All at Sea – Naumachiae

First up in our playtest is ‘Naumachiae’ from Langton Miniatures, published in 1998. These are designed for use with 1/1200th models on a minimum table size of 2ft square up to 6ft by 4ft or even 8 ft by 4 ft. Each model represents a single ship but may have to represent 5 or more vessels for larger engagements. The rules state that a minimum of 10 ships per side should be used.

Despite the suggested minimum game size, the rules come with 2 starter scenarios both featuring a mere 3 vessels per side. The starter scenario featuring Rome versus Carthage was used for this playtest.As per the standard rules both sides could deploy up to 15 cm in from the table edge. Allowed squadron formations are line abreast, line astern or in echelon. If multiple squadrons are used part of the fleet can be held off table in ‘flank sailing’. For this game I chose deployment options with a random die roll; hence, the Carthaginians deployed in line astern and the Romans in echelon formation.

Carthaginian squadron approaches in line astern

The next step was to issue fleet orders; again using a random die roll for this solo playtest. Hence, the Carthaginians were ordered to Close with the Enemy and the Romans to Engage the Enemy. The difference being that Close orders are at slow or cruise speed but Engage orders are at fast or ram speed. Cruise speed incurs one fatigue point per move and fast speed two. Fatigue needs to be tracked in this game and each vessel has a fatigue limit. The overburdened Roman vessels (carrying mainsail and corvus) have a lower limit so perhaps the faster speed was not the best choice! Squadrons must comply with their Fleet Orders until they come within 20cm of the enemy. On a 4 ft deep table, using the standard deployment area, this was move five!

Opposing ships close enough to act independently

I’m not convinced I got all the rules right but the game did cover most of the required elements. There was some short range missile fire (max range 1 cm for marines), the Roman flagship was disabled by an oar rake, and the Carthaginian flagship executed a frontal ram attack on the Roman’s second ship. This caused slight damage but the Romans deployed their corvus prior to boarding. However, Carthaginian missile fire reduced the number of available marines and the Romans broke off; only to be hit in the beam by another Carthaginian ship. As it turns out beam attacks are devastating.

Roman flagship's attack falls short, whilst Carthaginian flagship executes a ram attack

Romans in trouble

As the Romans were down to one remaining ship, and I had covered most of the important aspects, I stopped the game there.

All in all, not a bad game; however, there are some caveats. There is a small amount of record keeping; mainly damage and fatigue but the current speed of each ship must be remembered. With this many ships it wasn’t a problem but it could be an issue with larger numbers. I guess the speed could be indicated by an appropriate wake marker, as used in several current naval games. In larger games I imagine the biggest problem would be issuing the ship orders. At the start of the move you’re meant to state what you intend with each ship; move, move and turn, ram etc. You then roll on the ability chart (once for the whole squadron or possibly fleet) and read off the result for each ship. That’s a lot of stuff to remember. I think these issues result in a natural limit on the number of ships used. I would say no more than a handful per player. Probably half that if playing solo – so 3 per side is probably about right. I suspect this is why I moved onto a different ruleset all those years ago.

So how do these match my original criteria?

1) Small scale actions involving a handful of ships.
Despite a few issues, I think these may be a good set for solo games of just a couple of ships per side. The level of detail adds enough character to make for an engaging game at the level of Uriah’s Post Captain games. I’ve always had a hankering to follow the blockade running exploits of Hannibal the Rhodian and these may be perfect for that.

2) Small fleets of several squadrons, each of a handful of ships (multi-player club gaming)
Certainly possible but I think there may be better alternatives available.

3) Large fleet actions of hundreds of ships (solo gaming)
I seriously doubt this one is possible

Next up – Salamis ad Actium