Archive for August, 2011

Lo Papa Vero: incoming

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

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When love is love

It’s a love story. You cannot deny it. These are some pictures, available to all, where you can see with your eyes which rapports are between these two great minds. It is not a scandal to show love in public, it is a natural thing. And remember, “bunga-bunga” is a Gaddafi creation, Berlusconi only adapted it.

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L. E. addicted

While I was surfing the net, I put on google a search about this blog and I found that exists on blogspot another blog with a name very similar to “lead-addicted”:
https://leaddicted.blogspot.com

Well, I was surprised by this. At the start I thought that someone had the same idea for the name but using it with a contraction, for something based on lead addiction, that is to say something based on soldiers collecting and wargame. But when I opened the page I found that someone was speaking about addiction to “limited edition” apparel! So it is for fashion victims! I like the models, but I can’t understand the contents. Moreover this blog is so arcane, there aren’t explanations, only pictures. And I cannot understand why to pay outrageous posh prices for pieces of cloth only because they are produced by a famous label. I only understand to pay a lot of money for beautiful pieces of finely sculpted pieces, casted in lead and painted by real artists…

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Swatters + MM + SDS LB

Another day in Terni, another day in Sergio’s house, another day of testing of Ganesha Games’ rules. This time was the 7th of August and the staff were: me, Diego “Legio Palatina”, Sergio “SDS”, Andrea “Ganesha”, Gasbarri “Italian champion of all miniature wargame tournaments”, Salini “Chimera”. So we had two gamers from Rome, two from Arezzo and two from Terni.

After a debate on who from Arezzo works as a apothecary (don’t mind, it is a inner joke), we started a game with Song of Drums and Shakos Large Battle. Every time I think it is in the final state of the testing, every time I found something new in the rules. Well, you can’t say we didn’t try this ruleset before its publication! We are testing it since a couple of years. What can I say? I confirm all my impressions. This time the game was faster because Sergio wants to close a game in a 2 hours and half, because he is tired of longer games that you cannot end in a evening. So you have a more deadly play, but with realistic results. I would prefer a slower and less compress view of the game, but frankly 2 hours and half are enough for a game, so now SDS LB is still better.

In the middle of the play we made a pause for lunch. At the restart I left SDS LB (my place was taken by Sergio and they made another game too, with a long debate after) for a game with Mighty Monsters. I aided Andrea in its development and founded some key ideas about the mechanism of the game. They were a lot of months that I didn’t play with these small versions of Godzilla and foes. We made some little adjustments and tried some terrain effects. It is almost ready for betatesting to external playtesters, but still we have to try it putting Japanese Defence Forces in the pit.

At the end I tried for the second time the new game of Andrea, Swatters (not the definitive name), a sci-fi game about voracious aliens and terrestrial garrisons (I talked about it in the 17th of July post). Andrea is very involved in its development because of the new form of the play. It is a game with easy rules and with a immediate visual recognition of the troops statistics and wounds using the miniatures and their position inside circular trays (made from old CDs). I think that especially this game it’s very easy to play without reading the rules before, because you have all what you need just on the table. I suggested to use trays made from mini-Cds, but now you can find only mini-DVDs, and Andrea is stockpiling them to play a very large battle. Using 15mm, the Ganesha’s distance sticks, a bunch of dices to add probability factors to your fighting results, and mini-DVDs as trays, you can have your sci-fi battle.

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Resin arena on e-Bay

In these times I’m looking E-Bay all days because I’m looking for some ancients troops to create armies for all Italic people around 400 b.C.. So in the while you can find a thing like this, even if Filippo find it before me! It is a huge resin arena from USA wide 2 feet and 8 inch high. Quick! This auction ends today!

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Steve Barber’s arena

arena

Here we have a Steve Barber’s arena. Very beautiful, very Roman! I saw it even in my local lead pusher here in Rome, situated near the Colosseum. It is made in resin (a little heavy I suppose…), a circular arena compounded by 4 parts. Three parts are the same, one have a place for the imperator instead. The price of this thing is imperial too: 150 quid… Well, the space to play is too little so I cannot buy it, it is useless for my game. Beautiful but not cheap and without a interesting size for the playground. But I like it.

arena

Steve Barber has a even a range of gladiators and spectators. And a chariot! 25mm and old sculpts, I presume. I have got more big pieces, 28mm, those by Steve Barber are small pieces, and they can seem their children…
You can find the range and the arena here:
https://www.sbarber-models.clara.net

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White Colosseum

This is what everyone wants if he has got space and a ton of polystyrene. Well, it is too much white, maybe you can prefer a more masonry touch like actual Colosseum, but in the ancient times it was all covered by coloured marbles. So its aspect was almost white, after all. But not so white.

You can know more on this Colosseum in white here. A bit rough but great. And it is 20 years old!

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Adventures in Lead

Another guy is under a spell: to make an arena for his gladiators! Here his blog: https://adventuresinlead.blogspot.com/search/label/gladiators

arena

Hexagonal terrain and detailed construction. He has chose the Morituri Te Salutant rule system and an hexagonal grid for its movements. I have my system in development with Ganesha engine inside. More on it in the future…

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