Archive for the ‘ boardgames ’ Category

This is the back of Games pavilion, the biggest one. We were inside it, approximately in the middle on the left.

The queue to enter in the pavilion.

Inside there are gadgets, videogames, boardgames, cardgames. And wargames too.

He is Gipi, an Italian and international comic author and film director. He created a cardgame and illustrated it. On the floor he played a lot of matches. A best seller.

Artists paint their works for benefit. At the end an auction to benefit children hospitals.


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Romics 2015 autumn edition

Back to the 1st of October. Romics is the comic convention of Rome. It is held twice every year in Rome fair. However the buildings are sinking in the ground. Moreover Rome fair is sinking in debts. But be happy: Romics is a money war machine and we will have a Roman comic convention continuously.

We are always present in the convention the first of the four days, from opening hour to end. It is the less crowed. So we can spend money freely and talk to people. And we did it abundantly. But not so many naked female cosplayers around the first day. Pity.

This time the convention was exploded in five pavilions. It is a very huge convention with lots of people around, but without cultural events and publishing companies presence. It is only shops and cosplay.

More boardgames this year. But it is not an easy situation where you can play: too many people around that don’t know games and don’t want to know them. In a matter of fact, as Ganesha Games we are not interested to be here.

However our friends of Reindeers club are here every edition. Praise them and their efforts to spread gaming culture. And this is the last Zerloon realisation: Mad Max flick was out in that time. And roads needed warriors.

Speaking about cars, an exhibition about Diabolik. And his cars.

This time there were two interesting exhibition: one about Bruno Bozzetto work, and this one about an Italian comic legend. He is the “king of murder”. A fictional one, obviously.

Some original drawings on the walls. The cover of one of the first numbers and its modifications. Look at the Diabolik’s eyes. And on Lady Kant the sign of a patch to change lineaments of the girls in following editions.

Another original draw and another version.

The original cover of a new series.

Comic convention are not more a matter of comics. They are more based on merchandise and gadgets nowadays.

And all what is from Japan is classified as something comic related. Thanks to anime, and later to manga.

Stuffed animals are cute and related to comic convention. Too much girls around nowadays as comic fans. But this is good. And I bought one of them for my love.

More cute things. Doraemon as a superhero.

Statues. Costly enough. And 1/6 action figures by Kaustic Plastik. I need some Roman to add to my collection.

To close some statuettes. Males like them more than stuffed animals. I don’t know why.


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Ludica Roma 2013: overview

And now the report about Ludica Roma 2013 convention, at last! Three daysv in Rome, my city, full of what you desire about games. They were the 29th & 30th of November and the 1st of December. Here we go…

The convention was held in 4 pavilions. We were in this one dedicated to wargames and boardgames.

Some volunteers managed, with an explanation of rules, an area to play boardgames.

Other notable things: Rubik’s cube competitions as solutions with blinded eyes; painting laboratories; abstract boardgaming; Subbuteo.

Another pavilion, only for children. All kinds of games and experiences.

The modelling pavilion: cars, earth movers, trains, ships and more. The paradise of radio controlled models.

This rail modelling circuit is based about a road near where I live, at one of the external gates of Rome built inside one of the main Roman aqueducts. In this zone there was the Gothic camp during a siege of Rome during the Gothic Wars. Moreover here happened some fights against Allies by Italian soldiers in the defence of Rome in 1944.

Some vintage action figures in a vendor area in this pavilion.

The softair (and other ways to shooting people safety) and reenactment pavilion.

And after this “garibaldino” (a fighter of the independent and volunteer army who fought for the unification of Italy) I promise that I will continue with this report another day.

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GiocaPerugia 2013: overview

I’m late, very late. But I want to show you something about my past experiences in conventions held in November. This time my report about GiocaPerugia 2013, the 16th and 17th of November.

The Perugia mini underground, almost a monorail. We arrived early in the morning by car. After we take this great public transport that penetrate inside the hill under the city.

In a lazy early and frozen Sunday afternoon, the main plaza in the city.

The main fountain of Perugia, that is in the main plaza of Perugia.

