Cangames 2026

Everything was set to head to Ottawa on Thursday Morning. This allows me to not rush about, as I get my rental car & drive to my buddies place where I am staying. Get my stuff sorted & ready to head to Cangames on Friday afternoon.

In stepped Murphy. After sitting in the aircraft for an hour & 15 minutes, we were informed that the flight was cancelled. Great. Now I needed to call my wife to come pick me up again (1.5 hours each way roughly)

Working on a replacement flight landed my the identical flight departing early Saturday Morning. 1 problem. I was running my Pirates game at 2pm Saturday afternoon & was landing at 12:40. Had to then get my luggage, get the Rent-a-car & get to the convention...

...which I managed with 20 minutes to spare. Thanks to Brian for getting the game set up with boats, crews & shipwreck, it was an easy landing after all the hoop-la to get all the players started.

None of the players had ever played before, so this was gonna be good! 2 of the players got into some heavy back & forth cannon shots. Neither apparently wanted to grapple. Of course the middle ship (striped green sail) was getting shot at from both sides.

A lucky deck crit takes down the mast!

The fun continues between the 2 assailants. However the 1 boat has launched its rowboat to head for the shipwreck, leaving his Navigator & Marine to deal with the blue X sail crew.

Two of the other ships grappled & were now in a heated boarding battle. Both leaping across to one-anothers ships.

The crew in the thin blue stiped sails was forced to give ground & was totally defeated, the 1 surviving crewmen joining the victors.

Unfortunately the winning crew did not have enough surviving officers to take both boats. (He did have his Navigator in the small rowboat seen in the image)

And of course we had the battle on the island with the undead defenders rising from the sands to hold their treasures. The 2 crews who made it to the island parlayed & agreed to each take 1 of the treasures. (They got a reduced VP total due to not getting it off the table, but having possession of it). Alas 1 was trapped & exploded, while the other was full of coin.

Thanks to all those who played, everyone had a great time. Again thanks to Brian for all the hard work getting his stuff ready to use for this game. A couple of Brian's photos of the game.

Saturday evening was time for a game of Rubberboots (there is a backstory to this event name which Todd will have to tell). This game used the Silver Bayonet rules & my force was Medved Oboroten (a were-bear), some irregulars & a Follower of the Old Ways,

My force starts for the tombs. Each side had 4 players. We had 2 head for the tombs & the other 2 for the mansion. From what I remember, our force were protecting the King & Queen while the Vampires were working to turn them in a ritual. Each player had team VP's & Personal VP's.

An image showing the Mansion with 2 of our side's members about to enter into it.

Cultists & Vampires began appearing within the tombs (the area was in perpetual gloom). Also discovered was a tunnel leading to the inside of the mansion.

The opposing sides Priest began demanding to fight with my Follower of the old ways. However one of my soldiers was having none of that & took a shot. Dropping the Priest.

After getting shot, my leader failed his control & turned into a Were-Bear thundering down the tunnel into the rear of the enemy. While getting close to slaying him, he managed to survive at the end of the game. Each side had control of 1 of the nobles.

Thanks Todd for another fun Rubberboots!

Sunday Morning it was time for some Trench Crusade. I've been waiting for an opportunity to try this system.

It was a 4 player event. I played the Strosstruppen

Another force of demons had this huge monstrosity.

2 of the other players got locked into this corridor of death. Which also made them the perfect target for the French Grenade Launchers.

The Obligatory Spam-a-Lot yearly photo of Glen & I.

Sunday afternoons game was of course Dr Who. Though we use the Pulp Alley rules for it. This scenario was the Horror at Fang Rock. The Rutans have converted the generator of the Lighthouse into a Homing Beacon for their invasion ship. Now the players (there were 6 of us) are attempting to prevent it.

This scenario was played more as a co-op game between the players, which was ok. The Horror caused by the Rutan's & just getting some of our members locked into combat with them, required a group effort to complete the Major Plot point.

I played the Light-house crew. There were survivors from another wreck...the Minnow who were minor plot points. We needed to solve 4 of them before the Major Plot point would be unlocked. There were scenario cards which had things like Tentacles emerge that would snatch something from players & then sink back into the soil.

Gah! Another one!

Glen got one of his members into the Generator Room & began solving the challenges, after getting a one-on-one with a tentacle.

It did take a combined effort of the Doctor with 2 other factions to complete the challenges & foil the Rutan plot.

This was the end of Cangames for me. There was another time slot Sunday Evening, but Jay & I were ready to head out for some Swiss Chalet!

On Monday we went to the Canadian War Museum. Being both Veterans, we were treated to free admission, free parking & a $20 food voucher in their small restaurant. Great end to the Long Weekend!

As I finish off this post, I was informed that next year will be the 50th Anniversary of Cangames! Wonder what they will have in store!

Thunder Alley Campaign game 1 at EWG

On Tuesday Jonathan re-launched his Thunder Alley EWG Championship Campaign. We had 7 players slated to play, however 3 had to bail for various reasons.

So we had 4 players for the 1st race. Here was the starting positions.

By the end of turn 1, there were a few cars who were left way back. The lead car is green at the top of the image.

And this is where the fun began. We had a pile-up with 1 of my cars taking the brunt.

I chose car 28 as the victim. This car was now going to need to rely on others to push or pull it in the draft. I was also going to need to have actions that didn't cause more chits. At this stage I was losing 3 points of movement.

