What Does He Have I Don't?

The question refers to a joke I made in my article over on Blood of Kittens titled Strictly Plasticard.  If you haven't read it, take a few minutes and give it a once over.  Moving on though, the punchline was, "... in high school the answer was a cool car, a hot girlfriend, and way too much sex."

But this last week I've had some experiences that prompt a variation on a theme.  Today, let's ask What Does That Game Have That 40K Doesn't?

Let's start with the mother of all dead games, Confrontation.

Here's a selection of my Acheron - that is, the Order of the Ram or the Undead, take your pick of names.  Anyway, Con is a skirmish battle game, and at the points levels we've been playing lately you won't have more than 20 models, and most armies won't have more than 10.

I've posted recently about how much I hated playing this game in the past but that recent experiences have changed my mind... but what is that specifically?

Let's take a statement made by the Master Manipulator (every store needs one)... and keep in mind when analyzing anything said by this man that it could be a subtle meme, a word virus of sorts designed to change your mind, pointing it toward a worldview more palatable to the powers that be.  Namely, him.

He said that most of his top 10 gaming experiences have come from this game.  I had one of these moments a few nights ago, so now I get what he means.

The system has a rule called the 'exceptional wound' where if you roll a double to damage (as any roll to wound is made on 2d6) you automatically, with no save possible by your opponent, do him a dirty.  A double 3 is a light wound, a double 5 is a critical wound... you see where this is going?  A double 6 is DEATH.

Boxcars, baby!

I took my Acheron army over to Little Barrera's house on Tuesday and played a game against his Mid-Nor.  That's a faction of evil Dwarves who keep their essence in a separate puppet for protection; imagine a runty little dude with a teddy bear, but its an EVIL teddy bear - how cool is that?

Anyway, our forces lined up.  Across the field of battle I could see what looked at first glance like a tower, and mounted upon that was a cannon wielded by shadowy shapes.  Then the tower moved, thudding inexorably toward my line.

How cool is that?

I set my Heavy Centaur on a path to charge the model, hoping to soften it up for Cerberus, but I underestimated how far this thing could charge and so on turn 1 this monstrosity is all over me like a WAAC-Playa' on a baby seal!

He hit me, knocking off dusty bits of bone and archaic armor, and I swung back, with huge negatives on my wound roll due to his massive resilience...

BOX CARS BABY!

The dice roll 6 and 6, and instantly me, Little Barrera, Farseer Tim, and the Master Manipulator (every store needs one) go berserk laughing and jeering.

I had my moment.

(to be continued)