War and peace

The Olds of the Crisis (blue): Alex Isabelle The Lattemiele Empire (yellow): Laura Beltrami The Communists of the Prophecy (red): Andrea Benassi The Iron Giants (green): Carlo Alberto Magnani The first part of the game ended with a stalemate between the Olds and the Lattemiele Empire, marked by the tactical retreat of the latter's military vanguard inside the Nebula F-16. While the Intrigons of the Lattemiele Empire also dedicated to some bizarre expansion projects, which would become clearer in a few years, the Olds finished colonizing the planets of their native system, starting to gear up, for the third time, for a deep space exploration. In the other half of the galaxy things were different. The Communists of the Prophecy had already finished exploring and dominating their system, and were therefore starting to think big. The Iron Giants were following them, undecided about what to do. Like the Olds, they had explored the first deep space, to then mobilize their fleet in other ...

The Olds of the Crisis (blue): Alex Isabelle The Lattemiele Empire (yellow): Laura Beltrami The Communists of the Prophecy (red): Andrea Benassi The Iron Giants (green): Carlo Alberto Magnani The "Olds" of the "Crisis". Why olds, and what crisis are we talking about? And what made the Intrigons of the distant Lattemiele Empire go to war against them? What was the Prophecy that Communists on planet Altair were concerned about? And what are the plans of the Giants of the distant green planet Chulak? Let's rewind the tape. Let's go back to what happened before the battle in the skies of Eden and the expulsion of the Lattemiele in the Nebula F-13, before the explosion of the Supernova I-6, before the discovery of Arrakis and the Ancient Empire. Let's start from the beginning. The principle is, first of all, a period of black crisis for the native race of planet Earth, the Olds, a republican people who had seen in hyperspace travel a great opportunity to enri...

Romano: Alex Isabelle Carthaginian: Laura Beltrami We move to 218 BC, to the battle of the river Ticinus, the first direct confrontation between the Carthaginians and the Romans in the Second Punic War. Hannibal lost half an army in the Alps, and Publius Cornelius Scipio, father of what would later become known as Scipio the African, after keeping an eye on the Carthaginians for a while decides to try an engagement. What can these barbarians ever do on their little horses? Well, they can fuck him, to begin with. Because those ponies are Numidian horses, led by commander Maarbal, who after the mythological Alpine crossing does not really have the right disposition to be denied access to Cisalpine Gaul, and therefore intends to offer resistance. How to blame him. The indomitable Mago, in turn leading a wing of Numidian cavalry, shares his opinion. The premises. The clash between the Romans of Scipio and the Carthaginian cavalry, historically led by Hannibal, while here the scenario shows...

Syracusans: Alex Isabelle Carthaginians: Laura Beltrami 341 BC: the Syracusans still find themselves elbowing with the Carthaginians for the control of Magna Graecia. Several years have passed since the events of Agrigento, which finally saw the Carthaginian forces prevail. This time the latter are proceeding in the direction of I-do-not-know-which-city-in-Sicily, decided to take control once and for all. Having learned to disdain mercenaries for their lack of moral reliability, they have assembled an entire elite unit called the "sacred battalion", a collection of 2,500 high-blooded Carthaginian citizens, trained as god commands, hence the name. This battalion is part of the army which, led by a certain Hasdrubal ( yet another ), has worked to unify Sicily under the sign of Carthage. History here takes on interesting contours. Arriving near the Crimissos river, Hasdrubal's brain goes out. He makes his army cross the river without sending anyone on reconnaissance. If he h...

Syracusans: Laura Beltrami Carthaginians: Alex Isabelle A few weeks after the first battle of Akragas (ie: the same scenario) the same game is repeated with reversed parts, thanks to the fact that the first time we had fooled a fundamental rule that had greatly changed the game, introducing a dynamic of "fog of war" all in all functional but not foreseen by the original game. This time I am in command of the Carthaginian troops, historically plagued by this confrontation, which saw the elite troops of Magna Graecia kick the asses of the rear of the Carthaginian troops intent on besieging Akragas, today's Agrigento. The scenario is a bit asymmetrical. The Syracusans have a rather balanced front with a very solid center, made up of heavy troops who, if given the chance to do damage, are well capable of carrying out a massacre. The Carthaginians, on the other hand, have a slightly more grungy front, with a slightly more solid side and a slightly higher mobility. Both sides ...

Blue: Alex Isabelle Red: Laura Beltrami Yellow: Luca Orlandini Green: Lucia Neviani Another weekend, another game of Dungeon Lords. Again without expansion, because we had Lucia as a new player. She found herself with demolished dungeon but meh, the first game, it happens. A group consisting of an OP paladin, a cleric and two extreme level wizards preparing to invade the yellow dungeon. The hero from a few games ago, Orla, got screwed by a couple of design errors, which seriously undermined his ability to withstand the hordes of heroes. In the end, he always managed to get by, but he had several rooms conquered in the meantime. I had staked everything on the creation of a militarily organized dungeon: medium-sized, concentrated, full of rooms in which to fight with multiple monsters at a time. At one point I had earned so many "evil" points that I found myself on a path of no return. Pressing forward the accelerator on the highway of violence, for the first time the paladin e...

Vasyr's Raiders: Alex Isabelle Reds of Altair: Laura Beltrami On one side the Vasyr's Raiders, on the other the Reds of Altair. Two peoples from distant solar systems, united by one thing: the interest in making their planet the capital of a stellar empire. Although separated from the pitfalls of deep space, it was clear from the outset that only one of the two could reign over this sector of the galaxy. Peace was never going to be an option. The initial phase of the game saw a very rapid expansion by the Raiders, who quickly produced large numbers of colonizing ships, sending them around their sector to take control of the planets. The Reds, on the other hand, opted for a more cautious approach, dealing primarily with the collection of minerals, colonizing the planets more slowly, and developing military technologies early on. Two completely different approaches, which quickly came to a confrontation, even if not an open one, when the people of Vasyr, having explored a large p...