Cancon - Story of a Daemon Hunter ~ Part 3

Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 18:42:31 +1100
From: "Gatt, Julian JJ" <[email protected]>
Reply to: [email protected]
Subject: [WHFB] Cancon - Story of a Daemon Hunter ~ Part 3 (long)

Day 3, and I felt like my brain was melting. I knew who I would be fighting
today first up, having had to help Richard the night before, but by no way
would this help me against him. Neil Steyr, defending champion, playing
Beastmen. Richard decided that now, after 3 years, our "Long haired Hippy
Grudge Match", as he liked to coin it, would become tradition.

Reason :
1997, Neil and I played first game on Monday, (round 7), and it resulted in
his victory.
1998, Neil and I played first game on Monday, (round 7), and it resulted in
my victory.
1999, Neil and I would play first game on Monday, (round 7) - we both joked
about having a draw and going to the pub. As it turned out, we should have.

Through absolutley no fudging, it had happened that Neil and I would play
each other in the same manner for the 3rd time in a row. Therfore, in his
normal poor humour, Richard came up with the afore mentioned grudge match
title, and made it tradition. It now appears that Neil and I will be
forever playing each other on round 7 of Cancon.... but hey, he is a great
guy, (yes I know - I've used that a few times), and the games are always
very tactically challenging and a joy to be part of.

This game, ended in a draw! And no - we didn't orchestrate it that way,
though the question was asked a few times.

Neil's main unit of Gors was led by his General, (with Armour of Protection,
Crown of Command and Sky Arrow of Naoler), Champion with Black Gem, and Mage
with Skullstaff and something else. I knew from experience the way that he
designed his armies, and so intended to take out his unit in one fell swoop
with all 3 of my warlords. My general into his, my level 1 sorceror into
his champion to gem his gem bearer, and my level 3 into his shaman. It
would have worked, and was very close to getting off, everything was lined
up. But then, just as Neil was about to Blunder into my trap, he saw
something, sat back, and then swore his head off, realising what was going
to happen. Well, what he thought was that I was going to gem his general -
but it was close enough to the plan.

Neil then proceeded to try and avoide the charges of my characters at all
costs, and promptly kept turning his unit around so that I couldn't get a
charge against his characters. I kept placing my level 1 mage side on, 1"
away from the front of his unit so that it couldn't move, and kept trying to
get him to fight, but he kept avoiding it. Finally, the game finished, with
Neil's Beastmen doing piroets that would have made any Ballerina proud. I
ended up getting his unit of Minotaurs, Ungors and a chariot, whilst he got
my Marauder cav that fled from a combined charge of Harpies and Dragon Ogres
rather then let him get the Standard and an extra 100 VP. The result was
Neils by around 3 VP, and thus a draw. Now, why we didn't just go to the
pub, I'll never know?

Game 2, final game of the tournament and the day would be against Paul Naco,
the organisers brother..... or so I had thought. However, a single clerical
error meant that this couldn't happen, as James Guidotti, (list member known
as Vampire, and a fellow competitor Matt Lubbock had already fought, and
Paul and James had already fought).... therefore, I would fight James, and
Paul would fight Matt.

James is a good friend, and fun to play against, but neither I, nor James
wanted to play each other if possible, (traveling close to 500 odd KM's), to
play someone that you play regulary is unfortunate, but it couldn't be
avoided. So, we set about playing.

James was using a Slaaneshi Daemon Army, this one with Beastmen allies. The
game was fast paced and over quite quickly. At the end of the battle, all
of James' troops and characters lay dead, with only a handful of my
marauders having been killed. Once again, as with Andrew Hunt the day
before, this battle devolved into a massive bloody combat in the centre of
the table that involved My general, level 1 mage, Marauder Horsemen and
Maruader Infantry, his Daemon Prince, Daemonette Steeds and Daemonette
infantry. I have to feel sorry for James at one point. With both his
Daemoniette units charging my general, his daughter who was at the game
rolled his allure of Slaanesh tests, with not a single model managing to be
able to attack, no rolls below 16 on 3d6. Oh well, that's Chaos for you!
:-)

At the completion of the game, I had finished the tournament on 6-1-1, with
a total of 50 points from a maximum possible of 64. A great tournament,
heaps of fun, and very close.

As the prizes were read out, I was taken by complete surprise to find that I
had placed 2nd overall, thinking myself to be closer to 6th, but the prize
was great, and as Neil came 3rd, it was a moral victory! :-) Chris Will,
aka Metus Actor, aka Wargfang, came 1st, a very deserving champion, a git
and a pom. And his inability to stop shaking after winning the award and
receiving his trophy from Neil the ex-champion, was quite funny.

Anyway, for those Aussie Listmembers interested, our pictures were taken for
White Dwarf, and should appear in the May edition. For those overseas
members, aren't you glad your not Aussies!! :-)

An excellent tournament, a great weekend. I only hope that I can get anual
leave next year to participate again.... bloody Y2K stuff!

    --> Julian
        Central Coast, Australia
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