EscenaRYS cancels Gladiatoris KS

libellus numerarius III
novembris XXX-MMXVI 

Hello.

The Gladiatoris Kickstarter campaign (November 2016) is cancelled, but we will relaunch!

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Sadly, we have to cancel the campaign. It’s not going to reach the funding goal, so now we must take a step back and improve, so the next Gladiatoris campaign will be successful. We WILL relaunch- don’t think this is the end of Gladiatoris!

You have given us a lot of valuable advice and feedback- please keep it coming! Most of what we have learned is thanks to you, and that’s why we love to hear your ideas!

Also, we will send all backers the Print&Play as soon as possible. We will leave the Kickstarter campaign open for another 24 hours, so if you want to support us as a symbolic gesture, you still have time.

Don’t stop following us on social media- don’t miss any update. We won’t stop working.

Here’s the link to the full update. Thanks to all of you, and see you on the Arena!

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Greetings,
David Temprano “Thraex” and Luis Valleaguado “Lusitor”.

New gameplay video!

Greetings!

Last week, we played a new Gladiatoris game at Emerald Knights Burbank, CA, to shoot a video!

gladiatoris-video-ek-03These are the players. From left to right, Paul Ang (Scutarii, red), Kevin Barber (Sine Scuto, blue) and Jennifer Ho (Parmularii, green).

We chose the Great Public Punishment, a variant of one of the scenarios included in our Core Rules. It’s played not on a small domestic board but on the Amphitheatre… with 2 hidden traps revealed with every CRONOS!

This game (starting from 6:00 into the video) was completely improvised, but we have edited it into an abridged version… so we can focus on the brave Laquearius’ saga!

The first Event went by without great surprises, and the three players had to divide the Palm evenly (earning 1.000 sestertii each of them) after everyone managed to defeat a single Slave with their own small Beast. But in the second Event’s sortitio… the level III Dimachaerus fails his roll! And… so does the Retiaria! Thus, Kevin is forced to deploy into the arena a poor level I Laquearius. He would have to fight, not only against Great Beasts, but against two fearsome level III Gladiators: Paul’s red Secutor and Jennifer’s green Thraex! But the underdog didn’t give up… watch the video and see for yourself!

gladiatoris-video-ek-04It was a night full of excitement and laughs, and we will remember it fondly thanks to the wonderful video shot and edited by Tinieblas González, our friend and also a Gladiatoris fan. 🙂

See you on the arena!

Sources from Getty Villa

Greetings!

During the Gladiatoris design process, we have used hundreds of archaeological sources as a base for our gladiators’ initial sketches, both 2D and 3D.

This week we went to Getty Villa, the spectacular Greek, Etruscan and Roman museum at Malibu, near Los Angeles, located at a wonderful site with views to the Pacific Ocean.

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We could see there some of the weapons we used as sources for our Samnite from the red Great Shields, the breastplate decorated with three circles that Alfonso didn’t allow us to use (and we had to observe his criterion), or the spectacular Greek helm (bronze, South Italy, 350-300 b. C.) with a griffon head at the top.

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We also found the statue of Leda and the swan. We talked about it on February, 2016, when we discussed for weeks (yes, weeks!) about the orange acrobat Paegniaria‘s hairstyle 😛

This sculpture is a 1st century A.D. magnificent Roman work, copied from a Greek original c. 300 B.C., attributed to Timotheus. You can also enjoy another version of this statue at Madrid (Museo del Prado).

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There are also some small bronze statues of gladiators and… what a coincidence! The very same urn I used back in 2004 for the Greek Heroes cover, with Heracles and Iolaus in it! I strongly recommend paying it a visit (I also recommend Universal Studios, of course).

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It’s an Etruscan terracotta hydria, with a black painting in it, Heracles and the Hydra, dated around 525 B.C. One of the Getty collection masterpieces!

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Chronicle: games at Tierra Ignota

An unknown land 2016Last Saturday we went to the Tierra Ignota Convention, hosted by club Reika, from Valladolid. We always try to go to every convention we can, especially if they are near home, but in this case we simply could not miss Tierra Ignota. A lot of Reika members have been Gladiatoris playtesters for years, and they have participated in the annual leagues that we celebrated in Valladolid. In fact, the award of the Ultima Test of 2014 was to design one of the miniatures of the game, something that finally Daniel Acebes (Maprenufus Victor / Amittere Finem Perserverandus Secutor), from Reika, was able to enjoy. You have the whole design process of the Secutor here.

We have designed a special game mode dedicated to their annual convention which, as it could not be otherwise, is called Tierra Ignota. As you can see, its board is somewhat… special:

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Next door we had some friends: DracoIdeas with their game 2GM Tactics and Jaime González, the artist of our splendid board sections, demoing his game Sector 6, that will be crowdfunded in December. Stay tuned!

