Gladiators' Debut

I realised the other day that although I had painted six new gladiators a couple of months ago, I had yet to use them in a game. So in some idle moments yesterday I paired them up and gave them their first outing, playing Blood, Sweat & Cheers, naturally.

The first fight saw the scissor Scylax face the thraex Atticus.

Atticus attacked and pushed Scylax back, but couldn't get past his armour.

Scylax got the crowd behind him, and inflicted a serious wound on the thraex.

From then on it was all over for Atticus; unable to mount a decent counter-attack he was quickly defeated, although spared by the crowd.

In the second fight the secutor Polyphemus faced the veles Ostorius, who looks very impressive in his wolf-skin.

Polyphemeus attacked, and Ostorius dodged, then swiftly jumped back and threw his javelin, downing Polyphemus to win a very short bout. Again the crowd spared the defeated gladiator.

The final fight was between the secutor Mazicinus and the barbarian Castor. I run barbarians as a murmillo with less armour and more speed, but it would be nice to come up with a pair of specific Glory traits for them.

Mazicinus got in a good attack early on and knocked down the barbarian, but couldn't finish him.

Being knocked down simply made Castor very cross. He got up, dodged another attack from the secutor and then went on the offensive. With the crowd firmly behind him he inflicted a winning blow against Mazicinus as he backed him up against the wall of the arena.

Once again the crowd were merciful.

So now my new gladiators have been blooded.

Gaslands Terrain

I haven't had a lot of time to devote to games over the past week, and what I did have I spent finishing off painting terrain for our Gaslands demo game next weekend.

Firstly I have finally done something with the bits of cardboard packaging I've been using. Or, at least, two pieces of it. I have plenty more which I could paint and add bling to.

The advertisments are optional and can be swapped around.

I've also painted the pillars for my 3D-printed gun-turrets. I haven't done the guns yet, since they aren't needed for our game. I've added a bead to each pillar to hide the hole the gun would go into.

Add in the Jenga blocks I painted last week and the whole things is looking half decent; certainly enough to make the terrain look less improvised than it has done.

It's a (HOTT) Knockout! - Episode Three

After five battles in this knockout campaign, no army has been knocked out. And every battle has featured Prester John, who has defended his lands twice and been the attacker three times. 

So this is still the position at the start of Season Six:

Season Six

The cubes of fate were thrown and ...

Elves: 1
Inca: 2+1=3
Prester John: 6-1=5 (4)
Fishmen 4+1=5(3)
Swiss: 2-1=1

Amazingly Prester John was on the attack once more! Having failed in an extended campaign to take the lands of the Fishmen he found himself having to fight his way through the lands of the Confederation in a reversal of the opening action of the campaign.

The Swiss were content to sit in their line, making use of the hill on their right. Both armies shuffled troops around to improve the matchups.

The Swiss attacked when Prester John's army got close enough. One column swept down the hill, pushing back some archers.

Prester John's archers suffered quite badly, but their troops did less well elsewhere and a gap opened up in their line as Prester John's knights broke through.

Some of the knights went for the stronghold, whilst some turned on the Swiss commander.

Prester John destroyed his opposite number to gain a convincing win.

Prester John achieved a 10g-2 victory. 

More importantly, he conquered the lands of the Confederation. The Swiss were out of the campaign.

Season Seven

Only four nations got to roll this time:

Elves: 4 (6)

Inca: 2+1=3
Prester John 4 (4)
Fishmen: 2+1=3

Once again Prester John rolled high, but this time the Elves beat him on the tie-break to make their campaign debut. And the lowest-scoring army were the Fishmen. The Elves headed south-east on their first campaign of the war.

Both armies set up in marshes. The Elves had their backs to the sea.

The Fishmen opened the battle with a lurker. It was driven off, but broke up the end of the Elven line.

Like the Swiss in the previous battle the Fishmen decided to sit tight, partially to buy time for their god to appear. The Elves advanced, slowed by poor PIPs, the terrain and the presence of magicians in their army.

The Fishmen added to their discomfort with artillery. The Elves waited to attack - poor PIPs meant that a coordinated charge on the marsh in front of their right wasn't possible.

On their right the Fishmen advanced, taking the fight to the Elven archers.

The Elves finally charged.

The Fishmen fell back and one of their spear elements was destroyed.

Meanwhile the Fishmen were overwhelming the Elven archers.

Whilst the bulk of the Elven warband mopped up the Fishman warriors in the marsh, some turned on the main Fishman line.

The Fishman line was collapsing, although they were making short work of the archers on the Elven left.

Elves charged the Fishman general, but were destroyed.

Meanwhile the Fishmen surrounded and killed one of the Elven magicians.

The Elves consolidated their position, pushing hard to not only destroy the last enemy unit in the marsh, but to also put the Fishman general under pressure.

The general was destroyed, but the Fishman losses were still not quite equal to those of the Elves (thanks to the loss of that magician earlier). The Fishmen would keep fighting.

