Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

From the Warlord Games newsletter: http://articles.warlordgames.com/gangs-rome/

Gangs of Rome is a new skirmish game from War Banner in which you will use unique fighters, pitting them against the gangs of rival Domini in both campaign and scenario play to earn influence enough to manipulate your way into the Senate.

I've never heard of War Banner. The game will be available for pre order from Warlord Games on December 1st.

Like the look of the figures. The male 'hero' is a very nice figure, like the way that the shield and sword are hidden under the cape.

It's from Footsore miniatures - so the miniatures are gorgeous. War Banner is Andy Hobday and a few others, basically. Warlord will be distributing.

It's looking really really interesting, using concepts I've never seen before in a miniatures wargame. One of the big ones is that every fighter has unique stats. Like, they used a computer to generate a few hundred thousand unique fighters and will be producing the stat card one time for each fighter. No one will ever have the same fighter as anyone else. Has other neat mechanics, like calling on your patron god each turn to do special things, calling on Apollo might make your arrow fly further, etc. Actually here's a quote from one of the developers:


FIGHTERS.
In Gangs Of Rome there is no “top” or rare fighter in the basic class.
What we mean when we say each fighter is random, is that the fighters themselves will be DIFFERENT in some way from the others but no less effective.
Each fighter is literally created once by our program and then is gone, but their stats and skills will be directly proportional to their cost when fielded.
What this means is, fighters created that may have a slightly lower cost to field will in fact be balanced by the opportunity to include a couple MORE Denarii as even out your points for the scenario.
Where as fighters with a slightly higher cost will be balanced by the fact that there will be slightly LESS room in your points limit to equip them with Denarii of a high cost.
It’s a balancing act.

COINS.
Common Denarii cost only 1 to add to your skill bank where as Rare cost 3.
Should you place 2 Rare Denarii in you skill bank, you are essentially giving up the chance of 6 commons in your suite of weapon options.
Rare coins also have the added cost that many are only able to be used ONCE during an entire game and are then removed from circulation until the next game.
A skill bank loaded with Rares will be small, then expended very quickly, leaving fighters with only their basic card based skills to survive.
In the test phasing of the system as devs, we had access to every coin in the current set of 40 and I can assure you, a common heavy pilum does not care if your opponent is equipped with rares, if it hits them they are impaled just like anyone else would be.
Commons and uncommons are named so simply because they are the things fighters MOST needs and it has nothing at all to do with their potency or effectiveness.
Skill banks constructed of 100% common Denarii are some of the most lethal in the system, as the named common coins can exist in multiples and many can remain fixed to a fighter for the duration of the game, as long as they are not lost to Blending with a crowd, or another in game effect.

ARENA NIGHTS.
The contents design of the basic Gangs Of Rome blister, is mostly down to the Arena night “Draft” style of play that will be introduced after the main launch.
Arena Nights are small weekly events where players can gather at a bricks and mortar store and play against other individuals within the treacherous confines of a deadly Arena.
Arena Nights are also a place where players can meet, talk skill bank strategies and perhaps even swap coins or cards with one another.
GoR Arena is like a small system within the main system, which allows player to field a SINGLE fighter model they may have already assembled, but then to buy a single blister at the event to combine the included fighter card and coins with the model they have already assembled in a draft style match.
In Arena play, your skill bank is only what just came out of the pack, you must improvise to survive and every other single fighter within its blood soaked walls will be in the same grim boat.
And with Arena you are all in for a rough ride.
Taking their turns by random draw, players may think to attack just the one fighter in a ganging up style strategy.
Other than the fact that all GoR Fighters are designed like hornets nests and to attack one allows it to attack you back right away, there is another bitter twist to this gang up behaviour...
The Gangs Of Rome Arena Lion...
Triggered by the very FIRST death in the Arena, the GoR Lion is a tawny nightmare of fangs and claws that is run by THE VERY FIRST PLAYER KILLED!
Vengeful, bitter, furious and cruel, surviving players may indeed have to band together to survive this deadly animal.
In Arena we encourage players to form alliances and then break them as and when they wish...
There can only be ONE winner, and you don’t want that to be the Lion right?

The figures look good. The idea of having a Lentulus Batiatus figure is equally appealing. I may have to grab a few after Warlord starts distribution.

Ohh Roman stuff - interested.

Are the Models Warlords normal size as that s not my fav

Wait, so you buy random figures with random game stats and skills? Sounds pretty awful, but I guess they are going for a collectible card game kind of model.

There is absolutely nothing on the official website yet, but there is a facebook group. The posts there have a lot more information about how the game plays.

