A Fistful of Kung Fu brings the hyper-kinetic, bullet-spraying, demon-slaying, kung-fu-fighting action of Hong Kong movies and Asian cinema to the wargames tabletop. In a modern world walking a precarious line between the advances of next-generation technology and the tradition and mysticism of ancient cultures, Kung Fu schools face off in no-holds-barred tournaments, corporations hire agents and spies to steal each other’s secrets, overworked SWAT teams respond to gunfights between feuding Triad and Yakuza clans, and ancient artefacts are sought by hopping vampires, demon sorcerers and cyborgs alike. Combining the gunfights of John Woo’s Hard Boiled, the hand-to-hand combat of Enter the Dragon, the sheer mystical weirdness of Big Trouble in Little China, the wuxia action of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and everything in-between, A Fistful of Kung Fu is a skirmish wargame unlike any other.
Available by Osprey publishing in paper and digital format.

To play with adequate miniatures you can choose the official new range by Northstar miniatures! Here a gallery of all the 4 ready to play squads.

Black Hat miniatures, manufactures a full range of wuxia miniatures as wizards, zombie, phantasms, evil followers, dragons, human monkeys, warriors and so on! I cannot put here all the figures, they are a range with lots of sets.

For Ancient China, and lots of suitable henchmen, peruse the ranges made by Curteys miniatures. Various historical periods of the ancient China are available.

Do you want an huge crowd of modern Chinese civilians? And modern Hong Kong buildings? Pardulon makes 3 different sets with a total of 12 figures in civilian clothes. And modern fixtures building structures as doors, windows, drainpipes or air-conditioning units.

Ancient buildings in resin and MDF are available by various vendors. Look around for them. And play with A Fistful of Kung Fu!

I reported only something of what happened in the days of Lucca C&G. Too much things to do and to see. And now more than two months are distant from this event. However I hope I showed you what this huge fair means. So you could be here for the 2014 edition. Now it is time to concentrate on our specific area of interests: wargame.

We were inside the Games pavilion, in an area called Miniature Island. Around us there were some miniature related stands, than demonstration tables (where I was), and in the inside the painters area.

This a horse & musket wargame by our room mate in the hotel. I give him a couple of precious earplugs to survive to Andrea snoring.

A simple Napoleonic game by Narciso, now in the Clan Conan, veterans of demonstration games in Lucca.

Their huge playable scenario: Iwo Jima! Inside the Suribachi some tunnels are dug. To simulate the terrain they used huge amounts of coffee grounds! And all was assembled in the small living room of Narciso. That smelled of coffee, indeed.

Unofficial Games Workshop Warhammer 40000 demonstration battle. A nice group of alcoholic chaps ran these trenches and 4 days of fighting.

The magnificent trio: Sartori, Torriani, Sfiligoi. Presently they are the pillars of Italy regarding wargame rules. Their work is recognised outside our national and linguistic borders.

Losi, the martyr of last year Andrea snoring. This year he slept in another hotel. Co-author of the modern version of the Torriani’s wargame engine. In the fair he dressed as a Taleban or a private contractor. No, he is not totally mad. : )

The action in the streets of Iraq.

I feel the need of some concrete walls like these ones for my games…

A complete view of the set.

The new wargame by Torriani’s team is setted in Western period.

The painters area. He is Nano Nefasto (ill-omened dwarf), a professional painter from Brescia. On the left the Ludica team.

Luciano at work, illustrating how to paint miniatures.

Some of the pieces in the painting contest called Trofeo Grog.

Private collection by one of the painters.

The Blood Bowl gladiator squad by Auricchio grow convention after convention, year after year…

Always miniature sculpted by Auricchio: a 15mm Hastings range. Yes, 15mm, not 28mm!!!

Sculpting contest, always for Trofeo Grog: some gladiators.

My left thumb and a WWII US marine by Seven Samurai sculpting team.

1-48 Combat is back as 1-48 Tactic. This is a miniature for the game with his twin in a smaller scale.

We were a very large team in that mess. Some faces were the same of the previous years, some are new. Every evening we took a dinner together in various restaurants, the only moment when we could chat. We are part of a community, we are wargame players.

Last but not least, the part dedicated to Ganesha Games of the Ludica Roma 2013 full report.

Space is not a big problem in the pavilions of Ludica. So we obtained lots of tables to show rules and games. A DBA in 1:72 scale was organised by Diego.

On your wargame tables in 2016! One of the first playtests of some new ideas for a game by Andrea.

The first public preview of A Fistful Of Kung-Fu. Out by Osprey Publishing in February…

A photo from the first day in the fair. Building modular walls for my arena.

And after the masonry work, a chocolate snack. The candies stand poisoned the air with a terrible stench of chocolate. You couldn’t resist it for long. So I bought my waffel stick!

And here my arena. A lot of people appreciated it.

Those days my father was painting more spectators. However these are just all very active.

Among reenactors there were some involved in gladiatorial fights. A nice chap illustrated to people the specific disciplines of arena. I took advantage of the situation to brandish weapons and touch helms. So I could have a direct experience of what I studied and applied in Ferrum et Gloria.

Do you recognise the different kinds of helms? In Ferrum et Gloria you can understand why these are made in every specific way.

Shields and greaves. Due to hits, you can see as these are used in real fights.

In front of you an arbelas, with its crescent blade.

Back to Ganesha Games space. On the right a preview of the second volume of my rules: gladiatorial fights with ships.

A more detailed view.

An OGAM tournament was held the Saturday. I was very nervous because I only play it in playtests with Andrea mastering. Moreover I didn’t know the final version and how to build a winning strategy. Indeed this is my year: another great result, the third place! A Ludica gold dice and a book from Osprey as prize.

