We are about to start an Ancient campaign with 8 players in Hobart & Canberra with PeterC umpiring. The first diplomatic phase is under way at the moment. The land battles will be fought using Hail Caesar. The naval rules are still being thrashed out.
Today Mark, James & Jim made a trip to Black Hills for a naval rules playtest.
Mark has 2 squadrons on the left, each 1 pentreme & 4 triremes, all regular crews. Jim & James have 1 squadron each on the right, each 5 veteran triremes.
Mark got in the first strike. But Jim & James both fought back ramming a equal number of Marks's ships. But somehow Mark's ships suffered much less damage than the J's. And every time one of Mark's ships went down the J's threw more one's and the ships that rammed them went down with them.
At times the rules seemed rather cruel, but it was hard to tell if the problem was the rules, the player's incompetence in unfamiliar territory, or extreme dice rolling (Mark was having one of his hot days). The usual problem with ancient warfare is how to handle movement up close - both simultaneous & alternate systems have problems. Afterwards we did some experiments with an Bolt Action style system that showed promise. We intend to test it next time.
1 comment:
Extreme dice rolling was definitely a factor, that bucket of ones dragging our ships under was rugged.
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