Munera Sine Missione

Jamie and I ran about eight games using Alan Saunders's gladiatorial combat rules last night at the school Christmas Fair.  We charged 50p a game and had about eight or nine different players (most of them under 12) over the course of about two hours.  Some of them played multiple times - Matthew finally won a bout at the fourth attempt!

Spartacus the Thracian

The rules worked well with a minimum of having to look things up as we went along.  We found the easiest gladiators for the kids to use were those with a big shield, light armour and an ordinary melee weapon - a straight 1d6 AP and a sword to hit with were easy to understand.

Verus the Provocator

Better armoured gladiators tended to do well because after a bit of running around, most of the kids settled down to just trade blows in a stand up fight.  Fatigue points were rarely and issue!

We raised a few quid for the PFA but I consider the job of these games to be more about giving the kids something interesting to do and perhaps showing them that there's more to wargaming than Warhammer.

A couple of questions for Alan:

1. If an entangled gladiator cuts his way out of lasso, does the Laquaearius lose his lasso for the remainder of the fight?

Cyrus the Laquaearius

2. If a defender makes his armour save does the attacker lose a fatigue point (as he does if the defender wins the initial die roll)?

Gruesome Gladiators

There's another Christmas Fair coming up at Millie's school and I'm expected to run another participation game for the kids.

This time I'm moving away from Song of Blades and Heroes.  I want to run a series of very short games and I've settled upon Alan Saunders's gladiatorial game Munera Sine Missione (a half decent English translation would be something like "Contests Without Hope of Quarter").

This idea came to me about ten days ago and I have another week to put it together.  Fortunately, I have some Gladiator models I was given by Alan Slater.  They are patly, but nicely, painted and just need a little finishing off.

Graccus the Velite

I plan to stick, for the start at least, with single pairs of gladiators fighting.  A single fight should last about five minutes.  I've cleared with the PFA and Head Teacher that gambling on the results of bouts for small stakes is OK.  I need to find out how to run a book with profits going to school funds!

Julius the Provocator

Tergavix the Gaul - one of my Sartarites transferred back to
his original race.

As well as these models I have three more of Alan's that need weapons and shields attaching and a Wargames Foundry Samnite that's currently on the workbench.

I've found out that the "Lunar Priests" I mentioned recently are in fact the chaps whose duties were to make sure no "dead" gladiators were playing possum.

Testing George's Brits

With Crisis Point: Arctic Strike coming up in April I knew I needed to get into Cold War Commander again so as to build the enthusiasm I need to make the preparations.  Part of the process, then, was to play CWC as this month's Saturday Afternoon Wargame (TM)  

We played a scenario designed to showcase George's new British battlegroup.  The Brits are launching a counterattack and the Warsaw Pact is forced to throw whatever is available in their way.  The idea was roughly based on the 1940 battle of Arras.

The battlefield from above the Warsaw Pact lines.

George (of course) and Karl played the British.  Jamie drew the short straw and got the Warsaw Pact forces.  Jamie started with a motor rifle battalion and could use his CO unit to call in reinforcements - an East German reservist tank battalion in T-55s and a regimental AT company with BRDM-3s.

The centre of the Warsaw Pact line.

The battle turned out to be something over a walk-over for the British.  Chieftains and especially Challengers are really difficult to knock out unless you can concentrate huge amounts of firepower.  Poor old Jamie never had either the resources or the command and control elements to do the job.

Pointless scenic shot - the railway station.

The British tanks approach the bridge.

Jamie needed to knock out for British tanks to achieve victory but unfortunately he could only manage one.

A Spigot takes out a Challenger with a flank shot!

Eventually all of the Warsaw Pact tanks and AT vehicles were either killed or out-maneuvered and we had to call it a British victory.

The End - British tanks start to cross the stream.

Some Lunars

Gus came over for an unscheduled visit on Sunday afternoon and we took the chance to play-test a Song of Blades and Heroes scenario I'm working on.  No pictures during the game, I'm afraid, but here are a few shots of the newest figures I've painted.

The Batman

The Batman is the head priest of the Cult of the Crimson Bat.  He's a Foundry casting, from a blister of character figures for Roman gladiatorial games that I won in the raffle at a past Berkeley HOTT tournament.

Assistant Bat Priest

The assistant priest is from the same Foundry blister pack.  I do like the way these figures paint up even with my butter-fingered efforts.

On the Workbench - m/4140 complete

Despite a brief flirtation with Song of Blades and Heroes, I've managed to get the prototype Haubits m/4140 built, painted and based:

For scale here's a 28mm figure that's also on the workbench this evening.

Song of Glorantha

Ooh; I'm in an e-zine!

Check out my article on using Song of Blades and Heroes for Gloranthan skirmish games in the latest issue of Rule One Magazine.

On the workbench - Saab J35 Draken

The latest new toy for next year's Arctic Strike is this:

It's a Saab J35 Draken of the Finnish Air Force (Ilmavoimat).  The pics are
a little washed out.  I'll have to have another go from further away.

It doesn't show here but I've had a go at pin washing along the creases in the bird's skin in an attempt to capture the look Steve Graham gets on his aircraft.  I'm reasonably pleased with the result but will keep practising.