The group mustered in at Miniature Market Cave Springs for a bit of something different this week as we tried the free download rules for ancient naval gaming called “War Galley”.
A simple to simplistic game system involved players first designing their war galleys with a limit of 8 attributes divided between Oars (movement and hull) and Masts (ranged combat ability). Our teams were Mark J, Steve L and Bill D. vs Steve T, DJ and Mark W with Ravi stopping by to check on the action.
Steve L was kind enough to provide us some plastic galleys conveniently borrowed from a board game. This gave the game a far better appeal than the suggested matchbox creations by the rules author.
Players can issue up up to 5 orders such as move, right turn, left turn, fire and reorganize on each turn. With each move being 2 inches and turns being up to 45 degrees. Players record their ships orders and damage on their ship data card with dry erase markers. This is a departure from the authors system of using matchsticks arranged in the correct patterns to issue orders.
The firing range is 6 inches (or one Big Muddy bookmark) with closer shots inflicting more damage. As vessels take damage they become less capable.
Here Steve L (Red)unloads a load of arrows at one of DJ’s (Green) boats. Ranged combat is resolved by dropping matchsticks (or in our case repurposed cocktail skewers from the Nutcracker armies of Winterloo/Egg Nog River) that have been colored red on one end. If one or more of the matchsticks points at the target vessel then a hit (x the range factor) is scored. Damage must first be and oar on the engaged side and any additional hits are at the target vessels discretion.
Green at the top firing at Orange would be judged to have scored two hits from ranged combat.
Our second game sees players plotting their moves. In our second game we cleared up some discussion on ranged combat which was helpful.
Another method of getting your opponents attention and always a crowd pleaser in to collide with them or in this case a direct ram amidships. When ships come into contact with one another a collision occurs and depending on the angle of the ships it can be rather devastating. In this case between everything both ships started their trip to Davy Jone’s Locker.
Thanks to all the players for giving this one a try. It was something different and a nice afternoon learning and working through a new game system with some mechanics with which we have never tried before. Special Thanks to Steve L for bring along the fleet so that we could get in a nice game for the day.
Our continued appreciation to the fine staff at Miniature Market Cave Springs for their support providing space for us to meet in a comfortable environment.
Now that we have spun through the rules we will bring “War Galley” back again in the future for a Thursday as a lead or back up game.
