Mid-Winter Munera

We had a gladiator night at the Gong Garage Gamers yesterday. Caesar, Geoff and I carried on with our campaign games from this time last year.

Our schools started the evening as follows. Each gladiator has a name and type, and after that is any skills they have. As you can see, all three of us had at least one skilled gladiator, with all of us having selected Reflexes. This used to allow a +1AP (hence its popularity), but we tested a slightly less powerful version, which allowed the gladiator to reroll an AP dice score of '1'. All three schools had 2 points of Prestige from the games last year. Geoff and Caesar were both short one gladiator (after casualties from the previous games), so had to choose replacements.

Alan
Graccus (Laquearius)
Memnon (Sagittarius)
Bregans (Gaul)
Alumnus (Hoplomachus) - Reflexes
Amazon (Samnite)
Hero (Samnite) - Reflexes
Prestige - 2

Geoff
Cupido (Retiarius)
Culex (Velite)
Priscus (Thracian) - Reflexes
Satornilus (Thracian)
Scylax (Cataphractarius) - Reflexes
Prestige - 2
Added: Mongo (Myrmillo)

Caesar
Bato (Velite)
Medusa (Retiarius) - Reflexes
Cycnus (Hoplomachus)
Hilarus (Thracian)
Telamonius (Contra-Retiarius)
Prestige - 2
Added: Pugnax (Myrmillo)

In each game we fought three bouts, with each player having a gladiator in two of them.

Game 1

Satornilus vs Hero - A classic Thracian against heavy gladiator fight.
Memnom vs Telamonius - My archer took on Caesar's 'tank'.
Pugnax vs Culex - An agile Velite against a heavy Myrmillo,

Let the Games begin! That's Memnon the Archer running away from Telamonius in the foreground.

Here's Hero and Satornilus.

Culex the Velite charges straight into the fight.

And scores the first win of the night, dodging around his slower opponent and finishing him off with a few quick thrusts. A generous crowd granted mercy to Pugnax, however.

Hero lived up to his name and downed Satornilus, and again the crowd were merciful.

Memnon used up all of his arrows trying to wound Telamonius, but failed to inflict a significant hit. Reduced to attacking him with a dagger, it was only a matter of time before the unarmoured archer was defeated. This time the crowd screamed for blood - and got it.

So, we each won one fight, and one gladiator died. Telamonius gained one skill (Defend). Culex picked the Attack skill. Hero didn't gain a skill. Each player gained one Prestige for their school.

Game 2

I added Rufina (Thracian) to my school to replace the dead Memnon.

Rufina vs Priscus - Both Thracians, one with a helmet, one without.
Mongo vs Bato - Another nimble Velite against a mighty Murmillo.
Telamonius vs Bregans - Caesar's 'tank' challenged by an inexperienced Gaul out for glory.

Rufina didn't last five minutes. And the crowd weren't interested in her survival either.

Bregans adopted an aggressive approach to taking out Telamonius, launching a series of wild attacks.

Meanwhile the pretty-boy Bato managed to seperate Mongo from his shield.

This didn't seem to bother the mighty Mongo, who gave the crowd what they wanted - Bato's blood.

The fight between Telamonius and Bregans lasted for ages, and moved from one side of the arena to the other. Finally, with both gladiators wounded and exhausted, Bregans managed a winning blow. But the crowd spared Telamonius; they'd enjoyed the fight. Telamonius showed a disturbing ability to trip over his own feet, though.

I gained 2 Prestige for Bregans' win againstthe more experienced Telamonius, whilst Caesar lost 1. Geoff gained 2 Prestige for his two victories.

Bregans picked Popularity. Mongo picked the Defend skill. Priscus wasn't eligible for a skill as he defeated a lower-rated gladiator.

Game 3

More replacements were needed. I added Ombos the Nubian to my school to replace the short-lived Rufina. Caesar chose the Melanippe, a barbarian Dimacherius, to replace Bato.

And the draws were:

Melanippe vs Satornilus - Geoff's Thracian against a nimble barbarian with two swords.
Cupido vs Amazon - A classic Myrmillo/Retiarius action.
Hero vs Cycnus  - Sword against spear.

Hero kept close in to his spear-armed opponent.

Whilst Melanippe adopted the tactic of running away.

Amazon and Cupido approached each other warily.

Satornilus caught up with Melanippe and badly wounded her.

Then finished her off. The crowd went for her blood. It really wasn't a good night to be a lightly-armed barbarian gladiator.

Cupido netted Amazon and, although she put up a good fight, tripped her and had her at his mercy. Mercy wasn't something the crowd were interested in, though, and she died.

Hero quickly defeated Cycnus, and again the crowd showed no mercy.

With two more wins, Geoff gained another 2 Prestige. I gained another 1. Caesar gained none.

That was the end of the evening's play, so we reassessed where our respective schools stood. Once again the skills each gladiator has are listed after their name. We still have no gladiator with more than one skill, but all of Geoff's are now skilled.

Alan
Gracchus (Laquearius)
Ombos (Nubian)
Bregans (Gaul) - Popular
Alumnus (Hoplomachus) - Reflexes
Hero (Samnite) - Reflexes
Prestige - 6

Geoff
Cupido (Retiarius) - Defend
Culex (Velite) - Attack
Priscus (Thracian) - Reflexes
Satornilus (Thracian) - Attack
Scylax (Cataphractarius) - Reflexes
Mongo (Myrmillo) - Defend
Prestige - 7

Caesar
Medusa (Retiarius) - Reflexes
Hilarus (Thracian)
Telamonius (Cataphractarius) - Defend
Pugnax (Myrmillo)
Prestige - 2

Both Geoff and I picked up more prestige - Geoff for winning five of the nine duels, and me for winning three, including one against a more experienced gladiator. Caesar won one bout, but Telamonius losing to Bregans in Game 2 cost him Prestige.

We tried a number of small adjustments to the rules, but they aren't worth reporting here yet.

And we really must not wait a whole year before doing this again - it was far too much fun.