2. Sequence of Events During a Single Turn

a. Write Speeds
b. Determine Initiative
c. Movement, Ramming and Grappling
d. Missile Fire and Missile Damage
e. Boarding and Melee
f. Morale and Surrender

3. Write Speeds

During the first step of each turn the players record the number of inches each ship will travel during the turn on the record sheet in the section labeled "Speed During Turn". Once all players have recorded their speeds then initiative rolls can be made.

4. Determining Initiative

Each player rolls a die. The player with the highest roll moves a ship under his control or declares that one of his ships is not moving this turn (note that the ship must have a recorded speed of 0). All ramming, shearing and grappling attempts are performed during movement. After the first player has moved one of his ships, all the other players re-roll their dice to see who will move next. No player is allowed to move two of his ships in a row-unless he is the only player remaining with unmoved ships. However, once another player has moved, the first player rejoins the die rolling to see who will move. There will always be at least one player sitting out on the die rolling except on the first move of a new turn. No ship may be moved more than once per turn. The players continue rolling dice until all ships have had a chance to move.

5. Movement

a. Speed
b. Turning
c. Ramming
d. Ram Damage
e. Shearing
f. Grappling
g. Corvii

a. Speed

There are six "Speed Bands" for ships: Back Oars, Stop, Slow, Cruise, Battle and Ram. The smaller ships can increase or decrease their speed by one band per turn. Heptares, Octeres and Dekeres, however, may increase or decrease speed bands once every other turn. A speed band is not a set speed; it is a range of speeds. For example, for a trireme the Cruise band is 8 inches. This is the maximum distance a trireme may move and be in Cruise. Since Slow is 7 inches, a trireme is in the cruise speed band any turn in which it moves between 7 and 8 inches.

Loss of oar sections or bouancy (hull percentage) will reduce a ship's movement. Each ship begins the game with 8 oar sections. For every 2 oar sections that a ship loses, its maximum speed is reduced by one speed band. For example, a ship which has lost oar sections 1 and 2 has a maximum speed of Battle. Losses to oar sections must be removed from consecutive sections. In other words, all of section 1 must be destroyed before taking losses from section 2. (This does not apply to losses of entire sections due to shearing attacks.)

Each ship starts the game with 100% of its hull. As damage occurs and this percentage is reduced, the ship's maximum speed band will be reduced. Every 30% loss in hull reduces the maximum speed band by one level.

b. Turning

How sharply a ship can turn is determined by its size. The number of times a ship can turn in one movement phase is determined by its current speed band. Note that this information is recorded on the record sheets.

There must be at least 2 inches of straight movement before making a turn. The exception to this rule is turning while stopped: the ship just rotates in place.

c. Ramming

If a player wishes to ram an opponent, he must announce his target before moving his ship. If the target player has not yet moved his ship, he has several options. He can ignore the attack, he can (if the attack is not coming from the rear of the defender, i.e., Zone D) attempt a defensive shearing attack, or he can try to avoid the attack. The defender must announce his plans before the attacker begins moving.

If the defender chooses to ignore the attack, he does nothing. If the attack is successful, the target ship takes damage and is considered to have made its move. If the attack is unsuccessful the player continues to roll iniative rolls (as if nothing unusual had happened) and moves when he wins the roll.

Defensive shearing attempts are risky because the defender must gamble on two things occuring: (1) the attacker must approach the target from any Zone except Zone D (as determined at the beginning of the turn); (2) the attacker's ram attempt must fail due to his not rolling the required number on the dice. If these two circumstances are met, the defender may make an attempt at shearing off the oars on one side of the attacker. The defender's changes of damaging the attacker are 45% - the speed of the attacker + 15% (only if the attacker is a trireme). A roll of the resulting number or less destroys one oar section. A roll is made for each oar section on one side of the attacking vessel. The attacker decides which side of his ship will take the damage before the defender makes his attack. If the defender elected to make a defensive shearing attack but the ram was successful, the defender gets no chance to damage the attacker.

If the target player chooses to avoid the ramming attempt, he must first make an observation roll to see if his captain has noticed the attack. To be successful, the obervation roll must be equal to or less than 50% plus the number of inches between the two ships at the beginning of the attack but minus 10% for each officer who has been killed aboard the target. If the roll is unsuccessful, the target has no choice but to hold tight and take the damage. If the defender's roll is successful, he moves first. However, his move is limited to the number of inches between the ships at the beginning of the turn or his written movement, whichever is the smaller of the two. For example, if a trireme is attempting to ram a triakonter that is 6 inches away, the captain of the triakonter has a 56% chance of noticing the attack. If the roll is successful, he may move up to 6 inches (or his written movement, whichever is smaller) to avoid the attack. The target ship does not have the option of declaring a ram attack against his attacker. He may declare an attack against another ship within his normal movement range. If the ram attack is unsuccessful and the defender elected to avoid it, he finishes his written movement (if there is any left over) after the attacker has moved his ship.

