This is the arena under construction by Pippo, as you can see on his blog. It is similar to the “suitcased arena” that I showed on the previous post about arenas, but simpler. It is made by cardboard, recycled from an envelope for hardware (Pippo is a programmer), with some strips with a cobbled face from train modelling and a lot of vinyl glue. It is not finished yet, but you can see it with black primer.

You can see the building process starting from here

Pippo is awaiting my Ferrum et Gloria game to play some games with his arena. In these days I made a lot of changes to the rules inspired by mechanics used in Large Battle Song of Drums and Shakos and Mighty Monsters, games still in beta testing by Ganesha Games guys. This is another advantage of the playtesting of new games with new ideas in them! Now I think the fight is more fluid and unpredictable but still with a lot of tactical thought, and you have to use less markers. More fun with gladiators! The sad part of the thing is that I have two jobs to be under, so I have absolutely no idea when I could find the time to complete my game. But if all this time mean a better game than the wait has a significance. And this variation with the new mechanics is a high evolution to the game concept of Ferrum et Gloria. I hope it will be great like Red Sand Blue Sky…

In the meantime my renovated computer seems to work. A long process about reinstalling software and to adequate them to my standards. Twenty days for all this…

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.

Everyone has got his arena for his fighters… I saw this arena a lot of time ago, in Pordenone, from the Grifoni Rantolanti club. Another arena with hexes, but not in felt, here they used DAS. Less portable of a fabric but more with the touch of a three-dimensional game, even if this arena is not very Roman in style. To keep things in small, they used 15mm gladiators. I recognise Museum miniatures.

Here we have a more sophisticated arena than mine, but it is flat like mine. It is a felt arena made by Hotz ArtWork. It is a square 58.5 x 58.5cm, with the arena area measuring 21.0 x 21.0 inches/53.5 x 53.5cm in diameter. The hexes are 1.0 inch wide.
Hexes are a constant in gladiator games. The problem is the facing of the fighter and the scarce importance of sophisticated movement in a flat terrain. It is a solution but I think this net can appear too strict, you have a limited space for your moves, and the feel is that of a boardgame. Well, this felt has a lot of hexes, so you can move enough…
If you want know more on sand made of felt:
https://www.hotzmats.com/mat_1-gladiator.html

This is the portable arena for my game. I needed something as playground for my little gladiators and this is an economic solution, good for everyone. I take an old A3 card folder recycled from the office, with a colour similar to the bases of my pieces. With a compass I traced an elliptical form, and after I cut the angles. Simple and with the right proportions to set a fight.
In the next future I will have a more sophisticated arena. In the works…

This is the first post of a long series about arenas. I have surfed the web drawing inspiration from what I found to build my personal arena. You will see a lot of arenas!

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.

Chariot races were more popular than Gladiator games in ancient Roman world. There is a ancient TSR boardgame that seems to be fun.

Here some useful links:
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244/circus-maximus
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/843/circus-minimus
https://ravenscraftcybernetics.com/circusmaximus/

Here another game with similar intentions:
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2224/circus-imperium