Gladiators at MOAB

Victor and I were a bit disorganised getting a game ready for MOAB this year. We had considered running some Gaslands (based on the success of Machinas in previous years) but were preempted on that. And a good thing too, as the Gaslands game that was run at MOAB was outstanding. With Gaslands running on one table, Machinas didn't really seem to be an option either. So we fell back on our faithful standby - Munera Sine Missione.

We're currently putting the finishing touches to v3.0 of the game (in fact it's mostly waiting for me to do the reformatting and page-breaks, which seems to be a harder job than actually developing the rules), so we took the opportunity to try out some of the bits and pieces from it.

We started off with a fight between a whip-armed light gladiator, and a Provocator.

Victor was disappointed to see his Provocactor defeated rather easily, and then granted no mercy by the crowd because he'd resorted to using his special defensive breast-plate (a new feature of this gladiator type).

Victor tried out his Hoplomachus design against a helmetless Thracian.

I can't remember the result of this fight. Rufina the Thracian usually loses her bouts, though, so that's probably what happened.

Victor has a figure called 'The Shadow of Death' (or 'Umbra Mortis' in Latin), and tried him next - he has light armour and two swords. I used the Secutor, Hero. The Shadow of Death died.

Our first interested punter appeared, and played a couple of games. He tried a super-heavy gladiator first, and I opposed him with a spear-armed medium. I was incredibly lucky throughout the fight, twice finding a chink in his armour to badly wound him, and then breaking his sword. Needless to say I won that fight.

Our punter then switched to  light gladiator, and used Rodan, the whip-armed fighter I'd used earlier in the day.

Victor explained some of the finer points of the game.

This game saw an appearance of the referee. I can't remember the result though.

Victor and I played a few more bouts. I used Syalvania, a very light gladiator armed with a spear and lasso. Victor used his Maximus figure in the first fight, and I can't remember who won.

In the second fight he used his Scissor, and lost, although we forgot a couple of key special rules which may have affected the results.

We played a couple more games with passers-by, before we decided to try out the campaign rules and try some skilled gladiators. The campaign didn't go well for Victor. - his school lost three gladiators in quick succession, including some skilled ones, whilst mine racked up prestige.

Moderatus was my star fighter. Armed with a sword and cape, he won a couple of fights ...

... including this one against an armoured Scissor where he lost his sword and ended up subduing his opponent with his bare hands.

Another fight, and eventual victory, for Moderatus.

We fitted in several fights during the course of the day, without feeling too rushed. Victor's small arena looked lovely, and helped set the scene of the game very well. We also fitted in a couple of jousts using the rules I am developing, and they ran pretty smoothly as well.