Back to Gladiatoris. We had four players in the morning: Alba, Guille, Diego and Bruno. Bruno is an expert and he chose the Petauristae (perhaps the most complex of the basic teams), while the rest tried the Murmillones, the Thraeces and the Retiarae (optional purchases on Kickstarter).tierraignota002

Tierra Ignota comprises two Events. In the first one, a fight with two sides, the Great Beasts try to get to the center of the Arena while dodging enemy Gladiators, barbarian slaves and pits that open under their feet. Well- that’s the theory at least! Two boodthirsty beasts, a Cheetah and an Atlas Lion, cornered without mercy a poor Lusitor, that barely escaped with his life. Meanwhile, the Tiger attacked the Murmillo, and the rest of the fighters tried to finish off the barbarians.tierraignota003

In the second Event, The Island, we had a close quarters fight in its central high platform; the small Beasts tried to climb to it to help their Gladiators. All around this beautiful free-for-all, several of the Gladiators proved that climbing up and down pits full of wild beasts was not their strong point.

In the afternoon, we played twice. I didn’t wrote names of the first players (David will kill me…) tierraignota005because they ran off to the next event. Three of them played with the three extra teams too and other one with the Armoured (from the future expansion Colosseum). We had hilarious moments, such as the competition of fumbles between the Auroch and the Retiaria; a real “ping-pong fumble” (you attack me and fumble, but I also fumble my counterattack, allowing you to counterattack me…) that produced an amazing four fumble streak. (Beasts cannot fumble, but the Auroch is one of the few exceptions)

If you want an ultradetailed review and you can read Spanish, one of our players with a prodigious memory has written a turn-by-turn account, down to every dice roll! Thank you!
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This second Event of Tierra Ignota, The Island, is arguably one of the funniest in the Games Book. Several Gladiators compete in an elevated platform, trying to stand for as much time as possible (because there are special prizes involved). The platform is surrounded by a pit full of wild beasts, and from the ends of the board more Gladiators run towards the center to help their team mates, but they must cross the moat to do so. Also, the platform has a trap under it that can throw fighters on the brink down to the pit… among all those beasts!tierraignota009

This game was especially fun, and the participants had a lot of fun. The Beasts protected the moat quite well at the beginning (although a Retiaria made short notice of a pair of animals) but towards the end they constantly disobeyed their trainers. And we had a very bloody fight in the central platform that ended with the defeat of most of the Gladiators on it.

TierraIgnota010Victor and Javi with their palms
Thanks to @ponyoworld for this pic!

It was a fantastic day, with old and new friends. Thanks to all of you!

Burning oil at Emerald Knights

Best regards!

We have just launched our Kickstarter campaign, and people is throwing so many question at us that answering them is almost a full time job!

The day before starting the Kickstarter campaign, still somewhat calm, we went again to Emerald Knights, in Burbank, California, to play a Great Public Punishment game with expert Californian players.

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Emerald-knights-encounter-01The store is packed with game tables and every Wednesday, they reserve the central space for board games.

The previous weekend we played a quick game, in which Tinieblas’ poor red Murmillo succumbed to my great beast and Thraex’s joint attacks.

“Go Thraex!” 🙂

David (Parmularii): 9.600 sestertii (“coins”)
Tinieblas (Scutarii): 1.500 sestertii

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Kevin and Peter sat with us. We had chatted with them in previous visits; they were very kind, and excused my poor English. We played a Great Public Punishment, an Amphitheatre variant (i.e. bigger board) of the example scenario from our Games Book that you can download here… with 2 traps appearing on the arena for each Cronos!

Emerald-knights-encounter-04Kevin and his green tattoos chose the Small Shields; and Peter and his tattooed panther chose the Blue Team.

The first event was resolved very quickly, and Kevin was the victor with his magnificent Parmularii… but I stole his Palm with my Munera card!

In the second event, they had to carefully read their Maneuver cards… so carefully indeed, that Kevin nearly defeated my Level III Murmillo with a 3-card, triple-coloured combo!

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Things looked bad for my Murmillo, who had just defeated the Leopard with a fierce attack, so he took to his heels, leaving the dirty work to the sturdy Red Lion.

But, Kevin’s Hoplomaca ran after my Gladiator and got to him with her spear, leaving it with only 1 wound left (“almost dead”). And then…

CRONOS! Kevin activates a burning oil trap in the exact section of the board where my Murmillo was! The poor thing burned like the Human Torch from Fantastic 4, and both rivals laughed heartily at my expense. I don’t blame them.

Emerald-knights-encounter-06The next trap opens a pit by surprise under the Retiaria’s feet. And Peter uses a Flee maneuver card to avoid it! That’s something I don’t remember happening ever before (in more than 200 games), and that certainly deserves my applause.

Nevertheless, she ended up falling into the Pit next turn, and there we had a gladiatrices duel: Hoplomaca vs Retiaria.

“As in the Gladiator pits from Conan the barbarian!”

