From: Pietro Cremona Subject: Roma-Con-96 (long) Hi all Consimers I was invited to tell you something about our (Italian) National Convention and I am more than happy to do this. I hope that those of you that are not interested at all will excuse this description. In Italy we created a Federation of Associations (Federgiochi) that groups most of the gaming clubs of our Country, from wargamers to fantasy or SF gamers. This Federation meet three times a year and decide where to locate the next Convention and who volunteers for that of the following year : unfortunately 1996 National Convention was asigned to a milanese group (Signori del Gioco) but some months ago they were obliged to ... surrender because one of the main distributors of simulation games wanted to start a Convention on his own IN THE SAME DAYS. All this to tell that Roma-Con-96 was organized in a hurry (normaly we have about TWO years to prepare it) and did not receive the usual cover and publicity : despite this difficult starting Roma-Con-96 was a success, in my opinion, an I enjoyed it very much. Italian Conventions will never have the same attendance than the US Cons, but usually we see about 2000 to 3000 gamers that cames, play or just ... look around and shake hands with old friends. I arrived in Roma a day before, as usual, so I had the time to show part of the Citta' Eterna to my friend Hannu (who cames from Finland just to attend the Convention and spent some days at home ... playing all the evenings with me) : Roma is a beautiful town on its own, but walking in the old Forum always gives you a strange feeling. Yes, we were really putting our feet were Julius Caesar, Caius Marius and all the others used to walk and talk during the /few) calm days of the Republican and Imperial Roma. The old Roman town has been preserved and it is possible to visit it : expecially at night (fully lighted) it gives you very strong sensations. Here 3000 years of history are on your side and you feel that. My father's family lives in Roma and I know quite well the town, but looking at Hannu's face (and his camera's frequents clicks) I realiazed once again how important it is historically. We also bought a couple of posters (printed only some months ago) with the reconstruction of the Republican and the Imperial Roma : they are absolutely splendid and I think that they MUST be in every games collection of Ancients lover or student But lets go back to our Convention : here I met the second of my guests, Thomas Sheben from ... Egypt (well, he is a German, former editor of the 'zine Der Musketeer, but he lives now in Cairo) and we spent a lot of time talking about the last year news. A good restaurant (aah ... penne all'arrabbiata, spezzatino, etc.) and we were ready to start some form of war-activity : as we all had to attend the Up-Front tournament we warmed our fingers with a couple of matches, all lost by your truly (just screening tactic, you know ...). The day after serious things started as tens of players arrived since the very first hours of the day and soon the tables were crowded by any sort of games and simulations. Particularly reamarked a big table were some sort of monsters or similar beeing were playing ... SOCCER (!?!?!) with a regular "referee" and tens of supporters : hopefully the game ended and the calm (?) came back in the hall. As usual the Convention had only one selling point and we all passed in front of the "shop" in search of news (but I must say that beeing a regular consimer there are no more news for me : some of you usually make axcellent mini-reviews of each new game). I started an introductory scenario of Cry-Havoc with the new rules published in France in the last games : they are quite different (and MUCH MUCH better) than the original Standar Games ones, and I merged them and translated them in Italian, including some new TABLES to help the players. We selected a new scenario (Richard the Lionheart caming back to England and ambushed by Prince John men) and we had a very good time. As the scenario uses a limited amount of time for playing it is necessary to concentrate in your actions and "run" across the field as fast as possible. Around us the first official tournaments started (the "usual ASL", SPQR, 1830, 1856, Axis and Allies, Blue Max, Clash of Eagles, Diplomacy., Risk, etc.) while the "fantasy/SF" players started a whole pletora of games (Star Treck, Star Wars, Cyberpunk, AD&D, Toon, Magic, Space Hulk, Warhammer, etc.) and some "monsters" showed in the garden in search of the poor adventureers (or was it the opposite ?). In a separate hall, a "battery" of computers was available for demonstrations of games such 1830, Perfect General, Warcraft II, etc. I also met Bill Rapp (who came from the US) that was showing his WORLD CONQUEST PBEM game (I was impressed, but I do not like at all playing wargames against a computer, so I do not thinsk that I will play this). As usually night arrives when you do not expect it, and you must refit a little, expecially if you wish to win your favourite tournament, so after 18 hours of gaming we surrendered and went to bed. Games played since : Up-Front, Cry Havoc, Eagles (the Ligny scenario from Columbia card game), Rise of the Luftwaffe, Speed Circuit and Formule de' (Brasil). Saturday was THE DAY : my Up-Front tournament started at 9.30 (and ended at 30 past midnight). We played Five scenarios in a Swiss like tournament, were no one is eliminated, but we collect points (positives or negatives) according to the scenario's victory conditions and our performances. The scenarios that I selected this year were : Meeting of Patrols, Surprise Attack, Evacuation, Rear Guard Action and City Fight. We had to "bet" to be Axis or Allies BEFORE each scenario, and then each could select his nationality (only once each, with Italians and French that could be used as Axis or Allies). The tournament went very well untill the "auction" in the garden : here we lost a couple of hours (but I was happy to find and buy a copy of Foreign Legion, from Bearhug Publications, the same that gave us TOURNAMENT: Jousting and Melee, and of STICK and STONES, from Metagaming : never heard of a wargame on the Stone Ages ...) and thus we were obliged to finish much later than usually (this tournament last only ONE day). The winner of the Tournament was Paolo Zamagni, an old wargaming grognard, but who played this game only a few times before this Convention (he learned the "basics" in August and never played most iof those scenarios). I was second, despite my victory against Paolo in the fourth scenario : unfortunately my British squad was totally surprised by my opponent's Italians (!!!!!) in the Evacuation scenario (the wounded Italians left the field before I was able to follow them ... but I learned my mistakes ...). The tournament was undecided untill the fifth round, when only 5 of us were still able to win and the final decision arrived with the last deck of the last games. I never experienced a similar thrilling in those tournaments : after the first deck it was clear that I had lost, but after the second deck I was again the leader ... losing when I was unable to Rout my opponent (I won by points) while Paolo succeeded in routing a very strong German squad. Time to sleep 4-5 hours and we were back in the playing halls : this time with some relaxing Formule De' races : I ahd with me Tim Trant new rules and I was obliged to make copies for all of the players that tried them and were so enthousiasts that sieged me ... We raced on Espana, Brasil and Italy (Imola) and all the players admitted that the game, with the new rules, is completely different. So many thanks to Tim and his fellows for the good job and to Consim-L for having given the opportunity to receive that rules. A (boring) meeting of Federgiochi followed and we all know now that next yaer we will have a convention in Padova (a good opportunity to visit Venezia) about in the same period (second week of september). More details will follows in the next months about Pad-Con-97 for those who may be interested. In summary I (obviously) liked the convention and I was very happy to have attended it. OK ... sorry ... I know that I wasted too much band ... Thus it is THE END Ciao Pietro //// / ^ \ ( o o ) -----oOOO----(..)---OOOo--------------------------------------------------- Pietro Cremona - Old Hand Wargamer Address : CP 136 - 47023 Cesena Centro FORLI' - Italy .oooO E-Mail - asterix@linknet.it (..) Oooo. Phone - ++ 39.547.335121 -------------------------(..)----------------------------------------------