Plastic Fantastic Gladiators

The plastic figures 

Some of my metal gladiator figures

 I was in town this morning and spotted the latest edition of Wargames Illustrated with a free sprue of 28mm plastic gladiators. These looked rather good so I bought a copy, which comes with a spliced down set of hex based rules called Blood on the Sands. The rules look decent but I already have about half a dozen to pick from and prefer a non-hex based system, so will probably just be stashed away. The figures on the other hand look like they would be a good match for my existing gladiatorial collection, giving me an excuse to dust them off and run some games with the sprog. I also have a very nice Sarissa Precision arena that I haven't built yet, so that might even get glued together when I find the time. Happy Days! 

Arena of Blood Redux

 

I had an email from Wiley Games this evening with an updated version of the Arena of Blood gladiator rules, which I was going to try out when they were originally published but never got around to. My eldest is now back home and he's been keen to get some wargaming going, so I've suggested we might dip into some gladiator combat using my decent collection of 28mm figures. I'm going to print off the revised rules and try then out, as soon as we can find some time.

Arena of Blood Cards

I've printed, cut out and laminated the cards and tokens for Arena of Blood, ready to try out the rules when I get some time this weekend. It's an unusual system that records a gladiators attacks and defence using a card for each figure and tokens that are placed on top. I'm still not sure how this will play out in practice but it will be fun to give it a go.

Gladiator Ludus

I am going to have a crack at assembling the Sarissa Precision gladiatorial arena kit, which I bought ages ago when it was on special offer, for use with Arena of Blood and my old 28mm gladiator figures. I got have a plan to use a 600mm x 12mm MDF circle from eBay as a base, then plonk the arena parts on top of it, all nicely painted, textured and designed to fit. I may even paint a handful of extra gladiators to round off the ludus, as there are one or two types missing from my existing collection. A nice little project for half term in a couple of weeks time.

Arena of Blood Gladiatorial Rules

Some of my old veterans in the line up

The preorder pdf copy of Arena of Blood popped into my inbox this afternoon and very good it looks too. It's very well presented and organised, as you'd expect from Jaye Wiley, and at only twenty five pages or so is just the right side of concise to be printable without blowing a fortune in colour ink. The mechanics are based around the usual card deck system of Fistful of Lead but with added attributes for each type of gladiator. There's even a campaign system, so plenty of bang for your buck. I quite fancy giving this a spin as a solo gaming excursion, as I already have the figures and some terrain. Excellent!

Arena of Blood Preorder

There's a special preorder discount on the new Arena of Blood gladiatorial rules, which means a long, long week at work can be finished off with a spot of retail therapy. I've had the pleasure of an Ofsted inspection to deal with this week, as well as lots of family related stuff, so I've rewarded a successful but busy few days with a pdf copy of the rules. May the games commence!

Arena of Blood

This new set of gladiatorial rules by Wiley Games is soon to be published and I'm thinking that it might revive my long dormant gladiator figures from their dusty hibernation. I used to play the wonky Warhammer Gladiator rules years ago but since then I've only tinkered with a few alternative rules including Sons of Mars, for example. I do really like Jaye Wiley's stuff, especially Fistful of Lead, so these rules might be right up my street despite the gory title:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PsXctJJ9ZX4&si=e1ErWSyT7yNgwWh0

Gladiatorial Fun and Games

 

I joined the Sons of Mars FB group the other day and had some very nice feedback on some pictures of my old 28mm gladiator figures. I haven't used these for years and thought I would give them a reboot, using the aforementioned Sons of Mars rules. To help this along and add a bit of a tart up to the scenery, I've ordered one of the Sarissa Precision Ludus arena sets, which for a little over thirty quid seemed like a good deal. I'm going to try out the rules with my son when he's back from university in a few weeks time, then hopefully take it up to the club for a demo.

Gladiators!

I've been looking for more skirmish games to play with my daughter, as she really likes that sort of thing, so have decided to have a go at some gladiatorial combat using my old 28mm figures. These were originally painted for the Warhammer Gladiator rules, which turned out to be a bit rubbish, so they haven't been used since, even though I now have at least three decent sets of rules to use them with including Viktus, Sons or Mars and the set by Chris Peers from the Foundry Compendium, Burned With Fire and Killed with Steel. I just need to find the cork board arena that I painted up, read through a set of rules and set it up. For those about to die...we salute you!

