Warhammer Historical: Gladiator

Just got my order from Warhammer Historicals yesterday and I have to say the Gladiator book is an amazing work.

Here is a review done by someone that turned my interest to this game and his review on his blog:

http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.com/2011/10/gladiator-rules-review.html

The layout is amazing, well bound hardback with great looking artwork and just at a glance some painstaking hours doing historical research to ensure the book was one of quality.

I am already starting to scout out a few companies that makes 25-28mm gladiator models to order here in the US to get me the best price. I want my target budget to be about $40-50 on my first batch. If the game is a hit, I will add more to the collection.

There is a line of “plastic” gladiators that are 1:72^nd that they claim online is about 23-24mm in reviews. The cost for a set is dirt cheap at several sites and there is about 3 major companies that make various sets and do have a variety including dwarfs, female, chariots and animals in one set or the other. While you get several models per set, some of them are the “same” pose repeated over and over. Plus, I can’t find too many pics of painted figures to see what they look like finished. From the few I could find the quality is not there compared to a nice metal figure.

My only disappointment with dealing with Warhammer Ancients is that I could not purchase “Legends of the Seven Seas” the pirate game was no longer in their cart system and it was limited to direct phone orders only due to low stocks. I sent an email with a request to swap it to avoid having to pay $1.99 a minute to place an order. By the time I spent $6-10 more bucks to order it the ½ off sale would not be that much of a deal for an overseas buyer like me. I have seen it on Ebay and other spots for about $30 or $35 and I may just have to bite the bullet and pay full retail for it or something close to it.

I even tried to hit Ebay yesterday to try to win a copy of it here in the US to no avail. I drew the line in the sand and it appears someone else wanted it more.

Oh well, maybe after the holidays and I get some cash that I usually get for a gift will let me invest in some Gladiator Figures and perhaps the Legends of the High Seas book. I am looking forward to finding some time after the holidays to play Gladiator and Legends of the Old West. I figure a blog will be formed once I am ready to start posting about Gladiator and I have already estimated that about two orders of models should get me enough to play for a long time. The first part will be a run of Gladiators mainly from Crusader and some Animals that I found online that is very inexpensive what will be a great choice! The second wave will pick up with other gladiators to round out the collection, perhaps an Elephant and some chariots.