Cangames 2014 Part I Friday Night

Cangames 2014 Friday May 16

This year’s edition of Cangames was held the weekend of May 16^th to 18^th at the usual site. I got a ride to Ottawa with a fellow gamer to Ottawa and returned home on the train Monday evening to Montreal. 

We arrived too late to get involved in any of the 2:00 PM scheduled games, but I had to meet up with Joseph from Halifax and arrange to get settled into our hotel. When I arrived I saw that Joseph was already into a game and I joined a pick-up game of Pandemic. 

It was the first time I played. I was told it would be all over in about 45 minutes. We’d have won the game or the game would have beaten us. Unfortunately that was the outcome. It was 4:45 and I had some time to kill.       

7:00 PM Flames of War, D-Day Juno Beach Assault Hosted by Serge Carignan

I was booked for a 7:00 PM game of Flames of War. This was a beginner’s game for 6 players. I had never played Flames of War so was interested in seeing what the hype was about. There is no doubt that the game has a large following in Ottawa and a lot of work was put into the presentation. 

The look of the 15mm WW2 figures has an appeal that keeps calling to me. I must resist. I have a large collection ofWW2 and early 1980s microarmour, 20mm early war Japanese, and 28mm WW2 Soviet for skirmish gaming.

Joseph and I, arriving at the last minute for the game were assigned to the role of the defending Germans. There were 4 allied players. Our orders were to keep the allies on the beach, or at least not allow them to advance onto their inland objectives. This was easier said than done. Both our gun emplacements, overlooking the landing site were destroyed in the initial naval bombardment, and our armour reserves had a hard time getting released. When they did, the Jabos (Fighter-Bombers) made short work of them. It was up to our PBI holding a fortified position just behind the beach ridge. 

We were not in a position to see the beaches, but we had a fairly good field of fire for anything poking it’s head above the crest. I am not sure how many turns the game was supposed to have gone, but it was called at about 10:00 PM.  The Germans had held the line, and delayed the Canadian advance, mostly by the sacrifice of one squad at a time. 

On a scale of 1-10, I give Flames of War a 6.5 to 7. It is not sometime I am going to invest in buying. I'll play if opportunity knocks, but I will not be building an army. The rules seemed pretty basic, and I already have some tactical rule sets  that I enjoy playing.

Unfortunately I have no photos of this game. My comrades have  failed to deliver the goods. I plan to add photos when I get the files. In the meantime I thought I should get started on my write-ups.