The Autumn Games - 5

Round 5 would be the last round of the campaign. The prestige stood as follows:

Catherine - 8 Prestige
Me - 13 Prestige
Tertius - 13 Prestige

Either I or Tertius must win at least one bout in the round (since we have to fight each other) and that win would give one of us teh 2 prestige needed to get to 15. So even if all of our other bouts ended in defeat with no missio (for 0 Prestige) there had to be a winner. Conversely Catherine couldn't win at all; even if she won two bouts defeating a skilled gladiator with an unskilled one (3 Prestige) she'd still only finish with 14 Prestige.

But on with the draw. The Editor made his selection - most experienced gladiator in Tertius's case and light gladiator for me and heavy gladiator for Catherine - and we ended up with the following matchups, in the order that they would take place:

Sabrata (Me) vs Danaos (Tertius)
Draco (Catherine) vs Rufina (Me)
Apollo (Tertius) vs Andromache (Catherine)

So Draco could cause an upset by defeating Rufina. If Rufina survived her fight then she would have survived five and would be able to retire, earning me an additional 2 Prestige. 

Round 5 - Bout 1 - Sabrata (Veles) vs Dnaos (Hoplomachus)

Danaos had fought once before and Sabrata was a novice. So the crowd didn't expect much from this one. 

Sabrata was wounded early on, and then wounded again. He staggered around the arena, but Danaos seemed unable to finish him off. 

Then Danaos was knocked down. Sabrata tried to close for teh kill, but Danaos managed to throw his spear and hold off the lighter gladiator. To the delight of teh crowd he managed to recover his spear (house rule) and throw it again, but Sabrata survived that throw as well. Sabrata had had enough. Fuelled by adrenaline he rushed in and finished the prone Danaos.

The crowd were very much on the side of the hoplomachus, and spared him. But I got 2 Prestige for Sabrata's win, whilst Tertius got 1 Prestige for the missio. 

Round 5 - Bout 2 - Draco (Armoured Scissor) vs Rufina (Thraex)

Rufina had to die for me not to win the campaign. If she survived, even a loss would give me 3 Prestige - one for taking par and two for her being awarded the rudis. Draco was a total novice and woul give Catherine 3 Prestige if he won. So there was a lot to play for here. 

Draco started strongly and knocked Rufina to the sand.

But she rallied and returned the favour. 

Both gladiators got to their feet, but by now the crowd knew what was coming. A few skilful swift strikes of her blade saw Rufina pick up another quick win. 

Draco was spared, whilst I got 4 Prestige. 

Round 5 - Bout 3 - Andromache (Barbarian) vs Apollo (Veles)

Whilst Rufina's fight was the important one, this one got top billing because the combined bouts of the participants was higher. Both gladiators were skilled, so things were going to be brutal. 

Apollo had problems at first as Andromache had both a strong attack and defence and he struggled to counter them. 

But he got the advantage, knocked her down and finished her off with a beautifully times throw to the delight of the crowd. 

The crowd were merciful though; this was the last fight after all. Catherine picked up one more Prestige, whilst Tertius got 2

Here's the star of the campaign though - Rufina. One of my 'unlucky' figures, she fought in all five rounds, and won all five of her bouts. She earned her retirement. 

The final positions:

Catherine - 10 Prestige (One win, one win against an experienced gladiator, five losses with Missio)

Amazon (Myrmillo) - 2 Bouts
Medusa (Retiarius) - 1 Bout
Teucris (Sagittarius) - 1 Bout
Margareites (Secutor) - 1 Bout
Artemisia (Thraex) - 1 Bout
Andromache (Barbarian) - 3 Bouts - +1 Attack
Draco (Armoured Scissor) - 1 Bout

Me - 19 Prestige (Seven wins, three losses with Missio, One Rudis)

Volubilis (Myrmillo) - 2 Bouts - +1 Defence
Victor (Crupellarius) - 2 Bouts - +1 Attack
Rufina (Thraex) - 5 Bouts - +1 Speed
Sabrata (Veles) - 1 Bout

Tertius - 16 Prestige (Six wins and four losses with Missio)

Spiculus (Dimacherius) - 2 Bout - +1 Attack
Scylax (Scissor) - 2 Bouts - +1 Defence
Danaos (Hoplomachus) - 2 Bout4
Apollo (Velite) - 4 Bouts - +1 Defence

For all her bad luck Catherine actually enjoyed this campaign. She only won two bouts with her own school, but did help Tertius to a couple of wins over me as well.  She was very unlucky with missio rolls, and that cost her Prestige in the early stages. 

