Warwell's Wargames: Gladiators

Showing posts with label Gladiators. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Gladiator Games

Sometimes I don't feel like setting up a scenario. I just want to throw down some figures and start rolling dice. In the past, I've toyed with gladiator games but never really got very far with them. Recently, I've been toying with gladiators again.

Problem 1: Figures

I don't really have any figures to use. I used to have some 10mm fantasy figures that would work, such as the infamous Nocan the Barbarian.

I considered getting some new miniatures but I'm just not enthused by the idea. Perhaps I'll look into paper figures.

For now, however, I'm going with Meeples.

Problem 2: Rules

I'm not sure what rules to use. I thought about MicroQuest, my homebrew RPG rules. They work fine for theater of the mind RPG fights, but they're a tad boring for tabletop one-on-one fights. There is no maneuvering, so the figures just sit there.

Experiments

I decided to play around with some rules ideas.

Attempt 1

I'm using 2 vanilla gladiators - sword, no shield, no armor.

The rules work thusly:

Move - Each gladiator rolls D3. Alternate moving 1 space.
Maneuver - When gladiators move into the same space, make an opposed die roll to see who has an advantage in the fight. (An idea I took from Two Hour Wargames; I also use it in my dogfight rules).
Fight - Make an opposed die roll to see who wins the exchange.
Damage - roll to see if the loser (a) gets wounded and (b) gets knocked back.

And away we go. Blue advances quickly, but Red gets the upper hand. His attack does 2 wounds (not shown).

Red presses forward while Blue retreats. Red attacks and kills Blue (I assume 3 wounds = kill)

Well, that was a tad quick and unsatisfying.

Attempt 2

I made a few modifications to the rules.

Maneuver - The winner gets to attack. If you double the opponent, you get to attack with an advantage.
Fight - the winner of the maneuver rolls to hit. This change will likely make fights longer. In the original rules, someone got hit each turn. Now, it is possible that no one gets hit.

Let's try it out.

Red charges, and gains the advantage. His attack misses.

There are a few turns where the gladiators circle around the arena but fail to wound each other. A successful hit does not necessarily result in a wound. Weak hits could just rattle the opponent.

Red finally scores some damage, and it is a serious wound! The hit also knocks Blue back.

Red rushes in for the kill, but Blue counters and wounds Red!

Some more circling, before Red scores the death blow!

Looking at the time stamps, the first bout took 4 minutes and the second took 23 minutes. However, that 23 minutes is padded because I had to take a break to feed the cats! Perhaps 10 minutes for the second?

Anyway, I feel that these rules have promise. Now, I'll look to add armor, shield, different weapons, etc.

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Let the Games Begin!

Now that I have an "arena" I am experimenting with some ideas for gladiator fights. Below is an illustrated explanation of the rules.

Activation

Each side rolls D6 + modifiers* for activation points.
High roller goes first. Each side has Roll / 2 Action Points (APs)

* Modifiers would include armor, experience , etc. For today's battle, I did not apply any modifiers.

Actions - Movement and Maneuver

Actions are then taken alternately - high roller then low roller.
It costs 1 AP to move one space.

Example: Nocan (left) faces Axel. Nocan rolls a 5 so gets 3 APs while Axel only gets 1. Nocan moves forward 1 space as does Axel. Nocan moves another space but Axel's movement is over so Nocan moves a third time.

I don't have a photographic example, but figures can also maneuver while sharing a space. A maneuver costs 1 AP and allows a figure to slip to the side of his opponent, giving an advantage when attacking.

Combat

Melee combat occurs when combatants occupy the same space. The figure that moved gets to attack.

Rules Note - initially I required an AP to attack, but it became too easy to escape combat, and figures began circling without any combat.

Combat is based on my MicroBattle rules. It involves the following steps:

Attacker makes a Res Test. A base Res Test requires a 4+ to succeed. In this example, Axel and Nocan were in the same space. Axel attacked and scored a 5 (green die). A hit!
If hit, the Defender makes a Res Test to block or avoid damage. Nocan rolled a 4 (red die). Just enough to prevent a wound!
The Defender also makes a Res Test to determine if he must retreat. Nocan's 3 is a fail. He must back up one space.

Here, Axel wounds Nocan and forces him to retreat!

