Spartacus: blood & sand

Motivated by the excellent TV serie Spartacus: Blood and Sand, I decided to run a small campaign using the rules Red Sand Blue Sky from Two Hour Wargames.
Thus, I dusted off some gladiators forgotten somewhere in my place and painted them. As I did not have all the models I will use to run the full campaign I also ordered from EM4 the box Ludus Gladiatorius which includes an arena to play on and some pre painted models of decent quality that I needed.

All the EM4 pre painted models contained in the box

From left to right. Two models from Crusader and three from Foundry

"uri, uinciri, uerberari, ferroque necari"
"To endure burning with fire, shackling with chains, to be whipped with rods and killed by steel"
With these words a Thracian slave gave his oath of submission to his new dominus, and became member of the brotherhood of Batiatus gladiators Schola in Capua.
Because his Thracian origin he was given the Roman name of Spartacus, and trained and equipped to fight as a Thraex.
Spartacus starts with Rep 5 and his ultimate goal is to survive and gain his rudis at the Colosseum.
After months of due training he is introduced to his first gladiatorial fight.

Spartacus in blue versus a Murmillo in red

Both fighters hurry against each other. After the first fiery exchange of blows Spartacus is hit in his belly and forced to fall back, but fortunately his leather protection was enough to stop the cut.

Then Spartacus returns the blow by hitting the Murmillo's helmet which saves him from certain death but does not impede him falling to the ground. Spartacus quickly takes advantage of such fortunate event and struck down with killing intentions, but the Murmillo revolves frantically and avoids it. He then desperately tries to stand up and fight off the wild Thracian but he falls down again.
After fighting one more round from the ground the Murmillo gets exhausted and appeals for mercy.
The crowd's opinion is split evenly and looks to the editor of the games to decide. The fight was quick, without blood being spilt and thus a bit disappointing. The editor finally makes the gesture that signifies death and the gladiator is killed immediately.

Spartacus had done it pretty well in his first fight. He has won the match unscathed and with more than five dice in his pool, so he is granted a Corona. He has earned 5 Advance points and 50 Fame points.

The whole fight took less than ten minutes.