BG's forewords:
This Shooting Challenge is the second of my 4 planned Shooting Challenges, which all have some relations/dramatic lines in between. Old players from 1stSC saw that already.
Using the experience and amendments from the last Shooting Challenge, I expect this can be a more extensive and better-organized challenge than the last time.
But please make sure you have read all stuff below, not only they may help, but also there're rules. All experienced players of Challenges in this forum know this drill.
So get your entry and a seat here, and have some fun (from me).
Yours,
Brian
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The Art of Blitzkrieg: The 2nd Shooting Challenge
The enemies are keeping coming, and your units are just being surrounded by waves of enemies which two come after one falls. The only way to end this crisis is to kill as much as you can in the shortest time, and try to find the enemies’ big boss and eliminate him before they overrun your remaining units. Time is running out for you, but if you can break them, there’ll always chances. The main concern is, however, that will you have enough time to achieve that?
THE CLOCK IS TICKING, THE ENEMIES ARE COMING. YOU ONLY HAVE TWO CHOICES: WIN THEM FIRST OR PERISH.
That’s the background of this challenge. Now, I’ll begin with the system of this challenge.
NOTICE! IT IS STRONGLY ADVICED TO READ THROUGH ALL THE MATERIALS LISTED BELOW FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.
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preparation
The Preparations
You’ll be told to post your own entry. Each participant will have 200pts to spend with.
Entries:
All must be Codex legal ones. Imperial Armour/Chapter Approved units can be used (except IA4 since I don’t have the book), but must state clearly which book/source(s) they come from.
Vehicles are allowed (Transports also count). No VDR and Flyers.
All participants can only take a SINGLE squad of units they choose. (That is, no whole damn platoon for IG, they can only have one 10-men squad) They can take more units than the maximum strength of the squad if you want but the squad options will remain the same as if it’s a bigger squad of that unit (Such as, you can take 30 Guardsmen in an entry but you can only have one Sergeant and 1 Heavy Weapon+1 Special Weapon).
No Special Characters. A retinue/squad (if you want a character attaching to a normal squad of units instead of a retinue, you can do that) can only be led by a single character.
Other than those stated above, you can take anything in the Codex (including doctrines/traits/Veteran Skills/etc if they’re applicable) as long as your entries’ total points do not exceed 200.
No identical entries (of any sort). So posting first will have some advantages!
Faction or unit-related entries:
Tyranids: Without Number won’t work for Gaunts------You’re supposed to take a single squad only!
Units with Catalyst will cast it upon themselves if they lose the last wound (take Psychic Test as normal) and can shoot ONCE with their psychic power before they die. This may result in a draw.
Necrons: WBB rules will apply as if a Resurrection Orb is present, and are rolled before every round begins (pretty like normal rules). However if the whole squad is annihilated in a turn for any reason the squad won’t be able to test WBB.
Eldar: Squads can only use 1 Exarch Powers (if any) each turn.
Dark Eldar: Talos’ Talos sting will fire like a normal instead of using Wildfire rule.
Chaos: Dreadnoughts won’t go into Fire Frenzy if it rolls 1 since it howls and try to ram into the enemy but failed, unless it’s Immobilized. (That means, it won’t get to shoot that round if it’s not Immobilized)
Obliterators will be standardized to be insta-killed by Strength 8+ weapons.
Orks: Grot squads’ Grots will act as Living Shield like they’re doing for other units if Cover doesn’t present when they’re being shot. Lootas’ weapons are limited to what the entry writes (That is, Imperial Weaponry).
Tau: Each Drone Controllers can buy more than 2 Drones (But Shield Drones will only be limited to 0-2 per Controller) if they can afford that, normal rules for them (Morale Check purposes, majority Armour/Toughness, etc) apply.
Handheld Markerlights can’t affect your own unit, but Networked ones can, as normal.
Kroot squads, if taken, will follow the rules in Chapter Approved for their Strategy Rating Roll (1-3=1, 4-5=2, 6=3), rolled before the game. Unless specified, Kroot Mercenary squads’ stats and costs will follow that in Tau Empire Codex (Especially for Krootox), though Evolutionary Adaptations can be taken as normal.
Squads can decide if they start in Transport or not (please indicate first, default will be inside). If inside, they can fire via Fire Points (if any) as normal.
Some enemies will have some spotting special rules. To simplify them, all Night Fighting checks made for targeting (eg. Tau Stealthsuits, Grey Knights, Vindicare Assassins) when they’re facing a specific unit, will be passed on a D6 roll of 5+ before they start shooting. Eldar Harlequins’ Veil of Tears will be passed on a 6. Those wargear or skills used for Night Fighting (eg. Blacksun Filters, Searchlights, Night Vision for Night Lords) can grant a re-roll upon the result, but only the ones who have that can be benefited unless specified. These rules apply for Ordnance/Barrage weapons (so you must check for target’s presence before firing).
