Cancon 2025 Aftermath - Part 6

This is the final part of my Cancon report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 6 - Command & Control
Callum Borthwick - Ogre Kingdoms

• Tyrant on Thundertusk with Deathcheater, Ironfist, Light Armour, Tenderiser, Talisman Of Protection
• Slaughtermaster (Level 4, Battle Magic) with Deathcheater, Grut’s Sickle
• Bruiser with Battle Standard (Bull Standard), Deathcheater, Light Armour
• 20 Gnoblar Fighters
• 6 Ironguts with Great Weapons, Heavy Armour, Full Command, Veteran, The Blazing Banner
• 6 Ogre Bulls with Ironfists, Light Armour, Full Command, Cannibal Totem
• Ironblaster 
• 4 Maneaters with Light Armour, Full Command, Immune to Psychology, Poisoned Attacks
• 4 Mournfang Cavalry with Light Armour, Ironfists, Full Command
• 3 Yhetees with Greyback, Scouts

These Titan Forge Ogres are very nice. That is a Tyrant on a Thundertusk. Naturally it scuttles sideways (he's facing the camera)

Cancon 2025 Aftermath - Part 5

This is the fourth part of my Cancon report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 5 - Mountain Pass
Chris Ashton-Jones - Orc and Goblin Tribes

• Goblin Oddnob (Level 4, Waaagh! Magic) on Arachnarok Spider with Talisman of Protection, Lore Familiar
• Goblin Oddnob (Level 3, Waaagh! Magic) on Arachnarok Spider with Spidersilk Lobber
• Goblin Warboss on Gigantic Spider with Light Armour, Backstabbers Blade, Da Thinkin’ Orc’s ‘At, Charmed Shield
• 12 Goblins with Short Bows, Boss, Skirmishers
• 12 Goblins with Short Bows, Boss, Skirmishers
• 5 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Musician, Boss
• 5 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Musician, Boss
• 5 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Musician, Boss
• 5 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Musician, Boss
• 12 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Full Command, Spider Banner 
• 12 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Full Command
• Arachnarok Spider with Spidersilk Lobber -345pts

Wow, what a list. All Goblins - all Forest Goblins, even (technically the infantry were not, but clearly they would have been, had that been an option). It made for a very narrow selection of troops with a terribly low Leadership. It looked great, though. I told Chris that I loved his army, but I thought he was very brave...

All the spiders, all the time!

Man, look at that thing! That's the Oddnob who was leading the army.

Cancon 2025 Aftermath - Part 4

This is the fourth part of my Cancon report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 4 - Meeting Engagement
Troy Kent - Orc & Goblin Tribes, Nomadic Waaagh!

• Black Orc Warboss on War Boar with Full plate armour, Trollhide Trousers, Da Choppiest Choppa, 'Eadbuttin' 'At
• Black Orc Bigboss on War Boar with Battle Standard (The Big Red Raggedy Flag), Full plate armour, Trollhide Trousers, Great weapon
• Kiknik Toofsnatcha on Chompa with Da Boss's Trophy Rack, Da Skull Smasha, Cavalry spear, Shield, Light armour
• Orc Weirdnob (Level 4, Waaagh! Magic) on Wyvern with Talisman of Protection, Idol Of Gork, Ruby Ring of Ruin
• Goblin Bigboss on Giant Wolf with Cavalry spear, Light armour, Shield, Wollopa's One Hit Wunda, Potion of Foolhardiness
• Goblin Oddgit (Level 2, Elementalism) on Giant Wolf with Idol of Mork
• 14 Goblin Wolf Riders with Shields, Cavalry spears, Light armour, Close Order, Full Command, Da Spider Banner
• 3 Goblin Wolf Chariots
• Goblin Wolf Chariots
• Goblin Wolf Chariots
• 5 Goblin Wolf Riders with Shortbows
• Black Orc Boar Chariot with Additional hand weapons
• 13 Orc Boar Boys with Cavalry spears, Heavy armour, Shields, Big 'Uns, Vanguard, Boss (Da Thinkin' Orc's 'At), Standard bearer (Da Banner of Butchery)
• Orc Boar Chariot
• Black Orc Boar Chariot with Additional hand weapons

Meeting Engagement meant diagonal deployment zones only 12" apart, and rolling to see which units would start as reserves that only arrived from Turn 2 onward. My Bloodletters and a unit of Furies started off the table. Troy lost his Boar Boy unit and one of his Black Orc Chariots. By the time you include the Wolf Riders with 2 characters who were already voluntarily ambushing, he was very thin on the ground.

I deployed aggressively. I figured it would be worth it, if I got the first turn. Troy's characters were all floating loose up the back, without a unit to deploy in.

