domenica 31 dicembre 2017

2017 is over!

2017 is almost over, so a little summary of this year from my wargamer experience.

My priorities and wishes shuffle continuously, I try not to follow ant kind of self imposed obligation, just my inspiration. Otherwise wargaming would no longer be a hobby for me.

Good news from 2017: I've got two new armies almost ready (about 10-15 models each missing), which would enable me to play three new rulesets: British Commandos for Bolt Action (1000 points) and  17th century Ottoman Turks for Pikeman's Lament and Tercios.

This year  Lion Rampant took the lion's share of gaming (pun intended) I didn't reckon the games I had with it, but more than a dozen for sure, my trusty Venetian Condotta serving me (quite always) well, even in defeat. Ronin with 4-5 games can also be regarded as a good second place (thanks to my Sohei buntai), then Tercios and Bolt Action (both with borrowed figures).

last club game of the year: three Lion Rampant tables and one X-wing
In the last meeting at our club in Verona (Band of Butei) we managed to arrange three tables with Lion Rampant, despite two players were almost new to this ruleset (they both won, somehow). We had great fun and chatting time and this is a big confirmation of this rules' potentiality and suitability for convivial gaming (aka Beer and Pretzel game).

This year can also be aknowledge as the (definitive) transition from 15mm to 28mm as my favourite scale. I still own 15mm Late Romans and Barbarians, and some 15mm WW2 Germans, but they're not very played at my club (just one game in 2017). 28mm fits also better my painting style now.

Next year? It will depend on my lavorative life, since I'm starting a new job in January. Anyway, if I can manage to finish 17th century Ottoman Turks and British Commandos I could invest in more Risorgimento figures or keep pushing TYW period with a brand new army (German Protestant forces), the latter being strongly supported by my clubmates (and by my wallet, since I've about all the figures I need for this army - new on sprues of course).

About this blog I hope I'll be able to keep posting about twice a month! I'm full of ideas about collaborations, conventions and my wish list is costantly updated (I won't post it here, because could be quite long - and annoying - to read!)

I thank all my readers, and wish you a happy new year, full of joy and wargaming adventures!


sabato 11 novembre 2017

Neil Thomas' Wargaming the Nineteenth Century review


I was looking for a ruleset to use my new Risorgimento figures and my attention was caught by "Wargaming the Nineteenth Century in Europe 1815-1878" by Neil Thomas.


I already heard of him as author of One Hour Wargaming and other works concerning our hobby, but I never dealt with his works.

Since I couldn't find much about the set on the net, I decided to purchase the kindle edition straightly from the publisher (Pen&Sword) at 4.99£. Great value for the money, but...there are no pictures only drawn maps. I know that in the printed edition (19.99£+ shipping) there are several pictures of gaming tables. Anyways, nothing essential. (EDIT: I found the pictures, they are at the very end of the book and not inside it)

The book gives a good historical and military introduction of the warfare in the period and then speculates on the best way to model a wargame to represent it. The process really reminds me Sabin's Lost Battles

The rules per se are just 8 pages (in the printed copy) and are very old style in layout, but the approach is interesting: simpler is better, and so we get a distillation of 19th century warfare. Those looking for detailed rules will be disappointed, but I love easy (yet period-specific) games. The rules are aimed at small battles involving around a brigade per side. They are very simple and should play in about 2 hours, involving about 10-15 units per side. Command and control is included just as optional rule, since "a player is able to act foolishly without external rules"

The rules are completed by 15 army lists, 5 generic scenarios (one mini-game) and 10 historical scenarios covering the main conflicts in Europe from the Carlist War to Franco Prussian War. There is no point system, but an interesting army generator which with a couple of dice rolls generates a casual army.

For the Italian Risorgimento there is only one scenario included (Montebello 1859), but are provided lists for generic revolutionary and monarchic army (1848), French, Italian, Austrian (1859 and 1866), Garibaldini and Bourbonic (1860). There is an error in the rating of Bourboinc troops, in my modest opinion, the author was too influenced by some sources he used. Anyway, this can be solved with some work. With some work a Papal State army can also be produced, and additional historical scenarios, too.

In conclusion: it's not the scale of battles I'm interested in, since I'm going to play the period with 28mm figures and I aim to play a large skirmish kind of game, as Lion Rampant or Sharpe Practice, but I'd steal some idea (best form of adulation, isn't it?) if I ever had to write my own rules.

mercoledì 1 novembre 2017

Shakò64 Borbonic Hunters (1)

The debout of Shakò64: a Italian company dedicated to Italian Wars of Indipendence.

 

Italian Wars of Indipendence, or Risorgimento, is considered a lesser conflict and is often overviewed by wargamers and manifacturers. For this reason a new manifacturer dedicated to this period is a wonderful news! Shakò64 entered the hobby market this year. I recently received a sample from their first released range, consisting in Cacciatori Borbonici (Borbonic Hunters) a light infantry unit of the Army of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies which fought against Garibaldi's redshirts during the 1860 campaign. 

