Cancon - Story of a Daemon Hunter ~ Part 1

Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 18:42:08 +1100
From: "Gatt, Julian JJ" <[email protected]>
Reply to: [email protected]
Subject: [WHFB] Cancon - Story of a Daemon Hunter ~ Part 1 (long)

Ok, as you are probably all aware, this weekend saw the running of the
Cancon convention in Australia, with Warhammer Fantasy being a major
tournament. In all, 42 players made the journey to the nation's capital, in
an attempt to kill, destroy and win some prizes - but most importantly, an
attempt to have some not too serious fun and make some new friends.

After hearing that a Bloodthirster was probably going to be making an
appearance, I decided that I needed something capable of destroying the
master of hand to hand, so set about making my own combat monster. I ended
up deciding upon a Chaos Slaaneshi Warrior army. I came close to taking my
Lizards again, but after using them last year, and wanting to take different
armies to each tournament, I came up with Lord Skekski's Daemon Hunters.

Lord Skekski ~ Chaos Lord
Mark of Slaanesh, Chaos Armour, Flail of Skulls, Allure of Slaanesh,
Regeneration, 2x Steeds of Slaanesh for Chariot.

Retinue

7 Marauder Horsemen + Chaos Knight Leader (inclusive of Standard Bearer)
Light Armour, Flails, Warhorses (Chaos Steed), Banner of Sorcery

Marauder Chariot
Flail, Scythes, Warbanner

____________

Master Lupus ~ Lvl 3 Sorceror
Sorceror's Mark of Slaanesh, Chaos Armour, Additional Hand Weapon, Black
Amulet, Skullstaff, Warpstone Charm, Steed of Slaanesh

Retinue

12 Chaos Warriors (inclusive of Standard bearer and Musician)
Chaos Armour, Shields, Standard of Shielding

____________

Gillian the Bound ~ Lvl 1 Sorceror
Sorceror's Mark of Slaanesh, Chaos Armour, Black Gem of Gnar, Steed of
Slaanesh

Retinue

12 Marauders (inclusive of Standard Bearer)
Flails

_____________

Normally, I don't tool my army for a single style of opponent, but I thought
"hey, if I lose all my games, but get to kill a dog daemon, then it will
have been a successful tournament".... I don't like the idea of taking
Greater Daemons, (of any persuasion, but especially a BT in a game of less
then 4K points, but especially a tournament game, where they become even
more unbalanced). The army that I designed I believed to be fairly weak.
Sure, it had some major advantages, and some strong points, but overall, not
as strong as my other tournament armies. But, I had spent long and hard
painting it, (actually coming 6th in the Paint Boss - thanks guys, the
cheques are in the mail), so thought, hell, it's just fun - where's that
BT....

Lord Skekski was obviously the main punch of this force, with the sorcerors
being the second. The troops, unfortunately were there to allow my
characters, to take a few shots, and if lucky, get into hand to hand combat
where they should prove useful, (especially the warriors and the cav).
Gillian the Bound, carried the Black Gem of Gnar, not to be a cheesy git and
launch an attack immediately on the enemy, but to use only in case of
emergency. In the end, I only gemmed 2 things for the entire tournament.

As for magic, it would be my bane. With only the Skullstaff, Banner of
Sorcery and Warpstone Charm, I was feeling more then a little naked. I
normally run a very potent magic phase. This army would see me running a
weak one, hopefully Mr Chris Will and his undead, (and any like minded
armies), would not come my way....

The games would be scored on the following system, (which looked very
similar to the one that Carl and I used for SAGA last year....) ;-)

Using VP 100

Win of 0-50 = 5-5 draw
win of 51-750 = 6-4 win/loss
win of 751 - 1500 = 7-3 win/loss
win of 1501 + = 8-2 win/loss

Also, at the completion of each game, you would rank your opponent out of 10
for Games Boss, (sportsmanship, good nature etc). Though this wasn't
officially army composition, people would utilise it as such during the
tournament for that same reason to a certain extent.... (part of the feel
good factor).

______________

First Day....

Well, the first day came, and I was to be placed against one of the
international showings for the first battle. You see, 3 New Zealanders, (2
ex National Champions and the current National Champion), had decided to
come over and try to beat us Aussies, (as they couldn't do it in the Rugby,
the League, the Cricket, or any sport you'd care to name - much like the
Poms really!!) :-) As Richard wanted to truly find out how good they were,
he placed them against people that he knew were competent... unfortunatley,
I was one of those people.

Thus, my first game would be against Mark Plant with his Orc and Goblins -
oops, sorry, Goblins and hired orcs! It was an interesting game, with the
vastly different rule interpretations being one of the most memorable parts
of it. But as we had a few disagreements on rules, so too did we have a
great laugh and a good time. Mark was a pretty cool guy, who had the most
amazing bad luck, (or at least so it seemed at the time). It was a game
that he should have won, outplaying me quite comprehensivley. Yet, in the
end, my forces of depravity won a 6-4 game. My general actually died 3
times during this game, yet Regeneration kept seeing him stand back up. In
this game, I completely forgot about my Allure of Slaanesh and my Sorcerors
marks.... thankfully, they didn't really effect the game too much, (only 1
spell against my mage IIRC). My general died from a chariot, pumpwagon, and
a heart of woe each time, but was still standing at the end of the game.....


With the first game *embarresingly* won, and out of the way, the nerves had
settled to allow me to get into the hang of the games. My second battle
would be against a guy from Victoria. Going by the name of Matthew
McMurrich, his WoodElf army was supperbly painted. However, Matthew was
still green when it came to playing Warhammer, only having played a few
games before hand. In this game, Lord Skekski started off like a tornado,
killing all but one of the Dryads in the opening charge, breaking them,
pursuing and running into the Warhawk riders. These promptly died to a
combination of missile fire, (he fired into combat as he knew that they
would die anyway), and my chariot, as did his Great Eagle, which he had
foolishly charged into my general before shooting. However, his army proved
incredibly hard to crack, and although I broke virtually his whole army at
certain points, I never managed to catch or destroy anything else. His
general and my level 3 mage ended the game still locked in a challenge that
had lasted 6 hand to hand phases, with his general only on one wound, my
mage unhurt. This was the first game that I gemmed something, his level 3
mage using high magic (Cancon rules allowed level 3 WE and Skaven to take
High and Grey Seer respectivley). The gem though, wore off on the first
turn, but it was little problem, as my mage managed to out muscle his,
broke, but as written above, failed to catch him. I won 6-4.

Finally, as the day started to draw late, (we had a very late start due to
problems with tables not having arrived - absoloutley no fault of Richard I
might add), the third round was drawn, with my Daemon hunters being paired
off with David Cross' Dogs of War army. David was making use of the Book of
Ashur to draw colour magic, specifically grey, and was using it as the basis
for his tacticsl. As luck was with me, he didn't manage to dominate the
game with magic, and I was able to defeat him 7-3. This game was quite
frustrating actually, as my general charged his who was out in the open on a
steed, all by himself. However, I couldn't put a single wound through his
armour of protection or his black amulet, and infact, his black amulet
rebounded 2 wounds back on me over 2 rounds of combat that didn't
regenerate..... (which hurt). However, finally, he failed his break test
(when he charged pikemen into the chariot, the pikes horribly dying), and
his general was run down without suffering a wound. The rest of the game
went my way, with only a galloper cannon (minus the character), and his
level 3 and level 1 mage surviving the end of the battle. He failed to kill
anything of mine bar a few marauders.

Thus the first day ended with my Chaos Warriors recording 3 wins from 3
games, a total of 19 points out of a possible 24.

    --> Julian
    Central Coast, Australia
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