Cancon 2025 Aftermath - Part 3

This is the third part of my Cancon report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 3 - Flank Attack
Koen Garlick-Trease - Tomb Kings of Khemri (Mortuary Cult)

• High Priest (Level 4, Necromancy) with Hand Weapon
• High Priest (Level 4, Elementalism) with Hand Weapon, Amulet of the Serpent
• Arch Necrotect with Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Whip
• Mortuary Priest (Level 2, Elementalism) with Hand Weapon, Battle Standard Bearer
• 39 Skeleton Archers with Hand Weapons, Warbows, Master of Arrows
• 5 Skeleton Horse Archer with, Hand Weapons, Warbows
• 5 Skeleton Horse Archer with, Hand Weapons, Warbows
• 8 Skeleton Skirmisher with Hand Weapons
• 4 Tomb Swarms
• 6 Ushabti with Hand Weapons, Heavy Armour, Greatbows
• Tomb Scorpion with Ambushers, The Terrors Below
• Tomb Scorpion
• 5 Venerable Ushabti with Hand Weapons, Heavy Armour, Ritual Blades
• 5 Venerable Ushabti with Hand Weapons, Heavy Armour, Ritual Blades
• Casket of Souls
• Necrosphinx

Man, that was a lot of magic. 10 spells plus the casket, and the ability to boost the casting values on his spells by harvesting the swarms (I found out how that worked as we went along)... I was a bit worried about how this would go. Mercifully it wasn't as bad as it might have been, given Koen was more interested in using the casket for the Light of Protection than the Light of Death.

Man, that is a bunker. All of the characters were piled into the big Skeleton Archer unit, which of course meant they'd be firing poisoned arrows thanks to the Amulet of the Serpent. The Venerable Ushabti went on either side in slightly jammed formations (I don't think Koen fully realised how awkward it would be to get them out of those shapes without advancing).

Cancon 2025 Aftermath - Part 2

This is the second part of my Cancon report. You can find the first part here.

Game 2 - Break Point
Nick Kylling - Warriors of Chaos

• Chaos Lord with Full plate armour, Shield, Chaos Steed, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Ogre Blade, 2x Favour of the Gods, Enchanting Aura
• Sorcerer Lord (Level 4, Battle Magic) with Heavy armour, Chaos Steed, Mark of Tzeentch, Spell Familiar, Infernal Puppet, Ruby Ring of Ruin
• Sorcerer Lord (Level 4, Daemonology) with Heavy armour, Chaos Steed, Mark of Tzeentch, Rod Of The Damned, Lore Familiar
• Aspiring Champion (Battle Standard Bearer) with Lance, Heavy armour, Shield, Chaos Steed, War Banner, Favour of the Gods
• 10 Chaos Knights with Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Full Command, Banner of the Dark Powers
• 7 Chaos Knights with Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Mark of Tzeentch, Champion
• 5 Chaos Warhounds
• 6 Chosen Chaos Knights with Lances, Shields, Full plate armour, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Drilled, Standard Bearer, Champion with Brazen Collar
• Dragon Ogre with Great weapon, Heavy armour
• Dragon Ogre with Great weapon, Heavy armour
• Dragon Ogre with Great weapon, Heavy armour
• Gigantic Spawn of Nurgle

So I was only one game into the tournament, and I was already too high up on the tables. Nick had devised a far more competent list than mine, and it didn't look like a great match-up for my army. The Bloodthirster was still scary and the Daemon Prince was good at armoured targets, but my units... Also Nick's army was absolutely loaded with anti-magic tricks, so that was likely to interfere with anything I might be able to do there. I celebrated this by rolling the worst spells I possibly could for my backup wizard, and off we went.

There are so many points in that unit. The Chaos Lord, one of the Sorcerer Lords and the BSB are all jammed in there. I wasn't sure what I could do about that, with the Chaos Lord having the Ogre Blade and an aura that would make the Bloodthirster strike last.

Cancon 2025 Aftermath - Part 1

A Bloodthirster went to Cancon, and met many interesting people. There were few survivors. Cancon this year involved a 6 game Warhammer: The Old World tournament spread across 3 rather warm days in Canberra. I took Daemons of Chaos, having dabbled previously at Axemaster with Dwarfs. This is my story...

