Ad Mare Bellum: Bloody Seas off Taramasalata

After our less than satisfactory try out of Posiedon's Warriors our initial plan was to make some changes and given them another go, but a read through of Long Face Games' Ad Mare Bellum led George and I to decide to given them a try out last night down BIG.

We both went with 20 triremes a side, George deciding his were Phoenicians trained in the school of Manoeuvre tactics, whilst I went with Greeks who emphasised Boarding as their preferred tactics. Adopting a specific school gives you some benefits in Ramming, Boarding etc. As we just wanted to try the rules out we lined up facing each other and started rowing!

The game turn starts with a Command Phase (which has no relevance at the start) followed by six Action Phases in which you can Move, Shoot, Ram and Board, whose phase being decided by drawing of cards from a deck. I managed to steal a march on George by having two Action Phases in a row so (in the spirit of trying the rules out) I recklessly decided to Ram three of George's galleys head on completely forgetting I should have loosed arrows at them on the way in to try and inflict Crew Casualties on the Phonecians! 

My headlong tactic was not very successful. My first trireme was damaged in the attack (we used silver coins to indicate damaged ships). Even worse my second galley managed to Wreck itself on the ram of its opponent! (we used the TFL shock markers for Wrecked vessels as we didn't have any wreck markers with us). Fortunately the third galley's attack was just ineffective.

The marines on my damaged trireme decided to try and Board the Phoenician galley and whilst they inflicted a Crew Casualties on them (shown with a gold coin), the action managed to lock the two vessels together!

The next Action Phase went George's way and he sailed his two free galleys around the flanks of the three engaged Greek galleys, one ploughing through the gap created in the squadron and into the side of a Greek trireme.

Firing as he went in George inflicted a Crew Casualty on the Greek vessel and Immobilised it with his Ramming attack (indicated by a purple dice). From his locked galley he launched a Boarding action and managed to capture the Greek trireme (we used white dice for this - see next picture).

Fortunately the next Action Phase was mine so I ineffectively loosed arrows at two Phoenician galleys before Ramming into their sides!

One was Wrecked with a second Damaged and subsequently Captured during a Boarding action.

Elsewhere two squadrons of Phoenicians ganged up on an isolated Greek one...

Inflicting Crew Casualties on all but one of the Greek triremes before Ramming them!

The two Greek galleys hit in the side were immobilised, but of the three rammed head on, only one took any Damage, three of the attacking Phoenician triremes themselves being Damaged themselves in their attack!

George then attempted to Board the Greek galleys, managing to capture one of the Immobilised vessels but saw one of his attacking triremes captured as the boarders were repelled and their ship counter-attacked and overrun!

The main battle saw more triremes captured and immobilised with the Phoenicians now catching some Greek galleys in the rear.

In one memorable phase a Damaged Phoenician trireme with Crew Casualties (who George named the Ship of Death) managed to ram a Greek galley in the side and Wreck it!

Another wave of Phoenician attacks saw the Greeks suffer more casualties and after two full turns we decided to call it a night.

By the end of the game the Greeks had seen six of their galleys sunk, five captured and one immobilised whilst the Phoenician fleet had seen two triremes sunk and five captured. Overall a victory for the pesky Phoenicians!

So how did this compare to our experience with Poseidon's Warriors? Much, much better. The Ad Mare Bellum rules have a little more record keeping but nothing too onerous and there were no automatic sinking results with no dice rolling which I still maintain is wrong in a wargame! Ramming atempts here had the possibility of failing or causing different degrees of impact. The game proceeded at pace, we were both fully engaged throughout and most importantly, whilst, like with the Mersey Osprey rules, odd rules like the ease ships took Crew Casualties seemed too effective at the time, the actual effect that had and the end result felt "right". We need to sort out some better markers and get some decent wrecked markers made but I think we have found our rules and would recommend them to anyone looking for a fast play Ancient Galley wargame.

Ancient Galley Warfare: Persian Triremes III

Finished my final batch of Voxelhouse triremes, these ones without turrets, giving me a total of 65 ships for our planned Battle of Salamis game...