Oh wow... that sounds incredibly interesting. Is this up for pre-order anywhere, or is it too far out?

Edit: I can't read apparently, and will leave this post as a monument to my being an idiot. :-p

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
Wait, so you buy random figures with random game stats and skills? Sounds pretty awful, but I guess they are going for a collectible card game kind of model.

Nope, not at all. There's nothing collectible about it, as every fighter is totally unique. It's a hard concept to wrap around especially in an age of rare/uncommon/common pay-to-win games.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Oh wow... that sounds incredibly interesting. Is this up for pre-order anywhere, or is it too far out?

Too far out but playtest discussions and whatnot are in the FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/gangsrome/

Beasts of War talked about it with one of the creators this weekend

Okay, from the facebook group I gather that the miniatures are not random, since you will be able to see the figure you are buying. But each one will come with a stat card for the fighter which will have random stats, a random skill, and the associated point value. Each pack will also have four random upgrade cards to represent gear or other abilities (there are common, uncommon, and rare cards).

So it is definitely a collectible card game, when it comes to the upgrade cards. And also, instead of giving you a gang member builder, they are keeping it secret and instead of letting you stat up your own members, you have to buy random ones from them.

Seems like an awful concept to me. It might appeal to collectible card gamers. Then again, seems like the random draft format doesn't really work since you won't have time to assemble and paint the miniature, unless they eventually let you buy the cards separate from a miniature. And even then, you're basically paying a fee every time for them to stat you up a random ganger, so you're paying for a random bit of what should have been included in a rule book. Terrible concept.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Why just roll a random skill when you can pay extra money to buy a random skill?

The random generated stats whilst a nice concept has issues for me in practice as well. An example being I purchase a couple of models and they both come with high strength stat but abilities that rely on a high agility, these models cost 3 points each to deploy. My opponent buys two characters and gets stat cards with a high agility stat and agility based abilities, these models also cost 3 points to deploy as they have identical build points in due to same stat values and number of abilities. My opponent has a clear advantage and my newly purchased models are never going to see play in a competitive environment. A computer program can randomly generate but it won’t be able to tell which stat and ability combinations are so powerful that they become highly sort after or are game breaking.

They may well have found a way to get around this but I don’t think they would be able to pull it off (I don’t think any of the big names could pull it off properly).

Aeneades wrote:
The random generated stats whilst a nice concept has issues for me in practice as well. An example being I purchase a couple of models and they both come with high strength stat but abilities that rely on a high agility, these models cost 3 points each to deploy. My opponent buys two characters and gets stat cards with a high agility stat and agility based abilities, these models also cost 3 points to deploy as they have identical build points in due to same stat values and number of abilities. My opponent has a clear advantage and my newly purchased models are never going to see play in a competitive environment. A computer program can randomly generate but it won’t be able to tell which stat and ability combinations are so powerful that they become highly sort after or are game breaking.

They may well have found a way to get around this but I don’t think they would be able to pull it off (I don’t think any of the big names could pull it off properly).

Not only that, but imagine if your preferred playstyle is a quick and agile gang, but all the ones you randomly got are the slow and tough kind. Not a good way to keep someone interested in playing.

I assumed you rolled up your characters stats yourself. Didn't realise you got pre-random-statted cards with the minis...

Even more unappealing than I originally thought.

Interesting. I'd play it if others were, no questions asked. However, I don't see it getting started easily around here.

Looking at the miniatures:

"Oh, that's so awesome,"

Reading on to the sales/design model:

"Oh, god dammit."

Still, I love the figs.

Aeneades wrote:
A computer program can randomly generate but it won’t be able to tell which stat and ability combinations are so powerful that they become highly sort after or are game breaking.

I don't see why not. A computer program can have a much more complicated points formula than a "build your own" system, so those agility-based skills can have a multiplying factor based on the other stats and abilities. Better than the usual simple addition that most systems use. Also, the base stats can be used to skew the abilities - the higher a stat in relation to the others, the more likely that a model will have skills to go with that stat. There's only one special ability each anyway, and you still get to equip them as you wish.

At first, I was wondering if there'd be stats for these chaps:


but on reflection, I'd quite like this guy:

I think it was Wargames Soldiers and Strategy that did a Roman Street Gang battleboard for Saga a while back. I'll see if I can find it.

Some of this sounds very good, but I'm pretty burned out on random draw figures from years of playing Heroclix, Mechwarrior, and WoTC's Starwars.

