Empires at Sea- Free Naval Warfare Rules

[socalwarhammer]

I have posted the complete set of Empires at Sea. This set of naval warfare rules is designed for ancient sea battles from the 5th to 2nd Century BCE.

The goal was to keep play fast, simple and with no more than one page of charts. Play-testing has given us a good deal of fun and enjoyment. I hope that each of you will will enjoy it much as we did. Feedback is always welcome, and we know as with all games, it is not perfect but it should suit most peoples needs.

Sometime in the next few months I will post sample fleet lists and historical scenarios. Until then...enjoy.

[Arken]

Awesome Socal, this is really great, I've been after these sort of rules for ages (never particulalry pursued aquiring them mind...)

Great stuff, top gent,

Arken

[socalwarhammer]

Thanks for the feedback. Compliments are always accepted...

Pat

[Arken]

Ha ha, I will do my best to find anything else other than compliments, however that is proving hard to do... The best I can do is 'well done' at getting to (currently) first place in the Olympics... is that a compliment enough?

[stuartmcc]

I'm trireme hunting at Partizan and Colours over the next few weeks so I can give this a go!

[kentreuber]

What impresses me about these rules is that it attempts to deal with managing squadrons rather than individual ships. For example, you have formations. In other games, e.g., GMT's "War Galley", there is a mention that each unit is a number of ships, but each simply maneuvers as though it were a single ship. I like the fact that the maneuvers are abstracted (e.g., no difference in ramming/raking) reflecting that the importance is the integrity of the squadron rather than the individual ships.

You might want to add this game to the BoardGameGeek database.

Question: all ships in the game have the same movement factor and turning restrictions. Shouldn't larger vessels be harder to turn? I'm not sure that there is a substantial difference in the speed of the difference sized vessels. There might be a difference in acceleration, but that might be above the desired threshold of the game. Maybe make "Put Your Backs Into It" harder to do with larger ships?

Comment: Damage from missile fire seems to be all-or-nothing--either no effect or the ship routs. Maybe include an intermediate effect where you'd lose the ability to fire missiles?