Triremes In Action

Having completed my pseudo-ancient warships, I had time to give them a first outing. One of the beauties of Galleys & Galleons is how quick and easy it is to set up a game. For galley warfare the rules recommend larger forces than for the sailing actions they're designed for - 200pts per side/player. I created two forces of just over 200pts, each with five ships. They were all triremes straight from the rules - Q3 C3, with Ramming, Yare and Shallow Draft. However for one side (the 'Athenians') I added Expert Oarsmen to three ships, whilst to the other (the 'Spartans') I gave two ships Drilled Soldiers. This gave the Athenians an advantage when rolling for lost oars after a ram, whilst the Spartans got an edge in boarding actions.

I grabbed a load of islands, and positioned them at random, then randomly determined the starting corner for each force. This was a straight head-to-head fight. I decided to play it until one side had taken over half losses, with crippled ships counting as half a ship for such a calculation.

Here's the start. The Athenians are bottom left and the Spartans top right.

The Athenians. The three blue ships in the lead are the Athenian ones, with the expert rowers, followed by two yellow allied ships.

The two red ships are the Spartans, whilst the green ships are their allies.

Both sides slowly closed, with the Spartans getting the better of the activation rolls. The Athenians were still sorting out the columns they'd been forced into to pass between two islands. The Spartans sent two allied vessels to the right of the island in the centre of the board, and their other three ships round the other way.

The Athenians got their act together at this point, and quickly intercepted the Spartan flanking move.

The Spartan allies made the first attack, damaging an Athenian vessel. Head-on rams are risky in Galleys & Galleons; not only do they do less damage, but there's a risk you will damage your own oars as well as those of the enemy. The expert rower trait on the Athenian ships makes it less likely they will take this damage.

The Athenians counterattacked, smashing into the Spartan allies. On the other side of the island the two Athenian ally ships faced off the main Spartan force, which seemed content to sit and watch (they had appalling activation rolls).

The Athenians pressed their attack. One Spartan ally vessel was crippled, then forced to surrender after being subjected to sustained archery. The other was rammed repeatedly, and sank.

The main Spartan force continued to edge forward cautiously, whilst the Athenian allies used the islands to cover their vulnerable flanks.

The Athenian ships slowly reorganised themselves ...

... then, as the Spartans continued to act with caution, rounded the island to attack them.

A Spartan vessel was rammed amidships, suffering significant damage.

The Athenians pressed home their attack. The Spartans ship grappled and boarded one of its attackers, with their soldiers gaining the upper hand, but it wasn't enough.

The Athenians grappled from two directions, and the Spartan ship surrendered. You can assume their soldiers fought to the last, but the crew didn't.

The Spartans had one success; their remaining ally ship rammed an Athenian ally vessel and sank it.

With two ships surrendered and one sunk, the Spartans had lost. The Athenians suffered light damage on two ships, and had an ally vessel sunk.

Once again the activation system gave a tense and exciting game. Both sides lost opportunities to attack the other through failed activations, and attempts to coordinate movement failed for the same reason. You really have to choose how many activation dice you're going to roll carefully. It will be interesting to see how the more agile biremes, with a Quality of 2, change things. Once I make some, that is.