Place secret bets on deadly arena gladiator fights in Kickstarter board game Gladius

Cause mayhem in the gladiatorial arena with Kickstarter board game Gladius, in which you play wily Roman spectators who bet on and rig coliseum battles.

For two to five players, you take your pick of the five playable characters, ranging from the Beast Tamer to the Centurion.

You’ll then draw a random event card which determines the number of gladiators competing and what they’ll be judged on.

Every gladiator has different stats based on fighting, theatrics and luck - which you can buff or negate during the game.

Each round, you’ll secretly place bets with tokens on fighting gladiator teams. You’ll then play influence cards, which vary from things like poison to tossing a blade into the ring to help out or ruin the unfortunate fighters in the ring.

Once the final bet of the round is placed, all influence cards are revealed and the victor determined.

A playthrough comes in at around 30 minutes, with whoever has the most money at the end of three rounds taking the victory.

Gladius is the first title from Seattle-based publisher Cat Quartet games, which is comprised of designers Victoria Caña and Alex Uboldi, graphic designer Valerie Caña, and illustrator Cheryl Young.

The game is currently live on Kickstarter and has raised over £41,000 to date, smashing its initial goal of around £6,000.

The campaign will run until March 19th, with copies of the upcoming board game estimated to land with backers in February 2021.