Arena Of Death - Draigo vs Dante

If he dies, he dies - Dra(i)go

Welcome back to the Arena of Death; it's been a while! Since it's been so long we'll have a quick re-cap of the concept. Two 40K characters enter the Arena of Death and only one leaves. We roll real life dice to determine the winner rather than mathammering it. We have three rounds so each character gets the chance to charge with the deciding round conferring no charge bonus. We also don't deal with petty things like combat resolution. So, without further ado, let's head off to the Arena...

Round 1 - Draigo on the charge

Kaldor raised the Titansword to acknowledge the crowd before levelling his Storm Bolter and beginning his charge. Two hits would have caused a Wound if not for Dante's Artificer Armour. As they clashed, it was Dante who swung first. However, even after a Master-Crafted re-roll he could only hit once and even then he failed to wound his tougher opponent. Striking back Draigo cast Hammerhand successfully. However, Draigo's response was equally poor, again only hitting once. Then, needing only 2s to wound, he failed. Dante then manged to hit but still couldn't wound. Draigo saw his chance. He hit with two of his three attacks and wounded with both. One was saved by Dante's Iron Halo but the other got through. The Grey Knight closed his eyes and muster his concentration. The power of the warp flowed down his Force Weapon and claimed Dante's life.

Round 2 - Dante on the Charge

Dante's Infernus Pistol spoke death but, despite hitting and wounding, it bounced off Draigo's Storm Shield. Hitting with four of his six attacks, Dante caused two wounds, one of which got past Draigo's Storm Shield. Striking back Draigo cast Hammerhand successfully and managed to ignore Dante's Death Mask (although it had already reduced him by 1 in terms of WS, W, I & A) He needed his Master-Crafting to manage even a single hit although it did would until deflected by Dante's Iron Halo. Dante caused three more hits but again couldn't wound. Draigo could see another opening. Two hits caused two wounds and neither could be stopped. Lord Kaldor Draigo again used the Emperor's Gift and put down Dante permanently.


Conclusions

Okay, first an admission. I assumed that Dante has Eternal Warrior when I picked the combatants for the Arena. If he had then his Deathmask of Sanguinius would have been a real equaliser here. As it was, we saw how poor Strength 4 Power Weapons can be (especially against T5) Having said that, Dante is probably going to make mincemeat of most regular squads and a lot of Independent Characters with his magic mask. Similarly, Draigo with easily obtainable S6 is going to do a lot of damage and WS7, T5, 2+, 3++ means he's not going to take much in return. The other thing about these characters is the army builds that they unlock - Paladin troops and Sanguinary Guard troops.

Anybody used either of these guys much? We'd love to hear your stories below the line...