Cancon 2013

This weekend was the annual Cancon convention in Canberra - one of Australia's biggest wargames shows, if not the biggest.

I popped in on Saturday morning, and stayed for an hour.

That's not to say that there wasn't plenty to see or do - I just had things I wanted to do in Canberra that didn't involve spending the day in a huge convention hall with a thousand other wargamers.

First, the loot. There wasn't much I bought some paints. Our local games shop has been a bit slack on paints recently, but I got the colours I wanted at Cancon. At a bargain price in some cases. I also bought some RSPCA raffle tickets, because any group that brings kittens to a wargames show deserves my money.

There was a stall selling chilli sauce.

I looked around the participation games as well; there were some interesting things on show. One group was doing a beautiful looking Zulu War game, whilst another were running a micro-scale Stalingrad using piles of scratchbuilt buildings. I was pleased to recognise the Battle of Lissa being played by a group running 'Wooden Ships and Iron Men' (the Venetian flags were the clue).

I took pictures of a Boxer Rebellion game which bore a startling resemblance to the one put on by the Staines Wargamers some 20-30 years ago. Here they are:

There were lots of competition and tournament games going on. As none of them were HOTT I didn't pay them much attention, aside from a brief look at the DBMM tourney on the grounds that my dad had come over from the UK to play in it.

My abiding memory of Cancon is the smell of male sweat that assails your nostrils as you walk through the door. I have a lot of respect for those people who stuck three days of it.