Another preview. I’m planning another game after Ferrum et Gloria. With this photo I suggest the topic of it. We knew in Ludica a reenactor of this historical period that is even a wargamer. An interesting meet.

Now we are waiting for Ludica Rome 2014. And the organisers are waiting for an analysis of the fair that I have to write to them. And you are waiting for other fair reports that still I have to write. In the meantime: Merry Christmas!

Still the Ludica Roma 2013 report. Aiming to our real interest: wargame.

Well, the thing that you can easily note on the photo is the candies stand. However we were there. Ganesha Games was situated where is the bunch of people at the extreme bottom, on the left part of the photo.

Another view. The previous photo was took on the balcony where are the escalators. The moment is dramatic: a lamp on the roof turned off so they are working on it.

A dream that we realise was the Samurai Robots Battle Royale game. Instead here we have a wargame by Bandai in the Gundam universe. The Italian Gundam club organised this display with gashapons, among other games and things. I’m almost thinking to join this club…

Two-dimensional wargame goes 3D! There was a large display with two-dimensional wargames like this.

Samurai. We all need some bamboo fences, Japanese houses and other related things: we have to be ready for a Japanese wargame, ever.

The last production by Torriani: rules for western battles with miniatures.

A huge scenario by Games Workshop staff. The colours of water were amazing.

Di Bartolo’s Napoleonic rules made their debut in Ludica, published by Chillemi editions. Here while a game was held.

Look at this vineyard!

Some time ago I saw the huge Napoleonic miniature collection by Di Bartolo’s club. Every time I wonder for their beauty.

This is the market for railway modelling in Rome. Approximately every a couple of months, or more, we have this event inside a school gym. It can be the opportunity to find something that can be useful for my miniatures.

Railway modelling is a hobby almost comparable with 3D wargame. But the real effort is to create large dioramas. We think always to create a movable space where put miniatures in a way to move them easily and precisely. Instead their aim is to have a fixed realistic landscape where trains can move along a rail net. So, we have some common characteristics, but very different scales and aims.

I feel this hobby world as distant from me. I don’t mind all kinds of railway cars available and what is related to them. They are captivating but I can’t understand 120 euro for a little piece of plastic with wheels. Whereas I find justifiable the same amount of money for miniatures or action figures…

Some remarkable things. Some tramway cars used on local lines. Note the double decker used at the begin of the last century.
Below, a 54mm diorama with toy soldiers. I can’t understand why these miniatures are sold inside these kind of fairs. They aren’t trains. However I saw around someone that sold single Foundry’s medieval miniatures with a wood base and a banner at the bargain price of 12 euro… Toy soldiers hobbyists don’t know the real price of our miniatures…

Last days to OGAM’s Nickstarter! This is the last chance to pledge for miniatures of the upcoming Of God And Mortals. You can watch the available range on this post.
Osprey is shipping rules copies too. I touched a preview copy a month ago but now I can have mine.
On past posts you can follow some development phases of them, published more that a year ago. As here when it was only an idea, or here where is concealed under the name “One Game About Miniatures” (=”OGAM”).
Have fun with this game!

North Star, miniature producer and vendor, have started another Nickstater. It is a program to build pre-orders for miniature lines useful for new Osprey wargame rules. It gives free figures, discounts and free postage. If they manage to raise certain target amounts of money, they will release either free figures or new models into the design schedule. This time they are making sets of licensed figures for Of Gods And Mortals by Andrea Sfiligoi. When the game is released in October 2013, they will have eight box sets to accompany the rule book. These will be four different gods, and four different legends sets. This will give you the myth content of pantheons inside the book. If the rules and miniatures manage to get the attention they deserve, there will be more figures and additional army lists available. Maybe Osprey could even be convinced to give us a full supplement for OGAM. I am involved in this project (I am one of the playtesters) and I hope you like it!

To know more on this project or to pledge, go to the OGAM Nickstarter page:
https://nstarmagazine.com/OF_GODS_AND_MORTALS.htm

Some news about Kaustic Plastik with a new gladiator wave. This time they are going to realise 3 gladiators dresses and weapons for a “School of Pompeii” set. You obtain the pieces to mount a complete figure and the spare pieces to partially dress two more figures. It is called set number 1. Could we expect a number 2 and a number 3? The quality is higher than previous, with better faces and new armours. In the meantime they had realised some beautiful imperial legionaries, so after hard work some lessons were learned to arrive to this new production. The set is based on the classic match Myrmillones versus Retiarii.

A secutor! This is my preferred gladiator kind. I like the big close helm with only two holes for the eyes. Pity, the figure neck is too much high, so the helm don’t cover it and the part of the shoulder near it. Another regret is the shield, a little too small and with upper acute angles. The net could tangle on them, so a shield with upper rounded angles was better. However for an overall verdict on this figure I can say that it is very good. Extremely very good.

A scissor! This secutor version is peculiar with the arbelas instead of the large shield. A metallic armour was needed to protect the body from fucina deep shots. But a mail shirt can be dangerous when points penetrate in the rings that constitute it. So maybe was better a plate armour. But the mail shirt is more flexible for a better fighting. And under it a protective padded cloth could stop the points.

The best retiarius in 1/6 format. It is very similar to that previously made with the Totti’s face but a better head make the difference.

So after this realise we can find a lot of gladiators kinds to build our schola. But remind, these are very expensive limited editions – for example this set is realised in only 400 copies – so you have to be hurry. This set is available starting July in Asia, August in USA, September in Europe.