In their online shop are currently aivalable: Hunters with different combination of campaign dress/frock coats and jackets with covered/uncovered shakò or kepì and Hunters Command group wearing tunic, with the same headgears options, but the manifacturer intention is to extend their range to cover both the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and Garibaldi's armies. Also aivalable the flag for some battalions of Borbonic Hunters and Carabinieri (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th battalion Cacciatori and 1st and 2nd Carabinieri). They're sold in packs of 4 for 9€ (2.25€ for infantry figure).




The figures are sculpted by Cosimo Auricchio, former sculptor for Ital.Model, a discontinued brand producing figures for the Italian Risorgimento. At the first look they looks very well sculpted virtually no flash and smooth mold lines, basically ready to be washed and primed! Very interesting the choice to provide separate backpacks (at least 3 different models) to add variety and help the paintjob. At a first measurement they looks 27-28mm to eyes level, so definitely a modern range (the so called "heroic 28mm"), larger than Mirliton and Foundry, and similar to Gringo40s. Comparison is needed (stay tuned!).
 



venerdì 6 ottobre 2017

The blog name: Arsenale del Nano

What's in a name? 
(Romeo and Juliet, act II, scene II)

As some of you may have noticed, I recently changed the header of my blog, and I feel that's a good excuse to give to the (few) curious a short explanation about my blog's name, expecially for not-Italian speakers.
View of the Entrance to the Arsenal by Canaletto, 1732.

 

Arsenale

What's an Arsenale? "arsenal, armoury, dockyard", where weapons are stored and (sometimes) forged. Obviously my weapons are lead and plastic (and resin perhaps) soldiers and scenics, but also rulesets, scenics and terrain, painting and brushes, all that sort of stuff which keeps the bellic effort going. 

But Arsenale  was chosen also with a precise geographical reference in mind: Venice. The name Arsenale itself derives from this city, it's Dante Alighieri, the most famous Italian poet in his Divine Comedy to first use this term to describe Venice dockyard, comparing the boiling pitch used to mend the vessels during winter (a period in which navigation was suspended during middle ages) to the hell environment. For those interested in literature here's the full text, both in Italian and English.


As in the Arsenal of the Venetians
Boils in winter the tenacious pitch
To smear their unsound vessels over again
For sail they cannot; and instead thereof
One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks
The ribs of that which many a voyage has made
One hammers at the prow, one at the stern
This one makes oars and that one cordage twists
Another mends the mainsail and the mizzen

Thus, not by fire, but by the art divine,

Was boiling down below there a dense pitch

Which upon every side the bank belimed.
Quale nell'arzanà de' Viniziani
bolle l'inverno la tenace pece
a rimpalmare i legni lor non sani,
ché navicar non ponno - in quella vece
chi fa suo legno nuovo e chi ristoppa
le coste a quel che più vïaggi fece;
chi ribatte da proda e chi da poppa;
altri fa remi e altri volge sarte;
chi terzeruolo e artimon rintoppa -;
tal, non per foco ma per divin' arte,
bollia là giuso una pegola spessa,
che 'nviscava la ripa d'ogne parte.

(Dante, Inferno, XXI, 7-18)


 

The Lion

The symbol of the blog is going to be the Pireaues Lion, a statue located at the entrance of  Venice Arsenale, originally located in Athenes (Piraeus port), was taken in 1687 as plunder by Morosini during one of the various Turkish-Venetian wars. Probably it seemed pretty appropriate, since Venice symbol is a (winged) lion. The lion hides an additional history: at the end of 18th century a Swedish diplomat recognised a lindworm carved on the lion, probably by Varangian merceanaries sent by Costantinople to sedate a riot in Athenes during X-XI century. Nowadays the carvings are seriously deteriorated by pollution and time, but it's still intuible.




In conclusion, I felt that Arsenale and its Piraeus Lion are the perfect sintesis of the many instersections of histories represented by wargaming, the site where armies and weapons were assembled and where many glorious (and bloody) deeds had their beginning.

...and Nano?

Oh, that's just a nickname my girlfriend gave me at the beginning of our relationtship. It means dwarf in Italian, since I'm only 1.65 metres tall ...and she's 1.76! (Incidentally it's also my grandfather nickname, but as a shortening of Giordano).


mercoledì 13 settembre 2017

X-wing, Tercios and Bolt Action!


X-wing


After one year I eventually managed to have a couple of games. I appreciate it because is fast, quick to learn, yet deeply strategic. Having pre-painted minis (and of good quality) is a great plus. I shall start studying a bit the combination between the different ships! Thank Alberto and Alessio! 



 Liber Militum Tercios


Back to Thirty years war again! Luca introduced me to Tercios a quite new ruleset by the Spanish El Kraken publisher dealing with the great battles of the period. The rules aim to recreate the grand tactic of the battles. The rules are easy to learn, but has some interesting feats, the most interesting, at least to me, the orders cards. As many of you may already know, I love all sorts of orders vinculating units freedom of action. General de Brigade and Et Sans Resultat! are good examples. In Tercios orders are not persistent, but are re-assigned each turn. Anyway, it's a good start for future modifications. Some mechanics aren't really new, for example any wear unit must test to activate its order (like Bolt Action pinned units) or the hits vs save mechanic (wherte savings, describes by the courage attribute of the units is a sum of morale and armoured resistance to enemies' offences). Overall all this already seen features blend in a very smooth way. I need a couple more games to write a proper review, so stay tuned!

