Circus Maximus

Team White is up next.

I was a little concerned about this one if I am honest.  I wasn’t sure how the white harness and chariot would look with white horses and for a while considered painting the horses brown or bay.

Ultimately, I decided to give White a chance.  I really want to keep Brown horses in the back pocket just in case I decide to up this project from 8 chariots to 12.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, I tried to make the harness a slightly different white to that white used on the horses.   I also made the charioteers’ clothing a slightly different white.

Just finished my second batch of plebs.   I am doing them in blocks of 78 – 95 at a time, just to get through them.

Some of them will have to have legs or feet removed to fit them into the stadium.

This is what 2 days of painting plebs looks like.  Contrast paints have been invaluable so far.

A very quick picture of what it will look like with the chariots on the track.  Obviously the entire wall will be finish with crowds and all the chariots will be done, not just empty bases.  There will be 8 Bases for Chariots, 8 bases for crashed chariots and probably 8 bases of pitch invaders.

Keeping the parts semi-modular Will allow me to adjust the size of the track.  I can make a narrower track by removing end pieces.  This will make the game way more hazardous as players try to negotiate around each other.

And just for scale, a picture with a section of the Circus Maximus next to my previous Colosseum build.

Come on Gerry and Lloyd, start getting your Rome built already 🙂

The second chariot for the White team, this time with black horses.

For anyone interested in how I am painting the horses the short answer is I’m not really.

Well basically for the white horses I am priming them grey and then adding a couple of zenithal highlights with spray cans.  To blend the colours together I use a white contrast paint over the bits of the model that you’ll be able to see from above.  Then I painted the manes and tails with contrast paint and painted the eyes black with a small off-white dot in one corner.

For the black horses I just change to a black undercoat followed by a dark grey Zenithal highlight.  I used Nuln oil to blend the colours together.  Black contract paint for the manes and tails.  Eyes done the same as for the white horses.  Any white markings are first roughly painted on with grey paint followed up by a rough coat with the same off-white use for the eyes.

It’s a really quick way of painting horses and gives a pretty good tabletop quality.

When a chariot activates the player decides whether to roll one, two or three dice in their attempt to roll successes.

A chariot must always activate but the number of dice is up to the player.

The rules use different coloured dice to represent the effects of fatigue on the horses.

The dice pool available to be drawn from depends on the lap.

In lap 1 the player has a pool of 2 Fresh dice (Black) and 1 Fatigued dice (Red)

In lap 2 the player has a pool of 1 Fresh Dice (Black) and 2 Fatigued dice (Red)

Fresh dice score successes on 3+, Fatigued dice on a 4+

Successes are used to perform different actions including turning, moving and attacking.  Each chariot also must perform a mandatory forward move each turn unless successes are spent to brake.

Dice rolled that don’t score successes can have a negative effect.

To make this simpler, I decided to use custom-made dice, which will also be larger than regular dice.

Blue and White is next off the starting line.

Again, almost exclusively Contrast paints and light dry brushing on the chariot.  Basic painting on the horses as per the previous post.

Nothing too outrageous just more of the same I’m afraid.  I’ve also painted some skin colour onto the next batch of plebs, but that doesn’t make a very exciting picture.

Unfortunately, there has been a slight delay in production.  With a change of roles at work I have temporarily had to hang up the paint brushes this week but hope to get back at it in a couple of days.

In the interim, I’ll go over a few of the rules of the game.

When rolling 1 dice.

• 1 Success = A chariot may perform 1 voluntary action and must conduct its compulsory forward movement.
• 1 Failure = A chariot may not perform any voluntary action but must conduct its compulsory forward movement.

When rolling 2 dice.

• 2 Successes = A chariot may perform up to 2 voluntary actions and must conduct its compulsory forward movement.
• 1 Success and 1 Failure = A chariot may perform 1 voluntary action and must conduct its compulsory forward movement.
• 2 Failures = Nearest competitor within 1 x long range may choose to move chariot 1 x short range directly ahead or change its direction by 45 degrees, then the chariot must perform its compulsory forward movement.

When rolling 3 dice.

• 3 Successes = A chariot may perform up to 3 voluntary actions and must conduct its compulsory forward movement.
• 2 Successes and 1 Failure = A chariot may perform up to 2 voluntary actions and must conduct its compulsory forward movement.
• 1 Success and 2 Failures = Nearest competitor within 1 x long range may choose to move the chariot 1 x short range directly ahead or change its direction by 45 degrees, only then may the chariot choose to perform 1 voluntary action and must perform its compulsory forward movement.
• 3 Failures = Chariot may not take any voluntary actions.  It must first make its compulsory forward movement and then after resolving any collisions will then incite the mob.

Possible Voluntary Actions.

1 Action (1 Success each)

• Retardo. The Chariot reduces the compulsory move to 1 x short range.
• Propero. The chariot moves an additional 1 x medium range directly forward (1 x short for heavy chariots, 1 x long for fast chariots).  May only be used once per turn.
• Turn.  The chariot may change its facing by up to 45 degrees.
• Attack.  The chariot may attack another vehicle within 1 x short range. (1 x long range if equipped with bow)

2 Actions (2 Successes each)

• Stop.  The chariot moves 1 x small range forward and then slows to a halt.  Next move the chariot will start from stationary.
• Sharp Turn.  The chariot may change it’s facing between 46 – 90 degrees.  Fast chariots require 3 successes to conduct a sharp turn.)
• Second Attack.  The chariot may make a second attack.
• Flip Chariot.  The crew of a crashed chariot may right their vehicle and re-attach their animals.
• Incite the Mob.  The crew summons one mob to run onto the track.

3 Actions (3 Successes)

• Crowd pleaser.  Chariot earns temporary people’s favourite status.

The blue teams are done and dusted.

Pretty much follows the same simple paint scheme for every other chariot so far but uses blue contrast paints and a light blue drybrush.

I understand these posts may be a bit repetitive now, but we are almost there with the chariots, well the intact ones at least.

I have stockpiled all the failed prints I had at the beginning when trying to work out the supports.  I will use the failed prints as my crashed chariot markers.