Morituri te salutant!



I've played a few games of Morituri te Salutant (MTS) and thought I'd post my thoughts on the game. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is a set of rules that allow you to recreate gladiatorial games with miniatures. It uses a hex grid to play on and a plotting system where you plot you move secretly, but you have some options with your move should things change. I suppose it's not a million miles away from Check Your 6! (apart from just about every other aspect of the game!) which is a system I am a big fan of.

The Book
The rules can be purchased as a hardcopy or a PDF from Black Hat Miniatures and are really pretty cheap. I opted for the hardcopy as I couldn't be bothered printing them out and it wasn't much pricier. They production is certainly nowhere near the standards of many rulesets we've seen in the past couple of years, but that doesn't bother me. There's plenty of eye-candy on the internet and in magazines so I'd rather pay a few pounds for a simple rule set that works than a lavish, glossy book for a lot of cash that sits on the shelf for ever more! For example, the possible moves in the book are actually hand drawn, but who cares, as long as they are clear and unambiguous?

The Rules
Well...! A simpler set of rules it would be hard to find! There are only a very few pages on actual rules with the rest of the book taken up by various charts, campaign rules and gladiator stats. The game follows a very simple turn sequence where both players secretly decide on a move and then work out their initiative. This is a total of the gladiator's base initiative, an initiative value assigned to the chosen move and the result of a D6 roll. Each player then announces his total. In a two player game the highest placed player decides to go first or second. In a multiplayer game the gladiators go in initiative order, high to low. When it's a gladiator's turn to move they reveal the move and execute it; almost all moves are either moving hexes or attacking. Here's where the options come in! When it's your turn to execute your move you can convert the chosen one to another one from a limited set that is determined by the move you chose. The possible conversions all tend to make sense, so you can't convert a swing of your sword to a backpeddle, but you can change a thrust of a spear to a rush forward.

To the death...!

Attacks are carried out by cross-referencing the attack move against the move of the opponent and getting a 'to hit' difficulty and 'likely damage' probability. The 'to hit' range is Easy, Fair and Difficult, while the 'likely damage' range is Light, Moderate and Severe. You roll a D20 against another chart based on these values (and the protection rating of the target) and see whether you miss, stun, nick, cut, wound or kill the target. Stun results means the opponent has limited moves in the subsequent turn and all damaging hits also stun. Damaging hits all mount up, so getting nicked a third time gives you a cut, and so on.

Now, so far there has been mention of a few charts and I have to say that this would probably have put me off entirely from playing these rules. There is an awful lot of charts and they're kind of spread out, but thankfully Black Hat have posted a PDF set of move and wound cards on their site that incorporates all the information needed when plotting a move (these cards were put together by Frank Sultana who has his own blog called Adventures in Lead). This means that each attack only needs to read off two charts and this greatly speeds up play. If you were to invest in this set of rules then I'd strongly suggest acquiring these cards, especially as they are free!

The cards provided on the Black Hat site.



Gameplay
Every single game of this I have played has been a tense and exciting affair! Despite the simple mechanics the ebb and flow of each combat feels right as the gladiators circle each other and jostle for position before engaging. So far I have only managed to paint a Myrmillon and Hoplomachus (as seen on this blog) and the differences in each really show through. The Hoplomachus will try to keep the Myrmillon at bay while he jabs and thrusts with his spear, while the Myrmillon tries to close the gap and deliver a killing blow with his gladius. Falling down is a really bad thing to happen and you will be at a serious disadvantage, as is getting heavily wounded without damaging your opponent. If such a parity develops then it is hard to level the playing field as the effects of the wounds mount up. This is really a very satisfying game and I can only see that adding the campaign layer would make it that much more nerve-jangling!

Likes and dislikes
I definitely like this game. I've thoroughly enjoyed every bout and look forward to playing it more. It is quite a fast game and I wouldn't expect a bout to take more than 45 minutes. I think it feels right, is fun and is very simple to pick up.
I definitely don't like all the charts! As mentioned, if it weren't for the cards I doubt this game would ever see the light of my tabletop. I also think that the rules maybe need an extra house rule for fatigue. The main tactic of a lightly armoured gladiatior is to tire out a heavily armoured gladiator and try to get an opening they can exploit. Without wounding a gladiator this isn't possible with these rules, but I also think it wouldn't be hard to come up with something that would work. I intend to try out a few ideas and will post them here if any work.

So...to summarise, MTS is a fun, simple and quick to play gladiator game. I haven't tried any other gladiator games, so I can't compare them to MTS, but I can definitely recommend trying this out if you're looking for a gladiator game. It won't break the bank to get the rules (£6 for the PDF!) and you can easily print out a hex grid to try it before making a hex board.

The rules are available to purchase here:
Morituri Te Salutant rules

The cards are available for download here:
MTS cards and reference

A gate has opened...

...and I have stepped through to the Other World that is Arkham Horror!

