Sons of Mars Gladiatorial Combat rules

I have been away on holiday with the family but have returned. Sadly my father-in-law passed away last Wednesday so it wasn't the best week ever.

Wargames wise, I have bought yet another set of rules. To be fair these are probably the least demanding in terms of figure requirements, but it's still wargaming. I have played several Gladiatorial combat systems over the years but never found anything I was happy with.

The most recent was Warhammer Historicals Gladiator set, now long out of print and very pretty. However they didn't do it for me, so they were consigned to the shelf and the figures I had were put away in a part finished state.

Then Northstar came out with a newsletter including a new set of Gladiator rules called Sons of Mars and the preorder deal included a pack of Crusader Miniatures Gladiators of your choice. A few quid was quickly spent and I eagerly awaited the postman.

So a quick review is in order I guess. The book is a decent quality softback and reads nicely. The rules are only a few pages, less than 20 in all excluding character skills. The rest of the book covers the Gladiator types, 17 in all, beasts, skills and a very nice campaign system to build up your own Ludus. There are even tables to allow solo play, with the actions of the opposition being determined by their best capability in a fight.

The basic system is opposed dice rolls using D10's. Initiative is diced for using Agility, so the lighter(and quicker) fighters tend to gain an advantage. However a +2 modifier isn't overpowering, so there is always the chance that the heavy weight will sneak in and attack unexpectedly. You can appeal to the crowd to gain a favour dice, but if you fail it may give the extra dice to your opponent!

The basic Gladiator stats give the core capabilities for your fighter which are then modified by their weapon choice and their skills. The skills are what makes the system for me, the ability to get an extra dice for that crucial fight, reroll an armour save or even breakaway from a fight all make your fighters different. Do you equip your man with a Gladius, good in a sustained fight, or give him a longer Spatha which will give him an edge if he charges? Does he take Impenetrable, allowing a single armour reoll, or Shield Bash, allowing rerolls in all Push tests in the combat?

I really like them, so much so that I got my gladiator figures out and painted up the unpainted ones, then rebased them all to use for this system.

Rebased West Wind and EM4 figures

Here are the previously painted ones. Some even came painted from EM4 miniatures many years ago. Not 100% sure but I think that these are mostly West Wind figures(now OOP I think), plus the four from EM4.

Crusader Miniatures Gladiators

Then we have the newly painted ones, all by Crusader Miniatures and very nice they are too. All told I have 27 figures now covering all the main types I can see me needing.

Clovis, Drakon, Atticus and Britannicus

As I said earlier there is a campaign system and tables for controlling the opponent, so I have been playing with myself (ooh err missus). My Ludus has gone from two fighters to four in three game months. Of the original pair Clovis the provocotar is unbeaten with 7 wins and is a regional champion. Drakon, a hoplomachus, has a record of 5 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. In March they were joined by Atticus, a dimachaerus with a record of 2 wins and 1 loss. Finally Britannicus the secutor was bought and has won his only fight so far. The Ludus has a balance of 90 coins but is at its maximum capacity for gladiators, so 200 coins will upgrade to a capacity of 6 and allow me to hire specialists such as a doctore(trainer) and medicus etc.

It is a good game and provides plenty of fun, even on your own. If you like gladiator games then consider this one.

That's it for now, I am off to the hospital again tomorrow for the results of tests and to see where I go from here. Six months of pretty continuous infections in my stomach is getting very wearing now. Sadly I will not be able to go to the Other Partizan either, due to my wifes father passing away. Ah well, I doubt that he did it on purpose. Catch you all(or both) later!

Dark Ages and a wee boat

It's been a long time coming, but here is another small update. Things are ticking along as before, good days and bad etc. I have managed to get a bit of painting in and even a bit of gaming. Painting wise has mostly been Dark Ages troops for my collection. After starting out painting enough for Dux Brittanarium games, between 30 and 40 figures each side, I now have enough(almost) for a To the Strongest game with over 100 figures each side.

 So here are the newly painted figures. First up are 8 cracking Romano-British cavalry from Footsore miniatures. They are some of the best figures out there in my opinion and I will, eventually, get some more.

