28mm Gladiators for 'Spartacus' and 'Jugula'

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, our gaming group quite enjoys playing a wide variety of board games. In fact several of us cut our teeth playing Avalon Hill and SPI war games and so it seems we are 'hard-coded' to love anything with a hex map and having a point decimal rules organization. (I still get a nervous tick whenever I hear 'Advanced Squad Leader' mentioned - a title that is notorious for being more of a lifestyle choice than a game.) A recent favourite is Gale Force Nine's 'Spartacus'. For us, any game with a byline that promises a fun-filled evening of 'blood and treachery' gets our vote!

'Spartacus' has each player (up to six) taking the role of a Dominus, controlling a powerful Roman household with its attendant school (ludus) of gladiators. Each game turn is composed of running nasty schemes, buying slaves, gladiators, equipment and then bidding to see who will host the games for that turn. To win the game a player needs to amass 12 points of influence (which can be damnably tricky with everyone doing their best to cut each others' throats!). The rule mechanics for the gladiatorial combat is quite elegant, fast and suitably bloody, with all the players being able to bid on wins, wounds, and decapitations (yikes!). We've always had a rip-roaring time as the game allows you to be as creative as you like in formulating your deals and crafting wonderfully treacherous backstabbing gambits. Great fun and highly recommended.

As you can see from the pic above the board for the arena is hex-based (swoon) and the game even comes with some basic soft plastic gladiators. They're not bad, but, being the dork that I am, I immediately wanted to replace them with my own painted miniatures. 

I had picked up some 28mm gladiators from Brigade Games a few months ago and I found that, once based, they fit perfectly within the hexes of the game board. You may have noticed that one of the bases is round while the others are square - this is because these figures will also be used for 'Jugula', which differentiates between 'heavy'  (square-based guys) and 'light' (round) class gladiators.

A light 'Thraex'

A 'Secutor'

To follow in the spirit of the game board, I indulged in painting the bases with gratuitous blood trails and ghastly spatters of viscera (love that word, viscera, it sounds just as it describes). 

A 'Murmillo'

A 'Hoplomachus'

A 'Provocator'

I have another batch of these to do, mostly lighter class fellas,  but I'm going to hold off on painting them until the Painting Challenge starts. Every point counts now...

Paint Duels and Side Challenges!

Visit the Painting Challenge blog to witness the first gauntlets thrown for painting duels and side challenges. This year's event is setting up to be a pell-mell, paint-spattered melee into March! 

Ladies, Gentlemen... Select your brushes and take your positions...

The Fifth Painting Challenge Prize Sponsors

Please check out the Painting Challenge page for details of this year's prize sponsors. In brief, I wish to thank:

Barrage Miniatures

Deep-Cut Studios

Diplomatist Books

Fife & Drum / Minden Miniatures

J&M Miniatures

Murawski Miniatures

Orinoco Miniatures

SG2 Creations

Westfalia Miniatures

Again, thank you to all our prize sponsors for their very generous support of the Painting Challenge.


Next Up: Paint Duels and Side Challenges!

'Unity Through Paint' - The Roster for the Fifth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

We have our team! Below you will find the roster of participants for the Fifth Annual Painting Challenge. This year we have 72 hobbyists rolling out, up by almost a dozen from last year - the more the merrier, wot! 

We have folks from 12 years of age to, well, let's say not 12 years of age (;OP) and coming from 14 nations: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, United States, and the UK. Looking at this I think this year's Challenge's motto of 'Unity through Paint' may not be too far off the mark.

Note: To all the participants, please review the roster to make sure that you're there and that your points target and the link to your blog (if you have one) are correct.

I also want to take this opportunity to announce that there will be a few changes to how the Challenge will be accessed and administered for this edition. 

1)  I have created an exclusive Painting Challenge blog for the event. So when the event kicks off on December 5th it is there where you'll be wanting to go. The address of the Painting Challenge blog is:

http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.ca/

In addition, you can find a button to it ('The Painting Challenge') at the top of this blog.

Why do this? Well, I believe the Challenge has now grown large enough to warrant its own web presence and I think it's time to keep it distinct from my own personal blog. Over the next few months I will be structuring the new Challenge blog to contain all of the content from the previous four events so it's self-contained and can project a sense of its own history.

Also, a dedicated blog allows me to be able to assign the participants of the Challenge as author/contributors. This is quite significant as it will give the participants more flexibility and control on how their submissions are handled while also alleviating a portion of the workload from me. (Don't worry, I will still act as editor and will post entires for those who either cannot, or do not, wish to mess with posting their own entries.)

2) In order for me to better keep on top of the entries I am assigning each participant a day of the week in which his or her work will be posted to the Challenge blog. This, in turn, helps me spread out the work over the week and gives me Sunday's off to work on my own stuff and manage the Fortnight Theme Rounds.

