Archive for June, 2013

Roma Gioca 2013

The 16th of June a new wargame convention was held in Rome. It is called Roma Gioca (Play Rome). It is even relatively near to my home, but in a new built zone, among camps. A chess club with a wargame appendix is located inside a technical school. In a dungeon inside this huge structures amalgam, in the middle of nowhere, these chaps roll their dices.

Almost only a grognard convention because of the location, but full of tables. Every wargame club in Rome was here. We had a lot of space, three full rooms was used. My photos cannot give a real idea of the event because I was too much involved with my play. However from the first photo to the third one, you can see the room development of the convention, room by room.

During the day even an Operation Overlord tournament was played. Boardgames were there thanks to Tana del Goblin staff.

As Ganesha Games we were there in a full formation. Sergio played a Drums and Shakos Large Battle game, organised by Diego.

Here a participation game (before the participation) with an exciting helicopters charge of Apocalypse Now style.

A snapshot of what Andrea was playing, as you can see on the first photo. A dungeon, some green monsters, dices with 12 faces. And nothing more, it is a secret. And a playtest, indeed.

Always on the first photo of this post you can see the full table of the new naval game by Sergio. Here something more near to our eyes. It is called “Aye aye sir!”: Drums and Shakos goes naval…

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At the drop of a hat

English women and girls are famous for the abuse of hats at celebrations. I saw this strange habit at the Luca’s marriage too. If lots of hats are around in English houses, you can find hat boxes too. So, if you are a real wargamer, you can sacrifice a hat box to built a circular arena. The only thing to do is to cut the height of the “walls” to a more proportioned dimension. Some paint work, some sand and grass for the terrain, some details added as doors and gratings, and you have got your arena. Look more for this one here.

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First, take a biscuit tin…

An arena from the miniature wargame past. This thing was created a lot of years ago but it is bright with its simplicity. First, take a biscuit tin, then decorate it with some shaped and coloured card using some glue, giving to the box an arena appearance. On the lid there is the place for a rule summary. Magnetised miniatures can fight in the arena even in travel. Simple. Fast. Easy to storage. And you can eat biscuits before making it! More information here.

Another version of the same idea. This one is a step by step guide to your tin arena. Designed for D&D miniatures and with a medieval feel. You can find downloadable decorative elements for this arena on the dedicated web article.

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Open DBA Roma 2013

Victory! The 9th of June I win a DBA tournament here in Rome. It wasn’t an official one, but an event only for Romans to show rules and tournament formula to not “professional” DBA players. So I had less competition from hard gamers, however my victory was a real one. A 30€ gift was the prize. I spent them quickly for a Vallejo matt varnish can and for a photographic book about local fallschirmjäger reenactors.

The tournament theme was Caesar and his enemies. Obviously I brought a Roman army. These are my troops after the aristocrats defeat, 5 bases destroyed against nothing for me.

In the upper photo you can see my first game. I’m the reflexive chap in the centre. On the right upper corner there is Andrea, in Rome from Terni because the day before we passed all the time together playtesting his latest new game.

We were in SoloGiochi, a wargame shop in the north of Rome. I never stayed there before, because the city is pretty big and I live far from here. However we like this location very much so we will organise the official Roman DBA tournament here in September.

Our national DBA tournament circuit is based on groups of friends that live in cities in the north and centre Italy. Some new DBA player entered this event, so we hope they will be here the next time, and in the other tournaments. The photo of an happy day with miniatures.

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Turin

This time only an holiday report, there aren’t miniatures here. But only a three days trip in Turin, a city in the north of Italy.

I begin with this cupola, the symbol of the city. When I went here some 15 years ago, it was only an empty building, after it was converted in a cinema museum. Under there is a photo of the elevator inside the cupola while it is going towards the roof terrace. It is realised all in clear glass, so you can have vertigo symptoms. And you pay 4 euro for this too.

Canyons made of bricks, in a raining night, with lights from the streets. After the trip to the roof.