Then we have some plastic Gripping Beast and metal Black Tree Design cavalry. The Gripping Beast ones are ok, saved by the cost compared to metals but certainly not up to the standard of the Footsore ones. The Black Tree figures are nice, but the amount of work that needed to be done to the horses puts them off the future buy list. Sort out the molds fellas!

The next five photos are all Gripping Beast foot figures that I picked up on eBay for not much per figure or left over plastics from my Dux Brit forces. All together there are 117 assorted foot, a mix of spears, javelins, musicians and standard bearers.

 The shield and banner designs are all from LBMS and very nice they are too.

 I had thought I would have enough with this lot as it gave me a total of 32 horse and 240 foot but alas, I need some more archers.

Only 14 more admittedly, but it is still 14 more!





The reason for this is my To the Strongest Romano-British force has quite a few units of light infantry archers. I don't know if they are any good as we have only played the game twice, but I can have them so I will.

Here is the Romano-British army as it currently stands. Three generals, two units of cavalry, one of light cavalry, five units of pedites(spearmen), two units of mercenary Saxon warriors and five units of assorted light infantry. There are only three units of light infantry in the picture and they are missing a couple of figures, hence why I need 14 more.

 To face the Britons I have also put together a Saxon force. Three generals, one cavalry, eight warriors and three units of light infantry. A blunt instrument to be fair, but different to the Britons.

The other bit of painting I have done is a bit different, a small boat from China via eBay. It came as a plywood kit and looks pretty decent for a motor launch type of thing for future games. I have hidden some magnets under the deck so my pulp figures machine guns can be mounted on deck.

And that's it for now. I am playing To the Strongest at the Devon Club next month, so there will be a report on that at some point. Adios for now.

Painting and gaming

Yet again it's been a while since I posted, so here is a general update. I have done a bit of painting, I have done a bit of gaming. I have had good days and bad weeks, but I'm still alive so it's mostly good. 😉

 Painting first. Just lately I have been playing Dux Bellorum as we decided to play it as a group game on our lads weekend to Wargames Foundry and Partizan. The rules give a decent game and it's allover fairly quickly, which is good for an evening or afternoons game.

So some Dark Ages troops have come out of storage and had paint liberally splashed all over them. First up we have 6 standard bearers and 16 assorted foot, all Gripping Beast figures with LBMS shield and banner transfers.

Then we have 26 assorted foot types, a mix of plastic and metal GB with LBMS shields again. A nice addition to my previous Dux Britanniarum forces.


After Partizan I painted up another 5 standard bearers and 13 more assorted foot. All told I have about 150 foot figures done now, with about the same number still to go.





I have also painted some cavalry as a change and to give some options for my force. Firstly though I rebased the 8 I had already painted so they could all be used on the sabot bases I got from Warbases. Four each of heavy and light cavalry, a nice start for my cavalry force.

Then I painted the new additions. Somehow I had 4 mixed metal figures floating about, so they were painted along with the box of plastic Dark Ages Cavalry I had picked up. 24 should be enough for any force right?

So why do I now have 8 Footsore Romano-British Heavy Cavalry waiting to be painted? Why indeed! They are lovely figures though, really pretty.



Gaming has been a bit mixed, with several games of Dux Bellorum as mentioned previously interspersed with some games of Mythic Battles:Pantheon. Apart from that there has been not much done.



Here are a couple of pictures of our multi-player test game of Dux Bellorum. Six players, three each side with a mix of Romano-British, Welsh, Saxon and Raider forces. I won! At least that's how I remember it anyway. 😀

 Finally I managed to injure myself by falling over a box in a savage shark attack! No boxes were injured in ripping the crap out of my leg, but a fair bit of skin and blood was misplaced. Stupid box.

A Partizan and Foundry post will arrive tomorrow.

Last few 15mm Cold War for now, plus a few ladies

I have nearly finished the last of my Cold War forces that I have here, the last few bits are painted up now and that's the lot...........until I get some more. 

