Battle Report 48- King of the Hill

Hi everyone, this week's battle report is something a little different. A few weeks ago at the Dundee Wargames club, I played a boardgame called Ultimate Warriorz. It was a gladiatorial combat game which saw players fighting it out to be the last one standing. It was a lot of fun and got me thinking about some of the old White Dwarf articles where they used to match special characters against one another.

 

So I put out the call to the members of the club and we decided to have our own little tournament at the club, where we would battle various 40k special characters to see who came out on top. I decided to have two different types of tournament. The first would be King of the Hill, where the Special characters would fight in a standard knock-out type game over various rounds to see who came out on top. The second would be a Battle Royale where it was every man (or woman) for themselves on one battlefield. Today is the battle report for the King of the Hill section (the Battle Royale will be posted later).

 

I put together some quick and easy rules for the tournament for players to use:

 

Character Selection:

- Only named Special Characters may be chosen.

- No vehicle mounted characters or vehicle characters may be used (bikes and jetbikes do not count).

- No Greater Daemons.

- Lords of War are permitted as long as they don't break any other rules.

 

Fights between characters will be drawn in a random fashion. For each fight, players start 12" away from one another and may not move further away than 12" from one another (no running from the fight!). The special character that costs the least number of points will get the first turn. The character will get a full turn (movement, psychic phase, shooting phase and assault phase), then their opponent and so on until one character is dead. If both characters are killed during the same combat phase, each player will roll for another turn of combat, whoever scores the most wounds from the roll off is declared the winner.

 

No flying is permitted during the fight. All characters can be wounded on the roll of a 6 in combat or in shooting (to prevent any invincible characters from winning easily).

So with the basic rules set out, it is time to meet today's competitors:

 

Hailing from the planet Urk, the Chosen One of Gork and Mork, the Prophet's Prophet, the Green Menace, Ghazgkull Mag Uruk Thraka! (Commanded by Seb).

She's lean, she's mean, she'll feed you your own spleen, please welcome the Storm of Silence, Jain Zar! (Commanded by Armel. As I side note, I had this character confused with Maugan Ra at the start of the tournament. As I forgot how to spell 'Maugan', she went down as 'Megan Ra' on the title card. The name Megan stuck and she was called that throughout the games, much to Armel's mild annoyance. Also, we negated her disarming strike rule as it was simply too powerful for the tournament).

He's been around since before the Horus Heresy, but don't let this old timer fool you. He's here to eat your world, craving blood and skulls, its Kharn the Betrayer! (Commanded by Thomas).

He's the shadow on the breeze, the whisper in the night, he's Unforgiven, but not forgotten, give it up for Cypher! (Commanded by David).

 

You know him, you love him, the Commissar crusher, the Power claw punisher, the saviour of Armageddon, Commissar Yarrick!

A new boy on the scene, the swift death, the white lightning, the Master of the Hunt, Kor'sarro Khan!

Last but by no means least, the Angel in Black, the Ravenwing Master, he's pimped his ride and is ready to play, please welcome Sammael! (I brought the last three characters so that others could join even it they didn't have a special character, but ended up commanding all three in the game).

Without further ado, round 1 begins, LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE! (It works better if you have this playing in your head as we fight).

 

ROUND 1

Fight 1- Ghazgkull vs Yarrick

We couldn't have planned it better if we tried. The first two names out of the bag were the ancient enemies from Armageddon; Ghazgkull vs Commissar Yarrick.

Our competitors lined up against one another. Yarrick took the first turn, wasting no time advancing on his old nemesis. He fired his storm bolter at Ghazgkull, wounding him once but failing to get past his armour. Yarrick launched himself at the Ork, his power claw gouging a chunk out of Ghazgkull's armour and wounding him once. The Ork warlord struck back, wounding Yarrick three times, only one of them got past his force field save.

The battle between the ancient enemies continued, a smiling Ghazgkull struck down Yarrick, wounding him three times in the second round for no damage in return. Yarrick fell, but the stubborn old mule got back up. Ghazgkull's last blow must have rattled Yarrick as he missed with all his attacks in the third round of combat, Ghazgkull struck him down once more, and this time Yarrick never got back up.

After three rounds of combat, the mighty Ork managed to defeat his worthy opponent. A win for Ghzgkull.

Fight 2- Sammael vs Kharn
For our second fight, one of Khorn's chosen lined up against the Ravenwing's finest. Kharn started off, rushing towards Sammael and firing his plasma pistol as he advanced. The shot slammed into Sammael, wounding him once.

