So every Sunday I'm going to post a Mathshammer battle between 2 special characters.
The Rules.
1) There will be 2 fights with each competitor getting a chance to charge.
2) Mathshammer will decide the results of each round with wounds rounded to the nearest whole number at the end of each round.
3) In the event of a draw there will be a 3rd round where both competitors will count as having charged.
4) If there's still no clear winner then whoever cost the least points wins.
5) Any abilities with random values will count as having the mathematical average rounding to the nearest whole number.
The Competitors.
I thought I'd start with a 'Grudge Match' between the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines Marneus Calgar and the Tyranid that almost killed him The Swarmlord.
So Introducing Mr Calgar or 'Marny' to his friends...
WS 6, BS 5, S 4, T 4, W 4, I 5, A 4, Ld 10, Save 2+/4+ inv.
Armed with his pair of Power Fists* and the ability to re-roll to wound he's a formidable opponent. He's also got his arse down to the armoury and fetched his Terminator Armour for this monumental battle.
* Yes I know he also has a Power Sword but being as the Swarmlord has a higher initiative than him and Calgar gets the same number of attacks regardless of what weapon he uses I'm reasonably sure he's smart enough to go with the 'Wounding on 2's option' rather than 'Wounding on 6's' option.
His opponent is the guy the Tyranids call upon when the 'Throw Termagants at them till they run out of bullets' plan isn't working...The Swarmlord.
His Tyrant Guard have stepped to the sidelines for this one but he's still got his Bonesabres and his special abilities to draw upon.
The Battle...
As the Tyranids don't use money and the Ultramarines had spent all their cash on gold trim for Veterans Power Armour nobody had a coin to toss for who went first. So, in a typically pretentious show of 'honour and goodness' Calgar agreed to let the Swarmlord get the charge for the first battle...
Battle 1.
Round 1.
The Swarmlord charges in and has given himself 'Preferred Enemy' with his 'Swarm Leader' ability.
5 Attacks (hitting on 3's)
3.33 hit, with another 1.11 from rerolls so 4.44 hit, 3.7 wound, 1.85 are saved... unfortunately for 'Marny' those successful ones need to be re-rolled due to the Bonesabres so another 0.925 get through making a grand total of 2.78 rounding up that makes 3 wounds caused.
Marny's got a few new sabre shaped slices in his armour but he's still hanging on with a single wound.
Time-Out?!?!?!?!?
The Swarmlord then has a bit of a strop now insisting that 'Marny' should be dead due to his Bonesabres causing 'Instant Death' regardless of toughness value. The 4th referee manages to explain the concept of 'Eternal Warrior' to him which is an impressive feat of bravery considering what the Swarmlord had done to referee's 1, 2 and 3...
Marny gets ready to get his own back...hopefully
5 attacks (hitting on 4's)
2.5 hit, 2.08 wound but with his re-rolls to wound from 'Titanic Might' that goes up to 2.43. The Swarmlords whirling sabres block 1.22 of them leaving one wound that gets through.
So 'Swarmy' has a fist shaped dent in his carapace but still has a formidable 4 Wounds left.
Since an average dice roll will result in Marny passing his morale test we'll presume he does ;-)
Round 2.
'Swarmy' now only has 4 attacks and is going to have to do without preferred enemy for a turn.
2.67 hit, 2.23 wound, even without re-rolls taken into account at least 1 attack is going to get through...
1-0 to The Swarmlord.
'Marny' gets his armour patched up while 'Swarmy' has some biomass added to fill in the 'Power Fist' shaped dent.
After several unfortunate (and brutal) decapitations somebody finally manages to explain the concept of 'Taking Turns' to the Tyranids leader and they let 'Marny' charge this time.
Battle 2.
Round 1.
Swarmlord is still going first...
4 attacks, 2.67 hit, 2.23 wound after re-rolling invulnerables 1.68 get through so that's 2 wounds total rounded up...Not so many holes this time
'Marny' gets an impressive 6 attacks on the charge...
6 attacks, 3 hit, 2.92 wound (due to 'Titanic Might'), after invulnerable saves 1.46 get through...unfortunately as we're rounding to the nearest whole number that's still only 1 wound caused.
Round 2.
Predictably the Swarmlord is going first and as it's 'his' turn he's giving himself preferred enemy again.
4 attacks, 3.56 hit after rerolls, 2.97 wound...unfortunately after re-rolling his invulnerables we find 'Marny' has taken 2.24 wounds and is defeated (again).
2-0 to The Swarmlord.
I'm not sure if it's possible for a Tyranid to look smug but even if it isn't then Tyranids seem to have evolved a very close approximation...
Well I enjoyed that even if any of you who play Ultramarines didn't ;-)
Any suggestions for next Sundays 'Smackdown' will be gratefully received.
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