Roman gladiator gaming at Council of Five Nations 2016

Historical miniature gaming has been a hobby of mine since college or earlier. A few years ago, I became interesting in Roman gladiator conflicts and other arena events as a focus for wargaming. I soon painted up some figures, created a model arena, and found a set of rules and ran a few games. One of these was at a local convention called The Council of the Five Nations. These are photos of that game.

I used a set of rules called Red Sand, Blue Sky from a company called Two Hour Wargames. Although I have since moved on to a different set of rules for the period, Hoc, Habet, Hoc from Flagship Games, I had several interesting games with this set of rules although ultimately I found them a bit too mechanical and limited for my tastes. In these rules each turn requires that the players determine initiative and then each gladiator engages in a sequence of actions. To mark which player moved his figure when, a sequence that shifted each turn and depended on the characters' abilities as well as a random dice roll, poker chips with numbers were used.

The players conduct their moves.

Here you can see part of the game, four gladiators, two heavily armored Myrmillo and two lightly armored Retarii armed with a net and trident pair off for battle. This was a historically authentic match.

You can see here that the order of play is determined and marked with the numbered Poker Chips.

A Myrmillo manuevers to attack a retarius from the flank.

The Retarius has thrown his net and missed. It lies nex to a heavily armored Myrmillo making recovery of the net difficult. Can the lightly armored gladiator survive the match?

I've run the game again in 2017 and will be running it again this year in 2018 using a new set of rules (Hoc, Habet, Hoc) and also having upgraded and improved my arena. I look forward to showing more photos of the result.

Updates on the Roman Arena Model --Building Stands for Spectators

This blog has been a bit too quiet lately, perhaps making people wonder where I am. Much of the history / blogging/ wargaming / miniature modelling time has been devoted to this, working on adding to my representation of a Roman arena for miniature wargaming of Roman gladiatorial battles.

As some can see, the actual arena was constructed some time ago and I decided to add stands to it and hope to do so before the local wargaming convention, the Council of the Five Nations, where I am scheduled to run a game using the Hoc Habet Hoc rules. 

Here's a few photos of the project under construction. 

While the model is quite large, 40" (101.6cm) in diameter, with three levels of stands, compared to the actual, historical arenas, it would be quite small. Therefore, it's safe to say it's a representational model, designed to give the feel and general look of a Roman Arena, quite suitable for gaming, but not an actual reproduction of one, and probably would not be suitable for a museum exhibit. 

As you can see in the above picture, the arena itself was already built (a project I should describe in a future post perhaps) and the "only" thing needed was to "just" add stands. I began cutting foam card and soon had two large half circles with a 20" (a little over 50cm) radius. 

Then I added three levels of stands, each curved on the outerside of the large circle, but being 8" ( a little over 20cm), 5"  ( a little under 13cm), and 2 1/2" (a little over 6 cm) deep. 

Next came adding wooden spacers to separate the levels of the stand. These were quickly cut from long square pieces of wood and made slightly shorter than the depth of each layer of the stand. 

The pieces were then attached to the wooden spacers with a heavy duty stapler and lots of carpenter glue. 

Here's a photo of the project as it currently looks.

A photo of the arena itself from a gaming session.

Elephants in the arena -Roman Gladiator Miniature Wargaming

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The other day a friend of mine and I set out to familiarize ourselves with the Habet, Hoc Habet rules from Flagship Games. First we played a game in which two heavy gladiators, a Myrmillio and a Thracian, were paired off, a historically accurate pairing, then after that finished we placed the two figures representing the same characters in the arena along with a pair of elephants and tried out the animal rules. Here a few pictures snapped quickly of the game.

First, let's make it clear, the game was far from historically accurate. Despite the popular image, gladiators did not fight wild animals in the arena. Gladiators fought other gladiators in the arena. The "hunts" of animals were a separate event, a separate part of the game and conducted by other trained specialists called Venatores with the events, the fights against animals, being called Venatio. The Venatores were armed and equipped differently than the gladiators (despite there being several categories of gladiators.)

In Habet, Hoc Habet, humans are controlled completely by the players while animals move in a random manner depending on a mixture of random chance and the situation the find themselves in. Therefore the game consisted of two heavily armed and armored gladiators with swords (one curved sword and one straight sword) chasing around two elephants until, by random chance and events, the elephants turned charged and stepped on one of the gladiators crushing his arm completely. (Oh well, sounds like a realistic outcome at least.) The rules seemed to work fairly for this and be fun to play.

The two gladiators both come from Brigade Miniatures (I think, perhaps Crusade. Both companies make fine Roman gladiator figures.) while the elephants are plastic, pre-painted and come from Schleich. They were purchased off the shelf in a Target Department store and, I think, are their model Asian female elephants. I don't claim they are completely historically accurate or necessarily in scale. In point of fact, the elephants from Carthage were of a now extinct variety that was neither an Asian nor an African elephant while some of the other elephants from the far eastern fringes of the Roman Empire may have been Asian Elephants. These were, in my opinion, "good enough for gaming" although I would have been more careful, if, for instance, I were building a museum model or diorama.

The arena is mine, scratch built, and I plan to show more photos of it at various stages of construction in the future.

Roman Gladiator Miniature Wargaming figures

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Chief among my writing projects is a Wargamers guide to Roman Gladiator gaming. Therefore expect posts on the subject.

For our first, a quick view some of the figures involved. These figures are generally 28mm tall and were manufactured by either Brigade Games or Crusader miniatures, two of the best manufacturers of historically authentic Roman Gladiator gaming miniatures. 

All figures were painted by me. 

Gladiatorial battles in the arenas of the Roman Empire are an interesting and complex topic. 

Gladiators tended to fit certain "types" and although some variation and creativity was allowed, these types were mandated by law. Furthermore, the crowd and the sponsors knew what they wanted and despite some local and regional variation gladiators tended to fall in certain categories.  

Hoplomachii -a stylized Roman idea of what a Greek warrior should look like. The figure on the left is from Brigade
Games while the two on the right are from Crusader. 

Eques -Gladiators who began their combat on horseback but then dismounted and fought on foot. They were only paired against each other. Figures are from Crusader Miniatures.

Unusual gladiators -on the left we have a pair of Arbelas or Scissors and on the right we have a pair of very heavily armored Crupellarius. In both pairs the figure on the left is from Crusader Miniatures while the one on the right is from Brigade Games.

Thracians -a heavily armored gladiator that was based on the Roman stereotype of a Thracian warrior. The Thracians lived in what is now Bulgaria. Figures are a mix of Crusader and Brigade figures.

Secutores -a heavily armored gladiator who specialized in fighting the retarius,. Again, figures are a mix of Brigade and Crusader Figures.

Dimachaeri -Figures who fought with two swords and no shield. The two on the left are from Crusader and the one on the right is from Wargames Foundry. I am not sure if he is authentic as his face is exposed. Few gladiators fought this way.

Myrmillio -a common type of heavily armored gladiator. A mixture of Crusader and Brigade figures.

Two packs of condemned men from Crusader Miniatures facing a lion from Monday Knight Productions. Not exactly gladiators but part of the millieu.  Romans believed in public punishment and execution.

Spectators, officials, casualties and wounded and defeated gladiators from a variety of manufacturers.

Retarii and Laquearri -these figures came from a variety of sources including some Brigade figures (no Crusader) as well as some bargain bin figures whose origins are completely unknown. A couple came from RAFM who produced a pack of gladiators in 25mm some of whom I question as to their historical accuracy.

Old Minfigs 25mm Gladiators from the 1980s.