by Pat Nevan
“Ah reckin you kin jus you just leave er right there if’n you forgot to move er in the movement phase, Amigo.”,
Ah Cancon, we are a week and change away from Australia’s biggest annual event and it’s time to crank the handle on the old content creation machine. I realize that the vast majority of the international fanbase of the House of Craic1 will never get to Cancon and may not even have a passing interest in the minutiae of the Australian scene so I’ll try to keep it universal and entertaining. The real reward of blogging, besides the fat stacks of cash the Craichouse Patreon’s shower me with, is being able to talk yourself up and carry on like a big deal in front of people you meet at events and there is no way I’m giving that up. If I ever make it to an overseas tournament I promise to bore the piss out of the folks back in Australia when I cover it.
The Veteran – Joel McGrath
Joel in the Captains Hat, 2018
An absolute legend of the Australian AOS scene, Joel is the Invincible Overlord of the Measured Gaming Club, co-host of the hiatus-ed Bush Radio Podcast, frequent contributor to a range of hobby content and a pretty good mate of mine as well. He has fallen off a bit competitively in the last year or so due to his selfish insistence on having a family, but nobody knows more about Cancon. We sat down to ask him what to expect in 2024.
Anyways, Part 1 of our coverage for this Cancon kicked off with a chat with the TOs which you can catch here, and now we will be following the fortunes of myself and three different gamers: The Veteran, The First Timer and The Filthy Casual to see what they’re about. Just as a reminder, Cancon this year is a two-day 5 round event with a Day 3 round of 8 elimination for an ultimate winner, along with a Day 3 friendly doubles event for those that don’t make the 8.
PC: How many Cancons have you made it to?
JM: All of them that were worth remembering. Though I don’t go to Cancon for Cancon. I see the weekend as more of a great pilgrimage to the submarine shrine and to pay tribute to the submarine gods with a sacrifice of models. (Cancon is in the nation’s capital of Canberra. When you approach from the South you go past Holbrook, where there is a converted Submarine memorial in the park. Measured Gaming traditionally sacrifices models at the Submarine shrine to seek the favor of the dice gods for the year ahead.) Then afterwards, putting our faith to the test, playing some games in a hot as fuck shed packed with thousands of people. It really is simultaneously the best and worst gaming weekend you’ll have in Australia.
PC: You’ve had some pretty successful Cancons over the years, what were the stand outs?
JM: My first Cancon was back when the first GHB came out, and we started taking the game somewhat seriously locally after mostly dropping 40k when 8th Ed came out. We didn’t know what was good or bad, who was who, or what a podcast was. Locally, I was practicing a Vanguard Wing and ended up coming 8th out of 100+ players, picking up the Best Terrain award and a painting nom. I was super chuffed with that. However, my best Cancon performance was the year after, when I took a Brayherd heavy BoC list back when they were proper dogshit. I don’t even think the battletome was out then, or if it was, it wasn’t popular whatsoever. I came 4th overall as a massive underdog and had some stellar games I still remember to this day.
Thinking on this a little more, nothing compares to the 3rd cancon. I took a double Krusha IJ list and ended up walking away with a Best Sports trophy. Some will say it was the carpark beers influencing that, but hey, I’m not one of those to really ask for votes. (Cancon is officially a dry event but Measured Gaming keeps a Ute3 in the carpark with free beer for all comers.) I’ve had a bit of success over the years at Cancon, for all aspects of the hobby, which I’m really proud of.
PC: As a Veteran Competitor what are you looking forward to?
JM: Cancon, to me, is and always has been about the social. Australia is such a large country where it’s simply not reasonable to jump in the car and head to the other side of the continent for a weekend. Regardless of how shit Canberra is as a city (Very), and how shit the ACT is as a Territory (Extremely), one thing it has going for it is being a mutual meeting point for all players living in the better states. It’s inconvenient for everyone to travel there, but we gladly do it because we get to catch up with friends from other clubs/states we rarely get the chance to see throughout the year.
I strongly believe that if you think Cancon isn’t a social event, you’re going there with the wrong mindset. What I’m looking forward to the most is a chance to unwind, let my lack of hair down, sleep in the dirt for a few nights, run an ungodly amount of piss through the esky4 in the carpark, and hopefully getting the chance to play against some people I’ve never had the pleasure to before.
