Some more gladiators for Blood on the Sands

 

 

Mark's Game Room reviews Blood on the Sands

 The excellent YouTube wargaming channel, Mark's Game Room, has done a review and a quick explanation of Blood on the Sands. Please show them some support by heading over there and giving their video a watch.

Blood on the Sands Kickstarter Announced

I’m thrilled to announce that we’re gearing up for the Kickstarter launch of Blood on the Sands! After years of hard work, dedication, and countless hours of development, the time has finally come to make this dream a reality. If you're interested, we kindly ask that you follow the link and sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter launches https://www.kickstarter.com/proj.../bloodonthesands/arena...

Blood on the Sands is a historically inspired skirmish game that brings the brutal, high-stakes world of ancient gladiatorial combat to life on your tabletop. Whether you’re a veteran gamer or a relative novice, the game immerses you in thrilling one-on-one gladiatorial duels, dynamic, and full of tactical depth.

Blood on the Sands will come complete and ready-to-play straight out of the box. You can jump straight in with a quick match against your opponent, or settle in for a longer campaign, where you don the mantle of a lanista, the master of a gladiator school or ludus. Recruit, train, and manage a stable of gladiators, each with their own backgrounds and traits, and trained in one of the distinctive fighting styles. As they progress from tiros to veterans, these warriors live only for the roar of the crowd and the promise of victory in the arena. But in the world of the gladiator, fame is fleeting, and the arenas of the Empire are littered with the fallen. Will you guide your fighters to glory, or will they fall, forgotten, like blood on the sands!

More news to follow...

 

 

 

 

Blood on the Sands at ShireCon

 Had a great day at ShireCon, or the Little MOAB, as I like to call it. Had a lot of interested people play a game or two and got to play test some new gladiator classes to boot.

 

Blood on the Sands Custom Dice

 A good mate has made me a few sets of prototype dice for Blood on the Sands. I'm very keen to try them out when next demoing BotS. Each player only requires a set of six dice, and although the dice are not necessary to play BotS, I think they add a heap of theme to the game and make determining what actions your gladiator can take much easier for new players. They will also serve as a great aid during the process of finding a manufacturer.

 

Blood on the Sands - Gladiator Class Guide

In Blood on the Sands, there are six distinct gladiator classes, known as armaturae. Understanding the nuances that differentiate these classes might be challenging for those unacquainted with the game. To bridge this gap, I've created a guide to help identify the distinctions between each class.

 

If anyone is interested in trying out Blood on the Sands and still hasn't joined, please head over to the

Blood on the Sands Facebook page.

More Gladiators for the Blood on the Sands Ludus

 I have added some new recruits to my ludus. The Foundry figures I have had for maybe 20 years sitting amongst my shameful lead pile. These were deemed "not very useful" by my younger self - including "triumphant", dead and wounded gladiators. I know now they will make for some nice imagery in my arena. The Crusader murmillo and retiarius have been on the to do list for years as well.

 

 

 

 

Blood on the Sands Free Quick Start

I have just made a free Blood on the Sands Quick Start version available for anyone to download and try out. Just go to the Blood on the Sands Facebook page and follow. I would love to hear people's thoughts and experiences with the game. I'll leave you with some random images of my arena and some games of BotS in progress.

Blood on the Sands at MOAB 2023

As if running the Gangs of Rome table for two days straight at MOAB wasn't enough, I somehow agreed to put on a third day of demoing, but this time my own gladiator ruleset, Blood on the Sands.

Anyone who still reads this blog may realise I have been working on Blood on the Sands, on and off, since 2013 (embarrassingly). Admittedly there were some long hiatuses between versions but BotS never truly left my mind. It was during our Covid lock downs here in Australia that I really started dedicating a lot more time to it.

Blood on the Sands was born on the Lead Adventure Forum, in my opinion, in it's day, one of the finest forums where gathered some of the most talented people in the hobby. Like blogs, I fear that LAF and other forums, were overshadowed by the lure of social media and slowly their members found other, shinier places, to discuss their hobby. It is still today a great source of inspiration. My Blood on the Sands post on LAF still claims fame as the most viewed unpinned post on the Ancients board (to date standing in at 181,731 total views). The 10 year long Blood on the Sands post can be found here for anyone with 14 hours to kill.

Here and now, still quite a few years later, Blood on the Sands is thankfully in a much better place and is a body of work that I feel really proud of. The rules are to the stage where they require a bloody good bit of editing and although rule tweaks and modifications go on constantly, they are mostly complete. I endeavor to move forward with Blood on the Sands in my seemingly eternal quest to find a publisher.

I ask anyone with any interest in Blood on the Sands to please join the new Facebook page to stay up to date with further developments.https://www.facebook.com/bloodonthesands

Here are some pics of Blood on the Sands being played at MOAB, in Sydney Australia. A very special thank you to Paul from The Man Cave for playing, such an enthusiastic and positive player, and generally all around great bloke. Damian and Ed who brought along their own contubernia of Roman legionary reenactors, Damian of whom has been play testing BotS since the beginning. And lastly but definitely not least, Victor, who helped run new players through the rules and who has been a constant sounding board for my gladiatorial delusions and vital play tester.

Gladiator Arena now with Spectators

I have finally finished the spectators for my arena. The paint job on them will definitely not win any awards but the overall effect is what I had hoped for. It was quite a bit of work finishing the seventy odd figures, especially considering they are little more than a glorified backdrop to what ever is going on down on the arena floor.

My plan now is to hopefully complete some Blood on the Sands match reports. On that subject there are a couple of very noteworthy reports on the Lead Adventure Forum.

Eithriall's epic blow by blow campaign report:

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=51608.msg1757189#msg1757189

A summary of Muzzfish4's experiences play testing BotS:

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=51608.msg1757153#msg1757153