Last night after delaying for so long I finally managed to play a real game of Arena Rex.
So first off, the arena itself. I started with a cork bulletins board, 24" x 36" but the actual gaming area is slightly smaller. I cut out walls and fitted them but it made the arena even smaller still, so I omitted them this time around. Everything is sanded and coated with three layers of paint. The stones are cut from two thicknesses of styrofoam and scored using at first a pen and also a rivet wheel. The hazards are my favorite part.
So the story for this arena was that it once served as a place of healing, where the springs cured sickness and mended bone and the vegetation could be made into potions and salves. After being raided by barbarian tribes, the garden no longer had its regular sacrifices to please the gods, so the plants grew poisonous thorns and the springs turned acidic and toxic. Now, animal sacrifices will not suffice, so gladiator blood is required.
For the time being, we didn't use the hazards that way, but I will in the future. I couldn't actually mimic depth, so instead I used very thin plasticard, primed black, spray painted dark green with some black spray for effect, all gloss coated. Put it in place and then added foliage and you have a toxic pool.
The columns were two Roman columns cut in half. The ones at an angle are glued to plasticard bases and sanded. Basecoated and heavy white drybrush. The trees were from woodland scenics with green stuff roots, painted brown and flocked.
As for the game itself, I think it went great. There are no point values. Instead each model is weighed by their 'vitality tracks' which can mean over ten hit points per character. Gladiators have one vitality track and beasts usually have two. Movement ranges from four to seven inches depending on the character. Combat works via opposed rolls, attack versus defense, on average it means six attacks versus two defense rolls, where 4+ is a success, potentially allowing four hits through. All this varies on the character of course. Each character has a unique damage tree, where the successes allow you to travel down a branching path so you can choose the results. Some trees are simply loaded with damage from the top to the bottom, others have a few push attacks, others still allow you to earn favor from the crowd or trigger special abilities. Favor itself, is a resource, and different feats allow you to earn special favor die to boost attacks or defense, since successes on favor die count twice.
Performing actions causes models to gain fatigue. This system allows you to push really hard, but also makes it dangerous if all your models are fatigued and can't act or react until their fatigue level goes down.
As for the characters themselves this go around, we used Micon, Khepros, and Viatrix on one side, and Gaius, Urbicus, and Mago on the other.
So for the first team, Viatrix, the thin but fast character has to be the MVP. She has an ability called Taunt, which means that enemies in her engagement range (1" typically) can only attack her. Top that off with her high defense of three and she made quite the tank. Khepros was her backup, because he was assisting her, so he added a major boost to her already high defense thanks to his ability called Shelter. Micon deals very little damage by comparison, but I love the way he plays. His damage tree is almost entirely one damage pushes, but after a push, you can resolve a free follow up move. Micons follow up is 2" instead of the standard 1" so with a high amount of successes he can manipulate positioning against his enemy and bully him around as he likes. If he maxes out his damage tree, he can finish off with a high damage attack or even pick up his enemy and throw him D3" in the direction of his choosing. Had we been playing with hazards, we would have seen someone tossed into the toxic pools.
For the second team, Urbicus put in a ton of work. His damage tree isn't impressive, but because he can still act even while fatigued, he was able to still be a threat and push against the enemy where others normally wouldn't. Mago unfortunately didn't do much, as he was singled out early on, but his spear and net means that escaping him can be difficult, as moving away from him fatigues the enemy. He ended up being killed when he tried to counterattack. Counterattack work by forgoing your defense roll and instead defending with the attack roll. But attack rolls cannot negate other attack rolls, and whoever is the winner in the face off receives no damage from the other persons counter. Viatrix crushed Mago in a single flurry of blows. Was awesome to see. Gaius didn't fare much better. He's an undead soldier, and after losing all his vitality he came back once more with a single hit point left. Shame he wasn't able to do much. He's slow, movement of 4", but he can hit hard and can potentially heal his allies.
Since me and my friend were learning the game, I decided they should play while I was the adjudicator. The rules were super easy to understand barring some lengthy confusion on a rule or two, but from here on out I think we understood the rules adequately enough. The guy who had Mago on his team was visibly upset upon losing him in such dramatic fashion, so it really soured him on the game that he was enjoying up to that point. He's designing a game of his own and I think he feels that gives him a lot if insight on what makes for great game design. Sad to say, he wouldn't really agree with my justification for why the rules worked a certain way as they were written.
We had a blast playing Arena Rex. I can't wait to play again and continue painting more of these guys. Once I have time and a few more games under my belt I'll do a proper review. The sculpts are amazing, the rules are awesome, and every character feels so distinct thanks to individual stats, vitality, damage trees, and special rules. You guys should take a look at their website and check out the free (complete) rules and maybe try a game with proxies. I'll gladly answer any questions you guys have too.
