CANCON 2013

CanCon Australia's premier wargames convention was held over the Ausralia Day weekend 26-28 January. As usual hundreds of gamers attended and thousands of visitors came along to watch or buy from the multitude of trade stands. I ran my Isandlwana game which attracted some 40 players over three days and won the most popular participation game of the convention, which was a nice surprise. There were 650 Zulu figures and 48 British and NNC figures.

Here is my Zulu game. It represented the battle of Isandlwana. I had designed the game to be a quick moving easy to play participation game. The mountain was there for the spectacle effect and did look good.

 The British player looks pensively on as the Zulu Impi advances towards him.

 Getting close to the camp - for the British players it has turned into a desperate fight for survival.

 Steady lads and pick your mark!

 The camp and mountain. 

The camp was out of bounds as far as the game went, but it looked grand.

 One of those moments when you could use a few more friends.

My Zulu game won the trophy for most popular participation game - a really nice surprise.

Another great participation game was Peking 1900 with hordes of boxers attempting to storm the embassies in Peking. This was a magnificent game played over three days on two table with beautiful scratch built embassies and a magnificent wall. 1000 painted figures were used in the game. The boxers managed to burn down the French and Japanese embassies and stormed the British embassy, but were put to flight by the timely arrival of the relief column on day three.

 Another participation game was this Franco Prussian War game using masses of very nicely painted 28mm figures. Blackpowder rules were used.

 The throng doing their shopping.

 A well run Napoleonic naval game

This was an excellent table made up of hex tiles - very impressive. The game was a Soviet invasion of Western Europe mid 1980s.

 A 6mm game battling though a city using Spearhead rules

 Lots and lots of board games and card games

 A Wars of the Roses game being played using Hail Caesar rules

 A WW1 air warfare game - great models - excellent Zepplin

 These were very impressive! Very large radio controlled tanks that simulated firing guns using strobe lights, recorded hits with computer chips and were wonderful to watch maneuvering about on a big table

 Large numbers playing Magic card games

 A keenly fought AWGR game

Hundreds of gamers playing in tournaments of all types - Bolt Action, FOG, FOGR, DBA, DBR, DBMM, FOW, Warhammer, 40K, War Machine to many to recall all of them.