Game Time: Walker Battle Royale!

An event where only walkers can be used; it’s Battletech 40k! One of the local hobby shops is holding an event next weekend with some interesting rules. The armies are limited to ‘walkers’ from the elites, fast attack or heavy support categories. The armies are then further limited to 200 points. The interesting trade off is that once a unit is destroyed it can respawn the next turn in a random deployment zone and at the beginning of each turn there will be a roll off for who goes first. Special awards given for most kill points, longest time without losing a model and so on…

Edward Teach and his Sentinel of dewm come for you!

Here are the rules:

Army List: Each player may spend up to 200 points on a single Elites, Fast Attack or Heavy Support unit.

Only models with the Walker Vehicle type may be fielded.

Deployment: All players will play on the same board, with randomly determined deployment locations.

Objectives: Kill as many enemy models as possible! 1 Kill point is awarded for each enemy model destroyed.

Special Rules:

Fluid Initiative- At the beginning of each game turn, each player will be dealt an Initiative card at random. The player with the highest Initiative number will move first, then each other player will move in succession. Next the shooting phases will be resolved in Initiative order, then the assault phases.

Entry Points- Models within deployment zones count as obscured

Endless Mechs! Whenever a unit is destroyed, roll for a deployment zone and immediately redeploy the unit. If the selected deployment zone is occupied, use the next unoccupied one. If all the deployment zones are occupied, place your unit 1" outside of the rolled zone and immediatly resolve a shooting attack using a single weapon against the occupying unit. When a unit is redeployed, remove any wrecks or craters created by that unit. Single use upgrades may only be used once during the game, regardless of how many times a unit is deployed.

Abandonment: At the end of each game turn, any model suffering from one or more Damaged results on the Vehicle Damage Table may be abandoned. Remove the model as a casualty, it awards a Kill Point to the player who most recently inflicted a Damaged result on it. If a unit is removed in this way, it may be redeployed using the Endless Mechs! rule.

Awards:

Tank Hunter- Most kill points

Feel No Pain- Greatest number of turns without losing a model

Furious Charge- Greatest number of kills in the Assault phase

Relentless- Greatest number of kills in the shooting phase

Preferred Enemy- Best Sportsman (player vote)

Acute Senses- Coolest Walker (player vote)


So it’s going to be one big sniper fest with walkers running amok. At 200 points marines are going to get only one walker. Most other armies with cheaper walkers, like Imperial Guard and Orks are going to get at least 2 and maybe 3 walkers on the board. However, kill points are awarded for each model destroyed – not unit. So I would be putting out a potential for 3 kill points while a marine is only putting out one.

Waking up a dreadnought - never a good idea.

As much as it pains me to say it, I think it is better to put less kill points on the table and bust out the Space Wolf Dreadnought. I am leaning towards a venerable dreadnought specifically so I can deny their ability to get weapon destroyed results. In this game the worst thing that can happen is losing your long range weapon because once destroyed you really can’t score points unless someone is stupid enough to destroy you, or let you close into close combat. In reality a vehicle destroyed result is better than a weapon destroyed because you can always respawn next turn!

The trade off is that I lose any hope of getting that extra long range weapon, because of the higher cost to be venerable, so ill be walking around with the close combat weapon. With BS of 5 and twin linked I should be hitting each turn, the only question will be the damage rolls. I can also put on the ‘Wolf Tail Talisman’ so if there are any psychic walkers out there I can nullify on a 5+, great way to dump the extra 5 points…

The other way to do it would be a standard dreadnought with twin linked lascannons and a missile launcher, the missile will only glance on a 4+ and penetrate on a 5+ but it does give you an addition roll each turn to try and bring down another walker. The difference in BS won’t really matter because the lascannons are still twin linked, but it does give you an additional ranged attack each turn.

Decisions, decisions….

still practicing_

Tallarn