Firstly we have a minor conversion to an Armies Army YPR-765 PRI. To give my small Dutch force a bit of long ranged anti-tank capability I decided to add some missile firepower.  A bit of research and I discovered the Dutch converted some YPRs with the TOW launcher turret from the US M901 ITV. At the time I looked nobody made this in 15mm(more on this later) so a bit of modelling was needed. Luckily Team Yankee do the ITV as a plastic add-on for their M113 kit and you can buy a sprue of bits individually. One quick order later and a sprue duly arrived. The modification is simplicity itself, just switch the IFV turret for the ITV turret and it's job done. 

Slap some paint on, add some netting and here it is, ready to support my Dutch troops against the Soviet horde.

As is typically the way with these things, just after I had stuck all the bits together and started slapping the paint on I received an email from TSS/QRF. Amongst their new releases was, you've guessed it, the YPR-765 PRAT! Typical. Ah well, I've made it now and I am happy with how it came out.

In addition the the YPR I used a spare M577 to make up an aid-station objective/jump off point marker. A few mixed figures from my Dutch, ANZAC and US spares and here it is. Its also my first attempt at the US MERDEC camoflage, hopefully it came out ok. 

Finally I ordered another Fv432 from Armies Army to carry my Milan teams around, as well as a few figures to make the teams up to 3 men each. Here they are in all their DPM glory, that's my BAOR force done, until I get some Scorpion/Scimitars for them anyway.

The last pictures are of a Dead Man's Hand gang of "Daughters of the West". These are for a nice chap in Germany for his wife to use against his gangs. Nice figures that made a change from all the Cold War stuff I have painted lately. If you read this Carsten, I hope your wife likes them and doesn't beat you too badly.

Anyway, that's it for now. I have nearly finished a few more things so there may be another update soonish.

Take care folks and I hope your dice are good to you.

Death in the Dark Continent/Congo figures

I am back again with more plans and schemes that will remain my focus for about 10 minutes, before something else grabs my attention.

I recently bought the re-released Death in the Dark Continent rules from Northstar.  I went in for it because........well, it looked good and I had no figures for it and I have no will power, at all.  The rules came and caught my interest immediately, so all I needed was some figures.  On our recent trip to Partizan I spent a bit of cash and ended up with a selection of figures from Wargames Foundry, Copplestone Castings and Northstars African Range.  All told I had a mixed bag of over 80 figures by the time I had finished.  I figured that would be plenty, stupid of me I know. I decided to base them on pennies (UK 1 pence coins) as they are magnetic and would also allow me to use the figures for Congo games.  So sabot bases were needed for DitDC, which were easily arranged by emailing Supreme Littleness Designs and asking if he could knock something together for me.  In less than 24 hours he had done so and I had ordered them.  Top service from a nice chap who does exactly what it says on the website.

So, I started slapping paint about in a random manner and eventually ended up with a load of painted(sort of) figures.  So here they are in their glory, sort of.  Well, at least they are painted and none of them have been in my possession for more than a few months!

 Here are 20 warriors, all with wicker shields and spears.

20 more warriors, some with fancy headdresses.

 10 more warriors, 5 musket armed types and some porters.  This lot include the freebie figures that came with the pre-order of the rules book.

 24 Pygmies, because who doesn't like a pygmy!  They are right sneaky little blighters in the rules, very hard to hit if they are in cover.

Finally for now are some disorder bases.  Disorder is the normal unit killer in the rules, it takes a very lucky shot to actually kill a base so they tend to run away rather than get wiped out.

So there they all are.  The planned force is a Cannibal Tribe list coming in at a nice 298 points made up of the following units.
One unit of 4 Elite Warrior bases including the Chief
Two units of 4 Warrior bases
Three units of 4 skirmisher bases armed with spears
Two units of 6 pygmy bases with bows
The Surprise stratagem, so they can all set up in ambush
Some pitfalls to force the enemy into the rough and slow them down

 Here are the figures on the sabot bases.  First up is 2 units of 4 bases of warriors.  I need another 12 warriors including a chief to complete the fighting arm of the force. Also shown here is the baggage base, 3 bearers.

 These are the 3 units of 4 bases of skirmishers.  Only 2 figures per base, so easy to tell apart from the fighting types.

Finally (for now), these are the sneaky pygmies.  These are all the pygmy figures that Wargames Foundry make, so that's all there will be I think.