My Army (2389 points)

• Bloodthirster of Khorne with Armour Of Khorne, Bloodflail
• Daemon Prince (Level 4, Daemonology) with Æther Blade, Twin Heads, Heavy Armour, Fly
• Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut with Hellblade, Light Armour, Daemonic Locus,
• 16 Bloodletters of Khorne with Full Command
• 7 Chaos Furies of Khorne
• 7 Chaos Furies of Khorne
• 5 Flesh Hounds of Khorne with Vanguard
• 4 Bloodcrushers Of Khorne with Full Command
• 4 Fiends of Slaanesh
• 3 Flamers of Tzeentch with Exalted Flamer (Level 3, Daemonology)

I chose a daemon army for a number of reasons. I had trouble getting through my games at Axemaster, and an army that can't break from combat and can't even choose to flee from charges felt like it might be quicker to play. I had also come to the conclusion that a Bloodthirster might be one of the few things that could really scare huge models like lords on dragons (whilst being nowhere near as tough in return), so that seemed like it might be a fun place to start. 

One of the things I took away from Axemaster was that it is extremely easy to get pushed around by your opponent's magic, especially when they take a whole lot of it. When my Dwarfs had a single level 1 dispeller, I had pretty much no chance of stopping anything. My Daemon army was determined to stand up better in that regard. I had a level 4 wizard in the Daemon Prince (even though that felt like a lot of character points alongside the Bloodthirster), and I was somehow able to get a backup level 3 (in case the Daemon Prince was indisposed) in the form of the heavily upgraded Flamer champion. I wasn't sure this was really a good idea (I still am not sure), but it gave me the giggles, so I went with it.

My army was fast, especially when you consider the Furies and Fleshhounds could all vanguard before the game. The Bloodletters would likely get left behind and probably wouldn't offer much in the games, but frankly I wanted to include some infantry (and some of the proper core warriors that belonged to my nominal "core" Chaos God). No, infantry are not great in The Old World. People would likely shy away from them. All the more reason to take them. (I am very contrary, and like making life hard for myself). 

Did I think this army could win a tournament? Realistically probably not, and my one practice game that I found time for in between painting sessions certainly did not bode well. This didn't really bother me. Hopefully I'd just have some fun waving a Bloodthirster around.

Game 1 - Open Battle
Michael Marston - Wood Elf Realms

• Glade Lord on Forest Dragon with Great Weapon, Armour of Silvered Steel, Talisman Of Protection, An Annoyance of Netlings, A Befuddlement of Mischiefs
• Glade Captain Battle Standard Bearer (War Banner) on Great Stag with Great Weapon, Helm of the Hunt, Shield
• Spellsinger (Level 2, Battle Magic) on Elven Steed with Lore Familiar
• Spellweaver (Level 4, Battle Magic) on Warhawk with Oaken Stave, Ruby Ring of Ruin
• 8 Deepwood Scouts with Musician, Hagbane Tips
• 8 Deepwood Scouts with Musician, Hagbane Tips
• 5 Glade Guard with Hagbane Tips
• 5 Glade Guard with Hagbane Tips
• 5 Glade Riders with Musician, Reserve Move, Hagbane Tips
• 5 Glade Riders with Musician, Reserve Move, Hagbane Tips
• 5 Sisters Of The Thorn with Full Command
• 3 Tree Kin
• 7 Wardancers with Bladesinger, Additional Hand Weapons
• 5 Wild Riders with Shields, Wild Hunter, Standard Bearer, Banner of the Hunter King

Wow, straight off the bat I had run into a dragon! I guess I would get to find out pretty early whether a Bloodthirster really could kill a dragon. This tournament was being played without the latest errata (which had been released only a couple of weeks beforehand), so the Sisters of the Thorn were still choosing their spell. I guess the plan was to get 3 copies of Pillar of Fire, which he did.

The battlefield once deployment was completed and my units had vanguarded. Michael elected not to scout forward with his Deepwood Scout units, instead putting them over on my left.

Cancon 2024 Aftermath - Part 5

This is the final part of my report of a recent 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 5 - Finish The War
Adam Wonderley - Wood Elves

• Spellweaver (Level 3, Lore of Life) with Moonstone of the Hidden Ways, Dispel Scroll
• Spellsinger (Level 2, Lore of Athel Loren) with Dispel Scroll
• Alter Kindred Noble with Great Weapon, Hail of Doom Arrow, Helm of the Hunt
• 12 Glade Guard
• 10 Glade Guard
• 10 Glade Guard
• 8 Dryads
• 8 Dryads
• 5 Glade Riders with Musician
• 5 Wardancers
• 3 Warhawk Riders
• 5 Wild Riders with Full Command
• Great Eagle
• Treeman

This felt like things coming full circle. When I used the forest spirit army at Cancon maybe 19 years ago, I played Adam with his Wood Elves. It was a draw. And here we were again, this time on the top table in the final round. We had a bit of an audience as a few people who knew us both pulled up chairs to watch the clash that might decide the fate of the tournament. I declared that whatever happened, this time it would not be a draw... The scenario was a normal battle - the bonus points were for standards and table quarters etc instead of them just being worth 100 victory points.

