New gameplay video!

Greetings!

Last week, we played a new Gladiatoris game at Emerald Knights Burbank, CA, to shoot a video!

gladiatoris-video-ek-03These are the players. From left to right, Paul Ang (Scutarii, red), Kevin Barber (Sine Scuto, blue) and Jennifer Ho (Parmularii, green).

We chose the Great Public Punishment, a variant of one of the scenarios included in our Core Rules. It’s played not on a small domestic board but on the Amphitheatre… with 2 hidden traps revealed with every CRONOS!

This game (starting from 6:00 into the video) was completely improvised, but we have edited it into an abridged version… so we can focus on the brave Laquearius’ saga!

The first Event went by without great surprises, and the three players had to divide the Palm evenly (earning 1.000 sestertii each of them) after everyone managed to defeat a single Slave with their own small Beast. But in the second Event’s sortitio… the level III Dimachaerus fails his roll! And… so does the Retiaria! Thus, Kevin is forced to deploy into the arena a poor level I Laquearius. He would have to fight, not only against Great Beasts, but against two fearsome level III Gladiators: Paul’s red Secutor and Jennifer’s green Thraex! But the underdog didn’t give up… watch the video and see for yourself!

gladiatoris-video-ek-04It was a night full of excitement and laughs, and we will remember it fondly thanks to the wonderful video shot and edited by Tinieblas González, our friend and also a Gladiatoris fan. 🙂

See you on the arena!

Burning oil at Emerald Knights

Best regards!

We have just launched our Kickstarter campaign, and people is throwing so many question at us that answering them is almost a full time job!

The day before starting the Kickstarter campaign, still somewhat calm, we went again to Emerald Knights, in Burbank, California, to play a Great Public Punishment game with expert Californian players.

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Emerald-knights-encounter-01The store is packed with game tables and every Wednesday, they reserve the central space for board games.

The previous weekend we played a quick game, in which Tinieblas’ poor red Murmillo succumbed to my great beast and Thraex’s joint attacks.

“Go Thraex!” 🙂

David (Parmularii): 9.600 sestertii (“coins”)
Tinieblas (Scutarii): 1.500 sestertii

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Kevin and Peter sat with us. We had chatted with them in previous visits; they were very kind, and excused my poor English. We played a Great Public Punishment, an Amphitheatre variant (i.e. bigger board) of the example scenario from our Games Book that you can download here… with 2 traps appearing on the arena for each Cronos!

Emerald-knights-encounter-04Kevin and his green tattoos chose the Small Shields; and Peter and his tattooed panther chose the Blue Team.

The first event was resolved very quickly, and Kevin was the victor with his magnificent Parmularii… but I stole his Palm with my Munera card!

In the second event, they had to carefully read their Maneuver cards… so carefully indeed, that Kevin nearly defeated my Level III Murmillo with a 3-card, triple-coloured combo!

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Things looked bad for my Murmillo, who had just defeated the Leopard with a fierce attack, so he took to his heels, leaving the dirty work to the sturdy Red Lion.

But, Kevin’s Hoplomaca ran after my Gladiator and got to him with her spear, leaving it with only 1 wound left (“almost dead”). And then…

CRONOS! Kevin activates a burning oil trap in the exact section of the board where my Murmillo was! The poor thing burned like the Human Torch from Fantastic 4, and both rivals laughed heartily at my expense. I don’t blame them.

Emerald-knights-encounter-06The next trap opens a pit by surprise under the Retiaria’s feet. And Peter uses a Flee maneuver card to avoid it! That’s something I don’t remember happening ever before (in more than 200 games), and that certainly deserves my applause.

Nevertheless, she ended up falling into the Pit next turn, and there we had a gladiatrices duel: Hoplomaca vs Retiaria.

“As in the Gladiator pits from Conan the barbarian!”

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Finally, the Retiaria was defeated, and my lion (who had fled but had to return to battle) finished up the green Great Beast. In the last turn, the Hoplomaca managed to take the Lion’s last wound… thus getting both Palms! Salve, Gladiator!

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Kevin (Petauristae): 12.000 sestertii (“coins”)
David (Scutarii): 2.400 sestertii
Peter (Sine Scuto):? sestertii

Kevin: “Gladiatoris is a game of strategy, luck, and bribery were anything can happen in the arena. 

Just got to play a game yesterday. I got a lucky combo and took my opponents gladiator down to 1 and watch as a trap killed him. It was a funny game and a good show for the masses. Lol”

After the game, Kevin gave me very good advice and a lot of ideas about new scenarios. Thanks a lot!

3 more days… Encounter at Emerald Knights

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Next Wednesday, November 2nd, we’ll be playing Gladiatoris at Emerald Knights’ Wednesday Night (4116 W Burbank Blvd, Burbank CA 91505).

We discovered this game store back in 2013, and wrote about it in a (very visited) post in our old blog.

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We’ve been going there these past two weekends, and we’ve met some expert players very interested in trying the game. Luckily, we’ve got a good interpreter, Tinieblas Gonzalez, one of the first playtesters of our pre-2009 version. He then told us the game was “a good idea, but slow and too complex”. Yesterday, after having to explain him the rules (in English) he told us that “it keeps all the good ideas, but it’s fast and easy to learn; it’s way better”. He loved it , even if my Thraex defeated him!

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This is the result of 7 years of playtesting and listening to a lot of different players 🙂

See you next Wednesday!