Saturday, January 27, 2018

More Ancient Naval Rules and Ship Manufacturers

This is an addition to my previous post on Ancient Naval Rule Sets at Ancient Naval Rules

I got some more rule sets yesterday.   Most of them free from the internet along with Salamis ad Actium from WargameVault.   Some of them had dead links.   There is a website called "The Wayback Machine" that can be used to in these cases.  Right click on the dead link and use "copy link".  Go to "The Wayback Machine" and paste the link into their search box.  This will not always work as some sites were not archived, but that is rare)   when you do the search it will show a timeline of years at the top of the page with black bar graphs.   The black bar graphs indicate that the page is available for the calendar year.  Choose that year then click on one of the dates highlighted by a color circle.

Salamis Ad Actium will work for large fleet battles, but requires more book keeping than Corvus.  They are also more detailed when classifying ships with crew ratings, leader ratings, equipment, etc.

Impetus Navalis - Found a website for this one, at hetaroi wargames.  The link to the English version was dead, but using the "Wayback Machine" website was able to download it.   You will need a copy of the Impetus rules to understand the ratings of the different ship types and to also cover items mentioned, but not included in the naval rules.   The rules are short and would work for a large fleet game.   However, the Periplus and Diekplus tactics as described and illustrated in the rules are incorrect.   One unusual rule was ships attacking in column get to add their impetus bonus, though I am not sure how a ship would do so without pushing the one in front.   Nor do the rules note that a second line of defending ships would be detrimental to those executing the Diekplus.    The rules do include fleet lists.

Navarchoi - Another free download of the draft rules.  available from relativerange.  listed under published games.   Downloads are incomplete.  The draft rules do not include the ship statistics.   Rules use activation cards similar to the Command and Colors board game series.   To be published by Legion Games at $58 for pre-order.

Row well and Live - Found these mentioned on a blog called " I Live With Cats".  Written by blog author.  Cover art shown in one post.   No information as to where they are available.

Nauta - Another free download.  Has rules for fleet composition.   Requires order writing for individual ships or groups for movement,   Initiative roll per turn.   Players alternate moving ships individually or as a group.   Does not have rules for oar sheer.  Slow movement rates.   Ships turn by "wheeling" (actually a pivot) at beginning of turn.  Would work for large fleet action though alternating movement and order writing will add time.  There a yahoo group for the rules which is gone, but can be found on the wayback machine.

Warhammer -  available by the wayback machine   very simplistic set of rules.

There are several rule sets that I have found mention of, but have not been able to locate.  They are "Greek Fire and Roman Fury" (based on the Fire and Fury ACW rule system), "Hail Agrippa" (based on Hail Caesar), and "Hail Poseidon" (also based on Hail Caesar?).  I have not looked at Osprey's Poseidon's Warriors rules or Fleet Action.  I did find a quick reference sheet for "Hail AntonY".   Only a few ship types listed.  Intended for battle of Actium only.

Also found this manufacturer for 1/2400 scale ancient ships.    Tumbling Dice.   Fairly complete range with pictures of some of the ships.   Most are two or three ships for 2.40BP.  More expensive than Navwar 1/1200 ships.   I found them while browsing through back posts on The Miniatures Page.   Not listed at the War Galley Yahoo group or in rule sets that I have.

So far it looks as though Corvus from the Society of Ancients will be the rule set I use.   Once I have a enough ships ready I will be trying the rules out.  

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