Cangames'81 held in Ottawa from May 16-19 was once again the success it has been for the past 4 years. This year the convention attracted over 600 gamers. Every year Cangames has increased in size mainly due to excellent organization and cooperation from various clubs around Eastern Canada.
Having been to most of the major conventions in North America I feel that Cangames is the only one of its kind. While being the largest convention in Canada it is the only one left that is not a shopping centre or forum for the dealers but is dedicated to gaming. The mood of Cangames has remained relaxed and low key which is more than can be said for most of the major conventions around.
This year's invited guest was John Hill the designer of Squad Leader. Aside from giving seminars on Squad Leader and games design Mr. Hill also premiered Martian Metals new line of 10mm ACW figure which should be released later this year.(no date as of this writing) In conjunction with these figures Mr Hill will also release a refined version of his highly touted "Johnny Reb" rules under the name "Lee's Lieutenants".
The winner of this year's Canada Cup Award, given annually to someone in the hobby in recognition for services to Canadian gaming, was Peter Hollinger (yes, the same one writing this report). In the interests of unbiased journalism I will not comment further.
The dealers present this year were RAFM (Ral Parthe Canada), Simulation Canada, Fandom II, Hobbyland Ltd., and The House of Speculative Fiction. Due to a rather strange Ottawa City law, tables were quite expensive and many of the smaller companies which usually show up could no longer afford tables. I must stress this has nothing to do with the organizing committee which has, over the years, kept prices, including admission, to a minimum.
There were many competitions in miniatures and board games as usual but I'll give the winners in the competitions of most interest to readers of THE COURIER. The W.R.G. Ancients competition was won by Glen Simpson (Trajanic Romans) who defeated Mike Ireland (Successors) with Kieth Beardsley (Samurai) in third. The painting trophy for best-in-show was awarded to TerrY Lyons for his magnificent shadow box entitled "The Hiring of the Mercenaries".
Once again credit for Cangames '81 goes to the organizing committee who is never mentioned. Have you ever noticed when a convention works no one knows who ran it but if it doesn't work evryone is demanding to know the names of who screwed up. I hope to change that. The people who work all year don't screw up and should be recognized for their effort: Chairman -- Bruce Knight; Dealers -- Ramon Ross, km Walsh; Publicity -- Scott MacGregor, Bob Jackson; Registration -- Paul Raymond, Francois Grouix; Security -- Don Hodgert, James Lee; Tournaments -- Jim Lamb, Bob Sutcliffe.
As THE COURIER is read mainly by Americans I would recommend Cangames to those of you tired of going to shows sponsored by the large games companies for their own benefit. At Cangames the gamer comes first and that's the way it's supposed to be.
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