Actium - edit 2, now with 2nd battle report.

[olicana]

I'm not sure if it was the hokey cokey at New Year's that got me into my rowing stroke, but something has had that effect.

I've always wanted to do a game to 're-fight' Actium. So to truly kick off the new year I'm damn well going to do it using my Xyston 1:600 ships.

Scenario notes:

http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/a-decisive-moment-in-history-actium-31.html

I think it will work, even if I'm scaling it at 1:9. Funny scale, but it works better than 1:10 or 1:8 because of the way the squadrons break down.

I'll be using my amended version of War Galley (GMT) rules on a hexed 12 x 6 table.

Hope you like it. Hope it's useful to someone.

[Happy Wanderer]

Fantastic James,

Looking forward to your ancient naval actions..always a delight to see your models and your take on getting the history to the table.

Good stuff.

Cheers

Happy W

[Corso]

Wow! That's extremely cool

[SteveBurt]

Were you not unhappy with War Galley?
What did you change to make you happy with it?

[olicana]

I didn't like the squadron activation, well we as a group didn't - at all. It was a convoluted system that didn't achieve much for the memory overload it produced. I might be a bear of very little brain, but my associates are not. We all agreed that the move system was, if not flawed, very 'old fashioned' and not in good way.

Personally, I put the turn sequencing down to getting things to fit with a multi-scenario board game format. If counters had been produced for each scenario (allowing fixed squadrons) I wonder if the turn sequence would be the same. Getting any game to market is difficult and I have the uppermost understanding of those difficulties.

Also, the fatigued rules were overly laborious. F4 to F2 sounds good, but in practice it is, IMHO, time wasting changing one counter for another at the start of each turn. Better, IMHO, to just roll for recover.

I think War Galley has a lot going for it but, from a gaming point of view, I think the game is overly convoluted.

Don't get me wrong. I've been looking for a set of galley rules that suits me for over 40 years. War Galley looks to have much going for it. I'm very much hoping it has.

I got so bored with looking for a good 'galley game' that I even resorted to writing my own rules. They were, for a set by me, received quite well. They won the SOA Paul Morris prize and were later published (still available as a
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjHz6O3vrrRAhUmLMAKHQMiAa8QFggaMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flamesofwar.com%2FPortals%2F0%2FDocuments%2FWargamesIllustrated%2FFleetOfBattle.pdf&usg=AFQjCNE5B6al7AGpRgSZ2JKk1p886hk6jw&sig2=ggL_2sneDI5YIvQh8zNBiw&bvm=bv.143423383,d.d24 PDF).

I'm not scoring points here. I'm trying to get things how I, that's I, like them. I'm looking for a fleet action set of rules that is fun, has its roots in history, and doesn't overtax the brain cells.

[Mason]

 
Wow!

That looks seriously impressive!
 

[Stecal]

Nothing like a sudden compulsion to drag out a bunch of models that haven't seem the light of day for a while and put on a game.  Looks great.

[olicana]

First battle report is up on my blog


I have to say that galleys fought on a hexed grid is SOOOO MUCH EASIER than fighting on a plain surface. At first glance everything still looks fairly chaotic (a good thing) but the large hex grid neatly separates and organises everything when you look at things in detail.

Anyway, there is a short report up on my blog and I hope you find it an interesting read. If any of you have any thoughts on GMT War Galley shooting I'd be only too pleased to hear them (see closing comments in post).

http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/actium-battle-report-part-1.html

[olicana]

Part 2 of the battle report is now here:

http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/actium-battle-report-part-2.html

The shooting rule has proved to be the downfall of the game, well that and a bit to much bumping about rather than actually doing ramming damage.

I'm still rather optimistic about the promise held in GMT's War Galley rules, even if they don't suit me exactly as they are. I'm looking forward to doing this game again with the rule amendments outlined in the post. I think the game will be very bloody now, especially with the alterations to the ramming factors. Manoeuvre, ramming and boarding is where any set of galley rules should be at and I think the basis of this is all held within the body of GMT's rules (missilery aside). But I do think the balance is slightly wrong between ram and hull - from my reading, these vessels did not possess a great deal of 'survivability' and I hope I've rectified this.

Onwards and upwards,

James