Circus Maximus

Just a very quick update with the flags.   I have kept these really simple as I suspect they will get broken often.  Very simple flags in the four teams’ colours to go around the top of the Circus.  I still need to cut them down to length.

I guess that will have to wait so that I can concentrate on the Gaslight and Port Blacksand projects that I have planned to try and complete during October.

Cocktail sticks arrived this morning, which was surprising as it’s a public holiday here.

The idea is that I will add flags all around the circus to give it a bit more bling.

I will do them so that they are removable, just in case I decide to go down the sunshade route in the future.

A rough mock-up of what I have in mind.  Obviously, the finished product won’t be held together with Blutac and will be painted and a bit shorter, but this should give a basic idea of where I am going with this.

Finished off the Praetorian Guards.  I ended up only adding a couple of standing Guards to the imperial box.  I have a load more that are ‘mostly’ painted but I don’t think I will use them.

So, with those now glued in place, I will call this project officially almost done.

Sounds like a bit of an anticlimax, doesn’t it?   Well, I still have to wait for the cocktail sticks so that I can complete all the flags, that’s really only a small job.  Type up some quick reference sheets and cut some measuring sticks to length.  On the topic of sticks, I am going to go with these lengths, Short 4″, Medium, 8″ and Long 12″.  This will mean on an average turn a chariot will likely move 24″, providing it doesn’t need to change direction.   This should mean that a two-lap race should not take too long to play, even with 8 players.

Hopefully, I have achieved something close to making this simple game bigger than Ben Hur.

Of course, I will come back to this Project with the final finishing touches as soon as I can but until then, a few more pictures.

Time to start something new.

Maybe…

Battletech terrain (Modular Hex terrain with lots of options)

Victorian Science Fiction Town (Including an Aeronef Station)

Fantasy Town (Bridges gatehouse and winding streets)

Blood and Plunder (Ships to build including a Ghost Ship)

Open to suggestions here.

A Charioteer who conducts a Crowd Pleaser becomes, however briefly, the People’s Favourite.  The player receives a token of some type to signify this status.

The fame of the people may be spent to conduct a variant of the usual compulsory movement which ignores all other vehicles, wrecks, mobs etc. in its path.  The charioteer is buoyed up by adrenalin and the roar of the masses and somehow manages to jump over or otherwise navigate their way through the obstacles.

This special movement can be made on any turn, but once the special move has been made the charioteer loses his status as Peoples Favourite and must give up the token.

A charioteer will lose this status if another player conducts a Crowd Pleaser.  In effect the other driver’s antics have stolen the people’s favour; the crowd is fickle, and charioteers are advised to use their fame whilst it lasts.

To keep tokens and the like to a minimum I have decided that I shall use nice gold embossed dice to represent the ‘Peoples Favourite’ status.  White embossed dice for everyone else.

A few more pictures of how the game is coming along.  I have ordered some little cocktail sticks with fancy ends that I will use as flag poles to line the top of the Circus walls.  I just think that it will help finish things off a bit and add an extra element of glitz to the feel and look of the set-up.

So, to do I now have;

• 2 Bases of ‘Mob’ (Pretorian Guards).
• Some Praetorians to ‘stand around’.
• The flags for the Circus Walls (Awaiting the arrival of cocktail sticks).
• Measurement Sticks (Including deciding on lengths).
• Quick Reference Sheets.
• Something to determine turn order (I have something in mind for this already).

I am open to any suggestions of what else I should/could/or need to add.

Finished off six bases of Mob.  Once again really simple quick paint jobs courtesy of contrast paints.  Nothing too fancy here.

I doubt that a game will ever require that many, but you never know.

The last two ‘Mob’ bases will be of Roman soldiers, painted in more Praetorian Guard colours.  I know the figures don’t really represent Praetorians, but they are what I have available.

I have a few extras that I may add to the Circus walls.   I’m not sure yet.

Following specific chariot teams began to be aligned with other social and political agendas and it was not unusual for wider problems to spill out onto the tracks.  Often, as in Alexandria in the 70s AD, it was just a case of fans overrunning part of the track or minor riots.  However, in 532 AD a disturbance caused by followers of the Blue and Green chariot factions at Constantinople Hippodrome ended with half the city in flames and the death of thousands.

