A Barbarian In The Arena

This evening I played a few games of 'Blood, Sweat & Cheers' to try out some ideas I had for running a barbarian gladiator. Regular readers of this blog will know that this has been occupying some of my attention for a couple of years now (although admittedly not constantly, because that would be weirdly obsessive).

Since I had my West Wind gladiatrices out for a Facebook photo-shoot (they're one of the packs not illustrated on Old Glory's website), I decided to use some of them in the games, so picked one of my female barbarians to match them. This is Andromache. She used to be a Copplestone cave-girl, which explains her footwear and fur loin-cloth.

Her first opponent was the secutor Marpesia. In terms of abilities I have been running Barbarians with the same 2 x Glory ability that Murmillos have (+1 on an attack with a bonus push and knock-down if you win), as this nicely reflects a rage-induced attack or a charge of some kind. It's the 1 x Glory ability I've struggled with. For this game I allowed Andromache to move one area and attack at +1 - a Charge.

She used it well, pushing Marpesia back, before downing her and defeating her. 

Andromache's next opponent was the thraex Artemisia.

Artemisia proved a much more dangerous foes, knocking down Andromache and wounding her.

This left Andromache very much at a disadvantage, but she put up quite a fight. Needing a breather to replenish her hand she managed an adrenaline-fuelled retreat across the board, although an attack by Artermisia as she did so meant she ended up knocked down at her destination - a quirk of the combat rules that allows attacks to happen if the gladiators either start or finish in the same space.

Anyway, Andromache was down to her last hit, but managed to fight back and put a couple of wounds on Artemisia. She even managed to get an attack card with the adrenaline bonus, which allows you to add your current wounds to the attack, but rolled badly and it didn't connect. Artemisia used a lightining slash to finish off Andromache, although the crowd spared her.

I was finding that the Charge effect for 1 x Glory wasn't working for me and, oddly enough, felt that it was possibly a touch to much for a singly Glory ability. Allowing an attack plus a one space move was a possibility, but seemed a bit dull. So I had a rethink.

I settled on Intimidate - for 1 x Glory Andromache could attack with her normal value, but if her opponent won their score was reduced by 2 (which actually means that the opponent could then lose by 1 point). This represents an attack that reduces an opponent's ability to strike back, although to be fair it doesn't really do anything is the opponent just defends, which may be a problem.

Anyway, Andromache's next opponent was the retiarius Medusa.

The bout ended is seconds as Andromache charged and was stabbed by a sneaky dagger attack.

I started again.

Andromache managed to use her intimidate ability to block an attack. After a brief, but entertaining fight she emerged the victor.

I might pursue the Intimidate idea as I like the idea of a defence ability that's also an attack. It might still be a bit much for a single Glory ability, but we'll see.

After playing I needed to sort out my gladiators, which are normally stored by type but which had become mixed up. So I took a group-shot of them. There's eighty-three of them, plus the eques pair and three officials.