CanCon: How was it?

[Admin Fella]

Ok guys, give it up, who went and what did you think?

Want to share what you got in your bag of goodies?

[Bluewillow]

Well,

In ran our usual painted wargames figures stall that helps me fund my hobby, had a good weekend also, caught up with a lot of people as usual.

The event this year I thought was the biggest yet, as normal it was Hot, saturday was OMG busy, the B pavillion shop ran out of drinks at 3.30pm and fully closed at 4pm.

With A, B and C pavillions all open a large crowd wandered around, the TV advertisng money was well spent I thought as huge a huge amount of the general public walked through the event (although plenty of comments about hot sweaty 40 something non social competition gamers!), the C Pav had a few traders (in a fully Aircon area (i was amazed all of the traders were not up in that area along with the demo and participation games) and B had the remainder (the normal suspects) some excellent deals were to be had Battleline has a huuuuge 20mm range of buildings and stuff and Carlo from Aide de camp DPS had a huge collction of pre painted Dragon Painting Service ready to rock minis (fully painted and based for just about every ruleset), Eureka released some lovely new 28mm napoleonics and 18th century stuff, War and peace had a excellnt sale on Foundry, bolt action and warlord games blisters (buy two get the third free) and also a sale on box sets (a few of my dollars were spent here). I managed to be a good boy until monday when I managed to blow a cool grand in 20mins, when things were quite, more lead on the lead pile I guess.

The Highlight for the weekend for me though was a participation game put on by the Melbourne boys.

A few hundred 40mm Sash and Sabre AWI mins graced a 5 x 12ft table, the figs were god tabletop standard and some lovely buildings graced the table, the Americans wer painted by Ray Ashton and Peter Russett and the British by Andrew Bishop and Lon Teal. the buildings were from MBA and ATKM. They used the new Black powder rules which seemed to work well.

enjoy the pics, I will post more in the 18th cent room

[frostydog]

Certainly good time to catch up with freinds or put faces to names. My third Cancon playing Horse and Musket, this year with a total of 16 very social players fielding a variety of armies that included, AWI British, SYW Hanoverians a couple of irregular Indian armies as well as Napoleonic armies as well. Good time had by all.

Bring and buy stall was a major disappointment especially when you consider the size of the event. Trade was mostly books and boardgames. MOAB a much better bring and buy more variety.

Variety in trade stalls was excellent and it paid to shop around. We were looking at Victrix box sets and prices ranged from $55 down to $40. Same with rules Black Powder ranged from $90 to $60. Matt your stall was excellent some high quality painting on display.

One thing the organisers need to either invest in or hire a PA system. Guys walking around shouting out the winning number of the lucky door prize sorry but you just cant here them above the din of the games.

Cheers

M

[Cardinal Biggles]

agreed on the PA..Indian Armies eh..and how did they go?..they were so cheasey when larkers and I ran it we eventually banned them.... and I thought the 40mm game was rather so-so ..it is all in the eye of the beholder..who bought it and for how much?
and yes some remarkable deals..the food seemed a lot better and the coffee was very welcome , Peter of Battlescape had some remarkable buildings..I thought I had all the WWII buildingd that I would ever need but a The Longest Day Casibno for 41 bucks was a the best deal ever..and War & Peace games deals but I do wonder what their retailers must have made of it all..I have to say the Army paint flat no shine varnish is not too bad at all..the good cheer of the day was only blighted with the learning of the death on Friday night of Johnny Harris, of the Belmore Barbarians , a gamer I had known for more than 30 years

[frostydog]

Indian Armies finished 1 and 2 with Russians 3rd. much talk afterwards about the effects of camel guns.

Didnt bother with the food after previous experiences so we brought our own, coffee was good.

I was so overwhelmed by what battlescape had I didn't know what to buy and bought nothing.

But helped fund the heir begin a war of 1812 journey.

M

[Bluewillow]

nice to put a face to the name frostydog,

I also met a few others who haunt here and TMP, so I spent most of my weekend chatting (how unusual!!!).

Steve Finlay also got some good photos too, here is some of his pics

http://gallery.me.com/sfinlay#100148

and Helens pics of the Alamo game that was also very nice.

[frostydog]

I was bugged by unpainted figures used in some comps very poor.

[Bluewillow]

I also have added a few pics from the Alamo game all Helens pics as I didn't get time to take pictures of it







and here is a link to Steves Finlays pics

http://web.me.com/sfinlay/Piquet_Stockade/Home.html


cheers
matt

[greatwhitezulu]

I thought it was the best Cancon in a while. Spent more money there this year than in the last 4 or 5 combined. Picked up some nice Perry Carlist stuff. Thanks JasonB Bring & Buy was lame

I was a bit underwhelmed by the demo/ participation games. Still not much of a showcase for the hobby. I actually preferred the Alamo game to the AWI which I thought was a bit cluttered with figures.