I took these photos during a pause. I thought:”Now they are two days in Perugia and I didn’t see the city centre!”. Well, I didn’t see the light of the day. Because the convention was held underground!

We were inside a real dungeon, a place 500 years old under a fortress. It is even used as a way with escalators to reach the upper part of the city. An ancient dungeon mixed with modern public facilities.

It was a little wet. Some water dipped down from the cellar. The rooms where was the convention are usually closed to public, so they have less maintenance attention. Because of narrow doors, inside the rooms the temperature was hotter than outside. We were natural ambient heaters…

Aster Wargame from Rome. All for your miniatures.

Perugia based miniatures vendor.

Always in the vendor area. On the right Chillemi, editions about military history.

The professor Gualtiero Grassucci from Latina with his wargame.

A wargame in a box with a gangster feel: Men of Honor!

Blood Bowl tournament.

A room with some boardgames. And a couple with a boardgame.

Another room full of boardgames for casual gamers.

And another room inside this dungeon, with some convention volunteers. More tomorrow on another post.

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Dadi.Com 2013: the report

At last! I’m so busy these days that I couldn’t write about this great convention. Here we go.

San Marino is a small republic inside Italy. It dominates a fortified mountain so with natural and artificial defences they obtained a form of independence along centuries. Moreover it is only a mountain, a not so important land to conquer. It was ever used as free port, so its existence was a safeguard to balance of power and economical interests in the area.

Today San Marino is a tourist trap inside real medieval walls and houses. Very beautiful indeed. You can find tourists shops, stamps and money minted only for collectors, an amazing view, some fake museums (wax museum, curiosity museum, torture museum, vampires museum,…), weapons sold almost freely, castles, money recycling in local banks, Russian female shopping assistants. However it is worth a visit.

Under the main city there is a luxury hotel where our games convention was held. Huge spaces and great treatment. I never stayed in a place so beautiful. It is too much for our wargamers habits!!! Because we were out of season, we pay for this hotel an extreme bargain price. A paradise…

The convention was held in a two storey hall. In the photo you can see less than a half storey, so think about the rest! There is a cinema inside too. At the first floor we had the boardgame convention, at the second floor the wargame section. Dadi.Com is a convention funded by Lorenzo Sartori in Crema, his city at the north of Italy, but since 2011 it is held inside another convention in San Marino, because of higher money necessity to run it in the original place. More images on Dadi & Piombo website. And these are the pages on the convention Dadi.Com, while these ones are for the San Marino Game Convention.

The location was great but the public was scarce. San Marino is out of main routes, moreover the economical crisis cut trips of wargaming people. We had the place, we had Italian vendors, we had 2 UK and 1 German vendors, we had great wargame tables. But we had only some local visitors and too few grognards too. So we had fun but there weren’t the numbers to foster this convention. This was my first time in San Marino, I like it very much, but other people said me about the loss in participation.

I’m in a hurry so I can’t describe everything that I saw in this trip in San Marino inside this two day convention. I can only briefly speak about what I loved of it.

Manorhouse is an Italian maker of buildings. Here a rather passable scene made by their products…

The big game was this Peach Orchard wargame. I’m not into ACW but the spectacle was great.

Instead here we are in Castelfidardo 1860, an Italian affair…

What I like most was this game by Bizio, an house rules version of Starfight by Beer & Pretzel Games. I found this game very easy to understand and with interesting play mechanisms. No sheet necessity, all is done with dices! Brilliant rules, a smooth mastering by Bizio, a lot of fun. A space (naval) game with the right ideas to play it speedily. A must have! Look at the miniatures: they were made by a friend of Bizio with every kind of materials.

My battle against Diego. I lead a Klingon vessel against a Federation ship. My vessel was weaker than that feeble human scum warship but my heroic aptitude win the day!

