Have you ever thought to build an arena with preformed blocks? Some guy made it here. You can buy block moulds and reproduce infinitely (or almost) the forms with resins or common chalk. Your skill and creativity make the difference, composing a original structure. The overall look resembles a heap made of sugar cubes, but that is a gladiatorial arena. If you think to make better, cast your blocks!

Thanks to Luciano and Valentina we had got a huge space for our Ganesha Games stand. Andrea was running a demonstration table for beginners with the new edition of Song of Blade and Heroes. So some people and children discovered the world of wargame. At the same place were possible to taste the water of the upcoming Of Gods And Mortals. We sold half of the book rules that we brought. And my Zen Garden game gone sold out quickly. Now I want to realise a little more luxury new version of it. Ready for Play Modena next year, I think. Only 15 copies and nevermore.

As you remember my arena was stolen in Lucca convention. Now I have built a better and larger arena by a Playmobil set. It is still needy of a paintwork to give a less toyish feel and some structure improvements. In the works, but good even now. A lot of children was attracted by it. Hey, it is not a toy for children, it is a toy for adults! ; )

Andrea stayed in Rome for 5 days. We playtested Song of Spear and Shields the day before, the first (desert) day of the fair and the day after. Andrea was not so happy about some aspects of the game so he wanted to stop it and to throw it away. But I insisted to save the core rules, leaving the group rules to a future game with more miniatures. I want this game a lot, I am almost a co-author of it. Now I’m waiting the feedback from the drafting of the version for external playtesters to have something more delineated to work.

This year the Ganesha Games team was composed by me and Andrea. We were in the Miniatures Island managing a demonstration table.

Every day Andrea chose a different game to show to the public. This one is Song of Blades and Heroes II. He was showing to people that you can play with just a bunch of miniatures and it isn’t necessary to buy tons of minis from a multinational game company.

My duty in the fair was to show the Ganesha Games concepts and rules to promote wargames with miniatures. I had my games side by side with Andrea’s games. Other tables were running their demonstrations at only few cm from us. But I was so busy that I barely glance at them!

Another game showed was a preview of the upcoming Samurai Robots Battle Royale. Tomorrow I will meet Andrea at my home for another playtest.

Some people had the opportunity to give a try to Of Gods And Mortals, that will be published by Osprey the next year. Sorry, I didn’t take a photo of it. You can only see a leaflet with its cover. Instead here again Go Nagai’s creations.

I sold all the Zen Garden copies that I brought with me to the fair. Girls are genetically attracted by my little beautiful garden. I demonstrated or explained this game to enthusiastic and curious people. The best selling was to an operator for autistic boys and girls. He told me that autistics have a lack of interest in larger and complex things but they pay special attention to details. My game, with its small and delimited elements, can be useful to create a play moment to communicate with these kind of people.
Now I have got only three copies for Ludica convention. They are the lasts of the 30 made. I’m thinking about a Zen Garden II for the 2013, but only in 15 copies. I prepared a demo version of Ferrum et Gloria too.

Gualtiero Grassucci was in Lucca with his “À la guerre” rules. And he was there even to take a prize for his activity as “wargame promoter” at school. Yes, he is really a promoter: while I was around in the fair, he explained my game to a father and son. He mastered a game without my help!

This is the last photo took to my gladiator arena. In the night between Saturday and Sunday someone stolen it! I leave it on the table after the fair closure of Saturday. They could steal miniatures or other more precious things, but only my arena was missing. I presume that a cleaner saw a box (the arena!) and threw it away… It is sad to be criticized in this way…

Exactly two years ago I started this blog. Now I have published 237 posts, that is one post every 3 days! A heavy duty!!! When I began this thing I didn’t know precisely what to write and if I can run it for so long. Well, now I think that I have still a lot of things to say. My only regret is that my English language isn’t perfect… but I have to live with it!

Well, this is my arena. Made by my friend Pippo and painted by my father. Pippo gave me the arena during the Agliana convention. It is made by cardboard and railway modelling bricked strip, glue, scotch-tape. All is designed to be placed inside a box for laptops to be transportable. After only (!) 5 months I found the time to finish off it. You can see on this post its initial colours. I painted the engraved stones with my magic wash black mix (polish plus black acrylic ink) on the grey surface and the result is great. For the ground I used a sand paint and my magic wash chestnut mix thinned with water, but the final impression was ugly, as a flat yellow surface covered with litres of dried blood! To give a more delicate appearance I painted several layers of thinned sand paint. Better than before but I think that could resemble more a pizza with dried mozzarella over tomato sauce than a reddish brown ground mixed to sand. Next time I have to give a better look to the ground. Yes, there will be a next time, another arena…

More on Rufina convention. This time some photos and words on the game that I played.