I pretty much knew that I didn't have time to complete a game last night but I played a few turns to try it out and found it was very hard to stop and go to bed. This is a seriously good game! I'll not try and review the game mechanics or components as that has already been covered by the following couple of great reviews (these actually helped sell me on buying the game) :

Boardgamegeek review
Anatoli's Game Room review

What I will talk about is what I liked about it. Firstly, the atmosphere is just right and permeates every component in the box, from the artwork to the flavour text on the monster cards and the mythos cards. It probably helps if you have come across Lovecraft's work before, but if you haven't it won't take long to realise that letting the Great Old One awaken is not a good idea! And you really don't want to be attacked by a nasty monster like a StarSpawn unless you're packing some heat! And this is where the real hook comes from...decisions! I was talking to Alasdair at the club a couple of weeks ago about what makes a really good game and he said "it's when the game presents you with a really difficult decision". I couldn't agree more. That's what good games generally boil down to - when do I commit this reserve unit, or should I sacrifice that unit for some advantage. Well, Arkham Horror is absolutely bursting with just that kind of decision making. Every single turn has a phase where you have to decide how to tune your characters skills for the forthcoming turn, but be careful!  If you're in an unstable location and you're unprepared then bad things can happen! I played with 2 investigators and one of them went to a location to pick up a clue token and was subsequently attacked by a Warlock as a result of the encounter card. A quick look at the skill track and monster stats showed that the fight was actually not winnable and an ambulance ride to the hospital ensued!

There are also things that can happen as a result of cards being drawn that add to the dilemmas already facing you. For instance, a rumour started from a mythos card that meant after some time and lack of attention there was a chance that any sealed locations would be 'unsealed' and subject to gates opening again. At first I didn't care as I hadn't sealed any locations, but once I had - and crucially a gate failed to open because of the seal which felt like a small victory in itself - I realised that the rumour was going to take effect very soon and had to go sort it out. However, to sort it out I had to go into the streets which meant that I was vulnerable to the two twisted monsters flying about in the sky!! It was at this point that I first got the feeling of events building up against you and largely out with your control. And I liked it! A lot!

The gameplay is quite complicated for a boardgame and I know I made a couple of mistakes, but there is a FAQ available on the FFG website and plenty of posts on the various forums such as Boardgamegeek that I have already answered most of the questions I had. I'm also pretty sure that a few plays will smooth things out, as I was even starting to speed up a bit towards the end of my playtest. And as soon as I'm comfortable with the core game and even maybe beating the odd Great Old One here and there I'm sure I'll pick up an expansion or two and reset the difficulty level back to 'OMG'!

In summary, this is a top notch game. The design is very well thought out and the production is lavish. I had a most enjoyable time playing it and I felt I could let my imagination go with the game and let it draw me in. It actually felt a bit like the RPG sessions I used to play many moons ago! I can't wait to play it again and that is from a single effort playing solo. I can only imagine how good this will be with a few other victi...errr...friends to play with!

New game smell!

If there's a better aroma then I don't know what it is!

One of the problems with my monthly game meetings with James and Carl is that three is an awkward number for a good game. Most games can support 3 players, even traditionally 2 player games like FoW. You just divide up one side and have 2 vs 1, but it's still not really ideal. So I've been searcing for a while for a game that either supports 3 players in direct competition or cooperatively. I'm well aware that Nuts! is capable of this, but I just don't have the time to paint up enough figures and make terrain to keep it fresh. One further consideration is the transportation and setup times. I don't have space for a proper wargames table and so can't put on anything larger than DBA or CC:A/Battlecry, which are even more restrictively 2 player games! But I think I may have just found the answer...

I picked this up yesterday and had a thorough read of the rules last night. All I can say is that I wanted to punch out all the tokens and get playing there and then, but it was half ten already! I've not read any Lovecraft in a while but I do like the whole mythos he created and anything that is heavily influenced by his work (take Hellboy as a fine example). So the setting is perfect and the game is oozing in atmosphere. The mechanics seem very interesting and I particularly like the idea of the Doom counters building up to the point the Old One awakens. I think this will create an exciting and tense atmosphere, especially if you're up against a pretty hard enemy like Chtulu (I particularly like Azathoth who basically wins when he awakens...there's no final combat, just game over!). I intend to try a couple of solo games to get to grips with the rules so we're not scratching our heads too much when we try it out together and I'll post my thoughts on the actual gameplay when  I get a chance.

Red means danger!

Well...for whoever gets in the way! :) Here's the latest bunch of Magister Militum Romans, this time in a fetching scarlet tunic, which is the very height of fashion amongst discerning Ancients gamers these days! You should be able to spot the shield I had to fix. It's the second from left in the first photo which is a bit more dipped than the rest. Due to the miscast that figure sits a bit more forward, butit's not too bad!

