Clash of the Titans!

May Madness 2005

May Madness II was held on April 27 and 28th at Griffith United Methodist Church, the clubs usual venue for big events and this was a BIG event. The whole idea behind May Madness is a Titanic 40K battle where you get to field your entire painted Marine Chapter or bring out those giant super heavy Titans you don't usually get to use.

Bill Harris ran the show for May Madness II and the scenario was set up as follows for this year.

A first round individual one on one tournament style battle with regular 1850 point forces facing each other across the table. Players registered as either the forces of Unrest or the Forces of Order. This allowed for players to be Loyalist/Chaos/Tau/Eldar/Ork or any other 40K race without having to play good guys vs. bad guys.

The first round battles saw 4 players take an early lead Brad Wardle and his Iron Warriors, Jason Meyer and the Imperial Fists, Grace Glover and her Biel Tan Eldar, and Scott with his loyalist Marines.

The second round was totally different! A long table 6' wide by 40+' long was set up and opponents deployed down the length.

This time players had a 2000 point basic force and could bring another 1800 point basic force of regular troops in a seconds force Org o OR up to 2400 points of Warmachines/Flyers/Super heavies etc.

This year May Madness was the site of the largest Gathering of Titans seen since the Bay Area's famous Armorcast floorhammer games or Siegeworlds battles in Michigan.

A MKI Warlord of the Iron Skulls Legion - Victoria Imperialis was fielded by Nick Tompkins

Robert Scheel brought a Reaver and Warhound.

Nick loaned another Iron Skulls Reaver and Warhound.

Vern Harlow brought a Warhound and Lightning Fighter as well as Vultures and Valkyries.

Daniel Ortega brought a Chaos Warhound .

A Phantom Class Eldar titan was fielded by Grace Glover as well as a Cobra II

Rick brought but did not field his Great Gargant .

No less than 4 Baneblades rumbled onto the battle field

In addition to the main Battle table there were teleportals scattered down the center length of the table, foot troops reaching the teleportals on the surface of the planet were transported to an ancient structure deep in the planets crust where a nearly intact STC of uncataloged design awaited claiming by either the forces of Order or the forces of unrest.

Holding the center of the Side for Order was Warlord Victoria Imperialis supported by Nick's Sisters of Battle to their Right were Robert's Space Wolves and the Lunar Wolf Titans and to their left were Jason's Imperial fists . Across from Victoria Imperialis was Brads 3600 point Iron Warriors force to Brads left was Daniel Ortega with two Chaos Warhounds and more Chaos Warriors on Brads right stood the Biel Tan forces and the mighty Phantom titan.

The forces of Unrest won the starting roll and opened up: All of Victoria Imperialis' shields were quickly knocked down by massed shooting from the Iron Warriors myriad of heavy weapons. However the Chaos Titans failed to inflict any serious damage merely stunning the Warlords massive Quake cannon. Down the line the Forces of unrest inflicted heavy punishment on the forces of Order.

Returning fire the Forces of Order first repaired void shields with Victoria Imperialis pulling 4 back up. Return fire started to thin down the ranks of the Iron Warriors heavy weapons and the sisters of battle went on the offensive to try and get to the STC. Robert's Titans moved forward to begin hunting down their chaos opponents and Jason's Imperial fists unleashed a hail of fire at the Phantom punching several shots through its holo-field and into the Phantom itself.

Battle raged back and forth for 6 turns with more and more troops teleporting to the planets core to vie for control of the STC . the main titans battled furiously with Victoria Imperialis absorbing hit after hit from Basilisks, Defilers, lascannons, autocannons, etc. and continually keeping a rain of fire on the chaos forces. Robert's Lunar Wolf Titans managed to maneuver around the Chaos Warhounds and in two rounds of shooting into their rear armor blew up both fusion plants on the chaos vehicles.

Repeated failures by the Chaos legion to damage the vulnerable Warlord infuriated the Iron Warriors to the point that they turned on their chaos brethren at the end and tried to annihilate them. Meanwhile own the line the Tau forces had managed through massed shooting to annihilate an Eldar opponent which in the end earned him top battle points.

Jason's Imperial fists poured shot after shot into the Biel Tan Phantom and in the end it's mighty wraithbone structure failed and it crashed to the ground.

Victoria Imperialis and the forces of Order had held the line on the main table but it all came down to who had the STC. The final rounds of HTH at the planet core decided it as loyalist marines cut down the last of the Traitors who were in range to contest the STC! A victory for the Forces of Order!

See the spreadsheet for overall points but the MVP of the battle was fittingly awarded to the ancient Warlord Victoria Imperialis who received a purity seal for its carapace.

Other May Madness Action

Although 40K makes up the big event at May Madness it is not the only event.

There was also a Warmachine tournament run by Bill Harris and Jason Coffey ran several demo games of Babylon 5 and Starship troopers.