My friend tied up with a 19th century 3D peep show experience in the cinema museum.

The Po river full of water. It is the biggest river in Italy. At the deep end of the photo you can see the Mole Antonelliana cupola.

Turin under the rain. The castle inside the city and the cupola again. It is like the Eiffel tower in Paris, in every photo you have to have the symbol of Turin.

The monumental door from Julia Augusta Taurinorum, a piece of the Roman ancient times.

Black stones from Egypt in the famous Egyptian museum of Turin. Pity, it is in refurbishment so I could have only a partial vision of the collections.

We had a fantastic experience in Pietro Micca museum because of a guided visit, thanks to a retired official. We lived the moments of the 1776 French siege of Turin, looking to weapons and models of the fortifications. After we walked for 300meters under the citadel walls inside underground galleries that are 31km long!

The main event in the city was the biggest fair in Italy about books. It is held inside an old car factory. Cars were the motor of Turin development, and decline, in the 20th century.

I prefer the smaller fair in Rome about small editors because you can find some unknown gems. However even dimensions are important, so this fair is a must see. I bought only two books (60 euro…), one on a Gothic manuscript and another one on sacral and ritual aspects of Bisanzio’s hippodrome.

Me together with a green cow-man… Well, it is a bull, like the totemic animal of Turin, city which name means “city of bulls” indeed.

The new underground made for the winter Olympic games of 2006. It is pretty small inside the wagons, like a tram. But stations are big.

The new train station of Porta Susa. It is still in the making. We arrived and left here.

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Dadi.Com 2013: Ganesha’s showcase

After the overall review of Dadi.Com, now we are going to see the Ganesha Games presence. We were at full force, with me, Andrea, Sergio and Diego. Among other things, we spent a lot of money in the Bring & Buy, but we offered some demonstration games too. Andrea was in the convention with an OGAM preview. In the meantime he organised a brainstorm for the boardgame that he is writing in these days, as you can see in the photo. Instead Sergio took a pause from his new games and were inspired by Bizio’s work for an entirely new game.

The new edition of Zen garden is ready! It is the white one, after the black and the red. The final edition indeed. Better than before, with reorganised rules, more pagodas, white sand glued on the board and more sand available to add a real zen garden feel at the scenery. Gualtiero Grassucci is a fan and a promoter of the game: he play it to show wargame mechanics to children! Thank you!

This was the opportunity to show the last developments of Ferrum et Gloria to grognard public. I run some demonstration games trying new tweaks. A game with 4 people divided in 2 squads (retiarii versus secutor and scissor) was held. The fight became very hard and participant. It was a real challenge! A lot of blood was spread on the sand. During these days I tried a sagittarii fight and in another game I put 3 equites versus 3 equites. To adapt the core rules to these two gladiatorial categories I had to study something to reflect their specific methods of fight, because they use bows or mount horses.

Now my arena is better too. I put some spectators on the bleaches and some improvement was done. I have got rules for referee too…

Herat was a game about Italian development in Afghanistan based on Flyin’ Lead rules by Ganesha Games. It was a valid scenario with a lot of models, houses and a bazaar. It won a prize. I wish a modern Italian army too, but these miniatures are out of commerce.

Another club chose OGAM for a demonstration game. The scenery was better than those made by Andrea. He is always focused on mechanics and the scenery is pretty scarce. These chaps instead have found a game that can substitute other fantasy games. So they have cured the aesthetic aspect too. OGAM will be out towards October, so you have to wait some months to read the rules. Here a game with Vikings versus Greeks. On the book you will find Egyptians and Celt too. If I would find some free time, I have to develop Sumerian and Shardana lists for future official expansions.

So, this was Dadi.Com, the wargame convention of South Europe… I don’t know if the next year I will present here my finished gladiatorial rules or if I will be in San Marino again. In the meantime this year we will have two big convention in Italy, Lucca Comics and Games in November and Ludica in December. And for the 16th of June a new wargame convention will be held in Rome. On these pages the future reports.

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