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Sunday, January 13, 2013

Crusade of Fire: The Arena of Death Mini-game

Back from the Warp again for the start of a new year, the year of our lord 2013.

Lets talk about  the release of the campaign book, Crusade of Fire, and more specifically the mini-game included inside...








In Crusade of Fire there is a mini-game variant to 40k called Arena of Death.  Now I've been playing since 2010 near the end of 5th Edition and after doing some research found that some gamers had designed a variant of 40k back in 2005 titled the same.  It seems GW used a majority of the rules they had made, simplified it, and introduced a card system for combat.

So what is Arena of Death?
 




Arena of Death is a gladiatorial type game of Warhammer 40k using a single model of your choosing that isn't a vehicle and all the same rules for Movement, Shooting, and Assault, pretty simple eh?  Think of  Kill Teams but smaller. 

Next you agree with your opponent on what point level you would like.  This will introduce some balance to the game and also is used as a bar to reach with Roar of the Crowd mechanic introduced in this game where each move you do in the Assault phase using the maneuver cards adds points to your Roar of the Crowd.  Once you hit the point level of your model, the Crowd is pleased with you and you win the game.

In the Assault phase you are given a deck of 12 cards (photocopied from the Crusade of Fire book).  You shuffle the deck and draw six cards.  Each card has a maneuver rating at the top that is added to your initiative which is used to determine who's cards major move is used and who's cards minor move is used with each move adding points to your Roar of the Crowd total.

Some cards will continue to add to your initiative after being played and some subtract, so there is some tactical decision making in the game.

I played a few games which lasted at most twenty minutes and had an absolute blast.  I definitely recommend using this mini-game as a quick way to introduce the basic rules of 40k to new players.  in my humble opinion this mini-game was a...


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