Perugia is in Umbria, the same region of Terni that is also know as the city of Ganesha Games. So it was easy to them to arrive in the game convention Magna Con Phersu. Me and Diego, with the special guest Nunzio, were from Rome, far 2 hours by car from Perugia. Here you can see the Ganesha Games area in the first morning.

Flashing Steel is presented with a special setting that utilise Ainsty Casting ships and new boarding rules for a Flashing Steel future supplement. No sails because models arrived only few days before the convention so there wasn’t time to make them.

Another setting. Here the wonderful vineyard made by Sergio. He prefers red wine because he made purple grapes. After I saw this beauty I discovered that I need a vineyard for my miniatures too… My surname comes from the name of grapes!

Drums & Shakos Large Battles is in the final translation and layout stages. You will have it for the beginning of the new year for sure. Here another demonstration table without rules to show to people in a definitive book form. And another game with Diego who wanted to try the latest tweaks.

We are waited in Terni for testing other new rules and rulesets, among these a game about space vessels and another one about giant robots… And in the middle of this we have to test Song of Spear and Shield for its release… Instead the game about post-apocalypse for Lead Adventure miniatures is tested locally in ALT club of Terni.

A view of Historical Island. The Clan Conan space is at the end. Ganesha Games area is very large. Lava erupts from the volcano at the Andrea’s desk.

My Zen Garden in the fair. You can see the new materials at the work.

A playing preview of Swatters, the new game with 15mm aliens vs humans. Almost completed, it will see the light in a few months.

Flashing Steel on the table! Look at the wonderful sea, waves seems real. Some games were setted with this new ruleset. Pity, it was available only in English, so none could buy it, because Italian version is waited in the following weeks.

Sergio was very very tired due to work, but he could show his new Large Battle Drums and Shakos. A real success. His terrain was awesome, there was even a perfect vineyard.

He could explain the basic mechanics of the game with the throw of some dices to put spice in this. Some people wanted to buy it but you have to wait some weeks again. The book is in the editing phase.

Mighty Monsters, here presented in the Italian version and called Mega Mostri, results as a big hit in the heart of audience who reminds the lost sagas of Godzilla and its enemies.

Andrea presented the game with a volcano scenario and a lot of gashapon to show what we are speaking about. Children were attracted by these little figurines, adults were amazed finding their monster hero from younger time at work. And some child know the videogame of Godzilla and could name the monsters.

Scarred for life with Godzilla name!!! He is a hardcore Godzilla collector. However some people buy the ruleset ONLY because it is about kaiju, they don’t play wargames, they wanted Godzilla! I sign even an autograph on a copy, because I participated in the creation of the game!

Some happy customers playing with Mighty Monsters. Have fun with kaiju! And in the future you will have fights with giant robots from Japan too!!! Mazingaaa!!!!! And I have got a Patlabor large gashapon set to play a scenario with robots against a monster, as in Patlabor 3!

Another day in Terni, another day with Song of Drums and Shakos Large Battles (maybe in the final version the name will be without “Song”). The train left Roma station at 7.48 in the morning. This time Federico from Rome was with us. He is a veteran of Napoleonic battles. Our guest is Sergio as usual, with his game, his kindness and a powerful pasta with red and green pesto, red and green as Terni’s coat of arms.

I resulted in a very bad performance. I act as an amateur. I went straight ahead but enemy cavalry was not so convinced to permit this to me. It is true that in this manner we could destroy it because was alone in the field and under fire from our forces. At the end I put my soldiers at the will of my partner in the game, Sergio himself. But Sergio wrong move was that he didn’t develop early the reserves, especially the artillery.

As I thought, this is not the last version of SDS LB (from now DSLB). Other tweaks have to be do. Nothing so big, but something to improve the game in some situations. Linear games are even a bit complicated by geometric messes, and we don’t want a game for land surveyors.

Maybe we could see the complete game at the end of the year…

Some weeks ago, in the middle of August, during a hot evening, me and Diego tried in a private session the last release of Song of Drums and Shakos Large Battle. As I said before, Diego is very involved in the Sergio’s project, so he wanted to taste some of the rules to understand if all is smooth and fine. He set a scenario and adapted his 1/72 miniatures to the game. And he introduced some different composition of the armies to create peculiar forces, a variation to the more aseptic battalions that we used before for the tests.

I’m not an expert of Napoleonic warfare, but now I know some of the basics, so I moved my pieces with skilfulness, or almost I believe it. At the start I strike very hard, and glory was at hand. But in the following turns, a hill slowed my paces and I couldn’t give the final punch to the enemy on my left flank. Maybe the rule for hills are not good, because to climb them you must spend two activations only for movement. So I had too many turn overs. And to this followed a general change of situation on my throws: it meant a drawback and after defeat.

Another test and a list of observations to Sergio. Tomorrow we will have another playtesting day in Terni. Sergio tell us that this is the last test for the rules. I don’t believe him…

Another day in Terni, another day in Sergio’s house, another day of testing of Ganesha Games’ rules. This time was the 7th of August and the staff were: me, Diego “Legio Palatina”, Sergio “SDS”, Andrea “Ganesha”, Gasbarri “Italian champion of all miniature wargame tournaments”, Salini “Chimera”. So we had two gamers from Rome, two from Arezzo and two from Terni.

