GladiGala Overview - Kickstarter Prototype

I received a prototype copy of GladiGala in exchange for posting an overview.  The prototype I received came with standees, but the final version of the game will feature miniatures with removable bases.  My goal is not to convince you to back the game, but to let you know how the game plays so that you can decide for yourself if it's something you would enjoy.

Ancient Rome.  4 schools, pitted against each other in a match of strength and wits.   Their fighters gearing up for the ultimate arena battle to either capture another school’s Eagle and bring it to the safe zone, or amass coins and riches through strategic strikes upon their opponents.  

Such is the premise of GladiGala, the latest in Tyto Games INSYNC series of games.  First used in Final Act and further refined in Stone Daze, the INSYNC system is an innovative form of action programming (think RoboRally or Colt Express, but without cards) where players program their unit’s movements using a magnetic board that tracks not only movement, but whether the unit will turn or use its special powers.



In previous INSYNC games, most units had similar range of motion and firing arcs, but GladiGala is a welcome evolution of the system which brings both complexity and welcome variety through the different gladiators.  While each gladiator still has similar movement (with the exception of the Dagger, who can move two squares with her special ability), all have a different firing arc which means that positioning of your gladiators is key throughout the tournament.  Before we get deeper into gameplay, let’s take a look at the gladiators you’ll be working with.   

The Spear is a ranged unit, the only gladiator able to strike from afar.  Her special ability is a shield defense, saving her from the crushing blows of her opponents.  If she successfully hits an opponent, she’ll collect 2 coins for her school.  

The Sword is your run of the mill gladiator suited for close-range combat.  He also is able to use the shield as his special ability, and collects 2 coins on a successful hit. 

You’ll have to be conservative with your use of these gladiator’s shields, however, because this ability can only be carried out by each school a maximum of 3 times each match - and this 3-use limit is combined across all units with this ability. 

To use a shield you pay a coin to negate the damage from an opponent’s hit (they still collect coins for their success), placing the coin on the shield space of your player board.  Once you place the 3^rd coin there, you cannot use the shield ability for the rest of the match.  Luckily you don’t have to use the ability if you programmed it, which is helpful - sometimes it’s better to take a hit use a precious shield.

The Club doesn’t have the reach that other units have, but he sure is powerful!  Not only does he collect 3 coins on a successful hit, his special ability allows him to deal out double damage.  Normally a unit needs 2 hits to be removed from the match, but one blow from the Club’s special ability knocks another gladiator out of the match in one strike (unless a shield is used, in which case the other gladiator still takes one damage but is not out of the match).

The Dagger is also suited for close-range combat, and she is the only gladiator able to hit units behind her.  She’s also the fastest of all gladiators, able to move 2 squares with her special ability.  This extra range in movement comes at a cost, though.  The Dagger is fast but not very powerful, only collecting 1 coin on a successful hit.  The up side is that there’s no limit to the use of her special ability, except that you can’t use it to jump straight to the safe zone when she’s carrying an Eagle. 

That is, in fact, a limit of all gladiators.  If they’re not carrying an Eagle they can either turn or use their special ability as they move, but if they are carrying an opponent’s Eagle they can no longer use their special ability. Apparently the Eagles are heavy and unwieldy, and require the full concentration of the unit carrying them!

Now that you’re familiar with the gladiators, let’s take a look at how the GladiGala plays.  There are two important things that occur during setup that will greatly affect each match.  To start, if you’re playing with 3 or 4 players you’ll take turns making strategic declarations – essentially betting on which schools’ gladiators will be out of the match first, also letting the other players know who you’re going after.  You do this in 2 rounds by taking markers with other schools’ symbols (first taking 3, then 2) and placing them in the corresponding slots on your player board.  As the game progresses, you’ll earn extra coins if the gladiators that are removed from the match come from the same schools that you declared.  The order you declared them in doesn’t matter, just that you were right about which schools would lose gladiators over the course of the match.

Next, at all player counts, you’ll take turns placing your 3 crowd tokens around the board.  Two of these tokens have a green thumbs up symbol, and one of them has a red thumbs down symbol.  During the match, after you place your attacks but before revealing movement, you have the option to active one or more of your crowds.  If you activate a green thumbs up and you make a successful hit on an enemy in the row that crowd token is on, you’ll get double coins for your success!  If you activate your red thumbs down token, any enemy hits on your gladiators in that row will not be able to collect coins for their hit (though you’ll still take damage as normal).  Of course, if after movement you or your opponents didn’t manage to make any hits in the row, then nothing happens and your token is out of play.  It’s also rare but possible that you might activate a green crowd token to scoring double coins, but your opponent activated their red crowd token as well, denying you anything!

You’ll also start the game by picking a number of Class I and II gladiators randomly, based on player count.  Once you’re more familiar with the game, if you’re not a fan of the randomness it’s fine to take turns picking gladiators one at a time, though that’s not something officially in the rule book.  It does allow for more strategic choices for the coming match, however.

