Ancient Naval

[Ithoriel]

So, with Xmas and it's various alarms and excursions behind me I turned to painting for the first time in almost two months.

There are literally hundreds of Early Bronze Age 6mm's to paint, 1/2400 Renaissance land and naval part painted, 10mm German WW2 to finish, 10mm WW2 Russians to start so I painted ... Navwar 1/1200 Ancient Galleys, for Poseidon's Warriors, bought a couple of weeks ago.

Doh! Attention span of a .... Ooh! Squirrel!

So far my Carthaginian fleet consists of one heptereme (7), 2 hexeremes (6), two three-ship squadrons of quinqueremes (5) and two three-ship squadrons of quadriremes. Two more squadrons of quinqeremes and a five-ship squadron of triremes to go.

Front row is the heptereme flanked by the quinqeremes and the rear row the hexeremes and quadreremes.

[Orcs]

Looked at your lovely fleets and a line from a poem came to mind from School. " Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,"   

It amazing what you can remember from 40 years ago. It might be that my English teacher Liz Calnan was a bit of a hottie?

Anyway a bit of Culture from Orcs - yes I know that's unusual.  Here is the full poem,


"Cargoes'

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

John Masefield

[FierceKitty]

Even at 13 years old my buddy and I raised eyebrows at the idea of an Assyrian quinquireme.

[Zippee]

Good luck with Poseidon's Warriors - I was very sadly disappointed.

I have had better luck with Ganesha Games Galleons & Galleys but there appears to be a gaping hole in the market for a decent galley set of rules - Corvus and Naumachia [sp] are a bit venerable and old fashione dthese days.

And I've been reading far too much Christian Cameron and really, really want to fight some galley actions!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice

[jimduncanuk]

Your navel isn't ancient. It's the same age as the rest of you.

[paulr]

 

Nice job on the eyes

My search for a good set of Galley rules also continues. I'm looking for a set that covers battles between squadrons and doesn't get bogged down in almost skirmish level details

[Ithoriel]

Thanks folks.

Nice job on the eyes

Thank you. They were a pain to do but worth the effort. Repeatedly touching up the touch ups (Ooh! Titter ye not!) was a bit like evening up the legs on a table

My search for a good set of Galley rules also continues. I'm looking for a set that covers battles between squadrons and doesn't get bogged down in almost skirmish level details

Poseidon's warriors are fast play, low detail, squadron based. So far only played a couple of push about games solo but like what I see so far.

Must try to stay focussed long enough to paint some Romans!!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

And I'm thinking about assembling my Carthaginian soon too!

[Ithoriel]

Even at 13 years old my buddy and I raised eyebrows at the idea of an Assyrian quinquireme.

Absolutely, Nineveh was ruins three centuries before quinquiremes were invented.

[paulr]

Good luck with Poseidon's Warriors - I was very sadly disappointed.

I'd be interested in what you found disappointing

[Zippee]

I'd be interested in what you found disappointing

Sadly just about everything - lack of flavour, lack of command decisions, lack of finesse, lack of tactical input.

For the game they produce they play nicely, it's just that what they produce is a very simplistic game with little feel or nuance of the period. I don't feel I can make any meaningful decisions, there's no friction, no reaction and it's far too instant death. For instance, although I don't want to micromanage every oar bank, there needs to be some nod to the impact that loss of oarsmen has (it isn't just a flat speed reduction - it's more about lack of manoeuvrability coupled with inadvertent change of direction). Ramming needs to be more flexible/variable and boarding actions to have more impact and duration.

It just doesn't give me anything close to the game I was hoping for or looking for.

For me galley actions have the following "things":
1) the steering oars - casualties here effect manoeuvrability and current direction
2) oar banks - damage and loss change direction more than they change speed (but yes speed too)
3) leadership (affected by steering and oars) - dictates the ram strike position (head on, cat head strike, oar rake, beam on, etc)
4) marines - not just a static value, marines depart and fight their own fight often across many decks
5) grappling - ships seem to easily become locked into floating platforms for marines to fight over
6) sinking - most don't sink they float semi-submerged and are a real impediment

PW has some of those differentiations but doesn't plug them together right for me or place the emphasis in the right place.

[Ithoriel]

As you can see from the photo I'm basing mine on hex bases to use with my hex gridded chunk of vinyl flooring.

We've only managed half a dozen games so far but I'm enjoying the fast play, "sudden death" feel of the system.

Inevitably I'm tinkering with the rules. I use the optional rule for wrecks but, instead of a blanket 4+ to hit a wreck if you enter the hex, I use 3+ for wrecked 6s or 7s, 4+ for 4s and 5s and 5+ for triremes and smaller plus merchantmen.

We've been adding the combat factors of all ships on each side where multiple linked grapples occur precisely because marines aren't nailed to the deck of their ships - is that wrong? Must look up the rules later.

Oar sheer is indeed simplified but I can live with that to keep the game moving.

Variable crew skill is something I want to tinker with but beyond thinking the higher skilled crew might get a +1 to saving throw in a bow-to-bow ram I haven't come up with anything so far.

We're using half a dozen squadrons a side (maybe 20 individual ships) and despite chats, coffee/wine breaks, and other interruptions we're getting in multiple games in an afternoon or evening.

I'll do a proper AAR when I have ships for both sides painted!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Please.

[paulr]

Thanks Zippee

I look forward to your AAR Ithoriel