Gladiatrices

Thanks to some prompting from Victor, I got out my gladiators this evening, for the first time in well over a year. It was a reminder that, as always, there's still more tinkering to be done with 'Munera Sine Missione'; in this case it was to try out some thoughts Victor has on how weapons with a long reach work.

My usual test with any changes is to run through a few bouts between a Retiarius and a Secutor type; if the matchup gives a 50/50 split of wins then it's probably all good.

So here are Medusa the Retiarius and Achillia the Myrmillo. I ran though four bouts this evening. I would have done more, but we binged a pile of Gotham episodes, I had to print off a copy of the rules and, I admit, I played slowly because I'd forgotten how the game worked. Still, it's like riding a bike. Or I assume it is; I never really got the hang of bike-riding.

Strangely after even four bouts I'm beginning to think Victor's change has merit. However poor Medusa didn't do too well; in two bouts she was knocked down and had to appeal to the crowd (who failed to spare her) and in one bout she was simply killed outright. This was mostly due to utterly appaling rolls for Action Points on her part, combined with good ones on the part of Achillia. That, and the fact that if Medusa did manage an attack, she promptly tripped over doing it. The fourth bout saw her badly wounded but putting up an incredible fight, netting Achillia and running rings around her. But Achillia rolled armour saves like a woman possessed, and Medusa couldn't manage to finish her before exhaustion set in. Achillia had trouble cutting free of the net, and eventually her wounds saw her exhausted as well, so the referee called it a draw.

I'll try a few more games tomorrow evening if I get chance.