Blood on the Sands is a historically inspired skirmish game that immerses players in thrilling one-on-one gladiatorial combats. Players build and manage a stable of gladiators at their school, or ludus, battling for survival in the provincial arenas of ancient Rome. Blood on the Sands recreates the dynamic, back-and-forth 'dance' of the gladiatorial duel, reflecting the balanced intricacies that the Romans infused into their deadly bloodsport. The mechanics produce thrilling, narrative combats that move across the arena, demanding tactics, skill, and a degree of luck from the players. Between games, players manage their stable across the course of a campaign. Each gladiator strives to be crowned Champion and lead their ludus to victory—but most will fall, forgotten, like Blood on the Sands!

Camanah wrote:
How many gladiator types will there be? If it's just the same few fights over and over, it'll get old fast. Also, how much is this gonna cost on Kickstarter?

Yeah you did get those right Gee. Blood on the Sands will launch with the 6 most well known gladiator types: Hoplomachus, Murmillo, Provocator, Secutor, Reitiarius, and Thraex. If all goes well, we plan to introduce the more exotic and lesser-known types (and more) in a future expansion.

Shipping Update
We know some of you have been waiting for shipping estimates and more news on our fulfilment hubs. We expect to be able to share more information with you next week on both of these topics. On a personal note (from me, Nic), coming from the book (rather than games) publishing world, I have noticed that backers here appear to be more price-sensitive—no doubt due to a diversity of high-quality games competing for your attention. I think that is ultimately a good thing, and will give us the opportunity to earn your trust and support in delivering what is a fantastic game with lots of replayability and high production values.

As noted on the Kickstarter page, we have fulfilment hubs in both the United States and Australia already in place, and we will be able to ship games in those countries at competitive rates. We hope to have UK and EU hubs in place next week, and will work to identify sensible hub shipping practices for other countries as well (e.g., shipping Canadian backers' games from the UK, rather than the U.S.).

In the meantime, thank you all for the fantastic ongoing support. I suspect you will get sick of us saying 'thank you' by the end of the campaign, but for now please know that Frank and I deeply appreciate all of the confidence that backers are showing in our work. We are not one of the large games companies churning ourt products on Kickstarter; we are deeply committed to making sure all of our backers receive a beautiful game that respects their time and investment. I know you will love Blood on the Sands when you get your copy.