I was recently curious about roman gladiator minis. Looking around, I didn't see many options. Crusader (I think) had some, but they were metal and the styling was a too old-school for me, personally. Am I the only one who would like to see a multipart plastic gladiator box from WGA? Could even mix in techy bits for those that want to push it toward science fantasy, as long as you can still make all the gladiator types with historic gear.
gladiator minis
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I think this is a fantastic idea.
The different ritualized gladiator types and matchings is fascinating.
There are a few rule sets out there for gladiatorial combat.
The minis are a different story.
I started looking into gladiator minis because I got into Broken Legions.
It's a cool concept. Think "Silver Bayonet" but with Romans. One of the warbands is gladiators.
Anyway, most of the metal minis are pretty dated. There are some boutique resins that are really nice but really pricey. There are some printed minis you can get off Etsey or similar.
There are of course no plastics.
A WGA plastic gladiator set would be awesome. Marrying it up with a rules set and releasing a small gladiator arena box game would be even more awesome.
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These are the beautiful if a little pricey resin miniatures (assuming resin) I was thinking of:
They have some free rules to download too:
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@JTam These are nice. But 35mm. I had looked at these back in the day... but felt they were too big. They are lovely though
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@William Redford
35? Ah, shame. I think at this point 32mm can work.... but 35mm is a bridge too far.
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Actually SafeHaven Games had a KS for a ruleset, miniatures, and supposedly even a cool arena model. Tragically it didn't launch due to lack of apparent interest.
That said as a subject, it would probably be wisest to just do gladiator more as historical if the aim is Roman ones, or at least PG-13 Hollywood historical* since:
A: It already works for most Fantasy and SciFi settings as is.
B: its already going to be jam packed and take a least 2 whole separate sprues just to do proper male and female gladiators (likely four different sprues when it gets armor versus unarmored). Frankly I don’t think you could put all the gladiator options in one set or even four.
The other option would be to just do fantasy slave soldiers with some light gladiator themed bits with the stated intent of filling in all those “slaves” spots on fantasy army lists, and something like that could probably use some anachronistic weapon options, though perhaps limited either 19th century guns or some cheap SMG/assault rifle. This would not have as many options as a gladiator sprue, and would not need a female follow up persay.
* do we really need topless gladiator chicks? no not really.
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@Brian Van De Walker well we don't NEED IT... but... ok.,, I guess we don't... :(
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@JTam These images you shared makes me hope to see some affordable Werewolf and Minotaur minis from WGA.
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I suspect you would start with unarmored male gladiators as a box, then expand from there. Some of the armored types you might be able to kitbash in the meantime.
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@Brian Van De Walker The second idea there sounds like a great one. Maybe with some bald heads, "barbarian" heads, and generic hoods alongside galidiator helms, with javelins, shortswords, pistols, and some smgs and maybe some bows mixed in like the rifles in the boxer kit.
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Did a bit of research.
I believe all major types of gladiators can be done with one sprue.
All the gladiator types are variations on a theme.
Almost all types follow these rules: Large shield you get one greave. Small shield you get two greaves. No shield equals no greaves.
As you can see you would need one sprue with only 4 bodies, 7 heads, 4 kinds of shields, and various arms. (You could probably get away with 6 heads as the Thracian and Hoplomachus helmets are the same.)
If you wanted you could make the "left leg greave" legs seperate with an armored(s) and unarmored torso to aid creation of Samnites, Provocators, Scissors, and maybe Gladiatrixs. Very little reliable detail on the equipment of the scissors but they may have armored torsos. The Provocator could have a seperate torso with breast plate. (Alternatively a glue on breast plate or a breast plate attached to the head would get it done.)
(Provocator breast plate.)
A female torso would allow a Gladiatrix.
There is considerable debate on whether the Gladiatrix fought bare chested or bound up. Stephen Wisdom in "Gladiators 100 BC to AD 200" writes that he thinks they had their breasts covered.
Alternatively one could have a 5th (or 6th) female body (complete) that you would use with the various weapons and full helmets.
Personally, my preferred course of action would be to have no provision for a female gladiator in the first box, and an entire "Gladiators 2 - Female Gladiators" box.
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You could even mold the left arm on to most of the bodies (like GW Empire crossbowmen) if one desired. Provides more fluid poses. Adds simplification. Gets a rid of the seam where the bare torso meets the bare arm.
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I'm fully in favour of plastic gladiators - heaps of conversion potential there. But you may have missed the Wargames Foundry range:
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/gladiators
...plus 12 other sets including Equites. And Foundry aren't pricey (£2 a figure).
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@JTam the dark age irish have a left arm molded with the bodies as well... this may also free up sprue space for additinal items.
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@William Redford
Nice! The gladiator kit could be executed in much the same fashion.
With the saved space you can throw in a tiger ;)
Alternatively, one more unarmored body would let you build the uncommon (Saggitarius) Archer guy and Skirmish guy (Velites). (Or you could just use the Trident guy body with more arms).
EDIT: Looking at the Irish sprue you could easily do the Gladiator box with one sprue.
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Actually, with gladiators you are not making a warband of them for the history gaming side like you are with the dark age Irish but individual fighters, so you want them to be as customizable with the poses and weapons as possible.
So no female body WA should do gladiatrix as a separate set probably released in conjunction with another female set (like female knights or Female barbarians), likewise there should be no left shield arms attached (people are going to want to do dual wielders and odd shield poses, it would be smarter to just mold the arms on the shields if we are talking about space saving). A tiger or lion might be doable if it is a whole sprue.
