Archive for the ‘ dba ’ Category

Hellana 2016

A new location, an old convention: Hellana. Here again, year after year. But this time I didn’t bring with me gladiators. Moreover I wasn’t interested in tournaments. So only chatting with people about our lives and little soldiers.

Maybe the new location is a little larger than the old one. More space among tables.

One of the tables. A pause in the war.

Another view on tables. In the crowd a lot of known faces.

Le Granadier and its Napoleonic rules.

People from Macerata. And little people from North Indian Wars.

Flames of War tournament.

DBA 3.0 tournament. Old faces from North clubs involved in DBA. The South clubs now are on L’Art de la Guerre.

Learning table to play with L’Art de la Guerre.

WA.SP. table on WWII. They won a prize for it.

Beautiful trenches for WH40K.

The South and the North at distance.

The best of show scenario. Glamorous vessels here.

Canyons made of bark for a western scenario with Redskins and U.S. forces.

Roman legion stand strongly against cataphracts. In 28mm scale.

Civil war at the end of the Empire. In 1/72 scale. Magna Acies rules by Appius.

Ganesha Games table with Andrea and Miraz.

Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes table in a dungeon scenario.

Cute scenario for Heel Creek, the Ganesha Games’ western rules. Still only in Italian language.

The prize as best participation table for Heel Creek.

Next year another Hellana. I hope I present something new for the event. However this weekend we are going to Modena Play. A longer trip than Hellana one, for an huge convention about boardgames and other kinds of games. See you there!

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DBA tournament in Rome

Back to the 26th of September. Still t-shirts around, as DBA, in the 3 edition version. A tournament was held in Rome, the first and maybe the last with this rules version.

We waited for this new edition since a lot of years. Its publication was a thing that never happened. And DBA was lacking interest between players.

Rules modification proposals were around for years. So the new edition displease almost everyone because everyone had his personal ideas how to fix and improve the game. And the new edition was something other than so many people wanted.

It is impossible to create 1000 different rules for 1000 different people. And what was created was not so intriguing to placate unhappiness. Someone found in the rules new inspiration but more people that were dissatisfied now are looking for something else. We played DBA tournaments since 2003, so if people want something different, the new edition, with its usual hermetic language, was the decisive event.

We were in Solo Giochi shop:
https://www.solo-giochi.it/
And this is the mini-website that I made for the event:
https://www.legiopalatina.it/lopapaveronovoconclave/index.htm

Some western building to play with Torriani rules.

A commission work for a WWII set. Still unpainted.

This incredible set is modular, so new parts could be added. And you can play in sewers and cellars because there is an underground level with parts that are connected too.

Some 28mm minatures painted by the owner of Solo Giochi. He sells them. It think that the ancient ones are really great.


I didn’t play in the tournament. With old edition tournaments I could choose an army (usually a Roman one…) and play without review rules. I hadn’t patience and free time to study new rules. But I wanted to be with my friends at the tournament, so I bring something else with me.

Another try for venationes and an opportunity to show my book to customers that were in the shop. 3 copies sold.

If it could be the last official DBA tournament in Roma however it was not a funeral. We had a lot of fun. DBA is what created our friendship. No more official DBA tournaments here in Rome? We can always play with DBA, play with other games, and meet for our common passion about wargaming. It is not a matter of rules but only of free time.

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Hellana 2015: part 1

The Italian wargame convention of the Spring. It is the longest running convention here in Italy. I went the first time in 2004. This year we chose to go the day before, even for the change of the legal hour. It is almost 3/4 hour far from Rome. With this choice we had the opportunity to watch convention set works too. Diego’s car is in its last days, so our travel was offered by “Sua Eccellenza”. The return instead was by Minatore’s car. I took a nap during both travels…

In the evening a dinner with the local club members and vendors. All meat based, not so great for a not-meat, and not-wine, lover like me. Too much money spent, but a common meal with other wargame people is always a good thing. Night in a budget but fine hotel.

And so the convention day. A lot of familiar faces around. Inside a primary school gym, with vendors along the walls and demonstration tables in the middle.

This is the ARSM’s club game. ARSM is the club where Diego plays. Standing you can see “Sua Eccellenza”. With white hair, the other travel companion, a ferrets breeder.

This year is 200th Waterloo anniversary, and this is Waterloo game.

Siege and assault to a Japanese castle.

A year too late for D-Day, but still an enjoyable game.

A great Old West set-up.

Among other tables, this one with a large amount of 28mm miniatures. More tables around, but here I don’t pretend to show a full report.

Other things in Hellana were a FOW tournament and this one with DBA 3.0. This year I don’t play DBA, I haven’t mental energy to do it. However I’m always near to my tournament friends that play it.