Why everyone should have some modelling putty lying about

Typical! After just singing the praises of Magister Militum I broke open the next pack of gladius wielding world conquerors to find that some of the Republic's equipement suppliers are letting their standards slip:

If there's one thing I hate more than flash and mould lines is a miscast figure like this! And it's not like it's somthing you can easily ignore...half the shield is missing! So I decided to break out the greenstuff and try to remedy the situation! I could have used Miliput, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to get a bit of practice with the GS:

It's not the smoothest of finishes, but it should be good enough! I'll maybe keep track of this guy as I paint him and see just how well he integrates!

Polybian Romans - Essex vs Magister Militum

For about a month or so I had 4 bases of primed Magister Militum (MM) Republican Romans sitting about my painting area and really just getting in the way. Once I finished the gladiators I decided to just slap some paint on them and get them out of the way, but as I started I soon found out that these wee figures really, really take paint well! In all honesty I wasn't trying to be particularly neat and tidy and was painting faster than I normally do, but they seemed to come out really nicely!

When I originally decided to do 15mm ancients I didn't really know which manufacturers were out there, but I had seen Magister Militum at Claymore and was highly impressed with the quality, so it seemed pretty straightforward to buy from them and I ordered the equivalent of a couple of FoG battlegroups (in mixed poses and with both pila and gladius) to get started. I was pretty happy with the figures, but they got shelved as something else came up. I then spied an Essex Roman DBA army on eBay and got it quite cheaply and endeavoured to paint it all up (as seen on this blog before). Once I'd seen the finely detailed Essex figures I thought the MM looked a little rough around the edges, but painting really brought them to life. So, I thought I'd take some comparison pics to illustrate the differences and maybe help anyone thinking of using these manufacturers to decide which they like best.

First off, the Hastati. The most obvious differences here are the different stance and the lack of a bronze plate on the back of the MM. The plumes on the helmet are also somewhat different and the shields are slightly different, but not by much. On close inspection, the MM are beefier than the Essex and would actually stand a bit taller if it weren't for the more dynamic pose, but from arms length they mix with no problems at all.

Essex on the left and MM on the right

Essex still on the left

This shot shows the tunics off quite well

Next are the Principes. These are the figures that are the most similar to look at from a distance. When you get a bit closer, though, I think the mail looks more finely detailed and regular on the Essex than the MM, which is what drew me to the conclusion that MM were a bit rougher round the edges than the Essex. Also the tunic and mail are a bit shorter on the MM, but the shields are again quite compatible despite the MM being a bit more oval. Both sets model the Montefortino helmet quite closely to the pictures I've seen, but again, the MM have higher, more impressive feathers on the crest. As with the Hastati, the MM are bulkier then the Essex, but will mix and match OK on the tabletop. I suppose that comes as no surprise!

Just to mess with you the MM are on the left in these pics

This angle shows how the Principes will mix well

This angle shows the difference in texture of the mail. The Essex are a
bit dull, though, due to slightly too liberal application of matt varnish!

My personal preference for the Hastati lies with the MM due to the more action-like pose and the lack of the back-plate which shows off the tunic a bit more, but that is not to say I suddenly dislike the Essex. The Principes I am less inclined towards a preference due the similarities, but I think the MM slightly win out due the pose and the somewhat more imposing crests. If I had to only buy one of these ranges I would probably go with MM, but I think Essex are maybe a shade cheaper and are by no means a poor alternative. Also, Essex often have 3 for 2 sales on DBA armies. The ratio of troop types in a DBA army mean that this would be a very cheap way of putting together a core force and is how I gained at least half of the legionaries I have!

We salute you...!

So I've just managed to finish my first painted figures of 2011 and thought I'd share them. These are a Murmillo and Hoplomachus gladiator from Crusader. My WWII Brits and Fallschirmjager are Crusader as well and I really like their figures. For the Murmillo, I think that's the first shield I've painted since I played Warhammer in the 90s so I blatantly plagiarised a shield from a Murmillo on the Crusader website! :) I think it looks pretty good, though. For the Hoplomachus I was torn between going for bronze or iron for the shield, but I knew I wanted the face plate to be iron, so I thought an iron shield would tie up all the iron rather than having bits of bronze and iron here and there which might look a bit fussy. So the bronze helmet and greaves nicely frame the figure with all the metal in between being iron. I think I made the iron a bit too bright, though, so I might go back and darken it down a bit.

The flesh is also a bit of a departure for me. I normall use GW Dwarf Flesh with a wash of Devlan Mud and then highlighted with Elf Flesh and that works fine for faces and hands, but we have a bit more on show here! So I thought I'd try just painting it. I originally picked a triad from the Cool Mini Or Not ethnic skintone guide but found the contrast a bit too much, so I just added a bit of Vallejo Chocolate Brown to Cork Brown for the base, Cork Brown for mid tone and Cork Brown with some Flat Flesh for the highlight.

Murmillo

Hoplomachus

Hope you like them!