A good week of gaming

Delighted to report that this has been a good week or so of hobby time for me. It started with a Dragon Rampart game between Slowpainter John's fantastic Chronopia Orcs and Dux's Saracens, now sporting a beautiful set of flying carpets and a kickass Djinn throwing spells everywhere.

I hadn't seen this game in action but quite liked the tweaks made to Lion Rampant to give it the fantasy twist without overdoing it.  If you aren'tt aware of it, there is a good online review here.

I oohed and ached over John's Saracen orcs sufficiently frequently that Dux invited me and the Orcs to go get a room.  The visuals that brought forth means that I will be taking out a civil action against that miscreant for gameplace bullying.

John's Orcs ganging up on Dux's Djinn

Then on Wed night at the Club we started our SAGA campaign.  Slow painter John's Anglo Saxons held off his Anglo-Dane enemy for a draw while taking quite a chunk out of the enemy retinue.

John again rolling a statistically unfeasible number of sixes to slay more hearth guard with...the supply cart!

Dux and I were both defending this turn and avoided any undue attention, so we took the opportunity to play Match 3 of our Jugula campaign.  Having only been in illegal arenas thus far, it was good this time to make an appearance in a Provincial arena and have a good purse up for grabs.  With my prized Provocator out with an injury from the last match, I took on a rookies Scissor into my Ludus Caeruleus to boost numbers.  Dux's Lupi Invicti sported his usual retinue, including the juggernaught Crupellarius.

The fight is on! The crowd go wild!

I managed to wound Dux's Murmillo and Secutor quickly but he rapidly struck back equally hard against my Thraex and Murmillo.  Shortly thereafter we finished off a wounded opponent each - the next gladiator to drop an opponent would claim victory.

This pic of my Thraex falling to Dux's Crupillarious is blurry because I was crying

I was then fortunate to pull a series of attacks which battered through the defences of Dux's wounded Secutor and thus I claimed the win and a very decent amount of coin.  As an interesting sidetone, it appears rather rare to have a combatant die in Jugula - the emphasis is on entertainment, not killing.  After 3 games we have yet to see a death.

A fun game and much quicker than our last bout too - we set ourselves a 1 hr time limit and finished with about a minute to go, so it worked well.

Dux's secutor falls to my Murmillo's blade - Victory to Ludus Caeruleus!

Last weekend also I finally got some pigment onto my FIW Ranger units (I bought the Northstar British Wilderness Force at Fall In last year).  I am happy with how they are coming along and hope to have them finished soon - pics to follow