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DBA 3.0

A taste of water about DBA 3.0. A couple of matches with our friend Attilio from Milan, the man who wrote our Italian commentaries about DBA 2.0. I found various improvements, more realistic troops behaviours, a less chess feel. Maybe some movements are too fast, but this topic have to be worth considering more. I think that there is a more direct approach and less space to tactics variations after the start of the play. Maybe too much. Is this new DBA release better than before? I don’t know. I can say that it is not a slight variation of original rules, it is a new set of rules, a new game. At the moment I’m too busy with other things, so I am not ready to play it in tournaments. Pity.

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DBA Terni 2014

The last tournament of the year. DBA, as usual. In Terni, again. This time I chose the army list only after a look at the theme. No brush up of rules too. I picked up a list with more knights than other ones. And nothing more. Incidentally it was the Papal one, so I chose to combat with the colours of Rome. As usual. A bloody tournament! First game: I lose 3 vs 4, with the last throw of the dice to decide who between I and Mr. Gasbarri could win. Second game: I drew 4 vs 4, fighting until the end of legal time, even if I could win. Third game: I won 5 vs 4 with my general dead, and the last turn with 3 dead of mine. Forth game: I won 4 vs 1, a result obtained after the first impact of armies. I reached the forth place, so no cup but maybe a record for body count in a tournament.
The next year we are thinking to play with 2.2 edition again because we don’t know very well the 3 edition still. And maybe the 2.2 is more engaging. However in 2015 I wish to dedicate my free time to Ferrum et Gloria, so I don’t know if DBA will be a priority again in my activities as player.

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DBA in Rome – PGV

The 12th official DBA tournament in Rome for the Italian Championship, the 11th organised by me and my miniature club chaps, Legio Palatina. However during the years we go from 6 members to 2 members involved, indeed. But children and distances (London, Switzerland, Canino) made the difference. Maybe this will be the last official tournament in Rome because we are a little tired of the same old thing. Even if we like this same old thing.

The set was Popoli del Grande Verde, that is the SeaPeople migration wars in 1200 b.C.
If you want to know more on this championship go to:
https://www.dba-italia.org
If you want to know more on this special scenario go to:
https://www.legiopalatina.it/grandeverde
If you want to know more on Legio Palatina go to:
https://www.legiopalatina.it

A beautiful day full of friends. These events are just an excuse to meet friends playing with miniatures. I won 2 and lost 2, the norm. At the end of the day I won a prize with a draw, 40€ to buy something in the shop where we were playing. I chose these second hand WWII American soldiers. The next DBA tournament will be in Arezzo at the begin of October.

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Popoli del Grande Verde – the open

DBA 2.2 still lives! Another tournaments here in Rome organised by me and Diego. It was in the “open” formula, otherwise a match that don’t count for the Italian championship rank. Only few chaps were in the shop where we played because of the advancing Summer feel and family duties. However we had fun the same and we were more relaxed.

I wrote a complex scenario about Sea People period, with new stats and rules for HCh and LCh, and new terrain kind and displacement. Only 5 lists and almost all was well-balanced. I’m proud of myself… However I think to change something for the real tournament in September that we will play at the same shop but hopefully with 12/14 people. Here the dedicated webpage for the scenario: https://www.legiopalatina.it/grandeverde/

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DBA Terni 2013

Full of events weeks. So the next posts will be dedicated to a retrospect of my past events among some new things. Now I want to show you something happened the 10th of this month: the DBA tournament in Terni.

The participants, from Roma (8), Arezzo (3) and Terni (1). We were in an hospitable miniature shop called “La Tana della Donna Nana” (“the dwarf-woman vault”, it is called from an Italian joke).

The smallest coup for the third place in the tournament. Another personal success in the last part of the season. Effectively I reached in the last three tournaments the 1st, 4th and 3rd place!

A classic DBA match that I lost: I vs Salini. This time was my very bad luck, a constant 1 result on dice.

My glorious Roman army versus vile Egyptians scum.

A classic DBA match that I win: I vs professor Mariani. This time a tie and a lot of personal boldness.

My camp. All roads lead to Rome.

One club partner of mine versus Gaul.

A couple of tables during the tournament.

Someone succeed to stop Gasbarri at the first match!!! However, after he won the other three matches…

This was the last date of the annual DBA Italian tournament, so we consigned the prize to Gasbarri as best Italian player, a fact that we know very well…

In the morning, while we were reaching the train for Terni, we saw this steam train. It was used for a special journey that day. We took a more standard train instead. And now we are waiting for the 2014 annual DBA torunament…

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