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

[rumacara]

Hello Frank

The interior art could be fulfilled also by Dr. Mathias.
Some drawings to complement the rules.
Also inside you could also place some painted miniatures to give people some ideas.
The covering art should be a drawing instead of painted models.
Its more appealing than the painted models.
Just humble opinions.

Cheers

Rui

[Hu Rhu]

I agree that the drawing is better than painted miniatures.  I would also go with the word Blood in red but have you thought of having some blood flowing from the word itself? Looks like the whole thing is coming to fruition.  Well done.

[Eithriall]

My humble opinion....For the interior art, just try to keep the same "artwork spirit" already done on the playing sheets by Dr. Mathias    and with some drawings to complement the rules.

I think painted miniatures photos are better inside the rulebook and like Mr Rumacara, i prefer a cover with an original drawing. It's sad you can't have Neil Blade's permission to use his drawing because it just kills !!! 

[Elbows]

Hah, see Furt!   

(I said I liked the mosaic artwork better than photos about four months ago when he asked.  Personal opinion of course!)

[Furt]

The interior art could be fulfilled also by Dr. Mathias.
Some drawings to complement the rules.

Yes I agree, some more mosaic art would be wonderful, but poor Dr. Mathias is a busy man and has already done so much - so unless the armatura images could be repeated on the cover, then unfortunately this is not an option 

The majority of people do seem to prefer actual art over miniatures, but on my blog a couple of people prefer the miniatures over actual art. 

I guess you can't please everyone.

It's sad you can't have Neil Blade's permission to use his drawing because it just kills !!! 

I like the image too, although if you look closely enough it is not historically accurate, but since the artist is AWOL I doubt it's an option anyway. I think he was an Aussie too.

Hah, see Furt!   

(I said I liked the mosaic artwork better than photos about four months ago when he asked.  Personal opinion of course!)

I know - I told you so.

[Humboldt]

Oh dear, I'm glad to be back and it is great to see the progress of BotS! I really love the idea of campaign-events. Good job, Frank. May I ask a small question about the campaign? Assumingly the campaign is designed for an open-end game or is there any sort of "term-limit"? Just asking because I get my girlfriend fully into boardgames and maybe (I'm actually pretty sure) she will love the idea of her own ludus as well, but perhaps feels more comfy if there is any "goal" or "term-limit". A very gameish question... 

[Furt]

May I ask a small question about the campaign? Assumingly the campaign is designed for an open-end game or is there any sort of "term-limit"?

Hi Humbolt - welcome back.

The campaign consists of 6+1d6 turns, which represents how many games will be held that year. So a campaign will run anywhere from 7-12 turns.

[Humboldt]

Thank you Frank!

Good news. Just talked about it with my girlfriend and she liked it.

[Elbows]

While it's not part of the campaign system per se, my buddy and I decided that at the end of a campaign we might place all of our surviving gladiators into the market...establish values for them so that later campaigns, the lanistae could possibly purchase a semi-retired legend.

[Monty]

Hi Furt,

some friends and me visited a Roman festival four weeks ago where some guys presented gladiators and their way to fight (pictures here). Since then I've been looking up gladiator miniatures as well as appropriate rulesets.

So I stumpled into this threat and worked through the 42 pages.
Awesome mates !  

There are some great AARs and all the pictures of the gaming material look simply stunning. Actually I can't wait to get an idea of the rules themselves. In case that you need another playtester please let me know. 

Otherwise I'm looking forward to following your progress here!

Good luck furtheron!
Stefan

[Humboldt]

some friends and me visited a Roman festival four weeks ago where some guys presented gladiators and their way to fight (pictures here). Since then I've been looking up gladiator miniatures as well as appropriate rulesets.

Looks like the Familia Gladiatoria Pulli Cornicinis, a gladiator group around Marcus Junkelmann. Was it? Any way, nice picture Stefan, looks like a lot of fun!

[Monty]

It was a perfect day out with family and friends. And very inspiring concerning gladiator wargaming...   

The group was Amor Mortis but I think they were highly influenced by Junkelmann's research. Who in this field of topics isn't?

But I don't want to lead too far off-topic...

Cheers
Stefan

[Furt]

While it's not part of the campaign system per se, my buddy and I decided that at the end of a campaign we might place all of our surviving gladiators into the market...establish values for them so that later campaigns, the lanistae could possibly purchase a semi-retired legend.

Yeah that could work Elbows. I haven't given continuing a second campaign enough thought, but I would possibly make the lanistae by back their own gladiators with Wealth, letting go any they could not afford. Their Assets would remain although.

There are some great AARs and all the pictures of the gaming material look simply stunning. Actually I can't wait to get an idea of the rules themselves. In case that you need another playtester please let me know. 

Thanks for the comments Monty, unfortunately play testing is pretty much done mate. 

That is an awesome shot you have captured there. The troupe look like real professionals.

I have spent countless hours looking at reenactor images and watching their youtube videos in an attempt to capture the feel of a real gladiator duel. They helped me determine how I wanted the game to flow, with back and forward pushes and lulls in between.

I wish such troupes existed in Australia, but alas no. 

[Humboldt]

It was a perfect day out with family and friends. And very inspiring concerning gladiator wargaming...   

The group was Amor Mortis but I think they were highly influenced by Junkelmann's research. Who in this field of topics isn't?

I really like there homepage and I checked some youtube videos of Amor Mortis. Like Frank, I wish there were such groups around...

Yeah that could work Elbows. I haven't given continuing a second campaign enough thought, but I would possibly make the lanistae by back their own gladiators with Wealth, letting go any they could not afford. Their Assets would remain although.

I like Elbows idea. Kind of a transfer market installment. Playing around with some budget and maybe able to engage this high profile palus secundus retiarius. Or even fight a former member of your own ludus. Sounds like a lot of fun. 

[Elbows]

With all of the garbage reality TV shows out there, it should be awesome to see a show based on modern contestants learning to become gladiators.  If anyone saw the vastly entertaining (and short lived) Full Metal Jousting...something along those lines.



It was a good show --- they kept the "drama" to a minimum and a lot of guys had some really good jousts.  I'd love to see something like that for Gladiators.  Would be really entertaining.