A couple of word on Anticamente. This is a project of a crazy man from Bologna, the tortellini & mortadella country.
When he was a child he was always sawing an hexagon on the top of the house door and thought: “this can mean something”. A lot of year after he created a game based on hexagons, or rather a game based on areas instead of measurement. So you haven’t inch or cm to measure, you have got an area with a limit of troops that it can contain, and with troops in battle array along a direction of the six on the angles of the hexagon. An interesting approach for a new type of game without rulers.

This man is crazy, and I told you this. Well, he without thinking about his wife and two little children began to produce hexagons at home to sell it to other people lightened on the way to the hexagon. Now he has got an industrial (!) production of polystyrene hexagonal bricks to permit you build your terrain, with flock to bring it to life. He is a maniac, so he built terrific things with his hobby knife…

He still had money in his pockets so dilapidated it in 10mm soldiers, charging a sculptor to make various ranges of lead men (and horses and elephants). With good results indeed (even if in the upper photo you can see only Pendraken pieces). But now his house is full of lead and polystyrene.

Here you can see something brought to sell at the tournament before all were sold out! Blisters about the new Roman & Celt ranges and some hexagon pillars.

And this is a preview: the new army lists for Anticamente, based on a system of composed cards. Very beautiful and smart!

These aren’t two alcohol addicted but (on the left) Fabio, the man of hexagons, and (on the right) Bizzio, the graphic designer of the ruleset, while they were eating in Rome.

If you want to know more this is the website: https://www.tridentebologna.it
In the near future there will be the free rules in English language.

Someone don’t believe in me. I have got the fifth position in DBA European championship and now I’m the Italian champion of Anticamente. It is not all by chance.

My mate Fabio created this rule set and I was interested from the first times. I corrected one of the rough first versions but I hadn’t time to do more (this situation is a recurrent thing!). I tried it in Agliana convention of the last year and in 2010 I participate in the first tournament of Anticamente instead of playing in the DBA one. A game (Teutonics vs Mongols) with Simoncini brought me a definitive victory and the first position in the tournament. My first time in the first position after 6 years of tournaments!

The results: https://www.tridentebologna.it/Hellana2010_I.php

Agliana was set in Winter, this time was Summer, the 3rd of July, my birthday! I went around Modena in a huge place managed by a group of boys and girls. I believed I could do a good play strong of my past, but the day went very bad. The first game was delirious: I died without moving; wrong army, wrong battle array. Not a happy birthday. Only a cake offered by Fabio tempered the big delusion.

The results: https://www.tridentebologna.it/Dadi&Sudore2010_I.php

Autumn, but a weather like Winter. The last of the three stage for this year. Not my birthday but my name day! Strange thing: I had the same shirt I wore in Agliana. I don’t like it. So I have pictures of me with an ugly shirt and cups. If I knew my future results I would dressed like a model in a fashion magazine.

First game with late Romans. I placed my troops in the wrong place. With more courage I could do something, instead I fight only with a bunch of guys. The others remained blocked behind the front line. I lost but not so much.

Next game, against Bizzio, the virtual Italian champion and one of the people with more games on his shoulders. I thought: “I will lost with infamy”.

I wanted the Teutonics and he wanted the Mongols. The battle was set. The forces of good with their white suits vs a pile of waste.

The only thing he must did was all but not 1. He wanted to cry or to make seppuku. Very desperate…

This was a human being before a wrong throw of dice.

I was very, but really very, happy. What you can see here is nothing. This pic was took by Bizzio so I didn’t want to be pitiless towards him.

This is the final aspect of the battle. The forces of good ground the scum of Mongolia. No story for Bizzio, his army was no more. 40 to 0 the result.

The last game was against Prof. Mariani, a school director now in retirement. He panicked with his Gauls against my Romans. He don’t know well the rule set, but my forces acted like a hammer. 40 to 0, again.

My mates here won the third and the second place. The ancient Legio Palatina club (but now Legio Palatina + Ronin Clan) won another day!

First! The results: https://www.tridentebologna.it/Roma2010_I.php

And with the sum of the year I did a total of 163 points, 58+11+94. First again and another cup! You can see where my eyes went. To Bizzio. He is not so happy for this thing because he thought to win and came from Bologna for this. So I’m happy for me, but sad for him. But this is only a game, and another tournament means another challenge from 0 points. This time the glory was for me, after a year full of bad results and last positions, this victory is gold!
The 2010 results: https://www.tridentebologna.it/anticamentetournament_I.php

I want to thank Fabio for all his efforts to bring this game to life and for his availability. Thanks to Bizzio too for his contribution to the game and his sympathy.