PC: Yeah Cancon is ultimately our noble attempt to make the nation’s capital suck slightly less. What list are you bringing this year?
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Astral Templars (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: Barren Icescape
– Triumphs:
Ionus Cryptborn, Warden of Lost Souls (400)**
– Prayer: Bless Weapons
Knight-Draconis (300)*
– General
– Command Trait: Heroic Stature
– Artefact: Drakescale Armour
– Mount Trait: Celestial Instincts
Lord-Castellant (160)**
Lord-Exorcist (150)*
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
5 x Liberators (100)**
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons
5 x Liberators (100)**
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons
4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)*
– Drakerider’s Lance
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Gryph-Hounds (90)**
Dais Arcanum (20)
*Warlord
**Battle Regiment
Artefact
Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 109
Drops: 4
Holly Command: Call for Aid
PC: For readers at home who don’t speak goofy niche Stormcast builds, what are we looking at and how does it win games?
JM: TL;DR for the average Plastic Craic Destro bro is: Dragons go brrrr
The inspiration for this list came from my old claim to fame the Mr Whippy list (Karazai). In this iteration, “6 is better than 1”, the idea is to have all the fun while my opponent can’t really do much, but in a less oppressing way than your usual suspects would, such as Lumineth or Seraphon. The other aim was to fit in as much “It just happens” crap as possible to reduce failure points. We play a dice game, but the best thing to be doing is not rolling dice at all. And on a lesser note, make an effort to add some speed where possible to make up for the lack of Translocation.
The strategy is simple, buff up the dragons and send them in. We’re looking at multiple +s to save from the Castellant, exploding 6s to hit from Bless Weapons on Ionus, and Hoarfrost for some extra rend on the 25 sword attacks from the Dragons’ riders.
Scions of the Storm means if you have some form of long ranged or alpha shooting, I get to keep my stuff off the table and bring it down once you’ve over extended killing my chaff. Astral Templars is a no-brainer choice, really. You don’t get to Monstrous Action my shit while I get to have all the fun and do all my own.
The Knight-Draconis isn’t known for being a strong piece, but he can tank almost anything in the game with the Drakescale Armor allowing him to reroll save rolls against attacks with a damage characteristic of two or more. Get him down to a 0+ save easily and laugh while Kragnos bounces off him AOS 1 style. In saying that, he’s mainly in the list to get the Dragons as battleline, and the get out of jail free card that’s on his warscroll allowing the Dragons to shoot in the hero phase once per game, so they can’t get bogged down.
Ionus is there for auto praying buffs or damage. He also comes with a -1 attack debuff in melee which can really shift the numbers against units with multiple weapon profiles. The Lord Exorcist has always been one of my pet units in Stormcast. I love throwing him on the Dais Arcanum endless spell for a larger base and some extra movement to make his awesome warscroll ability of shutting down recursion more impactful when it matters. It can get pretty insane if you combo that up with Ionus’ ability to stop Inspiring Presence. Suddenly, that 60 pack of Zombies don’t look so scary.
It’d be rude of me to take Astral Templars and not take a couple of token Vanguard units. That’s where the Hunters and Gryph-Hounds come into play. Hunters can teleport around the board edges, scoring easy battle tactics and being a nuisance that doesn’t do much. Meanwhile the Gryphs screen and disincentivise any opponent looking to drop in a big scary unit from reserves anywhere near my Dragons. Last thing you want is for your big hammer unit copping potentially 4d6 mortals before they get to do anything. 5 token Liberators finish off the list. I needed something to benefit from a Holy Command, in this case Call for Aid which basically gives them a second chance at liberating the Realms in the game.
All in all, a low model count, smash-your-face-in-quickly style list with some tricks, perfect for gaming in a hot tin shed when there’s beers to be downed outside!
PC: Sounds like you’ve given it a lot of thought. How much did the Cancon event and Player Pack influence your planning?