Once a ram attempt has been announced it must be carried through, even if the target ship has moved out of range. The attacking player cannot change his orders simply because his prey eluded him.

If the ramming ship makes contact with the target a roll is made to see if the attack is successful. There is a basic 20% chance of success. Subtract the defender's and attacker's speeds from this. Add the appropriate modifiers for the zone of impact (as determined after contact). The attacker must roll this modified number or below to succeed. If the ram is unsuccessful the attacker passes by the defender with no effect on him. A ship may make only one ram attempt per turn. If the ram is successful then both ships are considered dead in the water; the defender forfeits any unused movement for the remainder of the turn. % chance to ram = 20% -attacker's speed -defender's speed + angle modifier

r. Grappling.

chance to grapple = Roll (difference in speed x 2) or greater on a D10

Any time one ship comes within 1" of another, the crew of either ship can attempt to grapple. To successfully grapple a ship the grappling player rolls a 10 sided die. This roll must be greater than the doubled difference in speeds of the two ships. For example: an Athenian trireme with a written speed of 3 inches wants to grapple a Syacusian trireme traveling at a speed of 5 inches. The Athenians chance is figured like this: 5-3 (or 3-5, the difference remains the same) x 2 = 4. If the Athenian rolls above a 4 on a D10 the grapple is successful. A single ship gets only one attempt to grapple a defender once per turn. More than one ship may make an attempt on a single defender.

The grappled ship is not without defenses. For every soldier, officer or archer factor on board there is a cumulative 5% chance of cutting a grappling line. Factors may make only one attempt per turn.

A failed attempt to grapple has no effect on movement. A successful grappling prevents movement by either ship until one player manages to cut the line or takes control of the bulwark of the enemy ship. In this situation (i.e., controlling both, the attackers and defenders bulwark) the player may automatically cut the line.

g. Corvii

Ships of quadreme size or larger may be equipped with a corvus. A corvus, or "raven" as it was sometimes called, was a large gangplank with a spike on the business end. The spike would hold an enemy ship fast while land-lubbing Roman legionaries rushed across to beat their more nautical minded foes senseless.

To drop a corvus, the defender must be at a dead stop. (Being rammed brings both ships to a dead stop [hint, hint].) Corvii cannot be dropped across an enemys stern (Zone D). Once a corvus has been dropped the two ships are considered grappled together. It takes three turns of uninterrupted activity to raise or destroy a corvus. Receiving or giving archery or ballista fire, melee and ramming attacks are considered interruptions. The advantage of using corvii in boarding attempts is that there is no chance of the enemy cutting himself free and escaping. It also gives an advantage in the actual boarding operation.

6. Missile Fire

Archery and Ballista fire is commenced as soon as all ships have moved. Missile fire is considered to be simultaneous and all missile fire damage takes place at the end of the missile fire phase (i.e., before boarding and melee).

At long range there is a 20% chance to hit an enemy ship. Roll D100 and consult the first line on the chart below. Each archery factor gets a chance to see if it hits. No archery factor may fire more than once per turn. Each hit will remove one factor of the appropriate type from the target ship.

At medium and short ranges the attacking archers choose their targets and roll D100. The second and third lines on the chart above shows the chances of hitting the various targets. Once again, a successful hit will remove one enemy factor. Missile fire into melees is permitted. Excess hits are removed from the target ships rower factors. Archery fire at a nonexistent target is not allowed.

There is little historic evidence to support the idea that ancient ships carried stone throwing artillery. There is also little support for the use of fire aboard ships in the period that this game represents (though there is certainly evidence for the use of Greek fire in later periods). Consequently, in this game, ballistae are considered to be springel type devices which fire multiple arrows or javelins. These were primarily anti-personnel weapons.

Ballista hits are rolled on the chart below. Roll D100 and consult the appropriate range line to see if the ballista hit. Each successful ballista hit removes two enemy factors of the same type. In the case of one ballista hitting another, the target ballista is destroyed.

Excess hits and hits on targets that no longer exist are removed from the rower factors of the target ship.

7. Boarding and Melee

Once a ship has been rammed or grappled, boarding can commence. After all missile fire damage has been applied to both ships, melee is conducted to see if either crew boards the other ship. Melee is not mandatory if neither side wants it.

There are four areas of a ship that must be captured to take control of an enemy vessel. These are (in order): bulwarks, 1st half of deck, 2nd half of deck and below deck. These are the contested areas over which the crews fight, each victorious melee round giving possession of one of these areas. An attacking force that has taken control of all four of the defenders areas has control of the ship. At this point the melee ceases.

Whichever side causes the most casualties in a given melee round is considered the winner and takes possession of the area. If either ship moves away from the other the melee ends. (Remember that ships grappled together cannot move and that you must have control of your own bulwark to make an attempt to cut a grappling line. You must have control of both, yours and the enemys bulwarks to automatically cut a grappling line.)

