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Author Topic: Blood on the Sands **NEW** Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...  (Read 192251 times)

Offline Furt

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In a villa outside of Rome the peers of a wealthy patrician have gathered to witness a private gladiator pairing between Drusix, murmillo, and Lyphades, thraex. The gladiators have been chosen carefully and are considered well matched.

The patrician gives the signal and the two gladiators rush to meet each other. Lyphades is the quicker and he springs towards Drusix, but the murmillo is already launching his own attack. The thraex is checked mid step and begins to be pushed back. Drusix lashes out with his heavy scutum, but his opponent parries the strike with his own shield. Lyphades attempts to counter one of the murmillo's strikes but fails to land the blow.

The pair close for battle - Drusix (left) and Lyphades (right).

Drusix takes advantage of the thraex's mistake and drives his gladius into Lyphades' outstretched arm, the blade cutting a deep furrow through the amour there. The thraex grunts in pain and blood flows freely down his arm and over the sica grasped in his hand. The gathered Romans let out a bloodthirsty cheer. Lyphades quickly threatens the murmillo with a quick attack that thankfully stops the murmillo's onslaught.

Drusix drives his gladius into the thraex's sword arm.

But not for long. Drusix pushes forward again, driving Lyphades back. He can tell the serious wound will quickly take its toll on the thraex. Drusix ducks below his shield and lauches his whole body at Lyphades in an attempt to knock him down. The thraex attempts to move out of the way, but he is hit squarely by the murmillo, stumbles backwards but does not go down.

Lyphades' bleeding wound is taking its toll.

Pushed dangerously close to the edge of the arena, Lyphades warily circles the murmillo in an attempt to avoid being hemmed in. He retreats from Drusix momentarily, the Romans hissing at his back and attempts to catch his breath. The murmillo spins to face the crowd, raises his arms triumphantly and roars a muffled battle-cry through his helm. He senses victory.

Lyphades turns the combat away from the wall.

Panting heavily Lyphades closes on the murmillo again, but his attacks fail to circumvent the large shield. The flurry leaves the thraex spent and Drusix stops giving ground, launching his own attacks. Each blow is a simple basic strike that drives the thraex back again, each blow becoming more dangerous than the last. The murmillo's last attack is well aimed and backed with considerable force. It lands just as Lyphades' foot touches the lip of the enclosed arena. Drusix's blade drives deeply through the shoulder of the thraex's shield arm, a bright spout of blood washes over the sand.

Backed into a corner and wounded again, Lyphades crashes to the ground.

Lyphades stumbles and crashes to the ground heavily, near exhausted. With all his effort he attempts to quickly stand but the looming shape of his adversary prevents him from getting to his feet. Drusix rains a couple of blows down onto the fallen thraex, who miraculously fends them off, parrying with his shield and rolling out of the way.

Lyphades bleeds heavily on the ground, his life ebbing from him.

Drusix knows the match is won, the Romans are calling for blood and he turns to them drops his shield and raises his bloodied gladius. Turning back to Lyphades he sees the thraex can not stand and so his opponent feebly raises two fingers in surrender, begging for missio. But it is too late for such thoughts. Drusix fought too well and avoided all of the thraex's attack. The crowd howls for blood and the patrician gives the word. Drusix raises the gladius again and drives it down through Lyphades' shoulder-blade. Victory is Drusix's!!

An unpainted Charon ensures Lyphades is not foxing.


Lyphades' wounds and bleed counters at the end of the match.


Drusix is in fine form, a little puffed, but in a much better place than his opponent.

 
______________________________

Christian played the mighty Drusix and I was unfortunately the flawed Lyphades.The rules are my own set I have been working on for quite some time with the help of Christian and Dave. We had a great time playing this gladiator match and the game only took about 1.5 hours, pretty good for such an exciting battle.

The beautiful little arena is Christian's own creation and very nicely done!! It really brings the game to life.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2015, 07:57:20 PM by Furt »
“A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.”

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Offline Whiskyrat

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2013, 02:02:47 AM »
Very nice AAR - thanks for sharing.

The beautiful little arena is Christian's own creation and very nicely done!! It really brings the game to life.

Agree - nice job Christian.