In the pictures the 15mm collection of Luca (Testudo). But 28mm figures I can use both for Tercios and for Pikeman's Lament are ready to be painted (somewhere under the pile of plastic and lead in my basement).






Bolt Action


My first 500 points Commandos army is complete. They just went out for their first training mission against a German Pioneer force...and went awfully. Many things to reflect upon and more figures to assemble and paint for a 1000 point revenge!


 


venerdì 1 settembre 2017

Italian Wars of Unification from Osprey!



Armies of the Italian Wars of Unification 1848-70 (1)
(by Gabriele Esposito; illustrated by Giuseppe Rava)


Last month, Osprey published in its Men-at-Arms collection the first of a two books series about Italian conflicts of XIX century.  

Italian Wars of Unification is a subject always neglected by the international publications, at least from a uniformologic point of view. Of course in Italy it's a more common theme, but it's really cool to start seeing it arising some interest abroad. The Italian Wars of Unification lasted about 22 years and saw the birth of Italy as a Nation. They offers a wide choice of scenarios for wargamers of any nationality. The numbers of factions involved, the many different uniforms (essentially a mix from original Italian design and foreign inspirations) have the potential to please both the warfare and the  estethic lovers.

Of course there is still a lack of appropriate models, but there are some "promising" signals, I will talk about them in a separate post (stay tuned!).

The author, Gabriele Esposito, has done a great job of sinthesis. In fact describing the 1848-49 war as a single war is misleading. There is a proper campaign (Kingdom of Piedmont against Austrian), but there is an insurrection of Sicily (proclaming indipendence from the Kingdoms of the Two Sicilies) and many national uprising, in Rome (Republica Romana), Venice (Repubblica di Venezia) and other cities. So regular armies and volunteers twingles in confusing years. 


Remember: the booklet is the first of two. In this one are described the armies of Piedmont and the Two Sicilies. For both you have a nice (even if schematic) introduction, organisation and different specialities are treated in order (infantry, cavalry corps, engineers, etc...) and then there is a short chapter about weaponry. Comparing it to other Osprey MAA, the uniformology is quite "light". Honestly it'd have been difficult to be more specific with so many troops to treat. Just assume Austrian armies of roughly the same period are treated in two different books (The Austrian Army 1836(1), for infantry and (2) for cavalry) and that's just one Nation! So I appreciate even more the skill of the author to concentrate the informations, many of them added in the description of the pictures inside the text or the plates, painted by Giuseppe Rava, probably the most skillful Italian military painter, compared to Angus McBride himself.



The plates are fantastic, they are a really great added value for the book, historically accurate and characterized by a great vivacity. In addition the booklet features a large number of illustrations and drawing from the period.

The next booklet will be focused on Papal army and volunteers.

My only complaint is about the chronology: the usual introduction about the conflict, more necessary because this is a greatly neglected conflict, has been splitted between the two books, thus in this one only 1848 events are described, the other years will be treated in the second one. I understand the choice from the point of view of the publisher, to respect the number of pages Osprey standard imposes. But this fact made me feel the book some of incomplete. I suppose is something it will be solved when this book will be placed in the shelves next to the second part. Luckily we shouldn't wait too long, I don't remember the publication date, but if I recall correctly should be available in some months time.


All the images are used with consent of G.Rava, taken from his official Facebook page, which I kindly suggest you to follow. The author is at disposition for any request from the Publisher.

PS If you're looking for the Austrians who fought the Italians (Kingdom of Sardinia at the beginning of the period), look for Osprey MAA 323 and 329! So actually we can consider Italian Wars of Unifications from Osprey to form a quadrilogy!

lunedì 28 agosto 2017

Commandos in training!


Back to my (first) 28mm WW2 project.

I always liked WW2, and last year, after my conversion to 28mm (Lion Rampant, Ronin) I decided to jump into this period, too, in order to be able to play a different game. The only club mate interested in the period had German and a friend of him American. He was complaining that he couldn't get many games and so I decided to start an army. 

They chose Bolt Action as ruleset, because it's easy to learn, quite fast (about 2-3 hours) and fun fo play, even if it's not the most historically accurate ruleset. But, hey, it's a game, after all!

Since Germans (I must admit, my first choice) had already been taken, I decided to go Brit. But, as some of you may know I dislike easy/common/mainstream armies and so I chose Commandos. 



