Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Wider Wargaming => Rules => Topic started by: paulr on 05 January 2016, 09:33:30 PM

Title: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 05 January 2016, 09:33:30 PM
Hi All,

I am trying to track down a copy of David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury" ancient naval rules that were published in the April 2003 issue of Wargames Illustrated.

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Paul

PS This may or may not be connected with me considering my next project ;)
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: Fenton on 05 January 2016, 09:52:57 PM
Hi Paul

I have a copy of that issue

If you pm you email I will scan it later this week
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 06 January 2016, 09:03:58 AM
PM sent, thanks Fenton

What do you think of the rules & do you need a copy of Fire & Fury to play them?
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 06 January 2016, 06:06:51 PM
Pierre the Shy has sent me scans of the rules and will lend me his copy of the magazine at our game on Saturday :)

Thanks for your offer to scan Fenton.

I see you don't need a copy of F&F to play them which is a bonus to me :)

I would be interested in feedback from any who have played them. They look interesting and definitely place the player as an Admiral rather than a Captain :-\
I might have to organise a test game using some card board cut outs
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: Fenton on 06 January 2016, 06:09:13 PM
I am presuming you don't need me to scan them now?
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 06 January 2016, 11:09:02 PM
Correct Fenton, thanks again for the offer

I had asked on a couple of Yahoo groups as well and David Manley, the author, kindly sent me a pdf copy as well.

I really enjoy the help you get from fellow wargamers all over the world :D :D :D
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 08 January 2016, 05:13:39 AM
With trenches drying and painting equipment packed away ready for the BBQ tomorrow I've been having a look at these rules ;)
Just between BBQ preparations ;)

They look very interesting, you command squadrons not ships and use Fire & Fury mechanisms  :-\

There are a few differences between the PDF Dave sent me and the Wagames Illustrated article :-\
I'm pulling together a list of questions for Dave if he has time

I'm thinking about using Navwar ships as they appear to be cheaper than Tumbling Dice whIle twice the size; 1/1,200 compared to 1/2,400 :-\

It might mean I need to make the bases a bit bigger but that should be manageable, 2 ships on a 40x40 base (maybe 40x50 deep)
The main hassle will be Navwar's old fashioned ordering system; fax or post :o ~X(

Any feedback on the rules and/or ship models appreciated
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: Ithoriel on 08 January 2016, 08:01:03 AM
I'm considering Outpost's tinies.

http://www.outpostwargameservices.co.uk/

(http://www.outpostwargameservices.co.uk/images/Web%20Photos/Ships/small1_5.jpg)

(http://www.outpostwargameservices.co.uk/images/Web%20Photos/Ships/small6_11.jpg)

25 ships for £4 means even with several ships per base it isn't break the bank stuff.

I'm interested in Rome v Carthage so basically need lots of quinquiremes, some hexeremes as flagships, maybe some triremes as scout types and a pack of merchantmen as troop transports/ supply ships. That there are none of the Hellenistic "dreadnaughts" isn't a problem for me.

Next up I need some decent rules for Medieval cogs, used to have some that came in one of the mags which included such delights as chucking firepots and quicklime at the enemy and hoping the wind didn't change :)
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 08 January 2016, 09:43:59 AM
At that scale, 1/3,600 I think, you can claim they are what ever type you like ;)

I had seen them and they are an option, I'm just not sure how good they will look at wargaming distances :-\

My very rough calculation is they will be about 10mm long and 4-5mm wide including the oars (which should probably be invisible at that scale)

Navwar 1/1,200 will be around 30mm long, which fits with my 30-40mm square base thoughts :-\

Although I have seen comments that Navwar and Tumbling dice are "similar" sizes despite one being half the scale of the other :-/
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: Ithoriel on 08 January 2016, 04:33:07 PM
1st Punic War fleets would need between one and three dozen stands a side.

As a pensioner setting up a side project I need to keep cost under control, hence the thought of using Outpost ships, but if money and time were no object I'd go with Tumbling Dice stuff instead. I really like his Armada range, he's a nice guy and TD have been great to deal with by post.

I have some Navwar Armada stuff too and they're fine but not quite as detailed as their Tumbling Dice equivalents. The order system puts me off I have to admit but, that said, snail mail and cheques may be soooo 20th Century ... but it works!

