I thought that videogames were something not so interesting in Lucca. Instead they were the big thing in games pavilion! Almost half of the space were dedicated to videogames and seeing the long and beautiful legs from miniskirts of the hostesses you could understand where the money is in games field.

There was space for consoles and pcs, for the WII with its remote control and for the Playstation with its new remote control. A lot of games were on but I’m not so informed about trends and titles.

Before Lucca I didn’t know the 3D for the videogames. I thought that this could be a unnecessary element, but there was a little 20 seats cinema managed by Asus with promos on 3D videogames. They were terrific! It is absolutely a new playing experience, when you have saw this potential you cannot return back! I suppose we find all new titles in 3D format, it is great even for static games. I saw a Civilisation V ad in the 3D area, it is a causality or there is other? The weird thing was to see the people in front of monitors with their technological glasses: it is just an alienating view, but with this glasses all seemed a sci-fi flick about aliens who control the world with subliminal visions…

A lot of videogames to try, but I have only saw other people doing this. There was even a videogame where you and your friends must replicate a band, and another one where you must dance according to the moves on the screen and a sensor gave you points if you are good in this. Like Lara Croft, but this is another story…

For our government, for our politicians, for our (all types of) mafias, this is only a heap of stones. But these walls are our heritage. Schola armaturarum is no more. New barbarians are in Pompeii, new barbarians are in Italy.

Other things on games in Lucca. Well, I must admit I spent almost 50euro on dices, but this hand is Diego’s hand! He spent the same, I think. There were Chessex and Q-workshop, so you could have a large choice of killer dices to put inside your fists. I bought strange dices to throw in my future tournaments, and one type is very beautiful and romantic, with little leafs carved on all the faces. So now I have a mug full of D6 dices. The sad thing is that Chessex have a weird change for the dollar: 1euro = 1dollar. Hey, this is damn wrong! The right is 1euro = 1.40 dollars! You found this only after we bought a lot of dices. Your is not an honest price mr. Chessex!

There was the historical corner. Well, not a corner but a large space of tables with miniatures. In the vastness of the place this space was very little indeed…

Here you can see Impetus and on the right upper corner Sfiligoi and Laliscia.

And here Laliscia while entertains a family with his new game about American Civil War. Too many people, too much rain, and this family wanted some guy to babysit their children… It is all for free. I hope one of these children a day will be a player…
On the left the new publications from Ganesha!

Some people entertains other children, but dressed like some Napoleonic era soldier.

A la guerre is tested by Diego. He likes big battles with a lot of little guys made of lead.

We tried (and Diego bought it) this game with miniatures set in WWII with Russians against Germans in a Stalingrad type of landscape which can remind a famous flick with doors and enemies…

It is an interesting skirmish game with miniatures bigger than usual 28mm ones. You can have a good fight among destroyed buildings and ruins. The rules are simple and there is a smart system to alternate turns between the two players: you have 12 activation points, you can use one-six of them and after give the action to the other player, so you can strategically use your points to wait a better moment or strike hard. Every soldier is a well definite character with his arms, abilities and limit of activation points which he can use. If he take a wound, his stats change. With another wound he is dead.

You can consider this game as a application on WWII of fantasy miniature games where every piece is a character. The impression is good, you can have a lot of fun around Stalingrad with a real skirmish game, but miniatures games are another thing. Here you have specific pieces, a limited prospective of what you can do with miniatures. If you want a game with your army you must looking for other rules. Flying lead among these…

The result of this demonstration game? I win, Diego died!

More on this game here: https://1-48combat.com/

In Lucca we tried (and bought) this boardgame wrote by two young Italians. It is about the management of teams of gladiators. The fights are decided by series of throw of dices (fun and with a good feel of gladiator style, indeed), but the interesting part is about the interaction with the other players to cheat the fight and to compete to set a spectacle in arenas around the Roman world. It is a simple game complicated by the possibility of interact with the others, to compose temporary alliances and treason to set your spectacle in the best way. Playable only with four players, for 2 or 3 people is lame. Game’s historical feel of the art is very good. Nice box with good materials, but I changed quickly the D10 dices inside with two with Roman numbers!

Here their website: https://www.albepavo.com/en/munera-FG_overview-en.html

Here we go! The place for games was enormous, only it could be a full convention. I passed two days inside it and I can say that I haven’t saw it entirely. A long queue to enter, even with the rain. So heavy that sometimes inside you cannot hear the voices of other people.

A lot of game stands with the Giochi Uniti one as the biggest. You could play a new game with a master that explained the rules. I think that were almost 20 tables for Giochi Uniti, and a lot of other tables for other game editors.

Olympus was decreed like the best game of the show. It is a game made by Italians. It is about the development of your polis through prayers to Greek gods! I want to play it!

Another game that I want to try is this one about the fire that destroyed London. It is a game where you can direct the fire against the proprieties of your rivals to save yours. A good opportunity to know more about London and to have less friends!

And this one is a boardgame with miniatures, chtulhuian I suppose. Well sculpted pieces indeed. I want to give a chance to this game to enter in my house. I must know more about it!

In the same glass showcase I found this preview of the new wave of Wing of War planes from WWII. Italian fighters at last! And a new expansion with bombers of WWII. I like Wings of War, I have the WWI one, but I think that the scale is wrong for WWII dogfight. They are too big. The only good thing is they are very beautiful and they are prepainted.

A participation game was set with this Circus Maximus in cardboard and 1:32 miniatures. A good look! Throw the dice and see the result, this is the spirit of this type of games, and people have fun with a simple game. But when I saw chariots that run among gladiators, well, I wanted to vomit. All right, it is all for the fun, but please…

I’m here again! I had a holiday of four days full of excitement, a full immersion in my passions: lead soldiers, boardgames, videogames, comics, action figures, mangas, vinyl toys, gashapons, Japanese robots, cosplays, and all this type of stuff. My eyes were full of imagines that my brain couldn’t process immediately. Four full days among other 135000 people there for the convention, but no sense of fatigue in myself. My only regret is that I wanted more and more, but as usual I returned to normal life.

What is Lucca Comics and Games? Well, it is one of the biggest convention about comics. It started a lot of time ago, and it was confined inside a basket stadium. An occasion for people in the comics field to meet and talk to each other. Year after year more people came and the event had more spaces around the stadium inside large plastic tents.

A section about games was added and the people grew more and more. Comics was became not more a thing for people with glasses and dirty dresses but a lot of females joined the public of comics readers thanks to Dylan Dog (an horror comic with the highest number of pressed copies) and mangas. The first cosplayers were viewed around too. The place was too small and one time there was the apocalypse of the event: a heavy rain fell on people and comics, and there was a two hour queue under the rain for a ticket and none admission due to too many people inside the convention.

After this destruction a new idea brought the event outside the stadium and its parking: now Lucca Comics and Games was inside the city, it was the city!!!

Lucca is a precious jewel, with its huge and green bastions, delicate palaces, towers (one with trees on the top!), impressive churches for peregrines, remains of ancient times like a Roman amphitheatre developed into a place with rounded buildings. It is a rich city from ancient times, full of history, and now the city of comics, with a museum to decree this.

On this map you can see where the party was: sky for comics, pink for games, yellow for shows, meetings and events. In the following posts I will speak about things I saw and did.

Here the official photogallery (I think I will post some pics from it if I haven’t the right photo for a situation): https://www.flickr.com/photos/luccacomicsandgames
I will have even some pics took by my friend Paolo of Ronin Clan fama. See his blog for more photos!