Types of Combat

One may ask why there are different kinds of combat. There is a very simply answer, that the host of the games wanted to make the games as interesting as possible to the spectators. This host actually purchased the gladiators for the games, who each had their own styles from their past war experience. Gladiators with different styles of fighting paired together, and this created a more intriguing match-up.

Several different types of gladiators included:

Thracian: This gladiator had a chest covering of leather/metal. His other armor included a small shield (parma), which he carried in his left hand, a sword belt, a protective leather band (fasciae) wrapped around his left arm, and greaves for his legs. His weapon was a scimitar (sica).

Secutor (chaser): He carried a rectangular shield and a high visored helmet. A greave protected his left leg only and a leather band was on his right arm. His weapon was a dagger or a short sword.

Retiarius (net man): This gladiator fought with a trident, a three-pronged pitchfork, and a net used to entangle his opponent. He had no helmet or shield and his only protection was a metal piece on his left shoulder (galerus). He was very nimble due to his lack of armor.

Hoplomachus: He carried a very large shield, which made up for his lack body armor. His armor included an ocria on his left leg, and leather bands on his wrist, knee, and ankle of the left leg. His weapon was a sword.

Essedarii: These gladiators fought from war chariots. This was probably a result of Caesar, who saw this type of fighting when he invaded the British Isles.

Equites: They fought with a lance while riding on a horse. They carried a round shield and their thighs were protected.

Dimachaeri: This gladiator fought carrying two swords.

Laquearii: All we know is that they fought with a lasso and had little armor.

Andabates: This fighter was unusual. He wore a fully visored helmet and had no vision. He found his enemy by groping. He wore full body armor and his only weakness was at his joints.

Myrmillo: This gladiator had a distinctive fish crest on his helmet. They carried a sword and a shield.

Velites: He fought with a spear which was attached to a thong, by which he could retrieve his spear after an errant throw.

Gladiator is played on a hex sheet, allowing the use of figure orientation to determine how lethal a blow could be, i.e. unshielded side or rear, and also allowing for better...or worse defense.

Turn Sequence

1) Both players roll 1d6 for initiative. High roll picks to go first or second.
2) The player with initiative rolls a d6 for his number of Action Points this turn.
3) The player with initiative now moves and attacks, if he can, as many times as are allowed.
4) The other player now does his move as above.

Action Points and Orders

Each specific order costs a certain number of action points to carry out. These are spelled out on the chart below. A player can spend his action points in any combination of moving and attacking.

Order		Action point cost (cumulative)	Notes
Recover	All	A player may opt to spend his turn Recovering. He may not do this if he is adjacent to an enemy gladiator.
Advance	+1 per hex moved	Once in an adjacent hex to an opponent, you may not move from one adjacent hex to another.
Retreat	+2 per hex moved	Moving into any of the three rearward hexes is a Retreat.
Attack	+1 per each Attack	See notes on how to attack.
Frenzied Attack	Additional +1 to Attack	You must be adjacent to make a frenzied attack.

Attacks

If a man makes an Advance into contact and has enough points left to attack, here is the sequence: Note: once two men are in base-to-base contact, they can only Attack, Defend or Retreat.

A) Each man rolls a red attack dice and a white defense dice. Both modify their dice (see modifiers below).

B) Compare the red attack dice of each man to the white defense dice of the other. The difference between the dice is the damage inflicted. In other words, if Spartacus scores 3 points on Crixus and Crixus scores 2 on Spartacus, both suffer wounds.

C) When a hit is scored, roll 1d6 to determine what got hit and then deduct that number of hit points from any future dice roll the wounded gladiator makes in that area. Here are the areas that might be hit.

1 - Leg - subtract from Action point roll.
2 or 3 - Torso - subtract from Attack dice.
4 or 5 - Arm - subtract from Defense dice.
6 - Head -subtract from Initiative dice.

Here are the modifiers to the attack and defense dice I referred to above:

Gladiator's Situation	Attack Modifier	Defense Modifier	Action Point Modifier
Armored	0	+1	-1
Unarmored	0	-1	+1
Large Shield	-1	+1	-1
Medium Shield	-1	0	0
No Shield	0	-1	+1
Attack Posture	+1	-1	+1
Balanced Posture	0	0	0
Defend Posture	-1	+1	0
Frenzied Attack	+1	0	+1 Additional

Orientation

How your figures end up in contact with each other is your orientation. The more you are at your enemy's rear or unprotected side, the better you hit, and the worse he fights back.

Gladiator's Orientation
Your Figure	Enemy	Attack	Defend
Face	Face	0	0
Face	Weapon	+1	0
Face	Shield	0	+1
Face	Back	+2	0
Weapon	Face	+1	-1
Weapon	Weapon	0	0
Weapon	Shield	-1	+1
Weapon	Back	+2	N/A (Enemy can't hit you if)
Shield	Face	-1	+1
Shield	Sword	-1	+1
Shield	Shield	-1	+1
Shield	Back	0	0

Damage As described above, if the man has already taken a hit on his ability to attack or defend that is deducted here as well. All damage is cumulative and can only be alleviated by a Recover order (which removes 1 damage point per turn of recovering).

Total Damage 8 kills, 7 on the ground unable to fight, but still alive. You take the number of hits you inflicted on your opponent and add them to a d6 die roll. If the score is 6 or more, you fought bravely and will get the 'thumbs up'. Otherwise....

Experience cards Here's an amusing bit of chrome. Each time a gladiator wins a fight, he draws a random 'experience' card from a deck. The cards have different advantages on them. One example might be a tricky dodge that negates what would otherwise have been a hit on the man.

Example: Kirk Douglas, having won his last match, picks this card. In his next match, his opponent gets a great dice roll that will put poor Kirk into the sand. Before his opponent can start to gloat, Kirk whips out his 'dodge' card and wipes the smile off the guy's face. You could have any number of variations on this, and they would be fun to write. That way, gladiators who win become more valuable, and a few become fearsome champions.

There are a host of fun details that can be hung off that framework, including:

Net man

May 'fling' net at 2 hex range at a cost of 2 action points. Both players roll a d6 to see if he entangles his opponent. If opponent is Armored, he loses any tie die roll, if unarmored, he wins the tie. If otherwise, least damaged wins the tie. The trident counts normal for an attack from 2 hexes, but attacks at a -1 when adjacent. While entangled in the net, it costs three action points to get loose. If attacked while entangled, may not attack and defend at a further -1.

Might form teams of gladiators. Victories earn money for the owner. The money is used to purchase slaves. Better quality slaves would cost more, but might start out with an experience card, or maybe a +1 AP etc.

It might be fun (but slightly unhistorical) to have leagues and seasons like the Blood Bowl game. The Games Workshop folks used that technique to make lots of figure and rules supplement sales.

We have to make rules for the big cats. They should function in a unique and amusing way, rather than just as a 4-legged gladiator. My thoughts are to have anyone first facing a lion, take a -2 on Initiative roll. Lions move at 2 hexes per action point.

We can have special events occur when certain combinations of attack/defense dice are rolled. Example: if a player rolls a 6 on both his attack and his defense, he kills his opponent outright. If he rolls a 1 on attack and his opponent rolls a 6 on defense, he drops his weapon, and so on.

SnakeEyes:

If both of your rolls are 1, you fall down face first in the dirt, back to your enemy!
Roll double 2's - you drop your weapon (1,2,3) or your shield (4, 5, 6).
Roll double 5's - Mob likes you, get a +1 on roll for thumbs up.
It costs you an additional action point to pick up a sword or shield.

Calling on the gods:

Once each turn, you may re-roll one bad die roll.