The Autumn Games - 4

At the start of Round 4 of the games, the Prestige stands as follows:

Catherine - 7 Prestige
Me - 10 Prestige
Tertius - 9 Prestige

As you can see, the scores were getting closer, and with a few skilled gladiators in play there was the possibility of an upset giving the winner 3 Prestige. 

I gave Victor the crupellarius a +1 to his attack since he was now eligible for a skill, but otherwise there were no changes to the rosters. 

The Editor was big on selecting medium gladiators this time around, with all three schools having to submit one. After assigning opponents we got the following matchups:

Andromache (Catherine) vs Scylax (Tertius)
Spiculus (Tertius) vs Volubilis Me)
Rufina (Me) vs Amazon (Catherine)

Round 4 - Bout 1 - Andromache (Barbarian) vs Scylax (Armoured Scissor)

Andromache got off to a great start, pressing Scylax hard, and wounding him.

She managed to knock him down, which is always a bad place to be, especially if you are a slow, heavily armoured gladiator. Scylax took more wounds. 

But Andromache then struggled to finish off the armoured behemoth. And Scylax drew a series of cards with the adrenaline boost on them, moving quickly and attacking in a wound-boosted fury. And defeating Andromache. 

So a lucky win for Scylax picked up 2 Prestige for Tertius. Andromache had the crowd on her side for most of the fight, and they happily spared her, so Catherine picked up 1 Prestige. 

Both gladiators became skilled as a result of this bout. 

Round 4 - Bout 2- Spiculus (Dimacherius) vs Volubilis (Murmillo)

Volubilis was wounded early on, but soon settled into his stride, evading the lethal dimacherus and ducking in to make frequent attacks which were sadly ineffective. 

However I made a silly mistake and moved too close to Spiculus with insufficient defence (I was working of a single Speed card). Spiculus dived in for a boosted attack and Volubilis was defeated. 

Tertius picked up 2 Prestige for the win and Volubilis was spared to pick up 1 Prestige for me. 

Both gladiators had fought their second bout, so are now skilled. 

Round 4 - Bout 3 - Rufina (Thraex) vs Amazon (Murmillo)

This was Catherine's chance to pick up some Prestige - if Amazon could take down the wily Rufina it would be a big boost to her score. 

Rufina went straight into the attack and two wicked slashes later Amazon lay bleeding on the sand, defeated. The fight was quick and brutal, earning Rufina 1 Prestige and leaving the crown wanting more. They got more by having Amazon dispatched. 

So Catherine has now lost three gladiators. Neither Tertius or I have lost any. To replace Amazon she selected the armoured scissor Draco. Tertius had a great round, winning both fights. 

At the end of Round 4 the scores are as follows (with skills added)

Catherine - 8 Prestige (One win, one win against an experienced gladiator, three losses with Missio)

Amazon (Myrmillo) - 2 Bouts
Medusa (Retiarius) - 1 Bout
Teucris (Sagittarius) - 1 Bout
Margareites (Secutor) - 1 Bout
Artemisia (Thraex) - 1 Bout
Andromache (Barbarian) - 2 Bouts - +1 Attack
Draco (Armoured Scissor) - 0 Bouts

Me - 13 Prestige (Five wins, three losses with Missio)

Volubilis (Myrmillo) - 2 Bouts - +1 Defence
Victor (Crupellarius) - 2 Bouts - +1 Attack
Rufina (Thraex) - 4 Bouts - +1 Speed
Sabrata (Veles) - 0 Bouts

Tertius - 13 Prestige (Five wins and three losses with Missio)

Spiculus (Dimacherius) - 2 Bout - +1 Attack
Scylax (Scissor) - 2 Bouts - +1 Defence
Danaos (Hoplomachus) - 1 Bout
Apollo (Velite) - 3 Bouts - +1 Defence

I think it's now basically impossible for Catherine to win; even if she gets two wins by unskilled gladiators against skilled ones that will still only take her to 14 Prestige, and one of either myself or Tertius must pick up a win. And even a 2 Prestige win is enough to take us to 15 Prestige. My goal is obviously to have Rufina fight and, at the very least, survive, as doing so earns her teh wooden sword of freedom and an extra 2 Prestige for me. 