As I said, I need to get a Chief type and some more warriors, so Northstar will get an order as soon as my finances have recovered. In the future I plan a Naval Landing Party force using the Perry Miniatures Sudan figures.  They can have a gatling gun......

So that's it for Africa for the time being, although I have also painted up some other things for another plan, more on that tomorrow.

Adios for now.

New rules, changed plans and other random mutterings.

It seems to me that we are living in a golden age of wargaming, with rules and figures of quality all coming out with startling rapidity.  I have recently purchased 25mm Colonial British infantry, 25mm Dark Ages warriors, 15mm Cold War British and 25mm Crusader figures.  Not much has been painted, but it doesn't stop me buying them..........

Then the rules, Lion Rampant, Dragon Rampant, Kings of War, Men who would be Kings and Congo have all joined the collection recently.  Will I play them all?  Probably not as much as they deserve, but I still have them.  I really enjoy the Dragon/Lion Rampant rules, but they are not suitable for a large battle and some times it's fun to load the table with lead and have at it.  Hence Kings of War, which seems to be everything Warhammer could have been.  And now Congo has reared its head and has been the game of choice for the last 2 weeks.  I have not played it yet, but have run a couple of games for the Monday night lads, with the White Men winning one and the African tribes snatching victory in the other.  I keep getting drawn to North Star and Wargames Foundry to look at the bundles of figures they do but have managed to restrain myself......so far.

So, what do I plan to play next?  Dux Britanniarum is currently the plan as Nathan and I are running a game at Firestorm Games on Saturday 15th.  Also the painting list has been scrapped and replaced with suitable extras, such as carts and the like, for the game.  I have also been painting Romano-British figures for Andy and Nathan.  So far Andys 36 figures have been finshed and returned, while Nathans 19 are awaiting the imminent delivery of shields.  Then it's onto 70 odd other assorted Saxon and Briton figures for Nathans ever expanding warbands. 
 

Bad photo!

Here are Andys British, a mix of metal and plastic figures with LBMS shield decals to finish them off.  Sorry about the crap photo, it was a rush job as I was getting ready to go out.

So thats it for today.  It's just gone midnight and I have to be up early tomorrow for a pointless doctors appointment.  A GPs review of the tablets prescribed by the consultant, so they can't change them without his say so and he won't say so, but they have too see me to review the medication every 6 months.  So on that happy note, good night and I'll catch you all next time.

PS  By all I do mean the 2 people who look at this load of tripe every now and again. ;)

Ramblings and a BIG ACW game

I've been a bit lax updating here, so this update includes an eclectic mix.  Gaming has been rather lax of late, primarily because I am still feeling like a zombie half the time.  Sadly the rest of the time I am feeling worse. :(

Anyway, I am staying upbeat as much as I can(although I'm getting fed up waiting for news from the hospital now) and so I have been managing to pop along to the Monday night games.  I don't last too long there, but it's nice to get out for a bit.  Mostly we have been continuing an ongoing Twilight 2000 roleplay that we do for about 4 session each year.  They started this game long before I joined the group (about 20 years ago) and we are still running about trying to get back to NATO lines.  It's a laugh to get back to it though.  Last week we did another game of Blood age as Zob had a meeting to go too.  I left before it finished and was winning at that time so, despite the results once Zob came back and took over for me, I am claiming it as a win. ;)

I was taken out for a day last weekend as Nathan and Panjo took me up to Reveille in Bristol.  A pleasant local show, although the set up is a bit "old school" in lots of small rooms as opposed to the usual "everything in one big hall".  I picked up some tufts(to replace the ones my wife threw away accidentally), some Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warriors and some Perrys light cavalry.  We were only there a couple of hours but it was a pleasant trip and we had a good day.  I bought something else but can't remember what it was right now??????  Comments about age, senility and other such abuse will be ignored!

Union troops mass on the table

Back over the bridge boys!