Nonetheless, during the first and final weeks of the Challenge the assigned days will be ignored, allowing people to send in their entries as they wish, maintaining the Challenge's signature pell-mell start and mad race to the finish.

I hope this all makes sense. I'll be sending out an email in a week or so to all the participants to go over the finer mechanics of the Challenge. 

Up Next: Our Prize Sponsors!

The Fifth Annual Painting Challenge Roster

	Challenger	Post Day	Initial Points Target	Blog
1.	AaronH	Monday	650	Dulce et Decorum Est
2.	AdamC	Monday	1000	Fencing Frog
3.	AlanD	Monday	1500	Dux Homunculorum
4.	AnneO’L	Monday	500	O’Leary Miniatures
5.	BenG	Monday	400	Monsieur Rosbif & Johnny Frog
6.	BrendonW	Monday	1000	The Gamer’s Table
7.	BrianB	Monday	500	RayGun Gothic Galaxy
8.	BurkhardS	Monday	1000	dhcwargamesblog
9.	ByronM	Monday	1000	Fawcett Ave Conscripts
10.	ChristopherS	Monday	500	Bunker Hill
11.	ClintB	Monday	1250	Anything But a One
12.	DaveD	Monday	2250	One Man and His Brushes
13.	DavidB	Tuesday	750	-
14.	DavidL	Tuesday	750	The Miniatures Corner
15.	EdwinK	Tuesday	1000	Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist
16.	Evan&GrantH	Tuesday	200	-
17.	FranL	Tuesday	600	The Angry Lurker
18.	GillesW	Tuesday	1000	Wilderness of Mirrors
19.	GregB	Tuesday	300	Fawcett Ave Conscripts
20.	IanW	Tuesday	1000	The Blog with No Name
21.	IannickM	Tuesday	600	Par la bouche de mes canons Marauders and Citadels
22.	JaccoK	Tuesday	500	-
23.	JamesR	Tuesday	750	Baconfat Log
24.	JamieM	Wednesday	500	GOG Online
25.	JeremyM	Wednesday	300	-
26.	JohnM	Wednesday	1000	Wargaming in 28mm and Sometimes Smaller
27.	JuanM	Wednesday	500	Ad Finis
28.	Kawe	Wednesday	200	Grossbeeren 1813
29.	KevinH	Wednesday	300	Fawcett Ave. Conscripts
30.	KevinS	Wednesday	?	Diggers Home
31.	MarkE	Wednesday	500	The Occasional Wargamer
32.	MarkG	Wednesday	750	The Wilde Goose
33.	MartinC	Wednesday	1000	-
34.	MartinN	Wednesday	400	Moiterei’s bunte Welt
35.	MarkE	Wednesday	500	The Occasional Wargamer
36.	MarkO	Thursday	1000	Chasseur
37.	MichaelA	Thursday	1000	28mm Victorian Warfare
38.	MichaelF	Thursday	501	MiniStories
39.	MichaelP	Thursday	500	Mad Padre Wargames
40.	MilesR	Thursday	2000	Lair of the Uber Geek
41.	Millsy	Thursday	2000	Canister and Grape
42.	PaulS	Thursday	500	EndTransmission’s gaming stuff
43.	PeterB	Thursday	1000	Comes Britanniae
44.	PeterD	Thursday	1000	The Single Handed Admiral
45.	PeterT	Thursday	500	Well, this isn’t a reasonable use…
46.	PhilH	Thursday	500	Diary of a Gaming Magpie
47.	RayR	Thursday	300	Don’t Throw a 1
48.	RichardC	Friday	500	-
49.	RichardM	Friday	700	Working on the Lead Mountain
50.	RobH	Friday	200	With General Custer Down in Mexico
51.	RobP	Friday	500	-
52.	RossM	Friday	500	Brushes and Bases
53.	RoyW	Friday	750	R.W.’s Hobby Blog
54.	SamuliS	Friday	1000	Engineered Gaming
55.	Sander	Friday	500	Modus Reg Magni Momenti
56.	SeanS	Friday	1000	Sean’s Wargaming Corner
57.	SebG	Friday	200	Back to the Minis
58.	ScottB	Friday	600	Scott’s Wargaming
59.	ScottS	Friday	1000	Too Much Free Time
60.	SidneyR	Friday	750	Roundwood’s World
61.	SimonM	Saturday	500	Fantorical
62.	StacyS	Saturday	300	-
63.	SteH	Saturday	750	Off t' Club
64.	StefanK	Saturday	750	Monty’s Caravan
65.	StefanoS	Saturday	300	-
66.	SteveM	Saturday	800	-
67.	SylvainR	Saturday	300	-
68.	TamsinP	Saturday	1500	Wargaming Girl
69.	TeemuL	Saturday	500	Vain Vader
70.	TobiP	Saturday	500	Tobi’s Paint Pot
71.	VincentC	Saturday	500	Blitzkrieg Brushes
72.	…and Curt		750