As previously I sprayed them Bone, painted some colours then dipped them with Army Painter Soft Tone dip, adding the eyes and then painting the rams after varnishing. They won't win any painting prizes but they look ok en masse and are all painted now...

After our abortive Poseidon's Warriors game, George and I are going to try Ad Mare Bellum tonight down BIG...

Poseidon's Warriors: Carnage in the Moussaka Straits

George, Steve and myself played our first game of Poseidon's Warriors down BIG last night to see how they worked with a view to using them for our planned Salamis refight sometime later this month. With George in the process of repainting his galleys, I split my six squadrons of Persian triremes between us, whilst Steve brought six squadrons of Greek triremes to the party. In games terms we classed the Persians as Fast Triremes, which gave them the edge in speed but a reduction in sturdiness, whilst the Greeks were designated Slow Triremes. 

Due to social distancing protocols in place at BIG Steve and George lined up across the board whilst my squadrons suddenly appeared on the Greek flank.

Steve's nicely painted Greek ships from Xyston bore down on George's three squadrons.

Whilst he detached two squadrons to deal with the Persians on his starboard flank...

With his flank now protected, Steve focused on turning George's left flank, whilst I tried to manoeuvre my squadrons into some open sea to attack the blocking Greeks.

George decided to concentrate his fleet on the foremost of the blocking squadrons in an attempt to open up a gap both he and I could exploit.

Unfortunately Steve gained the initiative next turn and launched a ramming attack against George's exposed squadron, sinking one galley. 

It was at this point we felt the rules to be somewhat lacking... Aside from rolling for the initiative, the attack on George's galley involved absolutely no dice rolling at all. Steve did not have to roll for the attack (he just moved his ship forward) and in the rules Fast Trireme's only have one hull point and no saving throw, so it automatically sank. We all agreed this just felt wrong from a gaming point of view.

We decided to allow the Fast Trireme's a 6+ save and upgraded the Slow ones from 6+ to 5+. 

We then hit our next issue...

In the next turn one of George's galleys sunk one of Steve's. George then moved a second forward to hit another Greek galley, moving over the wreckage of the one just destroyed. Using the Debris rules he rolled a D6, scoring 5 and his ship sank! There is a 50% chance of taking one damage point crossing debris and with the Fast Triremes only having one Hull Point... Glug, glug, glug!

We decided the impact of debris was too powerful so changed the rule to only causing damage on a 6 (not 4,5 or 6) and also at the end of each turn rolled to see if the debris had sunk on a 50% chance.

Steve followed up George's abortive attack, swinging one of his flanking squadrons round and rammed into the Persian squadron sinking another two as George's saving throws failed.

Steve then moved his flank squadrons into a facsimile of the kyklos defensive formation effectively securing his flank as any bow to bow attack by the Persians would result in one point of damage to each ship, effectively meaning any Persian ramming would likely be a suicide mission (under the rules as written, the attacking Persian galley would automatically sink, the Greek one not an a roll of 6 on a D6).

Steve moved one of the flanking squadrons forward maintaining his formation, sinking another of George's galleys and effectively stopping the remaining Persians from being able to even suicidally ram the Greeks (they need move a minimum one inch to do so).

At this point we came to a grinding halt and adjourned outside to sit and discuss our thoughts on the rules (George threatening to dig out his copy of Tony Bath's 1973 galley rules for future games!)

So our first game of Poseidon's Warriors was not what could be claimed to be very successful... We liked the ideas of minimal record keeping and the lack of need to use markers on ships (like Fleet of Battle which we'd looked at and liked the look off apart from the need for damage marker poles) but the simplicity was creating its own problems. Whilst the rules as written would probably work for the bigger ships from the Roman period with more than one hull point etc, the fact a Fast Trireme can be sunk without any dice being rolled seemed very... unwargamey! (we did wonder the play testing had been using the larger later period ships and whether anyone had tried using Biremes and Triremes).

