Cangames 2013 and the Atlantic Simulation Society Presence

This years’ edition of Cangames, held in Ottawa, over the Victoria Day weekend of Friday May 17th to Sunday May 19th at the Rideau Curling Club. Unlike last year, I made notes of my activities and will produce a comprehensive After the Action report.

For the second year is a roll, long-time war gaming buddies from Halifax joined me in Ottawa for the convention. Paul Smith flew up the Wednesday before the con and stayed with me in Montreal. We got in a practice game of Panzergruppe Guderian and on Thursday I introduced him to DBA. 

We played four practice games I used the army I purchased last year, Seleucid 166-83BC (Book II/19d) and Paul exercised his generalship using a Nikaian Byzantine (Book IV/31) army. It was a useful review for me and  good practice for Paul, who used to play WRG Ancients 5th and 6th edition with his 25mm Byzantine army. 

Friday morning Paul, Mike Haynes and I drove up to Ottawa. I've known Mike since High School when we gamed together in the same club. He was a year ahead of me. Mike has been living in Montreal just around the corner since last fall, while he worked on his latest book, Hiking Trails of Montreal and Beyond which is now available from Goose Lane Editions.

Paul is a couple of years older than both of us and always seemed to be involved in an administrative role in our local war gaming umbrella groups. First with the Halifax-Dartmouth Wargaming League and later the Atlantic Simulation Society.  He was the prime mover behind the rebirth of the Association after a hiatus of almost 30 years and the production of our golf shirts last year. 

 

Members of the Atlantic Simulation Society

 (L-R) Mike Haynes, Paul Smith, Joseph Lappin, 

Robert Hingley, Stuart Smith, and Stephen St-John

We were joined in Ottawa by Joseph Lappin, who flew in from Halifax on Friday morning. We four, crashed the entire weekend with Paul’s son Stuart. It was like university days: a weekend of gaming, with late night pizza and beer. It was really convenient that Stuart’s apartment was just a 10 minute walk from the convention site.  As seen below, it might not have been the easiest walk, but Ottawa’s Chinatown was just around the corner from both the curling club and our home base. 

On another note, Stuart plans on moving, before we return next year. Thank you Stuart for both your patience and hospitality.  We all agreed that we enjoyed our time at the con and look forward to returning next year. As a group we hope to contribute with some sort of game or competition.