In tough times, it seems the wargaming industry has had to hunker down and stay the course, be cautious, stick to the tried and true. Not so for the new Italian Publisher Vento Nuovo Games!

Some of you have read recently of my posts about block war games, and block games in general. I recently played Blocks in the East from the new Artisan game designers  Vento Nuovo Games ( I picked up a copy on sale at Christmas), and was surprised and impressed by a number of things, that I guess others are also impressed with also,as we will shortly see.

Firstly the components are of such a high calibre that it is almost art. I immediately had to get the Goretex fabric map that is 1.5 the size of the in box map. Notably the finish on the paper map is waterproof too! This game is stunning to look at.

Another item impressed me as I started to play and ask questions online. A great and rapidly growing fan base and company support.

This game also is a very nice blend of sophisticated war game, with simplified elements or abstractions to some key areas of the game. I suppose a lot of people automatically compare to EastFront II, but from my reading of EFII rules, this has some commonalities but differs in many other areas. But like EFII it evokes very strong theme for a block game.

I jokingly call this the Block Game players OCS (Operational Combat System), as it incorporates many niceties you find in that superb system. Yet because it is a block game it deals with Panzer blitz, movement, exploitation movement, fog of War, Supply and replacements/reinforcements in a much lighter but no less effective way. So that impressed me also. It also provides a nice Tech Tree element for the advanced game.

So what is the news? I hear you ask. Well since its release in October, and I discovered it in December, this company has sold a HUGE number of copies. Well I think it is huge in any case.

Which means I need to work out how to stay abreast of the marketplace better.

Despite the price, and the high shipping (thanks USPS), this game has sold over 1,000 copies as of March 1st 2013!.

Yes.One Thousand Copies. WTH…That blew me away!!! So since they were reluctant to toot their own horn, I am going to do it for them. I love to see the little guy have some success and to go out of bounds, thinking of how to do something new, better and faster.

CONGRATULATIONS TO VENTO NUOVO GAMES FOR SELLING OVER 1,000 COPIES OF  THEIR FIRST TITLE

You can read more about them on their site and on Board Game Geek, also they have a Facebook Page . Check them out if you have not already.