EQUIPMENT One gridded arena. Playing cards from Ace (One) to ten well shuffled in a pack face down. One sheet of paper/record card for each gladiator in the arena. Novice gladiators use a D4, experienced gladiators (those surviving three combats) use a D6. MOVEMENT Turn over one card for each gladiator in the arena. The number is the number of hexes (or squares, whatever grid you have managed to overlay) to be moved. Change of facing costs one point. Lowest card moves first. If there are pairs, suits are ranked as follows; Club lowest, then Diamond, Heart and Spade as the highest. COMBAT For combat purposes Red cards indicate attack, Black defence. Spear, trident and net have a range of two hexes; to use all other weapons you need to be in a hex adjacent to your opponent. Both defend (two black cards) clash of weapons/shields; no damage Attack/Defend (one black, one red) defender +1 to die throw Both attack (two red cards) both +1 to die throw Attack from rear +2 to die throw Subtract the scores from one another after modification and remove that number of points from the loser. (e.g. Retiarius attacking a defending Thracian; Retiarius scores 6, Thracian scores 3 +1 for defending = 4. 6-4 = 2 points taken off the Thracian.) When the points come down to zero, the gladiator has come to the end of his fight. Does he live or die? That is up to you, Emperor. DAMAGE CHART Full armour 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Helmet/shield 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 - - Retiarius 1 2 3 4 5 6 - - - - Velite 1 2 3 4 - - - - - - This is a fairly fast and furious set of rules and once you get used to the mechanics (about five minutes) you will be handling multiple combats. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior # 145 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com