All psychic powers/abilities that can prevent their opponent to charge in Assault Phase can also be used in shooting phase, which will lead to their opponent counted as Pinned.
Bikes won’t get to use their Invulnerable save for turbo-boosting. (They won’t get to shoot in that state anyway)
Dual Pistols (any type) for any units will be counted as Twin-linked if they didn’t already like Witch Hunters. That’s quite logical for hitting your foe more likely if you hold 2 pistols!
All Guess weapons with Minimum range higher than 6” can’t be used.
Infantry using “Gets Hot!” weapon whose weapon overheats will take the wound as BBB mentioned. Unlike Heavy Weapons, if the one using that weapon dies due to overheat won’t be able to be used by others (so the weapon is lost).
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how will this work
The Progress
In each round before the Finals, all entries will shoot a dedicated enemy squad to hell. Enemies will come from all races (each for once) and ranging from all units available (may include variant codices/IA’s units of that race) by the order of Chaos, Daemonhunters, Dark Eldar, Eldar, Imperial Guard, Necrons, Orks, Space Marines, Tau Empire, Tyranids and Witch Hunters, with one maximum 200pts entry from each, so you have to fight 11 groups of enemies. Each group of enemies will be disclosed when the fight comes.
This challenge is talking about speed. You have to kill off the enemies as fast as possible (in terms of rounds) before you’re eliminated. Depending on how many entries succeeded to win each round, they’ll score descending points (That is, if 10 entries passed the fastest entry out of those 10 will have 10 points, the slowest will have 1 point, etc). If some players managed to finish the round with the same number of turns, they’ll score the same points. Lost entries (including those who can's scratch the enemies, which will count as lost automatically) won’t win any points, obviously, and will be counted to use 20 turns more than the slowest finisher. If it’s the player’s entry wins automatically, he’ll receive the same points and turns the fastest player wins that game as if they’re the fastest as well. These will be important when determining who’ll reach finals (see below).
Example: There’re Entry A, B, C, D and E against enemy wave W. A finished in 4 turns, B in 3, D in 6, C and E failed to win over W. So the score will be as follows: B gain 3 points and usage of 3 turns will be recorded, A will get 2 points and used 4 turns, D gain 1 points and used 6 turns, while C and E will gain 0 points and counted to use 26 turns in this game.
In another round, they come against enemy wave Y. All except B finished the game, with A and C finished within 6 turns, D in 5 turns and E in 7 turns. So A and C will gain 2 points each with 6 turns, D gain 3 points by 5 turns and E gets 1 point in 7 turns, when B got 0 points other than 27 turns.
After accumulating the records of both rounds, the score will go as follows: A has 4 points with 10 turns, B has 3 points and 30 turns, C has 2 points with 32 turns, D has 4 points with 11 turns and E has 1 point with 33 turns. Obviously, the ranking by points will be A=D>B>C>E, while in terms of turns used will be A>D>B>C>E.
After accumulating the records of both rounds, the score will go as follows: A has 2.5 points with 10 turns, B has 1.5 points and 30 turns, C has 1.5 points with 32 turns, D has 2.5 points with 11 turns and E has 1 point with 33 turns. Obviously, the ranking by points will be A=D>B=C>E, while in terms of turns used will be A>D>B>C>E.
They’ll stand 6” apart for shooting. All special rules (Melta, Ordnance, etc) will be taken into account if they’re in range.
Each template will lead to D6+3 wounds (without Cover Saves), Blast will lead to D3+1, and Large Blast will get 2D6+1 wounds, but against single models they’ll still only cause 1 hit.
To make things more simple (and having more fun) Ordnances will just use a Scatter Dice and a D6 for scattering. If a “hit” is shown then it hits, if it deviates then it just misses. However, if the D6 is coming up with a 1, the hit will result as the Ordnances’ explosion on impact inside the barrel, and even the shot hits it’ll be disregarded (damage will be dealt to Front AV if it’s a vehicle or hit if they’re non-vehicle units, but the odds are that they may be destroyed/killed in this manner)!
Your opponents (when fighting against pre-set enemies) will always get to go first before you can shoot, and it’ll go on via Strategy Rating Rolls. If it’s in the finals, the units’ firing will be determined by Strategy Rating Rolls directly.
Before each fight I’ll roll a D6. On a 5+, there’ll be cover in this match, for both sides.
Another D3 will then be rolled, 1-2=6+ cover, 3-4=5+ cover, 5-6=4+ cover. It’s treated as obstacle terrains only (so Modifiers of Cover Saves in certain terrains won’t have effect, but universal modifiers like Rangers/Pathfinders can still be used).
All squads will be subjected to Morale as normal, which will be tested at the end of each round. If the Morale check is ever failed once, they’ll run away, with no chance of regrouping, and count as destroyed.
Morale Modifiers for shooting will be used as normal, and those modifiers which directly affect the target’s Leadership value during Morale Checks (eg. Daemonic Visage) will be applied as well.
