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

[Ray Earle]

Nice. 

[Watts]

Those look great! Thanks for pointing out Gamecrafter... I just ordered a set for myself.

We have still been playing BotS at our club here in Toronto, but I haven't had a chance to do any AARs for a while. Nevertheless, everyone who's played it had really good things to say and have been ordering models to paint. I am hoping to start a campaign soon and hopefully get some more AARs going again.

[Elbows]

Yeah this time I ordered my dice directly from the Indented Dice page, though they took a rather long time to ship them (I was about to email them complaining when they finally shipped them).  The stickers I just designed a while back...but took them this time and attempted to colour match them obviously.

I doubt I'll be using any Prowess 6 guys anytime soon so I probably could have gotten away with 8-10 dice per side, but why not go the full 12, just in case.  (don't ask how long it took to put stickers on 48 friggin' dice...)

[Watts]

I ordered 24 dice... not looking forward to that part. 

[Furt]

I doubt I'll be using any Prowess 6 guys anytime soon so I probably could have gotten away with 8-10 dice per side, but why not go the full 12, just in case.   (don't ask how long it took to put stickers on 48 friggin' dice...)

 

They look really good Elbows. I like how you matched the dice colors with your normal d6 - cool.

I think you have more Arena Dice then me now!?!?!  

We played the third turn of our playtest campaign last night with many surprising upsets.

In one match, I lost my best gladiator, a provocator who was still fairly average, but had won both of his matches and earned 2 Fame. He was killed instantly with a very lucky (or unlucky on my behalf) single wound to the torso, that struck his heart; a result of a stumble result and the rolling of two consecutive "1"s.

In the primus match, my average Gaul, the  dull-witted thraex, "Pullos", faced the giant (Strength 6!!) "Remus Maximus", a superior murmillo from Judea. "Remus Maximus" became over confident with the thraex, having solidly wounded him very early in the match. He toyed with him next by disarming his sica, to the roar of the crowd, and then allowed the thraex to retrieve it again. Then everything changed. "Pullos" got in a lucky shot on the murmillo's shield arm, and had obviously hit an artery as the wound gushed blood. As a result "Remus Maximus" let slip the heavy scutum. "Pullos" forced the murmillo back away from the shield, risking everything. What followed then was a tense battle against time, as "Pullos" tried desperately to avoid being cut in half by his opponent, while the hulking murmillo fought back fatigue. "Remus Maximus" was forced to take many reprieves, to the disdain of the crowd. "Pullo" finally sealed the match by delivering another small bleeding wound, straight after nearly coming to grief himself. The murmillo had struck him a solid blow that would have forced his surrender, but fortunately the strike was soaked by the thraex's manica. INTENSE. The giant, "Remus Maximus", finally collapsed to the sand, exhausted and bleeding profusely. To add injury to insult, his lanista had backed 1000 sestercii on his victory! "Pullos" the underdog had won!!

Next munus involves a suppositicius match, involving my opponent's freshly made dimachaerus vs two of my own gladiators, one straight after another.

[Furt]

What follows are the results of our last two campaign turn playtests.

Gladiator deaths, victories and overall Influence is fairly even.

[Elbows]

Our first event had four pairs...it's been three months and we've only done three pairs!     Granted my brother rarely has time now - he's in the process of moving and I'm taking some classes, but at some point I may get to play some more.  Maybe steal a game this weekend.

[Malamute]

Great stuff Frank. Its good to hear I am not the only one who suffers defeats of gargantuan proportions

We have eased off a bit with the campaign over the last few weeks. Busy preparing for Salute 2014 in April where we will be hosting a big Mars VSF game. Lots of painting/converting to do in the meantime which has sapped up our gaming evenings.

We'll get back into the campaign after Salute.

[Too Bo Coo]

Just had another couple of games of BoTS today at the new gaming club that started in Amsterdam last month!  I didnt take any pics, and have been remiss in not posting my last AAR but I've been playing!

My opponent today was bitterly complaining about my Hoplomachus's spear...until he broke it the next round and went on to exhaust my poor champion!

I've been having some great fun with this and now that there is a regular club every month, I'll give the campaign rules a go.  The game really does have a ''wow' factor!  People kept wandering over to look at the playmats, minis and counters.  It's such a nice presentation itself it just ropes people in.  So I dont see any problem finding regular opponents.  I also reread the rules with an eye to send Furt corrections, and I must commend your editor (yourself I assume) the game is VERY polished now inside.

Anyhoo, I wanted to let my fellow LAF'ers know what Ive been up to!

[Furt]

I've been having some great fun with this and now that there is a regular club every month, I'll give the campaign rules a go.  The game really does have a ''wow' factor!  People kept wandering over to look at the playmats, minis and counters.  It's such a nice presentation itself it just ropes people in.  So I dont see any problem finding regular opponents.  I also reread the rules with an eye to send Furt corrections, and I must commend your editor (yourself I assume) the game is VERY polished now inside.

Good to hear TBC. I had a similar experience at a local gaming store where I had a small crowd around cheering on the two combatants, and in that particular game there wasn't even that much action, as both the players were newbies.

The editor (yes me) is still having serious troubles completing a final rulebook. I am really quite stuck and in a bit of a rut. 

[Elbows]

I feel your pain Furt.

I've been out of the BOTS loop for a bit.  Brother is moving, I'm taking classes and my brother had a couple weeks training in another city.  A couple weeks of papers and homework and maybe I can get rollin' again.  I haven't gamed anything since the last con I attended in January! 

[Furt]

I feel your pain Furt.

I know you understand Elbows, having developed your own project.

I've been out of the BOTS loop for a bit.  Brother is moving, I'm taking classes and my brother had a couple weeks training in another city.  A couple weeks of papers and homework and maybe I can get rollin' again.  I haven't gamed anything since the last con I attended in January! 

I am managing a semi-regular campaign game and completed the third round recently - which I have been slack in posting up the results. I hope you can have a game soon mate.

[Malamute]

The editor (yes me) is still having serious troubles completing a final rulebook. I am really quite stuck and in a bit of a rut. 

 

How so? Why do you feel you are stuck in a rut?

[Furt]

How so? Why do you feel you are stuck in a rut?

Thanks for you concern Nick. 

The completion of the rulebook has dragged on for quite some time now and I can't quite seem to get over a few hurdles to get on and finish the project.

As I've said before I do feel the rules are fully playable and complete, but a polished and presentable rulebook is something I'm still struggling with.

I do admit it is a big task to accomplish alone - but I have little choice to do otherwise.

[Too Bo Coo]

Thanks for you concern Nick. 

The completion of the rulebook has dragged on for quite some time now and I can't quite seem to get over a few hurdles to get on and finish the project.

As I've said before I do feel the rules are fully playable and complete, but a polished and presentable rulebook is something I'm still struggling with.

I do admit it is a big task to accomplish alone - but I have little choice to do otherwise.

If you dont mind sharing, what specifically do you feel stuck on?  I get this sometimes with my dissertation as well.

Having gotten in a bunch of games now, mostly with first-timers, I agree that the rules themselves feel quite solid.  Everyone who has played has wanted a second game immediately and some mates at the game club expressed interest in trying the campaign rules.  I think I may just try that with 2 other people so we have a group of three, or do you think I should stick with 2?