As a teenager I agonised over sending off for these Ian Beck rules to use with my S range gladiators, only to be distracted away from them at the last minute by something even more exciting such as Peter Laing turcomans with Bactrain camels.. Now at last they are mine...
As you can see they are fantastically retro with colour represented by "hatching" and typeface so small it is practically microfilm.
I have just sent off for some of the correct sized hexagonal bases and paper and look forward to getting my percentage dice out again some time very soon.
(S range Gladiators)
Happy memories from the past. Ian and I were at Uni together, in fact we tended to share rooms at conventions. He introduced his colosseum at a convention in Bradford I helped organise, kept it in the attic of his parents house in Halifax. 2,000 converted Aifix civilians in the stands as I recall. Chariot racing with Airfix Roman chariots. Sadly, he was killed in a car accident many years - a sad loss of a really nice guy.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about Ian. The rules do look good and include chariot racing, chariots v elephants and all sorts of other intriguing stuff I recall taking part in a chariot racing demo game at Milton Keynes Wargame Show back around 1985. Very fine it was too.
ReplyDeleteA touch of nostalgia here too … the original Minifigs gladiators bring back memories of summer games in my parents’ sunny garden, using the more simple ‘Paragon’ rules. As schoolboys we never graduate to what we thought were the more complicated Rudis set (would we think so now, I wonder ?).
ReplyDeleteWe aspired to, but never achieved, the Hugh Walters ‘biscuit tin’ arena that he described in Military Modelling, 1973 I think, along with the Garrison figures. One day I shall get around to painting my Garrison figures, and converting half of them (only !) to more plausible poses and equipment following Hugh’s instructions.
All the best,
Nick
Keep Wargaming still have some sets of the Paragon Rules (written by Hugh Walters). I haven't given them a detailed reading but Rudis don't look any more complicated than most Warhammer-style sets.
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