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.

Axemaster 2024 - Part 3

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

Game 3 - Open Battle
Brian Holland - Vampire Counts

• Master Necromancer (Level 4, Necromancy) with Spell Familiar, Sceptre Of De Noirot
• Vampire Count on Zombie Dragon with Beguile, Biting Blade, Armour of Silvered Steel, Talisman Of Protection
• Vampire Thrall (Level 1, Dark Magic) with Battle Standard, Dark Acolyte, Spell Familiar
• 10 Crypt Ghouls with Crypt Ghast
• 5 Dire Wolves with Doom Wolf
• 5 Dire Wolves with Doom Wolf
• 20 Skeleton Warriors with Full Command, Thrusting Spears
• 30 Skeleton Warriors with Full Command
• 40 Zombies with Standard Bearer, Musician
• Corpse Cart with Warped Tintinnabulation
• 20 Grave Guard with Full Command
• 5 Blood Knights with Full Command
• 5 Blood Knights with Full Command, Supernatural Horror (Kastellan)

So I was up to my third and final game, but somehow I had only played a total of 7 turns, and not a lot had really happened. Hopefully this game would improve that.

Brian deployed both units of Blood Knights in a forest because he didn't fully understand how the terrain worked. He had fooled me - I had assumed he had some cunning plan I couldn't fathom.

The Zombie Dragon was lurking behind the hill, and seemed likely to cause me problems unless Ungrim somehow got to grips with it and fired up. Well, I had intentionally made my list to be a bit hardened to the threat of dragons, so maybe it would be OK. The Dire Wolves used vanguard at the same time as my Doomseekers and Dragonslayer did.

Being amazing, I got the first turn and advanced bravely in column formations, mainly because I could, and it was another thing my list had been made to do if it found the chance. My shooting removed one unit of Dire Wolves and a chunk from the other.

Slayers were anchoring both of my flanks. I hoped the Doomseeker would find a way to deal with the Ghouls, because I didn't really want them charging the Trollslayers.

Look at that speed! Beer powered columns of marching Dwarfs. So agile. So beautiful.

The Zombies wasted no time advancing in response, aided by Hellish Vigour. The orange template is a Spiritual Vortex that was cast in the first turn and would remain for the entire game. I simply couldn't dispel it, even though I tried.

The Ghouls and Dire Wolves also headed for my lines, but they were rather lacking support.

I considered whether I really wanted to be bogged in what was obviously intended to be a tar pit of Zombies, but they had advanced so close that some of my troops were going to be unable to avoid it. So the drilled Warriors expanded their frontage and charged with support from the other Doomseeker. Between them they did pretty significant damage to the enemy unit.

The Hammerers also shifted into a more battle-ready formation, right next to the nasty vortex.

The Ghouls had come too close to the Doomseeker on my flank, and he made extremely short work of them. The Trollslayers continued across the rather lonely expanse toward the Skeletons, in the absence of any better target.

The Hammerers had gotten close enough to interest the Blood Knights, and they charged in despite Ungrim's presence. This was apparently a sound plan, as they did enough damage to basically prevent any return attacks from the Hammerers, and Ungrim struggled to make decent headway against them.

The Trollslayers eventually engaged the Skeletons, and would spend the rest of the game struggling against them and very slowly losing their own numbers. The Doomseeker did eventually manage to get in to help (he was meant to be there from the beginning), but my units couldn't do enough damage to make real headway. By the end of the game the Skeletons, Doomseeker and Trollslayers were all still there - but the Trollslayers had been reduced to a single model.

The Vampire on her Zombie Dragon had flown up into a possition of prominence on the hill in the centre of the field, and I had a decision to make - open up on it with my shooting and try to start wearing it down, or go the more direct approach and hope for an exciting performance from the Dragonslayer. It was a Dragon, after all (or what was left of one). He assured me that he had this under control. Unfortunately, he was wrong. He couldn't get a blow past the Vampire's saving throws, and narrowly succumbed in return. The presence of the Trollslayers was not enough for me to win the fight (there were too few of them and they are only Open Order), so they got shoved back and the Zombie Dragon was free.

The Blood Knights had badly dented the Hammerers, and would eventually wipe them out (with the assistance of some undead magic, including some of the fallen Blood Knights being raised back to keep fighting). Ungrim battled on, but couldn't get enough damage past their saves to deal with them. I did at one point send my Thane with the battle standard into the flank to help - it was a mistake. The Blood Knight on the end beat him down without even bothering to look at him. It was extremely disdainful (and some pretty hot rolling). That was the only trick I had to try to free up Ungrim. He was still fighting them at game's end.

The second unit of Blood Knights eventually left the cover of the forest and tried to get involved, but my shooting spotted them and removed the unit. 

Having shoved the Trollslayers back, the Zombie Dragon was able to reform to face along my lines and threaten the flank of the Warriors.

The Warriors had busted through the Zombies after a few rounds, and overran into the enemy battle standard bearer. The Corpse Cart had charged in to support her, but with my Lord on shieldbearers in there, it was a losing fight. The Zombie Dragon first charged the Doomseeker (who had overrun a very underwhelming distance, and was now sitting back next to the flank of the Warrior unit). He died very quickly, allowing the Dragon to overrun and fight again against the Warriors.

To begin with the Warriors were able to hold their own, compensating for the damage the Dragon inflicted by finishing up the Corpse Cart and Vampire Thrall. But then the Lord challenged, again trying to perform the role he was meant for - to tank a high power target and protect his unit, buying time. He did it OK, but was taking wounds faster than I had hoped, whilst offering no chance of doing wounds in return against the Vampire's saves. I sent the Slayers into the rear to try to help us actually win a round of combat, but at didn't work... We won combat, but because the Slayers were behind the Dragon, it couldn't be pushed back. This meant the Warriors couldn't turn to face the enemy because they never had the chance to reform. Very frustrating.

Eventually the Slayers got engaged and beaten by the Grave Guard, and the Warriors fell back in good order away from the Zombie Dragon. At that point we were out of time, and the game had to be halted after 5 turns - the closest I had gotten to actually finishing a game, but still not a full 6 turn battle.

I had lost the Hammerers, my BSB and partial points for one unit of Slayers. I had also lost a Doomseeker and the Dragonslayer, but they didn't give up points (unlike the one who was grumpy about still being alive). In return I had killed a unit of Blood Knights, the Dire Wolves, Ghouls, Zombies, Corpse Cart and Thrall. It was enough to buy me a very narrow win, 867 victory points to 618. Yay, not a draw!

Result: 11-9 Win

So with that, the game was over. In conclusion, I had very nearly had the most Dwarfish of tournaments, with nothing but draws. I had been pushed around enormously by magic, finding myself practically incapable of stopping a spell all day (I dispelled maybe 3). I had also found my games running out of time, really badly. I didn't like that, and resolved that my next list would hopefully do something to address all of these issues. On to Cancon!