Every year we can have our Roman wargame convention in spite of logistic problems. In the 2016 we were guest in locals under a large technical school. We had a lot of tables with Gothic Wars, zombies, WWII, Star Wars, Gundam and other delicacies. As Ganesha Games we propose Rogue Stars and Faustus Furius.

As addendum some reenactors showed us Viking and Medieval times.

Time travel again. Here we are at Lucca Comics & Games 2016. I have got a pile of photos took in those days and it is good to show them to you because there are a lot of interesting things to watch.

As I said before, this is the biggest convention for Comics, Games, Cosplay and related items here in Italy, and the third in the World. I’m part of this great mess every year, together with Andrea. We show Ganesha Games publications and run some demos for people. I brought Faustus Furius with me.

Andrea problem is what to bring because every year he has always new games. This time was the turn for Rogue Stars, Run From the Dead, and Advanced Song And Blades mastered with Masters miniatures.

He was not happy with only 3 games, so in an “after Lucca” night moment he mastered a session of his High Stakes for the best of Italian role player writers. We never sleep.

Here the last supper of Lucca together with Nano Nefasto. But this is only the begin. In the following 11 posts I will show you ordered by theme other aspects of Lucca. Enjoy.

In the 2016 I worked on Faustus Furius, the race game by Nic Wright. I suggested some rules for the book, later I translated it in Italian.
You can see here the first stage of my involvement with chariots made with simple paper and a track consisted of my mother table with a ruler.

Then I built together with my father 8 Roman chariots of the 4 colours. My mother sewed a track made of felted fabric: white for marble and yellow for sand. Here a playtest session with Diego & Diego.

And as addendum a playtest session in the same day for another game by Nic Wright: Blood, Sweat and Cheers.

I brought my fabric terrain and my chariots at conventions in Italy, as Lucca.

Piana delle Orme is a huge museum in the reclamation of swamps under Rome towards Naples. We are almost at the South confines of wargaming Italy. But when people organise themselves and put their efforts all together, they can create a convention as this one.

The convention was for two days but we went only the first one. A Twilight Struggle tournament around. I like this game and I’m thinking to buy it. The only real obstacle is that I have to find a mate to play with it.

WWII skirmish wargame for beginners, sold as boardgame.

We met again with Wings of War creator.

A mate from Perugia and optical issues.

Small cardboard pieces as an army. I begin to play wargames with this kind of games. 30 years ago… OH MY GOD !!! 30 YEARS AGO !!!!!

And some years before I was playing with paper soldiers…

And with these we are more than 30 years ago, maybe 40-43 years ago.

The main plate of this convention was a long conference with Lost Battle author. Organisers want to give this convention a more scientific approach with speeches of international experts on how to simulate fights and wars. Very intersting.

And some people were interested in our table too.

Another occasion to show Faustus Furius with its temporary terrain.

Turns are very dangerous. I’m preparing destroyed chariots, I think I need them very often…

And now a video with Philip Sabin, an interview about his method and work.

A day-off after Romics, then a train to Terni (1st class because of scarce availability of trains due to a strike, one of many), and a 3 hours trip to Empoli, for the Tuscany wargame event of Autumn. This city is in the middle of Italy so many wargames can come here. Two days, so I will do two posts.

This was the Ganesha table and stand. It seems strange but there is still someone that doesn’t know Song of Blades and Heroes. So Andrea show it again and again.

I’m was there with my last production, the Italian translation of Faustus Furius. The book was ready, even the chariots were ready, but as terrain I had to do still something. This is only a temporary squared circus. I was working on something better for Lucca.

A view of the large hall. Many tables around, the vendors along walls.

At the main entrance a boardgame space for people of younger age than us old grognards.

Someone still play with WH40k. Beautiful miniatures and terrain. I don’t speak about the rules.

Another view but on the other side.

Flames of War tournament, the game where tanks are parked all together. Is it a game on parking war?

Aster with its huge stand with supplies for wargamers.

