Moar Pumas!

An SdKfz 234/2 Puma, one of 101 ever produced
in the Second World War,

Well, we started out cross-country move today from Ottawa to Calgary. Had a bit of a late start but managed to get the apartment all cleaned up and pack the car and on the road by noon.

Which I was totally ok with because it meant that two hours down the road on the Trans-Canada Highway was Petawawa where me and my fiance stopped in so that I could pick up some more Pumas for my Lehr Panzerspah Recce list that I'm building.

I've made it no secret that the Puma is absolutely my favourite unit, really for no other reason than they look hella cool, are small and have lots of skirmishing capabilities. I like how surprisingly robust and aggressive they can be.

Anyhow, so I picked up 7 more of the little suckers, effectively cleaning out Perkins Hobby House of their supply. That'll bring my total up to 10 which is the minimum required to field the Puma list (assuming I don't want to go with the SdKfz 250/9 halftrack option, but for a combat platoon option that makes me nervous. Pumas would be far more resilient in my opinion.

All I need now are my Hummels and I'm good to go. With some playtesting I'll be able to take this list to Game Summit.

Petawawa Battlecry Flames of War Tournament Coverage

Panzer IV H take and hold the tracks.

Me and a few of the Ottawa Boys traveled up to the Petawawa Battlecry FoW tournament last Saturday and wow, what an amazing event that was! Incredibly organized by the tournament organizer Bob and it was hosted at Gary Perkin's store Perkins Hobby House.

A little about Perkins Hobby House: This store is literally a suburban house converted into the ultimate gamer den. Gary, a fellow who couldn't be more accommodating or hospitable, has literally everything you could imagine for Flames of War and just about any other gaming system you could possibly want! I went nuts in there and ended up walking out with a FoW army case, a Lehr dice and marker tin set and 3 more SdKfz 234/2 Pumas for my Panzerspah Recce list that I'm working on!

I managed to win Best Sportsman, which was awesome! I seem to pull out that at most of the tournaments I win, which is nice. Win or lose, I think it's important to demonstrate a good, genuine attitude with your opponent and it's nice to get feedback from your peers that they think you're a good schmo.

I didn't do too well as far as wins/losses were concerned though. I played quite well in my first and third rounds, I felt, but my second round against Drew I completely flubbed. I was fine with that though, he's a Captain in the Canadian Forces so I'd hope to consistently lose to him.

Reporting for Duty

SdKfz 234/2 Puma performs reconnaissance maneuvers
from Flames of War. 

I always enjoy the beginnings of a thing. Not knowing how something is going to shape up but having the general concept in mind is an exciting stage for me.

For me, the beginning of this blog is also an ending, so I'm a bit nostalgic about it. I'm starting up this blog because having only recently moved back to Ottawa I'm now finding myself having to go back to Calgary (life is funny in these ways) for work. However, in the four short months have I've been in Ottawa, I've joined a totally incredible gaming club; quite possibly the best that I've ever been a part of.

These guys are awesome. No one takes themselves too seriously, we're all out for some fun, everyone is a good sportsman. Every Friday night we get together, eschewing kids, wives, 'date-night' and other obligations of adult living and instead gather at our houses with some brews and toy soldiers and push some models around. Lots of ribbing, laughing and joking at these gatherings and after having worked a hard week I can honestly say that we all look forward to chilling out with the guys. At the end of the night, bleary eyed, we head home feeling lighter.

My Pak40s providing covering fire.

Simply put, what we do on our Friday nights is no different then what our kids are doing at the tree fort. Guys hang out, we like to pit ourselves against each other in competitive, sportsmanlike ways. Through that competitiveness we learn from each other, share tips and tactics, talk about life and things larger than toy soldiers or imagined combats, we form a brotherhood.

So it's knowing that I'm part of a brotherhood that I write this first post on my own tabletop gaming blog. The last time I was part of a brotherhood I was a 13 year old lanky kid, so they don't really come that often for me. Honestly, it's the saddest part about me leaving Ottawa, is leaving the guys. And while this blog isn't going to be filled with this kind of... philosophy very often (let's face it, we're all here to talk about toy soldiers), I feel it's important to set out why I'm starting this blog at the outset.

So this blog is my attempt to create something of what I've experienced here in Ottawa in Calgary. I wouldn't dream of trying to replace our club or the members of it with others, that would be stupid. But I do want to take a bit of the spirit of our club here in Ottawa and use that to start up one in Calgary of like-minded guys who might also happen to enjoy pushing around toy soldiers on a Friday night.

Hopefully in time there will be other authors to this blog and who knows, maybe a year or so down the road there will be a community of tabletop gamers who contribute to this blog and help make something cool.

This one's for you boys!