Cancon Day 1 - Tribal Maori

Last Thursday I drove up to Canberra for Cancon for the first time in six years. Cancon is the largest wargaming convention in Australia, and is held every Australia Day weekend:
https://cgs.asn.au/cancon/

On the way up Ara, Bruce, Lon and I (in two cars) stopped to have our packed lunch in Holbrook, NSW in the park next to HMAS Otway (S 59), an Oberon-class submarine of the Royal Australian Navy between 1968-94.

More on HMAS Otway can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Otway_(S_59)

First day of Cancon, on the Friday, I played in a Tribal tournament with Ara. It was small, only six of us, but was good to play against new players. I had spent the early part of January painting my Maori and some New Zealand themed miniatures.

Warbands were limited to 8-12 Honour points for units, skills and upgrades. The total Honour for each warband was 20 Honour. My warband list consisted of:

Tanehokahoka's Trust - 11 Honour Point Warband

Manaaki Te Heuheu - Chief (1 Honour)
x1 Long Weapon
'Skilled' skill

Tāmati - Shaman (0 Honour)
x1 Short Weapon
'The Shaman' skill

Ari - Hero (1 Honour)
x1 Short Weapon

Kai - Hero (1 Honour)
x1 Short Weapon

Footrot - Hero (3 Honour)
x1 Long Weapon
'Seasoned' skill

The Tui - Warriors (1 Honour)
x1 Long Weapon

The Pipiwharauroa - Warriors (1 Honour)
x1 Long Weapon

The Pukeko - Warriors (1 Honour)
x1 Short Weapon

Black Cap Berzerkers - Warriors (1 Honour)
x1 Long Weapon

Hairy Maclary and friends - Hunting Pack (1 Honour)

Here are some photos of the four games:

In Tribal, if two Jokers are played in the same Exchange during combat, this heralds
a bad omen - perhaps an earthquake shakes the ground or the sun is suddenly dimmed by a passing thunderhead. Aside from the normal outcome of the Exchange, all units on both sides of the battle take 1 wound immediately as morale falters and men flee.

This happened a number of times for me during the day...

 Below my hero Footrot with the Kiwi Laser flag:

A group photo of Schnitzel von Krumm (with a very low tum), Bitzer Maloney (all skinny and bony), Bottomley Potts (covered in spots), Hercules Morse (as big as a horse) and Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy. The miniatures are from Eureka Miniatures, expect for Hercules who's from Brigade Models' Celtos range (CLT-303a Hunting Hounds).

If you don't know who they are:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairy_Maclary

A little chaotic, but it was good to get a fair number of games in and see some of the tactics employed in a larger game. I also came second which was nice.

The Fokker Scourge 1916

My planned game this month fell through, so I joined the large multi-player Wings of Glory event that was being hosted by Trevor from the Nunawading Wargames Association. All the WWI airplanes were supplied along with the beautiful terrain that he had made.

The mission was simple:

Oberleutnant Max Immelmann
Feldflieger Abteilung 62

Your orders are to patrol above the trench lines in sector 23456e and support allied Roland aircraft of FFA 229b engaged in attacking the British ground forces. FFA 229b has been attacking without any resistance for the last four days, but it is suspected that the British will soon send scounts to stop them. Protect the aircraft of FFA 229b from British scout attacks.

Available aircraft:
x4 Fokker E.III
x2 LFG Roland C.II

We deplayed first, with the British then appering anywhere (they had dropped out of the clouds).

The game was a lot of chaos, fun and the terrain was a real pleasure to play on. The buildings were Brigade Models and the aircraft were Ares' Wings of War / Wings of Glory 1/144 scale miniatures. I wasn't able to play in the afternoon games, but definitely has me thinking I should pull this game out again.