Morturi: Rules of Conflict

Morturi Te Salutant: Main Page -> Morturi: Rules of Conflict

This page describes how to play out Battles!

Overview

The rules below are broken down into the following sections:

• Determining Priority
• Movement Phase
• Attack Phase
• Terrain
• Ranged Attacks
• Favour of the Crowd
• Victory!

Determining Priority

First, you need to decide which school gets to go first!

A school has priority over another school if it meets one of the following conditions. Work your way down the list till you find a condition that you can judge priority by.

• Number of Gladiators

Total the number of Gladiators on the field belonging to each school. A School which is fielding a lower number of Gladiators gains priority.

• Total Movement

If the schools are fielding the same number of gladiators, then compare the totalled movement values of all the gladiators on the field belonging to each school. A School which has a lower total movement gains priority.

• Randomise

If the schools are fielding the same number of gladiators, and have the same total movement, then randomise which school has priority.

Once Priority order is established, it remains in place for the rest of the battle, even if the above parameters change during the course of the battle.

The school with highest priority goes first, activating all his Gladiators. They then pass priority to the next highest, and so on, until every school has had a chance to activate. The turn order then loops back to the school with highest priority.

While they have Priority, a school deals with each of his Gladiators one at a time, fully completing that Gladiator's turn before moving onto the next Gladiator. That is, each Gladiator completes his Movement and Attack phase before moving onto the next Gladiator.

Example:

• The Ludi Aeternum school is fielding 8 Gladiators with total movement value 24.
• The Vi Et Armis school is fielding 8 Gladiators with total movement value 33.
• The Legio Mortis school is fielding 8 Gladiators with total movement value 33.
• The Malleus Deus school is fielding 6 Gladiators with total movement value 30.

The Malleus Deus school has highest priority, as it has least fielded gladiators.

The Ludi Aeternum school is next, as it has an equal number of Gladiators fielded as compared to Legio Mortis and Vi Et Armis, but has a lower total movement.

The Legio Mortis and Vi Et Armis schools have equal number of gladiators and equal total moevment. The Imperator rolls a dice, and randomly decides that the Legio Mortis has priority.

The school order is now set...:

• 1) Malleus Deus
• 2) Ludi Aeternum
• 3) Legio Mortis
• 4) Vi Et Armis

...and this order remains for the whole battle.

Movement Phase

During a Gladiators movement phase, he may spend movement points.

By default it costs 1 movement point to move to an adjacent empty square. Morturi Te Salutant is played on a square grid, and an adjacent square is defined as one of the four squares which shares a border with the current square. Note that diagonal movement is not permitted, and diagonal squares are not considered to be adjacent. A Gladiator can only move into an empty square - he cannot move into a square occupied by an ally, an enemy or a solid obstacle (such as the walls of the arena).

Cost in movement may be increased by certain effects, such as certain gladiator tricks and terrain (see Terrain section below). Note that these costs are cumulative, so with multiple imposed conditions it might costs 3 or more movement point for one square of movement!

At any time, a Gladiator must be facing towards one of the four adjacent squares. At any time during his own turn, as many times as he likes, a Gladiator may turn to face a different adjacent square.

Note that some tricks will allow a Gladiator to do other things with his movement points other than move squares. For example, the Trick "Toe To Toe" has the text "The gladiator may spend 3 movement points to make a melee attack against an adjacent enemy. This is on addition to his normal attacks this round." These actions are carried out and fully resolved during the movement phase.

The Gladiator does not have to use up all his movement points if he does not want to, but cannot attempt any movement or trick that requires more movement points than he has. A Gladiator's movement point total is reset at the start of each turn, and movement points can never be carried from one turn to the next.

The Gladiator's movement phase must end before he can start his attack phase.

Attack Phase

During the Attack Phase, the Gladiator may make a melee attack against the target in his front adjacent square.

To make a melee attack, roll a single D6. Then, reference the Gladiator's Attack details to see what effect it has.

For example, a Bustarius has the Attack details "Ceremonial blade - Roll 5+ to deal 5 damage. "

Therefore, for a Bustarius making a standard melee attack, if the rolled D6 comes up "5" or "6" then he would deal 5 damage to his target.

Damage is applied to a target's Life Points.

Life Points and Injury

A Gladiator starts with Life Points equal to the listed amount on his profile.

If an attack reduces a target to 0 Life Points or less, then that Gladiator is taken out of action. An out of action gladiator is removed from the game board and can no longer contribute to this battle.

Unless you are using the optional Factions rules, you will note that all Gladiators have 8 Life Points. It is recommended that you keep track of Life Point totals with a D8 for each gladiator, either placed by the miniature or on the school roster.

To save on D8s, some players might prefer to "count up" wounds rather than "count down" life points, placing the dice to indicate how many life points the Gladiator has lost rather than how many remain.

Damage bonuses

Tricks and many other rules factors may add damage to an attack. For example, an attack against an enemies' rear gives +2 damage.

Unless stated otherwise, all damage bonuses are cumulative. However, you still need to score a hit to deal any damage!