Nocan suffers a second wound, then (below) Axel finishes him off.

I then tried a bout between Axel and Sir Cadian (a heavily armored knight). I broke off the fight mid-game because something was bothering me about the rules. I added a rule for maneuvering to give the player some choice - do I go in for a frontal attack or do I try to sneak around? The problem was that it was too easy for the opponent to counter the maneuver. For example:

Nocan and Axel start in the same space. Nocan has 2 AP and Axel has 1.
Nocan goes first and decides to maneuver.
Then Axel goes. He maneuvers also. They are back to face-to-face.
Nocan can then maneuver or attack. If he maneuvers, he'll need to win initiative to be able to make a side attack.

Let's take a look at another example:

Nocan and Axel start in the same space. Nocan has 3 AP this time and Axel has 1.
Nocan goes first and decides to maneuver.
Then Axel goes. He maneuvers also. They are back to face-to-face.
Nocan maneuvers.
Then with his final AP, Nocan gets a side attack.

The problem I'm having is that the dice seem to be dictating the choice of tactics. If I have 2 more AP than my opponent, then a side attack is a viable tactic. Otherwise, attacking will guarantee a chance to hit and seems to be the better option. I would prefer the choice of tactic to be equally viable, then rolling dice to determine its success. Perhaps I need to borrow from Red Sky Black Moon and add a maneuver roll (I discussed this RSBM mechanic in this prior post). When a figure does a maneuver, he gets to make a Res Test. If he succeeds, he can attack immediately.

I'll have to think about it a bit.

Monday, May 10, 2021

My New "Arena"

I am putting together a portable playset for chariot racing and gladiator games. Here is what I have so far:

The board is cork and is gridded into 5 by 6 1-inch squares. I hope those are big enough for the Irregular Miniature chariots. The wood bit will represent the spina that runs through the middle of the track.

The box itself is about 6 x 8 inches. Other pieces in the box will be a small tin of miniatures, some dice, and perhaps some terrain.

I already have some 10mm fantasy figures painted up. They will be my gladiators.

By the way, I tried out a variant of MicroBattle for gladiator bouts. It seemed to work OK. I'll have to provide a detailed report.

Saturday, May 1, 2021

To the Arena!

Lately, I've been rather too lazy and/or distracted to set up a proper battle. When I get like this, I find my thoughts turn to skirmish-style games, such as gladiators. A recent ad on the Wargames Website has me thinking once again about entering the arena. I even picked up the advertised rules, Red Sand Black Moon.

What intrigued me about RSBM was that they were designed for matches between fantasy figures. I was hesitant to get these at first because they are a Two Hour Wargames design. I have a love-hate relationship with THW. On the one hand, I really like many of the subjects they cover and they do have some interesting ideas. However, I dislike their base mechanic. It seems table heavy and not intuitive. Despite my misgivings, I decided to take the plunge. I am glad that I did. I don't plan on running RSBM as is, of course. But there is a mechanic in it that I plan to steal.

One of the difficulties in replicating one-on-one fights on the tabletop is that a lot of the movement involved does not translate. In reality, the combatants could essentially stay in once place, yet they will be making a bunch of small movements - shuffling their feet, bobbing and weaving, making feints, and probing for an opening. This typically gets lost in wargame rules. But RSBM captures it with a Maneuver roll. It is an opposed die roll. If the attacker succeeds well enough, he slides to the opponent's undefended side and can attack. Failure means that he cannot find an opening. It's a simple solution that replicates this jockeying for position.

My goal is to combine this concept with my MicroBattle skirmish variant. I also want to take a second look at Munera Sine Missione, which I tried before but did not pursue.

Friday, May 1, 2020

Arena of Heroes

After my successful experiment with Age of Heroes, I began to ponder using the rules for fantasy skirmishes. At the same time, Kaptain Kobold's recent gladiator reports (here's the latest) got me interested in gladiator games. How about using Age of Heroes for team battles in an arena?

I experimented with a virtual board.

Teams consisted of a hero, 2 warriors, and an archer. The archer had limited ammo. I randomly placed 4 obstacles that could be used as cover.

The games were a lot of fun. In fact, I've played nearly 20 games on my virtual board.

