Archive for July, 2012

GrandManner arena

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

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A shop about war in the night

The summer is hot and for a walk you have to choose evening or night to find some coolness. If you remember that I live in Rome, I have the opportunity to do some walk in a considerable city centre. Some time ago I went through a street, Via dei Giubbonari, where I step rarely because this place is specialised only on antique stores. I cannot afford half-length portrait made of marble or the like, so I’m not so interested in those old things sold at posh prices. One time I saw mr.Berlusconi, accompanied by his escort (the bodyguards…), while he was entering in one of these shops to buy with my his money something for one of his houses.

In the while of this last walk I found a new shop about uniformology and military objects from the wars of the past century. I took my mobile for some photos. I think that these materials are for casual collectors rather than professional ones because this location is posh. I don’t know if all is original, but I think so for the most. You can see some helmets, flags, decorations,… Well, it was almost a small museum along the way that I met through the night.

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3D cardboard luxury arena

When scenery made of cardboard from printable pdf becomes three-dimensional. This is the state of the art of this kind of constructions. They have got a modular construction principle, so it is all rigid and stable. Moreover you can print what you want and change the final aspect, so it is easy to built with this kit an arena more oriented on Roman architecture. I still prefer more scenery based on materials that does not undergo the humidity, but if I thought to a cardboard arena, my choice would fall on this one.

Know more on this company and their arena here.

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Birthday Battle

Once again it was the time of my birthday! Now they are forty-three. My mate Diego had his birthday the day before, so I tried to create a birthday event with miniatures for both of us together with our friends. The choice for the location was Terni, our adoptive city as regard to the miniatures. This is the picture of the participants. You may notice that Andrea Ganesha is sponsoring a vintage box of D&D miniatures that he found at Sergio’s home. A little pirate instead taught us Blood Bowl secrets.

A big surprise for us was a prototype test for a new rule engine by Sergio, the man behind the revolutionary Large Battle Drums and Shakos. It was only the basic engine without historical and terrain features, and it just worked very well! It is a game based on area movement and presence, driven by cards and a fighting style adapted from the LBDS dices. It can be develop for various periods. It is very great! An entire family of rulesets can be generate from this engine. The only problem is that wargamers are not fit with the concept of areas, they think that this is not for wargames but boardgames.

The latter half of the day was with Blood Bowl, a game that I tried a lot of years ago when the first edition was out in the eighties. At that time we haven’t got the miniatures but die cut cards on plastic bases and Games Workshop was only a creative company from Nottingham. My friend bought the expansion too. We didn’t understand the rules very well, we hadn’t experience with games, I don’t didn’t speak English, so we put the two boxes in an angle and forgot that fantasy football field. Now after ten years with DBA we want to find something new (!!!) and we are interested in Blood Bowl. I made my first game after 25 years and I liked it. The beautiful football stadium is made by Sergio and will be present at the next convention in Terni “ALT si gioca” in October, when a BB tournament will be held.

The day went very well, we had fun, we celebrate our birthdays. Sergio cooked the Bulgarian national dish, a fresh mixture of yogurt, cucumbers and herbs. Cheese and a rice salad as side dishes. In the evening we ate a great “piadina”, even if Diego suffer from Bulgarian “counterattacks”. I feel happy : )

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DramaScape cardboard arena

If you want to live in a flat world with 3d miniatures inside it, you can try this cardboard scenery for your gladiators. It is easy to store, it is decent to see. Better than my orange flat arena that I use in my playtests for sure! Well, it is more a fantasy arena than a real one, but it give you the right feel, and it is very affordable. You can download the pdf here for only one buck, and than print it at a service near you if you want a large surface.

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I’m following the Anticamente ruleset since its initial development. I read the raw rules in Word format and I won the first Italian championship in 2010. Fabio, the man behind Anticamente, is a good mate and he borrow armies to play at tournaments. I was waiting for the realise of a Roman army, so when the pieces were ready, I bought them. They are beautiful 10mm pieces, too small for my father’s eyes (I wish to remember you that my official painter is my father). So I have them made ​​paint by a friend of mine who lives in Terni: he needs money to pay for drugs, namely more little friends made of lead.

I asked for a “wargame” painting style because I can’t claim to have fabulous miniatures: they are so small (really small indeed, in the first line of the photo the miniature seems a 28mm one, but it is smaller, it is only 1cm high!) and detailed that for large amounts that you have to lose your eyes to paint them. Best is the sense of mass that these troops can give. And the distance form the table where you play to your head is such that you can hardly see the details. We are not speaking about 54mm… Indeed, if you want to see these pieces in a perfect state you have to see the website of the producer: TBLine.

To store my miniatures I choose to adapt some Betacam SP L boxes that I found, but you can use VHS plastic boxes too. I put a steel sheet on the inner surface of the box and a magnetic base to miniatures based on forex squares. For cavalry I had a problem with lances (too high), so I had to built a magnetised frame structure to store that type of miniatures. I have a lot of empty space to put some Italic reinforcements. In the next Autumn we will have a couple of Anticamente tournaments, so I’m ready with my troops!

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