Playing Chaos at CanCon

[Smeborg]

Dear All -

I can heartily recommend CanCon (Australian BB National Champs, late January every year). 7 games over 3 days, a good variety of races (I played 7 different races this year), a festival atmosphere (nearly everyone has to travel to Canberra), and seemingly acres of shops (I think every games retailer in Australia, large and small, sets up a stall). The most sociable tournament in this part of the world, in my experience, every game was full of mayhem, jollity and good sportsmanship.

My "Mainland Marauders" (Chaos) made their first foray in a tournament, and an honourable first outing it was. Coming 9th out of 46 teams, with 4 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses was much better than I had expected. CanCon is a "progression" tournament, just like a league (e.g. BCL), and Chaos are supposed to be slow starters, but I found this was not necessarily the case. Starting with 4 Warriors and 3 team re-rolls brings certain advantages against many teams.

I had some good fortune, in that I inadvertently lost my first game, allowing me to do a "submarine". I only played against 3 players who finished higher than me (3rd - draw, 5th - loss, 8th - win). The other 5 coaches who finished above me I know to be excellent players, I did well to avoid them (speaking strictly from the point of view of results). I also did well to only play once against Orcs once, there were a lot of Orc teams about. I also dodged the usual Dwarf teams with spammed Mighty Blow. I received in 6 out of 7 matches, something a team like Chaos likes to do. Here are the gory details:

1st match vs. Chaos Dwarfs. Lost 0-1 (CAS: 2-2). Kicked for the only time in the tourney, and overwhelmed my opponent with my raw strength from turn 2 onwards, I was all over him like a bad rash. I got hold of the ball, and should have won the game, but I made a positional error (I should have put the ball carrier next to the sideline to prevent his being sacked). He was sacked, I had a good chance to recover and score, but a 3+ pick-up with re-roll failed. My blunder was compounded when 2 Warriors failed to recover from KO at half-time (had I scored, I would have got to roll twice). Game effectively over, as the second half was 8 players vs. 10, against all that Block.

2nd match vs. High Elves. Won 2-1 (CAS: 3-1). A good grinding win in the end, with the team showing early signs of promise on the CAS front, albeit 1 was from a rock. Received and scored on turn 8, not without difficulty. Had 2 great opportunities in the second half to get the ball, they failed, my opponent scored eventually, leaving me 3 turns to score. When a riot turned this into 4 turns, the win became easier.

3rd match vs. Chaos Pact. Won 3-0 (CAS: 5-2). More good stuff on the CAS front, 1 from a foul. I went up on numbers, giving me the confidence to attempt a 3rd TD. My opponent's Big Guys failed to turn up to the party, they gifted me several turnovers.

4th match vs. Skaven. Drew 1-1 (CAS: 0-1 ahem). Dropped the ball on the first turn (not advisable against Skaven), managed somewhat miraculously to sack the ball-carrying Gutter Runner on turn 2 and recover the ball, for a turn 8 grinding score. Down on numbers for the whole of the 2nd half, I should have won, but I was robbed at the death when a turn 15 hand-off failed (3+ with re-roll). Such is BB. Just 3 SPPS from the match (TD).

5th match vs. Undead. Won 2-0 (CAS: 5-3). The high point on the CAS front, 1 from a foul, 1 from a surf, with numerous KOs as well. Won on numbers, helped by some friendly kick-off table results (e.g. 3 Ghouls stunned by a Pitch Invasion). An easier win than anticipated, as my opponent, a good coach, had 2 AG4 Blodge Ghouls. He only had 1 Mummy though, the other was killed by a foul in the previous game. This helped quite a bit, I suspect.

6th match vs. the dreaded Orcs. Lost 0-2 (CAS: ahem 0-7). Whoops. First action of the game, a 2-die block with Block - double skulls. 1st action of the 2nd turn - ditto. 1st action of the 3rd turn, a move, go-for-it, a 1. So after 3 turns I was out of re-rolls and my opponent had caused 3 CAS with his spammed Mighty Blow. Game effectively over at this point. In the second half, I started with 7 players, but tried to keep some sport going by sacking my opponent's ball carrier 2 or 3 times. However he recovered every time. Just 1 SPP from the match.

