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

All at Sea - the background

Don't ask me why but, ever since I was a lad, I've been fascinated by ancient galley warfare. That said, it's actually something I've not really successfully gamed. My first attempts, way back in the 70's, used a truly dreadful set of rules that shall remain nameless. I think the main drawback of these rules was the requirement to use a cloth with a grid of offset rectangles. A lack of ship models probably didn't help either but I do recall designing and casting my own from lead. They weren't actually too bad if slightly huge.
Moving on a couple of decades, I gave it another go using 1/1200th galleys from Langton and Navwar. This was altogether more successful but the project, for one reason or another, just fizzled out. As one of the themes we are hoping to explore at the club, this year, is naval warfare (albeit largely age of sail), I thought I would give galley warfare another try. This also ties in with a solo ancients campaign that I'm hoping to revive.
So the first step in the project is to look at the available rulesets and see if anything fits the bill. I have several criteria in mind here and it's unlikely that one set will meet them all.

1)  Small scale actions involving a handful of ships - essentially skirmish scale (solo gaming)
2) Small fleets of several squadrons, each of a handful of ships (multi-player club gaming)
3) Large fleet actions of hundreds of ships (solo gaming)

First up for evaluation are Langton Miniatures 'Naumachiae' rules. As luck would have it, I have found an after action report from a solo campaign I ran about 20 years ago. I'll copy the report here and see if my thoughts have changed over the intervening years.

1^st Illyrian War

.............On hearing of the approach of the Illyrian fleet, Quilpius took up station between the mainland and a small island. The Romans were aware of the numerical superiority of the Illyrian fleet and took up this position to deny the Illyrians room to use their smaller and more manoeuvrable ships effectively. Quilpius had previously landed a shore party on the island but as the Illyrian fleet approached he became aware that the landing party had been overcome and the island was in the hands of the Illyrians. Denied any opportunity to land the ship’s sails and excess equipment the Romans faced the prospect of engaging with the fleet dangerously overburdened. [Recognition of the importance of shorelines, and a simple abstract mechanism to account for this, is a nice feature of these rules.]

Quilpius planned to place his least trained ships in the front line, to absorb the Illyrian attack, and counter with his best ships which were placed in a second line.

Roman deployment in double line

The Illyrians advanced in 3 squadrons. The two wings were made up of light ships in a single line abreast, whilst the heavier ships were placed in the centre in line ahead. The Illyrians evidently planned to pierce the Roman centre with their heavy squadron.

The Illyrian fleet

The Roman advance was slow, the rowers evidently suffering from the effects of the overburdened vessels and fatigue soon set in. [Fatigue plays an important part in the rules.] The Illyrians held back the light flanking squadrons but quickly advanced the heavy centre squadron. There was some confusion in the Illyrian fleet when they encountered an unknown current and the squadrons were swept closer together. [Presumably an effect of the patent Langton Ability Chart - which I quite like.]

Illyrian centre squadron takes evasive action as squadrons collide.

The Illyrians soon recovered and the heavy centre squadron attacked the centre of the Roman line. The Romans were in a bad position having been thrown off course, when leaving the lee of the island, with many of their vessels exposing their flanks to the approaching Illyrians. The lead Illyrian quadrireme took advantage of this and attempted an oar rake. However, it misjudged the approach and crashed into the nearest Roman vessel. The intended target happened to be the quinquereme carrying the Roman Vice Admiral, which avoided the rake but nevertheless suffered badly in the collision.

First Blood to the Illyrians

The Roman Vice Admiral quickly gathered together his marines and legionaries and led them onboard the Illyrian quadrireme. Unfortunately, the shock of the collision had thrown the Romans into confusion and they were heavily repulsed. The Illyrians counterattacked and took the squadron flagship. On seeing this the nearby quinqueremes faltered but the line held. Although the lead Illyrian Quadrireme was caught up with the its prize and drifting the rest of the squadron followed closely behind and began to pass through the Roman line. This was the signal for the rest of the Illyrian fleet to advance and the light squadrons on the wings began to close in. At this critical juncture the Roman lead squadron was nearing exhaustion and was forced to halt to allow the rowers to recover from their fatigue. They then came under heavy attack from the triremes of the Illyrian centre squadron but could not manoeuvre because of the threat posed by the Illyrian flank squadrons.

General mayhem ensues

Although, the few Illyrian ships which passed through the Roman line were successfully countered by the Roman second line the battle was going badly for Quilpius.

The Roman second line counter attacks

At this point another front line quinquereme was captured and another completely sunk. This was enough for the poorly trained Roman crews and the nearby vessels, including many from the second line, began to withdraw from the action. [A morale system is probably essential to prevent battles being fought to the last ship.] Quilpius made his escape back to Italy where the senate awarded him the cognomen Aquaticus.

So there we have it - a 20 year old battle report. My first impression was it's huge! I can't imagine running that many ships, for both sides, solo. I'm not sure how easy it was at the time; although the outcome seems fine I think it is rather telling that the next battle in the campaign used different rules. That said, I think there is a lot to like about these rules but perhaps not at this scale.

It remains to be seen whether I can still play a game successfully with Naumachiae - so next up the play-test (certainly not on this scale though).