There was a river cutting the table in half, which is probably not ideal on the top table. It wouldn't matter so much for this match, with 2 armies loaded with skirmishers. It did mean having to commit to plans with units like the Treekin, though.

Cancon 2024 Aftermath - Part 4

This is the continuation of my report of a recent 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

After 3 wins, I was getting perilously close to the top of the tables. By this point however, I had realised that there was only one Daemonic Legion list in the entire tournament, and I was not going to have to play it (which was nice, because they were basically kryptonite to a forest spirit army). I don't know where all the daemons had gone, but maybe we could win this thing!

Game 4 - Steal Their Supplies
Kieran Pink - Bretonnians

• Bretonnian Lord on Warhorse with Gauntlet of the Duel, Gromril Great Helm, The Heartwood Lance, Virtue of the Joust, Shield, Grail Vow
• Damsel of the Lady (Level 1, Lore of Life) on Warhorse with Dispel Scroll
• Paladin Battle Standard Bearer on Warhorse with Banner of the Lady, Questing Vow
• 6 Knights Errant with Musician
• 6 Knights Errant with Musician
• 6 Knights of the Realm with Standard Bearer
• 5 Mounted Yeoman with Shields
• 5 Mounted Yeoman with Shields
• 3 Pegasus Knights with Musician
• 8 Questing Knights with Standard Bearer, Banner of Chalons
• 8 Grail Knights with Musician, Standard Bearer, War Banner
• Field Trebuchet

This scenario involved 2 objectives. One didn't move and needed to be controlled at the end of the game. The other was a little cart that could drive around each turn and could be captured and carried with you. Control of those objectives at the end of the game dictated the bonus points.

Bretonnians had the potential to be a problem for my army. My armour penetration was only so-so, Bretonnians can easily add a rank or two to my none, and they would generally out-charge me. The Grail Knights in particular could probably kill anything in my army, especially on the charge. On the bright side, a single Damsel with one dispel scroll is not a lot of anti-magic... This game was also notable for being the only time all tournament that one of my spellcasters rolled The Call of the Hunt (a movement spell).

How we setup. I decided to keep a small unit of Dryads in reserve, given there was a forest right in the middle of the Bretonnian deployment zone. If nothing else, I thought it might mess with my opponent.

Cancon 2024 Aftermath - Part 3

This is the continuation of my report of a recent 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 3 - Break Their Will
Kierin McPartland - Wood Elves (Drycha)

What the hell, another Drycha army? I admit, I didn't see that coming. This was going to be a really weird game...

• Drycha (Level 2, Lore of Athel Loren)
• Branchwraith (Level 1, Lore of Athel Loren) with Annoyance of Netlings, Lamentation of Despairs
• 12 Dryads
• 11 Dryads
• 8 Dryads
• 8 Dryads
• 8 Wild Riders with Full Command, War Banner
• 5 Wild Riders with Standard, Musician, Banner of the Zenith
• 4 Treekin with Elder
• Treeman

Yeah, that's very similar to my own list - there's not really a lot of choice in an all-Forest Spirit army. The scenario was a variation of Blood and Glory from 8th edition - breaking your opponent was worth bonus points (the sooner you did it, the more it was worth), and the break point was based on characters and champions instead of banners.

Kierin painted up his army as a sort of "corrupted" version of the Forest Spirits, so we agreed that my Drycha was the good guy, and he was driving the baddies. That's the bigger unit of Wild Riders over to my left flank, behind the impassable ruins.

Cancon 2024 Aftermath - Part 2

This is the continuation of my report of a recent 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. You can find the previous part here.

Game 2 - Reclaim Your Lands
Chris Penwarden - Vampire Counts

• Merneith High Warden of Nefreta, Castellan of Silver Peak
• Lahmian Vampire Lord (Extra level, Lore of Necromancy) with Innocence Lost, Crown of the Damned, Sword of Might, Spell Familiar
• Whats His Face
• Necromancer (Level 2, Lore of Necromancy) with Book of Arkhan
• Who Again
• Necromancer (Level 2, Lore of Necromancy) with Dispel Scroll, Black Periapt
• The Servants of the Upper Halls
• 20 Skeletons with Full Command, Light Armour and Shields
• The Servants of the Lower Halls
• 19 Skeletons with Full Command, Light Armour and Shields
• The Pets
• 5 Dire Wolves with Doom Wolf
• The Song Birds
• 1 Bat Swarm
• The Guardians of the Inner Sanctum
• 24 Grave Guard with Shields, Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• The Miserable
• 1 Spirit Host
• The Drained
• 5 Black Knights with Barding, Hell Knight
• The Messengers of Darkness
• 3 Fell bats
• The Mother in Law
• Banshee

(Chris bothered to name his units, so it feels the least I could do to include their names... However mean some of them might be.)