I pass my last weekend in this club in Rome. A weekend with two tournaments: Fire & Glory and Anticamente, with some added in.

It is in a new location, near ARSM club. This zone is full of lead people! Miles Gloriosus changed residence from an opposite side of the city. I visited the old residence, very gracious but with a low height of the cellar. This one is better, bigger, a lot bigger (and even with two bathrooms)! You have a large amount of space for everything. It is the underground storey of a building, so you can understand the dimensions. I don’t believe a thing so organised could be in a city like Rome, because we are very individualistic and a common effort is only a dream.

Here you can see the two rooms. More space is on the right in the upper photo, and on the left in the photo below (another row of tables), where a warehouse is behind the mimetic net too.

There is even a canteen, with a fridge, stoves and microwave oven. Some people volunteered for the lunch (very cheap, only 5 euros!). A coffee machine is always available to make your own drink.

It is a old club, almost 20 years old, and now contains the remains of other split up clubs. Miles Gloriosus is the bigger club in Rome for activities and spaces. Here if you want to know more and visit it when you come in the area: https://www.milesgloriosus.it

There was a scenario about Vietnam. I took this picture. 20mm. Delicious stuff.

Well, all were very good, all people were gentle, but there is this bad factor: an evil gate! The club is accessed by the door in (1) and the place is all along that wall. If you have the key (2) of the garage is all simple, otherwise you can use the house phone (3) but it is out of order. So you must telephone with your mobile phone to someone inside. The problem is the method to open the gate. There is a keyhole to open it in the courtyard on the right of (4) but you must have a key. And where is the key? And the key seems not to be simple to use. And the rain fell in these days. There is even a remote control for the gate, but it is more difficult to find and to use than the key. Another thing. Take attention to the photocell (5) if you don’t want to close too early the gate! I hope they resolve this thing. But our passion is greater than a stupid gate!

Today we were in Labaro, Rome. But I don’t believe in this “Rome” fact because it is an area outside the urban context, a nowhere land built on a hill outside the GRA, the psychological border of Rome. And the weather was frightening, on the return way we guided only with memory blinded by a wall of water that fell from the sky. Besides this we had a good day inside Le Grenadier club, with a splendid reception by Di Bartolo and his wife (the lunch prepared by her was huge and all meat based).

A DBA tournament was set, only for eight people from Rome, in the club, a special event with the lists of the Milan tournament disputed two weeks before: a post Alexander set. If you cannot go to Milan, Milan go to you!

This time I had a better result than last months: 2 won 2 lost. Paolo, for his return to DBA after 2 years, win the day.

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.

We tried (and Diego bought it) this game with miniatures set in WWII with Russians against Germans in a Stalingrad type of landscape which can remind a famous flick with doors and enemies…

It is an interesting skirmish game with miniatures bigger than usual 28mm ones. You can have a good fight among destroyed buildings and ruins. The rules are simple and there is a smart system to alternate turns between the two players: you have 12 activation points, you can use one-six of them and after give the action to the other player, so you can strategically use your points to wait a better moment or strike hard. Every soldier is a well definite character with his arms, abilities and limit of activation points which he can use. If he take a wound, his stats change. With another wound he is dead.

You can consider this game as a application on WWII of fantasy miniature games where every piece is a character. The impression is good, you can have a lot of fun around Stalingrad with a real skirmish game, but miniatures games are another thing. Here you have specific pieces, a limited prospective of what you can do with miniatures. If you want a game with your army you must looking for other rules. Flying lead among these…

The result of this demonstration game? I win, Diego died!

More on this game here: https://1-48combat.com/

Another appointment for DBA Italian Championship! And today is 10-10-10…

This is the last tournament for this year to me. There will be another in Milano, but I am too tired to trip around Italy for DBA. In the past I play in almost all the events, I was one of the most frequent players in the championship.

A beautiful day, a lot of friends come to a comic shop in Arezzo. Not only an occasion to play but the periodic moment to speak of miniatures and rules (and common life) with the chaps of DBA, a community together since 2003. And the usual dinner. The restaurant was the same of the last time (some months ago we play in Arezzo a SDS tournament) but there wasn’t the Sardinian cooking (with his bombastic black waiter), instead we found a Tuscan cooking at his start. Huge helpings!

The games are done. The 2010 Italian champion is Gasbarri with a tournament in advance.

Usually I take all the pictures of the tournaments. This time I lend my camera to a friend but something didn’t work. Only a few pics were taken. You can see them on DBA Italia website.

This time I have bad luck and I show lack of skill. No preparation bring to no success. I have never top results, but I could always say something to my opponents: at the European Championship in Rome last year I achieved the 5° position.