Simple gameplay demo from my Gladiatorial game, Arena Caravans

I wanted to do a quick and dirty, (so please forgive the arena not being completely round... ) gameplay demo from the rules I am working on.

This will be a full turn of combat, plus the initiative roll for turn 2 so that I can show how wounds affect things.

Our two combatants today are a Roman on the left and a Celt on the right; although they are armoured very differently this fight won't involve any armour rules; we're treating it as a sparing match where both fighters would be stripped to basic clothing.

We're also not going to use any special weapon rules or skills/abilities; this is going to be as simple as a fight can get to keep it easy. An 8" wide circle, fighters 2" apart in the centre.

As two green initiates both fighters only have three combat dice. The Roman scores two 6s and one 2. The Celt a 5 and two 2s. Neither player is able to declare a charge (as neither can play a "run" of dice) so the Roman has initiative.

The Roman spends his 2 to move closer to the Celt.

The Celt, now they are in reach of each other, can spend his 5 to strike at the Roman.

Not wishing to stand there and take damage the Roman tries to use his 6 to block the attack....

...leading to a roll-off.

The Roman loses the roll-off, his block is unsuccessful and he takes a wound.

The Roman seeks to get immediate revenge, declaring his 6 as a strong hit (two wounds if it lands), so the Celt uses his 2 (a dodge when within weapon reach) so try to avoid damage = another roll off...

Again the Celt wins the rolloff.....

Dodging back 2" and avoiding a very damaging hit

The Celt, aware he's far too close to the edge of the fighting area (being pushed over the rope would be an immediate loss), uses his last dice this turn to move 1" back towards the Roman.

With no dice left and both fighters still a) in the Arena still and b) with wounds remaining (green initiates have 3 wounds each) the combat dice are rolled again to determine initiative. However as the Roman has a wound he rolls one red dice.....

Which comes up a 2, matching one of his combat dice....

...thus removing it from his dice pool

This shows the slowing effect wounds can have (of course if the red dice had come up a 1, 3 or 6 nothing would have happened, showing ignoring wounds sometimes happens too).

Turn 2 is now poised with the Celt holding the advantage in terms of wounds, but the Roman holding the better position; will the Celt take his last two wounds before the Roman can back him over the rope?

It could of course had been very different had the Roman won both roll offs rather than the Celt; they would be positioned in a similar way but the Celt would have suffered 2 wounds and the Roman would be unscathed.

The full rules will have armour effects, special abilities, rules for being able to pair dice to trigger special effects and of course some fun fantasy elements (like the werewolves blood greed that let's him roll an extra combat dice for every wound the enemy has suffered, but which can only be used for attacking actions).

And that's before we add in the fact there will be a solo campaign system with a basic AI and a range of fighters to pair yourself against.

Models are from Warlord Games Hail Caesar range, dice are from my local Warhammer store, string from the supermarket and the game mat is the 22" by 30" "Grass Theme" Mousepad Game Mat from Deep Cut Studios