After a debate on who from Arezzo works as a apothecary (don’t mind, it is a inner joke), we started a game with Song of Drums and Shakos Large Battle. Every time I think it is in the final state of the testing, every time I found something new in the rules. Well, you can’t say we didn’t try this ruleset before its publication! We are testing it since a couple of years. What can I say? I confirm all my impressions. This time the game was faster because Sergio wants to close a game in a 2 hours and half, because he is tired of longer games that you cannot end in a evening. So you have a more deadly play, but with realistic results. I would prefer a slower and less compress view of the game, but frankly 2 hours and half are enough for a game, so now SDS LB is still better.

In the middle of the play we made a pause for lunch. At the restart I left SDS LB (my place was taken by Sergio and they made another game too, with a long debate after) for a game with Mighty Monsters. I aided Andrea in its development and founded some key ideas about the mechanism of the game. They were a lot of months that I didn’t play with these small versions of Godzilla and foes. We made some little adjustments and tried some terrain effects. It is almost ready for betatesting to external playtesters, but still we have to try it putting Japanese Defence Forces in the pit.

At the end I tried for the second time the new game of Andrea, Swatters (not the definitive name), a sci-fi game about voracious aliens and terrestrial garrisons (I talked about it in the 17th of July post). Andrea is very involved in its development because of the new form of the play. It is a game with easy rules and with a immediate visual recognition of the troops statistics and wounds using the miniatures and their position inside circular trays (made from old CDs). I think that especially this game it’s very easy to play without reading the rules before, because you have all what you need just on the table. I suggested to use trays made from mini-Cds, but now you can find only mini-DVDs, and Andrea is stockpiling them to play a very large battle. Using 15mm, the Ganesha’s distance sticks, a bunch of dices to add probability factors to your fighting results, and mini-DVDs as trays, you can have your sci-fi battle.

Another holiday in Terni! Me and Diego again. Our train left the station at 7.43. You get up early in the morning for these little pieces of lead. I could say that my summer holidays this year are in Terni…

As you can see, there is another improvement in the Large Battle SDS playtest rules: the cover is in full colour. Well, there are even other modifications, the morale rules are better focused and very simple, some little developments are on the ground, some personalisations of the armies are tested. This time was tested a scenario for the book, a strange fight between minor nations.
These rules are a long time investment for Sergio, and Diego is very involved in their definition. I think that they are better every time that I see them, but more things are to be tested. They have to be perfect…

While musketeers was echoing in the room where Diego and Sergio played, me and Andrea were involved in some small fights for Song of Spear and Shield. We wanted to test some situations as hoplites warfare, light chariots and heavy chariots. Some ideas were tested, something was good, something was not so good. Chariots are a hard challenge to put them in a game. More work have to be done, but the core rules are fixed. Next time we want some pachyderms and more chariots.

In spare time after this session, me and Andrea playtested his alpha versions of a sci-fi game with voracious aliens. And I showed my new iPad2 to Andrea to have some indications on its functions. A frozen train left me at the station around the 22.30.

This Sunday I took a break and I went to Terni to test two new games by Ganesha Games: the large battle version of Song of Drums and Shakos and a fast game for tanks. I have got photos to present them but now I haven’t time to do it. My computer passed away the last week. The collapse of HD was fatal. I think that my computer worked in this form since 2003 or 2004. I know, one day all must end. In these days I spent all my free time working on it. It is a real mess because I have to reinstall all programmes and dates, and some of them are lost forever, like a beautiful scheme for Anticamente that I wrote to help me to manage games. I must work on two big websites and now I am stopped. The great thing is that after I will recover my computer, I have to pass a lot of time on it for programming. So, no time for this blog too. And it is summer, but I can’t taste it.

For a report of the day in Terni go on Drums & Shakos blog.

Well, even this time I want to give you something, just because I prepared it before. Again with arenas.

As you can see, this arena is thought like a hole with around only an upper squared surface. There is even a handle to easily transport it, like a suitcase. Maybe all seems more a subterranean arena than a Roman arena, but this is another solution for the “arena project”.

More to read here.

More reviews and report of this second day.

If you love London you will love this game! Graphically you have wood houses and cones of fire, on a board with a detailed map of London in 1666. You have to arson houses owned by your opponents and stop the fire in the areas near your houses. But the fire is so unstoppable and you don’t know which houses others own! A great game for a bastard play. He he he! We bought it!
More here

Do you want a more complicated Agricola? Do you want resources that running down and anxiety? Put all those things in a new game and you will have a German naval docks game. Too heavy for me!
More here

The theme is out of the context, but the game is great. An original form of positioning you pieces in areas. Very strategical but simple, fun and with possibility to gamble against your opponents. Maybe we will buy it.
More here

In the meantime there were a bunch of 3d wargames tournaments, among them the DBA.

Here you can see Di Bartolo’s Napoleonic demonstrative game.

Saturday there was a SDS tournament. During the fair there were demonstrative tables with Ganesha Games’s rules, and Sergio and Andrea.

Among other tables there were a lot about WH40k with huge scenarios and tons of miniatures.

I don’t understand what you can play in this scale with big cannons that fire infighting! Throw a bunch of dices to calculate wounds to big toys? This is a game for 2mm and not for 28mm… Stupid and a waste of money on overpriced models.

Lego is a serious thing and it is not only for children…

Laser sword learning course.