Variant Attacks

Its worth noting that many Tricks affect the basic attack in many different ways. These are detailed under the descriptions of the Tricks

Facing

As noted before, at any time during his own turn, as many times as he likes, a Gladiator may turn to face a different adjacent square.

This is pretty important, as a Gladiator can normally only attack to his front square. However, bearing in mind the above rule it is perfectly possible to turn to face an opponent, make a basic attack, then turn away to face another direction.

Additionally, a Gladiator can use the following "turn to face" reaction when it is not his turn:

• Turn-To-Face: If a Gladiator is attacked in melee, he may immediately change his orientation so he is facing his melee attacker. This happens before the attack itself is resolved, and before modifiers for facing are calculated. However, a Gladiator may not use Turn-To-Face if there is an enemy Gladiator currently in his own front square. Turn-to-Face is an optional reaction, and the Gladiator is not obliged to take this reaction if he does not want to.

Note that with the "turn-to-face" rule, it is very difficult to catch a Gladiator off guard - they'll almost always be able to spin round to defend themselves. The key tactic to making a flank or rear attack is to first "lock" that target gladiator by occupying his front facing, and then attack with a second Gladiator.

Why would you want to do this? Well...

• Flank Attacks - An attack against a gladiator's flank gains a +1 damage bonus.
• Rear Attacks - An attack against a gladiator's flank gains a +2 damage bonus.

The damage bonus to flank or rear attacks can make all the difference, especially for Light Gladiators who tend to hit weakly, but rely on manoeuvring into position to make their damage count!

Terrain

There are various sorts of terrain that may be found in an arena.

Higher Ground

The arena may include areas of raised terrain, such as small hillocks, crates and the like. These will normally be modelled or indicated by the Imperator player when he sets up the battle. These can be moved onto freely.

• Height Advantage - An attack from higher ground gains a +1 damage bonus. An area of raised terrain blocks line of sight from any attacks that crosses it from lower terrain to lower terrain, but does not block line of sight into itself, other raised terrain squares or from attacks originating from any other raised terran.

Difficult Terrain

Some areas of terrain are hard to move through, perhaps because of uneven footing or thick undergrowth.

• Difficult Terrain - Moving into a square of difficult terrain costs +1 movement point to normal. Difficult terrain may or may not block line of sight, depending on its nature.

Obstacles

Obstacles represent absolutely impenetrable squares that block both movement and line of sight. For example, a pillar of rock or a wall.

• Obstacles - Gladiators cannot move through an obstacle. Obstacles block line of sight.

Hazards

Hazards represent squares that are filled with something dangerous, for example a firepit, a pool of acid or a spike trap.

• Hazards - Gladiators cannot voluntarily move into a hazard. A Gladiator that is forced to move into a Hazard is immediately taken out-of-action. Hazards may or may not block line of sight, depending on their nature.

Ranged Attacks

Ranged Attacks, such as the thrown Pilum of the Peltast can be used at range. These attacks are described in the special features or tricks of a given role, but have the following rules in common:

Maximum range

A ranged attack may be used up to its maximum range. To count range, count the most direct route possible as if you were moving to that target. For example, for a range of 3 squares, you could target an enemy that is 3 squares away in a straight line, or 2 squares away and 1 across. You cannot count diagonally.

Line of sight

Draw an imaginary straight line from the centre of the attacker to the centre of the target. If this line would pass through any part of a LOS-blocking square, then you cannot make that attack. Merely touching a corner or edge of a LOS-blocking square does not block line of sight, however.

LOS-blocking squares include:

• Any square that contains a gladiator, whether allied or enemy.
• Some types of terrain - see above.

Favour of the Crowd

Gladiatorial contests are fought in front of a baying crowd, and whether they like it or not, gladiators cannot help but be encouraged if the crowd is cheering them on.

This is measured by Crowd's Favour, which is recorded and tracked for each School separately during a battle. Note that individual gladiators do not have their own Crowd's Favour scores, rather it is a measure of the team's popularity as a whole at any given time.

At the start of the battle, each school has 0 points of Crowd's Favour. Some tricks (such as the Murmillo trick "Everybody loves Murmillos!") can add to this starting value.

A school automatically gains +1 Crowd's Favour every time it successfully deals the final blow to an enemy gladiator (that is, deals the damage that takes that gladiator out-of-action).

If a school has more Crowd's Favour than any other school present, it is said to have Boosted Morale. All Gladiators within a School team with Boosted Morale gain a +1 bonus to all damage dealt. This condition ends if they cease if the crowd turns against them - that is, they only keep this bonus so long as their school has more Crowd's Favour than any other school.

Also, at the end of a battle if a School has at least a 10-point lead in Crowd's Favour, and wins also the battle, then the baying crowd will call for the lives of the defeated gladiators! Every out-of-action gladiator on the losing team or teams is killed in the arena, and removed permanently from their school's roster! This matters only for Campaign games, of course, but can be a brutal blow for any lanista!

Credits

This page created by Asklepios.