Cangames 2026 - Random Table Shots

Howdy folks,

As has been tradition for myself for sometime now, the past weekend was attendance at Cangames time! A great way to pass the long weekend, and this year was no exception, in fact I think the Con was even better this year. Not only did I build up the courage (and fight procrastination) to run a game, it was fully attended and then some...more on that in a later post.

This post is all about the 'random' table shots that I was able to grab...the games and tables that I was able to fit in between the schedule. It felt like there was an increase in games overall, and the miniature table top was no different in that respect. There were some classic, some that I wasn't familiar with, and some new favourites.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Force on Force (FoF) has become somewhat of a classic staple at Cangames, and there ware folks who travel from abroad to make it just for the FoF. Chris ran another scenario this year, I wasn't able to get in on the game, but this one looks like a different setting compared to years past. Chris runs his FoF in 20mm scale and always has a very dynamic scenario for players.

Ed and Andrew came in from the Maritimes for the day and topped it off with running a 15mm Rapid Fire Ost Front scenario. I tried this one out last year, and really liked the ruleset. I think this scenario is a similar Soviet push against German defenses, but in this case was a little more dynamic with added defense in depth that challenged both players to maximize resources and priorities - do the Sov's get bogged down in mop up or push for the objective prioritizing the threat; do the Germans commit all at once or whittle the Sov's down.

Michael Ball and The Face of Battle was a staple in my 'early' years of attending Cangames, and while he had taken a break from the Con, last year he returned with version 2 of his ruleset. His table is always a treat to look at. I believe he runs his games at 20mm, and in this case we're looking at D-Day-esque adventures.

Last year, Duncan had run a Korean War scenario with B-29's getting bounced hard by North Korean Migs...it was an excellent scenario, and he brought it back this year. The table was pretty straight forward and lots of top gun excitement by everyone. This is the Mig Alley expansion to Blood Red Skies by Warlord Games. The models are great, and hey...who doesn't love a good air combat game?

Chris also ran a couple of serials of The Walking Dead in 28mm. Again, a very popular setting and a lot of fun was had by folks.

Brian always runs a game or two at the Con. This year he had a Pirates inspired game, not sure the ruleset, but the minis looked excellent.

Cangames - Report #1 - Face of Battle

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your side of the internet. This post definitely took me much longer to get out than I would have liked...it is a continuation of my Cangames coverage and post-con contemplation. Of course, there has now been sufficient time past that my memories are somewhat muddled, so this will be much less substantive as an after-action report, and moreso a recap of memorable highlights from the game.

In this post, I finally had a chance to try out Michael Ball's ruleset The Face of Battle...version 2...to be honest, I had never been able to make timings meet so I totally missed out on version 1, and this con was the first time that Michael was taking this version to the Cangames crowd. The game is World War 2 focused, with player activation based on which cards you turn up. Each of the players control a force, a platoon or platoons of infantry and/or tanks, and while each player activates together (i.e. they all flip over a card at the same time), the card determines the action and by whom. 

So in the case of our game, we had 3 players per side. Each player had a deck of cards specific to their allotted force, so in my case I had an infantry squad/section and at a later point in the game I was going to get a T34 tank. Each infanteer had a specific weapons loadout, so I had stats table for them, but the determination of which individual soldier could do their actions was dictated by the card I turned up. In addition, the leader(s) had their specific actions that they could do as well as leadership actions that they could allocate to a soldier when that card was drawn. As well, each specific crew member of the tank had their own individual cards (i.e. loader, gunner, driver, etc.).

Admittedly, I found that there was a pretty steep learning curve as there were several nuances that needed some practice to go over. The overall flow of the game was really good, but given the con setting, it was tough to get the details straight…the mechanics, definitely picked up quickly…but I was fretting over getting the details right.

Anyhow, please enjoy the pics and random commentary.

Initial layout...the Sov's will come in from the top right side of the pic, German troops from the mid left side. Objective is to capture as many buildings in centre as possible.

Our platoon starts moving up. Each player has control of a section/squad of infantry (I think up to 10 troops - 1 leader, 1 light machine gun, up to 8 soldats mix of smg's and rifles). Her you can see a squad that has double-timed up to the stone fence; another squad mid-field; and third squad on left side of the field.

Different perspective as we cant the picture. The squad that was at the stone fence make it to the line of buildings. My squad is half mixed between the other field (near the blue card) and building across from that...they are holding there before double timing to minimize exposure.

Closer look at my squad hunkered down, a couple of soldats have entered the building, I have 2 others waiting to sprint across the road.

The game has progressed a bit, at some point I kinda stopped taking pics of the infantry and focused on the action on the German side of the table...we have infantry at the cemetery walls, a T34 behind the tree...squaring off against a Panther that is next to the building at the top right of this pic. The green field shows some German infantry taking cover behind a fence. There's an MG team out there somewhere, I think behind the tree at centre of pic.

T34 moves a little closer taking it slow.

The Panther taking aim...

The T34 dashes forward and tries to disrupt and ground down the MG team that is causing some hassle for the infantry trying to advance into buildings.

Not the outcome we were looking for, the MG crew get a lot lower down in their position (the crater was deeper than it looks) and the Panther connects and makes it mark. The mechanics and resolution of hits by vehicles takes a bit of time as there are multiple tables to consult and damage is boiled down to damage to each crewmember and vehicle system.

We finally reached the point in the game where the rest of our armour support shows up…3 x T34’s show up in the field and we start pushing them towards our right flank and the cemetery.

