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So recently we decided to have a 3 way 40K game with our Dark Eldar armies and deiced it would be fun to have the battle in one of the many areana that are in their realm.

I came up with some basic rules and we had a blast slaughtering each others forces and the varied beasts in the arena so I thought I would share it with you in case its useful / amuses

have fun - we did (even if all of our forces were in the end eliminated!)

Soul Arena

Each player has 500pts chosen from the Dark Eldar Codex with the following limitations.

 Each Player must have at least 1 Archon
 0-1 Succubus
 0-1 Lhamaeans (*)
 0-1 Medusae
 0-3 Sslyth
 0-3 Ur-Ghuls
 0-1 Incubi Klavex (*)
 0-5 Incubi
 0-1 Mandrake
 0-1 Dracon (*)
 0-5 Trueborn
 0-1 Syren (*)
 0-5 Hekatrix Blood Brides
 0-10 Kabalite Warriors
 0-10 Wyches
 0-3 Hellions
 0-1 Solarite
 0-3 Scourges
 0-1 Beastmaster (*)
 0-1 Reaver
 no more than 25 individual models
 no dedicated transport options are available

(*) Gain the Independent Character Special Rule

All normal character and squad options are available with the following exceptions:
No Dark Lances or Splinter Cannon (The Arena crowd does not appreciate long-range duels)

Deployment
The Arena should be a normal table with a considerable amount of terrain – city fight style with a central tower.

Each Player rolls a dice, the lowest roller deploys his forces first, followed by the next lowest and so on until all players have deployed their forces. Each player deploys on one table edge up to 12” from the edge.

Awaken the Beast Spirit.
One Talos for each player is placed in their deployment zone – they begin the game dormant but may be activated in the movement phase by any model moving into contact and sacrificing a Pain Token. The Talos may then act normally under the control of that player

The Chained Ones
In the deployment phase, each Player, in turn, starting with the player that rolled the highest deploys a chaining post. Each post must be outside a player’s deployment zone and more than 12” from any other Chain post and the central Prize tower.

When the post is placed, the player may choose one of the following beasts that are held by it. Killing a chained one generates a Pain Token.

Lictor
Ork Nobz
Bezerker Champion
Ogryn Bonehead
Small Carnosaur

Each post has a minor force field, which protects its beast from ranged fire – the beast receives a 4+ invulnerable save against ranged fire which may be used instead of any natural armour if that would normally be negated by the AP of the weapon. It provides no protection in close combat.

After All players have finished their turn, any beast not engaged in combat will find that is chain is loose enough to try and reach its tormentors. Roll a 2D6 for each such beast and measure to the nearest model (which may already engaged in combat). If the 2D6 roll is high to reach it, the beast immediately engages it in combat – counting as charging in all respects. If there are two or more models equally distant, then randomise which one the beast lunges for. See Appendix for Creature Stats.

If a Chained One is killed, the post retracts back into the floor and a new post is placed by a player once all players have completed their turns, just before the beast would normally attack. The post is placed not less than 6” away from any other model. This can mean that a beast is able to charge directly into combat.

Turn One
Night Fighting rules are in play for the first turn
Each Player rolls a dice, the highest roller goes first.
The Game lasts until the prize is claimed or all players’ models are eliminated.

The Arena
Crowd Participation
Any model that ends it turn within 12” of an arena wall will be attacked in the end phase by the enthusiastic spectators – receiving D6 splinter pistol shots

Trinkets
There are six stepping disc counters spread around the arena, each player taking it in turn to place one. Any player may activate a stepping disc by having a model end its movement in contact with it. The model may also be in close combat with another model when the disc is activated. When the disc is activated, roll a D6 to see what occurs:

 1: Nothing happens, the disc is reset
 2: Soul Gem: the disc shimmers and a soul gem appears in the activating models hands, it shatters and the Dark Eldar drinks the soul of the imprisoned entity. That model immediately gains one Pain Token. The Disc is then reset.
 3: The Thing: a tentacled creature rips out of a pocket dimension – place a large blast template centred over the disc. All at least partially under the template suffer a Strength 6 hit, AP 2. The creature is then sucked back into its home and the disc is reset.
 4: Combat Drug Injector: the model may immediately roll on the Combat Drugs table, if the model is part of a unit, the whole unit gains the benefits. The disc is reset
 5: Soul Gem: the disc shimmers and a soul gem appears in the activating models hands, it shatters and the Dark Eldar drinks the soul of the imprisoned entity. That model immediately gains one Pain Token. The disc is then reset
 6: Portal: The stepping disc is momentarily turned into a webway portal and the model is immediately moved into contact with another stepping disc – roll a D6 to see which one they appear next to. The disc is then reset.

