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Yesterday was my local GWs 2nd birthday (hurrah!) and the store manager had a big birthday bash. There was a tower of power fantasy battle, painting contests, speed building, speed painting and even a 40k hero deathmatch. Of course I entered into this deathmatch and was ready for some crazy stuff!

Here's how it worked:

Only painted NAMED HQ choices from any 40k army.
Each character was placed in a weight class (light medium heavy) depending on stats, popularity, abilities, gear etc.
Best two out of three for each hero duel was the winner of that duel.
Three rounds total.
Winner fought winners and losers fought losers until all three rounds were completed.
Whoever had the most wins at the end of the day was the victor.

Normally, i play Dark Angels and Orks. Seeing as how I use Big Meks and no named Orks Ihad no choices there. My DA choices were Belial and Sammael who are not the best choices. I almost brought Sammael to fight in the middleweight division but decide against it. I found an old Lysander model I was collecting for an old project (my SUPER HQ squad with all the named SM heroes), and decided to paint him up and enter him in the heavyweight division.

Here he is in all his shiny yellow glory


For anyone who is unfamiliar with Lysander his stats are
WS6 BS5 S4 T4 W4 I5 A3 LD10 SV2+
Equipped with:
Terminator Armor (duh)
Storm Shield
Fist of Dorn (Master crafted TH that strikes at Str 10 and adds +1 to vehicle damage table)

Stubborn (chapter tactics)
Eternal Warrior
Bolter Drill
Bolster Defences
And they Shall Know no Fear

200pts

I was confident with my choice because I figured Lysander is tough as nails and hits like a truck. He's pretty much unshakable for being only 200 pts.

The contestants in the Heavyweight Division were:
Dante (BA) ~185 pts?
Draigo (GK) ~275pts
Logan Grimnar (SW) ~250pts?
Lysander (SM, me) ~200pts
Marneus Calgar (SM) ~250pts?
Njal Stormcaller (moved to middleweight)

Here's how my battles went:

Round 1: (this round got mucked up because entrants kept entering and leaving. So I ended up fighting more times than necessary)
Lysander vs Draigo
Wins:0
Loss: 2
Tie: 1

Winner: Draigo

This was actually a very fun but challenging match. First round I was down to one wound and Draigo had three. I managed to whittle him down to two and then we both killed each other at the same time (he was striking at I 1 from the previous thunder hammer wound)!

Round 1 continued. Logan Grimnar also lost to Draigo but more entrants arrived. So Logan and I had a duel to decide who would continue on and who would stay behind to have to fight Marneus Calgar (who had beaten Njal) to try and stay in the winner circle. I know it got a little messed up. The manager was doing his best to corral everyone to commit to the tournaments and pay attention etc (we had quite a few youngsters).
Lysander Vs Logan Grimnar
Wins: 1
Loss:1
Tie: 1

Sudden Death Winner: Lysander

Winner: Lysander

Logan's preferred enemy rule is REALLY annoying. Almost everyone I was fighting had at least one more attack than me and just as good weapon skill. However, Logan has a 4+ invul vs my 3+ and Logan only has 3 wounds as opposed to my 4. This proved to be the determining factor in our battle and gave me (lysander) the victory.

So now Logan had to fight Marneus to see if he could stay with the winners. Logan defeated Marneus and stayed with the winners.

Round 2: Lysander vs Dante
Win: 2
Loss: 0
Tie: 0

Winner: Lysander

Dante's death mask is VERY annoying as well. It reduces WS, A, and W by 1 just by being on the field. So this put me at a severe disadvantage right away as he got a free wound off of me. However, Dante does not have Eternal Warrior, which I abused with my Str 10 Thunder Hammer. I got two wins in a row but was reduced to one wound each round. Dante failed all of his invul saves and was Instant Killed twice in a row.

Round 3 (each non eliminated player fought)
Lysander vs Draigo (for guaranteed 1st place battle)

Wins: 0
Loss: 2
Tie: 0

Winner: Draigo

Draigo wiped the floor with me this round. His Hammerhand ability lets him strike at S6, therefore wounding on 2's. He hit me on 3's and I hit him on 4's. He got 4 or 5 attacks and I got 3. He wounded on 2's and so did I. He has a 3+ save and so do I. His hero is statistically better (and 75pts more than mine)! So he SHOULD have won easily. I also rolled like garbage.

Now i HAD to win to be in the final deathmatch to determine the winner.

Round 3 continued
Lysander vs Dante (beat Logan BARELY with a bunch of lucky melta pistol shots. That death mask is annoying, especially cause Logan only has 2 W to start with. Melta removes one and then his attacks remove the other before logan hits back)

Wins: 2
Loss: 1
Ties: 0

Winner: Lysander

This match was INTENSE! First round Dante wounded with the melta pistol and cleaved me down to one wound. I struck back and he made his invul saves! He gave me three invuls and I passed like a champ. Then made him take another invul which he PASSED! He caused another three and Lysander was killed. The next round the same thing happened but Dante failed his second invul save and was instant killed. The next round he charged, cause a wound, and I smote him with the thunder hammer once again.

