Lion Rampant at Lazise Gioca: A Medieval Skirmish on Lake Garda

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of attending Lazise Gioca, a fantastic gaming convention held in the scenic town of Lazise, on the banks of Lake Garda (Verona, Italy). Among the many tabletop and board game offerings, we set up a historical wargaming table featuring Lion Rampant by Osprey, a fast-paced and engaging skirmish game perfect for conventions.

Since the lake Garda was a border region between Milan and Venice, we decided to bring two condotte  from the late 15th century: one representing Milan and the other Venice. Each force was built to the standard 24-point size, constructed mainly from Perry's plastic miniatures. Throughout the day, we managed to run two different scenarios.

The Battles

Our first scenario was Bloodbath, a straightforward clash where both sides sought to eliminate the other through sheer force of arms. It was a brutal and fast-paced engagement, with both condotte trading blows in a display of tactical maneuvering and daring charges. Despite the famed resilience of Venetian forces, the Milanese emerged victorious, securing a hard-fought win.

Next, we set up The Fugitive, a scenario centered around capturing (or rescue) a key figure hiding on the battlefield. The Milanese, emboldened by their earlier success, pressed the attack relentlessly and managing to free the prisoner. Once again, Milan’s condotta claimed victory!

A Great Experience

The event was a fantastic opportunity to showcase Lion Rampant and introduce new players to the world of historical wargaming. The game’s elegant mechanics and accessible rules made it a hit among both casual visitors and experienced gamers alike.

Overall, Lazise Gioca proved to be a fantastic convention, in an amazing setting, and we thoroughly enjoyed bringing late medieval Italy’s mercenary battles to life. 

Milanese foot men at arms fight Venetian stradiotti

The setting

The Venetian Cernide (foot yeomen in the ruleset) enter the village

The Heavy Cavalry clashes!

Milanese Crossbowmen: one of the major contributors to Milanese's victory

Stradiotti tries to held the line against the heavier Milanese's Lance Spezzate

Venetian Schioppetti are mauled by Milanese dismounted knights

Gaming the Crusader - Pillaging the Village

Our playtesting for Lion Rampant: Gaming the Crusader goes on (see the previous post) Yesterday we were in Lazise (a beatiful village on the shores of Lake Garda) for Lazise Gioca, a rather new convention (3rd edition) of boardgaming and wargaming.

Again, I cannot tell you very much about the scenario, but it involves a village, its villagers and some raiders. The scenario is meant to be played by four players, which allowed us to let several people have a taste of the rules during the day.

We had a lot of fun, people trying the game had a lot of fun and rules were very easily learned, as usual. Lion Rampant confirms a great potential as gateway game.

And now, enjoy the pictures!

Salute 2018

This year I went to Salute for the first time in my life, totally worth it!


I regret only the luggage limit, which prevented me from spending even more money in lead, resin and mdf purchasing!

I mainly bought more figures by Gringo40s for my Italian Risorgimento project, mainly Naepolitan artillery and Nino Bixio, eventually! Gerard, the owner, released at Salute a new range of Piedmontese infantry for Italian Wars of Indipendence, you can see them here. 

Then I decided with my travel mates to dive into the street of Rome, purchasing the Blood of the Aventine Gangs of Rome starter set, great value for the money, and a really interesting setting.

To conclude...a certain blue box appeared, the TARDIS, from Warlord "Into the time vortex" range, inspired to the British TV show Doctor Who. Likely to be spotted on every table of every period. After all, it's a time machine!

Now time for some pictures of the tables we admired at Salute 2018!

The druid

Feudal Japanese action!

One of my favourite: Garibaldi in Siciliy with Sharp Practice 2

1918-2018 the theme was Great War

Blood red skies involving aircraft carrier, amazing!

Crusades with Sword and spears

Pirate boarding!

ACW action with Black Powder, the fort is impressive!

Cool use of leds and mirrors

To conclude a couple of pictures of Battle of Stäket, by Dalauppror, using Pikeman's Lament to recreate Russian invasion of Sweden in 1719, one of the nicest tables and one of the few I followed some actions.

Milano Wargames and Model Expo

This year I already joined two different conventions: on 17th February I was in Novegro for MilanoWargames, organised by Dadi e Piombo, the only wargame magazine currently published in Italy. http://milanowargames.blogspot.it/

Few days ago (11-12th March), I was in Verona for Model Expo, a modelism (+cosplayer+games) convention in my city. http://www.modelexpoitaly.it/

In both convention I held a Lion Rampant demo game together with Luca. The scenario was set during the Wars in Lombardy (1423–1454 AD), a series of semi-continuous wars between the Duchy of Milan and the Most Serene Republic of Venice and the respective (and incostant) allies, for the control of the Northern Italy. Many of the most famous Condottiere fought in some moment in this conflict, some as young officers and other as hardened veterans. Between them Da Montone, Piccinini, Da Carmagnola and Sforza.

It was the perfect occasion to use our Condottiere's armies, made up mainly of Perry Miniatures. Luca's army (Muzio Attendolo's troops serving Sforza for Milan) was entirely plastic, while mine was a mix of plastic and lead Venetian army, serving under Colleoni's family.

The table actracted a lot of attention, and many visitors stopped to ask informations about the game or the miniature. In Milan, the guest stars were the table cloth (hand made) and the houses, from Tabletop Miniatures, awesomely painted by Luca.

Luca's light cavalry and Tabletop inn (Milano Wargames)

My Stradiots fighting at Model Expo

Both the convention were, by my personal point of view, a great success. Lion Rampant has a nice look on the table (we played with 28mm miniatures of course) and catch the visitors' eyes, and it's simple enough to be explained to new players in five minutes and mastered in ten. I can state that after 15 minutes they were fully able to play by themselves. Of course the summary cards designed by Tim Charzinski, were of great help, bringing the only information one player needs to remember directly under his eyes. And thery're pretty pleasant to see on the table. I cannot recomend them more! (https://charzinski.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/unit-cards-and-retinuecreator-for-lion-rampant/)

Of course it's not a deeply strategic game, but, as introductory ruleset to help not historical or even not miniature gamers to join the hobby it's a wonderful starting point. Of course it's also a perfect ruleset for a relaxing evening game. I hope I wil be able to publish a proper review for Italian gamers in the next issue of Dadi and Piombo, stay tuned!

I will dedicate a separate post to my shopping at the conventions!

~ Riccardo