Agliana was known as Hellana in Roman times. Since 11 years ago there is in this town a wargames convention. It is the most important in central Italy and now without Dadi.com in Crema maybe it is the biggest convention in Italy. I’m here every year since 2004…

This convention is inside a school gymnasium for children. The sad thing is that you cannot see outside and the day passes from dawn to sunset without seeing the sun. But there are a lot of other things to watch.

There are tables with participation or demonstrative games but they are mostly for long games and so you can pass all the day with only a game. The best looking games have got even a price given by Hellana’s organizers.
There are Italian vendors and something remain always attached to your hands during the day and magically some money disappear from your bucket. This time I bought some special decorative grasses for Flyton and a team of chaps in hunting party to add them at my vbcw troops. There was a great bring and buy this year but I resisted waiting that the best things were sold so I could save money for Salute.

Fabio is here with his Anticamente in demonstrative form. For the tourments there will be another time. Modena and Agliana were two big appointments to show his game and a lot of people seemed interested in it. But he is so busy that he didn’t sell it at conventions. I asked for a luxury copy but he has no time to print it. But his wife found time to cook this chocolate cake to offer to players. Delicious thought.

In the afternoon there was the Wings to War tournament. And like every year there is a DBA tournament. This year was the first time of Gasbarri’s child to enter in the competition while Pippo take with him his child like dice thrower. Younger generations are coming!

The fair is ended. Like all finished parties, the mood is a little bad. The other days the hotel was full of people and friends (and late night games were setted in the hall), this morning we are alone in the breakfast room. I see the desk and only 7 keys aren’t in position on 114 rooms. Mondays are always empty of holidays mood.

We want some souvenir of Modena’s food so we find a local supermarket and spent 150 euros in aceto, gnocchi fritti and other cholesterol sources.

On the road to home there is Bologna and the Museo Memoriale della Libertà (Memoir of Liberty Museum). It is a place with a private collection of vehicles like this Sherman (it is still in order) that you maybe watched in “La vita è bella” flick.
There is even a place with sequential rooms where was in action animated scenes about WWII in Bologna. Very suggestive and with real deactivated weapons.
The museum was closed but it opened for us. The guardian is a picturesque ex soldier of fortune of Algeria and Indochina wars. We woke him after a night shift…
More here

Near the museum there is Fabio and his headquarters.

I took some pictures in his office. Instead of the real work about software and pharmacology you can see little soldiers everywhere. And some previews about his TB Line. They are real photos, the office is invaded by these little things.

And here there is my viaduct, blocked. Too many things to do in these days. I told it goodbye, I will see you in the following months.

After this visit, Fabio offered us a heavy dinner on the hills around Bologna. I ate crescentine until my stomach permitted it. Thanks Fabio!

Five hours after I was at home, a little tired… next stop is for Agliana, next Sunday!

How to disrupt a serious business? Starting a new one about miniatures. The famous man from Bologna, the master of hexagons, the artist of polystyrene, portrayed his office warehouse. Here you can see shelves with the TB Line 10mm production, all divided for type. All the TB Line’s little men coming from this place. An army ready to fight.

The new issue is out! I was waiting this one in particular because there are interviews to Italian wargame champions about the past year, so there is an interview to me too, like the Anticamente championship winner. These are standard questions and each one answer about a championship. Here we go:

Have long have you been wargaming and what other games do you play, or have you played, in tournaments?
I played with toy soldiers as a child, and still do as a grown-up, albeit in a different way. My first three-dimensional wargaming was with WH40k, but I didn’t like the rules or the tournament circuit and almost stopped playing. Then I discovered another wargamer, DBA and historical wargaming. I also play boardgames.

How many tournaments did you play in 2010?
I have played too many: DBA, SDS and Anticamente. The problem is the preparation and travelling, and three rules-sets become difficult to do. And you have so little time to play anything else.

Which army gave you most this year?
Teutonic Knights, also from an aesthetic point of view. They are very heavy and force you to play an aggressive game. I also used them to win the decisive game in the Championship against my opponent who used the Mongols.

What advice would you give to people who are thinking about plaling in tournaments, especially those who play “your” rules?
Anticamente is a recent set of rules and all of its tactical possibilities haven’t been found yet, especially with the use of light troops, so it’ll be fun to explore it more. And the organisers make it even easier by lending you armies that you can try before you buy.

So, until here there is my intervention, and on the magazine you can find other 6 people who speak about their championship. But you can find articles and photos on this bilingual Italian magazine about wargames. There is a scenario for Song of Drums and Shakos too. Look here to know more. Buy it now at only 8 euros, p&p incl. On the next issue there will be another thing wrote by me…

Do you remember Anticamente? Well, I infected with blog-mania the famous man from Bologna who is behind the “viaduct project” too. So you can have more news and things from Anticamente surfing at https://www.tridentebologna.it/blog-english

This is only an image. If you can’t read well the small characters, is best to read the blog in full format… 😉

I was thinking in these days about the cups I have got on the upper shelf of one bookcases of mine. I have got other prizes for my miniature battles but the cups are 5. And 4 of these are from Bologna. A very strange thing! The best cup of my life was this one from 3/4 years ago, my first cup. I cannot forget that moment.

