Gladiators

Peter and I were both looking for a game last night, but I'd packed my gladiators and 'Blood, Sweat & Cheers' to play with someone else who couldn't make it, so we got that out. Peter hadn't played before but picked it up pretty quickly.

We selected gladiators randomly (subject to my personal preference for certain groups not facing each other). I got a dimacherius (Philus) vs the heavily armoured crupellarius Victor. I'm not sure if the crupellarius is a good gladiator for a novice player, but Peter handled him pretty well.

I couldn't get through Victor's defences and in keeping up the attack I suddenly found myself the victim of a counter-attack and wounded!

I was then driven back and knocked down by the blundering behemoth.

But from that point Peter couldn't get what he need to finish me off. I managed to stand up and get back into the fight, then finally get a useful combination of moves together to finish off Victor with a single strike. 

In teh second bout I had the archer Toxaris whilst Peter used the thraex Hilarus.

I got in one shot before Hilarus basically spent the whole game drawing Glory cards. This was the first lacerating cut that Toxaris took.

Peter held off cashing in the combat effect of my wounds until right at the end,  using the accumulated four wounds I'd taken to improve the chance of his final slash hitting and finishing off Toxaris.

The bout had actually gone of for a long time; Peter had so many Glory cards that he couldn't close with me to use them a lot of the time, and I wisely kept my distance. At one stage we considered calling it a draw, but played for just one more run through the deck, and that was all it took.

So with one win apiece we played for best of three.

Peter used teh hoplomachus Helena, whilst I had the veles Ostorius.

Getting knocked down wasn't a great way to start the bout, but a lucky attack on my part saw Helena knocked down as well, much to the crowd's amusement.

We both got up and I used my agility to keep away from Helena. She managed to throw her spear but I was lucky and was only knocked back by it (a result I could very much use to my advantage). Once again I got the right combination of cards, and used Glory to do a mighty javelin throw, backed up by the crowd's support. It was enough to defeat Helena.

Two of the games were pretty close, with only the middle one being a frustrating disaster for me.

Thanks to Peter for giving these rules a try.

Fight For The Fjords

Ralph put of a WWII naval game for us on Thursday, which was the last club meet of the year. He aimed for something different and mildly spectacular and it looked great. Three tables in an unusual kinked configuration represented a Norwegian fjord, whilst the ships were 1/700th kits covering destroyers and a single light cruiser. The rules were Nimitz.

A force of twelve allied destroyers in three columns are steaming at full speed into the fjord.

At the other end is a German heavy-water storage facility. The destroyers have to shell it. The Germans has three destroyers and a light cruiser to defend it with.

On the middle table was  fifth German ship, a guardship (also a destroyer). So the whole action would be fought with 4" guns and torpedoes, aside from the mighty 6" guns on the light cruiser.

One of the issues that the British had was that there were a lot of ships in a confined space. Movement became an issue of traffic management. Our plan was to send two columns in at high speed to engage the enemy ships, one at a slower speed to act as a mopping-up reserve and a third to head for the target and bombard it.

I was part of the British force. We onto  the central table virtually unmolested; a couple of minor its from the guardship and nothing more. The guardship took a pasting from concentrated fire though. No surprise there!

The rest of the Germans engaged the lead British vessels.

The light cruise Konigsberg ended up far to close to the cliffs of the fjord, cutting down its manuever options and leaving it shooting effectively but unable to turn into the main British force. Amazingly none of teh British destroyers could get a clear torpedo shot at it!

The German destroyers didn't last long. They sank one British ship, but were quickly wiped out.

With the light cruiser too far out of the fight to be useful the British now had a clear run at the target, and we called the game, claiming a British victory.

Thanks to Ralph for a fun, and surprisingly quick, game. Nimitz really rattles along when you know what you are doing.

With some time to spare I played a quick game of 'Blood, Sweat & Cheers' with Daniel, who hadn't played before. He wanted 'one of those guys with a net' so ended up with the retiarius Cupido. I took a classic opponent, the secutor Astinax.

Daniel controlled the game early on as I couldn't find an opening against the speedy retiarius.. I also got lightly wounded, which slowed me down somewhat.

On the plus side, whilst I couldn't get in a decent attack, Daniel found that I had ways of blocking every effective attack he made against me. To be fair several times that involved throwing sand at my foe (much to the crowd's displeasure), but it got me out of a tight fix a couple of times.