Pinning tests will also be taken into account if the weapons fired will cause Pinning: If a squad is pinned, they won’t get to shoot in the next round, but otherwise unaffected.
If the entry is a multi-wound model that’s fighting on their own, the Morale/Pinning issue will still be used in this way: If they’re wounded once and not dead, they’ll be subjected to a Morale test. The -1 modifier will also apply if the model is under half of the starting wounds.
Fearless models (who won't take Morale/Pinning Tests) who're wounded once but not dead will take a wound (with saves allowed) at the end of each round, just as the case in close combat.
At the start of every round of shooting after the first, both units will take a Strategy Rating Roll respective to their own army (refer to the table in p.80 of Main Rulebook), the higher one, obviously, will get to go first. If the highest rolls are the same, they’ll be resolved at the same time (pretty much like that in CC).
Heavy Weapons can always fire no matter the situation is, so don’t worry about being disadvantaged!
Vehicles will work pretty much the same except they’ll always count as stationary and Hull Down (if there’s Cover) if they’re tanks. Skimmers will always move 12” if possible and will fire weapons allowed to fire in that state, but they’ll never be counted as Hull Down even they don’t move, when without appropriate upgrades.
Loaded Transport vehicles, if destroyed, the passengers will take wounds as normal (regarding to their movement modes).
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details of Championship
The Championship
After all fights the top 8 teams (in terms of score) will enter the finals. If there’re any draws in terms of points, the one who is comparatively faster than another earlier in the competition will be qualified. (That’s the one whose records in terms of turns are lower. Using the example before, if A and D are competing for the last place in finals, A will get it since they use less turns than D in the competition) If it’s also the same, then the 2 teams will fight each other once for the last place.
The 8 teams will fight in a one-on-one knockout round first, and the ones who win in each game proceeds to the final 4. The final 4 teams will fight each other once, rules above apply (scores and turns). The one who wins most AND used fewest turns to win the games will be eligible to fight my entry, as the Last Boss of the game.
Being the Last Boss I’ll have 210pts to spend with. My entries will be disclosed once the finalist teams are seen, but actually I’ve already decided beforehand. Also, being the Last Boss of the Game, my entry will be Fearless and can re-roll the Strategy Rating Roll. (Odds are, however, my guys may get unlucky in the rolls, and I’m famed for displeased by the Dice God in the store)
If you’re able to defeat my entry, he will be crowned as the winner of this Challenge!
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Misc stuff, IMPORTANT PLEASE READ
IMPORTANT NOTES
1.
Originally Posted by
Dark Watcher, from MooFreaky’s The Challenge, post #108, with some amendments
i. Entries shall be made clearly and coherently.
When entering the game, please state your intention to enter and the entry you wish to submit clearly. This may change a bit over time with changes of mood/idea theft from others/others nicking your idea before you get time to enter it. It’s also advised to post a short message if you have edited your entry before all editing are disallowed.
If your entry is not clear then I holds final say-so on whether it is entered (see rule 2).
ii. “Down here, I’m God”
I have the last say. If anything is uncertain, then my decision is final. This is a dictatorship and not a democracy. “All hail BG!!” Yeah. That covers it. Of course, if you find out any unfairness to my judgments upon you/others, feel free to discuss with me but I have the right to make the final decision.
iii. The Dice Gods are fickle
In any challenge, taking a super tooled up entry does not guarantee victory. The Dice Gods have a habit of messing with peoples’ minds by granting quadruple 6s or double snake eyes. So if your entry dies on it, um, well let’s say "glutious maximus", “those stupid dice are produced by (fill in desired names)”, etc, and then don't waste time complaining me. Instead, accept that the Dice Gods are displeased with you for now and go out to sacrifice a D6 to them. This should solve the problems in future.
2. Listen to the Mods. They can be participants like all of you but their rules regarding posting styles, behaviors, etc. still apply to everyone (They’re Mods of the forum afterall). If you offend any rules set by them and got kick out of this thread, then I can’t help with it (The kicked player’s entry is then lost with no refunds as it’s assumed that he can’t take part in the competition anymore). So BEHAVE YOURSELF!
3. Since my PM box is full, if you have any enquiries/complaints/etc please do via E-Mail or MSN (it’s the same one of my E-mail) I’ll answer them ASAP. (I check my mailbox everyday)
4. The rounds will be completed at no fixed time. Man, just look at MooFreaky and Dooks Dizzo’s works. Great works needs time, so be patient.
5.
IMPORTANT NOTE! All announcements’ time limits will be referred to GMT+8 (unless stated), which is my current time zone.
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Other than these, have fun. Now submit your name and wait for the draw!
There're NO UPPER LIMIT of participants so feel free to join this: Application will be opened before 12AM of 10th May!
I even considered taking a flamer weilding storm guardian squad because of it!