Here some reasons:
  1. to be able to play several scenario: Commandos fought from 1941 to 1945 in almost any theather
  2. cheap plastic aivalable (see below)
  3. peculiar unit (I love veteran and strange troops)
  4. veteran units: more pointsworthy the unit less models needed, and it's not a secundary consideration when valuating to get into a totally new period

Last Christmas Warlord games had it's usual sprues' offer (50% IIRC), and I bought a consistent quantity of Commandos sprues (maybe 5), plus a plastic Commandos box, which gave me the weapon and more infantrymen. Later I found an action for MMG, Officers, medics and a beautiful AEC mk III. At Model Expo in Verona I eventually purchased straightly from Italeri stand a Churchill plastic set. So I was ready to start (for more details about my models, check this post on my blog)


Now (note that I looked accurately after purchasing the models) I started to looked the exact operations the Commandos were involved in.The issue was made easier by this excellent wikipedia page.

My attention was drawn by:

  1. Norwegian islands 1941,  I should use SAS models but I guess any Commando unit could go
  2. Sicily 1943, interesting to play against Italian not in the desert
  3. Normandy 1944. Too mainstream, but a good "generic" start
  4. Italy 1945 (last offensive in April) just a few weeks before the end of war in Italy (25th April) Commandos + partisans in the Comacchio lagoon against a generic Wehrmacht force

Norwegian islands (1940)
Early war period, very small actions (realistically playable in 1:1 ratio), and with a strong scenario objective (usually a fish oil and glycerol factory or a coastal battery or ships).  The main drawbacks are: limited troops choice (no tanks, no artillery) and Commandos always as attackers (except local counterattacks).


Sicily 1943
A good choice of enemy, in particular some Italian troops in a small, but interesting choice of scenarios (both Commandos attacks and Italian and Germans counter attacks, noticeably Malati bridge). One day I'll be glad to have a WW2 Italian army!

Normandy to Rhine (1944-1945)
The standard. Good selection of troops for both sides, an interesting addition is the Churchill AVRE supporting the operations (and I own a Churchill). From DDay to Rhine an interesting idea for a campaign as well.



Northern Italy 1945
In the late war, in the Comacchio lagoon, relatively near to where I live (in comparison with Norway, at least). Commandos spearheaded an advance against the latest German defensive lines. Supported by the North Irish Horse Churchills (yeah!) the crumbled the poor Germans. An interesting addition (already on my wish list) the LTV Buffalo!




Recently I discovered an other group of players (5-6) playing Bolt Action in my city and so I decided to prioritize the painting of my models.  I've just finished Ottoman Turkish (ok they need bases) my second army for Lion Rampant (so far my most played ruleset), so it's time to move to this new project. I hope in a few week I could be able to show you my first 500 points Commandos army.

lunedì 21 agosto 2017

Defending the DEFENSIBLE!


Two Condottieri clashed in my basement some evenings ago:  I led the Colleoni's retinue. Paolo led the Camposampiero's one. 

Camposampiero was a noble family from... Camposampiero, near Padua. They had a large fortune during XII century, controlling large territories, but eventually they supported the wrong sides and were virtually annihilated. In our game (set in the first half of XV century) one member of this family tries to defend the few possession still owned by the family. To reinforce his retinue he hired a mercenary force, composed by Swiss pikemens.

Having lost much of the past power Da Camposampiero was Sly (no morale bonus). Colleoni was lionhearted (re-roll up to two dice in combat). The Venetian Condottiere had to burn down the last Camposampiero tower.

The mission looked easy: Albanese Stradiotti hurried forward the tower, defended by one unit of foot sergeants and one of expert archers. However they managed to fail evasion and were caught by an unexpected assault from the men defending the tower. They were exterminated and the few survivors fled immediatly after.

The bold infantrymen then took a defensive position between two rough piece of terrains and effectively delayed further advances.

On Colleoni's left flank the skirmisher advance was repulsed by the prompt arrival of reinforcements (I never saw such a quick march from foot sergeants, probably my failed activation played a role).

On the right flank Camposampiero mounted men at arms launched repetead charges against the Venetian to gain time. They fought to the last men (comprising their commander), but by that time, a sturdy defensive line was formed in front of the tower, and the Venetian losses began to worry Colleoni. When his skirmisher were caught in the woods and routed he decided that the life of half of his man was a price to expensive to pay. The Camposampiero family was save once again.

Few years after they bended the knee and started fighting for Venice. But this is an other story, yet to be written.

In the nearby village no one expects a punitive raid

The stradiots are caught unprepared by Camposampiero's men advance.
The golden lion rampant in light blue field is the coat of arms of family Camposampiero. Two lions clashed here!



The Swiss mercenaries prevents further attacks



domenica 23 luglio 2017

My harvest! - Lion Rampant AAR

In Venetian Negroponte, a merchant hires a Condotta to fend off Turkish hands over his harvest.


Yesterday we played a game of Lion Rampant in my basement, and, as I learnt to be happy for the small things, for the first time since I started wargaming (i.e. 6 years ago, more or less) I could host a complete 28mm game using only my strenght: every miniature, scenery dice and ruleset was mine. Surely a result I could have achieved a lot earlier if I hadn't split my attention into different projects and always refused doing scenery (of course hating scratch building doesn't help me). But people grow up and hey, here we are! Of course some miniatures (just 12 actually) are still unpainted, and bases need to be finished, but I see it as a positive step.


