Leptis Magna Season 2, Episode 4

Following on from the last episode, we carry onto the next round. My posts are in blue, Marks are in green, and any post-editing commentary are in red. The gladiator rules used are Munera Sine Missione - note that this version may have differences to the current version. Each round will be posted as a weekly episode.

There was much debate as to why Bogud lost. Many thought it was due to his doctore, Pavo, training him in tactics more suited to a secutor, perhaps proving the armchair spectators right. In any event, Senex only won 4 gold from the event. He was quite perplexed at this – maybe it was because the fight was not seen as being serious, up against a slingshot user. Quadratus grumbled “looks like that night at the Domus Solis Ortum did some wonders for you.”

The star of Asiaticus seems to be falling, only earning 2 gold from the event. “Useless buffoon!” screamed Quadratus, “Androcles was right, maybe you are only good for the opening acrobatics!”

There were no games immediately scheduled, and both gladiators had fully recovered. It seemed that Asiaticus was even more out of favour (though he was never in favour). Bion, who won his last bout and full of swagger again, was merciless in his bullying of Asiaticus during communal times. Quadratus seemed to actively encourage this. One breakfast, Bion picked up Asiaticus’s breakfast bowl full of porridge and threw it into the face of Asiaticus. The other gladiators looked on, not wanting to get involved.

It was highly amusing to Quadratus who broke into laughter. Asiaticus has two options – (1) take it and do nothing, or (2) fight (a fist fight).

• If a fist fight is chosen, then use the following rules; (miniatures are not needed for this)
• Roll starting strength for both gladiators as normal, except add 8 to the d6 roll rather than 4 (so strength will be between 9 and 14). For Bion, take the higher die of 2d6 and add it to the 8.
• There is no fatigue.
• Asiaticus throws the first punch.
• To punch, choose a target area (head, groin or body) and roll a dice to see if Bion is defending it (see table below). If he is not, do a number of wounds equal to the area hit;
• A body blow does 1 wound
• A groin hit does 2 wounds
• A head punch does 3 wounds
• If Bion is defending the correct area, the blow does no damage. Then it is Bion’s turn. Decide what area Asiaticus will block, then roll to see what area Bion is attacking;

Die	Bion Attacks	Bion Defends
1	Head	Body
2,3	Groin	Groin
4,5,6	Body	Head

•  The first gladiator to go to zero or less points falls down and loses.

Let me know what happens….

Bion rolled 2 & 4 for his Strength D6, so his starting Strength was 12. Asiaticus rolled 5, so began with a Strength of 13.

For all his plodding unspectacular nature, something was roused in Asiaticus when Bion provoked him by throwing the bowl of porridge at him in front of the other fighters. He landed a blow on Bion's body, and the two of them traded body blows for a few seconds. Meanwhile the chaos around them subsided as Quadratus ordered the other fighters go back off, and to,d the guards not to intervene. The combatants continued their struggle in the middle of a ring of fighters, guards and slaves, cheering them on. Doubtless many bets were laid by the spectators.

It became obvious after a bit that Bion has faster reactions than Asiaticus. After the initial flurry of body blows, Bion got in two quick groin hits on Asiaticus, while blocking Asiaticus's counter punch.

For a while after that the combatants held each other off, with several rounds of blocked blows. Bion blocked two head punches and Asiaticus blocked a body punch.

But then Bion began to assert dominance, and hit Asiaticus with two groin shots and another body shot, while taking fewer hits as he was able to block some of Asiaticus's punches.

In the end Bion punched Asiaticus to the floor and the fight was ended.

Asiaticus lost 15/15 strength, while Bion lost 9/12 strength. Neither fighter landed a successful head shot in the entire fight. Asiaticus was successful with 5 x body hits and 2 x groin hits (total = 9 strength). Bion was successful with 5 x body hits and 4 x groin hits (total = 13 strength).  Tellingly though, Asiaticus was blocked by Bion 3 times (2 head shots, 1 groin shot) whereas Bion was blocked  by Asiaticus only 1 time (body shot).

This is going to be interesting ... not sure I would like to be Asiaticus right now.

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