Monday 1 June 2015

Gladiators

"The General Nov-Dec 1981)
The purpose of this blog is two-fold, firstly to record my new project "Gladiators" (in case you hadn't guessed by the name) and secondly so as not to interfere with my othe Blog's main purpose of recording my Zombie Project. (Zabadka's ZombieWorld).

I don't see this blog as long term, as this project has a much less "open-ended" nature than one where you're trying to make a whole world.

This proect has its roots in the early 1980s when my gaming group of friends regularly played board-games and "Avalon Hill" games in particular (normally within a couple of months of the games  coming out too).
 "Gladiator" was readily accepted and greatly appreciated, it was fun, quick and relatively easy to "pick up and play" and though I never actually purchased the game (my contribution being "Circus Maximus" some time later), I was hooked and got the second rules copy for my personal use.

Many, many years later my boardgaming and wargaming habits moved on and any thoughts of having a Gladiator project were filed away.

I now come to the present day situation where Gladiatoral combat seems once more to be in vogue with many fine figures and rules sets readily available far more than the two or three options available in the 1980s !

There were also bloggers recounting their own ventures into Gladiator combat "Carmen's Fun painty Time" is truly inspiring for those considering this.

So the seed was sown and I began by looking at what I already had, which wasn't much, the original Avalon Hill set of rules, some old logsheet of gladiators we had in our "schools" (mine seem to mostly say "dead") and other Gladiator rule sets. "Gladiator Skirmish Rules", then by Gladiaotor Games (now "Morituri te Salutant" and still available in their third incarnation), but my copies of "Rudis" are sadly still unfound.
The totality of my available research was a couple of Books on uniforms that featured brief mentions of Gladiators (I rarely game in any period that don't include gunpowder) and a more "scholarly" work
"Those about to die" by Daniel P. Mannix.



The next problem of course was funding this project, but that was fairly easily solved by my penny jar that was almost full and as I hadn't bought any substantial amount of figures in over three years I never felt the least bit guilty !
About a third of the available cash would be for figures (there are only so many that you need) another third would be for reasearch, books, rules, games, CDs etc. and the final third being for all those extras that are always going to be needed.

With the preliminary planning in place, I am now in a postion to say the project has started and I'm actually several weeks into it. A lot of this blog has already been pre-written too, whilst I've beenbeavering away on this project.

In my next blog post I'll be looking at the 'all important' figures available, my choices and their reasons.




15 comments:

  1. A mate of mine in the club introduced me to a gladiatorgame as well. (Forgot the name) But it was really easy and still a lot of fun!! Looking forward to see what you do here! Good luck!

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    1. There are a lot of games/rules out there and more 'in the pipeline' all the time.

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  2. Sounds good. I am intrigued by these sort of games quite fancy a post apoc version myself though :) I shall be certainly paying attention to what rules your using and what your opinions are about them.

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    1. Thanks for the encouragement Brummie, there is at least one set of PA arena type rules out there, which is referred to in a future blog post.

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    2. Some inspiration I spotted today.

      http://adventuresinlead.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/some-old-pics-for-blood-on-sands.html

      Also check out the LAF Bizzare there are some folk selling Gladiator figs amongst some of the mixed job lots. £1 a fig for some.

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    3. Thanks for the input Brummie, I am a follower on the blog yu mention

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  3. "About a third of the available cash would be for figures (there are only so many that you need)"

    HERESY!!!! You always need more figures! ... what?! really?!

    Er, sorry Joe, apparently you DON'T always need more figures ... maybe that's where I've been going wrong??

    Seriously - hope the new project goes well! Interesting idea, starting a new blog for it; might just have to copy that idea myself ...

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    1. Thanks Colin for the comments, it was in fact post on your blog that sowed the idea in the back of my mind a few years ago.
      The figure budget was almost doubled as I discoverd a lot more that I could use in the arena,more animals, legionaries, prisoners, criminals ... the list went on and on.
      The new blog was merely a means to record my thoughts on this as how a new project developes; it may well have a limited lifespan if the project ever gets finished.

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  4. Good luck with the venture Zabadak. Gladiators are certainly an interesting subject that remain relevant even in our modern times. I have tried many gladiators games my self and gathered quite a collection of 28mm miniatures.

    Frank
    http://adventuresinlead.blogspot.com.au/

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    1. Thanks Furt for the encouragement in this venture. I am nearing the completion of this insofar as I'm nearly now able to try a few games. Most of the 'work' was completed in Jan- March this year (s were the first posts), so I've still got posts few on-hand, one of which concerns rules. .

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    2. And btw, Blood on the Sands looks very promising and I've been reading your progress with it for quite a while !

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    3. Most excellent Zabadak - looking forward to reading more. And thanks for the Blood on the Sands mention. I've shot you an email.

      Frank

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    4. (Thanks for the most welcome offer, which I accept) though I haven't given up entirely on my own search endeavours.

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  5. Good blog :) Ive recently delved into gladiatorial combat myself, but I have gone about it by rewriting a set I bought online :) Looking forward to seeing more rules out there though!

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  6. Thanks Kealios, I've had a look at your blog posts about Gladiaotrs too. As the old Avalon Hill game has been re-done by Mr Medoza over on Boardgame geek (see my latest blog post here :http://zabadakgladiator.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/news-and-games.html). I'mvery excited by the up and coming "Blood on the Sand" and the game "Gladiiatoris" -if it ever comes out!

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