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Four male bodies (no greaves, two greaves, two with one greave) and a lion/tiger, no attached arms looks like the best option to me. Unlike a lot of kits you do not need to allow for carried equipment, and the number of arm options is not excessive (mostly swords, one of each of the odd ones like trident/net or cestii per sprue - 2-4 sprues per box will allow for multiples of that type). I don't think seperate legs/torso adds much, and making them one piece simplifies the layout.
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Mocked up a sprue for my own amusement.
One Irish sized sprue would easily allow one to build:
Thracian, Hoplomachus, Myramillo, Secutor, Retiarius, Laquearius, Dimachaerus, Scissor, Provocator, Samnite, Velite, and Sagittarius.
One can build one big cat per sprue. One can fit a lion or tiger head.
There is one a-historical yet mission essential head on the sprue.
There was room to put a dedicated armored/scissor body on the sprue so I did. There was room for a female body so again, I did.
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I think your scuta are a little too big compared to the celtic oval. The section with the kitty heads and a few other places have some leftover space too. Psure you could fit a sixth body on there, such as a second double greaves/bare torso. 35 minis for 35 monies!
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@Blutze
You're right, the legion style shields look too big.
It would be awesome if one could squeeze another body on there. (Alternately one could probably squeeze two bodies if you dropped the big cat.... but he's fun.) (Maybe one could get a tiger head, male lion head, and lioness head in the spot with the two cat heads.... to add variety.)
But see this quote from @Hudson Adams :
That 100% describes me. I know there's a lot to consider in spacing and flow..... and that's the limits of my knowledge. Consequently when I do mockups to entertain myself.... I try and follow existing frame layouts and am generous with the spacing of pieces.
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Wait, we need one more ahistorical helmet:
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TV Guide claims "Gladiator" is streaming free on Pluto TV.... whatever that is.
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Found some inspiration on my desk:
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Gladiator "armour" is regrettably somewhat more complicated than that. I've been stuying the subject for over 40 years and I'm still not able to give a hard and fast rule.
Take a good look at contemporary mosiacs etc.
You'll notice for example that there are different kind of greaves. Generally speaking those gladiators with small shields ( parmula) like the Traex and Hoplmomachus tended to have longer greaves (mostly on the left leg only) than for example a Murmillo or Secutor.
Several however are also depicted with greaves on BOTH legs. The Leptis Magna mosaic for example shows a hoplomachus with two long greaves.
The odd men out would be the Scissor( Arbelas) Provocator and Dimacheirius.
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@Willie Bogaerts
Good info.
The lack of hard information on the armor is a double edged sword. Sure it would be nice to know more and have definitive examples. But conversely no one can say something like "That mini MUST have double high greaves" as 1. We don't definitively know that 2. we probably already know of exceptions.
I think the generalities in accepted equipment for different gladiator types is 1. The only way to go with a kit. 2. Literally the only option as there isn't more knowledge/documentation.
Honestly my guess is that there probably was a fair amount in variation in equipment between a Murmillo fighting in a coliseum in Bulgaria versus a Murmillo fighting in a coliseum in Jordan a 100 years later. The National Gladiator League wasn't pushing out league standards in equipment via email.
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@JTam bro, you are so wrong on that (if button counters can count they will🤣).
Most likely though it really is one those "each weapon and armor piece is unique to the fighter" things since we are talking about a pre industrail nation's blood sport, so I suppose you could fudge things a bit but from what I recall the number of common fighting styles and weapon "types" used might actually be more than one sprue's worth (and some things like sheilds take up a lot of space) and I sure as heck would plan on doing Gladatrex seperate.
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Osprey has a new volume on Gladiators on preorder:
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Wargames Illustrated issue 318 has a nice round up of some of the available 28mm Gladiator minis.
There's also a blurb about the "Victus" Gladiator rules.
To my eye the Brigade Games minis look the best, but YMMV.
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@JTam I`ve got broken Legions as well, I use Victorix Plastics, and convert with Wargames Atlantic.They`ve some gladiators, monster well we are spoilt for choice Bones of course as some great, but also look at the pound store shops, Toy Egyptian ranges.
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@Geoff Maybury
I'm looking forward to WGA's Ancient Egyptian release..... should work for Broken Legions as well.
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@JTam Yes should give us some veryreasonable figures and offer some nice converctions
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Popped up in my feed today:
(Someone does 6 minute abs).
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EM4 miniatures also makes an affordable Gladiator miniatures game with some metal models:
https://em4miniatures.com/collections/ludus-gladiatorius-the-game
Not to mention the usability of Gladiator models in historical skirmish and small battle games like Gangs of Rome and SPQR. There's definitely a market for Gladiator models out there, but as of yet, none made in plastic!
A WA Gladiator plastic kit to accompany the upcoming Gangs of Rome Civilians box, or a extra sprue for that set with attachable armour, helmeted heads and weapons, would really hit the spot.
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@JTam I think that such a sprue would be fantastic, minus the animals, space on it is precious, and there are plenty of 28mm animals on the market. Surely a pair of females' bodies would be more useful (with relative heads), for the greaves it could be possible to make some alt. parts to glue to bare legs. Being plastic would open to an infinite conversions' ways, expecially if it's compatible with other plastic sets. furthermore some fantasy expansions could be produced in STL files (imagine dwarfish Mirmillons or D. Elves scissors!).
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