The rulebook dropped today and I still got that giddy excitement looking a the pictures. I was excited in much the same way as I was when first seeing the promotional material but the 'unique' nature of the cards and denarii just put the wind out of my sails. It's a pretty heavy investment for randomized options and I can surely see 'killer optimizations' coming about by people willing to shell out more money. This model appeals to some people, the gambling aspect and excitement of ripping open a new package and hoping you got that denarii you've been praying for. It just doesn't appeal to me though. There are seriously some awesome mechanics in there, though. The mob and blend mechanic looks like it will be really cool in play. There's a lot to like in the game but I just can't break into the sale model Footsore has adopted.

I don't think it's a game for that kind of player. I mean, you could just buy pack after pack of Fighter Primus hoping for the "best" one, but I think it'll be more fun if you just buy one, and work with what you get. It's not just an abstract game like Warmachine, it's an RPG. You're using your gang of minions to get elected to the Senate, not just moving pieces across a board.

As a fan of Osprey's Broken Legions skirmish game, which I'd recommend to anybody,

I'll be snapping up a few of these.

These minis look great.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
I don't think it's a game for that kind of player. I mean, you could just buy pack after pack of Fighter Primus hoping for the "best" one, but I think it'll be more fun if you just buy one, and work with what you get. It's not just an abstract game like Warmachine, it's an RPG. You're using your gang of minions to get elected to the Senate, not just moving pieces across a board.

Weirdly, it almost sounds like it would be at its best in draft play, but the price tag is too high for that sort of decadence. Maybe if you just shuffle all the gang cards together, and deal a random gang to each player it could work.

I thought they were putting something on their website that also generated the profiles? Worse comes to worse i'm sure that you dont really need the cards and can come up with a stat/ability generator yourself when you play with friends. This doesn't exactly scream 'tournament scene' game to me.

Concept is interesting of working with what you got. I also agree that the random cards are ehh unless they have some of them in the rulebook so you can print/play with some of the items.

 Gitzbitah wrote:

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
I don't think it's a game for that kind of player. I mean, you could just buy pack after pack of Fighter Primus hoping for the "best" one, but I think it'll be more fun if you just buy one, and work with what you get. It's not just an abstract game like Warmachine, it's an RPG. You're using your gang of minions to get elected to the Senate, not just moving pieces across a board.

Weirdly, it almost sounds like it would be at its best in draft play, but the price tag is too high for that sort of decadence. Maybe if you just shuffle all the gang cards together, and deal a random gang to each player it could work.

That's what you're doing anyway? Just buy the minis you like and you'll get random cards dealt to each player.

What is the scale of these figures? Is there a comparison shot somewhere?

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
As a fan of Osprey's Broken Legions skirmish game, which I'd recommend to anybody,

I'll be snapping up a few of these.

These minis look great.

Agreed. They will also work great in many "Gladiator" games for various reasons or even in a 28MM Roman Army as rabble/camp followers.

I love the idea and setting, but am not sure of the execution. However, I can always fix that myself.

Mmmm - 28mm Roman Rabble....

Random stats would work if they were on cards you could buy packs of - then you could trade with your friends for what you want.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

Aeneades wrote:
A computer program can randomly generate but it won’t be able to tell which stat and ability combinations are so powerful that they become highly sort after or are game breaking.

I don't see why not. A computer program can have a much more complicated points formula than a "build your own" system, so those agility-based skills can have a multiplying factor based on the other stats and abilities. Better than the usual simple addition that most systems use. Also, the base stats can be used to skew the abilities - the higher a stat in relation to the others, the more likely that a model will have skills to go with that stat. There's only one special ability each anyway, and you still get to equip them as you wish.

At first, I was wondering if there'd be stats for these chaps:


but on reflection, I'd quite like this guy:

this post is all that I want in life

Was the set of rules released via email? I thought I signed up for that but do not remember seeing it, though it may have been jettisoned with the junk mail.

Anyway, love the models, though the scale is too big for me whilst I have no interest in the cards. Will see if I can adapt the rule book though.

You can download the rules free on their website, or could a week ago.

Just thought I'd throw a few links in here of some recent releases, seeing as how I'm going to be dipping my toes (or diving headfirst, really) into the game.

First, free PDFs:

Digital Rulebook

A Player's Guide to the Denarii and Fighter Skills of Gangs of Rome-Blood on the Aventine

Scenario 1 - Careless is as Careless Dies

Scenario 2 - Honours Due

And second, the Incola, or named residents of Rome who have special actions in the game:


Cruentus the Butcher


Thessalus the Back Street Healer

Also, there's been a bit of discussion in the Facebook group of making all the Denarii cards/coins available to purchase as a complete set, as well as selling Fighter Cards separately as well.