This scenario was a slight twist on the 8th edition Dawn Attack, where you have to roll to see where your units deploy. In addition, the wide zones were 3 inches further onto the field, so you could get closer to your enemy if you so wished. Chris and I then proceeded to roll almost entirely "in the middle", so the scenario didn't really do much to us. The bonus points this time were for controlling the table quarters (and more of them than your opponent).

It's always pretty warm at Cancon, and it was so noisy that I was already feeling my voice struggle after a single game, so I deployed a bottle of water in my zone to try to give myself a tactical advantage.

Cancon 2024 Aftermath - Part 1

The Old World is upon us, although in some parts of the world we can't yet get our hands on the books. Nevertheless the local community is abuzz with the new rules and what the game is going to be like. This the was the rather strange backdrop for what may yet be my last ever 6th edition Warhammer fantasy tournament. Of course, I probably thought that 18 years ago when 7th edition arrived. Time moves in mysterious ways...

I initially submitted a Drycha list that included 2 Treemen. That's tough, but without a BSB to help them hold their ground, and a list with not a lot of other options, I had assumed it would be OK. The organisers disagreed however, and asked me to remove one of them. So then I found myself with a list containing more Treekin and Wild Riders than I expected. I was rather concerned about how it might hold up, given a lack of real spine. Dryads are very solid, but with no ranks or real bulk, the Dryads were meant to be my staying power. Oh well, trees are trees, right?

• Drycha (Level 2, Lore of Athel Loren)
• Glamourweave Spellsinger (Level 2, Lore of Athel Loren) on Elf Steed with Dispel Scroll
• 12 Dryads with Branch Nymph
• 12 Dryads with Branch Nymph
• 8 Dryads
• 8 Dryads
• 3 Treekin
• 3 Treekin
• 5 Wild Riders with Musician, Standard
• 5 Wild Riders with Musician, Standard
• Treeman

Full disclosure, I actually won Cancon maybe 19 years ago with a list a bit like this one - a Treeman Ancient instead of Drycha, no Wild Riders and even more Dryads. The army book was new and I was excited to finally be able to make an all-tree army. I didn't realise quite how tough the list would prove to be. I then won another tournament a few months later, which proved it was no fluke. I decided the army was clearly easy mode and retired it from events for a number of years. I went back to losing with things like Ogres and Orcs. As a result of all this, I knew the army would perform OK this time around. The list is a bit different with Drycha at the helm, but an army that's entirely immune to psychology was always a leg up in 6th edition - there's just so much less that can go wrong.

Cancon 2023 - Game 4

This is the final part of my report of the recent tournament at Cancon 2023. You can find the previous part here.

We came now to the last game of the event, with it being a very relaxed schedule of 4 games over 2 days. Somehow I was undefeated up until this point, but now I would be playing the only Skaven player in the field. I remember games against Skaven being pretty rough...

Game 4 - Pitched Battle

Alex Johnston - Skaven

I'll be honest, I can't for the life of me work out where Alex spent his points. He had one million units, and I had finished deploying, gone to the bathroom and had a nap before he placed anything meaningful down on his side of the table. It was a very unusual army, and felt like it had made a lot of concessions in order to be palatable to the TOs. Just the one Ratling Gun, only a sensible amount of Warp Lightning... It's entirely possible the army was hundreds of points underweight, really. Anyway, this is what I remember, can guess, or can see from the photos...

• Warlord with Weeping Blade, Bands of Power, Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield (probably - maybe he even had a hobo ward save)
• Chieftain with Battle Standard and not much else
• Warlock Engineer with Warp Energy Condenser, Supercharged Accumulator, Warp Blades, Storm Daemon, maybe a Dispel Scroll
• Warlock Engineer with Warp Energy Condenser, Supercharged Accumulator, Warp Blades, maybe a Dispel Scroll or two
• 20 Clanrats with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command, Ratling Gun
• 20 Clanrats with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command, Warpfire Thrower
• 20 Clanrats with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command, Warpfire Thrower
• 20 Skavenslaves
• 20 Skavenslaves
• 20 Skavenslaves
• 10 Night Runners
• 9 Night Runners
• Giant Rat Pack (6 rats and one packmaster)
• Giant Rat Pack (6 rats and one packmaster)
• Giant Rat Pack (6 rats and one packmaster)
• 6 Poison Wind Globadiers
• 2 Poison Wind Globadiers
• 2 Poison Wind Globadiers
• 5 Jezzails
• Warp-Lightning Cannon

Another table with no meaningful terrain, unfortunately. A river cutting the table apart, which was likely to be an impossible barrier for me to cross, but no trees and very little in the way of cover.

