Cancon Age of Sigmar Championship 2017
Over the last nine months or so, I've been struck with a real enthusiasm for Warhammer Age of Sigmar (AoS). Controversially replacing the old Warhammer Fantasy Battles game, opting for a simpler ruleset and fresh background, it's proven to be a whole lot of fun. The game was mostly freeform in its first year or so, allowing players to explore their units in their own way, and focus on narrative play. With the release of the General's Handbook and the rules included for Matched Play, the game has undergone a real renaissance. I dipped my toes into the tournament scene for AoS at 'Ardfists last year, and decided that I'd take a break from 40k at Cancon this time around to attend what proved to be the largest event for this system in Australia to date. With over 45 sign-ups, it was gonna be a big weekend.
As always, half the fun of Cancon is the road trip. Accompanying me on my journey was long time gaming comrade Brenton Shaw. Clearly beaming with his hunger for competition, he was even mistaken for an AFL footballer in Wangaratta.
Cancon's held at Exhibiton Park In Canberra (EPIC). This is a great venue, with enough space to host simultaneous tournaments of multiple wargames, such as AoS, Warhammer 9th Age, Infinity, two 40k events, Flames of War, Bolt Action, Warmahordes, Wings of War, Kings of War, Epic, a bunch of historicals I didn't recognise and I'm sure there are some I missed. Along with the miniature games we all love, Cancon hosts card games, board games, a cosplay competition, a second-hand sale room, and a host of trading stalls belonging to retailers and manufacturers alike. It's a hell of a weekend and I'd encourage any readers who have never made the trip to do so: there's nothing else like it that I've ever been to.
The AoS event was hosted by the guys from the Heralds of War podcast, and the first thing I noticed was the wide range of armies that had shown up. Wile I was only running a pure Ironjawz army, pretty much every Grand Alliance and faction was represented somewhere. I managed to snap a few photos before Round 1 was underway.
 |
| Chaos versus Death: Yes, they are all legit GW Blood Knights! |
 |
| A nice eclectic collection of Skaven |
 |
| Some cool Sylvaneth-y looking conversions |
 |
| Savage Orruk Boneplittas on da hunt! |
 |
| Another really lovely looking Death army: yeah, that's Nagash! |
Round 1 I played Aaron and his Seraphon. This was a grudge match set up by the managers of our respective local GW stores, and saw me having to stare down the largest miniature in attendance: the Dread Saurian. Unfortunately for Aaron he just couldn't stop the rampage of Thmaug my Mawkrusha.
Round 2 saw me play an old tournament nemesis, Blake. We'd met on two previous occasions at 40k events. One of my favourite parts of this hobby is the friendships you're able to forge over a game of wardollies. Even though Blake's from Brisbane, we've developed a cool little rivalry. His Nurgle Daemons looked stunning, and deservedly ended up taking out the Best Presented prize. With my honour on the line, my Orruks spectacularly failed 3 charges in one turn, giving Blake the opening he needed to crush my Waaagh! Full props to Blake here, he really played the mission well and leveraged his army well against mine.
The final game of Saturday was against James and his really cool Sylvaneth army. One of my most common opponents runs a really similar list to James., and with the Sylvaneth army full of neat little tricks they can do with their units and Wyldwoods the experience was invaluable. It just goes to show you that the more games you play, and the more different armies you face, the better prepared you'll be when it comes to crunch time. Some heroics from Thmaug, including killing about 17 Dryads in one battle round, netted me the win here.
Game 4 proved to be a bittersweet sort of game. On the one hand, I'd been paired up against Brenton, with whom I knew I'd have a fun game. On the other, only one of us could walk away the victor. Brenton's Stormcast army centered on a Warscroll Battalion called the Skyborne Slayers. 40k gamers would recognise Warscroll Battalions as something like Formations. They're a great way to reward players for taking a combination of themey units together, but AoS's battalions come at a points cost too. The Skyborne Slayers allow some really hard hitting units to appear almost anywhere on the battlefield, and Brenton uses this to great effect to scalpel out important parts of his foe's forces. In this case however, some lucky rolls left my Megaboss on a single wound, and he proceeded to lay the smackdown on Brenton's Decimators. This delay cost Brenton the game, as the Stormcast Eternals may strike lightning-fast, but after the inital drop found themselves too slow to properly contest the objectives.
NB: I didn't remember to take photos of this game. After a seven-hour drive and a full day of gaming, my brain clearly wasn't firing on all cylinders.
My Final opponent was Ashley. He was using a pure Ironjawz army too, which meant our forces would probably be really well matched. A major difference however was that while I was using a generic Megaboss on Mawkrusha, Ashley was commanding Gordrakk, the Fist of Gork. I gotta tell you, I was salivating at the thought of getting to test my Boss' mettle against such a worthy foe. I didn't have to wait long, as we hit close combat in turn 2. The fact that my boss was the model charging however, made all the difference. Gordrakk was felled in just one Combat Phase. Keeping up his head of steam, Thmaug again proved the difference maker, securing Ashley's objective and the victory for me.
Overall, all of my games were a blast. For a game many decried as 'dead' Age of Sigmar provides a really elegant rules system that is easy to learn, the depth to be a pretty tactical affair, and some great models to boot. All of my opponents were great guys, and it was a shame I couldn't nominate them all as my favourite.
At the end of the event I was stoked to claim 3rd place overall. WAAAGH!!! The drive home to Melbourne was filled with frenetic conversation about what armies we could bring next year. At this stage, I'm planning to stick with green, but perhaps something with a few more legs...
Be sure to check out the Heralds of War podcast team on Facebook. There are a bunch of sweet photos of some of the awesome armies that rocked up. Clint, Jesse and Mark are all great guys and they run a really swish tournament.
So who else is keen for 2018?
No comments:
Post a Comment