Follow the next week…

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A visit with pillars

A brief visit from Paolo, during a weekend in Rome from Switzerland. This time, last Saturday, we met with Diego too. Another Legio Palatina club moment at my home, the unofficial headquarters. A classic pizza dinner and a game. Pillars of the Earth is a favourite of ours. And Paolo know it so good that he always win. This time too. We are thinking to go together to Salute this April, one from Geneva, one from Rome. I have only to find the right flights…

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Ludica Roma 2012: miniatures

In Ludica Roma there were wargamers and modellers, so you could view a lot of beautiful miniatures.

A multicoloured scenario from an A La Guerre game.

Your miniature collection can become really huge after a lot of years playing wargame. Piles of 15mm for an 1:1 fight between Gauls and Romans along a small river.

Bigger miniatures and greater painters than wargame world. That Zues is awesome. I’m thinking about a game with this Zeus in the upcoming Of Gods And Mortals…

More models museum worthy.

A scene set in the Lybian desert, with Folgore paratroopers. My mobile camera is not so great but the weird yellow lights in the display case destroyed the fine paintwork. White lamps for another time, guys?

A customised Warhammer 40k squad. I don’t think that these miniatures are manufactured by GW. They are really huge and majestic.

A Dust diorama with a Jagpanzer. I have to buy something made by this Paolo Parente guy…

There were a lot of railway modelling dioramas. I remember them in their specialised fairs. Now I want to show you only this beautiful view of Porta San Paolo station. Every day I pass close to there to go to work. It serves the line for Ostia, the waterfront of Rome. It would be perfect is the lights in the platform were made by leds. Maybe this scene was built a lot of time ago. More on this station here

A display were made about the development of the Wings of War (now Wings of Glory) boardgame. It was very interesting to see as an idea was developed from the first rough pieces of paper to the final release with aeroplanes miniatures, through small sets for playtesting and prototypes of the game elements.

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Lucca C&G 2012: computer fever

In Lucca Games there was the Miniature Island. Yes, we were on an island in the sea of Lucca Comics & Games (and Cosplay, remember). We were only an island in Lucca Games pavilion too. Boardgames had a larger space and importance because in Italy we have various publishers on the market. This means that more money is involved in this sector than wargames one. Roleplay games are another sector and it has a respectable market. Live roleplay is an obscure sector to me and it was located in another pavilion. But the videogames market rules upon us all.

To celebrate the release of the new chapter of the Assassin’s Creed saga, the third one, an entire pavilion was dedicated to it. A polite statement to say that Ubisoft bought it. They have got the money to do it.

Around the city you could see some projections of this videogame advertisements on the walls. More revealing was the reenactment event of the Saturday, the simulation of Bunker Hill battle (1775). Almost 200 reenactors and lots of gunpowder were involved. We play wargame battles with miniatures, videogame industries play wargame battles with real men. Money makes a difference.

Another money matter. Videogame stands were huge and customised. I forgot to take a picture of the new Nintendo console and its gorgeous girls stand assistants. Among these game giants I took a photo of a wrestling videogame with the straight edge wrestler guy. Weird. Minor Threat – the band who came up in the eighties with the “straight edge” term – didn’t think about this evolution.

Just Dance is the exhibitionists videogame of the fair. Every year a new edition, every year wild girls try to hypnotise men with their rhythmic movements controlled by a game console with video camera. Some stand assistants lead the game. Here at the end of a day. I saw them in the morning, before the open of the gates, dancing without public: they were so crazy for dance to do it for fun! After 4 days in Lucca I was dead tired. And these girls?

An alternative way to utilise your old CRT computer screen: using it as a stage for miniatures.

In Lucca there is always a little modding section. This one was kitsch for sure, a gun with inside and outside various bad taste things, as Smurfs and model cars. Ugly looking.

Something better. But not so practical with that finger-eat fan. Glamorous but too much “open” to be a computer case.

A great machine! Water cooled case. Clean design, neon lights, blue-black-white colours. What can I say? It is sexy.

Paolo from Switzerland came to Lucca by train. Here while he is wearing his new computer headphones. Saturday night we walk together to a place outside Lucca where were relegated the computer geeks. They organised an all night long videogames lan party. Someone fell asleep on the floor, indeed. Instead Paolo, our hero, killed millions of aliens and took the train the morning after at 7 to the watches country.

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