Of course, I ultimately want to convert to miniatures on an actual board. I went a bit crazy and ordered enough 10mm figures for a dozen teams! Well now I had a dilemma, how to store all these new figures?

Work came to my rescue. Earlier in the year I celebrated my 15th anniversary at my company. They gave me a nice trophy (which is sitting on my desk at work). It came in a nice box.

Being a minimalist, I normally don't save stuff, but I made an exception for this box.

Good thing. I think it will make perfect storage for all my fantasy figures.

The box top made a perfect play space. I cut out an 8 x 8 grid from a Pathfinder flip mat and then made obstacles from the leftover bit.

I created two teams from my existing fantasy miniatures (still waiting on my order):

A knight hero, dwarf warrior, an archer, and sorceress, vs.
An orc warlord, 2 warriors, and an archer

Here is the final position.

The knight (with 2 wounds) and dwarf are still alive along with an orc warrior. The adventurers scored 3 kills on 5 wounds while the orcs scored 2/4. Victory for the adventurers!

I did not use upgrades for my virtual battles but did so for the miniature session. The dwarf was tough (+1 Health) and the sorceress had a Piercing Shot (no armor roll). Too bad she never hit anything before being cut down by an orc warrior.

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Munera Mayhem

Unsatisfied with my home brew attempt at gladiator rules, I decided to try out Munera Sine Missione from Alan Saunders (aka Kaptain Kobold) and Victor Jarmusz. As a test, I played a couple of matches this morning.

When I first read through the rules, there were elements that had me scratching my head. For example, it took more action points to move sideways than forwards. In my medieval LARP career, that really has not been my experience.* I was also concerned that it would be easier to move to the flank / rear than in real life. Nevertheless, I decided to give the rules a go as written.

I don't have gladiator figures so I grabbed some D&D minis. In my first bout, Jenna the halfling took on Durin the dwarf. Early in the bout, Jenna snuck in a couple of stabs, but Durin's heavy armor deflected the blows.

Then Durin got into an excellent position for an attack, and promptly fell flat on his rear (the attack roll was a double, which led to a special event; in this case the attacker got knocked down).

Durin managed to scramble to his feet. However, Jenna slipped to his side and thrust into a kink in his armor. Durin was now bleeding profusely.

Staggered by his wound, Durin could not match Jenna's agility. She got to his rear and plunged her dagger into his back. Durin fell down dead!

I did not bother with appeals to the crowd, although I am pretty sure Durin was a goner.

Anyway, I tried a second bout. This time Jenna faced Zorac, a lightly armored warrior with twin scimitars. Jenna drew first blood (a fairly deep wound) but Zorac replied with a slice that left Jenna in serious trouble. Zorac spared her no mercy; he followed up vigorously and ran her through

Overall, MSM worked quite well. It solved my main issue - lack of maneuvering. At first glance, some of the rules seemed a bit sketchy but they worked to create a balanced game with plenty of decision points. Maneuvering was important but was not out of proportion (note that I was using a square rather hexagonal grid, so that likely affected gameplay to some extent). At first, combat seemed like it would be fiddly but it actually was simple to implement. Kaptain Kobold has another winner here!**

* In LARP combat, I find I can move quite easily sideways while facing forward. In fact, doing just that sent me to the doctor once. Trying to cut off a flanking attack, I was running sideways while facing the enemy. I ran smack into a tree and injured my shoulder; I could not lift my arm above my head. Several weeks of physical therapy ensued.

** Lately Kaptain Kobold has posted about some changes to MSM that he is testing. I'm curious to see how they play out!

Friday, April 27, 2018

Gladiator Experiment

This past week I experimented with some home brew rules for gladiator games (using a virtual board). I used the Song of Blades and Heroes activation system. Because I was only using 1 gladiator per side, I added a "fumble" in case the gladiator failed 2 activation rolls; otherwise there would be no incentive for rolling less than 3 dice.

Both gladiators are wounded

The system worked and gave an interesting game, but it did not work like I envisioned. Once the gladiators were in contact, there was no maneuvering. Often, the gladiator only had one activation, therefore attack was the order of the day. I want to see gladiators circling each other, retreating and advancing, as well as attacking. The SoBH system did not provide it.

I am now looking into the Munera Sine Missione system.