The German players score some hits on the tanks and we end up with some slight damage and one of the tanks has to fall back before taking some additional damage. At this point the game is pretty much one…the one building that I was trying to hold was destroyed by tank fire, so that was one less point available. All in all, an enjoyable game but like I said some of the nuances eluded me and the level of damage detail for vehicles was pretty intense.

Cangames - Random Stuff

Howdy folks,

I hope your May is going as desired. As you can see by the title of today's post, it is/was that time of year again when folk collect to Ottawa for CanGames!! While I made sure to register in advance, I was not as diligent with my game registrations…so I had to play that one from the hip…but more on games played in another post.

I thought I would post a selection of pictures I took of some random tables and games happening around me…admittedly I missed a number of tables, but here goes nonetheless.

Chris’s Force on Force, 20mm,  US Army and Iraqi insurgents 

The Walking Dead, 28mm

Star Wars Legion (?)…not sure if it was themed with different ruleset or not…forgot to ask.

Cangames standard…Rubberboots game and I think they used Silver Bayonet.

Mike’s SAGA Game

And Mike’s Dead Man’s Hand game…

Cangames - Battle Report - Force on Force

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your respective flanks. The past long weekend, 18-19 May, we had the annual gaming convention Cangames in town. Always a great time to connect with gaming friends, not to mention meeting new ones, I had another enjoyable con…perhaps a little more subdued than in the past, but fun was had. One of the things I look forward to is seeing the various historical listings, particularly if there any Force on Force games on the roster. Pretty much a staple for a few of us, FoF has its following, I happily count myself amongst them.

Thankfully, this year was no different, and Chris was running another foray into “Somewhere-istan”, next to Here-istan, There-istan, and Everywhere-a-stan-stan. Given that there was a bit of an admin err, we ended up with 1 more player than Chris had planned for. Most of the crew were new to FoF, so with the extra player, it let me sit back and enjoy the game and help out on the rules and flow for the new players.

The setup was 2 x insurgent players, 2 x US players + me helping them out…which I didn’t mind, I was feeling a little slow so less stress/expectation was good for the mood. The US team had a Headquarters element that was established in a team house in the ville. There were 4 x fireteams w/ Humvees at the edge of the town. There were 6 hotspots set up, 2 were on the US end, and the remainder were on the opposite side of the table. While the fireteams were setting up, there is an explosion at the team house and all that could be seen was a lot of smoke. The immediate objective is to secure the team house and take stock of casualties from there. A landing zone has been designated on the left side of the table between the hill and grey building - opposite the team house.

This is about 1-2 turns into the game. The US players are advancing from bottom of the pic into the buildings to consolidate and remove the Hotspots. A round of fire has already removed insurgents near Hotspot 2, and another fireteam is moving towards the team house (tall building on the right side between the hills). Another grouping of insurgents is between them and the initial objective.

Close-up of the action. 2 x fireteams converge on the right building, a fireteam is in the open on the right side of the pic. These teams are engaged with the insurgents on the hill. A fireteam is in the left building, they will wait a turn to nullify the Hotspot.

While the teams are moving forward, 2 vehicles breakaway from the team house at high speed. One of the vehicles has a light machine gun in the back, and it looks like there might be uniformed personnel in the back, with the possibility that these are the HQ element that was at the house…so we cannot directly engage at this time.

The teams at Hotspot #1 have taken a few casualties, however you can see that the insurgents are having a rough go as well. The insurgent players had a rough time rolling for reinforcements; it let the US player to deliberately target and concentrate their firepower.

The US team successfully removed Hotspot #2, and the insurgent player popped up a team that was on the hillside in front of the team. Again, tough rolls on the reinforcement table helped to minimize the impacts. Although there were some dynamite rolls on both sides of the table.

US forces are deliberately moving up the table. Insurgents on both hills have been taken care of, allowing a team to reach the team house. They see signs of a fight - blood trails and dressings; while Hotspot #1 has been removed, one of the teams mounted their Humvee and is moving forward. The team on the left is advancing while also using their Humvee for cover and to provide supporting fire.

The house on the left hill is breached and taken care of. The fireteam at the team house has just had their Humvee disabled (mobility kill), so they will have to take the foot express from here on. The other fireteams that had started at Hotspot #1 are now on the move working to catch up with the insurgent vehicles. The fog of war adds have been harsh and kind…we lost all air support due to weather, but we gained a d10 quality sniper team who positioned on the roof of the grey building on the left.

This is a few turns later, again insurgent reinforcement rolls have been rough, but they are starting to get troops on the table at the top of the picture. The US teams have continued to move up; there is a Humvee and fireteam at the grey building with the sniper team. They are laying own fire on the white  administration building (top left). The foot express fireteam is moving past another hill towards the HESCO barriers and laying down fire on insurgents in the red buildings to their front (top right). One of the fireteams presses on with their Humvee and find itself in a bottleneck between multiple groups.

A considerable amount of fire is layed down, some casualties are taken by the troops in the US humvee, while the green Humvee rushes in to clear out insurgents on the rooftop of the red building.

By this point, our time has almost expired…the US forces make some amazing initiative rolls, allowing them to keep pressure on the insurgents and get into a position where they mobility kill the 2 white insurgent vehicles, wipe out the last of the insurgent troops, and rescue their HQ element. 

Overall, a very enjoyable game…it may seem one-sided, but the insurgents did a great job of keeping the US troops on the edge. It never felt like a clear victory until the literal end.