I particularly like the statue of the Lanista's father/grandfather.

The rules are my own set I have been working on for quite some time with the help of Christian and Dave.

So neither RSBS or MTS hit the mark for you?




Offline WuZhuiQiu

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2013, 02:30:06 AM »
That is great-looking scenery. I hope that you might publish the rules one day.

Online Marine0846

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2013, 02:47:12 AM »
Love the report.
Great terrain,
thanks for sharing.
Semper Fi, Mac

Offline LeadAsbestos

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2013, 04:18:54 AM »
Yep, I'd like to see more abt those rules too!

Offline Elbows

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2013, 05:10:20 AM »
Great looking game - also interested in the rules set.
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Offline Mister Rab

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2013, 06:30:11 AM »
That looks fabulous - the rules look intriguing as well. Please do share!

Offline pocoloco

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2013, 06:36:15 AM »
Very nice bout AAR  :-* Hopefully you can share more detail on the rules at some point.

Offline Mad Doc Morris

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #8 on: March 14, 2013, 07:05:36 AM »
Joining the crowd howling for the rules.
Enjoyed the write-up quite a bit, thanks a lot. :)

Online OSHIROmodels

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #9 on: March 14, 2013, 07:33:11 AM »
Love it  :-*

You chaps certainly put on a good show and it was a jolly good read 8)

The first two photos are particulary appealing with the overhead lighting and I'm afraid I'm going to badger about the rules as well  :D

cheers

James
cheers

James

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Offline Malamute

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #10 on: March 14, 2013, 09:19:36 AM »
Love it  :-*

You chaps certainly put on a good show and it was a jolly good read 8)

The first two photos are particulary appealing with the overhead lighting and I'm afraid I'm going to badger about the rules as well  :D

cheers

James

Seconded, great stuff. :-*

 We want the rules! We want the rules! ;D
"These creatures do not die like the bee after the first sting, but go on age after age, feeding on the blood of the living"  - Abraham Van Helsing

Online OSHIROmodels

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #11 on: March 14, 2013, 09:30:09 AM »
We want the rules! We want the rules! ;D

Aren't we weak  lol

cheers

James

Offline Malamute

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #12 on: March 14, 2013, 09:33:03 AM »
Aren't we weak  lol

cheers

James

Yes we are!!! lol

I've got the figures already. I just need an excuse to paint the little buggers ;) lol

Offline Treebeard

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lymphades
« Reply #13 on: March 14, 2013, 10:33:55 AM »
Fantastic AAR.

And yes the plebeians wants the rules.

Offline Furt

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Re: Gladiator bout: Drusix vs Lyphades
« Reply #14 on: March 14, 2013, 10:49:10 AM »
Joining the crowd howling for the rules.

Feeling a bit like poor Lyphades at the moment facing down a howling crowd of bloodthirsty Romans!!  ;D

But since there appears to be some interest I'll explain whats going on a little further.

The rules are tentatively called "Blood on the Sands" and have been a labor of love for some time now.

In a bit of a collaboration I do hope to release BotS as a rule set, along with the necessary "tools" needed to play.

As far as gladiator rules are concerned I have tried them all MTS, RSBS, HHH etc, etc and none of them ticked all the boxes for what I really expected in a game of gladiatorial combat.

The main problem with gladiator games is they are a bit static and you essentially have two miniatures standing toe to toe in a circle and that's where they stay til one kills the other.

That's where I hope BotS is a little different.

I want to be able to retell the tale of my combat against "Asterix the Gaul" and how I triumphed over him.

The "character sheet" allows you to easily visualize what wounds your gladiator is suffering, if he is bleeding and how tired he is etc, plus no "bookkeeping" during a fight.

There are quite a few other cool things, I'm particularly fond of the fatigue and wound systems, but hopefully more will be revealed over a period of further play testing and tweaking.

The rules are a bit "crunchy", but I certainly think the subject warrants the detail - otherwise a two miniature game can get VERY boring VERY quickly.

Anyway I hope that's enough to keep everyone interested for now and I'll continue to post up some AARs as we get through them.

One last thing, the game uses custom dice.  ;)

« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 09:29:17 PM by Furt »

 

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