Pallidus' arena Debut

After another couple of weeks away, some Lanisti convened for more Blood on the Sands arena action. I hosted two matched pairs plus author Frank encouraging us from the Editor's box, which made for a fun night with a few amphorae of wine.

In the match next to us, Gav's Thraex rapidly dispatched John's Murmillo having almost severed his arm in an opening rush (John rolled double 1s for his defence and it was all rapidly downhill from there...). 

In the meantime my new Retiarius Pallidus had his debut match against Marty's Secutor. Pushing forward early, Pallidus used extended lunges to exhaust the Secutor's defences, before entangling him, pushing up against the arena wall and disarming him. 

Many trident strikes landed, unable to penetrate the heavy armour of the Secutor. Through clever fatigue and dice management he got hismelf out of the net and retrieved his sword. Ultimately, the two gladiators ended up in their original positions and a stans missus was declared with each sporting 3 honourable wounds. Most entertained!

So two VERY different bouts - John entertained himself by recreating his Gladiator's demise with the artefacts available around my loungeroom...

"They dont like it up 'em Mr Mainwaring"

And I was excited to have this arrive too :-)

And some exciting news for future gladiator purchases!

ShireCon 24

While lamenting the loss of our No 1 Wargaming apprentice (who regularly kicks our arses on the table, just to show what fantastic instructors we are), Slowpainter John and I attended ShireCon over the weekend. This is a small and relatively new show, at the same venue at MOAB held in late Sep). We also caught up some some locally infamous characters, including Frank showcasing his awesome "Blood on the Sands" gladiator game and experimenting with some new gladiators classes

Head Lanista Frank showcasing his great Gladiator game

Interestingly, there were zero traders, just games and a bring and buy. On offer was some Kings of War, a small 40k tourney, and a Blood Bowl 7s competition "The Outback Cup" 

A dozen or so BB coaches focused on their game

Some snazzy Black Orcs lead their team!

The Outback Cup - now in its fourth year (not counting COVID!)

This quick play "Grimdark Future" game was being demoed and had quite a bit of interest - basically a "not KillTeam", the basic rules and army lists are available FREE through the website here: https://www.onepagerules.com/games/grimdark-future-firefight

Some Old World action at play

Back to Blood on the Sands, it was great to see Frank running some new players through the game, as well as experimenting with four new Gladiator classes - looking forward to givng them ago. 

The Lansita's T-shirt says it all really... :-)

Frank also had samples of his new custom dice on show, as well as some mdf hex tile arena which really look the business

New dice!

The newly available mdf hex tile arena

I got a few small treasures from the Bring and buy, this "Legion A-A5 speeder truck" from the Star War Legion line, with a view to using it in 5 Parsecs from Home for my crew to boost around in. Now it needs a snazzy paintjob!