Archive for March, 2011

Play Modena 2011: the day after

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…
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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!

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Play Modena 2011: second day

More reviews and report of this second day.

The Great Fire of London 1666

If you love London you will love this game! Graphically you have wood houses and cones of fire, on a board with a detailed map of London in 1666. You have to arson houses owned by your opponents and stop the fire in the areas near your houses. But the fire is so unstoppable and you don’t know which houses others own! A great game for a bastard play. He he he! We bought it!
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Le Havre

Do you want a more complicated Agricola? Do you want resources that running down and anxiety? Put all those things in a new game and you will have a German naval docks game. Too heavy for me!
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Jerusalem

The theme is out of the context, but the game is great. An original form of positioning you pieces in areas. Very strategical but simple, fun and with possibility to gamble against your opponents. Maybe we will buy it.
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More from the fair!

In the meantime there were a bunch of 3d wargames tournaments, among them the DBA.

Here you can see Di Bartolo’s Napoleonic demonstrative game.

Saturday there was a SDS tournament. During the fair there were demonstrative tables with Ganesha Games’s rules, and Sergio and Andrea.

Among other tables there were a lot about WH40k with huge scenarios and tons of miniatures.

I don’t understand what you can play in this scale with big cannons that fire infighting! Throw a bunch of dices to calculate wounds to big toys? This is a game for 2mm and not for 28mm… Stupid and a waste of money on overpriced models.

Lego is a serious thing and it is not only for children…

Laser sword learning course.

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Play Modena 2011: first day

Gates opened at 9.00 in the morning. We were there! The Modena Fair is where this convention is held. This is the occasion to test a lot of games supported by volunteers that show the rules. You have to choice an empty table with a boardgame and can start to play. When we are in three or two is more simple to set something, while when you are alone you can jump where there are people who are setting the game.
Some quick review…

NBA All Stars

A game about basket. I prefer the free time with cheerleaders, but I have to give it a try because Diego was a ex-player in his school days. Well, there is the feel of basket and you can do some play with strategies. But it is only for fans. Diego spread that this game was fantastic so two friends bought it too. Now they can create a league…
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Battles of Westeros

A friend told us about this game, a better version of Colour and Strategies system, he said. We never played with that system so were curious about this game. Diego is a fan of the books that inspired the theme. I’m disgusted by it instead, because I’m a fan of historical essays! The test went on with delusion. Why play with a boardgame so simple and predetermined and with ugly plastic soldiers when we are used to play with various 3d wargames and beautiful painted soldiers? Rejected!
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Olympus

Each one has a culture to develop using prayers to Greek gods. It is a game about positioning your alias. The first time I saw this system was in “the Pillars of the Earth”. I understand well all the rules and what you must to do to win. As you can see I win the game with a lot of points. It’s a beautiful game with a good theme, even if there are only 10 gods when the great gods were 12.
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War of Wonders

A card game! I tried Magic when appeared at the start, and I said: “a card game is without feel, too much complicated, you have to collect cards to win, and so I think it is without future”. At that time I worked in a game store…
This is a game with two decks: one for Axis and one for Allied. It is about superhumans in WWII, like Marvel’s Invaders. The set is complete, no more cards to buy. I tried it, I liked the theme and the mechanics, I bought it!
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7 Wonders

The game of the year, it seems. Well, I don’t think so, but it is a great game with good graphics. It is based on a deck of 7 cards. You can choice one card and pass the others to the player on your left, and so on. This is do three times in the play. Every card have its permanent effect that built your points. Simple and quick, but if you know the cards you can built a complex strategy. Fun.
More here

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Play Modena is a huge convention about boardgames, and wargames too. This year we went to Modena for a 4 days tour! We stayed in this hotel, a building with 114 rooms!

The first day a tourist trip around the city. It was he first time I saw it. Beautiful but very small, I’m from Roma, another thing. Here you can see the Duomo with his campanile dressed like a Tetris for refurbishment work.

I ate a lot in these days. Modena cousin is famous. The first night in a posh restaurant: polenta, quaglia eggs, vinegar and cheese.

And after: tortelloni with pumpkin inside.

At the convention we ate tigelle with a mixture of garlic, lard and grana cheese!

Saturday was a hard day to found some place not overcrowded. At last we ate a great pizza. Mine with salty ricotta and small tomatoes.

Sunday night it was very calmer. A lot of people was on the way to home. So we ate in city centre where someone from Ganesha told us about a beautiful waitress. He was fucking right.
We ate tagliatelle with prosciutto and porcini mushrooms, boiled rice with vinegar and grana, tortelloni with asparaguses.

And to end the night this light combination of cream and chocolate.

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Song of Large Drums and Monsters

We are in Terni again, at Sergio’s house, also known as Palalaliscia!
Were a lot of time we wanted to do another gaming day with new productions in the works by Ganesha Games. So, me and Andrea played with giant monsters and Diego and Sergio played with little Napolonic soldiers.

