Good afternoon everyone,
Well, CanCon 2016 has been and gone, and what an event it has been. I have now attended three CanCon events over the years. Once in 1997 (yep, seriously), in 2013 and now in 2016. I can unequivocally say that 2016 was by far the best I’ve seen, for many reasons. Allow me to explain.
Firstly, I was playing in a new type of tournament to what I usually play in. I’ve been playing 40k (now 30k as far as I’m concerned) for over 20yrs now, and I’ve not really dabbled into too many other systems. So to participate in a new system in a tournament setting was a new prospect for me. As I predicted, the event organiser was right on top of his game. Right from the players pack, to the terrain, to the trophies was all superb. Best of all though was all of the great gamers I met from all over Australia. Even Perth had a representation! As you all know, the person on the other side of the table during a game makes or breaks the whole experience. So playing in a system where all of the gamers were seasoned veterans made a big difference. It seems to be a feature of the Epic Armageddon system, that only real wargaming die-hards seem to play it. Which I like. You have to be committed to get involved, which requires character and experience (for example, you can’t just simply order an army online and off you go, amongst other things). Both of these qualities were abundant in all of the gamers that participated in the tournament, and let me tell you it makes such a difference. Speaking of which, I need to give a shout out to the wargaming club, Newcastle Legions. Almost half of the players were from this club (12-14) and they also brought a few tables worth of scenery. Every guy I met from this club was awesome, and I hope to make it to their flagship event, Castle Assault.
The second reason why CanCon was so good in 2016 was just the energy of the event. There just seemed to be lots of people attending. Both spectators and participants. There were lots of great vendors in attendance too. So it really made it worthwhile for me, because I could cruise around and see whats new, and how other systems do hobby. Which often is a great source of ideas and inspiration.
So, how did I go? Well, I played in six games over the two days. I didn’t have very high expectations for my performance, as prior to attending the tournament, I’d play only 1 game of Epic Armageddon 40k. Here are the match ups for the six games, I took a generic Codex Marines list (Using models from my epic 30k World Eaters army).
Game 1 – Squats, yes Squats. Those tenacious little midgets live on in Epic Armageddon. It was an interesting game because there I’d never played a Squat army before (even in 28mm 40k) and the fan rules for them is (apparently) still under development. The biggest take-away from this game for me was just how my army operates and what you can and can’t get away with using them. While I didn’t win the game, I did learn a lot. Thankfully I didn’t encounter the Squats again during the tournament, they’re tough little guys.
Game 2 – Space Marines. I managed to win this game, mostly by fluke though. It was good playing against another marine player, to see how they do business.
Game 3 – Eldar. Just like in 40k, Eldar in Epic Armageddon are tricky customers. I didn’t win, but I achieved a moral victory by killing his Phantom titan. Apparently this is quite difficult (it was!). Interestingly, my Whirlwinds did quite a bit of damage to it, which in itself is a miracle and significantly contributed to its demise. However, this was a truly fun game and I enjoyed every second of it.
Game 4 – Tyranids. I made a silly tactical error early on in the game that meant I had an uphill battle on my hands all the way. Had I not been so bellicose in my first turn, I’m confident I would have had a strong victory. I did manage to turn it around (through some exceptional luck on my behalf, and some exceptional bad luck on my opponents behalf) so it wasn’t a complete pasting, but a loss non-the-less.
Game 5 – Necrons. Again, this is one of those armies that just like in 40k 28mm, they’re tricky to deal with. I got totally hammered in this game due to not recognising that the army was a one trick pony, but oh what a trick it is. Had I deployed with more foresight and understood a little more about how these guys operate, things would have turned out differently. In the end, it was a pretty frustrating game.
Game 6 – Space Marines. This was a Salamanders army (not the one I painted) and was very similar to mine (in terms of composition). By this stage of the tournament I had a few tricks up my sleeve. I managed to get the initiative early on in the game and seriously compromised his core command unit. Win to me.
The up side was I did win best painted. To be honest, this came as somewhat of a surprise. There were several extremely well painted armies present (in my opinion), most notably an Eldar army. So I was pretty honoured to get this accolade.
Here are some photos of the tables and the armies.
Love this table, which is an homage to the Imperial Airbase “Typha-IV” as presented in Imperial Armour Model Masterclass Vol. 1. (if you don’t have it, you should. It’s a must have for all model wargaming hobby enthusiasts). 
As you can see, all of the terrain was first class. Super impressed.
The old GW Warhound Titan, compared to the 6mm version of the Forge World Warhound. Interestingly, I’ve seen a similar comparison between the old Armour Cast Warhound and the 28mm Forge World Warhound. The size difference is comparable there too. 
The World Eaters desperately defend the township from being overrun by the Tyranids in game 4. I did managed to turn the tide around (pardon the pun) but it was too little too late. All I can say is Land Speeders in Epic Armageddon are the bomb!
There were a few Titan Legion armies present.
This is my World Eaters that ended up taking out best painted. I like the composition of the army, I doubt I’d change anything. However now I’m a little wiser I would certainly do things tactically a lot differently.
So thats it for this wash up. My holidays are rapidly coming to an end, and I have many unfinished projects on my bench. I’ll be away next week for work, so I won’t be able to get any painting done. However, when I return home next Friday, I’m going to use the following weekend to attack whats left. We’ll see how we go. I’ve also been invited as a guest on a friend of mines podcast. You’ve probably heard of it, The Eye of Horus. The shows host, Tim & Michael are two great guys, and in the unlikely event you’ve not listed to their podcast, go and download a few episodes now. They’re knowledge of the various GW gaming universes (WHFB, AoS, 40k and 30k) is encyclopedic! They recently attended ACT of Heresy, which was run in Canberra over the same weekend as CanCon. I had too much time pressure to visit it (I did lend them my new ZM board though!) and by all accounts it was a resounding success, and has set a new bench mark for wargaming tournaments in Australia. There is an impressive photo gallery of the event here and here.
Until next time, take care
John
The Painting Bunkerc y 