Do we remember Anticamente?

Today we awoke with a thought in mind: do we remember how to play Anticamente? We played it in the last November, so there is a little dust on our rulesets, but at the end of May there will be the tournament in Arezzo, so we have to be ready.

Therefore we met in ARSM wargame club and played three games. We chose two armies from the lists available, one Feudal and one Islamic ones. I printed the cards for the lists and Diego picked up a lot of 15mm to compose the armies. But in the first instance we had only a terrain with little hexagons, so to play we had to create some tokens with DBA coded names. To recognise the opponents the classic choice of blue vs reds. It seems like a boardgame or a bidimensional wargame played with 3D wargame rules. And the board was so little, but we had fun and I won. You can see on the photo above the two playgrounds.

Paolo arrived and the polystyrene hexagons too. So we shifted to the game with real miniatures. This game is very dramatic in results, only 4 turns and an army can be obliterated. But you can do a lot of tactical choices, so the game is very fluid and satisfying. We cleared our minds about the rules, but something is still obscure, because the ruleset is too much concise, even if very exact. It is not barkese, but I would prefer more words. And I must to say something to Fabio, the creator of Anticamente, about the Islamic list, because we think it is too soft. I’m tired now and I must to rethink about some things about the rules, but I have still two weeks to the tournament. We will find hard opponents.

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Going on

A lot of things here. Firstly we had a server change, so I had to wait to put new posts until all seems fine. In the meantime there were a trip to Sant’Oreste to show our Folgore paratroopers historical group, a testing of Song of Spear and Shield in Terni, some medical analysis, the painting of miniatures at industrial rate due to good weather and sunny days. In the following days I will make some posts about these things.
For now you can see my personal painting service at work with Late Romans, VBCW hunting party, Gladiators.

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Railway crane

When I saw a railway crane at Happy Model (see the convention section) I thought about something for my Flyton. It was for HO scale, but I could modify it for my 28mm world. I used a reed of ribbon for gifts, a large base from a Japanese gashapoon, some cutted toothpicks, a thin copper wire, little pieces of cardboard for the door and the upper trap door. And after some work I had got this one. Simple and handmade, except the crane obviously.

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Folgore (El Alamein 1942) at 1/6

This is my Folgore action figure. When I projected the figure I was thinking to replicate something of the desert, the thirst, the effort of will of these men while they were stopping the British Empire offensive against them.

Here you can see the collar badges with the star. The helmet is with its Italian camouflage. There is a binocular too.

The pose is with the Fucile Mitragliatore Breda Modello 30. It was the standard light machine gun of the Italian Army during WWII. Upper the plastic 1/6 version, under the real one.

I have got one of these light machine guns in my arms. For a “light” it was pretty “heavy”, more than 10 kg of steel. People fired it even while it was in their hands. It was a matter of life or death, so it was like a plume.

On the back I put two canteens. The water, when they could have it, was transported in fuel drums, with fuel remains inside.

A sad thing. My doll was without feet. There was a problem with what I bought, and my father resolve it with new feet, hand crafted from a piece of wood. They are inside the boots so none can see it but the stability of the action figure is improved.

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Salute 2011: galleries

Salute is so huge that you must to watch it again in photos because there is always something that you lost! So I surf the web and I find some interesting galleries that now I want to sum in this post full of links. And I discovered some scenarios that I didn’t watch, like the VBCW that I wanted to see so much. Where it was? There was even a great propaganda truck! I only found the Reiver stand with great trucks and tanks, that maybe I will buy in the future.

I spend my time in Salute roaming like a thirsty in desert, so I had no mind to take great pictures. Well, these photos are better than mine, so enjoy!

Semi-official gallery by South London Warlords

Our personal photoreportered day by RoninClan

Raid on Salute by Gioconomicon

Some of the best by 6MilPhil

Good report by The Anarchy of Anton

Complete walkthrough by Joe – part 1
Complete walkthrough by Joe – part 2
Complete walkthrough by Joe – part 3

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Salute 2011: I love London

Londinium is a really great city. I love it! This is my 8th or 9th time that I visit it, and I want to come again and again. This is my report about the other things I did beside Salute together with my old chaps. And there is no Salute without a visit to London…

First thing to do in London: to see the latest miniatures painted by our guest Luca. It is late, but little soldiers are little soldiers!

This is Henry, but it is a female. It lives in the house and used to sleep between me and Narciso. I had only half bed because the other half was for Henry. It has very affectionate ways, a puss machine!

Next year will be the Olympic year. The clock in Trafalgar square.

Renzo Piano has the longest… skyscraper. The skyline has a new presence, you can always see it around London. Ready for 2012. The Belfast vessel and the Tower of London pier watch the development.

