Pete writes: G’day Motherfuckers! PC writing team member, Overlord of Measured Gaming and legend of Australian AOS Joel McGrath took his Sons of Behemat to Cancon 2025, and of the 157 players on the day…he only went and finished Best Overall!

Joel wracked up a 5-0, plus Best Destruction and a nomination for Coolest Army. That, I’m sure you’ll agree, is quite the bloody haul. Today Joel will take us through the whole thing: his army, how we played it and what happens at Cancon away from the table.

Over to you mate.

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Chapter One: The Army

I love the flexibility that Taker tribe gives me. I usually picked the Amberbone Totem for run and charge, but there was one particular game where I chose the Glowy Shield of Protectiness (more on the reasoning below). I give up a ward, but if someone’s going to kill a Mega they’re just going to kill it anyway with a 6+ ward. 

As for Glowy Lantern: this is going to sound strange, but I didn’t sign up to win the event, so I intentionally didn’t pick a Manifestation Lore because of the self-realization of bloody hating them. Seriously, throw them in the bin. In fact I was preying on other people’s endless spells all weekend for easy battle tactics. I didn’t even have an unbind outside of Brodd standing on a Place of Power. Magic is for chumps!

Without Manifestations, my choices were more limited but the gameplan became even more straight forward. Have the Beast-smasher go to work deep on a flank, and then be able to get back in the game with run and charge, or to be very versatile with countering my opponent’s main unit types. For example I was really hoping to combo the Beast-smasher with the Kingslaughter Cowl for extra damage, but there wasn’t a heap of monsters I faced on the weekend so I never picked it unfortunately.

All the artefacts are great additions to a Mega. Extra-Calloused Feet is a match made in heaven with the Warstomper, but I really love having that flexibility on the Beast-smasher. And because of how much I valued that flexibility in list writing, I decided to go against the grain and put my heroic trait, Monstrously Tough (for an extra 5 wounds), onto the Beast-smasher for a nice and juicy 40 wounds. He was also the recipient of Prized Beast. This dude was roided out to the nines and won me a couple games alone!

The logic behind taking the Beast-smasher was that Cancon is hot as balls and there’s no faction terrain that’s worth taking a dedicated Mega as a counter. Any Mega can one-shot a piece of faction terrain, so the Gatebreaker is kind of in a weird space at the moment in my opinion. I really need to shout out Nate (Taco) for suggesting the Beast-smasher: it got my ass into gear and I converted one up ASAP.

I actually got into SOB with Brodd’s Stomp in 3rd edition. I loved throwing terrain around and having a good time doing it, but I’m not a huge fan of it currently. The charge mortals in normal SOB help tick out a bit of damage, while the traits and artefacts available are a little too good to pass on.

You also can’t take RORs in Brodd’s Stomp, and Braggit’s Bottle-snatchaz is actually on my list of things to get. I’m not sure if I could drop all of the Mancrushers for them though, they seem to be really impactful at the moment with how this list works. Plus I think 10″ move on the Megas is enough for the time being. I look at a run and charge with Braggit’s, or a 3d6″ charge from Kragnos, and I’m not sold that they’re impactful enough for their points. I think that’s why I liked the Amberbone Totem: it gets you that burst of mobility without costing any points, and if I didn’t think I needed it, I could just take another artefact.

Chapter Two: The Games

Sons can push a good amount of damage out now, but it’s still swingy. Hitting and wounding with everything is one of the best feelings in Warhammer, regardless of the army you’re playing. I reckon there was an average of 10 damage each from Brodd and the Beast-smasher, but there was always one spike in each game that swung momentum. There were a few total whiffs as well, which thankfully didn’t bite me in the ass too much. The Warstomper with Extra Calloused Feet was an absolute blender though: Rend 4 stomps into infantry is money! The addition of Prized Beast is huge as well, essentially getting All Out Attack on half of your army is not to be underestimated.

I was very lucky to always decide the initial turn order, either by winning the roll-off to see who went first or out-dropping my opponent in each game. As I said above, the 10” move and the various run and charges was more than adequate speed. It allowed me to blow up screens and tie points in Turn 1, usually leaving Megas on objectives or in good positions for a very strong and sometimes game-winning double turn.