Kharn did not break his run as he barrelled into Sammael, the ferocity of his attacks pummelled the Dark Angels' master, wounding him twice for one wound in return.

A win for Kharn and one more skull for the throne of Khorne.

Fight 3- Jain 'Megan' Zar vs Cypher
Cypher stayed still, levelling his pistols at the Eldar Pheonix lord. His bolt pistol rounds struck Jain Zar twice, but her armour saved the bolt rounds. His plasma pistol had more success, wounding the warrior once.

Jain Zar moved up, launching herself at Cypher. She fired as she advanced, wounding Cypher twice. She then assaulted him, wounding him twice and cutting him down before he had a chance to strike.

A win for Megan!

Khan got a pass for round 1, so we went onto round 2 with our winning competitors.

ROUND 2
Fight 4- Ghazgkull vs Jain Zar
The next random draw saw the Ork Warlord take on the Eldar warrior.

Jain Zar moved up on Ghazgkull, firing as she advanced. The shots bounced off the Ork's armour, causing no damage. She then charged into combat with the prophet of the Waaagh (thanks to her fleet re-roll, as she failed the charge in the first instance).

Jain Zar struck at the Ork warlord, wounding him twice. Ghazgkull struck back at the Phoenix Lord, hitting three times despite needing 5's (thanks to Zar's special rules) and wounding the Eldar warrior twice.
The damage forced Jain Zar to fight back even stronger, killing Ghazgkull after wounding him 3 times in the second round of combat.

Another win for Megan.

Fight 5- Khan vs Kharn
This fight could get confusing.

Khan got the first move, being slightly cheaper than Kharn in points (see what I mean). Khan gunned his bike forward, firing his bolter at Kharn as he advanced, wounding him once but failing to get past his armour.
Khan then rammed his bike into the Chaos warrior, hitting him with three hammer of wrath attacks, but failing to damage Kharn. The Betrayer struck at Khan, wounding him three times, but the White Scar warrior's iron halo saved all but one of the blows. Khan struck back, hitting only once but successfully wounding Kharn.

In the second round of combat, Kharn struck at Khan ferociously, hitting with all his attacks and wounding with 4. Khan then failed three of his Iron Halo saves. As he fell, he struck at Kharn and succeeded in wounding him once more.

Kharn was severely injured, but defiant, victory was his!

FINAL
Fight 6- Jain Zar vs Kharn the Betrayer
After defeating their rivals in the previous round, the final would be between Jain Zar and Kharn the Betrayer.

The competitors lined up against one another for the final conflict. Kharn moved first, advancing quickly on his enemy and wounding her with his plasma pistol as he fired on the move.

He then crashed into the Eldar warrior. The speed of the Phoenix lord was too much for Kharn and she struck at him, wounding him once.

Kharn then struck at Jain Zar, her swift movements avoiding many of her strikes, but his hatred drove him on as he rained blow after blow on the Eldar warrior (despite needing a 2+ to hit, Thomas missed with 5 of his 7 attacks in the first round. Fortunately for him, Kharn's hatred re-rolls allowed him to hit with all 7 attacks in the end). The punishing fury of his attacks were too much for Jain Zar and she succumbed to the fury of the Blood God (Kharn wounded her 7 times and finished her off).

A victory Kharn the Betrayer and winner of the tournament.

During the tournament, we agreed that we would not use the rules for Jain Zar's disarming strike. This allows her to negate a single weapon her opponent wields in combat. We felt this would be too much of an advantage, negating any weapons that could get past her 2+ armour save and making her unstoppable.

For the final battle, we decided to see how the combat would have gone with her disarming rule intact. Much to our surprise, the result was the same- a win for Kharn. The fury of his attacks were simply too much for Jain Zar. Even without his AP2 axe, he was still able to kill her before she could best him.

AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Our mini-tournament was a lot of fun and a nice change from a regular game of 40k at the club. The other guys had a great time too and I will hopefully be running something similar again with a few more competitors.

After hearing about Jain Zar's weapons and abilities, I thought that she would walk it for sure. Any model in combat with her gets -5 to their WS and initiative. This means that she was striking before everyone in the tournament and they would need 5's to hit her in combat.

As it was, Kharn's huge number of attacks and ability to always hit on 2+ were key to his victory over Jain Zar, leading to a tense final battle.

I liked the first battle between Yarrick and Ghazgkull, a real classic match up (just a shame we couldn't get Cypher and Sammael paired up too).

This was the first part of my Special Character fights. I will post the royal rumble, where is every man for himself in the arena, for the next battle report.

I hope you enjoyed this break from the norm in the battle reports. Who would be your bet for ultimate 40k special character?