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Finally, the Retiaria was defeated, and my lion (who had fled but had to return to battle) finished up the green Great Beast. In the last turn, the Hoplomaca managed to take the Lion’s last wound… thus getting both Palms! Salve, Gladiator!

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Kevin (Petauristae): 12.000 sestertii (“coins”)
David (Scutarii): 2.400 sestertii
Peter (Sine Scuto):? sestertii

Kevin: “Gladiatoris is a game of strategy, luck, and bribery were anything can happen in the arena. 

Just got to play a game yesterday. I got a lucky combo and took my opponents gladiator down to 1 and watch as a trap killed him. It was a funny game and a good show for the masses. Lol”

After the game, Kevin gave me very good advice and a lot of ideas about new scenarios. Thanks a lot!

Brief tutorial to join Kickstarter

Some of you have asked us how to register on Kickstater, so we have improvised this little tutorial.

  1. Go to the Kickstarter website. On the upper right corner you’ll see the small “Register” link. Click on it and Kickstarter will ask you to provide a username and an e-mail address, and to write a password for your new account.
  2. Congratulations – you already have a Kickstarter account! Now go again to the upper right corner and click on the little globe. A drop-down menu will appear. Select the “Account” option.
  3. From here you can change different account options, as is usual with e-mail or forum accounts. But in order to support projects you will need to stablish a payment method. Please click on the Payment methods link.
  4. Once there, you will need to click on “Add a new card”. A new window will ask for your credit card data.
    Kickstarter will only use this information to collect the money that you decide to use to support projects, and only if they reach 100% of their financial goal. Payment via Kickstarter is secure.

And that’s all it takes! You can now explore Kickstarter and discover interesting projects. But don’t forget about Gladiatoris!

3 more days… Encounter at Emerald Knights

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Next Wednesday, November 2nd, we’ll be playing Gladiatoris at Emerald Knights’ Wednesday Night (4116 W Burbank Blvd, Burbank CA 91505).

We discovered this game store back in 2013, and wrote about it in a (very visited) post in our old blog.

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We’ve been going there these past two weekends, and we’ve met some expert players very interested in trying the game. Luckily, we’ve got a good interpreter, Tinieblas Gonzalez, one of the first playtesters of our pre-2009 version. He then told us the game was “a good idea, but slow and too complex”. Yesterday, after having to explain him the rules (in English) he told us that “it keeps all the good ideas, but it’s fast and easy to learn; it’s way better”. He loved it , even if my Thraex defeated him!

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This is the result of 7 years of playtesting and listening to a lot of different players 🙂

See you next Wednesday!

Only 5 days to go! Live on November 3rd

We’re having an interesting discussion on some forums about the size of our Lion. Some fans think that the miniature is unrealistically big.

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We want the mini to be intimidating (hence its size, see the design notes), but we’ve always listened to our players’ opinion and we have never regretted it.

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So… what do you think? The mini is already designed and we can change its size easily before sending it into production. Please let us know your opinion on this!

Proporciones

6 Days to go… Enter the Acrobats!

Enter the orange Petauristae, Acrobats!

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gladiatoris-lusitor-sine-scuto-2dAnd after the beast hunt, before the actual gladiator duels, the public enjoys the performance of the… Acrobats!

The Petauristae (acrobats) drop the curtain on the four teams from the basic box. The Lusitor, their star gladiator, is one of the most loved fighters in Gladiatoris. And they have the Tiger too, a wild beast able to jump 3 squares! You can see all their combatants here.

Only 6 days to go!

Only 7 days to go! Live on November 3rd

Today marks the start of the final countdown for the Kickstarter Gladiatoris campaign.

Only 7 days to go!

The campaign will be live on Thursday November 3rd, at 11:00 PDT (20:00 GMT)

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We’ll soon activate our Kickstarter page, but you can already see our new component image. We love its final look!

It’s been almost 8 years since our old prototype…

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Like our new BGG images!

 

Sine Scutum are here!

We introduce you the blue team: Sine Scutum, No Shield!

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Gladiatoris - Retiaria (Sine Scuto)This team’s favourite gladiatrix is the Retiaria, armed with trident and net; the Laquearius also wields a trident, though he uses a lasso instead of a net… and the Dimachaerus dances with his two swords in a deadly whirlwind. These gladiators jump into the arena almost unprotected, but they have confidence in finishing their enemies off before taking a scratch. Along them fight their fast Leopard, their tenacious Hounds, and their blue Slaves, that can be trained up to the point of becoming almost as good as gladiators.

Just one team left before the campaign!

Enter the Parmularii!

Enter the green Parmularii, Small Shields!

Gladiatoris - Parmularii (Small Shields)

Gladiatoris - Thraex (Parmularii)This team’s star is the Thraex, many lanistae’s favourite gladiator! The Hoplomaca wields her spear to keep enemies at bay with surprise counterattacks, and the Provocator is a master of foul play. Their Panther can knock and pin down rival fighters, so their elusive Wolves or even their Slaves can finish them off.

Only two more teams to go before launching the campaign!