The heart of Little Italy, the church of St. Peter.

The memorial on the sink of Arandona Star, the ship with part of the Italians who lived in London, deported toward Canada in 1940.

Another ship, a reconstructed ship, with a freshwater sailor on it.

Even the Doctor visits Forbidden Planet shop.

A local delicatessen: a Dalek cake!

Real British food: gammon with eggs and chips.

British food again: fish and chips with peas.

From left to right: Luca (his left arm), me, Narciso, the right hand of Paolo with a pint of bitter, Paolo, Ornella (the back of his head).

Shop of Westminster Abbey. Maybe there will be a marry the 29th of April…

And in another shop there is a salute from the Queen.

28mm scale to show the construction of the underground. Museum of Transport.

The dock outside Canal Museum.

New London Architecture and a view on the development of the city. It is not a dead city like Rome, here there is a plan for the future realised in the present. London is a great city.

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Salute 2011: a report

Salute is hell. After one hour you get lost and nothing seems to have a sense. Too many stuff to see. I don’t think to play a thing, I cannot understand what to do, what to buy. I have some investing plans, but I am afraid by aeroport controls and limits to baggages. Sometime I find miniatures that I watched only on the web and I think that would be great to have them. I only buy things that is difficult to have through internet (single pieces or excessive postal recharges). At the end of the day I have got only a little bunch of lead, nothing if you think about the tons available in that hangar full of lead people. I put in my mind the next things to buy by mail, but it is a long list.

What I watched the most

To only watch the hall you spent 4/5 hours, so here there is only a little selection.

6mm are the best for large battles…

More than a set for a game this is a set for a museum.

I like trenches and these are the best I have ever saw.

Go aerial! Victorian dog fight with antennas!

Moongose new Judge Dread range.

Cluedo + Chthulu = detective madness!

Dr. Who game with reneactors.

Amusement park for miniatures.

007 from ’60-’70 flicks.

Circus Maximus for all.

I don’t mind the game, I like the buildings: they are from Germany.

Under the Japanese sea.

Mechanic warrior with a touch of Japan. We want always more robots, and I bought the littler to convert to a Britain robot.

Resin miniatures. So beautiful that you forget if there is a game with them, you want them and this is all.

Little Italy

You can hear a lot of Italian voices around. A holiday to London is not so posh in these times. But if you are a Gioconomicon reporter you can travel during the night to do a “to Salute and back” in a single day! These people are crazy!

I met Angelo and other people from Campania, they are of Timewarp miniature store here in Italy. And I found the 1-48 table with the demonstrative game. I met him a lot of times in the last 6 months: Lucca, Modena, Agliana and now London. The game and the miniatures are beautiful so he put a lot of efforts to spread it. I hope for him all the best. And now they have some resin building (a new range from Baueda) to sell too, that you can see on his terrain. A compact game that is almost lost in the hall, but that is very good.

Aftermath

It is inconceivable to set all this for only a 10-17 show. And people after the 15 start to abandon the Salute hangar! Maybe it is time to start to make the piss because it is Saturday, but we from Italy are awesome. We think of Salute like the best of the best as wargame event, we travel to stay here, and people in England leave the show so early…

Time to repackage what I bought. Only this?

I thought we were in winter but I found summer. So my friend wear only a t-shirt while I’m destroyed by too heavy clothes. Almost 7 hours around in the hangar. Heat and fatigue. We are ready for a shower. Luca instead is inside the hangar working for the show. We have offered our support but they had enough people.

The next year… there will be another Salute. Will we are here again? I hope so.

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Ready for Salute

My silence on the blog is due to the fact that I have to do a lot of things before my holiday in London! After two years without a visit I will be at Salute again! Maybe this time I will be in the staff, with the lowest mansions I suppose, but it is a chance to live more this great convention.

Luca, South London Warlord’s member and Legio Palatina’s member, is without wife and boys (they are now in Rome), so we can stay in his house for almost a week: 4 old chaps and 1 girlfriend. So there will be a lot of chatting about little men made of lead, and a woman who wants to kill us all! Luca have just promised to show us his latest painted realizations and alchemy discoveries to how paint them…

In the past days I studied the Salute’s vendors and what I must looking for. And I have re-read books on London to find something new to see, because this will be the 9th time I visit this city. I’m thinking about the Canal Museum and the New London Architecture centre. But the usual places like Imperial War Museum, Hamleys and Forbidden Planet are on my book. There is even a Dr. Who exhibition but maybe I don’t have the time. I will visit Alessio, Emily and Olivia too, they are other friends from Roma that now live in London. I still have to do some last minute researches and must to control the airplane tickets.

I will stay for a week, so you can read a full report of the future days in Easter time I suppose. Albion beware, we are coming!

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