Melee is resolved by determining which crew inflicts more casualties. Each soldier, archer or officer factor has a combat value (see below). Multiply this value by the number of factors of that type on board the ship and add the totals. This number is the melee value of the ship. Roll D100 and add any modifiers for using fighting towers or corvii. Multiply the combat value by the modified die roll (remember that the die roll is a percentage, i.e., the number sits to the right of the decimal point). The resulting whole number is the number of casualties the player has caused. The digits to the right of the decimal point are the percentage chance of inflicting one more casualty.

Casualties inflicted =

(# archers x .5) + (# soldiers x .5 or .6 or .7) + (# officers x .7)

x (D100 + Corvus Modifier + Fighting Tower Modifier)

Example: A quadreme in melee with 3 archers, 2 soldiers, 3 officers and a fighting tower is figured like this:

3 archers x .5 = 1.5
2 soldiers x .6 = 1.2
+ 3 officers x .7 = 2.1
4.8
x .55 (die roll of .45 + .10 for a fighting tower)
2.64 (two casualties and a 64% chance for a third)

Both players determine how many casualties they have inflicted on the other. The player inflicting the most casualties wins the melee and takes control of the area they are fighting over. If both players inflict the same number of casualties, they will immediately perform another round of melee. This continues until one side or the other wins a round of melee. Melee will continue next turn assuming the ships remain in contact.

If a player rolled 90-00, on the initial melee roll or 01-10 on the second melee roll (the roll for the extra kill), one of the casualties must be an officer. If a player rolls 00 on the second roll, then two officers are automatically killed, even if the number of kills is less than two. All other losses are removed from the factors involved in the melee at the losers discretion.

8. Officers and Morale

Each time an officer is killed, either in melee or by missile fire, a player must roll the ships intact hull percentage or less on D100 to remain in the battle. This morale roll is modified as follows:

If the player fails this roll, the ship will flee the battle in the quickest possible manner, either by fleeing off the table or beaching, whichever is closest. When all three officers are gone a ship will automatically surrender if there is an enemy ship with 6, otherwise it will flee.

9. Optional Rules

1. Poor Crews: Speed and turning radius of next worse ship. (Note that this will make triakonters, pentakonters and triremes somewhat confusing.) Automatic +15% on morale rolls.

2. Elite Crews: Speed and turning radius of next best ship. (See #1) Automatic -5% on morale rolls.

3. Change combat values to reflect green or veteran soldiers and archers.

4. Subtract speed of target from missile fire percentages.

5. For every 1 soldier factor or 2 archer factors aboard (over normal amount) change speed and turning radius to next larger class.

6. Transferring crews: Rowers may not be mixed. Since a rowing crew normally trained together as a team it was very difficult to introduce new individuals into the crew under combat conditions. Archers, soldiers and officers may be mixed and transferred from ship to ship. It takes one full turn to accomplish the transfer. If there are various qualities of soldiers or archers aboard then the better quality ones die first.

7. Fast Triremes: Ships can normally increase or decrease their speed by one speed band each turn. To simulate the advantage of a clean, dry, well maintained trireme, as long as triremes have 6 oar sections they can increase or decrease their speed by two bands. However, they must be at a dead stop before reversing direction of movement.

8. Strengthened bows: Triremes were particularly vulnerable to head on ramming because of the out-rigger nature of their oar arrangements. This is why the trireme suffers a 15% penalty during a shearing attack. Some Corinthian built triremes were reinforced to enable them to take advantage of this situation. Any trireme with a strengthen bow does not suffer this penalty.

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Play Aid

Sequence of Events During a Single Turn

a. Write Speeds / b. Determine Initiative (repeat) / c. Movement, Ramming and Grappling (repeat) / d. Missile Fire and Missile Damage / e. Boarding and Melee / f. Morale and Surrender.

Turning

The number of times a ship can turn in one movement phase is determined by its speed:

Speed : No. of turns

Back Oars: 1 / Stopped: 3 / Slow: 3 / Cruise: 2 / Battle :1 / Ram : 0

Ramming

% chance to ram = 40% -attackers speed -defenders speed + angle modifier

Ram Damage = Attackers Tonnage/Defenders Tonnage x Speed Modifier x Zone Modifier

Shearing Attacks

% chance to shear = 45 -(speed of defender) + 15 (if target is trireme only)

Grappling

Roll the difference in speeds x 2 or greater on D10

Missile Fire

Roll D100 on the appropriate line of hit table. At medium and short ranges archers select a target to aim at. At long range, the target is randomized by the table.

Melee

Casualties inflicted =

(# archers x .5)+(# soldiers x .5 or .6 or .7)+(# officers x .7)
x (D100 + Corvus Modifier + Fighting Tower Modifier + Morale Modifier)

Officers and Morale

Each time an officer is killed, either in melee or by missile fire, a player must roll the ships intact hull points or less on D100 to remain in the battle. This morale roll is modified as follows: