Roman Seas, Quick Pics Post

A big ole game of Roman Seas

One of the ships, made from paper with lead figs riding on top

About as quick pic as it gets with just two photos, which doesn't do this great game with fantastic models any justice at all.  This naval scenario had one fleet trying to run a blockade while also avoiding shallow areas that could ground the larger ships.  This was a hard fought battle and once contact was made it got to be quite a frenzy of ballista, boarding, and ramming.  Enjoy!

4th Century Quadreme

The latest massive ship in the Roman Seas navy

When Bob and I sat down at Brian's to play some Roman Seas in order to gear up for Historicon, I became enamored with the biggest ship on the table, the Trireme, and eagerly commandeered it. Rumor had it (basically Brian just told me) that Hotz ArtWorks also made a Quadreme model. There was a gleam in my eye. Over at Repple Depple, he does requests, and whipped up this mammoth, Hellenistic-era heavy warship. His navy is really taking shape, and looks fantastic. Remember, these are all paper models, Brian has just used color cardstock, some glue, and wood bases (except for the figures on deck, of course). The smaller ship in the background is a Liburnian. Okay folks, history time!

Pliny the Elder reports that Aristotle ascribed the invention of the quadrireme to the Carthaginians. Their first attested appearance is at the Siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and a few years later, they appear in the surviving naval lists of Athens. In the period after Alexander's death (323 BC), the quadrireme proved very popular: the Athenians made plans to build 200 of these ships, and 90 out of 240 ships of the fleet of Antigonus I Monophthalmus were "fours". In the Battle of Mylae in 36 BC, "fours" were the most common ship type fielded by the fleet of Sextus Pompeius, and several ships of this kind are recorded in the two praetorian fleets of the imperial Roman navy.

It is known from references from both the Second Punic War and the battle of Mylae that the quadrireme had two levels of oarsmen, and was therefore lower than the quinquereme, while being of about the same width (ca. 5.6 m). Its displacement must have been around 60 tonnes, and its carrying capacity at ca. 75 marines. The "four" was classed as a "major ship" by the Romans, but as a light craft alongside triremes by Hellenistic navies like Egypt. It was especially valued for its great speed and maneuverability, while its relatively shallow draught made it ideal for coastal operations.

Roman Seas

Roman Seas!

This week I headed over to Brian's house to help with some last minute prep testing of Roman Seas, a game he's gonna run at Historicon. It was a lot of fun, and even though I've never played it before (let alone heard of it). We played a three player game, it was easy to pick up and my troops were rowing, ramming, and ballista-ing in no time.


The game we played in featured a Roman armada versus a Saxon-esque flotilla. Although my sub-par camera phone don't do them justice, the models were fantastic. The neat thing about Roman Seas is that it's entirely paper model based, and although the thought of putting them together is daunting, Brian said they went together quick and easy once you got the hang of it. You buy the PDFs straight from the site, and once you have the template, you can print as many as you need. Base your ships on balsa or thick card, and you've got sturdy, durable ships that require no painting, and look amazing.


The Roman Armada captained by Bob and myself


The Saxon flotilla


Grapple!

The other neat thing about the ships is that they're in the perfect scale for 6mm figures. Brian's painted up tons of stands to use with the ships and the troops ranged from light marines with spears, archers, and ballista crews. There were also stands to represent rowing crew and admirals/captains. From the above pic you can see plenty of troops on deck, and most importantly, the grapple lines being cast out. With ancient naval combat, your battles would ultimately end in ship-to-ship combat. When you're grappled with another ship, you fight out the bulk of your combat, once you've taken out the opposing ship, you can send some of your rowing crew (and troops) over to commandeer the vessel.

All in all, it was a fun game with a low learning curve. Most of your information was contained in a few charts, and your ranges are fairly short. The models arrayed on a large blue felt table are impressive, and although I keep going on about how great they looked, that really goes a long way in a wargame.