And now the game beings.  One nice thing about GladiGala is that there are no player turns.  Everyone takes their actions simultaneously.  The game takes place in 2 matches (morning and afternoon), each with an undefined number of rounds.  In each round you’ll secretly plan your gladiators’ movements, then place your attacks and decide whether to activate your crowd, and finally reveal your movements, take damage, and collect coins.  Once this is complete the next round begins.  A match ends when either one player manages to capture another school’s Eagle and bring it back to the Safe Zone, or when 5 gladiators have been removed from the match.

Lets take a closer look at gladiator movement.  Using the INSYNC system, you’ll secretly place your magnetic marker on a square where you plan to move your gladiator.  Each gladiator remaining in the match has its own board for this secret movement.  The square in the middle of the 3x3 grid is where your gladiator currently is on the board, and if you leave your marker in the middle it means your gladiator will not move.  Placing the marker in any of the other 8 squares will mean that during the movement phase, your gladiator will move to that square in relation to where its currently located.  Movement also happens in relation to how your gladiator is currently facing.  For instance, placing your marker in the square above the middle will result in your gladiator moving forward in the direction its facing.  

Left: Spear moves forward diagonally and turns to the left.  Right: Spear moves to the left and uses her shield.

You can move both orthogonally and diagonally, but if your gladiator is hit, its movement is restricted and it can no longer move diagonally.  You can pay a coin from your treasury to upgrade your gladiator, placing it on the space on your player board pointing to the type of gladiator that was hit, and it can once again move in all directions.  What’s nice about upgrading your gladiators is that once you upgrade a single unit, all other gladiators of that type are upgraded for the rest of the match.

Upgraded Sword and Club

While you’re declaring movement, you’ll also secretly decide whether to activate your gladiator’s special ability or to turn your gladiator to face another direction.  You do this by placing the other magnetic marker on either one of the turn symbols or the special ability symbol.  You can turn 90 degrees to the left or right, or make a complete 180.  Keep in mind that turning happens after movement – you never turn and then move.

Let’s say you’re current facing towards the Safe Zone, and you want to end up one space behind you facing to the left in relation to the Safe Zone.  You’ll need to put your movement marker on the square below the middle one on the movement grid, and then turn your gladiator left 90 degrees.  If you’re currently standing on your eagle and you want to protect it but avoid getting hit, you might want to place your movement marker on the square above the middle one, and have your gladiator turn 180 degrees to face the Eagle.  

Spear moves left and uses her shield.  Dagger moves forward and turns around.  Sword moves backwards diagonally left, and turns right.

You can move into the Safe Zone, but it costs a coin to enter and a coin each round you stay.  You can also move around in the safe zone, but you’re not allowed to cross it diagonally, and any gladiators in the safe zone cannot attack until they leave.

After everyone has declared movement and turns or special abilities, you’ll place your attack markers on the board.  Each gladiator has a corresponding attack marker, with a number of slash marks on them equal to the number of coins you’ll collect for a successful hit (I, II, or III).  You place your attack markers on the board in relation to the direction your gladiator is currently facing.  This can be confusing for new players since placing attack markers occurs after you’ve declared movement, but attacks always happen before your gladiators move.

Each gladiator has a different attack range, outlined on your player board.  The black circle indicates the space your gladiator is currently on, and the red circles indicate where attack markers may be placed in relation to the unit’s current facing.  The Spear, for instance, can make a ranged attack, but can never place her attack marker in any of the squares directly next to her.  The Dagger and Sword are the only 2 units that are able to place their attack marker on their current location, as noted by the black circle with a red circle in the middle.  No attacks may be placed in the Safe Zone, and any gladiators in the Safe Zone are immune from hits

When placing your attack markers it’s also important to remember that they will only hit after all gladiators move.  This means you’re aiming for where you think your opponents’ gladiators will end up.  If you think a gladiator is going to move forward towards your eagle, you’ll want to try to place an attack marker in front of that gladiator so that when it moves you’ll score a hit.  Maybe your opponent thought you would do that, however, and chose to move forward diagonally so it ends up safe from your attack.

This makes for some mind games in GladiGala.  Not only do you want to pay attention to where your opponents’ are able to attack, you’ll have to think about where you think your opponent will place their attack and try to program your movement around it.  Does Sarah always seem to think you’re going to move diagonally?  Maybe this time you charge straight ahead instead to trick her – but maybe Sarah thought you’d change things up and she decided to put her attack marker right in front of you for a change!

Another thing complicating movement and attacks is that when gladiators move, if two or more units’ movement would put them on the same square, none of them move (they all stay in the same place).  When declaring attacks, you sometimes have to take into consideration whether you might want to put an attack marker on the space your opponent is currently standing on – either because you think another player’s movement will cancel theirs, or because you purposely moved one of your gladiators into the space you thought they would move, hoping to cancel both movements.  If the gladiator doesn’t move, then your attack marker will still score a hit

This makes for some hilarious battles in GladiGala.  Sometimes you program a movement in the hopes of cancelling out another player, but they were sly enough to see it coming and stay where they are or move in a different direction.  Or perhaps you planned to move and turn, but your movement was cancelled and you still have to turn, making the next round tougher.