After this ramble, the proper after action record.

The game was played by Steno (Ottoman Turkish) and my twin Edoardo (Venetian Condotta), I was the game master (too happy to lay down my new scenery). I roll on the scenario generator a "Sausage with mustard" game, but the list were chosen by them, they agreed for 30 points per side.

Ottoman Turkish
Foot MAA* @6 points
Expert Archers Janissery@6 points
Foot Sergeants@4points + 1 point for Musician (+1 morale)
Expert Mounted Yeomen@6points
Mounted Sergeants+bows@5 points
Bidowers@2 points

Venetian Condotta
Drilled Mounted MAA @7 points
Expert Foot Sergeants @6 points +1 point for Merchant (+1 morale)
Foot Sergeants@4 points
Bidowers@2 points
Bidowers@2 points
Mounted Yeomen@4 points
Archers@4 points

 

Background

Negroponte (now Euboea) an island in front of Greece in Venetian possession for centuries, during the Ottoman-Venetian war lasting from 1463 and 1479 was raided several times and finally conquered by the Ottoman after a long siege. We are in the earlier years of the war and the Merchant Alvise Valmarana has hired a condotta led by a Colleoni family member to defend his extensive properties on the island, mainly farms. The Turkish commander Ajeje Brazorf (of Serbian descent, as most of the Janissaries who were former christians) is going to burn down the just harvested grain to prevent the Venetian to supply the besieged city of Chalcis."

The commanders are rash (Ajeje) and Vulnerable (Colleoni).

Stradiots defending the four targets markers


Alvise pondering his chance to save his harvest!

Battle

The battle proved inconclusive, the Venetian Stradiots tasked to form fend off the first assaults, broke after a brief shooting engage. The Venetian commander died in battle (or was taken prisoner, who knows?) and one haystacks was set to fire by Turkish Azab (bidowers). The Turkish General and his Armoured Janissiers (foot men at arms) were chasing down almost any enemy they met (and who they were obliged to charge), and just Ajeje and one bodyguard stand at the end of the battle, which was called by me (as gamemaster) due to an heavy rainstorm hitting the battlefield.


the last standing of Colleoni!

Eventually an haystack is on fire!


Lot of fun was had by both the players, I also learnt how to modify pictures to make them more visually appealing, so a positive verdict for my first autarchic game!

venerdì 14 luglio 2017

All Roads Lead to Venice

Or at least to one of its outposts, trade center or emporium.
At least in the XII to XVI century.
At least in my mind (and gaming table)

Which way?

In WSS I read no tabletop gaming table can be considered complete without roads, for two simple reasons: roads are a costant landmark of any human inhabited area and your army need a way to reach the battlefield (of course opponent's one, too).

So I decided to add roads to my scenery collection, but I was unsure how. I could scratch build them, but I lack the time, so eventually I decided to buy some ready roads.

One of the thing I like most is flexible roads, so I looked for rubber roads on the net: most of my results led to very expensive options, until I found on ebay this seller: http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jefferson64adrian?_trksid=p2047675.l2559 Jefferson Adrian aka "Fat Frank". He builds beautiful roads and other sceneries for wargaming at a very reasonable price.

I suggest you to follow his ebay account and his blog: http://fatfrankswargameterrain.blogspot.com


From the large amount of items availables I chose an intermediate scale, 70mm wide, and usable either with my 15mm or 28mm armies.

many shape aivalable!

a close up of the roads
I expect you will see them in almost every battle report I'll post from now on.

domenica 11 giugno 2017

Card Games!

Today we will have a break from miniature wargaming. Let's talk about card games.
When I was younger (well, I'm barely and adult now anyway), my first games, before diving into wargaming, were collectible card games, as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Ho, and eventually, at the high school, Magic the Gathering.

I really loved MtG, the mechanics, the setting, the illustrations...but it went quickly expensive: to keep your deck competitive, you had to spend a lot of money and the continuos publication of new expansions (which makes older prints out of standard for tournaments) made me sick. So I had to shut it down.

In the following years, as you may imagine, my attention was entirely drawn by miniature wargames, starting with 15mm ancient wargames (as Impetus and Field of Glory) and continuing with 28mm scale (Lion Rampant, Ronin, Bolt Action, just to name a few).


So I was a bit surprised when my high school friends (who are casual gamers and absolutely not into miniatures games) started to develop an interest in card games. Since I already abandoned  collectible card games, I was not enthusiastic, until I realised I missed a lot of new generation card games, which do not require collection but are complete in their box (except expansions), basically board game without the board!

Now, if I should choose what to do during an evening with my friends, my first choice would be choosing one of our card games and having some games! Of course they require small space for stockage and transport and so they are useful as travel entertainers too!

Playing Munchking in Stockholm hostel last month!

Every game in our collection share the following characteristics:
  • easy to learn: we can't spend an hour to teach a new player how to play
  • easy to play: we want to feel relaxed after a game, it's a sort of after work meeting so everyone is already tired from the working/studying day
  • fun (of course!)
  • short: ranging from 30' (allowing multiple games in a evening) to 1 hours (with one exception): we are meeting during the working week.

