Having been caught out when looking to try out a new game before, I twisted my friend Steve's arm into giving it a look and then picked up a copy of the magazine for each of us so that we could give the rules a proper read over and we would both be able to pick our fighters when we sat down to play.
Having assembled the models, (which took mere minutes to do, and most of that was spend clipping them from the frame and cleaning up mould lines) and set about painting them up (more on that in a moment), I started looking at what we needed to try the game out. Helpfully, Dead Again Games have popped together a 'print and play' download that includes the gladiator play sheets, tokens and a hex-grid game board. The quick start rules are also available to download just in case you've missed out on picking up a copy of Wargames Illustrated.
Once I'd got everything printed off, I decided it would be worth spending a little extra time and effort to enhance the paper components. To add more weight to the hex-grid arena, I used some spray mount to attach the two sections to some sheets of foamboard and then added a splash of sand colour to the paper using some cream poster paint. Once the paint was dry, I carefully cut the board sections out with a sharp scalpel and steel ruler.
With the play area taken care of, I turned to the tokens and gladiator profile cards; these were attached to some sheets of thin card with spray mount and then cut out as well. I hasten to add that you don't need to do any of this to try the game out, the printed sheets will more than suffice, but as I had the materials to hand and it was easy enough to do thought it was worth doing as it'll hopefully add to my friend and I having a more positive experience when we get the game on the tabletop.
The freebie frame came with four miniatures, a Lanista (the owner of the gladiator school ) a Magister or Doctores (trainer) and two gladiators, a Thraex (with the smaller shield on the left) and a Murmillo (with the larger shield on the right). Manufactured by Wargames Atlantic, the quality of the miniatures is pretty good, most of the details are really nicely cast and the scaling looks great, there are no giant hands, heads or weapons to be found here. One minor niggle is the inclusion of 'puddle bases' on the legs, I'm not a fan of these as they can make minis sit absurdly high up on top of bases, but I can see why they're included and they're easy enough to either trim away or build up base texture around. I ended up filing the ones on mine down a couple of millimetres and then using generous helpings of texture paste to conceal them which worked well enough I think.
As I mentioned above, building the models was incredibly easy, which bodes well for the kit that will be available in the full game that boasts a further four armaturae (classes) to choose from, adding the Hoplomachus, Provocatur, Retarius and Secutor to the Thraex and Murmillo. There were some nice customisation options on the sprue too with multiple head, shield and arm options for the gladiators and head options for the Lanista and Magister. When building the gladiators, I just used the profile cards to get their weapons, armour and helmets right. I couldn't resist a wee kitbash on the Thraex as I wanted his helmet to have a feather crest so I trimmed down one of the spare ones to fit. I expect that the full kit will have more detailed assembly instructions that will guide you on the appropriate arms and armour for the various armaturae. Of course you'll be able to build them however you like, but Blood on the Sands is described as being pretty what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) and I think there's likely to be an appeal for most players in cleaving close to historical accuracy in their models.
Shields Up, Weapons Sharp
Having found some time to give the game and try and got the board, tokens and cards set up, Steve and I spent a few moments selecting which gladiator we would put into the fight. There was some very careful consideration of their abilities before Steve chose the Thraex and I took the Murmillo. We spent a little time reading through the set up steps in the Quick Start rules before rolling for initiative and getting stuck into the first turn.
I won’t give a full rundown of the cut and thrust of the bout – because we were both learning the rules as we went it wasn’t the smoothest or most cinematic of games – but what I do want to do is talk about the feel of the game as I think that’s probably more important at this stage.
First and foremost, it was fun and engaging. Beyond that rather generic statement though, I think it’s worth picking out a few aspects to zoom in on:
Ongoing interaction (even when it’s not your turn)
Being able to ‘bank’ dice as tokens, and retaining dice beyond your turn means that even through the game is ostensibly you go, I go, you’re never not going to be engaging with your opponent outside of your turn, which is a huge plus. We’ve all had those games where one player has disengaged during their opponent’s turn because there’s nothing for them to do. BotS doesn’t have this issue which is not just great games design, but it also really contributes to;
The combat flow(s)
As the game Steve and I played went on, we found that the combat started to flow quite intuitively. The attack and defence mechanics work nicely, offering plenty of choice for actions (and reactions) but the added layer of needing to keep an eye on our gladiator’s fatigue meant that instead of a continual back and forth of attacking, the game (much like a real gladiatorial bout, I imagine) fell more into a series of ‘flurries’ of attack. This felt very ‘realistic’ but also kept us both actively playing as we tried to outmanoeuvre one another because the fight was;
Balanced on a finely honed edge
For the first few turns we got a feel for what our fighters could do, made some probing attacks and began the dance around the area floor. As time wore on though and we began to get to grips with things, it became just how well balanced the rules and fighters are. Even weighting the dice in your favour through pressing the attack was no guarantee that a strike would draw blood and the game was incredibly close until Steve slipped a lucky blow through my Murmillo’s defences - the Thracian sword tore into my gladiator’s vitals killing him outright and ending the fight.
Drawing these three points together, I think what I’m trying to get at is that BotS is going to be a game that is easy to learn but tricky to master which is one of the hallmarks of a good game in my book. I’m certainly keen to play more games and see if I can get to grips with both armaturae that are currently available.
Once the full game is available, the included ‘campaign mode’ will make things even better I think, because then instead of generic murmillo #1 fighting generic thraex #3 to the death again, you’ll need to more carefully weigh your in game choices so as to avoid the indignity of losing your prized fighter because they exhausted themselves too early and caught a trident to the gut. Of course misfortune is all part of the narrative game experience – we’ve all played a game of Blood Bowl, Necromunda or something similar where our favoured player or ganger has hit the dirt after tripping over their own shoelaces or biting of more than they can chew in a fight, but I think the risk/reward becomes more meaningful when the consequences of a loss might be a bit longer lasting – not to mention it being a more compelling tale to recount afterwards.
Like any new game, Blood on the Sands is going to require a bit of familiarisation time, but what I think you're get from that is a pretty damn good tabletop representation of the deadly dance of one-on-one combat that will keep you and your opponents very much entertained.
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