Angelo Porazzi, the quarterback in the middle, with the fabolous team we put together for our Essen 07 trip: near me the founders of LudicaMente (See this Con in my 2007 PhotoReports), the Amici Ludici Gabriele Berzoni and Guglielmo Ruberti. Split Ends Mario Sacchi publisher of LovePigs and Pierluca Zizzi, author of Defence for Agarthi.

Our Caravan was one of the best place to play games during the long trip Milano-Essen. Here Guglielmo, Mario and Angelo with the brand new Scaraball.

Eric Martin of BoardGameNews and his nice wife visiting our LovePigs table at the Press Conference. Really honoured to be first Italian Author interviewed by our veteran luding communicator Andrea Ligabue on this USA website that has editors and readers from allover the world. If you wish to read that historical interview, it is here.

Gordon Lamont of Fragor Games was so kind writing me right before the fair to invite at their booth for a drink: on 2007 our booths were right one in front of the other so was so nice and friendly to share this Essen 07 close to Lamont Brothers and their brand new game Antler Island.

The huge With Bear of The Golden Compass BoardGame. Not all the rest of the game is on the same bear's scale... Gabriele is helping the little pet to be feed. Pierluca is the food.

Guglielmo "Mamma Gula" was our best food cooker and Caravan organizer we could have. He will soon open a restaurant and have plenty of success...

One of the maaaaany games we play on our caravan was the nice Colosseum of Days of Wonder. Really appreciated this one. Here you see the Emperor visiting my Arena with my Show of Gladiators and Horses... My Show was simply...The "Best Of Show";)

Another simple and interactive game I liked a lot for graphic and fun was Eketorp. I won with my yellow tribe of vikings. So: this game is beautiful;)

Our 9-30 booth with all tables workin': on background Pierluca, Anna from Croazia and other female gamers are playing Defence for Agarthi, In the middle Walter Castagno is proudly showing his own Pirates' Army of "Create YOUR Warangel", on the right, Mario explaining LovePigs.

ESSEN 2007

BOL SOLD OUT in two days

SCARABALL and DODECAEDRON Sold Out in three days

LOVEPIGS picked up by FRED Distribution USA

Rick Soued and his nice wife: two of the most simple, genuine and nice persons I knew thanks to games. Met in the Press Conference at Essen 07, Rick told me about his foundation of Funagain, the huge USA website, that sells many of my games and contacted me through Nick Medinger right before the Fair, to order copies of BOL and Scaraball. Rick is also Fred Distribution that picked up LovePigs, the Card Game I created and illustrated, published by Post Scriptum. Here their smiles near the impressive edition of Age of Empires III.

Wonderful eyes of Ruth Tudhope, Marketing Manager of WizKids, showing the little gems they produce this year: the amazing Star Wars battleships. Last year I was captured by Pirates Ships I included in my Essen 06 PhotoReport. Being a big fan of Star Wars universe I could'nt be shocked to see the little X-Wings fighters and Imperial Ships of this year. I want them all;)!!!

Here Gabriele and Guglielmo are hearing explanations from author Sabine Opstelten about Coco Colecto, a nice and interesting self-produced game that was right in front of us in the Press Conference. These organizers started with me the Area Autoproduzione five years ago in Mantova; on 2007 Area Autoproduzione is an idea hosted in many Italian Luding Convention, including ModCon, our greatest and oldest one. Really proud to be the ideator and coordinator of this Area now hosted in so many new places, to put together new authors with families and gamers.

Another imperssive Self-Production was CaveMan of Simon Hall. Painted Minias of Dinosaurs threatining the island where tribes of humans fight to find food, building camps... making children...! Really nice, suggested to families! We invited all of these Self-Producers in our many Area Autoproduzione in Italy. If you want to see how many of them we organized, only on 2007, just click here!

Just after the Press Conference, Nick Medinger of Funagain (on the left) come to play BOL and Scaraball he put on pre-order on his immense website before the fair. BOL sold out on day two, Scaraball on dy three and Nick was quick enough to get some of the very last copies of this brand new game: he will have available BOL as well in few time. Incoooomiiiiiing!!!!

First signatures on his own Self-Produced games! Pierluca Zizzi signing his copy of Defence of Agarthi for Jost Schwider author of SpielePizza and Giro d' Italia Ludico. This great idea born right last year here at Angelo Porazzi Games booth and I am so glad to see it now growing, hosted in 2007 by Hall 9000 booth. In the picture Favio Mortarino, Gabriele, Pierluca, Jost, Mario and Simone Colombo that was my pilot and booth demo-man in 2006. All dear friends and great gamers to play with.

Want to say thank to ALL FRIENDS that came to visit my booth to realize the two sold out of BOL and Scaraball, or just for shaking hands or to share a smile. Remember among italian authors Sartaco Albertarelli, Piero Cioni, Walter Obert, Paolo Vallerga, Paolo Mori, Luca Borsa, Luca Coppola.... Like all years we thanks Spielbox Online and Knut Michael Wolf for their huge presentation where we all are visible with our games, and this year also Andreas Buhlmann who created a full of picture preview on cliquenabend.de. Great Work. Thanks to all people that communicate games with honesty and competence. Without putting on same scale children games like BOL with Gamers' Games, or on the net we will go on reading impressive comments only for gamers' games, that luckily are not representative of ALL gaming world. Oh, if children could give their ratings, I hope they do not vote 1 a Gamers' Game only because it isn't a game studied for them!;) Thanks to God, reality speaks for itself. Audience of Essen, the greatest Luding Fair in Europe open to families, awarded two easy games with two sold out, a party game like LovePigs with a US ditribution and a HomeMadeGame 11 years old like Warangel still requested by dads and sons, people that hardly we will see on the net writing their feedbacks. But fortunately they DO exist.

And it is so nice to live and grove with real and honest people.

See you in LuccaGames 1-4 November: we are there since 2000, when Warangel gets first "Best of Show" award named "Best Italian Game", not bad! Here the 2007 preview on LuccaGames website.

Ciao and thanks to all the real people that give me the energy to go on in this strange, incredible, luding world. If you have the luck to have the same fun I have, maybe we will meet year after year, after year...;) To the next!

Angelo Porazzi