And now a quick list of our games, if anyone wish a more detailed description, just ask and I'll provide a full review!


Samurai Sword

It uses the same mechanic as Bang!, bringing them into the Japanese setting. Each player has a secret role (Samurai and Shogun, Ninjas and Ronin) forming up to three different teams, (but you don't know who is your ally and who's your enemy). The game it's pretty simple you must attack the players to kill them and gaining one honour point (each player can respawn a set amount of times in the following turn), when the deck ends or one player reach its respawn limit, the game ends and the team with more honour points wins the game.

3-7 players, about 30'


Exploding Kittens

According to the disclaimer, the most founded game on kickstarter. In this game, drawing is the last action in your turn, and sometimes, in your game. The deck is filled with dangerous exploding kittens, ready to blow you up. If you draw an exploding kittens you die. Of course you can defuse them once (or more if you can steal defuse cards from other players), but they'll eventually blow up in your face! And then it's game over! Only one player will survive! I strongly advice to purchase the expansion Imploding Kittens too, which adds lot of variety to the game.



Ta Pum!

A cooperative game, useful to strenghten friendship, you can only win (or more often loose) all together. You represent a group of friends thrown into the first world war trenches. The missions are awful and only helping each other you can survive the war. The game has a beautiful French comic style of illustrations! (the game is French)

2-5 players, about 30'-1hour


Stay Away

Have you seen "The Thing"? Well, this is a blind game, one player at a certain point of the game will become the Thing and starting infecting the others, you must find him and kill him (via flamethrower). But you must pay attention about who you incinerate, if all the non infected players are removed from the game the Thing team win! There is a lot of bluff in this game, and I advice you to play at least with 5-6 players, but with 10-12 will still work and increase tension (lot of tension in this game, I really like it! I can assure you that will fear the infection (and the flamethrower) and do anything you can to convice other players to have mercy!

4-12 players, 15 to 60 minutes

thanks to Isola Illyon for the image


Munchkin

A parody of Dungeons and Dragons, or fantasy RPG in general. A comic style hidden a nice mechanic with lot of fighting between the players and with the monsters to become the first character to reach level 10 and win the game! A lot of expansions and mods for different settings (for example Munchkin Chtulhu). It can last a bit longer than the other games, let's say 1.5 hour to 3 hours. Can be found here, or in many game shops.

The author playing as a dwarf (nano in Italian)

Ready to Rock

Last, but not the least, Ready to Rock! This game was created by an Italian guy and it really deserves to be known, the game represent a Rock concert, each player has a ticket (his starting point) and must reach the stage, where the band is performing to win the game!
Each turn the player can do two actions, i.e. playing two cards from his hand. There are basically two kind of cards: the path cards, which draw the path you can walk to the stage, and the flash cards, all well themed actions (drinking beer, groupies, etc...). One flash card can make you draw one random the stage card, this separated deck is placed on the stage and represents actions performed by the band which affects all the players. Sometimes can be very counterproductive!


The game is written in English even if it's produced in Italy and in the website you will find a nice tutorial and game aids, there is also a mobile page to be used for advide during the game! (So you doesn't have to ask for the rules booklet).

Players: 3-9
Duration: 20-40 minutes


sabato 3 giugno 2017

Infantry in Lion Rampant

Today, I'll focus mainly on the role of the infantry on the battlefield in Lion Rampant, the medieval wargame rules by Dan Mersey.

The Middle Ages features a pretty static infantry: except fiece foot, who were mainly found at the fringes of European territories, the standard infantry unit deployed in a static defensive spearmen armed formation. The main aim was to resist the assualts of enemy's cavalry: superb knights, sergeants or arabs mamelukes. Occasionally they could face some barbaric infantry, classed as fierce foot (let apart for a second the possibility to grade as fierce foot halberdier or sword and buckler, we will come back to this later).

During Dark Age, the situation was similar: the Roman infantry lacked the might of the past, and the Barbarian Infantry, often of low quality (levy, better represented as foot yeoman, IMHO) was used as a rally point for noble cavalry, according to Procopius. Even in the East, against Sassanid, the battles were mainly fought between  opponent cavalry.

Things become very different when talking about Classical Antiquity, between the classic Greece and the Roman Empire (principate at last), the infantry was the key of the battles, with cavalry often considerated an auxillary corps, at least until 3rd century AD. With the rules, as they are written, you cannot simulate this in any realistic way. So we must deal with Classical Antiquity separately (i.e. in a other post!)

So, back to Infantry in Middle Ages. In my humble opinion, there is one main issue. Two infantry units (segeants or yeomen) facing each other, causing a situation in which no one wants to attack, because the attacker rolls 5+ and defender 4+. I can see the logic of this: we just said that during this period sergeants formed a defensive formation and all that stuff. But, in some particular context, if you're fielding pretty specular armies (for example two Communals Italian armies) I'd advide to allow a sort of  incentive the clash of infantries that happened frequently during the period. It's true (and a bit hollywodian as the author likes) that infantry stood in front of enemies knights, but infantry lines often clashed.



