Hail Posiden: Ancient Naval

Chris & I ventured to Black Hills to help Peter play test his latest version of ancient naval rule, Hail Posiden.

We each had a fleet of 6 ships of mixed types.  We started line abreast facing each other but the battel started with a some fancy manouevers as both sides jockeyed for advantage before closing.  The game mechanics include putting counters face down by the ships as their orders for the turn, 1 or 2 for most ships, up to 3 for fast ships. These are revealed step by step with turns governed by templates.

Jim's ships are going right to left, Chris's are heading up the pic.  Both sides have some critical decisions to make now.    

It was Jim who made the best choices. His triremes in the centre were fast enough to escape the line of 5's & 7's & scored a side ram on one of Chris's triremes.  His 7's turned into meet Chris's 5's head on while his 5's turned away from Chris' 7's. 

While Chris's 7's unsuccessfully chased Jim's 5's in the background, in the centre one of Jim's 7's boarded and took a 5.  The other 5 got past the 7 inflicting some damage with a glancing ram, but a trireme got it in the side as it turned back into the fray (that trireme sunk 2 ships).  Jim's other trireme got the best of a one-on-one duel & is chasing Chris' the surviving trireme's tail.  With 2 ships sunk & one captured for no gain, Chris's fleet failed morale.

Peter's improvements in the movement cards & chits worked well & we worked out ways to further improve them as we played.