Gladiator Games

Sometimes I don't feel like setting up a scenario. I just want to throw down some figures and start rolling dice. In the past, I've toyed with gladiator games but never really got very far with them. Recently, I've been toying with gladiators again.

Problem 1: Figures

I don't really have any figures to use. I used to have some 10mm fantasy figures that would work, such as the infamous Nocan the Barbarian.

I considered getting some new miniatures but I'm just not enthused by the idea. Perhaps I'll look into paper figures.

For now, however, I'm going with Meeples.

Problem 2: Rules

I'm not sure what rules to use. I thought about MicroQuest, my homebrew RPG rules. They work fine for theater of the mind RPG fights, but they're a tad boring for tabletop one-on-one fights. There is no maneuvering, so the figures just sit there.

Experiments

I decided to play around with some rules ideas.

Attempt 1

I'm using 2 vanilla gladiators - sword, no shield, no armor.

The rules work thusly:

1. Move - Each gladiator rolls D3. Alternate moving 1 space.
2. Maneuver - When gladiators move into the same space, make an opposed die roll to see who has an advantage in the fight. (An idea I took from Two Hour Wargames; I also use it in my dogfight rules).
3. Fight - Make an opposed die roll to see who wins the exchange.
4. Damage - roll to see if the loser (a) gets wounded and (b) gets knocked back.

And away we go. Blue advances quickly, but Red gets the upper hand. His attack does 2 wounds (not shown).

Red presses forward while Blue retreats. Red attacks and kills Blue (I assume 3 wounds = kill)

Well, that was a tad quick and unsatisfying.

Attempt 2

I made a few modifications to the rules.

• Maneuver - The winner gets to attack. If you double the opponent, you get to attack with an advantage.
• Fight - the winner of the maneuver rolls to hit. This change will likely make fights longer. In the original rules, someone got hit each turn. Now, it is possible that no one gets hit.

Let's try it out.

Red charges, and gains the advantage. His attack misses.

There are a few turns where the gladiators circle around the arena but fail to wound each other. A successful hit does not necessarily result in a wound. Weak hits could just rattle the opponent.

Red finally scores some damage, and it is a serious wound! The hit also knocks Blue back.

Red rushes in for the kill, but Blue counters and wounds Red!

Some more circling, before Red scores the death blow!

Looking at the time stamps, the first bout took 4 minutes and the second took 23 minutes. However, that 23 minutes is padded because I had to take a break to feed the cats! Perhaps 10 minutes for the second?

Anyway, I feel that these rules have promise. Now, I'll look to add armor, shield, different weapons, etc.