Cancon 2023 - Game 3

This is the third part of my report of the recent tournament at Cancon 2023. You can find the previous part here.

Two games down, and I hadn't even lost yet! This seemed like a pattern that was unlikely to continue, and here came a pair of Treemen to put a stop to my run... Dave had the only Wood Elf army in the field, which left me wishing that I'd followed through with my plan for using them instead of the Dwarfs (of which there were 5). Oh well. 

I was a bit surprised by the 2 Treemen, but the rest of the list wasn't as finely honed as it could have been, so I guess the TOs figured it was OK. I still remember getting 2 Treeman banned from Cancon in 6th edition. Ah, the good old days... Dave's list was also terrible for Blood and Glory. If I killed with the general (which was one of the Spellsingers, given the Highborn was Alter Kindred and not leadership material) or the BSB, the game would end that turn and I'd get 500 bonus victory points. I had plenty of banners, so didn't face the same dangers.

Anyway, on to glory! And blood. Always need some blood.

Game 3 - Blood and Glory

Dave Lewis - Wood Elves

• Alter Kindred Highborn with Great Weapon, Light Armour, Helm of the Hunt, Stone of Rebirth (maybe the Bow of Loren? Probably? He didn't use it, though)
• Spellsinger (Level 1) with Dispel Scroll
• Spellsinger (Level 1) with Dispel Scroll
• Noble with Battle Standard, Asyendi's Bane, Hail of Doom Arrow, Light Armour
• 10 Glade Guard
• 8 Dryads
• 8 Dryads
• 8 Dryads
• 5 Wild Riders
• 7 Wardancers
• 5 Wardancers
• Treeman
• Treeman

Another moonscape of a table. We used the crystals as another "forest", because otherwise the only one would have been the one Dave brought with him, which felt unsporting and a bit sad for Wood Elves.

Cancon 2023 - Game 2

This is the second part of my report of the recent tournament at Cancon 2023. You can find the first part here.

My first game had gone pretty well despite me making a few mistakes. Time to see what the second game would bring.

Game 2 - Get the Thingy!

Luke Littlewood - Vampire Counts

• Blood Dragon Vampire Count (Level 2, Necromancy) on Barded Nightmare with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Lance, Heart Piercing, Master Strike, Red Fury
• Blood Dragon Vampire Thrall with Battle Standard, Flayed Hauberk, (naughty great weapon)
• Blood Dragon Vampire Thrall with Sword of Battle, Cursed Shield of Mousillon, Heavy Armour
• Necromancer (Level 2, Necromancy)
• 19 Skeletons with Light Armour, Shield, Full Command
• 19 Skeletons with Light Armour, Shield, Full Command
• 6 Dire Wolves
• 6 Dire Wolves
• 5 Ghouls
• 5 Ghouls
• 9 Black Knights with Barding, Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• 3 Spirit Hosts
• Banshee

Fighting undead on the mooooon!! (I'm not sure how we got here). This game awarded something like 400 victory points if you controlled that stone near the orange die at the end of the game.

Cancon 2023 - Game 1

Cancon is over for another year, and I have survived my first foray back into the depths of 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy. As usual, I distracted myself by taking photos during all of my games, so here we are with another series of battle reports.

Prior to the tournament, I played a total of 4 games of 6th edition to test out a few potential armies, and to get some handle on the rules again. One of those games was with Dwarfs, so I was confident of my complete mastery of the army when I decided to take it to the tournament.

Initially I had dismissed Dwarfs as an option, figuring that they would be a pretty static, depressing army to play. There's a reason why most Dwarf armies you see end up in a castle formation with plenty of ranged firepower - they don't have a lot of choice. But then I realised the Anvil of Doom was a viable option to help the Dwarfs pull off some charges of their own, and decided it was a good opportunity to use the one I painted in the Slow Grow last year. In the end, this was my list:

• Runelord on Anvil of Doom with Master Rune of Balance, Rune of Stone, Shield, Great Weapon
• Thane with Battle Standard, Master Rune of Gromril, Rune of Resistance, Rune of Cleaving
• Dragon Slayer with axes, wearing pants (so more than some Slayers)
• 10 Quarrellers with Great Weapons
• 10 Quarrellers with Great Weapons
• 10 Quarrellers with Great Weapons
• 18 Hammerers with Shields, Full Command, Rune of Courage
• 18 Ironbreakers with Full Command, Rune of Courage, Ancestor Rune
• 18 Miners with Full Command, Steam Drill
• Stone Thrower with Engineer, Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Penetrating

The list was based around the principle of a couple of "anvil" units capable of receiving a charge, and the Quarrellers with great weapons being ready to flank or counter-charge once things got close, probably with the assistance of the Anvil of Doom. The Miners were obviously also hoping for some help charging as soon as they appeared behind the enemy. So the Anvil had some work ahead of it, provided it didn't mess up its 2+ rolls.

