Dice and Dying

"You're leaving yourself a bit open mate\"

I haven't managed to add anything to this project over the last two or so weeks but as I realised that I haven't shown many of my figures, nor my novelty dice here's a few pics of each.
First up is one of the less dynamic figures from (Pegasus, I think)
I had to add a scratch-built sword from sprue, though I forget why.
If you're thinking that his arm appears at a funny angle, you're  right, as it's been bent.
If you don't think the arm looks awry then please ignore the above comment.

Useful as a 'light' or medium gladiator imo

The next gladiator in the chain mail trousers and greaves (yes, I know *rolls eyes) is from the Italeri set ( I know this because you get two of them)
I've also bent both his arms into slightly more 'active' poses.
Previously to the above plastic surgery, his shield was held way up in the air, great for a vignette (maybe) but looks a bit foolish in the arena.

The above gladiator and his 'twin'

I did the same sort of thing with the second figure in this pose and I think I've made them look different enough (the skin colours helps too)

Useful as a generic 'light''gladiator

The figure on the left was also the type of figure I used for a retiarius, again he's lightly armoured and I've given him a scratch-built spear, though it's difficult to make out in this fore-shortened view.
The view below shows him and his twin (as a retiarius) still without a net.
I'll be using this figure as a generic 'light' gladiator, probably against beasts as he's armed with a spear.
You can tell by the differences in positioning that one or both have had their right arms slightly bent into different positions.

Spear and trident  armed.

I've been fortunate enough to have now played quite a few one-on-one games with my son and even though we originally got many rules wrong, we're both fairly competent now in knowing what dice to throw and when.

My XV dice- total cost £4.50

The dice shown were bought on a whim from eBay and cost a mere £1.50 (incl. p&p) for a set of five dice. There are two distinct sets, one numbered I to VI and the other having V, X, C, I,  and M on their six faces. I haven't found a use for the yet but who could resist a set of them at that price?  The two sets only come in white and are of very good quality - it has made me wonder about the sometimes exorbitant prices being asked for other dice of a similar quality.
I think that I should have used these in my two games against my son today. In the first game, we each had a lightly armoured gladiator (small shield and gladius); I stumbled fell after a collision and was quickly dispatched after failing my appeal to the crowd. The whole contest had lasted less a full turn (eight phases) and we'd had only three phases of combat!
The second combat we both had fairly similar, but my dice throwing was well above average and I reckon I'd rolled the best gladiator I've ever had. With my superior strength and combat factors, I charged into combat on the first phase of the first turn to quickly dispatch my son's "weaker" fighter". With a swift attack to his groin I inflicted seven wounds on him and the subsequent critical roll dropped his agility rating by 1 (that's gotta hurt). Unfortunately we'd both allocated an identical number of combat factors to our first attacks and they would therefore occur simultaneously!
He managed a staggering roll of 17 'to hit' on his three dice (I'd managed a similar 'good' roll), but the subsequent wounding roll was an instant kill! We reckoned an uppercut that went under his helmet and through his skull did the trick.
So turn one, phase one, attack one and it was all over - we'd taken longer to roll the characters than play the game! Two games then in about an hour - can't be bad.

That's all for this week.