Lepanto In A Bathtub

Last night I ran the largest game of Galleys & Galleons I've played so far - a 16th century galley action between the Turks and the Venetians. 

Caesar and Gary were the other players. Caesar has played G&G a couple of times before, whilst Gary was a newbie. They took the Turks between them, whilst I played the Venetians since they had a couple of ships that required a little more knowledge of the rules.

The Turks had three lanternas (flagships), seven galleys and five galliots. The Venetians fielded three lanternas (also flagships), five galleys, four galliots and two galleasses. Both sides had to split their fleet into three commands, each led by one of their lanternas. The stats for the ships were lifted straight from the rules - the galleys, lanternas and galliots from the basic set and the galleasses from 'Fayre Winds and Foul Tides' (there is a galleass in the basic rules, but it lacks the heavy fore and aft gunnery of the other version).

So a total of 29 ships in play, and roughly 870 points per side (the Venetians were down 12 points, which I was going to make up by making one of the lanternas 'Charismatic', but I forgot to do it)

Activation was by cards; each side had three cards, one for each command, and they were drawn at random with that corresponding command being allowed to attempt activations. 

Here's the setup. The Turks on the left and the Venetians on the right. Both sides put galliots out on the flanks where they could negotiate and contest the shallows, whilst the heavier galleys and galleasses were in the centre.

The Venetians arrayed for battle.

And the Turks. Note the galliot flanking force in the foreground.

Initial moves. The Venetians simply plodded straight forward, very much matching the slow speed of the galleasses. The Turks look like they are in disarray, but this was all part of Caesar and Gary's master-plan. Gary kept his ships on the Turkish left moving forward, whilst Caesar moved his centre over to the right, essentially splitting the Turkish fleet in two. Basically they left little for my powerful galleass centre to oppose, since the bulk of the Turks were upwind, whilst massing two squadrons on my left squadron.

Initial firing was at long range and mostly indecisive, except on the Venetian right where a lucky shot from a Turkish galliot saw one of their Venetian opposite numbers to explode.

The battle was now taking shape and Caesar and Gary's plan was working well. I was already discovering the shortcomings of my setup, with the galleasses struggling to get into action. 

The first Venetian hits of the game saw a Turkish galley holed below the waterline.

The Venetian left squadron rows into Caesar's trap.

The lead galleass comes up on Gary's squadron. He had a galley on the end of his line that took fire from both galleasses, and a lanterna over several turns, and yet failed to take a single hit. My shooting die-rolls were universally terrible in this action.

On my left the action turned to boarding, as Caesar grappled my ships in order to prevent them firing, whilst using his numbers to reduce their effectiveness in the ensuing melees.

Boarding actions featuring galleys are long slogs, since both ships tend to have a number of pluses to their score, making decisive doubling results harder to achieve.

The melee intensifies, with both sides taking casualties.

A view down the line. The Turkish left was now grappling the Venetians opposite them, partially to make it impossible for the galleasses to fire on them (ships can't fire into boarding actions).

Disaster! On the Venetian left, two of their ships struck to the Turks, including that flank's flagship.

The galleasses tried to move into a position from where they could have some effect on the battle, but activation rolls failed them.

The Turks were now overwhelming the Venetian left, although some of their ships were not healthy and one of their galliots did strike.

We'd been playing for nearly three hours, and it wasn't looking good for the Venetians, so we decided to end the game there and call it a Turkish win. The Venetian flanks were both fairly battered, and their centre had been effectively kept out of the action so far. Had the game continue then it would have involved the lanterna and two galleases vs the surviving Turks, and I think eventually it would have been a Turkish win but with heavy casualties.

Given the number of ships involved, and the inexperience of two of the players the game actually rattled along pretty well. I walked right into the Turkish trap, and with hindsight I think splitting the heavier ships such that each flank had a galleass would have been a better plan on my part - a galleass on each flank and a strong force of galleys in the centre to either hold the line or easily swing across to either flank as required.

Thanks to Gary and Cesar for a great game!