FINAL ROUND (for 1st and 2nd place)
Lysander vs Draigo

Wins: 0
Loss: 2
Ties: 0

Winner: Draigo

Same as before. Draigo is simply a better hero. When we have the same saves, wounds, and both wound on 2's, Draigo wins because he has more attacks and hits on 3's. Plain and simple. He IS a better hero. This match was intense nontheless because as long as I could keep wounding Draigo he was fighting at Initiative 1, which was Lysander's game. It almost always came down to one wound on me and one on him and then he passed and I failed. But nonetheless, a great match. It was actually cool because the whole store was rooting for Lysander, as Draigo had been beating everyone up all day. But alas, I rolled two 2's and Draigo won 1st place.

Rankings
1st: Draigo
2nd: Lysander
3rd: Logan Grimnar (beat Dante to grab 3rd place).
4th: Dante
5th: Marneus Calgar

Some other highlights from the middleweight division were seeing Old Zogwort turn Farsight(?) into a squig. Watching Old Zogwort turn Typhus into a squig and murder him haha. A duel between Typhus and Vulkan He'Stan.

Overall a very fun little tournament. I mean, it's not exactly tactical but seeing how certain characters fight is always interesting. I was VERY happy with how Lysander did. Especially when going toe-to-toe against other characters that far out-match him with much higher points values. (I played a fun match against Marneus on the side and beat him too)! Lysander has always been one of my favorite characters, and so have the Imperial Fists in general, despite my Dark Angel nature. Maybe it's their stubbornness I find so appealing. I hope I did all the Lysander fans out there proud and I hope the Imperial Fists are proud too.

-VardenV2

Sounds like a ball! Would've loved to have seen that. And yeah, Draigo is a beast. People were very skeptical about him first, but I think his points adequately appraise his value.

What? No Abaddon or C'tans?

jy2 wrote:What? No Abaddon or C'tans?

I was SUPER shocked as well! Abaddon would have wrecked house and so would a C'Tan. I almost bought a Ghazkul Thrakka model to enter into the Heavyweight instead of Lysander but I figured a free model is better than a $35 one or w/e Gazzy is. But Gazzy would have OWNED. His stats are obscene... and he's a cool mini and a funny hero. But w/e

-WAAAGH!!

Does indeed sound like a ball.
I would personally have loved to have seen a psyker attend, see how he/she'd do against one of those melee gods.

Wooly wrote:Does indeed sound like a ball.
I would personally have loved to have seen a psyker attend, see how he/she'd do against one of those melee gods.

There was a kid who brought Njal Stormcaller and I almost brought Tigurius. Tigurius can force people to re-roll invul saves which wound be awesome against most heroes IMO. Njal did OK but anyone with an instant death weapon (AKA everyone) killed him in one hit. He did manage to Jaws of the World Wolf Marneus Calgar and remove him from existence. We lol'd. But then Next round Marneus just shot him twice and killed him. The manager moved Njal to middleweight because he was gettign instant death killed so often.

Also, a player did bring old Zogwort. But he was light or middle weight. He squigged a few people but got shot to death really easily too.

-WAAGH!!

If every round a hero could refresh their abilities (i.e. like Dante using his curse against every opponent) then the Sanguinor would have wrecked house with re-rollable hits and wounds against everyone, plus a 3+ invul to boot and eternal warrior.

No Skulltakers? He rips heroes down with ease.

No Mephy? for that matter
Does sound like fun though, congrats on taking 2nd

Someone should have taken Creed, then in the middle of the round a Baneblade would show up. and insta-gib his opponent.

Emp. wrote:If every round a hero could refresh their abilities (i.e. like Dante using his curse against every opponent) then the Sanguinor would have wrecked house with re-rollable hits and wounds against everyone, plus a 3+ invul to boot and eternal warrior.

thats what I was thining

Lord Harrab wrote:Someone should have taken Creed, then in the middle of the round a Baneblade would show up. and insta-gib his opponent.

Lolz

CREEEEEEEED!

There is a guy who uses Blood Angels but he runs with Dante, not Mephiston. I was mostly surprised at no Gazzy as there are quite a few Ork players. Most of the people who entered were younger kids, about 12-15, so most were SM. Which was fine. I wish I had more characters to use or else I would have taken a non-SM but w/e. Was a fun day nonetheless.

-WAAGH!!

Dante is just about the worst BA melee character there is. Corbulo is almost as powerful but 120pts cheaper. Interesting there was no Meph, Sanguinor or even Astorath.

Eldrad?

Mind war.

Back up.

Mind war.

Back up.

Mind war.

But Abaddon would be a disappointment. He was there, surely, but he was in the corner slitting his own wrists.

Sounds like a lot of fun. I would have been there with Abaddon for sure, he's my fav.
It really warms my heart to see Calgar in last place. Love it.

How were your characters deployed? Like 12" apart or what?

Lt. Coldfire wrote:Sounds like a lot of fun. I would have been there with Abaddon for sure, he's my fav.
It really warms my heart to see Calgar in last place. Love it.

How were your characters deployed? Like 12" apart or what?

It warms my heart as well haha.

-VardenV2