So the next round will be the last one. 

The Adventures Of Harvey Knight - 11

Harvey Knight's las mission had been aborted when his flotilla had run into a German destroyer, and encounter that had left his boats seriously mauled even if they eventually sunk the enemy vessel. This it was that in terms of operational ships he could now only count on one MTB (Edwars Stewart's MTB 414) and the two MGBs (Lennox Dean's MGB 91 and Ewan McDonald's MGB 103). His own MTB 413 was still badly damaged, and the flotilla was waiting on two replacement MTBs.

So this was the perfect time for a war correspondent to turn up, looking for a chance to do a story about the flotilla by accompanying them on their next mission. To be fair Harvey felt that maybe his reputation could do with a boost. All he had to do was keep the journalist alive.

The much depleted flotilla was assigned the task of picking up a friendly agent from the Belgian coast. For a force that was primarily gunboats this wasn't a bad mission to be assigned, so long as they didn't run into any large enemy vessels. 

It was a moonless night, so good for the kind of work they were doing. However as they approached the rendezvous it was obvious a large German patrol was in the area. The two MGBs sped towards the coast before the Germans could spot them, whilst MTB 414, commanded by Edward Stewart, but with Harvey Knight and the journalist on board as well, headed towards the patrol in order to act as a distraction. 

The MTB bumped into an R-boat, which opened fire. 

Meanwhile the rest of the German patrol had been worryingly active, and as MGB 103 reached the pick-up point a Vorpostenboot ranged up and opened fire, causing some light damage. 

MGB 103 sheered away, and returned fire. 

(This was a mandatory turn on the All At Sea table, so I assumed that it would cause the boat to break contact with the pickup.)

MGB 91 came up in support, but another Vorpostenboot appeared as well. Firing became general. 

The fourth escort was another Vorpostenboot; the flotilla had obviously run into a major patrol. And Harvey had lost contact with his two gunboats in the general melee. 

Under heavy fire from two V-boats Lennox Dean brought MGB 91 into the pick-up point. Amazingly he only suffered light damage; it helped that his small boat was hidden against the shoreline.

The R-boat was also coming up, hotly pursued by MTB 414. The MTB opened fire and badly damaged the R-boat, which began steering erratically. 

Despite the fire being directed at them, Dean's crew picked up the agent, whilst their commander assessed how they would make their escape. 

MGB was running close to the V-boats, and had even damaged one with gunfire. However it had taken another hit in return. 

In desperation McDonald threw his boat across teh bow of one of teh V-boats, launching depth-charges as he did so, but they exploded too far away from the enemy vessel to cause any damage. 

(An All At Sea roll caused him to turn directly towards the German vessel, so any move would have been a collision. But he had the two actions needed for a depth-charge attack, so went for that instead of shooting and then colliding.)

The R-boat ran into some rocks off the coast and was soon hard aground. 

At the same time one of the V-boats ended up stuck on some nearby shoals. MGB 91 was now making a run for it.

Eager to impress the journalist, and at least contribute to the mission in some way, Knight got Edward Stewart to bring his boat around and make a torpedo run at the immobilised V-boat. 

The torpedoes passed close, but missed. 

Unfortunately at the same time MGB 103 ran aground on the same rocks as the R-boat. The two crews worked together to save their crews, but with two V-boats now turning back int the fight there was no change of a rescue for the British crew, and they would end the night as POWs. 

Surviving long-range fire from the grounded V-boat the two other British boats headed for home.

The crews of both boats picked up some valuable experience. Indeed Stewart's crew are close to being Veterans now. But the loss of MGB 103 and its crew soured the mission. The journalist got his story, but Harvey Knight got no increase in reputation out of it. And things got worse. Harvey was invited by a neighbouring squadron to give a talk on tactics - he was an experienced officer with much action under his belt, after all. But still shaken from his recent adventures his talk was poor and his listeners learned little. Harvey was beginning to beginning to doubt himself, and both his mental and physical health were in a bad way now. To make matters worse there were still no replacement boats available. 