Paypal is so much easier to use that I tend to go to EvilBay for Navwar stuff when I can.
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 08 January 2016, 05:48:50 PM
If you do go the "Outpost's tinies" route I would be very interested to see some painted and based

As you say the costs quickly add up, it looks like you need at least a dozen stands a side for a decent game :-\

I had a good experience when I ordered my 1/4,800 Age of Sail ships from Tumbling Dice and would like to support him :)
I also got reasonable service from Navwar once we got past the ordering process :)

This is still a later this year project ;)
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 08 January 2016, 07:31:08 PM
Thanks Ithoriel, thinking a bit more about this 10mm long is not that much smaller than a 6mm tank, which I happily use single based :-\

So the options at the moment appear to be:

Tumbling Dice, two 1/2,400 galleys per stand, £1.60
Navwar, two 1/1,200 galleys per stand, £1.50
Outpost, four 1/3,600 galleys per stand, £0.64

I have emailed Outpost, and their Australian distributor, to ask for the dimensions of the ships ;)
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: Ithoriel on 08 January 2016, 07:55:03 PM
My thought was 25mm square bases with 3 ships in line per base, except the squadron flagship which would have a 4th ship ahead of the others to mark it out.

The initial Roman fleet they built would be two 5-base squadrons of quinquiremes and a 2-base squadron of triremes.

Interested to hear what you get back from them.

Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 09 January 2016, 09:08:30 PM
Interesting thoughts on basing, will depend on the size of the ships. I'll let you know when I hear.

My thoughts were to maximise flexibility by having all ships based the same and using a temporary label to indicate the flagship.
The label can also have all the info about the squadron and ships on it to avoid separate paper work.
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 10 January 2016, 09:30:07 AM
While recuperating from trenching I found a few blog posts that you might be interested

The useful thing with the pictures in this one is he says
QuoteThe cutting mat grid is 10mm.

http://ramsravensandwrecks.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/outpost-ship-models.html (http://ramsravensandwrecks.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/outpost-ship-models.html)

Painted examples

http://ramsravensandwrecks.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/outpost-ship-models.html (http://ramsravensandwrecks.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/outpost-ship-models.html)

These are 3 other posts about 1/3,600 on his blog

Another couple from a different blog, a review including some dimensions as well as pictures on a 10mm cutting mat

http://steelonsand.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/13600th-ancient-galleys-from-outpost.html (http://steelonsand.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/13600th-ancient-galleys-from-outpost.html)

and some painted examples

http://steelonsand.blogspot.dk/2010/10/13600th-ancient-galleys-painted.html (http://steelonsand.blogspot.dk/2010/10/13600th-ancient-galleys-painted.html)

MED5 Trireme w/sail 12mm stern to bow, integral base 14mm by 6mm wide, base bottom to the top of the mast is 5mm
MED7 Quniquireme w/sail  integral base 17mm by 8mm wide
MED11 Hexereme w/sail  integral base 20mm by 12mm

So 3 side by side on a 30x30 base might be the way to go :-\
Only room for 2 Hexereme
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: Ithoriel on 10 January 2016, 02:14:34 PM
Thanks for the links.

The painted versions look rather spiffy ... were ancient galleys really that colourful?

I'm now thinking 3 per base with a squadron commander indicated by a hexereme and two quinquiremes or by a quinquireme and two triremes depending on the squadron. Maybe two Hexeres for the Fleet commander.

A pack of ships would give enough for 8 bases and a spare. 8 bases is the maximum for a squadron. The largest naval battle of the 1st Punic War, Ecnomus, would need 6 squadrons and some merchantmen for the Romans. Paint each pack as a squadron with different colours of hull and oars for each squadron and the whole Roman fleet is twenty quid. It's overkill, because Roman squadrons seem rarely to be much more than 50-60 ships (5-6 bases) but at that price do I care? Fantasy Punic Wars here I come, maybe :)

I think I'll start rather smaller though, one pack each of Triremes, Hexeremes and Merchantmen plus a couple of packs each of quinquiremes with (Roman) and without (Carthaginian) corvus - enough for Mylae which would see 9 Roman bases take on 13 Carthaginian ones.

And Minibits has a sale on bases!
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 10 January 2016, 11:35:50 PM
One of them did mention Hollywood in relation to paint schemes but they look good and it would be hard to prove you wrong ;)

I'm looking forward to seeing these painted and based and also seeing some AAR :)

I am hoping to organise a test game in a couple of months using some printed pictures and order after that...
Plenty in my painting queue at the monment, not to mention trenches ;)

My order will need to be larger than yours or the postage will be more than the models ;D
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: Ithoriel on 11 January 2016, 12:05:07 AM
Project will be slightly delayed by dint of the money earmarked for it just having been spent on things in Ironclad's January sale :)

We may now be looking at similar timescales!
Title: Re: David Manley's "Greek Fire and Roman Fury"
Post by: paulr on 31 March 2016, 06:50:01 PM
Has anyone had any recent dealings with Outpost Wargame Services or know if they are still trading?

I have sent them a couple of emails and got no response :(

Their home page was last updated in December last year :-SS

I'm interested in their ancient galleys but may have to go to Navwar if Outpost have stopped trading.