 Yesterday was the Christmas game at the Devon Wargames Groups monthly meeting.  This year Chas had set up an ACW game using Regimental Fire & Fury in 25mm.  The various members pulled their collections together and set too on a large T shaped table.  I only stayed for about 2 hours but saw the masses gather and the game was just heating up as I left.  Over 2000 figures were on the table and each player had a characteristic that had some some of effect on the game.  As an example, Nathan's men hated him and got a bonus if he wasn't attached!  Bit like real life really. I'm sure that JJ is organising a post on there as I type this, so keep an eye out for better pictures and a more detailed report.

"Them dang Rebs is here sarge!"

The rest of the players

Devons mostleast wanted gather

Devons own Jon "David Bailey" Jones in action

Right, that's it for this post.  I will put up another one in a  minute with the painting efforts on it.  Back in a sec.

WW2 in 25mm! WHY????? and other things

First thing, I'm still here so prepare for more pointless updates and ramblings about assorted crap.  After the best part of a week in hospital I am now waiting for the consultant in Chelmsford to decide on a course of action.  Hopefully sooner rather than later, but at least things are moving on.

Wargaming is still suffering due to my health, but I have managed to get a few games in and even finished off some figures that I have had for a while.  Gaming has been mostly Blood Rage, another kickstarter that we went in for.  The game is pretty good with some nice nuances to make each game different.  The best thing about it is the miniatures though, they are truly lovely and I hope that I can do them justice when we start to paint them.

I have finally finished off some of the Perrys DAK figures I picked up on the Bring and Buy at the Bovington Wargames Show back in July.  My original plan was to paint them up to sell, but things have changed a bit.  I was impressed with the look of the figures, more realistic than I expected and a joy to paint up.  I am not overly impressed with the selection of figures in 15mm for North Africa, so I have decided to keep a platoon of these for any future games of Chain of Command. 

DAK Infantry Platoon in 25mm

Instead of just doing the basic platoon structure I decided to add a few bits to the platoon.  The basic structure is one senior leader, three squads of ten men each with two LMGs, a two man AT rifle team and a three man light mortar team.  I have decided to use mine as a standard infantry platoon as opposed to an MG laden Panzergrenadier platoon, so only needed one LMG per squad.  I added a second senior leader, a two man FAO team and moving figures for the mortar and AT teams.  All told it comes to 44 figures.  The plan is eventually add a few (very few) additions such as a tripod MG, Pak gun and maybe a Panzer II.  I also ordered a box of the British figures to give them something to fight against, but they will take a while to get painted.  

Another DAK platoon

 My purchase at Bovington included the contents of several boxes of DAK figures, so I organised and painted up a standard rifle platoon as well, these are to go on eBay to recoup my initial costs.  So another 36 figures joined the painted list.

Dark Ages Saxons by Gripping Beast

The last bit of painting I have managed was to finish off the last figures I needed to complete a Saxon force for Dux Britanniarum games.  I have had a Romano-British force completed for some time, but never got around to finishing off the Saxons.  Now I have and just in time for Nathan to use them tomorrow at the Devon Wargames November meeting. 

Ten Gripping Beast plastic figures, all painted and based ready to pillage the lands of the British tribes.  The shields are LBMS transfers as I'm too old and lazy to paint shields. 

I have also decided on my long term plan for next year.  I like Lion Rampant as a game and have decided to get together some more figures in order to use the rules a bit more often.  After a bit of looking about and pondering I have settled on a new period for me.  I am going to get forces to play Crusade period games, specifically based on the events very loosely portrayed in "Kingdom of Heaven", where Legolas Balien does his best to hold off the forces of Saladin.  I know it's Hollywood at it's best but I like the film and it has got my interested in the period, so it's all good.  Fireforge games and Gripping Beast will be providing the majority of the figures, with transfers by Battle Flag and Gripping Beast being used. 

So that's it for now.  I will try to take some pictures of the game tomorrow, just like I will try to last more than a couple of hours.  Catch you all later.

Devon Wargames, painting, gaming...............

Back again with another load of old crap.

Saturday was the latest gathering of like minds, which is a scary thought,  at the Devon Wargames Group.  Three games were played, 28mm English Civil War, 15mm Napoleonics and 15mm WW2.

Things begin at Marston Moor

Marston Moor was the basis for the ECW game, catering for 8 players and involving much toing and froing.  It looked like a fun game and the players seemed to enjoy shouting at each other.  Look for a report soon on the DWG blog.