I felt the amount of shooting was relatively modest for a Dwarf army - one piece of upgraded artillery, and 30 crossbows. The Anvil could lend a hand too, hitting and slowing a unit each turn until the charging became relevant. As it turned out, the TOs considered asking me to change the list due to the amount of shooting. They mainly thought it was a lot of crossbows, and to be fair, the entirety of my Core had been spent on them. I did try playing around with variations on the list, but they all felt like they made the army less functional, and honestly I didn't really expect 30 crossbows to do much damage against most opponents - I hoped it might be enough to deal with some light distractions, and mainly be enough of a threat to make people move forward and engage me. In the end they had given me the green light to stick with things as they were, so in the absence of anything I would be as happy with, I just went with it. I didn't expect the army to do especially well as it was, and didn't think my shooting would be enough to make anyone really miserable.

The tournament somehow managed to attract 50 players, which is an awful lot for a game that has been dead for 16 years. Every army except Chaos Dwarfs made an appearance, along with a number of variant Storm of Chaos and "back of the book" lists like Sylvanians, Errantry War and Blood Dragons. There were 5 Dwarf armies, which was the most with the exception of Vampire Counts (if you counted the variant lists). It was a pretty good mix, although it offended my hipster sensibilities to be using one of the most popular armies. Oh well.

The event was a very gentle 4 games spread over 2 days - a far cry from the old hectic Cancon marathon of 8 games over 3 days. It lent things a more relaxed vibe, although in all honesty I could have handled another game given it was all I had signed up to do when we were up in Canberra. But more games squeezed in probably would have made things feel more like serious business, and I don't think that was the goal. Nor am I convinced I really wanted that either.

Game 1 - Outflank

Angus Mackie - Dogs of War

• Mercenary General with Sword of Might, Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield
• Paymaster on Barded Steed with Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance
• Hireling Wizard (Level 2, Lore of Heavens) with 2 Dispel Scrolls
• Mercenary Captain on Pegasus with Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance
• 23 Pikemen with Heavy Armour, Full Command
• 9 Voland's Venators
• 11 Crossbowmen
• 5 Light Cavalry with Spears
• 5 Light Cavalry with Spears
• 8 Duellists
• 13 Long Drong's Slayer Pirates
• 3 Ogre Leadbelchers
• 2 Ogre Maneaters with Great Weapons
• Cannon
• Halfling Hot Pot

Angus' whole army was painted in fancy non-metal style. It was very nice.

A New Year, and a return to 6th edition

Happy new year, everyone! As usual, it's been a long time since my last post. I actually started this post a couple of months ago, and it never went anywhere. But here I am now!

I have not achieved much painting over the last few months, partly because my priorities started to get confused. I still have several partly painted Gyrocopters on my table, and it's possible I'll get them finished before shuffling them off to the cabinet (removing them whilst partly-painted would feel like an admission of defeat). I did paint a few "Hammerers", who are random models I tried to convert to help me pad out my actual Marauder-era Hammerers a bit. It was really just a bit of an experiment.

A second command group, and a few sneaky extra Hammerers to pad my total out to 2 units of 18.

Cancon 2020 Aftermath - Part 6

This is the final part of my report of the recent Clash of Kings Australia tournament that was held as part of Cancon 2020. You can find the previous part of the report here, or go back to the first part here.

Game 6 - Control
Jeff Traish - Forces of the Abyss

• Horde of Abyssal Ghouls
• Regiment of Abyssal Ghouls
• Regiment of Abyssal Ghouls
• Horde of Molochs with Blade of Slashing
• Horde of Molochs with Mace of Crushing
• Abyssal Fiend
• Manifestation of Ba'el
• Abyssal Warlock
• Abyssal Warlock
• Abyssal Warlock
• Horde of Lesser Obsidian Golems (Abyssal Dwarf allies)
• Horde of Lesser Obsidian Golems (Abyssal Dwarf allies)
• Hexcaster with Weakness (Abyssal Dwarf allies)

Well, I had done it again. After my "correction" game dropped me back into the middle tables, I had won two more games and now I found myself on what was probably one of the top 3. I think I was in 5th place coming into the final round. Not really where I had intended to be. And now I was to play Jeff, a man who had actually played more than 2 games of 3rd edition before the tournament, and who clearly knew what he was doing. I resolved that I would try not to throw this game away. Try to focus and play tighter. Well, it was not a bad resolution...

