Friday Night Game - Spartacus

Friday evening saw us with a couple of hours spare after completing Steve's 6mm Medieval Campaign draw and set-up, see here.

As such Mike W brought along a copy of Gale Force 9's Spartacus and his 32/35mm Jugula Gladiator figures to play test the combat section of the game, with a view to seeing if there is an appetite for a series of occasional campaign games for the same.

In a severely abridged version of the game we had five players taking on the role of Dominus (Master) for their Ludos (Gladiator Schools), the aim being to gain the most influence in Rome by running a string of successful gladiators and doing down their opponents.

Each Ludos was selected at random by the players and each was assigned a number of 'starting' slaves and gladiators. Players then bid against each other to stage a Games, in which the winner could nominate 3 other players who had to provide a gladiator or slave to fight in the ring.

Sparticus Box Lid Art

We had Rupert, Mat, Steve, Dave & Mark as Dominii, with Rupert winning the honour of hosting the first Games. Into the ring went the Gladiators with the winners each receiving a 'Favour' which earnt their owner 2 Gold Pieces and an increase in influence. 

After the completion of the games, the assembled Dominii then voted on if the Games were a success, if a success the host was paid a tribute of 7 gold coins plus they get an increase in their influence.

After each Games there was a market session whereby new Slaves & Gladiators could be purchased, in this round, better quality gladiators became available. 

We managed three round of Markets and Games, with Mat managing to secure a deadly twin bladed gladiator named as Moulinex the human food blender, famed for his ability with two swinging swords. Meanwhile Steve was able to pickup 'The Thing in the Pit', a hideously disfigured gladiator who always killed his opponent, no matter the wishes of the crowd or the host of the games.

Steve's 'Thing from the Pit'

Moulinex was expertly handled by Mat, and he quickly won two favours before he was pitted in the ring against two gladiators, one owned by Mark and the other by Steve. Moulinex prevailed to win his third Favour and thus became a Champion Gladiator, earning Mat much money and influence. However it was a close run thing for Moulinex, who took several nasty wounds to in the contest.

Mat's Moulinex, Champion Gladiator

Seems that everyone enjoyed the experience and with the simple but cunning combat mechanism that assigned each gladiator three combat skills - Attack, Defence & Speed, each of which were assigned a number of dice, everyone very quickly picked-up the mechanisms. Hits removed dice from the combat skills total and if one or two of these skills drop to zero the gladiator is down. Loose three and the gladiator is dead.

Thracian Gladiator

Defeated gladiators get a chance to live and fight another day, but their upkeep costs their Dominus Gold Coins and the help of slaves to see to their many and varied needs.

Another 'Starter' Gladiator, sword & shield

I feel a campaign coming on, where intrigues and Ludos Guards will be introduced as well as Doctors, Specialised weapons and animals etc.....

In the meantime 'Players put your fists in the ring!'

AHPC XII: From Mike W - Odds & Ends

  I don't know about everyone else but I'm often trying out new figures to see how they paint-up or to add one or two additional details to existing collections etc.

Here are a few that have been on my workbench the last few weeks awaiting finishing and I finally go around to completing them.

First up is a 35mm Gladiator figure to add to my Jugular collection, this guy is in the Greek style, armed with a short sword and a small shield, with just his sword arm armoured.

Jugula Gladiator

I kept the paint scheme simple, with a red loincloth, brown leather straps and shield cover and brass and iron armour and fittings.

Rear view

The skin was given a flesh wash and coloured washes were applied elsewhere as appropriate before varnishing and basing

Another view

Next up are two Spartan warriors, not your historical kind but more akin to those found in the 300 films. These are 28mm 3D prints and were so much fun to paint. Red cloaks, a lot of brass work and a lot of skin tones!

The two '300' Style Spartans

Spartan spearman

Spartan swordsman

Next, some people may have caught a sneak peek of a couple weeks back, a 15mm mounted figure representing Captain Nolan at the Charge of the Light Brigade, by Eureka Figures. Not much to say here but a lot of gold braiding & bullion on show

Capt. Nolan charging headlong down the valley

Reverse view

Next two 28mm Ottoman Turkish Officers. These have been converted from the Perry Miniatures Afghan plastic set by adding resin heads and that's pretty much it! Painted to represent Ottoman Officers and to be used as markers to impart additional morale to units in upcoming games.