Contact in the centre

JJ put on a typically beautiful 15mm Napoleonic game using figures from his ongoing Talavera project.  The rules used were apparently called DBJ, not sure if that's for De Bellis Jon or Death By Jon.  Again the players looked to be having a good game, even if they did get their units a bit mixed up.

JJ's Talavera game

If you want inspiration on what you can do with 15mm figures and some spare time then check out his previous posts about the Talavera project, they are worth looking at.

These are not the gun's your looking for

Brits appear to steady the line

Unhappy Spanish Cavalry

German's advance through the woods

The final game was a 1940 Chain of Command game put on by me.  Four of us played it, Nathan and Christopher took the attacking Germans, Jack commanded the dug-in Highlanders and I took the French.

Each German player had a platoon of infantry (4 squads of 10 men plus a 5cm mortar) plus  2 Pz IIs, 2 Pz 38ts, 2 Sd222s, a tripod MG and an engineer section in support.  The British platoon(3 squads of 8, 2" mortar and Boys AT rifle) were supported by a Vickers MG team and a 2pdr gun while the French Platoon(3 squads of 12) were backed up by a Hotchkiss MG and a mighty 25mm AT gun.  The allies also had a carrier section(3 Bren carriers) and a single Vickers VI light tank as reinforcements. 

Defenders appear in their entrenchments

2pdr appears, not that it did much

French 25mm gun gets hit

The Germans had to break through the defences, but failed miserably.  The Brits were hard hit by the end, with two sections routed and the third pinned down.  All their support was still there though, although the 2pdr had run out of ammo without killing a single enemy vehicle.  The French were in a stronger position, with one squad at half strength and pinned.  The AT gun was slightly battered and the MG was pinned, but the remaining squads weren't even deployed.  The Germans took heavy losses due to remarkably accurate fire from Jack's Highlanders.  It did help that he managed several multiple phases during the game, one time he had 4 in a row!  This really scuppered the German's advance and prevented their infantry from ever getting going.  Low point was Jack's 2pdr firing 10 shots and only damaging a Pz38t once and an Sd222 once.  This was despite hitting on 5+ on 2d6 as they were in the open AND rolling 5d6 against 2 or 4d6 for penetration.  Not good at all, but the Boys AT rifles made up for it.  The infantry one knocked out one Sd222 and kept the other one and both Pz38t's pinned at the edge of the table.  The carrier one fired 2 shots and caused both PzII's to retreat off the table.  Fear the Boys, for it is mighty!  Anyway, the game went well, even if the German's never really got into the fight.

I have managed a bit of painting too, so things are not going too bad.  First things I have done were a couple of 4Ground 15mm terraced buildings that I have based and detailed to improve how they look on the table.  At least that's the plan anyway.  First one was a definite learning experience and took far longer than the second.  The buildings have been painted up to cover the scorch marks from the laser.  They were then attached to a hardboard base with some pavements and back gardens added.  I cut the board too big and was left with some space at the end(measure and check before cutting), so I added a small allotment to fill that.  The walls and fences are 4Ground too, with plants from various sources.  Some are just grass tufts while others are railway modellers scenic bits.  The garden paving is Wills sheets of various types.  they are a bit overscale but look ok and will do.  I think they came out well and will soon be joined by some more as I have many buildings that need doing.

 The second terrace was based on a correctly cut bit of hardboard and has more grass in the gardens.  As I said, it's been a learning experience.  It's been a fun exercise though and will be repeated soon(ish).

 I also managed some 28mm WW2 Germans, a 32 man platoon of Bolt Action plastic figures for eBay.  Got to pay for the MOT on the car, which cost a bit more than we hoped for.

Final things were some entrenched 15mm WW2 British and French infantry.  The figures are all from Skytrex, but the French are really Germans with Peter Pig heads fitted.  Nobody does dug in French troops.

Well that's your lot again.  I am off to paint some more on the French tanks I am doing before calling it a night and going to bed.  Off to Torbay Hospital tomorrow for the op on my stomach, assuming they have found me a bed as I have to stay in for a day or two.  Have fun while I'm offline, I know I won't.