Cangames 2023! It's a Wrap!

As some have noticed, I've been absent from posting....the reason is simple....

                                            CANGAMES! 2023!

Yes after the 3 year hiatus due to the pandemic & then not really knowing which way things were going to pan out in early 2022, Cangames has returned. So off I went to Ottawa for this past long weekend! The convention is held at a Curling Rink. Miniatures share the main area with the vendor booths. The lobby tends to be for RPG's with several round tables. The upstairs has more RPG's & the boardgamers.

 

View of the miniature gaming space with vendor halls

Friday Afternoon started with Samurai Battle. Below is the force I ran (right side of the command tent)

 

I sent an archer unit through the town while the remainder of the force marched forward, using the town to protect the flank. the fellow I was teamed up with sent his mounted samurai surging forward. I sent one of my mounted units to support him.

 However, his mounted troops were pushed back or routed. This became a common theme with his dice rolls.

 On my flank, I was able to catch the opponents leading mounted unit in a charge by my own. His unit routed off the table with mine in pursuit. My unit was able to return the following turn.

 My second mounted unit on the left, charged in to delay the advance of the opponent & was rebuffed, it then moved around the wooded area to join in the battle for the right flank. Below can be seen the attrition of units showing, many were depleted from numerous charges. With the continued bad rolling by my partner, his flank had crumbled. The marginal victory went to the opponents.

I was then scheduled to play in a Bolt Action game, but was told it had been cancelled, so I jumped into a Team Yankee game.

The scenario was a meeting engagement between Canadian & East German Armor circa 1985.Below is one of the flank forces I ran, consisting of a troop of Leopards & 3 TOW units. These were hull down.

My centre force took hits with 2 tanks lost on turn 1 as the East German forces advanced.

This system suffers from the same challenges that cause me to not play Flames of War. The whole clustering of vehicles just irks me to no end. However the opposing side took their lumps too, when we finally got to shoot.

Of note, is that I believe this was an intro game to show people the rules & thus we didn't have any infantry elements. As the T-72's began arriving, they also came under fire. Needless to say by games end, there were a lot of smoking wrecks.

Saturday was a full day beginning at 9am with the Silent Death Red Shirt Smash using the 3:1 scale ships. Certainly one of my favorite space ship battle games.

Players start with small tier 1 ships. The goal being to get a number of damage scored against opposing ships & then get to the warp point. You then return with a tier 2 ship. At games end the player with the most damage caused & being in a Tier 3 ship will be the victor.

The ships are armed with various  guns, missles & torpedo's. Afterwards, Glen & I took our annual Spamalot T Shirt Shot as we do every Cangames

For the afternoon, I got in on a Monster Mash Game, also hosted by the Red Shirts.

This game pits lots of players against one another in a fight to the last man or monster standing event. This game always fills up quick, however you may want to have a  backup plan, as it doesn't take long for players to be knocked out. My random character was a Halfling Wizard & was able to make it to 2nd place...being taken out by a charging dwarf who left with all the laurels.

Saturday Evening was Ironboots & the Curse of the Draugr. This pulpy event hosted by Todd,  is another multi-player, shenanigan filled event that I play in every year.

This year we played in teams of 2, each of our factions having various ways to earn xp tokens. I joined up with Rita, & our faction consisted of 2 Desert Witches with bound Djinn & Efreet's as troops. 

Our mission was to find the lamp & summon the Djinns within to bind to our cause. The water was frozen, so anyone attempting to make more than a single move, were required to roll a slip test.

As we approached the ship, we discovered it had another Djinn guardng it. There also seemed to be some magic portal on board (This was a victory location for our opponents.

Meanwhile on the other end of the table, 3 factions were going head to head & were leaving a lot of dead.

Sunday started off with the Battle of Helms Deep. The host had built his setup out of foam, covered in drywall paste & then carved.

This was a 6 player game & I played one of the attacking Uruk forces, with the Ram & 3 ladders.

We managed to have the wall explode & the door get sundered on the same turn.

 As the host was using he miniatures he owned, there were Men of Minas Tirith present, as well as Morannon Orcs & the Trolls.

The last game I played was Doctor Who - The Galactic Cathedral, another 6 player game where we needed to investigate & disable 5 portals from which Weeping Angels were emerging from. However one of us what not whom we appeared to be.

I played the faction that consisted of The Prime Minisiter (Margaret Thatcher look-alike) who had several security guards, a sniper & Assistant. The game only had 6 turns to complete the tasks & the various Doctors were able to shut down 4 of the 5 gates. The Master (who happened to be disguised as the Prime Minisiter) was unable to thwart the other Time Lords & fled.

Finally here are some images of some of the other game tables present.

Thanks for taking the time to get to this point of the post. I will do a separate post for the items I purchased at the convention.