Cancon 2020 Report Recap

Cancon 2020 

Cancon 2020 Report Recap
with Adam Brooker

So once again gamers from all around Australia have congregated at the National Capital in Canberra on the Australia Day long weekend (25th, 26th and 27th Jan) for CANCON 2020. You can hear the dice rattling, the sound of miniatures sliding on flocked gaming mats, and roars and cries of players as they either celebrate or rue the results of their dice rolls, the sweaty palms of players trying to convince their opponent they are really winning, and always that mix of hot chips, gravy, and deodorant!

This Mecca for Australian wargamers has been going for 41 years and this year it was the biggest yet! Every year since I’ve been paying Flames Of War I’ve been making the pilgrimage to this event and it has always been an excellent mix of competition, fun, catching up with mates, and meeting new players from across Australia and even the odd player from outside Australia. You get to see lots of beautifully painted armies from lots of different systems and lots of traders to find a deal and pick up that last bit you were missing from your collection.

This is the main National Event in Australia in the Flames Of War and WWIII:  Team Yankee calendar, and this year we had a Late War Flames Of War Tournament and a small WWII: Team Yankee Tournament. We had an increase in attendance from  last year on Flames Of War attendance with 18 players, and a drop in WWIII: Team Yankee attendance with 8 players. The recent bushfires did cause some players to drop out, and also I think the popularity of Late War and how it is generally well balanced with some great new books, caused the drop in WWIII: Team Yankee attendance as some players who would normally play WWIII: Team Yankee gave Late War a try.

Cancon 2020

We also were lucky enough to have Andrew Haught come over from the Battlefront Studio, not only to play a few games of WWIII: Team Yankee, but also as lead Games Designer of the new British D-Day Book, he gave a few insights! All I can say is that it would be a wise British player who gets his Crocodiles ready, and has anyone ever heard of a “Flying Dustbin”????

Cancon 2020

This year we tried a slightly different format, which seemed popular with most of the players. We played seven games over the three days of gaming. Two Games on the Saturday, three Games on the Sunday and two Games on the Monday. This allowed for the players to have two 3 hour games on the Saturday to warm up, and also allowed them lots of time to get lunch, check out the traders and second hand stalls, which in previous years was always difficult to do unless you had a game with a quick result.

In previous years you were always that busy trying to fit in three 2.5 hr games that you often got to see very little of the whole CANCON event. I think this will be something that we will continue to do in the future.

The Late War lists were a good mix of Axis and Allied forces, with ten German commanders, four US commanders, three British commanders and a lone Soviet comrade. With us trying very hard to match up Red vs Blue Battles. With the Germans being so popular, it was no shock to see a lot of Tigers, I tallied up 16 Tigers across the 10 German lists, but not all lists included these mighty beasts, with the doughty German workhorse the Panzer IV being the most numerous AXIS vehicle with 29 of these on the tables. For the Allies, unsurprisingly the most numerous tank was the Sherman, with 57 present between the US and British lists, and 30 M10s (inc both the 3” and 17pdr variants) being the next most numerous armoured vehicle. The Soviet Commanders large unit of 10 T-34s was a difficult unit to deal with and even though he only had the Fortress Europe book to choose from, it was a very competitive list.

There was some very hard fighting on some very beautiful tables with some excellently painted forces, but in the end two US players pulled ahead of the pack with a German list coming up close behind. Both the frontrunners lost their final games against great opponents, but even then only 1 Victory Point split the players. In the end there could only be one, with Derek Prout and his US Veteran Sherman Formation just piping the US Rifle Company of Matt Dixon to the post.

Flames Of War – Late War Results

1st – Derek Prout – US DDay Veteran Sherman Company

2nd – Matt Dixon – US DDay Rifle Company

3rd – Mark Ross – German DDay Panzergrenadier Company

Best Painted – Travis Caterer – Soviet Reconnaissance Company

Best Sports Duane McAndrew – British Fortress Europe Rifle Company  

Cancon 2020

Cancon 2020
Cancon 2020 Cancon 2020


Last Updated On Friday, February 7, 2020