4 player every man for himself

It has been a while, so I went to the LGS today hoping to play a pick up game, and three folks there wanted to play a four way, every man for yourself game. I threw together what I thought would be a funny and fun list. I had pictures in my head of jetbikes zooming to their death on suicide missions and venoms and raiders getting blown up by dreadnaughts.

The Duke

5 Wyches, HWG in a venom with SC X2 and NS
5 Wyches, HWG in a venom with SC X2 and NS
5 Wyches, HWG in a venom with SC X2 and NS
10 Warriors, SC in a Raider with NS

3 Grotesques: Abberation and LG in a Raider

9 Reavers with HL X3
9 Reavers with HL X3
9 Reavers with HL X3

Ravager: NS
Ravager: NS
Razorwing: FF

1997 points


Two of the others were playing Grey Knights

Grey Knight player one had three dreads (not sure how many were venerable), a land raider, a vendicare assassin, a squad of grey knights in a razorback, a squad of Paladins with someone important and an HQ with a bird.

The other had a couple of squads of paladins, a dread, some grey knights and lots of upgrades. Something else I can’t remember. Draigo was his HQ.

The last player had Eldar with DE allies. He had two falcons, a wave serpent, a wraith knight, wraithlord, wraith guard, far seer, a few small squads of dire avengers, the avatar, lillith, some wyches and some warriors.

The game was big guns never tire, no night fighting, none of the warlord traits were useful. I can’t remember anyone’s special powers.

The table was set up by placing two tables next to each other with a 12 inch space between with a couple of bridges on each end and a large rock formation in the middle. The rest of the intervening space was dangerous terrain. There was an objective in each players area and one dead center.

We deployed on each of the long ends with me on the bottom left, grey knight player two across from me, the eldar player next to him and Grey knight player number one to my right. Turns ended up going GK 1, eldar, me, GK 2.

I rolled combat drugs individually and got pain token for everything except a squad of wyches got +1 Strength and a second squad got reroll wounds.

I deployed packed near the back with my bikes at 12, 3 and 6 o’clock. My raiders and one venom in the middle with my 10 warriors in some ruins protecting my objective.


The two GK players centered their armies around their objective and held out paladins to deep strike. The eldar player set up in line in the middle of his field.

TURN ONE

GK player one focused on the eldar player managing a couple of hull points and immobilizing a falcon. The eldar player then moved most of his army towards the GK player to my right with all the armor and dreads. He managed only a hull point off the razor back but rolled a three keeping it in place and only shooting snapshots.

I then maneuvered all my lances and two squads of reavers toward the GK player to the right, my venoms into the middle in LOS blocking areas and one ravager off on its own on the far left to keep GK player two aware of me. The warriors stayed put.

Shooting saw my ravager to the right blow up a dread getting me first blood. My raiders missed. The other Ravager took out a chaplain and a knight. One squad of reavers turbo boosted behind his land raider and another over his assassin killing it with bladevanes and landing on the other side of the land raider. The third squad turbo boosted over towards his deployment zone awaiting next turn.

GK player two moved towards the Eldar player who had moved wraith guard, dire avengers and warriors next to the bridge to get at him next turn. Shooting killed a few but not much else.

TURN TWO

GK 1 failed to bring in reserves. I apparently ticked off GK player one who turned his land raider around unloading four weapons into a squad of reavers who lost 5 of 9 bikes despite the 3+ jink and FNP-but made their leadership. He then took his razorback’s snapshots and his two dreads and crushed a bunch of eldar stuff and put a wound on the Wraith Knight.

The eldar player turned everything except a squad of wyches that were coming down the far end of the board towards GK player 2 saying I had GK player one about done. He put a bunch of hits on GK 2’s venerable dread and did failed to do anything, but he killed a couple of paladins and ran everything else.

I then moved the squad of four reavers off to the side to shoot the land raider, the other in a position within 9 inches of the land raider and a dread and the third squad into position to turbo boost in. The raiders and one ravager kept coming in towards GK one and the venoms moved to get in line on the wraith knight. The lone ravager on the back side of the table moved to line up a shot on the venerable dread. The razorwing came in and lined up on the 8 remaining GKs in the squad the ravager killed two in last turn-killing 6 of them.

In the shooting phase my small squad of reavers' three heat lances exploded the land raider, killing one reaver in the squad on the other side. His HQ sat there in the wreckage. That squad then exploded a dread. The ravager exploded the razorback and a raider took a HP off the last dread. The other squad of jetbikes then bladevaned the Knight squad down to 4. The lone ravager took two Hull Points of GK 2’s venerable and took two weapons leaving him only a stormbolter. The three venoms put four wounds on the Wraith Knight.

In the assault phase I repositioned my two jetbike squads out of LOS of his remaining dread and grey knights, ready to go after the wyches and roll up the rear of the eldar who had turned towards GK 2.

GK 2 took some pot shots at my razorwing managing a hull point. He deep struck his paladin squad into the middle of the eldar force killing a bunch of them. His other remaining unit killed a bunch of wraith guard. His assassin (missed the name, but the close combat one) outflanked right into the wyches that were coming up the back side of the board and in CC killed one.

TURN THREE

GK 1 joined his HQ to his four remaining Grey Knights. His paladins deep struck in the back corner behind a building. In shooting he took another hull point off a wave serpent and immobilized it. His paladins managed to kill two of my warriors with shooting and his HQ and squad killed a couple of dire avengers, but couldn’t shoot at anything else.

The eldar player kept up at GK2 killing a few more. Combat was uneventful.

At this point my plan was to take another turn with my venoms on the wraith knight. Leave one squad of reavers behind to take out the dreadnaught, turn my ravagers onto the paladins, roll the other reaver squads behind the eldar and use my grots to finish up the GK squad left behind, and aim my razorwing at the skirmishing eldar and grey knights. Then my plan was to run everything at whatever was left. However, at the start of my movement phase, they all conceded saying that they were down to not much and I had most of my army left.

It was fun and I did not expect the list to do that well. There is a huge difference between 6 and 9 jetbikes in a squad. It may have been totally different if the Eldar player and I had been across or next to each other and going after each other instead of being corners and having more immediate threats.

I will definately keep that scrap of paper

Sounds like a fun battle.

One thing I noticed though... combat drugs are rolled once for everyone on the side (rather than individually by squad). Or did you play it just to have fun with different for each?

It was for fun and to see what would happen. since I rolled combat drugs on the first roll, it only hurt me to do it.

It is pretty clear in the rules...roll a dice and all units benefit from this...

but why does it say effects are not cummulative? If there is only one roll? I find that strange, unless they mean if say an archon is with some wyches they can't go to 2+ strength. But on the other hand, there would be two pain tokens if he joined the unit after the start of the game.

Nappen wrote:

There is a huge difference between 6 and 9 jetbikes in a squad.

It sure does. It was pretty handy against that land raider as you still had those three heatlances, despite losing five bikes in the previous shooting phase. A four player free for all sounds pretty fun.

Thanks for sharing the pain.