Wednesday 6 March 2013

So where is Canadia, anyway?

Been a while hasn't it?

<insert long list of excuses why I haven't posted, few of which are actually relevant or interesting>

With that out of the way...

Official flag of Canadia. Honest.

This last weekend (March 2nd & 3rd) was the "Gauteng Open" Flames of War competition held at Warzone/Jeppe Quondam. A 1750 Pts Late War Open event held over two days with five games. Picture dump HERE.


Having used my 7th Armoured Cromwell Squadron to very good effect twice before, I was looking for a difference force. As locally there has been an increase in US forces, and Germans and Soviets are still the most popular, it had to be British of some sort.

Enter the FOW compilation Market Garden: Fireflies with AT15 and other goodness, too good to pass up and finally a level playing field of sorts. I have had the making of a Guards Armoured Battlegroup (Armour, Infantry and the 2nd HCR Armoured Cars) for a while now, the armoured cars being the most advance in terms of painting. Lacking a few key elements (more Shermans) I placed an order only to see the local post office go on strike meaning my stuff has still not arrived. Joy.

A new plan was needed: Canadians

Since there is no "standard" British Rifle Company in Market garden (a seriously poor oversight on the part of Battlefront), I looked at the Canadian Rifle list instead. A few "borrowed" platoons from other forces, a quick paint job on some Crocodiles and the use of Sherman hulls as "Ersatz" RAMs and I had something I thought would work, if not looking particular homogeneous or attractive.

Canadian Rifle Company (CV)
HQ
Rifle Platoon with RAMs
Rifle Platoon with RAMs
Carriers
Canadian Armoured Recce (2+2)
Achilles
2 x Crocs

Simple, lots of AT and veteran Crocs, but no artillery of any sort which is very different from how I have played British Infantry and their ilk before. With some 22 player players supposed to be present (ended up with 20) and almost half the armies being played listed as "infantry", I thought the Crocs a worthy inclusion. Also, they make the force Always Attack, and while I wanted something different from 7th Armoured I did not want to be defending all competition either.

Canadians it was. In the words of my little sister "So where is Canadia, anyway?"



March 2nd dawned misty and overcast, kind of like my enthusiasm for the competition by that stage: just not really there. Go through the motions; get there, set up two tables, register, try to actually wake up, etc. Still, met a few friends I had not seen in a while and a few new faces.

My army: a mish-mash of different platoons from different forces due to time constraints. 

How badly could it go?

CdlT



8 comments:

  1. nice post, and interesting list!
    i think about the canadian armored forces and i think this is a great nation ;)

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  2. good to see you post eventually :)

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  3. I was afraid that you had stopped blogging right after I had discovered that your site (and great paint jobs) existed. Good to see you back!

    Great pics of games in progress. I especially like the one where the crocs have giant, nuclear explosion-sized burning wreck markers on them (somewhere around photo 40 I think). Somehow fitting for flamethrower tanks...

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  4. Heh, I'm a Canadian expat in the U.S. army and all my buddies here make frequent references to "Canadia". I'm still not sure if they're deliberately mispronouncing "canuck" as "canook", though...

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  5. Heh, I'm a Canadian expat in the U.S. army and all my buddies here make frequent references to "Canadia". I'm still not sure if they're deliberately mispronouncing "canuck" as "canook", though...

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  6. Cheers guys! Sometime real life gets in the way, but I hope to have some useful articles in the coming weeks.

    CdlT

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  7. CdlT, the Canadian Flag during WWII would have been the Red Ensign found at this link.

    https://goo.gl/images/1Z1J2i

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Big_Willie, though I am well aware of that.

      CdlT

      Delete

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