Dusty's PrairieCon XLIV After Action Report Part 2 - "Arena of Blood"

 On Saturday morning of PrairieCon I was scheduled to run 'Arena of Blood' by Wiley Games. I didn't have any preregistered participants, but over the course of the two hour slot I was able to recruit a total of eight players who played at least two games each. (The event organizers had stands with a sign that read 'Players Wanted' which I used to attract some players.)

 

Set up at PrairieCon with 'Players Wanted' sign

Samnite defeats Murmillo

Murmillo defeats Crupellarius

Hoplomachus and Murmillo versus Velite  

Hoplomachus and Murmillo versus another Murmillo

Murmillo victorious over Secutor

Murmillo vs Thracian, Dimachaerus vs Sagittarius

Sagittarius vs Thracian

Sagittarius victorious over Dimachaerus

Velite defeats Murmillo

The games were all 'fast and furious' with much of the play determined by the luck of the die rolls, but with still a bit of tactical decision making required with regards to which special skills a player was willing to lose to any major wounds, whether it was better to loose a defensive ability versus an offensive one. The best play of all the games was a young player fielding a Murmillo who played a Jack for an extra attack dice, and rolling three 6s to take out his opponent, 

No games went the full three turns, each of four phases, and game duration was generally 15-20 minutes. Conscript Dave and I have taken the game to several conventions already, but this was the first opportunity I have had to put all the gladiator figures I painted for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to use.  

Later in the afternoon I participated in a 'Wings of Glory' WW1 aerial combat game, flying a Sopwith Camel along with two other Allied players trying to taking down a Zeppelin Staaken R. VI bomber defended by a Fokker Dr 1.The defensive fire from the bomber was quite brutal and all the Allied planes were shot down before the bomber had suffered any significant damage. The only thing that kept us from being downed sooner was the frequent jams suffered by the German player.

Somewhere in France

 

The might Staaken bomber

 Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for Part 3 of my AAR.