The author probably decided that the variety and interplay of arms would avoid such situations, and it wanted us to focus on different arms, so adding a cavalry unit, or a foot man at arms or a fierce foot unit (not very common during the feudal age), could break the balance, and in most games, this will work. But mono-dimensional armies exist, even if the rules allow you to field max 12 points or 4 units of any determined kind of unit, but nothing could prevent you to field 3 sergeants units and/or foot yeoman units.

During our game, however, sometimes happened (maybe the knight ran away or were deployed at the other side of the battlefield, or whatever) that two units of foot sergeants stood watching each other for an entire game, none of them (rightly) wanting to lose their advantage charging the enemy.

According to rules can give an offensive edge to your sergeants (and yeomen), making them "offensive" : spending 2 points more, the unit's attack become 4+ instead that 5+. Anyway, I think tthat 2 points for +1 attack is too expensive.

What should we do?
  1. nothing, the troops variety or at least the difference in armour would break the balance.
  2. add a scenario optional rule, "Guelphs and Ghibellines": foot sergeants and yeomen gain +1 to dice rolled when attacking enemy's foot sergeants and yeomen for no cost. It could break the empasse. Use sparingly only in symmetric games (and under supervision of your parents).
Of course the latter option would diminishing the cost-effectiveness of purchasing offensive sergeants (still attacking 4+ on every enemy unit), but I already consider 2 points a bit too much for +1 when attacking. It's not even useful to break the balance, since the attack and defence are equal in sergeants or yeomen, but you can field 3 units vs 2. If the players with three static sergeants sits down, the offensive minded player will soon finds his men are too few to disrupt 3 enemy's units.

And this is the first issue of Medieval Warfare that could need a fix. Bear in mind I just proposed one of the possible solutions.



Second issue: where are the halbardiers and (later in period) sword and buckler men?
Well, that's an interesting topic: in the rules there are two ways to portray them:
  1. use offensive foot sergeants or yeomen (the unit costs +2 points) attack and defend on 4+ and lose schiltron, armour as the main unit (3 or 2).
  2. use fierce foot (4 points) attack on 3+, defend on 6, wild charge! armour 2.
I see none of these option is very used by our local club, why?
Offensive foot (either sergeants or yeomen) are the best way to represent halberdiers, in our opinion, because they retain their defensive capabilities, but they cost too much. Fierce foot aren't really loved because they're wild charger, and stay almost halplessy if they fail to countercharge.

Possible solutions:
  1. offensive foot cost reduced to +1 point
  2. add a new upgrade for foot sergeants and yeomen (I really had sword and buckler in mind when I wrote this) (I cannot think about an appropriate name now, let's call them AlternativeOffensive), leaving the hot minded troops as fierce foot.
AlternativeOffensive@0points
The unit switch Attack with Move and Attack Value with Defence value. It lose Schiltron special rule, and gain Countercharge Infantry special rule.

So an Alternatively Offensive Foot Sergeants unit (Sword and Buckler for example):

Attack 5+  Attack Value 4+
Move 6+   Defence Value 5+
Shoot - Shoot Value-
Courage 4+ Armour 3 (2 if foot yeomen)
Max movement 6"

By the way, this is exactly how I would represent Early Migration (i.e. Early Dark Age) infantry in  those people still using massive infantry charges, instead that relying on cavalry for their attacks (the latter are often referred as Sarmatized Germans). Of course I would also represent in the same manner Celts infantry during Classical Antiquity. But I think this post is already long enough and I shouldtalk about them an other time.

lunedì 29 maggio 2017

Summer (painting) Campaign!

The council of war was reunited last week and our plan was finally set.

The main question was: what's next? What's the next big project our club will devote the next year? We decided a theme, after many years (Luca waited for this about 17 years) we are finally jumping into the Thirty Years War period, also known as Pike&Shotte period!

So, our next step was to decide which ruleset had to be used for the period. After FOG:R was ruled out, due to the massive number of miniatures and (most important) time needed to set up and play a game, there were two pretendants: Liber Militum Tercios (supported by Luca) and The Pikeman's Lament (proposed by me).

Every general is going to gather his forces: Luca, Paolo and Stefano already own a relevant collection of 15mm miniatures for the period, most of them painted and based (using the DBx standard, since they were meant to be used with FOG:R).
Marco, Jack and me, on the other hand, bought 28mm warlord models, Luca and Paolo decided to join us in that scale, too.


During our war council we decided that the games are not mutually exclusive, we will use Tercios to recreate the proper battles of the period and TPL for skirmishing action like foraging and raiding. We found an agreement on bases (for 28mm) and so we should be able to game Tercios in 15mm and 28mm and TPL in 28mm. There are also ideas to link the game of the two ruleset in a kind of campaign game, but it's all pretty vague, for now.

Now, it's time to paint! First armies are expected to be ready for the winter. Of course, future developements will be posted in this blog, so stay tuned!