Deployment depended on the battleplan and the matchup, as is usually the case. I played everything relatively central, forgoing any hope of taking the flanks in every game. Choosing Taker Tribe as my allegiance allowed me to spread my Megas out (not needing to keep them close for a ward save in the ever-popular Breaker tribe). I found I had a solid triangular position for them, where if one gets pressed, another can come over next turn to help out, or take the place of a fallen Mega. The babies were used to zone out space in the backfield or to go and deal with cheap units on objectives if there was a looming hammer I didn’t want hitting a Mega first. I really like the babies. They can do some damage if you roll alright, and they do charge mortals as well. I kamikaze’d them a few times just to put some chip damage on foot heroes near a couple of other units. Just having four Monsters to occupy space on the board gave me a lot of confidence to just “push shit forward and hope for the best” a lot of the time.

I can’t remember exactly, but I’d say everyone chose anti-Monster rend or had a pre-event gameplan with Field Sergeant. There was one game against Scott, who had a Trogg-heavy Gitz army. The -1 to hit spell really worried me so I had to position extremely well to avoid the 12” bubbles. The bottom of Turn 1 I landed a big charge with Brodd into Trugg, suplexed him to where I was able to pile in, out of the 12” bubble and one shot Trugg! I spiked the damage and did over 30 damage. Take it off!

In the same turn, my Beast-smasher was -2 to hit going into his Troggboss with the Clammy Cowl. Unable to avoid the bubble from the Gobbapalooza, I decided to “Roll the 4+ and see what happens”. I rolled a 5, and 26 mortals followed from the 5d6. Take it off! To Scott’s credit, he took it like an absolute champ and we continued to have a laugh for the rest of the game. This was definately my favourite moment from a game over the weekend!

3-0 overnight, and up first the next morning was Team Australia’s Nathan Thompson with his tournament-winning Bestigor spam. Firstly, I need to say that I respect Nathan so much. He’s a great guy both on and off the table, and watching his progress becoming the absolute juggernaut of a player he’s become has been amazing to observe. Nathan 5-0s most events and I went into our game on a very bad losing streak against him, and as a long-term BOC player myself I know that army well and I wasn’t overly confident in the list matchup.

However, the battleplan was The Vice and the game was going to go one of two ways:

• Either he drops 2 Megas before turn 4 and wins;
• Or he doesn’t, and he loses

I chose the Glowy Shield on the Beast-smasher and put him on one flank, while zoning out the other objective with babies, almost inviting Nathan into combat Turn 1 with the Beast-smasher:

Nathan lands his charge with 20 Bestigor, I turn off their command points with the Earthshaking Roar Rampage, and even All Out Defenced which give Nathan Crit 2 hits on 5+s. I rolled that many 6s to save to bounce mortals back, we ended up doing around the same damage to each other before I even swung back, and he only got through 13 damage. Most of the 20 Bestigor were dead on his turn 1. Absolutely huge.

Nathan chose to Take Their Land in the middle of the table where both Brodd and the Warstomper were camped out, and on my turn 1 I neutered that unit with the Warstomper. Nathan was down almost 40 of his 70 Bestigor by the end of Battleround 1. I won a double and proceeded to kill his Herdstone, take one of his objectives and mop up some of the smaller units on the table. To Nathan’s credit he tried to fight his way back into the game, but the damage was done and he didn’t have enough left in the tank to drop all 3 Megas. The Beast-smasher ended up taking on another 20 Bestigor, and took half of them down with him in the process.

It was one of the greatest victories of all time, and boy did I let him know it! Sorry for the endless gloating and shit-canning after the game mate. But take it as a compliment if you haven’t already!

Chapter 3: The Socials 

What’s the rhythm of Cancon away from the table? Simply put, its go go go! I never stop!

