Gladiators, Arena and First Game of Blood on the Sands

 

Box of gladiators

28mm and 35mm painted gladiators

Steve Barber Models unpainted resin Gladiator Arena

Blood on the Sands cover - A Quick Start for Plebs

On Wednesday afternoon Craig came over and we played my first game of Blood on the Sands (BotS). These gladiator combat rules by Frank Sultana are still being play tested. Frank who, has posted extensively on the Lead Adventure Forum and his blog Adventures in Lead about these rules, was kind enough to email me a copy of A Quick Start for Plebs. There is Facebook group for those interested in Blood on the Sands. Craig has been involved in the play testing for a while and has a good grasp of the rules and had additional material like the BotS QRS which was very handy.

We played a game using Gripping Beast 35mm Murmillo and Thracian gladiators (designed for Jugulla) with my unpainted Steve Barber Models resin gladiator arena. I have had this arena for about 15 years and some of the stands were damaged and very brittle and had to be repaired with super glue. I still have to bog up the gaps in it before painting it, then there is the audience...

I was pretty lucky with my Action Dice and had the initiative in most turns, and was then able to inflict a slow kill rear leg wound early on. Marcus the Murmillo weathered the storm and inflicted a few flesh wounds in turn. Disaster struck for Titus the Thracian when he rolled snake eyes in an attack which resulted in a Stumble, dropping his sword. After a few anxious dice rolls Titus was able to retrieve it and continue the combat. Marcus was eventually killed after about six turns of back and forth combat.

I have accumulated quite a collection of gladiator rules over the years but BotS exceeds any of these in detail, realism, sheer fun and playability. The card driven Studio Tomahawk gladiator rules Jugulla, have quite a good campaign system for building up a Ludus, but the actual combat between gladiators is quite disappointing. BotS is a really clever set of rules and has me very motivated to play more games and to finish painting my gladiators, arena and audience.

Titus the Thracian makes a Rush Special Attack

 Marcus the Murmillo retreats with
a slow kill rear leg wound

 Titus retreats with a torso flesh wound

 Marcus is eventually killed

Circus Maximus - Blues' Chariot

 

Here's a Blues' chariot for Circus Maximus that I've just finished painting. Below are photos of the Blues' and Greens' chariots together, all Steve Barber Models figures. I've started on a Reds' chariot and have a Whites' chariot assembled and undercoated for painting. After that I just have to finish off the 3mm mdf track I've started and racing will commence!

GMT Games are just about to release a new Roman chariot racing board game called Charioteer which looks interesting:

https://www.gmtgames.com/p-937-charioteer.aspx

I'm not sure if this will work with the chariots I've collected for Circus Maximus but it looks like a fun game anyway. See previous post Circus Maximus- Greens' Chariot for a bit of background on this project.

Circus Maximus - Greens' Chariot

Circus Maximus is the classic Roman chariot racing board game, often imitated but never bettered. It was originally released by Battleline Publications in 1979 but is better known in the 1980 Avalon Hill version. I have never owned the board game but picked up a copy of the rules and bought four Steve Barber Models four horse Roman racing chariots (quadrigae) years ago. These figures have been removed from the website but are still available, I believe if you email and ask for them. This is my chariot for the Greens' faction (factio prasina).

I have one each for the Blues (factio venata), the Reds (factio russata) and the Whites (factio albata). The Greens and Blues were the two main stables, the Reds and Whites minor ones and they were others, the Purples (factio purpurea) and the Golds (factio aurata) but these only operated for a short time during the reign of Domitian. I have made a two part four lane racing arena from 3mm mdf and will post pics of it and the other chariots when finished. An excellent book to get if you're interested in this, is Fik Meijer's Chariot Racing in the Roman Empire.