The Italian wargame convention of the Spring. It is the longest running convention here in Italy. I went the first time in 2004. This year we chose to go the day before, even for the change of the legal hour. It is almost 3/4 hour far from Rome. With this choice we had the opportunity to watch convention set works too. Diego’s car is in its last days, so our travel was offered by “Sua Eccellenza”. The return instead was by Minatore’s car. I took a nap during both travels…

In the evening a dinner with the local club members and vendors. All meat based, not so great for a not-meat, and not-wine, lover like me. Too much money spent, but a common meal with other wargame people is always a good thing. Night in a budget but fine hotel.

And so the convention day. A lot of familiar faces around. Inside a primary school gym, with vendors along the walls and demonstration tables in the middle.

This is the ARSM’s club game. ARSM is the club where Diego plays. Standing you can see “Sua Eccellenza”. With white hair, the other travel companion, a ferrets breeder.

This year is 200th Waterloo anniversary, and this is Waterloo game.

Siege and assault to a Japanese castle.

A year too late for D-Day, but still an enjoyable game.

A great Old West set-up.

Among other tables, this one with a large amount of 28mm miniatures. More tables around, but here I don’t pretend to show a full report.

Other things in Hellana were a FOW tournament and this one with DBA 3.0. This year I don’t play DBA, I haven’t mental energy to do it. However I’m always near to my tournament friends that play it.

Easter was another opportunity for a Legio Palatina reunion. Luca is back from London thanks to UK holidays and his wife researches for the new annual edition of Rome guide book. Narciso had to work for my house but his laziness produce no effort to finish house blueprints. However he appeared for dinner. Diego instead was near his house. Evening in the local miniature shop. After pizza. Last drink in a roasted good store.

Among my perpetual arenas proposal I want to show you something a little different, an arena for Squigs, in other words a fantasy biped creature composed of a head with a big mouth full of sharp teeth. We are in the GW’s Warhammer world, and these wild things are some kind of pets for Orks. Imagine a sort of all red and weird Warner Bros’ Tasmanian Devil.

However, I am showing to you this arena because it is particularly well done. And you can follow here the realisation from the initial draw to the final stage, passing through every phase. It could be very inspiring for your things, even from a technical view.

Some images about this arena. A mix of fantasy and science fiction for the rough Orks’ architecture.

In this beginning of the year something is changed. As I say before, I needed a new mobile, so these below are photos took with my Sony Z3c. No more blurred photos I hope. And now I can surf the web and use services by Android apps as public transports infos or To Do organisers. Glorious days with my Samsung Wave are ended. I bought it at the start of this blog and it was together with me in all the past events documented on these pages.

Another thing in my life is this new house where to put my miniatures. I bought it at the end of February and now I’m thinking how to refurbish it. So less time for miniature related things and a lot on home building problems.

I found wallpaper even in the kitchen and bathroom. As you can see, ghosts of lost pictures are on the walls.

In the corner even a ghost of a CRT television.

All structures are old, tubes are almost rotten, wallpaper smells of cigarette smoke. So I must demolish all, walls too, and start again with a modern house. However the terrace is open on a large square. On the left, behind trees, the Istituto Luce, headquarters of news services of the years before TV. At the end the volcanic hills where Latin started.

This is new step in my life. More news in the future.

A taste of water about DBA 3.0. A couple of matches with our friend Attilio from Milan, the man who wrote our Italian commentaries about DBA 2.0. I found various improvements, more realistic troops behaviours, a less chess feel. Maybe some movements are too fast, but this topic have to be worth considering more. I think that there is a more direct approach and less space to tactics variations after the start of the play. Maybe too much. Is this new DBA release better than before? I don’t know. I can say that it is not a slight variation of original rules, it is a new set of rules, a new game. At the moment I’m too busy with other things, so I am not ready to play it in tournaments. Pity.

When I was a child I didn’t know Airfix or other brands for plastic soldiers. I only knew Atlantic. English speaking people can read on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_%28company%29 a brief summary of what Atlantic meant.

Atlantic was producing its ranges in two scales. A that time I was collecting the range of ancient soldiers in the big format. They had got on the box an historical profile of the period. My mum bought them because they could develop an attention for history at school. A lot of years after I graduated at university in something as ancient history and culture, indeed. A gladiator miniature range was available by them too. Well, during those days a Colosseum was produced by Atlantic for 1:72 plastic miniatures. It was very expensive for my child finances, so I could watch it just on comic advisements. Now it is a luxury toy for adults that were children in ’70s. It is very beautiful, a model thought to be a real scaled Colosseum. You can view on this video as it is.

The new gladiatorial set by Kaustic Plastik. In the box one body, two helms, two shield and various weapons. So you can build one gladiator of a kind but you have pieces to build two more. You need another two bodies or you can change equipment to the present body when you want to do it. Quality is great and real metal is used for weapons and helms. Real metal is another thing rather than coloured plastic. My only concern are long necks, typical in 1/6 action figure to accommodate changing heads: helms are fitted too high so neck and shoulder protection is ineffective. However,… a must have! This Kaustic Plastik improves over time. Limited series, obviously.

Myrmillo

Thraex with sica supina

Thraex with spiculum. It isn’t an hoplomachus, but this is a common mistake. Hoplomachi are myrmillones with a more rhomboid shield and an helm with sides with a pronounced vertical shape.

Centuria is a new wargame by Massimo Torriani together with some mates of him. Based on his engine called Operation Squad, they are rules for ancient wargame. You can obtain better informations on it on https://www.torrianimassimo.it. I tried it at Lucca and some weeks ago a tournament was held here in Rome.

We were inside a school. Some other games were played in other classrooms. This is the vantage to have a school director as wargamer.

I know something about the rules and engine principles but I didn’t participate to the tournament. I followed all the matches, indeed. However I stayed more than 6 hours to meet my wargame friends from Arezzo and Firenze, and from Rome too.

It was even the opportunity to watch beautiful 28mm miniatures. Some old Romans by Perry, some newer by Aventine, some made in plastic by Victrix. I even have got various Romans in my private Army, from various producers and epochs. I like Romans so much! Maybe because I’m Roman…