Road to the World Champs – Part 1

Hello, my name is Henry, and I am lucky enough to be going to the Age of Sigmar World Championships in November. When I say lucky enough, there are two distinct parts to that. 

Firstly, Australia was only given 5 golden tickets (to my knowledge), so they were always going to be hotly contested. I won my ticket at Cancon’s Call to Glory, coming in 4th out of the 200-odd people. There were three people who beat me on tiebreakers (as with so many players, there were six undefeated players), but unfortunately for them, the second part/s of the challenge, the cost and time, came into play. It’s not cheap to travel internationally for a tournament, between flights, hotels, insurance, food, and taking time away from work and families can be a dealbreaker for many. So the golden ticket dropped down to me, and it managed to time in perfectly with everything else going on, and as I am a wargaming supplier, I can justify it as a business expense (sort of).

So, with the ticket secured, time off booked in,and the costs mostly covered (I’ll definitely be pushing some sales to cover the rest), it’s time to start figuring out the rest.

My Background

I’ve been playing tabletop wargames for over 20 years now. The first models I ever bought was a box of Saurus Warriors, the old hunchbacked ones, which I lovingly painted with my school acrylic paints. I shudder to think at how they turned out, as it’s so long ago I can’t really remember, only that they had green skin and black scales. But those models were the start of a lifelong hobby (or addiction, depending on who you ask).

Despite my first models being from Warhammer Fantasy, the first game I properly played was Warhammer 40k. My Eldar army was the nightmare of the junior tournaments, and after a 6 month winning streak with them, I was kicked out of the junior events, and bumped up into the bigger and meaner tournament with the adults. Being a 15 year old at a tournament with lots of other adults, most of whom I didn’t know, was a scary experience. Luckily, a few of the local players helped me out and took me under their wings and helped me find my feet.

After playing 40k for a bit, I ended up back in Warhammer Fantasy. I bounced through several armies, but ended up settling on Ogre Kingdoms. I still have most of the models that I bought from back then, and most are absolutely caked in paint. I have started stripping some of them down to repaint and reuse for Age of Sigmar, but that is another story for another day.

After playing Fantasy for a while, I switched games again and started playing Warmachine. This was the point that I switched from playing more casually, to starting to really push the competitive angle. I very quickly found my home with Legion of Everblight and started to really push what I was capable of. After a couple of years, I put my name forward as an option for the Australian team going to the World Team Championships in 2016. I was selected to go over as part of Team Wallaby, and whilst we didn’t win, we were pumped to support one of the other Australian teams who took out the entire event. I continued to play competitively, attending multiple OTC’s as part of the Queensland team, and attended the WTC again in 2018, this time captaining Team Quokka. Once again we didn’t win, but another Australian team took it out again, so we all deemed the trip a massive success.

After that, I relaxed and just played casually for a bit. After a big push for a massive event, it is always nice to take it easy for a bit afterwards. Unfortunately for me, this coincided with a few big life events in the local community and we ended up with only a couple of us left. So I made the jump into Age of Sigmar. And about three years later, here we are.

The Road so far

I received my Golden Ticket from Cancon’s Call to Glory at the start of 2023. You can read all about my experience there in the article below;

Call to Glory 2023

I entered Call to Glory with the intent to give it my best shot. I brought the nastiest list I could think of, practised it extensively, and got feedback on it from the other strong players in the area. I wanted the win, but knew that it was probably unlikely, so my goal was to go undefeated. I managed that and got 4th, losing out to Geordie, Corey, and Joel, who took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively. Now, all of them are fantastic players, so whilst I was annoyed to only just miss out on the podium, losing to only those three is still an amazing achievement, one that I am very proud of. 

One thing that I did very differently at Cancon, is I brought the best list I could. Usually I bring relatively mid-tier lists to events, as I find that I have more fun with them. Trying to push your B tier list to the absolute limit is where I get most of the fun I have, and I know that it usually makes for much more enjoyable games for my opponents.

But this presents a problem for me. Until the players pack is released for the World Championship, I don’t know what the scoring metric will be. It could be a winner takes all style, with only your performance on the tabletop mattering. Or it could be more in line with other Games Workshop events, with a heavy emphasis on sportsmanship and painting prowess. Adding to that, the General’s Handbook which contains special rules that will be in play for the event, has only just been released. So whilst everyone is madly concocting their opinion of the best list, I’m carefully watching, listening, reading and reviewing every piece of data I can lay my hands on.

One big decision I need to make early is what army to take. I won the golden ticket with Seraphon, but my best painted army is my Sylvaneth. I also have the makings of a decently painted Stormcast list, or do I buy and build an army specifically for this event? Until I can decide on which army I’m focusing on, there isn’t too much dedicated prep work I can do.

What I have decided is that I’m going to be trying my absolute best. Anything less than 100% commitment to this, and I will regret it for years to come. This will mean attending every tournament I can, working on my rules knowledge, practising specific matchups, and talking with every expert in Age of Sigmar that I know. 

I’m hoping that these articles will help keep me on track with my goal. My plan is to write regularly, chronicling the preparations I make, and hopefully helping others to further their own hobby goals. I’ll alos be reaching out to the recipents of the other Golden Tickets, to see if they also want to write their own articles. They will also hopefully get the community support, to help push us all towards the very best outcome we can achieve. 

Until next time,

Henry