We talked through some ideas to see if the rules were salvageable and will give them a go - these include using the stats of some of the bigger ships (probably the Quinquireme stats), using an attack dice so that contact  doesn't result in an automatic hit/sinking (despite including oar shearing rules we saw no point for them as the game plays), some more thought on formations and spacing, and maybe some drifting rules for static formations.

If that doesn't work we have a pile of other rules to worth through including the afore mention Fleet of Battle and David Manley's Ad Mare Bellum...

Ancient Galley Warfare: Persian Triremes II (and Grain Ships)

With BIG having reopened George, Steve and I have resumed planning for our Salamis refight sometime this month, with a game of Poseidon's Warriors scheduled for this week to try the rules out. Matt kindly printed me a load more of the Voxelhouse 3D Ancient Navy ships and I've been cracking on painting them...

Here are 20 more trieremes with two towers giving me a total of 25 (five squadrons).

And 5 more with the one tower, giving me 20 of these types (four squadrons).

I also painted up half a dozen of the Voxelhouse merchant grain ships. Technically I think these are Roman but I'm not going to lose any sleep over that...

Finally Steve persuaded us that we should use clear perspex bases for mounting our ships on. I felt they needed some wakes so using some white glue and fine sand came up with this effect. Think it works ok...

Sharp Practice: Bridge Over Troubled Widow Creek Waters

Following last week's largely successful attempt at porting a Rebels & Patriots scenario across to Sharp Practice, Andy and I decided to do it again this week at Bristol Independent Gaming. Plans for playing the Defend Mendenhall's Battery scenario swiftly unravelled as I forgot to bring my cannon with me, so a quick look through the scenarios and we decided to play another bridge themed game, Bridge to Victory - this week I had to build not capture one!

Having lost one bridge across Widow Creek to the Rebels, the British have been destroying the remaining ones to protect their lines from being outflanked not realising the Americans have despatched men from the Corps of Sappers and Miners to rebuild one!

Upon hearing of the Rebel plan, the British dispatch Lieutenant Haddock and Sergeant Wakefield with four groups of Regulars to investigate.

As they approach the ruined bridge they come under fire from a group of Continental Skirmishers, under the Command of Corporal Horowitz, hiding in the trees. Due to some fortuitous pulling of Command Chips the Skirmishers manage to pour three rounds of fire without reply into the unfortunate British inflicting a number of casualties and Shock on them.

To make matters worse for the British, Captain Whitfield and three groups of Continental Line arrive on the field of battle...

Lieutenant Haddock advances his men towards the Rebels, supported by Ensign Harrow and two groups of Light Infantry skirmishers, and open fire!

The skirmishers take a couple of points of Shock and then return fire...

...inflicting more casualties and Shock on the lobsterbacks! Haddock's men were taking a battering.

Meanwhile three groups of Militia Skirmishers deploy in the Creek near the ruins of the bridge (I did make a mistake here not realising they could not operate as a formation so until they moved Andy kindly agreed that they could operate as a formation under Corporal Rowsick until they moved when they would revert to groups).

The Militia Skirmishers soon found themselves under fire from Sergeant Wakefield's Regulars.

Taking Shock and a casualty.

Having ineffectively returned fire, three Command chips were pulled in a row resulting in a random Firing Event for the Skirmishers. I managed to roll 9 on 2D6 - "Charge Them to Hell!", the Skirmishers decided the British were done for and surged forward to attack them!

Meanwhile the Continental Line began pouring Presented Volleys into Haddock's men across the Creek.

Whilst Harrow's Lights returned fire killing one Rebel and inflicting a small amount of Shock on the brave Virginians!

The American fire was too much for the Redcoats and they fell back behind the Skirmishers, causing the British Force Morale to drop.

Ensign Harrow orders his men forward to plug the gap left by Haddock's battered men.

Meanwhile Corporal Stringer enters the field and moves a third group of Skirmishers up supporting Wakefield's men.

At the site of the ruined bridge, the men of the Corps of Sappers and Miners arrive to begin rebuilding it. Using a mix of rules we activated the Engineers when their chip was pulled and rolled 2D6 to see how much of the bridge they had rebuilt, needing a cumulative total of 60 to complete the task. (Not having any bespoke engineer figures I used some Foundry Militia).