On the plus side, the repair crews worked like Trojans and completed nearly all of the repairs, so Harvey got MTB 413 back. Only MGB 91 needed minor repairs still. 

So for the next mission Harvey Knight can only call on two MTBs and a lightly damaged MGB. 

Will things start to look up for Harvey Knight? Find out in the next episode. 

The Autumn Games - 3

 At the start of Round 3 of the games, the Prestige stands as follows:

Catherine - 2 Prestige
Me - 7 Prestige
Tertius - 7 Prestige

Catherine also needed a new gladiator to replace the retiarius Medusa. Since she had one of each weight-class she had a relatively free choice, so went for he barbarian Andromache. barbarians are similar to the murmillo in tone, but less heavily armoured and with a trait of their own. 

The Editor made his preferences known and we ended up with the following bouts:

Victor (Me) vs Artemisia (Catherine)
Apollo (Tertius) vs Andromache (Catherine)
Rufina (Me) vs Scylax (Tertius)

Round 3 - Bout 1 - Victor (Crupellarius) vs Artemisia (Thraex)

The Editor joined us for he first bout, but quickly lost interest.

Victor got off to a strong start, deflecting Artemisia's attacks and pressing forward aggressively. 

A shield charge pushed her back.

And another knocked her down. A third came close to inflicting crushing damage, but she evaded that and even managed an attack from the ground that hurt Victor. 

Artemisia back up and fighting.

The lithe thraex soon got into her stride, and quickly finished Victor. 

This was Catherine's first win and earned her 2 Prestige. The crowd were entertained and spared Victor, so I picked up 1 Prestige. In addition, Victor has survived two bouts, so is eligible for a skill. 

Round 3 - Bout 2 - Apollo (Velite) vs Andromache (Barbarian) 

I didn't get any pictures of this bout bar the starting setup. Andromache pressed forward and, as a good velite should, Apollo fell back. Apollo is skilled, and made the most of his abilities to deflect Andromache's probing attacks. However she pressed on and evaded his javelin throws. A sudden furious attack, fuelled by the enthusiasm of the crowd, saw Apollo on the back foot and defeated!

Another win for Catherine, and this time it was an unskilled gladiator defeating a skilled one, so earned her a whopping 3 Prestige. Apollo was spared by the crowd, giving Tertius 1 Prestige.

Round 3 - Bout 3 - Scylax (Armoured Scissor) vs Rufina (Thraex)

The agile Rufina got to face an armoured behemoth with two blades. 

The fight lasted just long enough for Rufina to close ...

... and strike down Scylax with her first blow.

The crowd obviously wanted to see more of Scylax because, despite this abysmal performance, they spared him. Tertius earned 1 Prestige, whilst Rufina picked up 2 Prestige for me. 

So at the end of teh third round these are the positions:

At the end of the second round the standings are as follows:

Catherine - 7 Prestige (One win, one win against an experienced gladiator, two losses with Missio)

Amazon (Myrmillo) - 1 Bout
Medusa (Retiarius) - 1 Bout
Teucris (Sagittarius) - 1 Bout
Margareites (Secutor) - 1 Bout
Artemisia (Thraex) - 1 Bout
Andromache - 1 Bout

Me - 10 Prestige (Four wins, two losses with Missio)

Volubilis (Myrmillo) - 1 Bout
Victor (Crupellarius) - 2 Bouts
Rufina (Thraex) - 3 Bouts - +1 Speed
Sabrata (Veles) - 0 Bouts

Tertius - 9 Prestige (Three wins and three losses with Missio)

Spiculus (Dimacherius) - 1 Bout
Scylax (Scissor) - 1 Bout
Danaos (Hoplomachus) - 1 Bout
Apollo (Velite) - 3 Bouts - +1 Defence

I need to choose a skill boost for Victor. I'll probably boost his attack; boosting a speed of 1 hardly seems worth it and his defence of 6 is already maxed out.

