The first standout factor is the size of the event. With 220 registered players, it's unique in the sheer volume of players that are in each bracket. Your run for the top is so heavily influenced by the draw.
Not only that, but to hit the podium is going to require an undefeated run, as well as going as close as possible to maxing out secondary objectives. It also means that First, Second and Third will not even play each other. With the draw being as broad as it is, you could very easily get lucky and blitz through with some fantastic matchups. On the other side of the coin, you could hit a top tier player round one, lose and then come up against a second top tier player who lost an unlucky game, plummeting you to the bottom tables in the space of two games.
With that in mind, I'm coming into CanCon with a very relaxed mindset. While I'm by no means going to let myself go down without a fight, I'm well aware that much of my weekend is out of my control. I'll face who I face and try my hardest to win all of my games, but there's a good chance I'll come up against one of the many skilled players going who just have the perfect counter to my list.
With so much up to chance, I came into my list design from a different perspective than I usually would. I designed a list that was, for the most part, going to win or lose games very quickly. Despite the model count, the force kills fast and dies fast, so no matter what happens, I'll be finishing my games, which is a priority for me.
So, I'd locked in Beasts of Chaos as my Battletome, and before I started putting together the army, I had to settle on Greatfrays and Warscroll Battalions.
The Greatfray was pretty easy. I toyed with the idea of not taking a Greatfray for the freedom of picking command traits and so on (Ancient Beyond Knowing, I'm looking at you...). But in the end, I went with Gavespawn. Being able to drop CP into increasing the damage output on a unit combos perfectly with a glass cannon army like BoC. The trait is ok. An extra unbind isn't awful. The artefact is pretty special; sure, there's the risk of mortal wounds coming back at you, but adding 2 to the damage of any weapon is solid! I think it's by far the strongest Greatfray, in regards to both taxes and viability in the game.
When it came to Warscroll Battalions, it was a bit tougher. I knew that I wanted to take one, as it cuts down deployment drops significantly, which is important for an army as fragile as Beasts. Desolating Beastherd is really good, and encompasses a huge variety of units, but my decision to go with a Phantasmagoria of Fate was for two reasons.
One, because of the rules. It's the only Battalion that encompasses Enlightened, which is a unit that I really wanted to include. It also gives every non-wizard unit a 9" Unbind, which is fantastic for at least attempting to challenge those magic-heavy armies. It might not be the most effective defence, but it's something. More importantly, it brings my drops down to one, if I choose.
The second reason was for theme. I wanted to put some extra effort into this army with some conversions and extra touches. So, of the four God Battalions, the obvious choice was Tzeentch. Tzeentch is currently the only subfaction with its own models within the army, and it seemed a shame to turn my back on any options in the book.
So, my army had its framework and it's colour scheme. A good start.
Once I have my foundation laid, my favourite thing to do is to lock in Heroes. The first choice was a Bray Shaman. It's really hard to leave this fellow out. The movement buff alone and the fact that he's a wizard is worth the points on its own. I made the difficult decision to make my Bray Shaman the general. This is primarily because he unlocks Bestigor as Battleline, but being forced to take the extra Unbind as my Trait means that it's not being risked on one of my frontline heroes.
A Tzaangor Shaman was an obvious pick, with the inclusion of Enlightened. He's a fast, flying wizard, and increases the effectiveness of one of my biggest hammers.
The Shaggoth is one of those choices where it was less about gameplay, and more because I wanted to include this model in my army. I mean, his spell lore is fantastic, and he can take a punch, but I'm definitely not taking him for his combat prowess. I've had huge spikes of damage with him, but more often than not, I find that he usually flops.
The Doombull was a bit of a renegade pick. I needed a hero to be the bearer of the Mutating Gnarlblade, and while a Beastlord would probably be a better pick, thanks to his re-rolling 1's to hit and more attacks, there was just something too tempting about a 120-pt Hero walking around with a Damage 5 weapon. On the bright side, he has a convenient little heal built in when he kills a unit (which isn't that much of a stretch, considering his killing power). He's my brawler hero; someone that I have no qualms about launching into pretty much anything. He's big, he's angry, and he cannot be ignored.
With the four heroes locked in for the Battalion, I moved on to the bulk of the list.
I locked in my Battleline first, with two big units of Bestigor, and two small units of Ungor. I mean, Ungor aren't going to kill anything, but if you need speed bumps, zone-blockers or sacrificial lamb (pun fully intended).
I simply had to throw in a unit of six Enlightened. They're just a huge threat. They die to a sword made of soggy tissues, but if they manage to hit something, they hit it hard! I also really like the fact that they're fast, can fly, and can punch an exposed support hero into the dirt with impunity.
I also popped a unit of Ungor raiders in. Nothing special, but the pre-game move gives me the option to put that little bit of extra distance between myself and whatever is trying to bulldoze my more valuable elements.
This left me with 200 points. And these were spent purely with Gavespawn in mind. I spent 100 points to buy two Command Points for those juicy command abilities (meaning that in my first hero phase, I'm sitting on four). The other 100 points went into two Spawn for two reasons.
1: I don't want to have one of my characters meet the Reaper before I can use my Command Ability.
2: There are two because one is very easy to kill and even easier to bomb out on the random move roll...
The last piece of the puzzle is a little artefact that my Shaggoth carries, thanks to the warscroll battalion. The Aetherquartz Broach, which is perfect for an army like this, that so readily uses Command Points. Any item that regenerates Command Points is alright in my book!
So, there you go. My army cuts down to a three-drop, which is nice, and if it needs to, can get across the board in the first turn and punch something to death. While I'm not neccessarily huge on an alpha strike, some match ups may leave me with no other option, as I cannot survive a sustained assault on my army.
As I touched on earlier, the army wins or loses very quickly, and is a blast to play with (and hopefully against).
Going into the event, I'd be happy with 3 Wins 3 Losses, but I would be thrilled with 4-2. In an environment like this, it's so hard to even predict how I'll perform, because so much is up to the tiniest details! I could have four great match ups and butcher my way through, or I could face five tough-as-nails armies that I just can't handle. Only time will tell.
If I go 4-2, I don't think its outside the realm of possibility to hit Top 50. From a competitive standpoint, even 50th place will net you 75+ out of a possible 100 Ranking Points. With the pool so densely packed, the incremental drop in Rank Points based on finishing position is tiny, and there are a ton of points up for grabs. Hopefully, I can leave a mark!
How are you feeling going into CanCon? Feeling confident?
Eat Bray Love
Gabe
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
- Greatfray: Gavespawn
Mortal Realm: Hysh
Leaders
Great Bray Shaman (100)
- General
- Trait: Unravelling Aura
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (180)
- Artefact: Aetherquartz Brooch
Doombull (120)
- Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade
Tzaangor Shaman (180)
Battleline
30 x Bestigors (300)
20 x Bestigors (240)
10 x Ungors (60)
- Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (60)
- Mauls & Half-Shields
Units
10 x Ungor Raiders (80)
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc (280)
1 x Chaos Spawn (50)
1 x Chaos Spawn (50)
Battalions
Phantasmagoria of Fate (200)
Total: 1900 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 3
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 143
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