I’m all about the socials and have always loved Cancon for that. I’d like to think that Measured Gaming brought the concept of carpark beers to the forefront of a lot of players’ weekends. It’s very humbling to see so many different clubs have their own eskies full of beers to share in the celebrations of our hobby and our community. While it was difficult to get all the cars next to each other (due to a change of sheds this year), I certainly spent a good chunk of time in-between rounds bouncing around all the different groups, drinking their beers, and catching up on life in general.

We camp at the venue (which is located on the other side of the showgrounds) and that has taken off too! Some of the Melbourne guys were camping as well and we got to hang out all weekend away from the tables. Outside of a pretty severe noise complaint from 2am drunken shenanigans on the Friday night, with the threat of eviction if we did it again, the campgrounds were nice and chill.

I have always cooked a barbeque for the fine folks that decide to join us on the night after the main event, and I had the privilege of cooking for 30-odd people this year. Folks all the way from Darwin, Cairns, Melbourne and everywhere in between. Amazing vibes and memories. Thank you to everyone who came and hung out. I hope you can all make it again next year! And yes, this is also an open invitation to anyone who hasn’t been before.

Chapter 4: What’s next?

I reckon I’ve found my new army honestly. BOC has always been the love of my hobby life, but with them dead to me I’ve had to move on. I’ve had the most fun playing Sons at events since AOS2-era BOC, and I’ve only taken them to two events in less than 12 months: Vic GT last year and now Cancon. It’s fair to say that I have exceeded my own and defied everyone else’s expectations. Looking back I’ve only lost one game with them in a competitive setting. I have Vic GT 2025 in the works, but I’m unsure whether I’ll be playing or livestreaming the event on YouTube. I’m finally tying the knot and getting married in May, so I wont be travelling for the first half of the year.

Sons are a very fun army if you have the right mindset. I dont see them as one to take and just auto-win games like they used to be. I’d personally avoid Kragnos unless he is your jam, and I’d definitely suggest keeping yourself grounded with only 3 Megas. Having the 4 babies just lets you play the game a little more. Enjoy the process of hobbying them up, as they are a painter’s and converter’s wet dream.

One hobby tip is using shaved chalk for weathering effects. Its waaaaay cheaper than pigments and easy to use. Just shave some off with your hobby knife, add in some metholated spirits and paint it on with an old brush. I used an orange Crayola-branded chalk for my Sons army, and it comes out a treat.

As for what’s next: in Australia we’re doing a State of Origin style teams event which I believe got shifted to the back half of the year. Victoria captain Nathan says I’m on the team, but I’m unsure if that’s still the case after all the shit I was giving him on the weekend!

There’s a few Vic events happening this year and it looks as if they’re all booked in:

• Sigmar at the Arena (Melbourne), Feb 15 & Mar 15¹
• Vic GT (Bendigo), Mar 22-23²
• Lost Legion: Battle for the Bay (Geelong), Apr 12-13
• Arc of Sigmar (Sandown), May 3-4
• Fatal 4 Play Teams (Bendigo), Jun 28-29
• Lost Legion GT (Geelong), Sep 20-21
• BBBB (Bendigo), Oct 11-12
• Lost Legion GT (Geelong), Dec 6-7³

I’ll be looking to travel to as many as I can get to after June!

I’d like to shout out the organizers for Call to Glory. They are the real heroes for Age of Sigmar at Cancon. And I’d also like to shout out Liam Burnett-Blue for taking out Best General after a grueling Top 8 cut. Sorry I wasn’t there, but my priority was defending my Doubles title from last year. And failed miserably!

I also need to shout out my opponents:

• Rd1: Jon lee
• Rd2: Scott Batchelor
• Rd3: Zoran Tillers
• Rd4: Nathan Thompson 
• Rd5: Alastair Ashley

You’re all great players and great sports when things weren’t going your way on the table. This was the most difficult best sports vote I’ve ever had to do!

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1. It’s a new format: a 2-day GT spread across two dates instead of a single weekend ↩︎
2. Pete’s note: This is the big one, the State’s premium event. This is the one to travel to if you’re considering an event in Victoria ↩︎
3. Joel obviously knocked Nathan senseless, so the poor fella can’t think of a proper name for the different Geelong events ↩︎