This is where the lead cars had caught up to the laggards who were about to be lapped. Yep, one of my cars was one of them.

Saved by another Yellow flag, my car avoided getting lapped. I also chose NOT to pit car 28. There really wasn't any good that would come from doing so, as the damage would still be high on it. This allowed him to be further to the front after the cars that pitted.

Car 28 even had a moment to shine as the lead vehicle at the end of a turn, earning him a bonus token.

It was short-lived however & he did manage to hang with the pack, but inevitably, he took 6 tokens of damage & was out of the race.

Thus ended the first race, with Daniel taking the lead with 161 points.

I came in a paltry 4th, well behind the others in points. We will need to bang out the dents & get ready for race 2. Hopefully we will get a full slate!

EWG - Mayday Gaming Weekend

It's been a very busy weekend with our running the Mayday Gaming Weekend. I took Friday off to help Jonathan set up the community hall prior to the games commencing.

Friday saw 1 game slot run in the evening. Scott ran a Rebels & Patriots game

George hosted some folks in his Sons of Mars Gladiator game

Rudy ran a game of Mad Dog's with Gun - 1920's Gangsters, which I played in with Bruce, Mark & Craig.

Bruce & Mark were the cops while Craig & I were the Gangsters. The cops were going to Raid our hideout. Craig deployed his gang on the main floor.

The police approach

The Mounties arrived hurtling down the street in their car, which was riddled with BAR fire from the upper floor. The car swerved & rolled after crashing into the building. Of the 4 occupants, 3 were killed outright & the last crawled from the wreckage to continue the raid.

There was a massive brawl occurring in the entry hall. It seemed once you were in melee, there was only 1 way to escape.

I played the Peaky Blinders gang, deployed on the upper floor, where I was able to take out a couple of cops attempting to enter the large open doors.

Saturday was a busy day with the arrival of the Bolt Action group having 14 players in their tournament. They had 7 tables set up along the far back wall.

They had received prize support from some of the local game stores & also had some very cool trophies to award after the tourney.

Some of the bolt action table setups

Arnold ran Europa Universalis throughout the day.

Bruce ran his Fistful of Lead -  Robin Hood themed game.

There were various peddlers & merchants who were going to pass through the town. The Sherriff was providing guards to prevent the predations by Robin Hood's Hoodlums.

An archer begins shooting from an upper window.

The Sherriff's mounted man rode ahead to try & reveal the ambushers. (The cups were the potential locations of Robin's forces.

Robin & Will Scarlet are set upon by the Sherriff & one of his knights. Robin would go on to defeat the Sherriff.

The afternoon saw Bruce run another game of Fistful of Lead. This time is was the forces of Van Helsing seeking to destroy Dracula's fortress.

The villagers encounter some rat & bat swarms.

I ran Van Helsing, with Igor, Dr Frunkensheen & Frau Blucher as my force.

Van Helsing encounters Dracula. I swarmed him with 3 of my gang members.

A fog emerged & enveloped Igor, who was heard to scream before succumbing.

The inspector & his villagers encountered a Wraith, which pretty much spelled doom for that force.

Dracula then took down Frau Blucher. As if things were not bad enough, another Wraith appeared & floated towards Van Helsing.

Determined not to fail, Van Helsing did take out Dracula

Before himself succumbing to the fog.

With no forces remaining, Dracula soon returned & kept control of his castle.

A game of Lion Rampant was also happening, hosted by Dennis that had a lot of players participating.

Taylor ran a game of Battlefleet Gothic

The evening slot had Scott run another Rebels & Patriots Game

While the rest of us played Blood & Plunder. Julien brought out his ships so Colin, Mark, Will & I could try the naval combat. George & Craig did a land battle.

Sunday began with Dave hosting a game of Pillage. George & I were defending the village from bein ransacked by the Normans. Mark & Chen played the Normans.

The Anglo-Saxon reinforcements arrive.

The thundering hooves of the Norman mounted advance.

The battle begins with some charging horsemen.

Soon the Saxons are also charging

It became quite a slog with nearly all the troops engaged. The Normans were losing a lot of their horses.

One of the buildings is lit on fire.

The end of the battle. Nary a Norman to be seen.

Meanwhile Craig ran a Battle of Erewhon game.

I ended the day running my Pirates by Flagship Games. I had 3 players, so stepped in to play a Merchant Caraval attempting to pass through the area while carrying a locked chest.

I ran aground while trying to pass through the area.

This led to the nearest 2 ships grapple me. 

As I was in the middle of this tug of war, both craft were moved towards my ship.

My ship was then boarded at both ends by the greedy Pirates trying to nab the treasure chest.

As the 2 pirate crews slew my remaining Marine, they sought to parlay & agreed to share the treasure (as neither crew had enough to man their own ships). Another pirate was bearing down on them. They did manage to make it & upon opening the chest, discovered 500 Gold Crowns.

Thus ended this year's Mayday Convention. Thanks to Jonathan for getting all the scheduling & securing of the venue. Thanks to Craig for snagging all the drinks & snacks to provide those micro sugar rushes.

I would also like the thank the organizers of the Bolt Action tourney as that builds up the numbers to fill the venue.

There were a lot of photos taken, so I expect we shall see more in the coming days.

Now we can look forward to it again next May!