Because it was the 8th of September, the day that remind us the escape of king and government during the war, leaving the State and the Army without orders, we played a game with Operation Squad WW2 rules. The setting was pretty basic and a little scratch. We wanted to reproduce a fight of Italians versus Germans. The firsts were desperately trying to save themselves and the Country while Italy was collapsed as nation, the latter were invading the territory while were only a few in a foreign place where their former comrades switched sides for the Allies but without knowing it!

We made some mistakes because it was the fist time we play with these rules. My friend Pippo of Pippo’s Blog fame, fought with a fallschrimjager squad even if he wore a t-shirt with a commie red star on the national flag and the writing “always partisans”! I had got standard Italian troops instead.

After a lot of promises, I organised a demo of my Ferrum et Gloria for Pippo. He wanted to try these rules and in the future he will run a full playtest for me, based on the written text, to understand if all is clear. I hope he will play an entire campaign to tweak the system points and the added rules. Bad lucky dices for me this time, so the test was not so valid to state the full potential of the rules. But Pippo liked it.

Here you can see my new arena, made by Pippo and painted by my father under my direction. Small, portable, elliptical.

Sunday an Anticamente tournament was held in Rufina. The first time with my 10mm Roman legion. And I wore my tourist t-shirt with a big “SPQR”, a real statement of Roman creed! Last time I played with these rules it was almost a year ago. So I had only a lot of good dice result to survive to enemy armies. However I know something about this game: I reached the forth place on eight participants. I had to leave early due to distance, and a fake photo was taken while I receive the cup for the third place because maybe I could reach that place in case a player would lost more pieces. Now I haven’t got the cup but only a photo. Yes, but together with my friend Fabio.

During a walk in the city centre I saw this thing in a souvenir shop around Piazza Navona. There is a new wave of this kind of shops, sometime they obliterate ancient and more rustic places, or real shops not created for hordes of tourist zombies. A lot of Chinese or South Asians are among vendors, and this is a new trend. Traditional souvenir vendors were Hebrew, because this was considered as an indecorous job, so it was reserved to pariah of society.

Back to the arena. Think about a game setted inside this arena. If you want a Colosseum here you have got a real one. Well, a real one at the actual form, because now it is so ruined, in ancient times it had another form. But who care, so it is more peculiar.

I didn’t ask the price. It could be outrageous, I suppose. It is a souvenir, isn’t it? For very rich people. But if you think about some prices for resin buildings for wargames, or worse to train modelling, we are rich people who spent a lot of money on silly things.

To stop this thought, I believe that I haven’t the space for this thing in my house. So I can’t afford it. I wonder on who will buy it.

I play with Lego since I was five years old. This shaped my way of thinking: everything needs order, a place in the flow of events, is part of a structure, and so on. For example, I refer to Lego bricks when I think about code blocks in programming. Or I think the simple lines of that blocks as the basic principles for interior design (yes, I like IKEA too). When I visited Legoland in Billund, I fulfilled a dream from my times as child. Moreover I like the minifigs and I think that they could be great miniature soldiers if they cost less, because they are fun, it is easy to change weapons and it is smooth to put them as dead on the ground. And buildings made of Lego bricks are ideal for damages done during the play. I have got only 6 minifig gladiators as miniatures for my wargames, I wish more.

If you are a Lego modeller you are interested in building new and interesting things. Ryan McNaught has thought to build a Lego Colosseum, a huge arena made of bricks white marble coloured. It is only a half of the entire ring, and as a quarter with the ancient look and the other quarter with the nowadays look. It is G-R-E-A-T. The elliptical form is a challenge to reproduce it by standard rectangular bricks. The real aspect of the current Colosseum is more dark red than white, but the ruins are well done. I would prefer an entire arena at the times of Emperor Traianus, but I can say that it is already enough so!

Inside and outside are recreated some fun sketches to set the mood and liven up the model. Outside there are more things to view, with the modern part made of fake legionaries, illegal sellers of soft drinks, tourists and the Pope-mobile (!) with Emperor Palpatine as Pope Ratzinger (!!!) because they are almost twins in appearance. Only a question. I liked the Meta Sudans and the Arcus Constantini, but where is the real Colosseum, namely the Emperor Nero statue, outside the Amphitheatrum Flavium? He has forgotten it.

On this Flickr page you can find more Lego Colosseum photos by its designer: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanmcnaught/sets/72157630334220300/

Another arena made of resin, this time from Grand Manner. Beautiful but heavy, very heavy, I suppose. Well, if you can’t afford this arena, or if you don’t like it so much, you can always buy a Roman temple, one of those you can see in the photo. I would like a temple on my table, a day or another…
If you want to know more: here