The Prize
In the centre of the Arena the prize tower is an open lattice structure of three levels that provides a 5+ cover save to all within the building.
The lowest level of the tower is populated by a horde of Wracks, which are replaced as required as they are killed or the drug cocktail destroys them. There are D6 Wracks to start with an additional 1 being sent in each of the players turn.
The second level has a mob of 10 Orks armed with choppas and heavy armour and 1 Nob with a Power Claw.
The top floor, which contains the prize, is a dimensional fold cage. The cage and its contents are immune to all weapons and effects that do not originate within the cage and the guardian may only be engaged in close combat by a model entering the cage. Within the cage is a single guardian, chosen when the first model enters the cage by the players not controlling that model.

 Tryanid Hive Tyrant
 Chaos Spawn
 Tryanid Broodlord
 Orc Warboss
 Champion Of Khorne

Once the Prize is eliminated the remaining players have until the start of that claiming players next turn to enter the fold cage and defeat the holder before he or she is proclaimed the winner.

Sample beasts of the Arena
Unless otherwise noted the creatures in the arena are drugged and /or driven insane and so are Fearless

Lictor WS6, S6, T4, W3, I 6, A3, Chamelonic Skin: 5+ cover save

Ork Nob WS4, S4, T4, W 2, I 3, A3, Two Close Combat Weapons, Heavy Armour

Bezerker Champion WS 6, S5, T4, W2, I4, A3, Two Close Combat, Power Armour

Ogryn Bonehead WS 5, S5, T5, W3, I3, A3, Carapace armour,

Small Carnosaur WS5, S6, T3, W2, I6, A3, Dodge: 4+ Invulnerable save

Tryanid Hive Tyrant WS8, S6, T6, W4, I5, A4, Monstrous creature, Sything talons, Lashwhip and Bonesword,

Chaos Spawn WS5, S6, T7, W6, I 3, AD6+3, Feel no pain, Monstrous Creature

Tryanid Broodlord WS7, S5, T5, W3, I7, A4, Rending Claws, Sything Talons, Hard Carapace (4+).

Orc Warboss WS5, S5, T5, W3, I4, A4, Cybork Body, Heavy Armour, Power Claw,

Champion Of Khorne WS9, S5, T5, W3, I5, A6, Power Armour, Power Weapon,

Wracks WS 3, S4, T3, W 1, I 3, A2, Feel No Pain, Two close combat weapons

Orks WS4, S3, T4, W1, I2, A2, Two Close Combat Weapons

Awesome, but I would make it so that you dont have to be DE. Think how awesome it would be to have slave guard, or orks, or tau forced to fight in the arena and claim the prize for the entertainment of the DE. I especially like the part about chain posts.

Good point - 500pts of most armies would I thnk be fun. just drop the transport options and allow the squad updgrade champions as Independant characters.

Not sure about Tau battlesuits?

We neally had a Grey Knights and Demon force drop in to join us after they had finished their league game but we ran out of time.

The Chain posts were good fun - as weere the stepping discs - one player lost his Incubi to The Thing!

This really does look fun! Very good rules, very in character for the DE.

I'd like to try it myself, expanding it to other armies. I imagine it would be a nightmare for any enslaved human or tau army to compete - but then again that's the point, isn't it?

Like it! Now to try and get the missus to game against me! One question for you, what did you do on the special rules? For mandrakes for instance, do you keep them in reserve and allow them to enter from any zone?

Mandrakes - yeah that sounds good - odd rule questions that came up we just made a on the spot desicion and moved on. For isntance the Chained Ones were originally a one off but it was more fun for them to keep respawning.

Let me know how the game works for you

on other races - probably need some new things for stepping discs and an alternative for the Talos

We were also considering alternative lists for a Homenoclus Arena and maybe a Beastmaster list where you have alien slaves

Inclusion of Carnosaur is... interesting. Do they appear anywhere in the 40k fluff?
But anyway, this game sounds great. Don't have any Dark Eldar (or, well, any 40k models at all), but the rules sound pretty inventive to me.

Carnosaurs are back in Rogue Trader and dinosaur equivalents frequently crop up in use by the Eldar Exodites.

Also I had just been reading the Lost World and had a cool Raptor model to use

Instead of a talos for eldar you could probaly use a wraithlord thought you would have to think of a different activation method.

Like get the base of the tower to activate the "spirit torment device" to make the wraithlord go berserk. Actually, berserk could be a pretty good addition, injecting an element of random...

This sounds like great fun. Another alternative could be a battle between tyranids and wyches, sounds like something the dark eldar would do lol!

Totally gonna use these rules if that's ok?

Dude thats what they are for

use 'em and let us know how they work for you