Factions

Luca - Imperial Army (15mm and 28mm)
Jack - Spanish Army (28mm)

Marco - Swedish (28mm)
Stefano - Swedish (15mm)
Paolo - Parlamentarian (15mm); Danes (28mm) [still thinking about them] 
Riccardo - German Protestants (28mm) [loosely based upon Saxons]








martedì 16 maggio 2017

A wargamer in Stockholm

Some months ago I was looking for a destination for a late spring travel when I saw on a Facebook group a post about a wargaming exhibition in a museum in Stockholm, so I got in touch with Dalauppror, asking for more informations. You can read the results of that conversation in this post.


To Stockholm!

Sweden was a crucial country for the history of European warfare at least from 17th to 19th century. Its capital, Stockholm, hosts various testimonials of the country's past deeds.
Its capital Stockholm has plenty of monuments and museums emphasizing the glorious military past of the country, and it's pretty easy find something a wargamer or warfare lover could enjoy.

I will only focus on wargaming related places I visited, of course there is a lot more to see in this amazing city!

I suggest starting your tour at the Armémuseum. The exhibition will lead you throughout six centuries of warfare in Sweden, providing an excellent introduction for the various wars the country fought during its history. Dioramas, 1:1 soldiers mannequins, paintings and weapons allow the visitors to imagine the world who those soldiers lived in. Rather interestingly, the museum doesn't simply focus on the warfare, but explain also in details the everyday struggle for survival soldiers and civilians had to fight during wars (and peace, often). Of course weapons lovers won't be disappointed, modern to contemporary section is particularly well represented by a wide display, ranging from sub-machine guns, to pistols and a complete UAV!

Soldiers must eat, too

Yes, there is also a Goliath!


If you can manage to visit Stockholm before 7th January 2018 you can also visit the temporary exhibition War Games. An amazing journey from the birth of gaming (chess, chaturanga, go) to contemporary wargame rulesets, passing through Prussian kriegsspiel and '70 boardgames. A must for any wargamer and boardgamer. It's quite a unique chance to see Black Powder or Bolt Action behind the cabinet of a museum! (and in the museum shop!)

 
Kriegsspiel (my forbidden dream is a double blind game)


The second place I suggest you to visit is Livrustkammeren (Royal Armoury). Its entrance is exactly on the side of Royal Palace, in the very centre of Stockholm. The museum itself is located in the cellars of the Palace! There is a well assorted collection of armours and weapons of course, but the most important pieces in its collection areprobably the flag and the robes Gustavus Adolphus was wearing at Lützen before his death.



A temporary exhibition about Katanas was also held in the museum during our visit. Small, but interesting, though.

In both the two temporary exhibitions, several references to present days are made, through games, or movies. We realised that in Sweden museums aren't something just preserving the past, but actively trying to set a link to everyday world.

Both Armémuseum and Livrustkammeren admission are free of charge, so no excuse!

If happen to pass near the city centre at about 12 AM, don't lose the changing of the guard. It's held in front of the Royal Palace and it lasts about one hour. You can observe both ceremonial uniforms and real serving regiments uniforms, and a musical band performs amazing marches and songs.

Were we talking about Gustavus Adolphus' death? Well, if you want to see his grave, take a short walk (just 5 minutes from the Palace) and visit Riddarholmskyrkan, where many Swedish kings are buried. Of course the Lion of the North lays between them.


Medeltidsmuset is a small museum, hidden under a bridge (literally), which allows the visitors to dive into middle ages' everyday life in Stockholm, while not strictly about warfare, I nonetheless found it fascinating (did someone say "free admission"?).



Vasamuset. A well preserved (and restored) huge galley, exhibited in a 6 floor museum, it's something out of ordinary. It's also the story of one of the biggest fail in naval engineering, due to a mix of political meddling/ingerence and poor calcualtions, this ship, intended to become the admiral of the fleet, sunk during its maiden voyage, probably one of the shortest in history for a galley, lasting nly 120 meters. You can see the ship externally from different levels, under the keel and up to the mast. The lateral exhibition give an insight on the history of the ship and about the life of the sailors, what they ate, how they fought and so on.. A small section analyses the bodies found inside during salvations and speculate about their stories. The entrance is not cheap, but it's decisely worth the money!



If you are willing to do some shopping in Stockholm I can suggest to start here:
  • The science fiction bookshop, offers a wide choice of books (of course) and GW miniatures, some boardgames and interesting gadgets. 
  • Alphaspel (I didn't visited it, but its website looks interesting)
  • Probably there is also a GW shop, but since I'm not really into GW, so I didn't check.

Of course I did not forgot to contact Dalauppror, And...we managed to get a game of The Pikeman Lament! I could bother you with the AAR of the game, but he's already written about it in its blog, so just read here.



So, it's everything from Stockholm. As travel suggestions: low cost flights are aivalable and (from Europe) reasonably priced, I have no special advice, since people are kind and they all speak an awesome English, so I never had any difficulty in my trip. Just remember that the weather can get quit cold, so be prepared both for sun and for snow!


~ My thanks to Fabio for reviewing this post ~