The House of Oscarus

I've been playtesting a wonderful game called "Blood on the Sands" (BOTS for short) for a buddy of mine.  In doing so, I've gathered and built a reasonable ludus-worth of gladiators.  Here is the current ludus (with another 10 or so figures on the way and I'll likely call it quits).

A Wargames Foundry Retiarius (plastic spear from Mantic w/ trident head)  The Retiarius was a lightly armored gladiator outfitted with a trident, net, and a large shoulder guard which served as his only protection.

A poorly painted Wargames Foundry Laquerius with plastic Mantic spear.  The Laquerius was a rare cousin to the Retiarius - using a rope/lasso instead of the more common net, and a spear in place of the trident.

A Brigade Games (Paul Hicks) Provocator model with a plastic shield from Warlord Romans.  The Paul Hicks sculpts are historically accurate but not as nice as the Wargames Foundry sculpts.

A Brigade Games Secutor.  The Secutor was the evolution of the Myrmillo who frequently fought against the Retiarius.  The name, Secutor means "Chaser".  The Secutor differs only in a heavier more rounded helmet (designed to decrease the tangle of the Retiarius' net - a weakness suffered by the Myrmillo with their large crested helmets).

A Brigade Games Myrmillo.  The standard "Heavy" gladiator class, equipped with a common gladius and scutum.  This figure has a plastic Warlord Games shield.

 A Brigade Games Thraex.  I'm not stoked with the paint job on this fella...but he works.  The Thraex was a "Light" class of gladiator commonly paired with the Myrmillo.  When possible, light gladiators would fight heavy gladiators - pairs carefully picked/refined to provide excellent entertainment.  The Thraex has a small shield, and a curved blade called a Sica.

A Wargames Foundry gladiator who was turned into a Provocator by adding the simple chest-plater.  A reasonable figure though I don't favour "non-fighting" miniatures for something like this small gladiator skirmish.

A Wargames Foundry gladiator used as a Myrmillo.  While he lacks some authentic leg protection, fights were often modified by the Editor, the person responsible for the matches.  His short straight sword and scutum shield and his early Myrmillo helmet are easily recognizable.

A Wargames Foundry Thraex who has been converted into a Hoplomachus - my favorite gladiator class.  The Hoplomachus was a light gladiator class which used a spear, small circular shield, and often carried a knife or small sword (lest his spear be broken...).  One of my favorite models.  The Wargames Foundry models are an absolute joy to paint.

Another victorious Provocator by Wargames Foundry.  The Provocator was a rare gladiator type which apparently fought with heavy armor including an additional chest plate/mail.  It is most similar to a Myrmillo in armament.

A marvelous yet imposing Wargames Foundry Secutor.  This figure is a good few millimeters taller than the others, a big brute.

A Wargames Foundry rare Myrmillo - a scaeva - a term used to describe a left-handed gladiator.  While gladiators trained to fight many classes including their own, a rare left-handed opponent would create a challenge outside of normal training.  Plastic scutum as usual.

A Brigade Games Hoplomachus - again with a plastic Mantic spear, small circular shield and an added short sword/dagger.

The assembled Ludus of House Oscarus - vividly coloured and prepared to entertain.  The red markings on the base simply denote the "forward" facing of the miniature when used on a hex map.

The above is a "pontus" that I made - or a bridge.  Seen in various graffiti pieces from the Roman era, a pontus was used to pit a single Retiarius against a pair of Secutors.  While I've zero idea of how precisely a pontus looked, this was created to allow a similar scenario to unfold.  The pontus consists of 7 spaces which match up on a simple hex map - meaning that no changes are made to game play.  Historically it is suggested that the Retiarius may have even had a pile of stones to throw and may not have used his net.  I'll be creating some rules for BOTS and Pontus fights to simulate these events.  More later!

Bugbears!

So I finally got around to painting the last few bugbears.  Only doing six since they're big minis and I'm not hugely fond of them.  Just enough for an encounter.