Gladiator Gallery

 

I've dug out my old gladiator figures and have found the scratch built arena obstacles that I made way back, so thought I'd put them together with my new arena terrain board for some gratuitous photos* to keep the plebs happy!  I'm also going to have a rummage in the loft for some of the unpainted Crusader and Foundry gladiator figures that I didn't get round to painting for the original gladiator project back in 2012. I'm not planning to add loads of new figures but there are a few significant gladiator types missing from my line up that I'd like to bring to the show.

(*apologies for the poor focus due to the camera being rubbish, not to mention the photographer)

DIY Gladiatorial Ludus

I got home this afternoon from Cornwall and have had a quick flick through of the Sons of Mars rules that had arrived in my absence from Firestorm Games in Cardiff. The first thing I looked for was the size of arena that I'd need to use, which turned out to be a 18" to 24" area for most of the arena matches. I had thought of scratch building one of these ages ago, using some Warbases laser cut Roman walls and gateways, but didn't get round to it, although the various mdf bits are still knocking about somewhere in the garage.

Anyway, I needed something to stand in for an arena or ludus training ground, so had a rummage and found a couple of 16" square cork fronted pin boards. These were being chucked out by my daughter a while back and I had salvaged them for just this sort of thing. I've given one a basecoat of Homebase Dusky Yellow emulsion paint, a pot of which I grabbed in a sale last year, with a stippled and dry brushed top coat of Laura Ashley Old Gold from a used tester pot. I have a stash of these old tester pots and rarely throw them away, as you never know when they might come in handy.

It's all drying at the moment but I will add a few light dry brush patches of Foundry Base Sand later on, which is the shade that I used on my gladiator bases. It looks like a good match for these already but I can only see for sure once it's fully dried out. If it has worked, I may well paint up the second board so that I can use them together and have a look for those Roman wall sections to add some features to my rather spartan provincial ludus. I have some obstacles, pillars and trap doors somewhere too but I have no idea where I've put them!?

Sons of Mars?

I've been having a think about all of the projects that I could easily pick up and play, having completed most if not all of the elements that I'd require. I have several of these 'pre-baked' projects, most of which were used once or twice for actual games, then shoved back in a box when I moved on to other things, or when the interest fizzled out at the club. I'm now trying not to start any new projects but to finish off or revive these dormant but do-able ones instead, both for cost and convenience reasons.

A good example of one such abandoned project is my 28mm gladiator collection, which I originally painted up for use with the Warhammer Gladiator rules. These turned out to be a bit duff, so I only played a few games before shelving the models until another set of rules came along. I have nearly revived them a couple of times since then with both Morituri Te Salutant and Victus, the latter of which I really liked, but just didn't quite get off the ground. I also acquired some cheap Jugula figures at one point but didn't get beyond a brief flirtation with the larger scale models or the rules due to the ridiculous price tag and multiple player format.

J

Anyway, there's a new set of rules that have been recently published, aptly titled Sons of Mars. These look quite good and, from the reviews and videos that I've seen, could be the answer to my gladiatorial doldrums. They are designed for 28mm figures on a 20" square area and include all of the usual gladiator types, wild beasts and arena elements that you'd expect. There's also the ubiquitous campaign mode and rules for character progression through the ludus, via a variety of gladiatorial matches. If it plays well solo or as a one to one game, I'm definitely interested, as I only need to make a simple arena or training ground to be ready to go.

I've ordered a copy and will see if it ticks the right boxes when it arrives in a few days time?

I am (very much not) Spartacus!

 

As a change from the usual, it was a gladiatorial evening at the club tonight, with a try out of the Spartacus board game by Gale Force 9. Although I came a pathetic last, having had all my gladiators slaughtered to a man and with only a pair or armoured underpants left by the end of the game, I really enjoyed the experience. As always, we had a lot of fun and there was plenty of intrigue, treachery and backstabbing to liven things up. I really should play more board games and also dust off my 28mm gladiator collection for a try out of Victus, which has yet to be given a playtest.

Victus

These look like a good alternative to the rather disappointing Warhammer Gladiator rules that I attempted to use for a couple of lacklustre gladiatorial games last year. They use a hex based movement and combat system, which isn't revolutionary but makes things a lot easier to work out. There's a paper hex arena included in the book too.