With a PIP roll of 6 the Fishmen took a gamble, and brought on their god; it was a risky move, but offered a chance to take out the Elven general.

But the Elves were unstoppable now, and their attack destroyed the enemy artillery. This was enough to win the battle.

The final score was 12g-10 to the Elves, so a close and bloody battle.

And another nation had fallen; the Fishmen were no more.

Is the campaign entering its closing stages? Find out in the next part!

It's a (HOTT) Knockout! - Episode Two

Continuing my HOTT Knockout campaign, started HERE.

After two seasons the map hadn't changed; Prester John had repulsed an attack by the Swiss, whilst his own attempts to expand his expire were foiled by the Inca.

Season 3

Each nation rolled and the scores were as follows:

Elves: 3
Inca: 4+1=5 (4)
Prester John: 1

Fishmen: 5 (6)
Swiss: 3-1=2

So the Fishmen entered the campaign, attacking the recently defeated Prester John.

The two armies lined up.

They both advanced for a showdown in the centre.

The battle began with the wilder Fishmen charging Prester John's archers.

To some extent Prester John was forced into an attack because the Fishmen had artillery and could afford to sit back and bombard his army. As it was an early shot caused the elephant to flee.

The main forces of each army crashed into each other ...

... and Prester John's tribal warriors slaughtered the Fishman leader and is bodyguard. 

Fortunately the losses for both sides were even at this point, so the leaderless Fishmen fought on. But the warriors kept attacking, and more Fishmen fell.

The fight near the town continued, and the archers cut down some Fishman warriors.

The warriors continued their attack, and this time the losses were enough to break the Fishman invaders.

The Prester John saw off the Fishman invasion with an 8g-2 victory.

Season 4

After three Seasons, all three invasions had been defeated. Would this Season finally see any territory changed hands?

The rolls were:

Elves: 2
Inca: 1+1=2
Prester John: 6+1=7

Fishmen: 2-1=1
Swiss:5-1=4

So, amazingly, Prester John was on the attack again and his opponents would be the Fishmen, as his army pursued them back to their homeland.

Prester John's army landed on the coast and the Fishmen were lined up to meet them.

The Fishman warriors saw off some lurkers in the woods.

Prester John ordered an advance. Both armies were fighting on a narrow frontage, restricted by the terrain.

Prester John's warriors didn't do so well this time, overlapped and wiped out by their Fishman equivalents.

The Priest-King's troops charged the Fishman line ...

... and were repulsed.

The swordsmen renewed the attack, and destroyed the Fishman artillery.

An attack all along the line. The Fishman warriors threatening the flank were being ably dealt with by Prester John's knights.

The Fishman line began to break up. Victory was in sight for Prester John.

But the Fishman were able to summon their god to their aid!

Inspired they brought down Prester John's elephant.

But their general was surrounded by swordsman. He could only hold them off for so long.

The god attacked Prester John's knights, destroying them.

And that was too much for Prester John's army, which broke.

The Fishmen won 13-7. The game was closer than that though; loss of the god to an unlucky PIP roll, or loss of their surrounded general would have pretty much cost the Fishmen the game, and seen Prester John capture their lands. But the held him off. For now.

Season 5

In my previous post I said I'd cover Seasons 3 and 4 in this post, but I had time to play the next season, and did.

The rolls were as follows:

Elves: 4

Inca: 5+1=6 (3)

Prester John: 6 (6)

Fishmen: 2

Swiss: 6-1=5

So whilst the Inca had almost been the aggressors this time around, the fifth battle was actually a repeat of the fourth, and Prester John's army continued its attempted invasion of the lands of the Fishmen. So far all five battles had featured his army.

This time the Fishmen stuck to their narrow frontage, whilst Prester John tried a flanking move with his knights.

The Fishmen extended their line to meet the flanking force.

Once again their elephant fled from the artillery, and would take no further part in the battle.

The swordsmen advanced confidently.

The attack went in.

The knights were thrown back, but the Fishman centre gave ground.

The artillery was defeated again, and Prester John's swordsmen broke through the line and advanced on the stronghold.

Both armies had broken up and the battle was being fought in patches. The Fishmen pulled back some spears to defend their stronghold.

The first attack on the stronghold failed, but more swordsmen were advancing.

In the centre Prester John's archers were being slowly forced back by the Fishman general. Prester John went to their aid, but soon found his retreat cut off by Some Fishman spears. Meanwhile the spears defending the stronghold saw off their attackers, denying the swordsmen a coordinated assault on the stronghold.

The Fishman general charged Prester John. If he could be forced back he would be destroyed since his retreat was blocked.

Only this could save the stronghold from inevitable capture. And it worked. Prester John was eliminated, and his army broke.

This was an incredibly close game, with Prester John mounting two attacks on the stronghold, either of which could have lost the Fishman the game. The Fishmen won 10g-9.

And there are more surprises to come in the next part.