The Fall of Troy

[Freelancer]

I wanted to show a friend the game mechanics of ‘Tribal’. As he had not brought any miniatures, the only way I could field two sides worth of figures without using too many proxies was to try the Gladiator scenario rules from the back of the Tribal rule book.
The game played out really well. I have so far played Tribal with Maori Tribes in a quick rules test, then a full game for a 7 Samurai scenario. I thought the rules might have been too stylised for a narrative game, but the fact that you can win a game based on winning honour rather than by killing all your enemies, creates some very satisfying games.
I thought I would do an AAR for the Gladiator game. We decided to play the Fall of Troy as the theme of the gladiatorial contest ( Like the Fall of Carthage from the film Gladiator).
I played the Trojans and Simon played the Greeks. We had 15 honour points to spend on
The Trojans
LtoR Memnon( Retarius), Paris (Velites) Aeneas ( Murmillo), Penthesileia (Dimacharius)= 10 Honor


The Greeks
Diomedes (Thraex), Achilles ( Dimacharius), Ajax (Secutor),Ulysses (Hoplomachus) + 5 Slaves (The Greek Hordes) = 12 Honor

[Freelancer]

The opening round of the game saw the Greeks move up to the Trojan side of the arena. Ajax and Penthesileia clashed, and although the Amazon took a wound and failed to get though Ajax’s armour she still won 3 of the 5 attacks and drove Ajax back. Memnon and Ulysses also clashed in this round, with the Retiarius bonus to feint cards helping Memnon win the round.

However in the second round Ajax charged into Memnon. They each suffered 2 wounds, but Memnon’s lacklustre hand of cards sent him retreating. The Greek Hordes charged Penthesilea but were soundly thrashed ( her cards that round included a Joker and one of her attacks killed two Greeks in a single blow). Paris followed up on the fleeing Greeks, his full hand of attacks vs the 2 Greeks 2 card hand (and 3 off the deck panic fighting cards) easily allowing his to despatch the 2 slaves.

Diomedes charged the wounded Memnon. The Thraex’s hooked sword managed to overcome Memnons armour, who was killed without even scratching Diomedes. Paris tried to attack Ulysses but with a terrible hand and bad armour he was killed. Aeneas used his activation to move in and finish off Ulysses.

[Freelancer]

In the next round Aeneas was now outnumbered 3 to one. He moved to attack Ajax. Ajax had been wounded by Memnon in the previous round, and Aeneas’ leader bonus to the card hand he drew helped him finish Memnon’s work, killing Ajax, despite his armour and Tough skill.


Diomedes charged Aeneas but failed to penetrate his defence and was wounded and repelled.  The mighty Achilles moved in to attack Aeneas, however the Trojan deck had been used up and after a reshuffle Aeneas found 2 Jokers and an Ace in his had (the Gods truly favoured him). Achilles had the initiative, but Aeneas’ hand allowed him to draw out Achilles best cards then beat him down to a single wound. Having won the combat Simon went to draw an honour counter from under his bowl only to discover he had run out. Against the odds the Trojan’s had won.

[archiduque]

Nice work!!

[Lord Blackheart]

Cool
I ordered my copy of Tribal from Eureka Miniatures. Looking forward to trying out some games with it.

[Richard in Sachsen]

Nice work. Tribal seems like a fun and unique game, I've still to read through it though.

[von Lucky]

Good to see it work in other settings too. And nice setting for the games (story and miniatures).

[rumacara]

Nice AAR.
I also bought Tribal and i´m curious to try it.
Probably with 2 Bronze Age bands or gladiators.