Another holiday in Terni! Me and Diego again. Our train left the station at 7.43. You get up early in the morning for these little pieces of lead. I could say that my summer holidays this year are in Terni…

As you can see, there is another improvement in the Large Battle SDS playtest rules: the cover is in full colour. Well, there are even other modifications, the morale rules are better focused and very simple, some little developments are on the ground, some personalisations of the armies are tested. This time was tested a scenario for the book, a strange fight between minor nations.
These rules are a long time investment for Sergio, and Diego is very involved in their definition. I think that they are better every time that I see them, but more things are to be tested. They have to be perfect…

While musketeers was echoing in the room where Diego and Sergio played, me and Andrea were involved in some small fights for Song of Spear and Shield. We wanted to test some situations as hoplites warfare, light chariots and heavy chariots. Some ideas were tested, something was good, something was not so good. Chariots are a hard challenge to put them in a game. More work have to be done, but the core rules are fixed. Next time we want some pachyderms and more chariots.

In spare time after this session, me and Andrea playtested his alpha versions of a sci-fi game with voracious aliens. And I showed my new iPad2 to Andrea to have some indications on its functions. A frozen train left me at the station around the 22.30.

This Sunday I took a break and I went to Terni to test two new games by Ganesha Games: the large battle version of Song of Drums and Shakos and a fast game for tanks. I have got photos to present them but now I haven’t time to do it. My computer passed away the last week. The collapse of HD was fatal. I think that my computer worked in this form since 2003 or 2004. I know, one day all must end. In these days I spent all my free time working on it. It is a real mess because I have to reinstall all programmes and dates, and some of them are lost forever, like a beautiful scheme for Anticamente that I wrote to help me to manage games. I must work on two big websites and now I am stopped. The great thing is that after I will recover my computer, I have to pass a lot of time on it for programming. So, no time for this blog too. And it is summer, but I can’t taste it.

For a report of the day in Terni go on Drums & Shakos blog.

Well, even this time I want to give you something, just because I prepared it before. Again with arenas.

As you can see, this arena is thought like a hole with around only an upper squared surface. There is even a handle to easily transport it, like a suitcase. Maybe all seems more a subterranean arena than a Roman arena, but this is another solution for the “arena project”.

More to read here.

More reviews and report of this second day.

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!
More here

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!
More here

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.
More here

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.

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…

Luca is back in Rome from London to visit his parents, with wife and children. And so a new reunion of old chaps was setted! Here we are at the beginning of the evening, at work with forks and mouths. We ate (for each one): 1 crocchetta (boiled ground potato, then fried, with mozzarella inside), 1 fiore di zucchina (fried zucchini’s flower with anchovy and mozzarella), 1 oliva ascolana (fried minced olive with ground meat), 1 supplì (ball of fried rice with tomato and mozzarella), 2 arancini (big ball of fried rice with meat and other things and spices), 1 pizza (big like a roofing tile). I had some traditional sweets at home, but we only drink water and digestives.

After the dinner we played with Song of Drums and Shakos, 2 (I and Luca) vs. 2 (Paolo and Narciso), with a scenario managed by Diego. Turns was driven by playing cards. Glorious French have to sack some sheep (we simulated them with white dices!) to bastard goddams. You can guess which side I was. Well, more than skilful shepherds we were only dedicated to shoot enemies. At the end there were so many cadavers and sheep were almost useless because there were not more alive stomachs to feed.

Final photo! Outside the temperature is low so my chaps seem inflated to cover from cold. Or fried and pizza inflated we all!

Sergio Laliscia’s new rule set is out. It is about American Civil War but with some modifications it is utilizable even for Napoleonic period. This Summer we tried the rules with Sergio and we had fun with our English vs French. What I can say? Well, it seems to me like a SDS game with less pieces that move free around and more compact formations that fire and react together. So, it is a skirmish game but with the feel of a larger scale game. Try it!

During the day of the DBA tournment in Labaro, Diego showed the SDS rules to the other players. They set a game and this try got a good response. Maybe in the future we will have more SDS players in the area.

Le Grenadier is an old club. They play Napoleonic games at most and Di Bartolo and his wife are reneactors of this era too. Their place is big, not humid and with all the services. Two big tables are in the room and there is space for more. The only bad thing is the urban wildness of the surroundings! They have a secret address and Napoleonic minis in a specific cabinet and wine boxes. They have minis even in the bathroom. Years of years of collecting and painting minis. Highest quality here, and all historically correct.
Here I put some of their beautiful collection to raise your envy!

I pick up some souvenirs. An homage not a larceny!

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.