Every year we organise, as Legio Palatina wargame club, a DBA event here in Rome. This is true since 2004, when we started this with “De Bello Italico”, a scenario on ancient Italy in the first Roman age. We are members of the Italian DBA community called DBA-Italia, and we collectively run the DBA Italian championship dedicated to Dionigi Ioghà. We are very happy to create these play opportunities for our friends and for DBA lovers. We always want to set in Rome something special with a strong theme for our tournaments. And we give away special prizes and gadgets as peanuts for tournaments based on Asian lists with a lot of Elephants, or head bands with a red sun in the middle for a tournament on samurai lists. And before the tournaments we test the lists, changing aggressiveness and composition, to have a better balanced list of armies to choice.

We don’t want the same old soup, so every year is different. Now, after 8 years here in Rome we were searching something new to do, so we thought to Narciso, our mate in Canino, whom lives in that small town in the north of actual Lazio region (Latium in latin). Near there is ancient Vulci, an Etruscan city. And one member of Bonaparte family (a Napoleone’s brother) lived here, as prince of a artificial princedom. So, the usual Rome event will be held in the unusual place of Canino.

This year theme is the clash in Italy between Empire and Church, in the XI and XII centuries, a moment when there were more than a pope at once. We focused on Gregorio and Clemente popes and all the struggle for power in those years.

There are two great films here in Italy called “L’armata Brancaleone” and “Brancaleone alle crociate”, the humorous story of a knight and his fellows in those years, in a violent and decadent world full of beggars, mad priests and hungry people, in a false and absurd, but more true than real, portrait of the period. And some scenes were filmed in Canino! We take inspiration from this story, with the fight between Gregorio and Clemente, to set our theme.

We use another method to compose the armies, adding allies to the lists, substituting up to 3 of your original pieces. But these forces can be used only referring to which kind of enemy you fight against. For example, if you are against Empire you cannot use pro Empire allies, if you have Empire allies your opponent cannot use that nation of Empire allies. This was used with success in the Bologna 2006 tournament and was thought by Filippo (see his blog, linked on the right menu!)

We have this appointment for the 4th of September in Canino. If you can, come and play! To know more, visit the website I made for the event:
https://www.legiopalatina.it/lopapavero/index.htm

At last! After my heroic first position in the Italian championship of 2010 here we have the chance to show in 2011 that I don’t know how to play Anticamente and the ruleset. Indeed, I can say in the first instance that I played with an obsolete version of the rules, but it was the same because quickly I found what was new. Subordinately this time I found competitive players that studied and tried the rules very well. We are all DBA tournament players so with Anticamente we have found some fresh air and a new way to throw dices against our faces.

This time I lost. But I have fun, I hit and received strokes, in a balanced way. Games were interesting, so this was a beautiful day.
Here you can see the development moment, with screen to hide troops. And you can even see my face with a strange red tone. The day before I take my first sun of summer on the Ostia seaside, but confident with the fact that now is May, I and my fiancée scalded ourselves on all our bodies. So during the tournament I suffered by manifest symptoms of sunstroke…

This man win always all. He is the Italian champion of wargames in 2010. And this time he had his personal dice thrower (children are dangerous) and a support from gigantic martial arts gods. I fought well against well balanced forces, I lost only at the last move.

We played Sunday in a comic shop in Arezzo, and for launch there was a restaurant on the other side of the street. With a cook from Montecatini, even if we don’t understand why he say us he was from Montecatini. Mad Tuscans, they are still get in medieval wars city against city…

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

This time Sergio was at home and only Andrea came to Hellana. Hellana is a convention only for players of historical wargames so Ganesha’s fantasy rulesets were not so appreciated here. I asked about a game with Song of Spear and Shield and Andrea satisfied me. It’s time that a skirmish game for ancients see the light because there are around a lot of beautiful 28mm that you cannot use with DBX or other games where you have to simulate an entire battle. Thousands of men reduced to formations of 28mms in tens is not the right look of a battle. Sometimes you want something smaller, a fight with only a part of troops. So you can even buy not an entire army but only the pieces that you want.

We set a game but something didn’t work. I have my ideas of what a fight with ancients is so I wanted to play in another way. All is too much simple for the period but complicated for some mechanics. There is the need of counters and this is bad. The mix of concepts from “Song of Blades and Heroes” with “Song of Drums and Shakos” and “’61-’65” doesn’t work. We couldn’t think about the scale to give to the game, how you can put in battle array your historical troops. No solution.

I was a hard playtester this time because I like ancient history very much. And I want a great game and not a watered to humans version of “Song of Blades and Heroes” with spear and shields. Andrea was very dubious after my remarks. Another game was set but with other people. They have fun with what I refuse.

Me and Paolo were walking around without a game to play, Andrea was free so we tried another game. And this time we put forward a lot of ideas. We change the mechanics, the overlap modifiers, how a man can die, how fight, how calculate morale status, how to regroup, how command troops. A lot of things! Now it was entirely another game. Andrea must prove it to test it. And we want to play again with this new version but with a lot of troops involved!

Obliviously no release date yet!