7th match vs. Lizardmen, a team I dread in tourneys. Won: 2-0 (CAS: 1-1). Managed to induce a Mercenary Chaos Warrior with Block, thanks to my previous opponent "helping me with my TV". This turned out to be the perfect inducement. I faced the Krox from hell, with Break Tackle, Guard, but more importantly he did not fail a thing in the first 6 turns (he dodged or went-for-it every turn). I had to move the ball from end to end, I coughed it up 3 times, but got lucky with the scatter (and a skull/both-down from the Krox on turn 7, attempting to surf my ball carrier after I had double sklulled on a blitz). I scrambled the ball in on turn 8 for my most improbable TD of the tourney. I pressed my opponent aggressively in the second half, he started to run out of Skinks, I managed to sack the ball carrier about 3 times and scramble the ball in on turn 15.

Overall: 4/1/2 with TDs 10-5, CAS ahem 16-17, 1 PC. Development was quite good, I gained 8 skills (but 4 were lost through "attrition"). 74 SPPs gained, 39 lost. Best player was a Chaos Warrior with +ST, Block (survived). He was outstanding, especially against the Skaven (for holding the ball) and against the Krox. Another Warrior gained Block, he was the first to skill up, but he later died. Top scorer with 3 TDs was a Beastmen with Dodge, Sure Hands (he missed the last game). Another Beastmen gained Sure Hands for the last game (he scored both TDs). 2 Beastmen gained Wrestle (1 died). A Beastmen copped a Niggle in the first game (he survived), another Beastmen copped -AV in game 2 (he later died). Leader might have been a better choice than Dodge.

As you can see, I suffered a lot of "attrition", 4 Deaths (3 of them were skilled players), 3 Permanent Injuries (1 in the last game, so equivalent to Badly Hurt), 4 Miss-Next-Game (1 saved by the Apoth, 1 however in the penultimate game, hence equivalent to Death), 6 Badly Hurt (1 Apoth'd to Reserves). Skewed to the wrong end of the Casualty table. Painful at the time, but it did not seem to change the performance of the team unduly (exception: I missed the dead Chaos Warrior with Block against the Orcs). Only 4 players started all 7 matches! I played with 1 journeyman twice, and with 2 Journeymen in the final, but 4 times I managed to start with 12 players and the Apoth (decent enough in a tourney). The 12th man (the Mercenary) made a big difference in the final. The Apoth was of limited use, I only used him twice IIRC, I may have used him wrongly 1 of these times (a skilled player died later in the match, but who knows).

I found Chaos rather resourceful on both offense and defense, and luxuriously fast and agile compared to Nurgle (whom I have played a lot). The team has a lot of raw blitz power, and are rarely out of the game. They play a nice blend of power and position. I will definitely take them on more tournament outings. In the right format, a Minotard with Claw would no doubt help against the likes of Orcs and Dwarfs (but I don't think you can reasonably start with one in a progression tourney).

All the best and LLBB!

[SunDevil]

Great report, smeborg! Well done, sir!

[Smeborg]

Thanks, Chance, for your kind words.

There is a certain childlike excitement at taking a team to a tournament for the first time. For me it is doubly exciting, as I have never played Chaos in a proper league. I thought I would let readers share in some of that excitement.

I am off in a couple of hours to another tournament, this time in Wellington (capital city of NZ). The tourney is the Capital Shield, or CAS. I am taking Chaos again, this time there is a handicap in favour of the teams that underperform in the NAF rankings. This handicap enables me to take a Minotard with Claw, Block. We will see how he gets on...

All the best.

[JaM]

Keep 'em coming!

[SunDevil]

I really want to hear how the Block Claw Mino gets on!