An Afternoon at the Arena

After seeing the Gladiators I finished up yesterday the kids were pretty stoked to get their mitts on them and play so I thought I’d set up a quick game with them this afternoon. (We also finished reading a book about Gladiators yesterday – so they were SUPER stoked to play with them!).

As Song of Shadows and Dust has some stats for Gladiators I used that. I told the kids to pick out 150 points of gladiators and we’ve have a go at it. The Boy picked out three Burly Samnites. The Girl picked out a female Retiarius and Dimachaerus.

Rome, 87AD

FORCES

The Boys

Nubius – Samnite

Q3+, C4, 46 points

Armed, Bludgeon, Slow

Baucelmyus – Samnite

Q3+, C4, 46 points

Armed, Bludgeon, Slow

Herkdotes – Samnite

Q3+, C4, 46 points

Armed, Bludgeon, Slow

The Girls

Assariya – Retiarius

Q3+, C3, 56 points

Armed, Disarm, Opportunistic

Minerva – Dimachaerius

Q3+, C3, 70 points

Armed, Street Fighter

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The kids setting up their Gladiators

The Boy and his burly Samnites

The Girl (who fights dirty – bless her socks!)

The Boys won initiative and Nubius went charging out into the arena… Then Baucelmyus rolled a pair of ones and that was the end of the turn!

The Girls weren’t quite able to capitalize on this lone gladiator… but their moves were bold and decisive.

On the second turn Baucelmyus and Herkdotes rushed up to support Nubius, but didn’t quite get there in time. Nubius moved in against Assariya the Retiarius and was landed on his ass for his troubles!

On the girls turn Assariya the Retiarius finished off Nubius with a Power Blow and retired back to where Minerva the Dimachaerius was.

Baucelmyus and Herkdotes rushed forward again but were unable to make contact, the more nimble women circled around and teamed up on Baucelmyus – he was able to hold his own until the boys turn…

Herkdotes attacked Minerva but was driven back by his furious blows. Baucelmyus and Assariya went at it hammer and tongs neither able to land a telling blow and neither willing to give any ground!

Minerva quickly stepped around Assariya and stabbed Baucelmyus in the side ending his days.

And so it was that Herkdotes found himself facing the two ferocious female gladiators on his own.

Not one to back down from a challenge, Herkdotes charged Assariya.

And knocked her on her ass.

She was too quick, though – before he could finish her she sprang up and back him back.

Minerva followed up with a flurry of furious blows…

…driving Herkdotes further back.

When Herkdotes got his balance back he charged in again…

…and was again driven back.

Minerva flashed in and, while Herkdotes was off-balance, tripped him up and cast him to the ground.

Desperation and adrenalin sped his reflexes and Herkdotes sprang up as quick as he fell.

Surprised by this sudden movement, Minerva was also caught off balance and knocked to the ground.

Before Herkdotes could finish her, Assariya sprang into action and cast her net at Herkdotes, but Herkdotes used brute force to smash into her with all his weight behind his shield and bowled her over!

With both his assailants knocked down, for a fleeting moment Herkdotes thought he might get out of this alive.

Quick as a flash, Minerva was up again…

…and blindsided Herkdotes with a half-dozen quick stabs from her blades.

The initially out-numbered women prevailed!

The vanquished Herkdotes, seriously wounded though he was, did not die outright and plead for mercy. Having fought so well on his own against two attackers mercy was granted and he was dragged off to the Medicus to see if he could be saved…

Fun times! This worked so much better that the Savage Worlds we used in our previous Gladiatorial Campaign. So much faster and much more dynamic! 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

We may play another game this evening – or perhaps tomorrow afternoon…? Either way, there will be more game reports in the near future! 

Gladiators! (and other Romans)

I FINALLY finished up the last of the Gladiators I picked up for my Summer Gladiator Campaign three years ago!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

All the stuff I finished up this week.

