Pallidus' arena Debut

After another couple of weeks away, some Lanisti convened for more Blood on the Sands arena action. I hosted two matched pairs plus author Frank encouraging us from the Editor's box, which made for a fun night with a few amphorae of wine.

In the match next to us, Gav's Thraex rapidly dispatched John's Murmillo having almost severed his arm in an opening rush (John rolled double 1s for his defence and it was all rapidly downhill from there...). 

In the meantime my new Retiarius Pallidus had his debut match against Marty's Secutor. Pushing forward early, Pallidus used extended lunges to exhaust the Secutor's defences, before entangling him, pushing up against the arena wall and disarming him. 

Many trident strikes landed, unable to penetrate the heavy armour of the Secutor. Through clever fatigue and dice management he got hismelf out of the net and retrieved his sword. Ultimately, the two gladiators ended up in their original positions and a stans missus was declared with each sporting 3 honourable wounds. Most entertained!

So two VERY different bouts - John entertained himself by recreating his Gladiator's demise with the artefacts available around my loungeroom...

"They dont like it up 'em Mr Mainwaring"

And I was excited to have this arrive too :-)

And some exciting news for future gladiator purchases!

Pallidus joins the Familia Gladiatoria!

Lots of work travel this month (3 countries and 2 stints at sea) so not much hobby done. But I did complete Pallidus (the Pale One) the Retiarius, a Gaulish prisoner of war, who is now ready for action in the arena!

That fair skin is going to suffer in the Mediterranean sun!

28mm Crusader figure kindly donated to me by Alan, to help flesh out my second Ludus - thanks mate :-)

Ludi Incipiant - Let the Games Begin!

"Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant!"

This week I invited a select group of Lanisti to my Province to celebrate the Maius (May) Spring Festivus. OK its autumn here in the antipodes but we needed an excuse to roll dice and hurl insults in appalling Latin is a good one! 

And so the matchups began - my Murmillo faced John's more nimble Thraex, who was all over me from the start. I took a couple of light wounds and was getting fatigued so tried some different tactics to turn the tide.  I managed to disarm John, but he dashed in, retrieved his blade and wounded me again. As things were looking bleak for me, I was lucky to land a disabling head wound and the crowd were appropriately merciful.

Next to us, Alan's Thraex fared badly against Marty's Murmillo who was bludgeoning him to a pulp. That is, until 2 quick strikes incapacitated Marty's heavier fighter.

The final match saw Alan's Secutor face off against veteran Lanista Frank himself and his Retiarius. The fisherman danced around at range, and even managed to ensnare Alan, but he managed to escape and disable the trident wielder, to the crowd's delight.

Alan clearly had just suffered some kind of wound when this pic was taken!

So 3 bouts and 3 Victories by Missio. Once again, we were most entertained!

New Gladiators

This week I expanded my Ludus retinue with two new Gladiators: a Scissor and a Crupellarius - both Crusader figs.

The Scissor (or "Slasher") is thought to have evolved from Secutor, and his left arm with curved blade could be used as a shield, as well as to cut the net of a Retarius. Lots of metal on this guy, which I tried to pick up in differing bronze and iron so as to break it up a bit

Clad head to foot in segmented armour topped with a great helm, the Crupellarius was an armoured behemoth. Historical information on these is very limited, but the heavy equipment would have been very encumbering and he is likely to have used a defensive style to manage fatigue. Again, lots of shiny metal on this big boy, so I used used bright yellow to break it up a bit. Figured he will charge a lot so tried a hand painted bull motif on his matching shield.

Looking forward to trying these new gladiator types out in Blood on the Sands, which has some experimental rules being made for them.

These two fighters bring my Ludus up to a “Dirty Dozen” (or Sordido Duodecim!) of varying types, including a Sagittarius.

The to-do pile is getting a little slim - better replenish soon! 

Need to get a lightly armed velite model too- one of the few types I don't yet have.

and the Lad took these to the Far North to work on in his spare time!

Modelling Note to self- basing colour for all of these is Vallejo Dark Sand 70.847

ShireCon 24

While lamenting the loss of our No 1 Wargaming apprentice (who regularly kicks our arses on the table, just to show what fantastic instructors we are), Slowpainter John and I attended ShireCon over the weekend. This is a small and relatively new show, at the same venue at MOAB held in late Sep). We also caught up some some locally infamous characters, including Frank showcasing his awesome "Blood on the Sands" gladiator game and experimenting with some new gladiators classes

Head Lanista Frank showcasing his great Gladiator game

Interestingly, there were zero traders, just games and a bring and buy. On offer was some Kings of War, a small 40k tourney, and a Blood Bowl 7s competition "The Outback Cup" 

A dozen or so BB coaches focused on their game

Some snazzy Black Orcs lead their team!

The Outback Cup - now in its fourth year (not counting COVID!)

