit rolls with his lightning is pretty cheesy, especially when playing Apocalypse (how this came about).

Other than this, I've managed to get my hands on a box of scouts, all I need now are some suitable arms and a melta gun for one of them, maybe some Cadian arms. Got a tiny amount of painting done on my Grey Hunters as well. But anyway, on to the arena.

Today I have rolled up a bit of a grudge match, Yarrick vs Ghazghkull. I would honestly think that that Ghaz should win this, but depending up how many wounds Yarrick can inflict before Ghaz can unleash his Waaagh! And how well he rolls to keep getting back up again, he could take it. So, straight into the action.

Both characters hit simultaneously.

I roll for Yarrick first, who rolls a 2, a 3 and a 4 to hit, only hitting once. He gets a 5 next, wounding Ghazghkull, who rolls a 4 for his save taking a wound.

Ghazghkull is rolled for next, getting 3 hits after rolling 22366. He gets 334 to wound, but is forced to re-roll by Yarrick, he then gets a 566, knocking Yarrick flat. Yarrick then rolls to see if he gets back up, getting a 3 and standing up, battered but alive.

Yarrick lunges with his power claw, getting 256, followed by a 1 and a 4 to wound, the wound is swiftly ignored however when Ghaz rolls a 6 for his save.

Ghaz then tries to hit back at Yarrick, and kill him properly this time. Hitting 3 times with a 12556 and wounding twice with 135, both of which make it through after the re-roll when he makes a 2 and a 3. Yarrick falls down again, but only rolls a 2 to get back up, meaning that Ghaz has subdued him

The victory goes to Ghazghkull who continues to the next round.

That's all for today, hopefully there should be at least 2 new posts after this one before the end of the day next Sunday (GMT). Yes, I'm setting myself targets now.

The Arena - Introduction and Swarmlord Vs Stormlord

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.