What Does That Game Have 40K Doesn't?

Part the second.  Click here for the first part of this article, in which our here (me, of course) is learning to play Confrontation and insta-kills Little Barrera's big giant tower of doomy-bullshit by rolling BOX CARS BABY!

Did you read it?  Are you back?  Good, let's move on.

So Little Barrera is a gamer: he won't quit and never, ever gives up a game early.  Still, my Undead (Acheron) hit his Evil Dwarves' (Mid-Nor) line and slowly started rolling up it.  Still and all, he used his special abilities to stall me out then slowly concentrated on killing my weaklings, a unit type called Morbid Puppets.  Suffice it to say, it's a model prone to folding faster than the French army during an invasion... any invasion.

I ganged up on his models and started killing them, one by one.  Then my Cerberus got in the game!  That, of course, is a big three-head mutt from hell, reborn to chase cars and eat the people inside - fuck the bumper.

I've been a bit obsessed with Confrontation lately - but doesn't that happen to all of us at one point or another?  This weekend I've put together and based coated my Goblins.  I've also worked out a few different lists I hope will compete.

Cerberus eats his way from my left flank to the right.  Little Barrera makes a last ditch charge with his last two models, but it's not to be, 'cause I'm faster!  Cerberus charges then -

BOX CARS, BABY!

What the fuck just happened?  That's my line, right?

Little Barrera had whispered to his dice, begging for sixes.  He rolls them, instantly killing my model, payback for the first fight of the game when I killed his.  I almost went deaf for the yelling; in shock, I drop the three dice I was holding.

They must have listened to him, too.  Three 6's came up.  Fat lot of good that did me!

Still, I won the game... but was that really the important thing?  We'd played a game we'll both remember, and long after the details of other games grow fuzzy I'll remember the narrative that made that game with Little Barrera such a classic.

You see, I understand what the Master Manipulator (every store needs one) means when he said most of his top in-game 'moments' come from Confrontation.  That system of exceptional wounds is designed to allow even the weakest models a chance to kill the most powerful; it doesn't happen often, but when it does it's memorable.  It's dramatic.

So, how does this apply to 40K?  Stay tuned for Part 3, where I look at one last game then wrap up my points.