This quick play "Grimdark Future" game was being demoed and had quite a bit of interest - basically a "not KillTeam", the basic rules and army lists are available FREE through the website here: https://www.onepagerules.com/games/grimdark-future-firefight

Some Old World action at play

Back to Blood on the Sands, it was great to see Frank running some new players through the game, as well as experimenting with four new Gladiator classes - looking forward to givng them ago. 

The Lansita's T-shirt says it all really... :-)

Frank also had samples of his new custom dice on show, as well as some mdf hex tile arena which really look the business

New dice!

The newly available mdf hex tile arena

I got a few small treasures from the Bring and buy, this "Legion A-A5 speeder truck" from the Star War Legion line, with a view to using it in 5 Parsecs from Home for my crew to boost around in. Now it needs a snazzy paintjob!

AHPC 14: (almost) Last Submission

I'm away for work now so this was my last submission for AHPC 14.

Despite having planned (and acquired models) for tribal warband allies for Caesar, I recently discovered that in fact... I cant under the army lists! Oops. An emergency resupply of legionaries was required.

So here are two more Legionary units, using 1st Corps models and taking me to a total of 10. Frustratingly, these are smaller sculpts to the rest of my army, more true 25s really. That said, they look good on their own bases and their poses give them a different look to my other troops. Shield decals by LMB Studios, and 2 fancier ones were hand painted for the Centurion and his Signifer to mix things up.

Another Command Figure to take charge on the wing, a Warlord sculpt this time. Nicely detailed but  more statuesque and fancy in style, as befitting his rank. Maybe this Tribune is a wealthy Senator's son spending time with the Legions to further his political career back in Rome after the campaigning season.

Ave Caesar!

Next a pair of Lictors, destined to accompany Caesar on my army's command base. I got the General's famous white charger done but sadly ran out of time for the man himself and really didn't want to rush such an iconic figure. So here they are, albeit unbased - mea culpa!

Their broad flat features and big noses are very Wallacus and Gromitus!

And finally a Hoplomachus for my gladiator ludus, filling a gap in my retinue. This style of fighter was modelled on the Greek Hoplite and was distinguishable by his spear, small shield and greaves. Traditionally, a Hoplomachus would be paired to fight either a Threax or Murmillo.

I've gone all-in with the Hoplite style and am very happy with how he turned out with the matched red and white apparel.

That's 22 completed figures @ 5 points each (110) and 2 more unbased @-25% (7.5 points) for a total of 117.5 points. Added to my tally of 882 gets me to...999.5 points for the challenge. A mercy bonus opoint from the minion for the hand painetd shield squeaked me the the line and thats AHPC XIV complete foe me!

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/02/from-paulog-last-hurrah-legionaries.html

Return to Blood on the Sands

Today saw us return to the arena to fight our first bouts of Blood on the Sand for 2024 and what better time to start a campaign? The 4 of us rolled up our fighters and we got directly to the first Munus...and right into a heatwave to test our fatigue management.

Sapor the Murmillo (House Alanus) faced off against Tullus the Provcateur (House of Frankiatus) and showed his Tier 1 quality. After a number of rounds exchanging blows in the sweltering heat, Tullus appealed and the crowd were entertained.

Meanwhile, Suran the Threax (Ludus of Paulus Rufus) went up against Atellus the Murmillo (of novice Lanista Reillus) and quickly found himself on the defensive. 2 quick flesh wounds to the head saw Suran incapacitated and at the mercy of the crowd. The editor was merciful and the new Lanista exultant! However, Suran's medicae agree that the open wound on his scalp will likely impact him in his next match.

The second round of bouts saw some excitement as the long afternoon heat continued. The Provocateurs of House Alanius (Caratacus) and Paulus Rufus (Cestus) squared off and dove quickly into action; Caratacus scoring a quick flesh wound on Cestus before being neatly disarmed in return. Caratacus appealed to the crowd and was ultimately spared by the Editor for their displays of martial skill.

Meanwhile, Sinister the Hoplomacus (Lanista Reillus) found Corvis the Murmillo (Lanista Frankiatus) a challenging opponent. Sinister's spear thrusts were nothing to the nimble Corvis, who was similarly unsuccessful in his attempts to draw blood. After an exhausting dance around the arena in the heat, Sinister appealed to the crowd and but the Editor was less than amused, perhapos the heat had gotten to him too. Iugula! was the verdict and all Sinister won was a place in necropolis outside the city. 

A great way to start the 2024 Gladiatorial season, with a new player introduced to BotS and our first campaign underway. 

The first Munus saw 1 Victory by disablement, 2 by Missio and 1 fighter put to death. The additional context of developing one's fighters made a big difference to the immersive experience, and the decision of when to push your luck in the arena...and when not to!

Thanks to my fellow Lanistae for another cracking afternoon of gladiator fun!