One of the Lesser Obsidian Golem units went hard on the flank, with the Fiend lurking right behind them. I wasn't sure where to put the Halflings, so planted them in the corner where they could sit all game and hopefully contest or control that table segment. This was dumb, of course. I should have put them nearer the join of 2 segments, where they could shift about as needed. This occurred to me just after I declared they were sorted.

Cancon 2020 Aftermath - Part 5

This is a continuation of my report of the recent Clash of Kings Australia tournament at Cancon 2020. You can find the previous part here, or go right back to the start with the first part here.

Game 5 - Push
Angriartists - Goblins

• Troll Horde
• Troll Horde
• Troll Horde
• Troop of Mincer Mob
• Troop of Mincer Mob
• Troop of Mincer Mob
• Troop of Mincer Mob
• Troop of Mincer Mob
• Troop of Mincer Mob
• King on Chariot with Piercing Arrow
• King with Jareth's Pendant (gives him a Headstrong aura)
• Mincer
• Mincer
• War Trombone

OK, so... This list confused me a lot. I admit I had never really read up on what a Goblin Mincer did, and now I was paying the price. I stole my opponent's army list so that I could make sure I understood what I was up against during deployment. Aris explained the general concept of the list as the Mincers being the anvil, and the Trolls the hammer. That made sense. The Mincers are not quick, but they're Defence 6+ from the front. Of course, if they got a clean charge on you, you might know about that too...

What the hell am I looking at? I immediately had guilt about the pile of unpainted pump wagons at home.

Cancon 2020 Aftermath - Part 4

This is a continuation of my report of the recent Clash of Kings Australia tournament that was held as part of Cancon. You can find the previous part of the report here.

So we were onto Day 2 of the tournament, and after the savaging I had taken in Game 3, I was hoping I would be back into a realm of relative safety on the tables. But then I arrived at my table, and this is what I found...

What the hell? We didn't sign up for this!

Turns out the tanks belonged to the 40K player at the other table. Probably for the best, really...

Game 4 - Plunder
Daniel Harwood - Ogres

• Horde of Ogre Warriors with Mead of Madness, Crocodog
• Horde of Ogre Warriors with Brew of Haste, Crocodog
• Horde of Ogre Warriors with Crocodog
• Horde of Ogre Warriors with Crocodog
• Horde of Ogre Warriors with Crocodog
• Red Goblin Blaster
• Red Goblin Blaster
• Berserker Bully
• Berserker Bully
• Grokagamok
• Ogre Warlock with Drain Life
• Ogre Warlord on Chariot with Blade of Slashing

OK, that looks more like a Kings of War list. I admit I was concerned when I saw 2 Blasters in the list. I really had no ranged attacks or expendable elements with which to remove them. Then I discovered they don't blow up like they used to, and have to charge to hurt me. Well, that changes things...

So many Ogre Warriors. I mean, I get it. They're a solid unit. But I was glad none of them were Siegebreakers instead. One of those units had Mead of Madness and the Berserker Bully (character closest to the rock) came with Wild Charge. Otherwise that was a wall of Speed 6, so I had the upper hand in terms of dictating terms.

Cancon 2020 Aftermath - Part 3

This is a continuation of my report of the recent Clash of Kings Australia tournament that was held as part of Cancon. You can find the previous part of the report here.

Game 3 - Invade

Adam Storey - Undead

• Horde of Revenants with Fire-Oil, Undead Giant Rats
• Horde of Revenants with Brew of Strength, Undead Giant Rats
• Horde of Wights with Mead of Madness
• Horde of Wights with Brew of Sharpness
• Horde of Zombie Trolls
• Troop of Wraiths
• Troop of Wraiths
• Cursed Pharaoh with Wings of Honeymaze
• Mhorgoth the Mandatory
• Necromancer with Inspiring Talisman, Drain Life, Surge

I was a bit worried that I was heading for the wrong end of the tournament after 2 wins. I knew I was due for a correction. Well... 

These things (the Zombie Trolls) were just gross. A lot of Adam's models are 3D printed, and he'd managed to complete these ones with bloody streaks as they dragged themselves across the ground... Eww. Anyway, they were hard on my left flank. Next to them were the Revenants, and behind them sat one of the Wight units.