TA plays shadowrun

Since I'm practically obligated to partake in this misadventure I shall be cataloging my encounters in this topic. The ultimate goal is to sweep the local event by collecting 15 caches of crude oil Promethium from the planet Iraq Armageddon as quickly as possible. With no rulebook to reference and no idea how to play the game, I assembled the following 1000 point list, which will be updated as I play and gain points/Promethium:

Death Clowns for Cutie 1000pts + 400

Karl, Troupe Master: Monomolecular Blade, Fusion Pistol, Re-roll failed Leadership tests

Mitch, Player: Harlequin Sword, Shuriken Pistol

Moxy, Mime: Harlequin Sword, Shuriken Pistol, Monomolecular Blade

Moe, Mime: Harlequin Sword, Prismatic Grenade, Visor, Hatred: Space Marines

Murphy, Virtuoso: Monomolecular Blade, Neuro Disruptor, Ammo Head (Hog?)

Total Promethium: 8

Game #1 vs. Space Marines

This was the first real game of the event, with it being 1000 points per side. I was against Space Marines who were not yet named, as the poor guy I was playing against had not yet played the game. I was lucky enough to get a scrimmage game in the previous week with a fellow which involved moving some boxes around and one round of combat in which nothing happened, so I was at a slight advantage. over a dozen people showed up to play on 5 tables and there was only 1 rule book to share between us, so to say it was a frustrating learning experience is not giving the sheer mayhem involved justice. We needed to know what blast weapons did, what flamers did, how shooting worked, what was pinning, what was the injury table, did we die, and many, many other rules.

The mission was the first one, so basically kill 'em all or force the opponent to fail a bottle check. I would take a bottle check on every single unit down since I only had Karl, Moe, Moxy, and Mitch, while my opponent had 7 Space Marines. The first few rounds were pretty uneventful with me darting from cover to cover and him positioning around the terrain. At last I made a break in the open and fired on the Space Marines, hitting one but failing to wound with Moxy's Shuriken Pistol. The Space Marines retaliated by putting a bolter round into Mitch and attempting to flame Moxy. She passed her invul save though, and the flamer failed his ammo roll. Moe positioned on higher ground above a blob of Space Marines.

The next turn, Karl and Moxy took down the flamer guy. Mitch pulled himself towards cover while Moe threw a grenade at a marine. The Marines responded by shooting Moe in the face, taking her out of action. Another Space Marine got the drop on Karl from above, giving him a nice boost to attacks and putting him into a combat that ended in a draw, with parries and saves being made on both sides.

The last turn, Moxy took off across the board and murdered a Space Marine all on her own while Karl handily finished his combat with the Space Marine leader. The Space Marines took a bottle test, failed on an 11, and the game was mine.

For winning, I received 3 caches of Black Gold from the D3, another 1 for having a fully named and painted force, and another 1 for completing the special bonus objective of causing a lost bottle test with 3x as many enemy units removed from play as my own (3 to 1). I also received 200 points to spend. Seeing as how this was only round one though and being cocky with my Texas Tea I decided to blow 1 Promethium cache on an extra 100 points, a solid investment IMO that gave me 300 to spend on Murphy + Wargear. Moe had a painful recovery and gained Hatred: Space Marines. Fortunately my opponent had no one die and his flamer gained Hatred: Harlequins. Overall it was a good game, a learning experience, but oh my god was it painful to play with 1 rulebook being passed between 5 tables. People had pirated versions on their phones but it didn't help at all. Organizing this event before the rules were published was a stupid idea.

Grats on the win! our hobby club is smaller with two tables and one rule book to share but at least there was a reference sheet for every faction and plenty of quick rule reference guides.

Close combat is great for taking stuff down but actually getting there can be tricky. Nice that yours was all painted and named, mine are only partially painted so far. I will be trying to use hide more often as well as using whatever cover and LoS blocking terrain I can to close the distance. I look forward to hearing more tales of harlequin shenanigans!

I just recently learned pistols could be used for half my close combat attacks so I don't expect much to be able to beat my clowns short of a miracle.

Game #2 vs. Imperial Guard

Today I played against a large squad of Imperial Guard on the Ambush mission. The Guardsmen consisted of about 8 men with a doctor, a doc worker with a hammer, a grenade launcher, and a dual-wielding pistol assassin amongst them. Death Clowns for Cutie won the attacker role while the Guardsmen were the defenders. After appropriate terrain was placed, we did our deployment. The Guardsmen were out in the open in the middle of the table while the Harlequins surrounded them in 3 groups. Because the defender didn't roll any 6s on his deployment, I got to go first. With the way he was forced to deploy his groups, and because of my long charge distance, Karl got an early charge off. Mitch and Moxy moved into position, Moe moved along catwalks overhead, and Murphy stepped out of the shadows to shoot a Guardsman with her Neuro Disruptor. It was a hit, and took the guy out of action, but she ran out of ammo. On such an expensive gun that was not good. Karl straight up murdered the person he was in combat with and was caught with his pants down out in the open, like Peewee Herman in a movie theater.

The Guardsmen retaliated by lobbing a volley from lasguns, bolt pistols, and shotguns into Karl. He took 6 hits, saved 2 wounds, and suffered one wound, but didn't go down. On turn 2, due to poor positioning, Karl got a multi-charge off on 2 Guardsmen while Moxy, Moe, and Mitch moved closer. Murphy charged in as well, and the two clowns had no trouble killing 3 more paltry Guardsmen with their pistols and swords. At this point my opponent called the game, as half his force was taken out of action and I still had all 5 clowns left.

This admittedly wasn't much of a game, but there was no lasting damage done. Murphy got to re-roll ammo rolls which was nice after what happened with her Neuro-Disruptor. I'm still interested to see if any army can truly stand up to Harlequins. By winning I gained 4 Promethium caches and got 100 points, which I used to reload Murphy's gun and buy a sword.

I know I haven't updated this much, but I feel a capstone is in order as it was just too perfect. Over the course of the campaign there was a Genestealer Cult player who was stomping people as badly as I was. In fact, he stomped me once, dropping me to a mere single clown in one game with his gratuitous shooting. However, I learned quickly and beat him once, and over the campaign we both rose to 16 caches. In the tiebreaker we both blew a cache on a specialist, in my case a Shadowseer named Carlin, and in his case a Genestealer who had no name. We settled it like men in a good ol' fashioned Kill Team Fight.

He tried to overwatch me from a tower with heavy stubbers but I had the advantage of lots of terrain to hide in. My clowns ran for the cultists, dodging bullets and flubbing their own shooting. The game itself was rather quick. Moxy murdered 2 cultists, Karl another, and Murphy was sniping people with his pistol in the back. I took out of action a third of the Genestealers on turn 3 and my opponent called the game.

While it wasn't much of a game, there was a sigh of relief felt by the game store. The curse had been lifted, a champion was found amongst the contenders, and now 40k was free to be played once more across the tables on Thursday afternoon. No more shadowrun eating every available spot, no more "who has a rulebook?", just good old fashioned 40k. Almost on cue the regulars arrived to find that the shadowrun event was over, the person they wanted to see defeated (my opponent who'd stomped all of them) was in fact defeated, and that 40k was free to play on each and every table in the realm. There was much rejoicing and I was told a plastic trophy, spray painted gold, is being erected in my honor.