Blood on the Sands **NEW** Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...

[NickNascati]

Please for the love of God, don't make me buy Gladiator figures a third time!  I've already had 54mm and sold them, and then 28mm and sold them.  I just can't find a set that works as anything more than a dull exercise in dice rolling.

[Furt]

Yesterday I attended Leviathan, a small local wargaming convention, with Christian and Painting Princess.
We managed to have quite a few games of Blood on the Sands and a couple of people even sat in to try them out. A lot of blood was shed!! The rules are progressing nicely and playtesting continues to iron out any imbalances. Gladiator fighting is a tricky business.

A retiaruis and secutor - always a fun bout.

The secutor draws first blood to the flashy netman.

Although he put up a good fight the retiarius is defeated, but is granted missio.

The mighty Livia, a descendant of Xena no doubt, over her fallen foe Dacum.

[Mister Rab]

Looks fab! I, for one, am really looking forward to giving these a go 

[Malamute]

marvellous
Just finished watching Spartacus War of the Damned, so in the mood for some Gladiator contests.

[Mad Doc Morris]

I follow this thread with great interest. This seems to shape up very nicely.
So just a quick "thanks for sharing" and especially for those reports. Keep 'em coming, please.

[Furt]

I've managed quite a fair bit of play testing on my "Blood on the Sands" gladiator rules in the last fortnight. Of course I continue to tweak things like crazy and I wonder will I ever be satisfied it's perfect. I keep forgetting to take photos though so I can't post more AARs, but these games are more research than enjoyment at the moment. I am happy to report I have had a couple of victories though (Yeah!!). One was with "Barcias the Babykiller" a Damnatio ad gladium gladiator, destined to be put to death the first time he fails to win and the other was with an unnamed retiarius whose opponent  eventually submitted through exhaustion.  You have to take the wins where you can get 'em.

I've had some positive feedback from a friend, who is an experienced gamer, but first time player of BotS. He enjoyed himself and is even keen to get some gladiators painted up. A good sign. My biggest hurdle I face now is getting the rules clearly down in print. I can teach the rules concisely and easily enough - the concepts are not hard, but writing them is proving difficult.

Although I soon hope to get some help from a professional graphic designer I have been toying with some layouts for parts of the rule book. What follows is a taste of some of the gladiator types and part of the QRS detailing some basic actions etc just to keep the appetites whetted. Images appearing on the gladiator cards are the property of Crusader Miniatures and have been used here with their permission.

The Murmillo

The Hoplomachus

Part of the QRS

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Seconded what Doc said, very interesting, above all because I still didn't decide what Gladiator rules to play. Keep it coming.

[LeadAsbestos]

I'm still willing to playtest too! I've got tons of gladiators, sitting on their a$$es around the ludus, eating all my barley...

[Mister Rab]

Looks great! Another willing playtester here 

[Furt]

I will certainly need some play-testers in the near future. 

On another note - do you think the need for custom dice might put some people off?

[Deathjester]

Not really. It is easy enough for people to purchase some blank dice online, if you could supply a pdf sheet of images to print off, so people could stick them to the faces of the die.

For custom dice, look at the popularity of SAGA or even the Gladiator rules of Ludus Gladiatorius.

[OSHIROmodels]

Put Nick and myself down for playtesting. I've even got a figure painted 

cheers

James

[Furt]

Put Nick and myself down for playtesting. I've even got a figure painted 

I thought myself a bit of a gladiator aficionado - but must admit that I've never seen that Old Glory minis before. Nicely done.

Of course all potential playtesters will be determined by single combat fought to the death! 

[OSHIROmodels]

Of course all potential playtesters will be determined by single combat fought to the death! 

 

Can we do that in a month when my back is better 

cheers

James

[Malamute]

I thought myself a bit of a gladiator aficionado - but must admit that I've never seen that Old Glory minis before. Nicely done.

Of course all potential playtesters will be determined by single combat fought to the death! 

Looking forward to it, I will be triumphant over Bibbles the Giant in the arena.

The 40mm figures is Battle Honours,no idea why he said OG. He confused bless him, it must be all the painkillers he is popping at present.