In Faustus Furius it is possible that a player’s actions, or rather inability to perform actions, can incite a mob to invade the track.

When a mob enters the track, it creates a movable obstacle that the chariots will have to negotiate around.  Further instances that incite the mob can either add an additional mob to the track or cause an existing mob on the track to move.  Although the mobs can’t intentionally move into contact with a chariot, there is nothing stopping them from being moved into a position that will cause a chariot to crash into them.

Managed to get to this point this morning.  I am hoping that I will get these finished this evening, then I can move on to painting up some Roman Guards.

Basing.

For the basing on the models in this project I started by covering the wooden bases with fine sand that I passed through a sieve.   I do this to filter out any unwanted elements and debris that can end up in the sand over time.

Once the sand has been firmly glued down, I use Desert Yellow spray to put down the initial layer of colour.

After that is Skeleton Bone spray.  I spray from an angle around the edges to get paint on the rim of the base and to also fade off a bit as it goes towards the centre of the base.  Once the figures are in place it will help to create a natural shadow beneath the models.

The next step is to use Wraithbone spray.  Again, I spray at an angle to get paint on the rim and to also allow the paint to fade away as it gets more towards the centre of the base.

A good thing to do is to move your bases away from where you have sprayed them to check their colour.  They will look different on different backgrounds; it can be hard to judge their colour when they are surrounded by overspray.

These bases are for the mobs that can potentially invade the track.  I have done these as round bases to help emphasise that this will move in any direction and are not restricted to turning limitations like the chariots are.

The plan is to do maybe one or two bases with Roman Guards, obviously there to prevent riots and the remainder as a random number of Plebians.  I was thinking 10 Plebs to a base but that may be too regimental to portray a mob.

I can almost see the finish line in sight now and couldn’t resist taking a few glamour shots.

Groundwork.  I picked up a 12′ x 5′ drop sheet from the local hardware store and dyed it a sand colour in the washing machine.  More by fluke than anything else, the sheet looked almost identical to the basing I had previously done for my Blood and Plunder Terrain.

So, with that, I based up my chariots, completed my wrecked chariots and based them too.   I like to sieve the sand as I apply it, just to get out any random bits of dirt and debris.   Once the glue has dried, I base coat it with Desert Yellow spray, followed by Bone spray, and finally wraith bone spray.  When applying the spray, I do so from the sides to keep the middle of the bases slightly darker.  This helps create a little shadow that the model will sit above.

Pretty late here now but just managed to quickly start adding some colour to some wrecked chariots, 2 of each colour.

I have only just started these, so they are looking pretty rough at the moment and the photograph is pretty terrible too.

Once I get a bit more done on them, I will take some better pictures.  Until then, have an awesome weekend.

Huge dice.

As everything else is inbigulated it was only natural that the dice would have to be too.  (Fear not though those with delicate little hands, I also have smaller dice)

16 x Huge Black Dice

16 x Huge Red Dice

16 x Regular Black Dice

16 x Regular Red Dice

The little chariot symbol on some of the faces is a success.

Trying to keep it really simple here, if there is a little chariot showing on the dice, you have scored a success, if not, you didn’t.  None of this looking for which dice are 3+ and which dice are 4+ malarky.

The seated Plebians are done.  There are almost 400 of them.  I also finished off the Spina with a few extra sections so that I could mix up the set-up a bit.

On the to-do list, I have.

• Standing Plebians and refreshment sellers.
• The occupants of the Imperial box.
• Mobs, at least 8 of them.
• Pretorian Guards.
• Measurement sticks.
• Dice.
• Flags and pennants for the Circus.
• Crashed chariots.
• Basing on the chariots and also the actual playing surface.
• Some simple game aids to indicate turn order, quick reference sheets etc.

But I’m getting there.

All four teams lined up for no other reason than because I wanted to get a picture or two of what they looked like together.

I may start adding crowd figures to the Circus tomorrow and possibly get a few more Plebs painted.

It’s starting to feel like I’m getting near the home straight now.

The Orc flesh contrast paint is a really nice green and I am very happy with how it turned out on this chariot.

In fact, I enjoyed painting the green so much that I got both done in quick time.

A benefit of painting similar models over and over again is that they actually get a lot quicker to paint, well up to a point.  Too many of the same models can have the opposite effect and become boring to do, which in turn makes the exercise feel like a chore.  This is what I am starting to experience with the Plebians.

