Periplous and Diekplous

These tactics are often misunderstood as manouvres by single ships against their opponent. They are actually unit actions whereby a group of ships outflanks the enemy line or makes a breakthough, after which they can attack the vulnerable sterns of the enemy.

More support for using units of ships for a game rather than playing each model individually.

UNITS

Ships should operate in units to be historically accurate.

At Mylae the Carthaginians seem to send a wave of 30 ships ahead of the rest - according to Polybius (1.23)
At Drepana (Pol. 1.50) the Carthaginian commander assembles and coordinates a flank attack with 5 ships in line. Only attacking when they were ready and presented a united front.
At Ecnomus the Roman fleet forms up in 4 squadrons which altogether make a formation. (Pol.1.26)

At Arginusæ the Athenians deploy in what appear to be units of 15 ships (Xen. Hist.Græ.1.6.29..)
Their Spartan opponents deploy in squadrons of 10-15 line-astern.

There are other references but this is enough to make the point that the ancient sea battle was not a free-for -all of single ships before organisation broke down.
The other point is that order and coordination was important so that formations could be maintained and ships could cooperate to cover each other and threaten the enemy.

Nuff said: a set of rules requiring ships to operate in units is not unhistorical.

Impetus Navalis Rules

A test version of these rules is available HERE.



They seem to be highly stylised but may give a quick playable game.

Rowlocks!

One severe problem with Hotz ships is their size. Paradoxically it is the size which also appeals.

1/1200 ar too small to have any appeal. 1/600 in lead cost an arm and a leg.

I may have been barking up the wrong tree with trying to allow players to manouvre ships.

Perhaps players get to manouvre UNITs of ships. They decide who to attack and from which direction but the detailed movement is considered to be at a higher resolution than the game.

The ship on its base is considered to be a ship plus a suitable amount of searoom for it to manouvre.

On no.... many implications.

IMPETUS NAVALIS

New rules being developed in the style of IMPETUS ancients rules.
Read blog HERE.

I like IMPETUS and the info here seems to indicate they will be a good set for large battles.

Final Turn Template?

After much head scratching and calculation I developed several turn template models.

The final version is simplest and smallest while still accurately controlling the ship's movement.


One for each class of ship: MAJOR (3 to 6) and MINOR (smaller) and Alexandrian (Larger).

In a single move phase the ship can manouvre in steps of turn 1/3 and advance 1/3.

The severity of the turn accumulates 0, 1 or 2 Speed Penalty points. A throw is made to see if the speed penalties cause a reduction in speed of 1 level at the end of that move phase.

The long arrows are 1 'ship length' and can be used for measuring straight moves and shots.

FREE WARGAME !

Command your own warships and ram the enemy !

Free flash game at the British Museum website HERE


Don't you love it when the Persians stream onboard ?