The Autumn Games - 2

We started Round 2 of our gladiator campaign with the following scores:

Catherine - 1 Prestige
Me - 4 Prestige
Tertius - 3 Prestige

Catherine had to choose a new medium gladiator, so added the thraex Artemisia to her stable. 

For the second round I was obliged to put up a medium gladiator, which meant that Rufina the thraex would fight again. Tertius had to choose a light gladiator, which saw Apollo enter the arena again. Catherine also had to select a light gladiator, and chose the retiarius Medusa. 

We chose gladiators to face these challengers and ended up with the following pairings (in the order that the fights would take place):

Medusa (Catherine) vs Spiculus (Tertius)
Rufina (Me) vs Teucris (Catherine)
Apollo (Tertius) vs Victor (Me)

Round 1 - Bout 1 - Medusa (Retiarius) vs Spiculus (Dimacherius) 

Deft swordsmanship vs a net and a trident!

It started with high comedy as both gladiators tripped each other up. 

It then became a game of cat and mouse as Medusa evaded the blades, looking to find an opening to use her net.

She didn't get it (Catherine seems to be singularly unlucky when it comes to drawing Glory cards), but she did manage to trip Spiculus again. Medusa closed in for the kill ...

... and Spiculus cut her down from the ground. 

The crowd loved Spiculus's ballsy wining move and, sadly, that 'love' extended to them crying out for Medusa to be dispatched.

So Catherine lost another gladiator. Tertius picked up 2 prestige for the win.

Round 2 - Bout 2 - Rufina (Thraex) vs Teucris (Sagittarius)

If Rufina won this she'd gain a skill. The problem was closing with a gladiator that was constantly running away.

The fight went on for a very long time indeed. Teucris could keep evading but couldn't get an arrow on target when he got the chance to shoot one. 

Eventually Rufina managed to get in enough hits to slow him down, catch him and dispatch him. But the crowd were merciful (or had fallen asleep waiting for the bout to end). 

So I got 2 Prestige for the win and Catherine got 1 Prestige for taking part and surviving. 

Round 2 - Bout 3 - Victor (Crupellarius)  vs Apollo (Velite)

This promised to be an interesting fight. Victor managed to be aggressive and pressed the agile velite closely.

A wild swing almost connected. In game terms I made a big mistake here. The attack was a draw, but I forgot I could have boosted it with a Roar Of The Crowd, which would have won by a margin of 2. Because it was a signature Wild Swing attack it would have then got a +3 and I would have won the fight. I realised too late.

Cost me the game. As Victor advanced for another attack Catherine got all her cards together and an accurate javelin throw took down the armoured behemoth. 

Victor was spared and picked up 1 prestige. Catherine finally won a bout, even if she was actually playing for Tertius, who picked up 2 Prestige for the win.

Apollo and Rufina had now both survived two bouts, so were entitled to a skill. I chose to boost Rufina's speed, and rolled a D6 for Apollo. I determined the relative importance of each characteristic, then assigned 1-3 to the primary one, 4-5 to the secondary and 6 to the least important. Victor rolled a 6, so went for a +1 defence. Still, it means he will get good use from Guard cards now. 

At the end of the second round the standings are as follows:

Catherine - 2 Prestige (Two losses with Missio)

Amazon (Myrmillo) - 1 Bout
Medusa (Retiarius) - 1 Bout
Teucris (Sagittarius) - 1 Bout
Margareites (Secutor) - 1 Bout
Artemisia (Thraex) - 0 Bouts

Me - 7 Prestige (Three wins, one loss with Missio)

Volubilis (Myrmillo) - 1 Bout
Victor (Crupellarius) - 1 Bout
Rufina (Thraex) - 2 Bouts - +1 Speed
Sabrata (Veles) - 0 Bouts

Tertius - 7 Prestige (Three wins and one loss with Missio)

Spiculus (Dimacherius) - 1 Bout
Scylax (Scissor) - 0 Bouts
Danaos (Hoplomachus) - 1 Bout
Apollo (Velite) - 2 Bouts - +1 Defence

Catherine is yet to win a bout, and to make matters worse has had terrible luck with the crowd, losing two gladiators to their lust for blood. In the next round she will need to select a new fourth gladiator, but it can be any weight class. Tertius had a good round and he and I are neck and neck. 

But it's still all to play for in the third round.