This morning I’m leaving for Terni. Then, in the afternoon, I and Andrea will go to Lucca. Tomorrow is the great day, the start of Lucca Comics and Games, the event of the year. 4 days of madness among a fair/convention for 200000 people that destroy life in a city with a population of 87500 people. We will be present in the “Autori 3D” area. I’m bringing with me the last copies of Zen Garden and a draft copy of Ferrum et Gloria with my new smaller arena. Andrea will run demo versions of OGAM, Samurai Robots Battle Royale, BattleSworn and Non Andare nel Bosco d’Inverno (a roleplay game). Andrea has won the Conan 2013 award as best Italian wargame personality. He will draw his prize in a public ceremony this Thursday.

Praise to Iuppiter Pluvius to have good weather!

If I survive I will post a full report of the event. 😉

This Fall I have a very busy season about conventions, tournament and fairs. I play in tournaments or I run some demonstration games. In 3 months a total of 14 full days of wargames. You must add the necessary days for preparation, journey, rest. And remember that I have two real life jobs too. Well, this is like a third job, but without monetary earnings. This is the calendar:
7-8 Sep – Narnia Fumetto
21 Sep – DBA Rome
13 Oct – DBA Arezzo
31 Oct / 3 Nov – Lucca C&G
10 Nov – DBA Terni
16-17 Nov – GiocaPerugia
29 Nov / 1 Dec – Ludica Roma

Some news about OGAM. Andrea sent to people the pre-ordered books, signed with his autograph and seal. He started a little promotional tour together with 2 tournaments. The first will be played the 16th of November in GiocaPerugia, the latter the 30th of November in Ludica Roma. I have ready lots of miniatures for Greek and Norse armies, but more armies are on arrival as Irish Celts and Egyptians, and I have plans for Sea People and Sumerian armies. At the moment we don’t know how the book is selling, but if we receive the green light from Osprey, new official armies will be developed. I’m thinking to a Roman army too, because there is a difference between Zeus and Iuppiter. However we will support the game. And now is available an official XLS spreadsheet for Of Gods and Mortals to build the armies that are in the book.

In the meantime, a work in progress image from the illustrations inside Ferrum et Gloria. Too many events these days and too much work. So I haven’t the right attention to examine the text after the first editing. I have to add some paragraphs too. I’m working on the second book yet. My father is involved with the building of a small arena and two vessels for gladiatorial naval fights. On these pages you will follow the development of these things.

Song of Shadows and Dust is a standalone miniatures wargame based on the award winning Song of Blades and Heroes rules engine. The rules reflect the gritty reality of urban violence while preserving the keep-it-simple, play-as-you-want, no-book-keeping-required spirit of the Ganesha Games family.

Original: An unique setting among ancient Roman life, the real completion for the background on my gladiator fights by Ferrum et Gloria upcoming rules.

Flexible: Inspired by the break down in civil order which plagued the great cities of the Mediterranean in the first century BC, these rules are suitable for any pre-modern setting from Babylon to Bruges.

Expansive: Includes 57 unique character profiles with whom to populate your faction or guild – from henchmen, assassins and punch-drunk boxers, to street urchins, elder statesmen and courtesans. Players are also free to create their own custom characters choosing from among 46 defining special rules.

Variable: Eleven different faction objectives allow for 121 different tabletop scenarios.

Easy to learn: The elegant core rules are easy to learn in just one game.

Fast to play: Games are designed to be finished in under an hour allowing small campaigns to be completed in a single sitting.

Expandable: Easily supplemented by special rules and scenarios drawn from the other rule books produced by Ganesha Games.

It is available now as downloadable pdf for only $8, next in book format too. And this one is the blog of the author.

Another moment from the annual DBA Italian tournament “Dionigi Ioghà”. This time we were in Arezzo. A day trip to this Etruscan city, fighting with our 15mm miniatures. The theme was about Communal Italian Wars. We tested some rules from the beta of the new version. We used the terrain displacement and armies with 3 allies from another list. Well, I don’t like this terrain thing. You can obtain a casual terrain but some results are not practicable. About the allies, we would see the final list to give a verdict.

The people from Arezzo are unbeatable. Especially Marco Gasbarri. So the final result is fixed before the roll of dices. However is fun to discover who can reach lesser positions in the highest-ranking. The stars were right, so I reached the 4th position on 16 players. No prize for me, but honour for my Papal colours.

The usual fun, chatting with friends, competition, tiredness at the end the night at home. And here a photo of the lunch: soft drinks and cheap beer for traditional Pakistan and Near East food. In Tuscan country! A blasphemy…

This is the market for railway modelling in Rome. Approximately every a couple of months, or more, we have this event inside a school gym. It can be the opportunity to find something that can be useful for my miniatures.

Railway modelling is a hobby almost comparable with 3D wargame. But the real effort is to create large dioramas. We think always to create a movable space where put miniatures in a way to move them easily and precisely. Instead their aim is to have a fixed realistic landscape where trains can move along a rail net. So, we have some common characteristics, but very different scales and aims.

I feel this hobby world as distant from me. I don’t mind all kinds of railway cars available and what is related to them. They are captivating but I can’t understand 120 euro for a little piece of plastic with wheels. Whereas I find justifiable the same amount of money for miniatures or action figures…

Some remarkable things. Some tramway cars used on local lines. Note the double decker used at the begin of the last century.
Below, a 54mm diorama with toy soldiers. I can’t understand why these miniatures are sold inside these kind of fairs. They aren’t trains. However I saw around someone that sold single Foundry’s medieval miniatures with a wood base and a banner at the bargain price of 12 euro… Toy soldiers hobbyists don’t know the real price of our miniatures…

Last days to OGAM’s Nickstarter! This is the last chance to pledge for miniatures of the upcoming Of God And Mortals. You can watch the available range on this post.
Osprey is shipping rules copies too. I touched a preview copy a month ago but now I can have mine.
On past posts you can follow some development phases of them, published more that a year ago. As here when it was only an idea, or here where is concealed under the name “One Game About Miniatures” (=”OGAM”).
Have fun with this game!

The editing phase for my rules is proceeding. Andrea drew the logo and the cover in his new illustration style. Now he has to draw more gladiators. We are thinking about the page layout. The book will be in full colour and in the BattleSworn same format. However we are still in the initial phase of the text editing in Italian language. And after we have to translate the book in English. Maybe an Italian rough draft will be available for Lucca Games. But the final release will be ready by March 2014…

Samurai Robots Battle Royale is a stand-alone set of miniatures rules for mecha battles. Based on the award-winning Song of Blades engine, it allows to refight the wild, imaginative battles seen in the classic Japanese anime series. It also includes rules and guidelines for more realistic science-fiction military game, or even with steam-powered engines of destruction. You can play quick mecha vs mecha duels, or larger battles where each player controls 3-6 giant robots for a two-hour game.

Build your mecha from the ground up with a point system, choosing Quality/Combat scores, armor, weapons and special rules for each part of its body.

Samurai Robots Battle Royale and our kaiju game Mighty Monsters are compatible, so you can run mechas vs giant monsters battles.

Samurai Robots Battle Royale can be played on an average dinner table using any models you already own, including toy robots and paper figures, in any scale.

I am involved in this project as usual (I am one of the main playtesters) and I hope you like it!

You can order it on Ganesha Games website or on Amazon website.
Moreover I want to remind the Of Gods And Mortals’ Nickstarter. It still runs for a couple of weeks. Now it has raised more than £3000. Make your pledge!