On the Workbench: Turkish Galley with Firing Marker

 

 “The cannon constituted the war galley’s main battery. All were fixed to fire forward and could be trained in azimuth only by turning the ship…...”
- John F. Guilmarten
(Gunpowder and Galleys

 

Turkish style galley and reload marker- ready for production!

 

Turkish Style Galley

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been busy in Fossywick Shipyards carving away at various ship hulls, working out the best, sturdiest, cleanest way to produce wooden galleys with the most detail. I think I finally have all four ship types and variations good-t0-go and ready for production.

On today’s workbench we have the Turkish style galley cleared for action and showing off the new “reload” smoke marker.  In “Oar’d you glad you have guns!” (working title… ahem) after a ship has fired, upon it is placed a marker to reflect the guns are empty and needs to roll for reloading next turn. I needed a way to clearly show this on the table/ships but don’t want a lot of marker clutter. One night it hit me- smoke markers!  They fit the ships guns (and don’t fall off during movement) and are pleasing to my aesthetic. “Yay” for getting one right!

 

Book learning, Aesthetics and Iteration

I’m not sure which came first: designing a set of renaissance naval rules or the ships. Either way, once it started, I turned to my tomes, consulted learned naval historians, bought more tomes (Yay tomes) and started out on a ton of research and mock ups. I realized that one of the big things making me happy with this project was when I started making my ships in a scale I could see from a distance. You know, like when you look at the game tables at a convention from the door as you walk in.

The models also needed to have the greatest amount (or potential amount) of detail on them while retaining a sleek simplicity. Lastly they needed to be sturdy game pieces to be used in hundreds of battles. These things are a list on my shipyards wall as a reminder of my goals.

 

Vatican Mural or cover of an older Wargames Illustrated?

A Question of Scale

Fun Fact: Did you know that the Renaissance- period Venetian measurement of a “foot” was 16 fingers wide? A “pace” (our version of a yard) was three Venetian feet. If you were lucky, you got the tall guy with the big hands to build your galley!

After much iteration and some amazing failures I decided that 1/300^th would be the gaming scale for my models as it hit all the right notes on my list. Large enough to be seen, detailed enough to be lovingly painted (or looking great just in the wood form) small enough field grand fleets on a gaming table, and, most importantly, I can make them on my Laser-inator!

Turkish crew are actually Irregular miniatures Highlanders!

Special Guest Galley of the Week!

To thank my play testers at the last club brouhaha, I gave them each a galley after the game. The other night one of my club mates (cum play tester) Charles Li dropped by to show me what he had done with his ship! Superb!!!  He even had 6mm (1/300^th scale) Turkish crew. Charles is going to base them and use them as his boarding crew markers. Great work Mr. Li!

 

 

 

 

 

Ali Pasha approves!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Workbench: Oar'd you glad we have guns!

 “Mohamet Scirocco’s ships on the wing near the northern shore of the gulf outnumbered the Venetians. He clearly intended to first to encircle, then to overwhelm them...”
- Jack Beeching
(The Galleys at Lepanto)

Just like the paintings - a scrum of ships!

On the Workbench: Oar'd you Glad We Have Guns!

Anyone who knows me knows that I can’t stray too long from anything naval, and in particular anything with a whiff of the piratical, (cite: Skull and Crown moniker) so it should come as a shock to noone that I’m designing a renaissance naval action game, and (of course) the ships.  This is the first public reveal of what I am currently calling “Oar’d you Glad We Have Guns!”.

 

The rules (currently in Beta but targeted for release in January 2015) are designed to be what I’d call “convention style” formatting.  This means I can teach the core system to you in 5 minutes, get you confidently playing and making n00b tactical mistakes, learning from them and becoming a master of maneuvers and boarding-actions after a few games.   The goal was to have playability in anything from small corsair skirmishes to epic historic battles, with each commander (player) coming away from the battle with a story or two to tell at the bar.

The Knights of Malta open the game for the Holy League.
 

Turks coming around the flank see easy pickings.

A boarding party's-eye view of the battle.

 

Enough talk - show me the ships!

I’ll talk more about the rules and showcase the ship models in upcoming posts.  

For now  - enjoy some shots of a play test of the game in action at my local game club this weekend.  I stress play test in the strictest sense (ie: unpainted stuff, and place holder gaming pieces). Each turn I would pose a series of questions to the ever-patient and talented players as to what just happened during the turn: did it feel right on a gut “that would or would not happen” kind of level, as well as did the sequence and system allow them to do what they wanted to. 

These play tests are really "the-rubber-hitting-the-road" type moments.  As a game designer, I can’t stress how important it is (humbling and sometimes ego breaking as they may be at times) to have play tests with a bunch of different folks when designing a set of rules.  I’m really lucky to have lots of talented friends, colleagues and game club lads to help out.

 

Turkish ships: The markers represent Boarding party crew.

Galleys of the Holy League, with Lanterna and Galleas in the background.

 

The Deadly Galleas.

Yours truly swapping historical anecdotes before the battle.