I have a small pile of failed chariot prints that will possibly be next to the painting table.  I still have to print out standing Plebs for when the mob gets incited.  I may also do some Roman Centurions which can act as riot control.  I am unsure of how many to do per base.  I was thinking mobs of 10, that means another 80 figures!

The outer walls of the circus are done, well in regard to the painting.  Of course, I still need to add the crowd and some other little decorations,

Again, Contrast paints and quick dry brushing saw these get finished in a fraction of the time it would have taken me to do it the more conventional way.

I’ve not gone overboard with the colours although I suspect in reality the circus would have been extremely colourful.   I think the main reason for this is because we kind of have a built-in expectation that much of the ancient world was white marble and to see it brightly coloured would just not feel right to the eyes of most people.

Although the Circus Maximus was designed for chariot racing, other events were held there, including gladiatorial combats and wild animal hunts, athletic events, and processions. By the time of Augustus, seventy-seven days were given over to public games during the year, and races were run on seventeen of them. There usually were ten or twelve races a day, until Caligula doubled that number, and from the end of his reign, twenty-four races became typical. The number of festivals in which racing occurred also increased, with Circus games instituted in honour of Caligula’s mother and sister, and Tiberius. Still, Domitian once had one hundred races a day but reduced the number of laps to five to fit them all in, and Commodus ran thirty races in just two hours one afternoon in AD 192.

These numbers are exceptional and not likely to have been repeated, if only because the horses had to be transported from the Campus Martius, where they were stabled, over a mile away.

The chariots started from twelve gates (carceres), six on either side of an entrance that led from the Forum Boarium. Above sat the presiding magistrate at whose signal the races began. Far at the other end, along the sweeping curve of the track, was another gate by which processions entered the Circus. In AD 80, it was rebuilt as a triumphal arch to commemorate the conquest of Judea by Titus.

On the spina, itself, were various monuments and shrines, including one to Consus and another to Murcia, who may have been the divinity of the brook over which the Circus was built.

At either end were the metae, or turning posts, comprised of three large gilded bronze cones grouped on a high semicircular base. There were thirteen turns, run counter-clockwise, around the metae for a total of seven laps, a distance of just over three miles.

To ensure a fair start, the starting gates were built along a slight curve so that the distance to the break line, before which the chariots were not allowed to leave their lanes, was the same for each. Drivers were required to stay within a marked lane until that point was reached, after which they could jockey for position. Lots were drawn to determine which gate was selected, and it was from the gates that the race began. The presiding magistrate (either a praetor or consul) dropped a white starting flag, the gates to the stalls flew open, and the race began.

Today I set up the entire circus so that I could get all the components in the right order to glue together sub-assemblies.

Layout of the full circus if I choose to go the full distance and put 12 chariots out.  (2 children for scale).

With 8 Chariots I can remove a bit of the width and a bit of the length.  I actually prefer the look of the narrower layout if I’m honest but thought it would be a wasted opportunity not to make it possible to be as wide as I could.

I used really cheap grey spray primer followed by various sand and off-white colour spray paints to quickly do all the walls.  Nothing fancy, just quick and simple.

I will go over and pick out some details once the base colour is dry.

I am hoping that the crowd will help break up the rather boring paint job on the walls.

Talking of crowd, here is the next batch ready for painting.   Not sure if I mentioned it but I’m getting pretty sick of painting plebs right now.

With a lot of this bunch, I modified the file before printing so that they are holding flag poles.  Once painted I will attach small flags in the various team colours.  I am hoping that this will add an extra layer of different poses to the crowd.  I have no clue if they would actually wave colours to support their teams, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think they would.

Today was a day off work so I had pretty much the entire day to sit down and paint to my heart’s content.

I finished off the next batch of Plebians.  I’ve now lost count of how many I have done but it’s quite a few now.

Individually the paint jobs are pretty terrible, but they are not really meant to be looked at as individuals, rather as a mass effect.

I have been doing my best to mix and match the colour schemes and poses without driving myself crazy.  Its easiest to paint the same pose and the same colours per ‘stick’ and then have multiple sticks the same with a different colour per batch.   That may or may not make sense, but it does in my mind.

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.

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.