Cancon 2024 - State of Origin Championship Report By Garry Wait As part of the World Series, the biggest gaming event in the southern hemisphere occurred just last month on the 27-28th January in Canberra Australia. Traditionally this has been a singles event for WWIII: Team Yankee but starting last year, we decided as a national group to mix it up. Last year we had teams of three playing one on one vs another team of three. But this year, we wanted to make a splash with a really exciting format.

Thus, State of Origin. Each State or Territory in Australia – other than Northern Territory and Tasmania – were represented by teams of two players running a total of 160pts on an 8x6ft table (2.4m by 1.8m wide) as a doubles event. As hoped, this gave advantages by having a MUCH larger area for movement and a more relaxed event with at times highly experienced players able to play alongside brand new players. This was the highlight of the weekend – no rules disputes and a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

Each round of the four the weekend was played over was supposed to be three hours duration but in actual fact, the first three rounds went anywhere from 3 hours 10 minutes to 3 hours and 35 minutes. The random nature of the finish time proved to be good for keeping people on their toes.

As further encouragement to get people playing quickly, we gave a bonus VP for army lists correct and submitted at least one week prior to the date, plus we scored the event as follows:   Win outright – 5 VP   Lose or Draw – 1 VP   For each Formation destroyed – 1 VP

The more experienced players realised that fast play and focusing on mission objectives and formation destruction were the most crucial things and as such, allowed each team to have rolls as required. Games went from only two turns in some games to eight turns for others. Other restrictions were each Formation used had to be unique and Spearhead and Observers could only work for their own player not the team. This meant that in one instance, both players brought VDV Soviet Airborne but one had VDV Afgantsy while the other had regular 3+ to hit VDV. This was enough – coupled with beautiful painting – to get Ry Cunningham and Nicholas Cargo the Best Themed Team award for the weekend however.

Originally this event was supposed to be run and co-ordinated by a separate non player umpire but he was called away for work at the last minute. This meant that I was having to organise the weekend and play, which meant I relied upon help and guidance especially regarding the draw from Matthew Dixon, a great TO who has run a highly successful and enjoyable Flames Of War event at CanCon for many years. As Matthew is not an expert on WWIII: Team Yankee, we enlisted some highly experienced players to act as impartial umpires on rules queries that did NOT involve their own games. . These players were Django Upton, Scott Elaurant, Sofia Chambers and myself. Many thanks to those players for providing their expertise. I know I heard many positive bits of feedback on the weekend.

Missions were played using the extended missions matrix and had the stipulation that reserves were assigned 40% to EACH player’s force, not each team and only ONE Ambush per team not per player. Distances for scattered reserves and deployment were NOT adjusted for the larger tables and this was a popular thing – being able to play on a table where artillery distances AND anti air ranges were so important. This really made air and artillery especially interesting when counters were not as easily brought to bear vs these threats.

Best Painted was fiercely contested with Phil Baker getting the nod for his beautiful Operation Granby Desert Brits that were a treat for the eyes.

Best Sport was also hotly contested and went to William Warne-Jones who initially was short a team mate and ended up roping in his father to play his first ever WWIII: Team Yankee games at the State of Origin. Well done William for great sporting and excellent attitude.

Overall placements were the following: Place Name Forces State Result 1st Nick Ashby Garry Wait Soviet BTR Infantry Soviet VDV Afgantsy QLD 22pts 2nd Sofia Chambers Terrance Trudgett French VAB Coy / VBL Sqdn Canadian Mech NZ QLD 12pts 3rd Django Upton Adam Trapski Soviet T62 / BMP Infantry Czech T55 VIC VIC 9pts 4th Darren Rodrigo Scott Elaurant NVA T72 Soviet VDV Afgantsy / Afgantsy NSW SA 9pts (inc bye) 5th Nigel Brand Phil Le Hunt French AMX10P US M113 Cav / Iraqi T62 Ally VIC VIC 8pts 6th Joey Freeman-Clune Richard Calvert British Chieftains US M1 Tanks NSW NSW 8pts (inc bye) 7th Best Painted Matt Dixon Phil Baker WG Mech Marder 2 Brit Medium Recce ACT QLD 7pts (inc bye) 8th Richard Tyrer David Davidson Aust Tanks / Aust Mech French VAB WA WA 5pts 9th Best Sport William Warne Jones David Jones Aust LAV / Mech Canadian Airborne QLD QLD 5pts 10th Best Theme Ry Cunnigham Nicholas Cargo VDV Afgantsy VDV NSW NSW 5pts

Nick Ashby and Garry Wait win first place

Sofia Chambers and Terrance Trudgett win second place

Django Upton and Adam Trapski win third place

Phil Baker wins Best Painted	Nicholas Cargo wins Best Theme

Special thanks to Battlefront and Aetherworks for their exceptional support for this weekend’s gaming. ~ Garry