JM: It had a major impact. Cancon has traditionally been an event of attrition. The weak don’t survive in the heat. It turns 5 games into 5 slogs. That’s why you have to factor in the climate to your list writing because you don’t want to be handling a lot of bodies in an an uninsulated shed.
The pack itself does pair well if you have the same or adjacent mentality to what I’m going in there with. You get rewarded tournament points for denying your opponent’s battle tactics and their grand strategy. If you take something fast and hard hitting, you’ve a good chance of tabling your opponent and thus denying them points, you’re at the table for less because games are over faster and you’ll feel fresh for the later stages of the event, while having the energy to give your opponent a shorter, but better game. At Cancon there’s a Top 8 cut, which is played on a third day. As a competitive player, I’m striving to make that third day. And if the method above works, then I should be relatively fresh, depending on how many beers I have on Saturday night!
The Captain enjoying a quiet Saturday
PC: Yeah the Captain is usually a pretty reasonable guy in my experience. Have you been getting much practice in?
JM: Not as much as I’d like. I played a few 1500pt games at a certain tournament I won the other week. That was a slimlined version of my Cancon list. I’ve only had 1 game at 2k, funnily enough against your Cancon army on a battle report. I learnt a lot from that one game. If I can sneak in a tune-up game closer to Cancon I should be right to go. Being a veteran of the game, it’s not hard to jump back in the deep end anymore. Not having much time to play recently did ultimately land me on a faction I’m very familiar with. Stormcast was a perfect fit for my current situation of having to adult 99% of the time. Otherwise, I’d no doubt have been cramming in a heap of games and hobby to get my Cities on the table.
PC: Soft scores are back in a big way this Cancon, any Veteran Tips on maxing them out?
The painting rubric is very difficult to max out this year for the average Joe. A lot of us Joes just paint and hobby to somewhere just above the bare minimum battle ready requirements. I think if you can score higher than the average, you’ll be in with a shot to rank above them if that’s what you’re after. I’ve gone lengths to blow a non-existent hobby budget to add a shitload of tufts and rocks of various shapes and sizes to try and get some extras in that department. My painting has deteriorated over the years so you won’t see any wet blending or advanced techniques from me. Got to work with what you’ve got unfortunately.
Sports also makes up a chunk of points and is also a huge part of the game. If you’re just generally nice to your opponent, high five them when something big goes there way, stop your rhythm of whatever you’re doing to have a chat if they’re chatty etc you will be remembered as a good opponent, regardless of how much you crush them on the table. It’s taken me longer than I’d like to admit to wind back the competitiveness and be more sporting. And, not everyone’s the same. I believe you’ve got a bit of wiggle room to tailor the experience of you to your opponent, while not being a total sellout assclown whoring for points. I’ll see you in the carpark 🙂
PN: Yeah if goodwill can be bought with Alcohol we are well ahead of the game. I notice you didn’t get a ticket for the doubles, are you that confident of making the final eight or just tired of supporting your community?
JM: I’m not confident. I just wouldn’t mind a day off if I don’t make the cut. I’ve never really had the opportunity to wander the halls, check out the second hand stall and all the vendors. Plus, I need some quality time to make some sweet sweet love to that chicken tikka van if it’s back.
PC: Fair enough, thanks for your time brother. We will be checking in with your progress over the journey.
So there you have it folks, a bit of insight into the thought processes of a true Warhorse who has a very good chance of making it to the final 8 with a goofy Stormcast list. Looking over the interview it’s Joel’s awareness of the effect of the conditions that stands out to me. While he is being a bit tounge in cheek, Cancon is held in what amounts to an aircraft hangar full of sweaty nerds in the middle of the Australian Summer. ”Win your games early” might sound like genius advice on a par with “Don’t leave your models at home.” But it also means take a list that will finish your games early either way. You could be playing a game in 45 degree heat5 on the Friday so leave the 80 Plaguebearers at home6. Won’t hurt with sports votes either I guess. See you in the next interview with The First Timer.
- All three of you ↩︎
- A ute or utility is a pickup truck for North Americans. ↩︎
- Cooler, chilly bin, coolbox etc. ↩︎
- 113 degrees fahrenheit ↩︎
- This advice might have been better before list submission come to think of it. ↩︎
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