CanGames 2019 Friday May 17th - Face of Battle

CANGAMES arrived early this year. The Victoria Day weekend is celebrated on the 3rd Monday in May and it meant an early start to this year's edition of friendly mayhem. Fellow members of the Atlantic Simulations Society drove up from Halifax and passed through Montreal to collect me. We arrived early enough for a lunch and then proceeded to register at the desk.  Our chariot can be seen just parked on the roadside above and to the left of the sign.

This year we as a group decided to run a game at the con and chose to modify the SPI Time Tripper Game by James Dunnigan and run it as a tabletop miniature games and added Canadian flavour by having the heroes in question a squad of the Princess Patrica's Canadian Light Infantry in Afghanistan who have become unstuck and having to make their way home through time and space. Planning began after Christmas and play testing commenced in early April.

By the end of the first week of May we were ready. Most of the grunt work was completed by Paul Smith and Les Howie in Halifax with Mike Haynes helping out with play testing. Contributions were also made by Stephen Newberg and Anthony Ess. I was to ref one of two tables on Saturday morning so this was my first run through.

Friday evening at 7:00 PM three of our group  signed up to take part in Michael Ball's Face of Battle game. This year the scenario was "Stopping the Panzers". On D+2 elements of the 12th SS try to throw the Regina Rifles back and crush Operation Overlord in it's tracks.  Anthony and I were with the Canadians and Paul assigned to the Germans. It was a close game. The Canadian almost completed the 3rd of their 5 objectives. The Germans only one, so the game went to the Canadians.

Germans already mid-way up the map.

Michael Ball instructing the German Side

Two of my fellow Canadian Commanders. (Anthony on the Left)

Two of the German Commanders (Paul on the Right)

One of my 6lber guns waiting for the opportunity to fire.

Heroes of the Soviet Union: Heavy Metal

The T-34 was the most widely produced Soviet tank of the Great Patriotic War. This week I built two ARII 1/50^th Scale T-34 model kits. They were included in a box of gaming supplies I picked up at Cangames in 2006. They have been in the cupboard ever since.

ARII T-34s with 28mm Infantry for Scale

These kits are for remote control motorized models and I am sure the diehard model builders out there will slight me for not going the extra mile and completing the kits as originally designed. All I intend to do is run a mid-war Soviet tank platoon alongside my 28mm Soviet Infantry. I have a third tank that has been shown in a previous posting. It too, was purchased in the same box of models and game bits and is clearly a different scale. That’s OK, it can be the Platoon Leader’s vehicle.

Today was a fabulous, warm day in Montreal. It was a perfect day to sit on the balcony, catch up on some reading, take some photos and spray some minis. The tanks were treated to a coat of Flames of War, Soviet Armour War Paint. Decals and detailing need to follow.