I didnt see the Horse and Musket, which is a pity. I would have liked to see the Indian armies for some ideas. Mine has only reached 41 brigades for Might & Reason and is far from finished.....

[Cardinal Biggles]

"Indian Armies finished 1 and 2 with Russians 3rd. much talk afterwards about the effects of camel guns" oh dear what comes around goes around ...bloody indians and those camel guns..painful but you have you ban them. they screw up WRG which is an amazing statement as the rules are totally screwed up anyway..When Starkers and I ran that comp people stopped coming to compete if the Indians were coming..We had to get rid of them.. screwy and cheezy full of camel guns and irregular cavalry charging across the table and catching people halted and amazingly brave irregular charging infantry and I bet you guys changed the skirmisher rule and charge home so you cannot stop the buggers out side of final charge and then massacre them as you used to be able to do if you could actually understand the original rules.. terrible business..oh what a bloody nightmare..

[christo]

I thought it was the Best Cancon I have attended, purely from a purchasing perspective. Agree that the Traders should all be up in the Air conditioned section

Combat Company and Mil Sims did the damage, I forgot to go to Eureka, need to finish off the Early Napoleonic French.

I got a frw trinkets from the bring and buy, and an honourable mention to the T Shirt fellow

[Bluewillow]

I was bugged by unpainted figures used in some comps very poor.

yes some disappointing armies were on display on the comp tables, no excuse with washes and the like around.

Finally have unpacked everything, my list of my purchases may of been more than a grand
28mm
300 foundry middle imp romans (two army deals) (replaces the army I sold )
240 foundry successor greeks (one army deal) need cav though!
warlord Celtic army pack with 9 other celt blisters (another hot bloooded moment )
3 warlord metal ecw packs (clubmen and a mortar)
6 packs foundry Ecw cavalry and infantry (needed these... sort of)
50 Gripping beast celts (bring and buy) just couldn't resist
Sassanid Elephant (noice)
Eureka Voltaire set with extra musicians (lovely)
Eureka dragoon watering horse set (lovely)
bases. bases and more bases
one Mummy (for pulp)
400plus 7YW Russians 15mm (crazy moment) DPS (damn you Carlo)
some resin ww2 buildings (meant to get some bridges and stuff also but forgot!)
two ospreys
shadow forge stuff (selected pulp figures)
paint brushes


soooo lots more than I intended

cheers
matt

[frostydog]

Indian Armies finished 1 and 2 with Russians 3rd. much talk afterwards about the effects of camel guns" oh dear what comes around goes around ...bloody indians and those camel guns..painful but you have you ban them.

I did manage to best one of them with my AWI Brits. there was only 10 points between the winner and 10th place and only 3 (i think) points between the top 4 it was a close comp. The Russians were the most painful 2 x 6 gun meduim batteries way too much firepower even for Russians.

As for the traders I liked the way they were close to the figure gamers very easy to get to in a break between games.

Favouite moment having my British Legion cav fail first opposition with rash general and forced to charge the nearest enemy. This unit formed square and repulsed the Legion. My opponent had advanced his troops ahead of the square so the Legion promptly charged a unit of highlanders in the rear who then routed... towards my guns.

[frostydog]

I bet you guys changed the skirmisher rule and charge home so you cannot stop the buggers out side of final charge and then massacre them as you used to be able to do if you could actually understand the original rules.. terrible business..oh what a bloody nightmare..

They dont like heavy guns shooting canister nearly 1/2 way across the table. Rather effective.

[Cardinal Biggles]

I bet they don't

[DuckanCover]

I haven't been for quite a while. The event had lost a lot of it's appeal for me by the late eighties. I was last at a CANCON in 1991, when I ran a modern infantry demo game with some friends. Whatever we felt were it's deficiencies back then, they seem to have been corrected over the intervening years. I was glad I'd made the trip down, even if only for the day. I saw a plain, simple, family-oriented event. Plenty of trades to look at (oh yeah, like I really NEED more dice) and have a natter. Lots of miniatures gaming to be seen. Not as intense (driven? serious??) as I remembered. Kudos to the organisers. I'm even mulling over the prospect of doing a demo of some sort for next year........ (Can never have enough demo games ). I'm rambling, but I can truthfully say my family enjoyed the event. We'll be back in 2011.