For a bit of light relief, Brian, Evan, Chris and I have been running a Gladiator campaign using the Two Hour Wargames set: Red Sand Blue Sky.
Each of us has generated a Gladiator and hope the fight him from the Fringes of the Empire through to the Colosseum in Rome and hopefully win his freedom. Once we have played through this we should have enough knowledge of the rules to run our own Ludos, this is the main objective (it probably came from watching the recent Spartacus TV series too much).
Evan and I have gone for a Retiarius fighter, Brian a Murmillo and Chris a Dimachaerus. For a list of types the wiki page is as good a start as any:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_gladiator_types
Being a proper wargames campaign I made a map and have it on a pin board with flags to show each fighters progress.
Also I’ve been keeping a campaign journal- once it has been completed I’ll post it here too (though you’ll have to wait to see just how bad out humour gets). Evan is currently in the lead with Flobodon (from parts unknown) though Brian with Romulus Roman has won more fights, Chris (Edmund from England) and I (Knut the German) are battling for not being last.
For figures I bought some of the rather nice Crusader Miniatures 2nd hand from LAF to which I added a couple of packs from the Foundry range.
As you can see I’ve gone for a blue as my team colour when with get round to battling pitting our familia against each others.
As a game Red Sand Blue Sky is great fun, quick to set up and quick to play though a match. I made up a pair of boards from mounting card and sand with a quick dry brush of paint. By running 2 games at once the four of us can clear a months of game time in an easy, sociable and enjoyable evening.
A Hoplomachus and a Dimachaerus (Chris) fight for the entertainment of the crowd.
Advantage to Chris at this point I guess.
For the record (and I imagine it will only make sense to my British readers out there) my favourite was Panther, Jet was far too obvious.
Cheers,
Pete.
SP's Projects Blog 
Hi Pete:
That gaming board you knocked together looks amazing. The sand is very pristine, I guess they add fresh sand between matches?
I reckon that the Spartacus series has been good for sales of gladiator minis. I was in the Colosseum this summer and found it a huge but strangely depressing place, once you think of all the people and innocent animals (innocent people too, I suppose) who got slaughtered there, but that’s the dissonance between our hobby and what it sometimes represents, isn’t it?
Sorry, didn’t mean to get all philosophical.
Those are great minis, BTW.
Cheers,
MP
Thanks Michael- The boards were a very quick job but they have come out great. I resisted thhe temptation to add any blood effects regardless as to how realistic it would be as I thought it would be too distrsacting and a little, well, tacky….
I’d love to get to Rome one day, hopefully after my studies have finished.
I know what you mean- since the Russel Crowe film Gladiators have become such a pop culture staples that you tend to forget the reality behind it all, very few of them volunteered for it. Never apologize for get philosophical – it’s is something that we should always remind ourselves of.
Cheers,
Pete.
Looks good. Another game I’ve had for awhile but not played yet, sadly. I also liked your sewers under Stalingrad. You made some special rules for that?
Thanks Sean, I did do some special rules to go with the sewers, I’ll post them up on the blog if you are interested?
Cheers,
Pete.
If you’re keen to share them, I’ll take them anyway I can get them.
If you like I can send them to the email you are posting from?
Cheers,
Pete.
Sure Pete. That works for me. Thanks.
Very cool, I will look in to this, small kit great for camping trips lol
Hey looks like Great fun my Friend:) take care now.
Dave In USA