Ludi Incipiant - Let the Games Begin!

"Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant!"

This week I invited a select group of Lanisti to my Province to celebrate the Maius (May) Spring Festivus. OK its autumn here in the antipodes but we needed an excuse to roll dice and hurl insults in appalling Latin is a good one! 

And so the matchups began - my Murmillo faced John's more nimble Thraex, who was all over me from the start. I took a couple of light wounds and was getting fatigued so tried some different tactics to turn the tide.  I managed to disarm John, but he dashed in, retrieved his blade and wounded me again. As things were looking bleak for me, I was lucky to land a disabling head wound and the crowd were appropriately merciful.

Next to us, Alan's Thraex fared badly against Marty's Murmillo who was bludgeoning him to a pulp. That is, until 2 quick strikes incapacitated Marty's heavier fighter.

The final match saw Alan's Secutor face off against veteran Lanista Frank himself and his Retiarius. The fisherman danced around at range, and even managed to ensnare Alan, but he managed to escape and disable the trident wielder, to the crowd's delight.

Alan clearly had just suffered some kind of wound when this pic was taken!

So 3 bouts and 3 Victories by Missio. Once again, we were most entertained!

Rendezvous in the Western Approaches

"Little Creatures" - the must stop brewery in Fremantle

This week Comrade James and I were independently on the West coast of Australia for our respective employers, far flung from our usual haunts.  What was to be be done? Pizza, Beers, Hobby shopping and games of course!

A pilgrimage to the famous Hobby Shop "Tactics" in Perth - a great selection of goodness. Hobby dollars were spent without remorse, including some great pickups for our growing Aeronautica Imperialis collection.

After a pizza and a few pints, it was down to buisness, starting with an old favourite game of ours: Flying Circus. This a WW1 version of GMT's Down in Flames series which we have played to death over the decades, and it never fails to entertain (especially with Spotify playing WW1 trench songs in the background)

And then it was time for something completely different: Steam Torpedo which despite its confusing rules explanations, turned into quite an absorbing game of sub v sub combat in a Dieselpunk theme (with Hunt for Red Octiber themes in the background of course)

Overall, a fab way to spend a day far from home with a mate you've been gaming with for 30 years!

New Gladiators

This week I expanded my Ludus retinue with two new Gladiators: a Scissor and a Crupellarius - both Crusader figs.

The Scissor (or "Slasher") is thought to have evolved from Secutor, and his left arm with curved blade could be used as a shield, as well as to cut the net of a Retarius. Lots of metal on this guy, which I tried to pick up in differing bronze and iron so as to break it up a bit

Clad head to foot in segmented armour topped with a great helm, the Crupellarius was an armoured behemoth. Historical information on these is very limited, but the heavy equipment would have been very encumbering and he is likely to have used a defensive style to manage fatigue. Again, lots of shiny metal on this big boy, so I used used bright yellow to break it up a bit. Figured he will charge a lot so tried a hand painted bull motif on his matching shield.

Looking forward to trying these new gladiator types out in Blood on the Sands, which has some experimental rules being made for them.

These two fighters bring my Ludus up to a “Dirty Dozen” (or Sordido Duodecim!) of varying types, including a Sagittarius.

The to-do pile is getting a little slim - better replenish soon! 

Need to get a lightly armed velite model too- one of the few types I don't yet have.

and the Lad took these to the Far North to work on in his spare time!

Modelling Note to self- basing colour for all of these is Vallejo Dark Sand 70.847

BrisCon 24

I happened to be in Brisbane for work while this was being held; it would have been rude not to drop in!

British foot troops advance - war of 1812

The show was modest in size, had the usual AoS/Bolt Action/Team Yankee/Conquest (no 40k?) games going and while the contingents were smaller (12-18ish) they were having a great time. Being May the Fourth there was a large contingent of Star Wars Legion and Armada on the day.

Great to see a sizeable 6 table BattleTech tourney going too!

This great 6mm Napoleonic table that was unfortunately tucked away from the general traffic and didn't seem to get the attention it deserved

And as ever, the Infinity tables demonstrated some lovely non-grimdark techno futuristic terrain - inspiring for our forthcoming 5 Parsecs from Home project

Trader wise it was particularly good to see Fjord Serpent designer and maker Luke showing off his great game. 

The ship components for the Snekkja (medium size ship)

The 10mm Ships and crews looked spectacular on the table and he spoke to us about the next expansions - the first of which is focused on the current game, and then the next takes your Viking battles ashore! Sorely tempted...   https://fjordserpents.com/fjord-serpents/

And the bring and buy? Well, that Gallic/Celt Army I wasn't planning on building to oppose my Caesarian Army is now well on the way...