Last 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:

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).

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.

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…) because 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!

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!

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.

Victor 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!