Here can view Sergio during the rules briefing. This is the last version of Song of Drums and Shakos Large Battles. We tried it last year with an area movement approach and in this metric form.

I followed only part of the battle setted for the testing. It was the first day of the Tolentino battle of 1815. The play went on with debating about the rules and how to improve them. Diego is a fan of rules discussions and of Napoleonic era, so I think this session was very useful to Sergio to prove his game.

In another room another struggle went on. It was about giant Japanese monsters from cinema screens. I’m following this game from its born because I am a fan of kaiju. I have got a shelf full of 7cm mosters and a big Godzilla is watching me from a bookshelf while I’m writing on the keyboard.

Mighty Monsters is now almost ready. This latest version go on smoothly, only little adjustments are necessary. The wound system is brilliant: you have got 3 kind of dices, white to red throught yellow, every wound you have to substitute one dice with a worse one. If you fail your activation test with 1 on your yellow dice you must throw on a disaster table, while if you fail your activation test on your red dice you must throw on a worse disaster table. So you have wounds that effect your powers or your actions. Every monster have peculiar statistics and comportment, and you can build them with a point system. We had got some Toho’s monsters and you could watch them fighting like in a film!

For the gossip column I won the fight. Andrea’s Godzilla was lazy and without talent while his Ultraman fight well. My MechaGodzilla save the day with an heroic attitude.
Here you can see the Ipad with a page from the upcoming ruleset. We ascertain that a 90×90 terrain is the best, with a bunch of buildings as scenario. We must prove with Japanese Defence Forces another time…

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Clowns at war

Before the crisis: Berlusconi kissed Gheddafy’s hand to pay homage. And after Gheddafy cleaned his hand.

At the start of the crisis: Berlusconi said he don’t want to call Gheddafy because he thinks he is busy.

Now: Berlusconi is ready to fight Gheddafy…

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Flag Holiday

This year there are little possibilities of holidays for workers because the 1st of the year, the 1st of May (labour day), the 25th of April (official end of WWII in Italy) and the 25th of December (Jesus birthday) are days off like Sunday or Saturday. A strange calendar in these years.

Italian politicians are a total mess, so the idea: “let be happy people, a new holiday only for this year!”

And so we have got this “flag holiday”! What a stupid thing!
If you ask around what this holiday is, why just this day, none know the answer.

We have got this fake celebration of the 150 years of Italy, but Italy was not really reunited 150 years ago, it was all another story, and nowadays Italy is not so united.

And in the North there is a very influential political party that is a rule force in our government, based on racist and secessionist ideas (but it is only a fable for dumb and a matter of money to steal), that don’t want to celebrate this flag. They claim to be descenders of Celts and call themselves Longobards (that are Germans)! They wanted, and so have obtained, a holiday for their flag. They are thinking about which flag utilize, maybe a St. George flag, the England flag! And they are Celts… And this 17th of March is St. Patrick day, the national holiday of a real Celtic country: Ireland. And Ireland flag is similar to the Italian one. While Italians who suddenly 20 years ago named themselves Longobards thinking to be Celts, want to celebrate a English flag!

Another thing. After this precious gift of free time, someone reminded about the cost of it. Who will pay the workers for this new holiday? The solution: for this year all will have for holidays one day less!

Our national flag is green, white and red. Like pizza. It is not casual. Italy is like pizza. But if you put in pizza some genetically modified basilico, mozzarella produced from dioxin polluted fields, cheap Chinese tomatoes, what do you have? You have this actual and real wasted Italy.

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Meka testing

Meka is a ruleset by Paolo. He is affected by megalomania and wants to create a system to play with 1:144 models of Japanese androids drawing inspiration from animes. After his former efforts now he realized something more reliable. We made this test to verify his ideas. And a lot of things seem to work out. There is something to improve, especially for a more fluid movement, but I think this is the right way for the game. He have to test what we have found out this afternoon and after he has to test again the game, with more pieces involved inside.

The great thing is that you can buy an action figure for a small amount of money, ready without painting and with a lot of possibility of poses and weapons, and instead to put it on a bookshelf you can play with it. There is a point system to built your mechas and so you can have different choices of play. While you are playing you can replicate the situations of the anime.

Here you can see Zakus, the best mecha design ever did. Look at the N scale scenario. It was bought in Japan during Paolo holidays.

The effort is to put inside the game all the weapons and mobilsuit types, so the datasheets are very large. With this game you could play even with other universes than the Gundam one. I hope to use my 1:144 Patlabors.

The testing was with me, Paolo and Franci. We made all versus all. I won the day. Next Sunday I will be in Terni to testing new Ganesha Games rules. Guess what I play with.

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