Whilst Lieutenant Haddock, obviously still suffering from his concussion in the last battle, was not covering himself in glory, the dependable Sergeant Wakefield was pouring fire into the Rebels near the bridge.

The Militia Skirmishers finding the British not quite as 'done for' as they thought take more casualties and Shock, two groups falling back to their initial position.

Two turns of bridge building sees the Engineers cracking on, almost rebuilding 1/3 of it in quick time.

Elsewhere Haddock moves his men back up to engage the Americans whilst Harrow's Light Infantry Skirmishers trade musket fire with the Continental Line.

Unfortunately for Andy return fire from the Continental Lights sees Haddock's men Break and run away! The British Force Morale now fell to just 4.

Meanwhile with the revolutionary song 'Chester' on their lips ("Let tyrants shake their iron rod, And Slav'ry clank her galling chains, We fear them not and trust in God") the Engineers crack on at pace, rebuilding almost half the bridge!

Whilst things were clearly going the way of the Patriots, the Engineers position was still quite exposed protected only by three groups of Militia Skirmishers who had taken a fair bit of Shock. As Sergeant Wakefield advanced on the bridge supported by Corporal Stringer's Lights, two groups of Virginian Militia under Sergeant Watson march down the road towards the Engineers and Corporal Horowitz having seen off Lieutenant Haddock advances across a ford to flank Wakefield.

Horowitz's action however gives the British the opportunity to regain the initiative and Ensign Harrow's Light Infantry Skirmishers charge the Continental Skirmishers, throwing tomahawks at them and inflicting four points of Shock!

Bayonets are then plunged into the floundering Rebels - four die in the round of Fisticuffs, Horowitz is wounded (for the fourth battle in a row!) and the Shock is piled on!

The Continental Skirmishers unsurprisingly break and flee to safety...

Unfortunately their route takes them through the advancing Militia who take the excess Shock and themselves break! 

The cumulative impact from all these events takes the American Force Morale from a healthy 8 to a rather worrying 3!

Meanwhile, with the noise of battle growing louder the pace of the Engineers work slows with just over half the bridge rebuilt. Could the British snatch a victory that looked extremely unlikely just one turn before?

The short answer is no. Having charged the Continental Skirmishers, Harrow's men had exposed their flank to Captain Whitfield's Continental Line who fired a volley into the British Skirmishers.

One group of the Skirmishers broke and the effect on the British Force Morale saw it reduce to zero handing victory once again to the Rebels.

Another hugely enjoyable game, I thought Andy had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when his Light Infantry caused chaos by breaking my Continental Skirmishers and Militia. If I had not been fortunate in being able to activate the Continental Line immediately after, his remaining Regulars and their Light support could well have reached the bridge and broken the Militia Skirmishers there.

With a little work it looks like the Rebels & Patriots scenarios port across quite nicely and provide a good Sharp Practice game, so even if you don't play the Osprey game itself, the twelve scenarios within are worth the purchase price alone.

Never Mind the Billhooks!

Since starting this blog there have been, at least, two aborted attempts to get a medieval wargaming project underway but to no avail. Well they say 'third time lucky' so earlier this week I hunted down a copy of the latest Wargames Illustrated which contains a 'free' copy of Andy Callan's Never Mind the Billhooks Wars of the Roses rules.

Described as for 'big skirmishes and small battles' they provide for a similar size battle to Sharp Practice and the systems owe something to the Lardies set, although the overall game appears to much simpler. Infantry (bow and bill) operate in units of 12 but can be combined, skirmishers (crossbow and handguns) in 6's and cavalry (mounted knights and light) in 8's.

Rummaging through 'Lead Mountain' I've been digging out any unpainted Foundry (ex-Citadel) WotR models I can find and have started basing and undercoating some units up. So far I have re-discovered 44(!) Mounted Knights so I suspect I shall be using NMTB for the Burgundian Wars rather than the Roses (Never Mind The Cantons?).