The Two Ottoman Officers

Without too much scrutiny, these simple conversions make passible Ottomans!

Another view

Rear view of the Ottoman Officers

Next is a Space Marine on a Motorcycle, I usually go for Ultra Marines but this guy was part of a set given to me some years ago and believe that these from the Deathwing of the Blood Angels? Anyway  have been playing with it for the last few weeks and finally gotten round to finishing it.

I counted the Motorcycle as a vehicle for 20 points and then added the marine for an additional 5 points. Not sure if this is OK but will allow Peter D to decide. If OK this will count as an additional Squirrel point for the Space Marines

AHPC XI: From Mike W - 10 x 35mm Gladiators [The Hall of Heroes]

 We who are about to die salute you!

So my pitch for the Hall of Heroes is a group of Gladiators from the Gripping Beast 'Jugula' Ludus, I think they look like a pretty heroic bunch...

The new intake at the Ludos

I have been collecting these 35mm figures on and off since they were first released, however, they are really quite expensive new and so I have been squirrelling away figures and parts I have obtained over a number of months from eBay and other sources to complete a new batch of figures to join the 20 or so I already have.

The first pair of Gladiators, I used transfers on the small shied

I fancy at some point using them to play the excellent Gale Force 9 - Spartacus board game - but that's a whole other story. Does anyone know where I can find 35mm models of slaves and Roman Soldiers - its harder than you'd imagine!

The second pair of sparing Gladiators

Why go 35mm rather than 28mm, where there is a much greater range of figures? Well it was really because I liked the ability to build the gladiators from a kit form, selecting heads, weapons and shields to personalise each one. And I fancied trying something bigger!

So each of these figures has been decked out as a generic Gladiator type, with the majority the common types and a couple of the rarer types thrown in for luck. 

A classic Gladiator pairing! A Thraex versus a Retiarus

I can't take any credit for the more fancy shield art work on display, other than struggling with the decals to get them to lie flat on the shields, particularly difficult on the bevelled round ones, all I can say I don't be afraid to cut the transfers and take your time.

The fast and agile versus the slow and armoured - who will win? 

After building out each figure with it's head, weapons and shield options, I have undercoated the figures in white, as usual and fixed them to their bases.

And the final Gladiator pairing

I went for a range of skin tones, as a fan of the Spartacus TV series, this emphasised the diversity of the gladiators in the ring, I have tried to get European, African and Middle Eastern skin tones in the group.

The Thraex (or Thracian) Gladiator, with a double edged blade and small shield.

Another Thraex Gladiator, this time of African heritage

Loin cloths, padding and the like were kept as basic earthy colours except for a few of the higher status gladiators. What the Spartacus series did show nicely, was how much cloth padding was worn under the armour, to give additional protection. Armour was a mix of steel and brass and as noted where needed I used shield decals.

A Gladiatorial classic, the unarmoured Murmillo

A Hoplomachus Gladiator, this older guy, possibly a German slave,
is decked out to imitate Greek Hoplites in the arena

Another Hoplomachus , this time much more obviously
drawing on Greek military dress 

All figures were given washes of ink to help define muscles and I used a satin varnish finish on the flesh areas to give the impression of the guys sweating as they fought but used matt varnish elsewhere on cloth areas. 

Metal and some leather areas also got the satin varnish finish as at this bigger scale I think it makes a difference. I tend to stay away from blood on the weapons and equipment as it is way too easy to over do this and ruin an promising paint job.

A third Hoplomachus , this time with a Roman shield,
this one without intricate decoration - thus I painted it!

A Crupellarius Gladiator, a rare beast, covered in armour head to toe,
his weakness was likely his lack of movement and that he tired easily

Another Murmillo had a large shield and a sword.
This guy is of African heritage

Another classic Retiarus Gladiator - Trident & Net, relies on agility to win the day.
I love the detail of the lead / stone weights on his net

A third unarmoured Murmillo this time of European ethnicity

Bases were finished with fine sand and dry grass tufts, in an attempt to indicate a gravel arena with a few spots of vegetation.

Points wise I have guessed at 6 Points per figure as 35mm lies about half way between 28mm and 40mm!