In any case, once everyone has placed their attack markers (and after any crowd tokens are revealed) you’ll finally move your gladiators.  As noted, if you programmed your movement to a space either already occupied, or a space where two players are both trying to move to, your gladiator will stay in in it’s current location.  Otherwise you’ll move to the square you programmed.  You’ll also activate any special abilities at this step.

Once all gladiators have moved, you’ll collect coins for any hits you’ve made on your opponents and take damage for any hits you’ve suffered (unless you activated your shield and choose to use a coin to spare yourself a damage).  You take damage by placing a red disk under your gladiator.  Get hit twice (or just once if the Club activated his ability, counting as 2 hits), and your gladiator is out of the match.  Since there is no limit to the number of attack markers on a single square, it’s also possible to be hit several times, with everyone who scored a hit collecting coins even if there were 3 or more attack markers in the square.  When a gladiator is out of the match, you’ll remove it’s colored base and place it on the Center Stage for all to see.

Once hits are resolved you’ll also collect coins for successful declarations.  If two of your declarations match gladiators knocked out of the round you’ll get 2 coins, and in each round the more successful your declarations were the more coins you’ll earn, for a maximum of 6 coins per match.  The order of your declarations does not matter, just the total number of corresponding opponents knocked out of the match.  In a 2 player game, since no declarations were made you’ll earn coins for each consecutive gladiator you knock out of the match.  Get two of your opponent’s gladiators out in a row and you’ll score 2 coins, and another coin for a 3^rd gladiator, but it ends once one of your gladiators is out.

Medal of Coin, with 2 coins stacked on top.

The match is over either when 5 gladiators have been knocked out, or when a player successfully manages to bring an opponent’s Eagle to the Safe Zone.  You’ll get a Medal of Eagle for bringing the Eagle to the Safe Zone, or Medal of Coin for having the most coins in your treasury when 5 gladiators are knocked out.  If there’s a tie, the player with more gladiators remaining get the medal, and if still tied it goes to the player with the most coins in their treasury.  In addition to earning a medal, the winning player will compare their number of coins to the rest of the players, and if they have more they’ll put the difference between their coins and the player in 2^nd place on top of their medal (if they have less coins than another player, they just get the medal).

After the morning match, it’s not over.  You still have a chance at victory in the afternoon!  You’ll prepare for the afternoon match by first clearing your player board of any coins used to upgrade gladiators or use shields (you’ll keep any coins in your treasury).  You’ll then reset the board by drawing new gladiators for match, making declarations, and placing crowd tokens.  Eagles remain where they were at the end of the morning match, with the exception of any Eagles brought to the Safe Zone – those will be re-placed as they were for the morning match.  Then the afternoon match begins.

When the game is over, the winner is the player with the Medal of Eagle.  If two or no players have the Medal of Eagle, the winner is the player with the most coins stacked on their medal.  If still tied, then players share the victory!  

Solis (orange) wins with Medal of Eagle!

Each match of GladiGala starts slow, taking a few rounds to get your gladiators into a position where they can inflict damage on other players.  As the match progresses it becomes more and more chaotic, with gladiators clashing, Eagles being defended and stolen, and gladiators falling left and right.  With an Eagle close to the Safe Zone, players join forces to stop the win, aiming for the gladiator with the Eagle, and even blocking the Safe Zone from entry.  Everyone is also trying to ensure their declarations are met, taking shots at enemies that lag behind when everyone else is focused on the gladiator with an Eagle.  As the match progresses, players will take more time to consider their movements and attacks, trying to to guess where opponents are moving, or perhaps even how to make a move that would block another player’s movement, knocking them out where they stand.


GladiGala is a lighthearted affair, well suited for children and families, but still enjoyable for adults looking for a tactical combat game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and easily plays in an evening (the box says 60 minutes, but expect your first few games to take a while longer).  It’s funny as much as it is frustrating, but never feels too overwhelming.

If you like games where you try to get in other player’s heads, guessing their next move and trying to thwart them, GladiGala is definitely the game for you.  If you enjoy games where your plans can go hilariously wrong, GladiGala is also the game for you, but you should pass if you want something more strategic with what feels like less luck.

That’s not to say GladiGala is a luck-based game – the only random element is drawing gladiators at the beginning of each match, and this can be mitigated with taking turns choosing gladiators – but if you get annoyed at what feels like luck as your plans constantly fall apart based on how movement and attacks are resolved, you’ll certainly be frustrated with GladiGala.

GladiGala is a simple, fast, and funny game, suitable for the whole family.   If you’ve played any of the other games in the INSYNC series you’ll feel right at home with GladiGala, and will enjoy the evolution of the system and how it’s implemented in the newest game in the series.  However, as you can see by the lengthy explanation above, it’s a game that takes a while to teach new players and to wrap your head around as a first time player – especially if you haven’t played a game like it in the past.  If you’re familiar with other action programming games, GladiGala will certainly be easier to approach and the innovative INSYNC system will be a welcome change to card-based systems that are prevalent in other games with this mechanic.

GladiGalia is on Kickstarter now, with just a few hours left to go!