The Gladiators. There’s guys from Black Tree Design, Crusader Miniatures, Wargames Foundry,

West Wind Productions, and probably others…

You can see better pictures of ALL the gladiators in the newly updated 28mm Ancient Rome Gallery - you just have to scroll down past the Roman DBA army.

Command for some Roman Auxiliaries. I totally forget who made these…. I ordered a single sample pack simply because they were available through one of the regular distributors my FLGS used…

Not-so-romans… (but from the same era) 

Roman lady and servants – from Warlord Games

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Game Report – I promised the kids we’d bust out the Gladiators tomorrow and have a battle with them – since Song of Shadows and Dust actually has stats for all the various sorts of gladiators! After that… hopefully MORE game reports and some more painting… I have one more week of painting Romans and then it’s on to even more ancient subjects – Nubians and Egyptians! 

Convicts for the Arena

I finished up a handful of convicts for the Gladiatorial arena over the weekend (along with some other stuff – more on that shortly).

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

These convicts are from Crusader Miniatures. I already have a few, but North Star Figures was overstocked on these last month and was selling the packs for (I think) £2…? I actually meant to buy two packs… but instead I accidentally bought two Bolt Action Miniatures Chindit Vickers teams… I’m not sure what I’m ever going to do with ONE Chindit Vickers teams!? I kicked myself pretty hard over that one. I should have bought a bunch more packs and used them as HOTT/DBA Hordes or Warband in a slave revolt army… Ah well…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a herd of Centaurs I’m just finishing up and should hopefully have posted later today or tomorrow. 

Walls

(This is a work in progress)

I'm building some new walls.


These will double as walls for the arena in our Gladiator Campaign and also walls for a fort.

I still need to texture and paint these, but I think they're useable enough for tonight's shenanigans.

I've still to make some corner pieces. I will make a set of four that are simple right angle wall turns - for the arena or a less-well-defended town/fort. Bring rather modular, however, I will also, at some point, build some turret-like corners for a better fort/fortified town.

Sergeant Major – Rifleman – Gladiator

Just a couple new ones…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


An odd Sergeant Major from Wargames Foundry that doesn’t currently belong to any particular unit… Oh, I painted him with green facings, so he’s ostensibly from the 24th (South Wales Borderers)… but I have all my units organized into units of 15 men of like manufacture… and this chap isn’t currently on strength with any of them…


A Riflemen from Old Glory. The figure is realy just a line infantryman I’ve painted in the colours of the Rifles… I think the only real (distinguishable) difference would be that he should have a sword bayonet… But, honestly, if I hadn’t just told you… how many would have known… I’m not sure there’s actually anyone out there that specifically MAKES riflemen for this conflict (with Sword bayonets), so…

I have two British units on the go – The rifles and another line regiment. Both are about half done – yesterday I realized I wasn’t going to be able to finish up either so I finished off this sole rifleman just to see what they’d look like. The rest of the unit shall follow shortly.

On the plus side; old glory supplies their units in bags of 30. This is really handy for me because as I mentioned, I am organizing my forces into units of 15. Within certain bags of certain units types of certain ranges – usually ones you wouldn’t be fielding multiple units of - they include some sort of command. Usually this includes two officers/musicians/standard bearers – if it’s of an era that would have such things – this is even MORE awesome – again because of my current organization I get two complete units – command and all…!? Unfortunately, I’m guessing they assume for the Zulu War, one would be wanting a whole lot of British regulars so the command stuff is sold in a separate bag… so from this bag I will have two units of 15… with no officer… At some point I’d like to track down and officer for the two units (though from a different line - I won’t be buying another whole bag of OG stuff… just to get a couple officers!?)… but then I end up with two extra dudes... You might think – “what’s the big deal?” but the drawers I store these in fit neat lines of 10 figures – thus making units of 15 take up exactly one and a half rows… yeah… I’m that A-R about these things…

Sigh…


..and another Gladiator for my own team. The figure is from Black Tree Design. I’ve read some disparaging things about BTDs service, and indeed a year or so ago my firend Gary ordered some stuff from them and I think it took more than three.. maybe even four or five months to get all his stuff… But I’ve ordered a number of things from them (the USA supplier) this year (starting off with very small orders to fill in some gaps in units I’d picked up off ebay) and have had no trouble at all. A couple times things have been back-ordered – but they’ve followed along a couple weeks later…

Our Savage Saturday Gladiator Campaign had been raging on for a couple weeks (two weeks “real world time”, four weeks of “campaign time”). I have yet to field any of my own team members (too busy running the show)… perhaps next week….

