Take on the role of a lanista in ancient Rome, assembling worthy soldiers that you can fight in the arena.
In the first round of the game, you bid to get your first pick of gladiator. If you drop out of the bidding, you lose half of your investment. If you win the bid, your entire bid is paid for the privilege of selecting the most worthy combatant first. Any money you do not spend in the first round carries over to the second round! So you don’t have to spend everything.
In the second round of the game, there are 6 types of tournaments that will be held, each testing your gladiators in different ways. Be sure to check the heading for the competition type (eg: Polearms: Str + Int). Each player selects a combatant, and then the best combatant takes the largest prize, second best takes the second largest prize, etc.
Most money at the end wins! (Including all money saved during the bidding)
The original version was created in ~12 hours for the 2014 Spring GDSE Game Jam. I later improved the game and released an Android version:
- Play Original Version
- Play Latest Version (edited post-jam)
- Download for Android (same as latest version)
- Source
The original version of For Sparta!
Notes on Strategy
There are 30 slaves, and 30 prizes which are the same every game, but appear in a random order.
The soldiers’ stats are not random, and you will see the same soldiers each game. Memorize (or look at the source) the best soldiers to recognize them when they appear. Note that there is no “best” solider, only soldiers that are most suited to a task.
The six tournaments are:
- Hand to Hand: Str * Dex
- Close Quarters Str * Int
- Chariots Dex * Int
- Ranged Str + Dex
- Polearms Str + Int
- Horseback Dex + Int
Make sure to have a well-rounded troop in order to win each category.
The 30 prizes are numbered 0, 0, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20. (So two 0’s, two of every number from 2 to 10, then one of every number from 11 to 20).
And the AI does not cheat!
Credits
Heavily influenced by the card game For Sale.
Images courtesy of Terrible Character Portraits