Here they are - a mix of D&D pre-paints and a Reaper figure I think.  Weapons etc. have been added and they're all obviously re-painted.  A nice little band.

Tomorrow...perhaps a dragon...perhaps gladiators...

Some works in progress and more pics.

Here are some more photos of the dungeon beasties that are in progress.

Unable to stomach the prices for the beautiful Otherworld Miniatures bugbears I decided to gather a bunch of D&D prepaints and see if I could salvage them into something a bit nicer.  They've been equipped with new weapons and shields, removed from their bases and re-based.

Another late addition.

While the prepaints start off rather...underwhelming.  With a little paint, a nice base, and some minor adjustment to weapons and equipment, they can become very reasonable as seen below:

Men-at-Arms

   A couple of people had asked me about the men-at-arms I posted in my first post.  They are Gripping Beast Hirdmen mixed with a box of Fireforge Crusader knights on foot.  Luckily the FF/GB stuff is literally plug-n-play.  Identical scale, shape, arm mounts etc.  In the future I may grab some GB Arab archers, some FF mongols, some more crusaders etc.  I suspect combing a half dozen boxes you could creat some really genuinely cool stuff.

I really like the end result of combing the crusader and viking bits.  The figures end up being quite historical looking with minor differences.  These kind of mash-ups would work well in a near-historical setting like Game of Thrones etc. 

The beginning of a dungeon crawl...

So one of my current projects (without much of a concrete objective in mind...) is the creation of a dungeon and a dungeon's worth of suitable monsters.  This will be kept and used for pretty much any dungeon crawl or small fantasy skirmish I feel like gaming.

Scale: 25/28mm with 1" squares (using Dwarven Forge dungeon pieces) and 25mm bases up to about 75mm bases for larger creatures.

Inspiration: Older style, simple but charming figures.  I want some decent simplicity and retro look without going too retro (no button nosed gnomes in big flouncy shirts here...).  So a kind of D&D original look but without the 70's flair.

Game?: I may eventually produce a card-driven game to run at conventions (maybe not sell...).

Anyway, on with the pictures!

A group of Men-at-Arms for use as towns' guard, mercenaries or allies.  Gripping Beast Vikings mixed with Fireforge Crusaders.

 

Mantic Ghouls for use as ghouls, zombies and various unpleasant things.

GW LOTR orcs...very poor plastic sculpts (huge bits of unsculpted plastic on the minis).  Pretty disappointed considering how good many GW plastic kits are.  Will be used for goblins.

Wargames Factory orcs - not the best sculpts, but very nice to see something different.  You'll find no gigantic muscled green orcs here...I'm avoiding that "look" as much as possible.  Never been a fan.

Wargames Factory skeletons with some Mantic bits thrown in for good measure.  I like the skeletons okay but as with most plastic skeletons I fear some will break with gameplay.  Good thing I have more spares sitting in the box!

The start of our intrepid band of adventurers.  Otherworld Miniatures in the front rank (far preferred) and some "gigantic" Reaper miniatures in the back.  I'll keep adding to this bunch, as the characters will also serve double duty, standing in for evil characters or special NPCs etc.

Recycling the trash...

For many monsters and creatures I've found very cheap reasonably pre-painted miniatures from HeroScape, D&D, Pathfinder etc.  I've recovered several of these for use as they're decent figures (very soft on the detail unfortunately) but I like the look and they do rather well as monsters.  Most of the large creatures are based on 40mm plastic rounds, while normal figures are 25mm renedra plastic rounds.

A HeroScape troll was recovered, given a different look and based.

I really love the look of the D&D Ogre I found, so I picked one up, repainted, re-based and re-armed him.  Unfortunately my dip dried up without me knowing it, and I dunked him in goop...I managed to save it, but the overall miniature turned out poorly.  Still love the look of the guy though.

I can't afford lovely OW Minis bugbears at the moment so I started gathering up a handful of pre-paints from D&D.  They're all horribly painted and some of the sculpts are so bad I've thrown them out.  This fella is the first of five I'll be saving and refitting to look decent in the dungeon.  I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

More to come later...