At one stage I got knocked down, but Cupido still couldn't finish me off. I even managed some rolling evades and ended up on the other side of the arena before finally being able to stand up.

And from that point on I found my stride. Astinax started to get some decent attacks together and I whittled down Daniel's gladiator, eventually striking him down for a win. The crowd were in my favour by that stage but he rolled well for missio and Cupido was spared.

So two fun games  to finish my club wargaming year!

Eques

I got my gladiators out the other day (for what I think is the first time this year) so that I could try some ideas I had for running the Eques type in 'Blood, Sweat & Cheers'. I first tried them out last year but wasn't entirely satisfied with how they played.

I'm still looking at the exact nature of their setup but I have abandoned the idea of them throwing their spears (indeed one piece I read suggested that they didn't even have spears if, indeed, they even fought on horseback). I have tried to emphasis the speed and mobility of being on horseback for the mounted phase of the combat, and then run with my idea from the previous post of running the foot version as a  lightly armoured secutor.

So here they are ready to go; Habilis in white the red shield and Maternus with the red tunic.

Habilis got in an early attack which missed.

Maternus wheeled and his attack unhorsed Habilis.

I stuck to the rules I'd used before for dealing with the mounted and foot phase of the fight; they would fight on horseback until one was defeated, or until one was knocked down. In the event of a knock down the turn ends, the knocked down gladiator stands up in the space he was in and his opponent can be placed in any adjacent space. In addition the opponent gets one point of Crowd Favour. The fight then continues on foot.

Maternus pushed his advantage and wounded Habilis.

There followed a free-wheeling fight around the arena before Habilis managed to get in a powerful blow that took down Maternus in one go!

The secutor stats felt far better and made for a more mobile fight on foot. The mounted phase didn't really last long enough for me to get a feel for whether I liked the new setup, so I will have to try a few more games. One thing I have realised is that so long as I don't make any of the abilities too overpowered I don't have to worry a great deal about balance, since these gladiators will only fight each other.

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.

Eques Debut

I gave the new Eques gladiators a try this afternoon. I used these cards for them:

The mounted version is similar to the Hoplomachus, but I put a charge ability in as the GLORY ability. The foot version is basically a Murmillo with lower defence and higher speed. This will all be subject to amendment.

The gladiators will fight on horseback until one of them is defeated, or one of them is knocked down. In the latter case the turn immediately ends and both gladiators are replaced by their foot figures. The knocked down gladiator gets to stand up, whilst their opponent is placed in any adjacent space and receives one point of crowd favour. Both gladiators discard and draw cards to make their hand up to five. The fight then continues.

Here are the combatants - Habilis on the left in white and Maternus wearing red on the right.

The two horsemen charged each other, neither having any effect as they passed.

They turn for another pass.

Habilis attacked Maternus who deflected the blow with his shield.

Maternus attacked back, riding past his foe, who pursued ...

... and struck him down for a win.

So Habilis won the first bout in a couple of moves. 

I set them up again, and once more the fight opened with both gladiators charging each other.

Maternus wheeled and got onto Habilis's unshielded side ...

... knocking him from his saddle

Maternus dismounted as his foe got to his feet, then advanced, buoyed up by the cheers of the crowd.

An exchange of blows saw Habilis wounded.

Habilis backed off, looking for an opening.

Maternus rushed in again with a mighty attack, pushing back Habilis and knocking him down with another wound.

Amazingly Habilis got to his feet unmolested as Maternus failed to follow up his attack. Habilis charged, but his wounds slowed him, and Maternus easily avoided the attack.

Maternus countered. His blow was well-struck and very, very lucky - Fortuna smiled on him at this point - and he defeated Habilis.

So that was one win each for the gladiators. 

The dismounted fight seemed OK, although it might be more interesting to run them both as Secutors instead for more mobility. I wasn't sure about the mounted fight though. In both games the gladiators got single Glory cards and used them to make charge attacks which kind of felt right by didn't seem very interesting. One thought I had was to treat them as a Veles, but with the same stats as they currently have, assuming that they have multiple spears rather than just the one. This would possibly make for a more mobile fight. The other alternative is to simply give them both Hoplomachus abilities, so the single Glory ability is an attack with a push-back. This doesn't feel very mounted, somehow.