Introducing "Squad Smackdown": You Could Win a Prize!

There's been a recent spate of people running tournaments between special characters from all the Codices, eliminating the losers until a single winner is reached. I saw this first on the blog The 40k Project, and more recently in a segment on the "40K UK" podcast. This is helped by the fact that there are sixteen current Codices - the perfect number for an elimination tournament!

Now "A Plague Spreads" wants a piece of the action, but I am going to do things a little differently. My contestants won't be the superheroes of the 41st millennium, but rather those army workhorses, the lowly troops units. I'm going to take one unit up to 200 points from each Codex and battle them against each other according to the following rules.

In the spirit of "steal the initiative" I won't be doing what I've seen elsewhere, where everyone counts as assaulting. Instead a random roll will determine the aggressor, modified by the units maneuverability. As this unit will also get to fire any weapons if possible before assault, it's going to be a huge advantage. Luckily the defender gets a random chance of being in cover!

So... who's got the best troops?

Our First Reader Contest

Nothing makes a fight more fun than when you have something riding on it. So I am going to make this a little more interesting by giving away a prize! The winner will receive a nicely converted and painted model from the victorious squad, posted to you anywhere in the world. I promise to put the effort into making this a nice display piece, and I'll show its progress on the blog of course :)

To enter you need to post a comment below listing your pick for the winning contestant. Once the Smackdown has been won I will randomly select a winner from those who picked the victorious squad. So putting your "money" on the favourite might not give you the best chance of winning...

The Contestants

Vanilla Marines
10 Scouts - cloaks, combat blades, sergeant with shotgun, power fist, combi-flamer (200)

Orks
30 Slugger Boys (180)

Tau
20 Kroot + 10 Kroot Hounds (200)

Chaos
9 Khorne Bezerkers - icon (194)

Daemons
12 Bloodletters - instrument (197)

Eldar
19 Storm Guardians, Warlock with Enhance (200)

Black Templars
8 Initiates, 8 Neophytes - close combat weapons (200)

Blood Angels
10 Assault Marines - 2 flamers (190)

Necrons
11 Warriors (198)

Sisters of Battle
13 sisters, 2 flamers, veteran sister superior with evicerator, book of St lucius (198)

Space Wolves
10 Grey Hunters - 2 flamers, banner, 2 power swords (185)

Grey Knights
5 Terminators - Halberds (200)

Tyranids
11 Genestealers - toxin sacs (187)

Dark Angels
10 Tactical Marines - power fist, flamer (195)

Dark Eldar
15 Wyches - 1 hydra gauntlet, Hekatrix with phantasm grenade launcher, agoniser (200)

Imperial Guard:
Command squad - 4 flamers, commissar (85)
2 x Infantry squad - flamer (55)

Squad Smackdown Rules

Matchings

• Each pairing is determined by random draw.
• One battle is fought each day.
• Losers are eliminated from the tournament.
• Once all squads have fought a battle, the winners are returned to the draw.

The Fight

• Detemine who gets the assault and if the defender is in cover.
• Roll off with a d6 for each unit to determine who gets to be the assaulter.
• Add +2 to the roll if the unit is clearly more likely to get the charge (eg they have fleet)
• Add +4 to the roll if the unit would almost always get the charge (eg a bike unit)
• The defenders have a 50% chance of being in cover (for the purposes of shooting and attacking at initiative).
• Resolve the assaulter's shooting with any assault weapons or pistols.
• Template weapons count as hitting 3 models.
• Resolve a round of combat with the assaulters getting a charge bonus.
• Resolve further rounds of combat until a unit flees and is caught.
• If the models flee successfully, treat it as if they stayed in combat
• Other rules will be made up as required

Lay Your Bets..!