I found I’m the seventh on the standing of the 2010 Italian wargamers league! It is a league organized by FIW (Italian Wargame Federation). You can find more here about this thing, even if every circuit works alone and it isn’t organized by this federation. And on the next issue of Dadi & Piombo magazine there will be a mini interview about me like wargamer.

Well, I’m number 7 of all tournament men of Italy, and this one was my worst year… The events of life sometime are very strange…

A couple of word on Anticamente. This is a project of a crazy man from Bologna, the tortellini & mortadella country.
When he was a child he was always sawing an hexagon on the top of the house door and thought: “this can mean something”. A lot of year after he created a game based on hexagons, or rather a game based on areas instead of measurement. So you haven’t inch or cm to measure, you have got an area with a limit of troops that it can contain, and with troops in battle array along a direction of the six on the angles of the hexagon. An interesting approach for a new type of game without rulers.

This man is crazy, and I told you this. Well, he without thinking about his wife and two little children began to produce hexagons at home to sell it to other people lightened on the way to the hexagon. Now he has got an industrial (!) production of polystyrene hexagonal bricks to permit you build your terrain, with flock to bring it to life. He is a maniac, so he built terrific things with his hobby knife…

He still had money in his pockets so dilapidated it in 10mm soldiers, charging a sculptor to make various ranges of lead men (and horses and elephants). With good results indeed (even if in the upper photo you can see only Pendraken pieces). But now his house is full of lead and polystyrene.

Here you can see something brought to sell at the tournament before all were sold out! Blisters about the new Roman & Celt ranges and some hexagon pillars.

And this is a preview: the new army lists for Anticamente, based on a system of composed cards. Very beautiful and smart!

These aren’t two alcohol addicted but (on the left) Fabio, the man of hexagons, and (on the right) Bizzio, the graphic designer of the ruleset, while they were eating in Rome.

If you want to know more this is the website: https://www.tridentebologna.it
In the near future there will be the free rules in English language.

Someone don’t believe in me. I have got the fifth position in DBA European championship and now I’m the Italian champion of Anticamente. It is not all by chance.

My mate Fabio created this rule set and I was interested from the first times. I corrected one of the rough first versions but I hadn’t time to do more (this situation is a recurrent thing!). I tried it in Agliana convention of the last year and in 2010 I participate in the first tournament of Anticamente instead of playing in the DBA one. A game (Teutonics vs Mongols) with Simoncini brought me a definitive victory and the first position in the tournament. My first time in the first position after 6 years of tournaments!

The results: https://www.tridentebologna.it/Hellana2010_I.php

Agliana was set in Winter, this time was Summer, the 3rd of July, my birthday! I went around Modena in a huge place managed by a group of boys and girls. I believed I could do a good play strong of my past, but the day went very bad. The first game was delirious: I died without moving; wrong army, wrong battle array. Not a happy birthday. Only a cake offered by Fabio tempered the big delusion.

The results: https://www.tridentebologna.it/Dadi&Sudore2010_I.php

Autumn, but a weather like Winter. The last of the three stage for this year. Not my birthday but my name day! Strange thing: I had the same shirt I wore in Agliana. I don’t like it. So I have pictures of me with an ugly shirt and cups. If I knew my future results I would dressed like a model in a fashion magazine.

First game with late Romans. I placed my troops in the wrong place. With more courage I could do something, instead I fight only with a bunch of guys. The others remained blocked behind the front line. I lost but not so much.

Next game, against Bizzio, the virtual Italian champion and one of the people with more games on his shoulders. I thought: “I will lost with infamy”.

I wanted the Teutonics and he wanted the Mongols. The battle was set. The forces of good with their white suits vs a pile of waste.

The only thing he must did was all but not 1. He wanted to cry or to make seppuku. Very desperate…

This was a human being before a wrong throw of dice.

I was very, but really very, happy. What you can see here is nothing. This pic was took by Bizzio so I didn’t want to be pitiless towards him.

This is the final aspect of the battle. The forces of good ground the scum of Mongolia. No story for Bizzio, his army was no more. 40 to 0 the result.

The last game was against Prof. Mariani, a school director now in retirement. He panicked with his Gauls against my Romans. He don’t know well the rule set, but my forces acted like a hammer. 40 to 0, again.

My mates here won the third and the second place. The ancient Legio Palatina club (but now Legio Palatina + Ronin Clan) won another day!

First! The results: https://www.tridentebologna.it/Roma2010_I.php

And with the sum of the year I did a total of 163 points, 58+11+94. First again and another cup! You can see where my eyes went. To Bizzio. He is not so happy for this thing because he thought to win and came from Bologna for this. So I’m happy for me, but sad for him. But this is only a game, and another tournament means another challenge from 0 points. This time the glory was for me, after a year full of bad results and last positions, this victory is gold!
The 2010 results: https://www.tridentebologna.it/anticamentetournament_I.php

I want to thank Fabio for all his efforts to bring this game to life and for his availability. Thanks to Bizzio too for his contribution to the game and his sympathy.