by Pat Nevan

“Incidentally the Room Temperature at Cancon is like Warm American Pie”

So Cancon coverage is in full swing here at the Craichouse. (Cancon, Australia’s biggest AOS tournament, 2 days, 8 man elimination and doubles on day 3, yadda yadda.) We have already heard from our Veteran player Joel McGrath so let’s catch up with Justin Clark, an up and coming competitive player from Melbourne heading off to his first ever Cancon.

The First Timer – Justin Clark

PC: Ok mate if you want to give us a brief rundown on your hobby background, how long you’ve been playing AOS and all that sort of thing.

JC: So I’ve been involved with Games Workshop products since about 10-11 years old. Started playing Dawn of War, then walked past a Games Workshop and recognized the models. Played and painted predominantly 40K on and off throughout my life but only got into AoS and tournaments properly during covid.

Started out with a BCR start collecting x 3 and went from there. Pivoted to BoK as I wanted a bit more thinking than running forward and hoping for charge mortals. After getting comfortable with them I went to S2D as I wanted less thinking and felt a bit sad about the new Khorne book. (True that.) So hobby wise, nearly 2 decades; AoS wise, about 3ish years.

PC: New enough to be bored silly by Grognards talking about the glory days of AOS 1 then. Would you consider yourself a competitive player?

JC: I saw First Ed AoS come out but didn’t actually play, bought the starter though At this stage I’d consider myself a competitive player. I attend tournaments somewhat regularly and do prefer to get in higher quality games than narrative games/rules provide.

PC: Yeah I’d say the tourney circuit has its hooks in you. Cancon is as big as it gets in Australia. What are you looking forward to as a first timer?

JC:  I’m genuinely not sure what it’ll be like. Definitely looking forward to a weekend away with the boys though. I think picking up a Friendly Fyre ticket (The Doubles Event) may have been shortsighted though, as playing Friday, Saturday and then doubles on Sunday means I probably won’t have much time to wander to see the rest of the events or the paint comp.

PC: Yeah once you throw in a few carpark beers the time can really get away from you. So what are you bringing to the event?

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Follow the Path to Glory
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (340)**
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)**
– Artefact: Chaos Familiar
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– The Lore of the Damned: Chaotic Conduit
The Masque (150)*
– Allies
9 x Untamed Beasts (80)*
6 x Varanguard (560)**
– 6x Fellspear
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Varanguard (280)**
– 3x Fellspear
5 x Chaos Knights (220)**
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
11 x Blissbarb Archers (170)**
6 x Furies (80)*
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 150 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 2

PC: Justin had the poor form to beat me with this list at a practice tournament on the weekend so I’ll I can give it a brief explanation. Knights of the Empty Throne makes all the mounted units run and charge, the 6 man Varanguard are the general, they hit like trucks on the charge with the Mark of Khorne and a once per game double pile in option up their sleeve. The rest of the list is there to provide control, harassment and objective grabbing while the Varanguard mop you up in pretty short order. Simple but effective.

You’ve been running the Varanguard Empty Throne list for awhile now. Anything special about this one?

JC: Yeah sitting on this 3 VG + 6 VG block for a while. I started out with an Archaon and 10 block of Chosen but it didn’t trade great and Blizzard ruined its day. This one plays a bit better into a variety of metas I think and trades nicely. I’ve actually changed up a bit from the Sovereign Smash list and gone to a similar build that I ran at AoS Coach’s GT in NSW, however I built that list late at night and cooked the Marks thinking that a nearly all Tzeentch Marked list with teleport shenanigans would help Knights and VG cycle better. Turns out you don’t need to teleport if you just kill what you hit… so back to Khorne this time round. Masque and Belakor are a nice combo to have back together though. I was missing my tricks.

PC: Any special allowances in your list or gameplan for the Cancon pack?

JC: I haven’t really read it properly I normally look at battleplans and make small tweaks but picking 10 out of 12 battle plans doesn’t really do anything for predicting what the field might look like. I’ve got some tech to try help interrupt opponents from scoring battle tactics which should help with in game score and tournament score. But whether that works or not is another story. Little bit disappointed that they’re not running clocks as per the players pack honestly. But we’ll see how that goes

PC: Don’t worry, not reading the pack fully is a veteran move. Games timing out should be interesting with so many players.

JC: Good to know I’m on the right track then haha! Yeah I think Jason will be dealing with a fair bit over the event. Definitely a large undertaking.

PC: Soft scores are a big factor at Cancon but they tend tend to be minimal for paint and non-existent for sports in our regional tournaments. Have you ever played in an event with significant soft scoring?

JC: I played at a few Arc 40K events when I was a lot younger under the old guard for it. It was very big on hobby scores, comp scores and sports. Soft scores are definitely an interesting topic. I’ve seen plenty of people sports sniped for no reason. I’ve seen subjective reviews of armies that really should’ve scored higher paint scores when the judge went past their army. And comp is always a hard one. I think it’s a system that’s got its benefits but also has its flaws. But overall, I do think they are good. As there is more to the hobby than walking over an opponent cause you’re on the meta wave. But it depends on what the individual attending that tournament wants and whether they choose to go to an event with or without soft scores. I’d like to see them a little more refined.

PC: Yeah it’s one of those unending debates. On the bright side it won’t decide the winner with the final elimination round. Speaking of, how do you reckon you will perform?

JC: Not too sure tbh. Slaves has a few hard counters that I just can’t deal with, but it’s a big enough event that I might get lucky on pairings and dodge some counters. 3:2 and I’m happy, 4:1 is the aim. 5:0 and make it to finals and I’d be over the moon. We’ll need to see how it goes though.

PC: Yeah the meta is about as tight as I’ve ever seen it. Mathematically you can slide into the 8 on a 4-1. Have you looked into paint scores?

JC: I’ve glanced at them. My army is lacking on conversions though, and free hand. I’ll chuck a bit on the banners and see if I can get some pity points but I’m hoping the overall paint job and basing will help me out.

Looks like a bonus points worth of different basing materials to me

PC: Yeah there will be a fair bit of spurious tuft gluing and free-handing going on around the country this week. Who are you travelling up with? Any shout-outs?

JC: 14 of us MC boys (Model Citizens) are travelling up, so we’ll be out in force hoping for a good showing! Looking forward to seeing the wider Melbourne community over state lines as there’s a few different clubs. Shout out to Half Inch Out Gaming for running a prep event just before the big one!

PC: Yeah Cancon is definitely the time for Australia’s gaming clubs to flex on each other. Thanks for your time and looking forward to seeing you there.

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So there you have it folks, an up and comer with a strong list looking for big things from his first Cancon. Personally I quite like his chances for managing his expectations, running a fast list and getting a lot of practice in with it. We will circle back around to see how he goes over the course of the event.

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