The new job of a mate from DBA tournaments years. He now runs a game shop.

Other people from DBA, now with a table organised by my provider and occasional painter.

Impetus system and Sartori.

Modern naval battles by this dedicated wargame group that wrote Admiral rules.

Wings of War on a large table.

And a WOW WWII hack to improve manoeuvres by altimeters.

And during this mess, Rava was painting a Garibaldino.

I’m leaving for the train for Terni. If the earthquake permit it. Then Lucca by car in the afternoon. After, the 5 days of the fair. You can find us in Miniature Island at the Games pavillion. Ask me to take a ride with Faustus Furius. See you there!

Note: I have still a lot of interesting things to show, so the Lucca report will be out in December because I prefer to publish posts in chronological order and one event for week. This Autumn was so full of things that they deserves the right attention.

Ganesha Games is not a lazy publisher. Well, something is missing in the schedule progress but we have a release every 2 weeks in the last months. Too many games to produce.

The English edition of Faustus Furius is out. And the Italian one? Due to work at job and at home, the translation process was slowed. But now we are at the final proofreading by Andrea. Than the editing by Nic. And after the final control, so the printing. Ready for Lucca.

More for Four Against Darkness. This is the first spin-off, a tale that is not in the same fantasy universe than other books. Here we have the same game engine but adapted to Arthurian quests. It is not a dungeon with paladins but a different kind of game. I like it more than the original one. In the future I wish to write a spin-off like this for gladiators.

After so many years finally we have got the first real OGAM supplement. Do you remember the Osprey game, you don’t? Here you will find an exhaustive book with Celts gods in an expanded version than that on the rules. Ready in the following week. If people is interested more will be preprepared.

Ganesha Games releases are at a hectic pace, always more rules are produced that you can lose something. So here some news on the latest productions by GG.

4 Against Darkness is a huge hit with lots of supplements to upgrade your characters. Future books will expand character progression and focus on other types of adventures. All character types in 4AD will progress up to 20th and more level, and there will be more versatile classes. There will be the use of polyhedral dice, one die step per book.

Deeper Dungeons will have rules for expert characters (levels 6 to 9) who will use a D8 for their rolls. Adventures will focus on the exploration of lower level of dungeons, inhabited by more dangerous monsters. Characters are given a list of skills they can gain instead of levelling up.

Four Against the Wild will have rules for veteran characters (levels 10 to 14) who will use a D10 for their rolls. Adventures will focus on outdoor exploration of uncharted wilderness using a hex-based, sandbox terrain and quest generation system. The terrain generation system will work also for lower levels.

Legends of Norindaal will have rules for legendary characters (levels 15 to 20) who will use a D12 for their rolls. Adventures will focus on building strongholds, setting up thieves and wizards’ guilds, gaining political power, waging wars and defending one’s land from invading armies.

Among the Immortals will let characters become immortals and mingle with the many Gods of Norindaal. Characters will use a D20 for their rolls. Level will be reset at 1 but on a whole new tier. In this setting, searching for treasure means collecting bits of divine power that let characters affect reality. The party will explore different dimensions and defend their homeworld from extra dimensional invasions.

And more books are planned with this engine. I’m thinking about one too. In the near future we will have an Arthurian variant, in the less near future we will have a sci-fi variant.

However now we have got two new books: Dark Waters and The Three Rings! Play with them if you want to see more 4AD books.

The first card game by GG is called Fortebraccio. You use your cards to field an army of 12 cards with different kinds of troops on three lines. It was commissioned as a commemorative game for a 600 years ago battle in Perugia. I spoke about it in past posts on the blog when I playtested it:
Cards and comics
Legio Palatina reunion
I suppose that English version will be out before the end of the year.

More on the development of Faustus Furius. My translation is almost ready, so we have to wait only the editing and the illustrator work. The new Ben Hur flick will be out in August. I think that you could race with your chariots at that date.

And keep your money ready for the long announced OGAM supplement in the coming weeks. But this is another story…