The rules are apparently designed for one off games but can be expanded to a full campaign, which should make them ideal for a quick hack at the club or something more involved. Anyway, I've pre-ordered a set of the rules from Northstar and hope to dust off the 28mm gladiator collection that's been stuck in a box for far too long. A good opportunity to revive a half dead project, with plenty of half painted figures to be finished off as well.

Warhammer Gladiator Game

We had a crack at the Warhammer Gladiator system this evening up at the club, with what can only be described as mixed results. Whilst the rules are quick and straightforward, with the exception of the entanglement section which had us tied up in knots, they don't exactly make for an exciting tactical game. In fact, most of the games we ran ended up as last man standing hack and slash bloodbaths, even with the use of advanced rules for hit location to make things less predictable.

I have a couple of alternative sets of gladiatorial rules that may prove to be more challenging and a little less pedestrian, including Morturi Te Salutant and Let the Dominos Decide. I also have a Chris Peers set of fast play rules in the Foundry Compendium Burned with Fire and Killed With Steel, which look pretty good and probably much smoother.

If I have the time, I'll have a solo play test them to see if they're less clunky and more challenging than the Warhammer Gladiator version. One other option that we discussed was a quick mulitplayer ladder campaign in an evening, using the existing rules but with some modifications and twists to link the games together. Anyway, here's some pictures of the arena to make up for the rather flat if funny gameplay!

Gladiators Finished!

I finished off the bases on the gladiators, the bear and the lion this afternoon as it was too hot to go outside and the garage was nice and cool. This means that I've now completed the gladiators project, although at a slightly scaled down level compared to my initial line up. However, I'm really pleased with the results and hope to add some more figures and terrain to the collection on an 'as and when' basis.

Light Gladiators [3]... and other stuff.

I managed to finish off the much reduced light gladiator contingent, the dead gladiator obstacles and two beasties that I need for the game on Tuesday. I now need to paint the bases and perhaps finish off a couple of terrain features to complete the gladiator project, at least for the moment. Ideally, I'd paint up a dozen or so additional figures and scratchbuild an arena but other things are in the pipeline and it's about time I got on with them.

Gladiator Terrain [2]

I have an old GW LOTR Mines of Moria set that's been gathering dust on the shelf, so decided to pinch the trapdoors to make some features for the arena. I think I need to paint in some iron bars across the black bits but, otherwise, they'll do very nicely when I need to release the hounds (or whatever). They were very quick to produce so I'm happy with the result, even if they're a little over scale.

I've also painted the bases on the dead gladiators, using a different approach to that I used on the rest of the gladiator figures. I painted a basecoat of Foundry Boneyard Shade, followed by a wash in GW Devlan Mud and finished off with a three stage drybrush of Foundry Base Sand. I think it looks better than my original method, so will probably re-paint the other bases to match, if I have the time.

Gladiator Terrain

I've been scratchbuilding some 'terrain' for the gladiators today, although the scope for anything substantial is a bit limited, short of a full blown arena. I used some plastic wine bottle corks, citadel bases and mdf circles to make some arena columns, with iron rings made from brass wire.

I also built a pair of columns on a plinth of rectangular mdf bases with the other bits following the same approach. The whole lot was then sprayed in a Humbrol grey, washed in GW Devlan Ink then drybrushed up with Foundry Arctic Grey. A bit of rust and some weathering was added too.

I've also undercoated and based up some obstacles in the form of dead gladiators, two of which are from the Crusader range and the other from EM4. I had to convert two of the figures into casualties by squashing them down and re-positioning the feet but I think they look the part.

Finally, I made some quick spike things out of bamboo nibble sticks and round mdf bases. I'm not sure what they are exactly but they were simple to make and will help to break up the otherwise flat and featureless arena. I think they're something akin to the six foot posts used to train legionaries in sword technique, only on a slighly larger and 'spikier' scale.

To make time for some more terrain building and to finish off what I've already done, I've decided to scale back the light gladiatiors to six figures instead of twelve, the boxers being consigned to the reserves box along with some of the other unarmed gladiatior figures. This means that I'll still have sufficient figures to make two teams of five gladiators for the game in a couple of weeks.