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Rifles!! Then probably a line regiment… Then Zulus or Martians!!

Still More Gladiators

A few more for the arena…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


A few brutes from Crusader Miniatures. These are currently free agents, not claimed for any of the players teams in our Savage Saturday Gladiator Campaign.


A couple more for Amanda’s team from West Wind Productions or Old Glory?

The action begins tomorrow – check it out over at Savage Timmy’s Playhouse. (I’ll probably get to posting the after action reports on Sunday…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Same as always… Gladiators… Zulus… British… (John’s Descent figures… ) and hopefully an after action report of some more Colonial EVA!

More for the Arena

A couple more for our upcoming Savage Saturday Gladiator Campaign (action starts this Saturday)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Most of these are from Crusader Miniatures, except the guy in the black mask who, I think, is from Wargames Foundry .

The gladiator is for my “team” – I’ve chosen to do them all with white loincloths and reddish shields. The guy with the mask is some sort of arena official. The other two I’m going to use as “motivators”. I’m not sure what they did historically, but if players aren’t closing I’m going to have them out there to start shooting arrows/chucking javelins at them – because I can see situations where we might have two guys with “first strike” (an edge that gives the character a free close combat attack against one opponent that moves into contact with them per round) not wanting to close with one another because… well… they’d give up that free attack. Also if people are spending to much time talking sh!t to each other (taunting and intimidating – tests of will - in an attempt to gain some edge over their opponent).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Same as always… Gladiators… Zulus… British… (John’s Descent figures... maybe I better finish them off tonight… )

More Gladiators

I finished up a few more Gladiators last night for our Savage Saturday Gladiator Campaign.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


This is Jolo’s team. The figures are all from Crusader Miniatures. The one on the right I finished (and posted pictures of) yesterday. But since I finished the rest of the team last night I thought I’d throw him in for the group photo!


A couple arena officials/trainers, also from Crusader Miniatures.


A Gladiator for my team (also from Crusader Miniatures).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably a few more gladiators… then back to Zulus and British (and maybe some Martians!).

Those About to Die

Or already dying…

Over the weekend I finished up the last of the Zulu War British dead and started in on some Gladiators and extras for my Savage Saturday Gladiator Campaign

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


A Pair of Gladiators – one for my team, one for Jolo’s. John’s, on the right, is from Crusader Miniatures, and the one on the left is from Black Tree Design

I also picked up some extras – officials, Roman citizens, trainers, condemned…


These are four condemned men and a Roman citizen, all from Crusader Miniatures.


Finally the Zulu War British Dead. These are all from Old Glory. I’ve painted a pair of each of the Highlanders and Rifles. Now to paint some Rifle and Highalnd units!?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Gladiators, Zulus, British, etc…

For Those About to Die…

…We salute you!

A couple Female Gladiators for an upcoming Savage Worlds campaign. I’m waiting for a few more to arrive from Crusader Miniatures, but shortly after they do you’ll be able to follow the action over at Savage Timmy’s Playhouse.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


I picked these up off ebay in a mixed lot, but I’m pretty sure the one on the XXXX is from Wargames Foundry, and I think the one on the XXXXX was made by West Wind Productions… but I’m not 100% sure on that, as they don’t seem to make them anymore…


Another shot showing the detail of the other shield…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Zulus… Descent minis… British… French Foreign Legionnaires…. (not necessarily in that order!?)