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I attended my first ever 40k tournament last weekend: CanGames 2008 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. A 1500 pt Hall of Heroes "Adepticon-style" (?) event. I live in Toronto, but was in Ottawa visiting family and figured I'd squeeze in some wargaming while I was up there

Had a great time! I was really impressed with the thought and effort that went into crafting the 12 different tables of scenery, most of them themed: a bunker table with a line of razorwire and minefields, several cityfight tables including "Central Park" which won Best Scenery, an airfield with control tower and multiple landing pads, a frozen river table with a huge bridge across the center, a pyramid-in-the-jungle table that included Ahriman on the pyramid to take potshots at anyone who got close. There were specific scenarios for each table as well, which made it a lot more fun than the "gamma cleanse" or "alpha recon" that I generally play at home by rolling for book missions. The guys at CWC (Centretown Wargaming Club) really went all out in putting the tournament together. The players were great - there were few lists that could be called "power-builds" (ie worthy of approval by Dakka's armylist forum) and everyone seemed to be having fun regardless of wins and losses. Rules disagreements were easily resolved without reference to referees, and I never had to d6 anything. I think there were 24 players in total. Sadly it only went for 3 rounds, but we had 2 hours for each battle which was nice.

IIRC, there were 1 Ork (with a scratchbuilt Battlewagon and many scratchbuilt kans/dreads), 2 Tau (including one 3-Railhead high-fromage Mech Tau army), 2 Tyranid (neither of them Zilla!), 3 Dark Eldar, 3 Eldar (none with more than 2 skimmer tanks), 2 mixed Chaos, my own Deathguard, and 2 Imperial Guard forces including an amazingly converted and painted Mechanized IG force (all the tanks and transports were converted WWII tanks and LAVs, painted in desert scheme). And many marines: one each of Salamanders, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwing, and the tongue-in-cheek (?) "Rainbow Marines" (all-infantry in light blue power armor with rainbows painted on each helmet and shoulderpad). And a few other marine armies of indeterminate or home-made chapter.

Managed to pull down 2 wins and a loss. Best General was won by Chaos player Ean Stott, to whom I lost my second round game. Best (painted) Army was won by Rob Kelly, whose gorgeously converted Mech IG army ended up getting severely compromised by the sandstorm scenario in my third game, handing me an easy win. I'll put some batreps up in the appropriate forum when I get the chance.

The CWC guys made some noises about a full 2-day 6-round tourney next year, and I'll definitely be going back to Ottawa for it!

Sounds like a lot of fun. Was it run at a store or in a hall? Can't wait to read your battle reports.

It was run at a Curling Club, so it was big enough. All the non-roleplaying tables were out on the "ice surface" (no ice, thankfully). There were at least 60 tables out there, plus probably another 30 tables in the bar and cafeteria areas for RPGs and spillover for boardgames.

Glad there's some interest - I'll actually post my batreps then!

I would like to see a convention held on ice.

I don't know that I'd really want to see all of the 40k players in skates and tights though...(shudder).

Here are pics of some of the 40k tables (taken by Ean):

Thanks for posting this. I'm sure that Jason, Jon and Andrew (The individuals who threw together the two tournaments) would appreciate their work being talked about.

We're a pretty small club but we're growing quickly. We have a lot of good stuff planned for the next year.

For those Canadians who live in the Ottawa area, or even beyond, who want to check us out, a link to our site can be found in my signature below.
Thanks again!